v,...- ^-^-^^^^ iW|i .^- .liH^-. tihtavy of ^Ke Cheolojical ^emmarjp PRINCETON . NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Howard R. Burdeau BV 3797 .J85 S42 1886 Jones, Sam P. 1847-1906 Sermons by Rev. Sam. P. Jones "^ .•••w, \ - ,' Wv ^'l^^^^^'-^f^ Vv*'r ■ .^^ •i^v'i- -'^^ tt^^,irJiRr^''W '.:•■-<<» H.. <->> V-^V:- r-^'^' fAci^^fdc/^ JrjM ^i'Ua/^ ^J^ f/u^Uit^u iJ^^^^nc^ J^i^'^J BY EEY. SAM. P. JONES, AS STENOGRAPIIICALLY REPORTED, AND DELITERED IN ST. LOUIS, CINCHSTNATI, CHICAGO, BALTIMORE, ATLANTA, NASHTILLE, WACO AND OTHER CITIES ; WITH A HISTORY OF HIS LIFE, BY THEODORE M. SMITH, ESQ., Member of the Georgia Bar, His Intimate, Life-long Friend, OF Oartersville, G-a. (Mr. Jones' Home). WITH SEEMONS BY SAM. SMALL, ESQ. ('^OLD SI./ Formerly of Atlanta ^^ Constitution") , Sain. Jones' Convert and Companion in His Labors, Jllu^tf^ated ^ BY OVER FIFTY CHABAGTEU SKETCHES, WITH P0BTBAIT8. pitiladp:lpiiia and st. louts: SCAMMELL & COMPANY, rUBLLSlIEliS. 1887. Copyright 1886, By H. B. SCAMMELL. All Rights Reserved. ffUBLISHERS' f REFACD. "R|ro introduction or explanation would properly be needed J'^ to any such painstaking, accurate and neat publication of Eev. Mr. Jones' utterances as this volume plainly is; no introduction, because, without it, his fame as a phenomen- ally successful revivalist is rapidly widening; no explana- tion, were it not that the managers of sectarian publishing societies, with too obvious self-interest, often undertake to denounce any other book-making that conflicts with a de- sired monopoly. The bringing out of a better and fuller edition than theirs on any subject they regard as an alarming crime; the greater the superiority, of course the more vio- lent the protest — and, let us add, the more puerile and ridic- ulous. With utter disregard of any known rule of law or equity, of morals or religion, they bellow, "Copyright! Copyright!'' ''Eobbery! Eobbery!'' And lest their mo- tives be too readily apparent, they put the words into the mouth of another, too busy with his great labors to carefully and properly analyze the true legal and moral aspects of the matter or to fully consider whether such talk may not be worse than mere vaporing; {. e., unchristian. Sam Jones' remarkable and inimitable sermons have now been preached, somewhat in the same form, but with inter- esting variations that evince the fertility of his resources, in twenty to twenty-five different States of the Union. The at- tention attracted by them has been so great, that even in every small city repeated attempts have been made by the local newspapers to report them, and thus they have, over and over again, though more or less curtailed, been freely given to the world. The poj^ular quality of the sermons hav- vi Publishers' Preface, ing early been recognized in these smaller cities which Mr. Jones first visited, several cheap pamphlet editions were produced, the sermons being mostly copied from the abbrev- iated reports of the newspapers in those cities. But it was not until Mr. Jones reached the large metropolitan city of St. Louis, with its half-million inhabitants, where was pub- lished that great and enterprising newspaper. The Globe- Democraty with its complete staff of trained stenographers, reporters and editors, that the full verbatim reports which his utterances deserved, were for the first time daily printed. That the remarkable enterprise of this cosmopolitan journal was at once a surprise and gratification to the revivalist, is seen by the following extract from the issue of Nov. 28th of that year: ^' What excellent, full and correct reports the Globe-Demo-' crat gives of our meetings. After I have preached to the peo- ple here, that paper takes it up and spreads it all over the city and Western country. We cannot tell how much God will use this agency for the spread of the truth.'' The majority of the sermons, now for the first and only time printed in this volume without abridgement, were taken and carefully revised from these excellent verbatim reports of the Globe-Democrat, which, as above shown, were publish- ed with Mr. Jones' own warm approval and indorsement of their '^ excellence," ''fullness" and " correctness" (quoting his own language). To the other great metropolitan journals, which subse- quently, fully aroused to the demands of the people — the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette and Chicago Inter-Ocean — also gave fine reports, we tender acknowledgments. An illustrated book of sermons is certainly a novelty. But what are the prime qualities of Sam Jones' sermons ? With- out discussing this, it is easy to see that, aside from his in- tense earnestness and power of arousing the conscience, his fejiility of illustrative narration — that faculty which is com- mon to almost all great popular speakers — is chief. If Sam Jones' illustrations are admirable or suitable for public de- Publishers' Preface, vii livery orally and by newspaper print, they are similarly adapted for presentation by engravings. And it is therefore unnecessary in this case, any more than in other book-making, to ignore the universal modern popular demand for pictorial books. Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," with its strong illustrations of Apollyon, and the family bibles with the same, do not offend the tender susceptibilities of the most refined readers. With these remarks, this, the only adequate and full, the only illustrated edition of Sam Jones' sermons, is presented to the public by The Publishers. CONTENTS. Publishers' Preface, Contents, ..... List of Illustrations, Biographical Sketch of Eev. Sam. P. Jones, Incidents in the Field, . SEEMON I. SEEMON II. SEEMON III. SEEMON IV. SEEMON V. SEEMON VI. SEEMON VII. SEEMON VIII. SEEMON IX. SEEMON X. SEEMON XI. SEEMON XII. SEEMON XIII. SEEMON XIV. SEEMON XV. SEEMON XVI. viii PAGE, V viii X xii xviii 23 47 69 84 Let Your Light So Shine, Grace and Salvation, Drawing the Lines, Perseverance in Well-Doing, The Christian's Princely Charac- ter, ... 102 What it is to be In Christ, , 113 Partakers of the Divine Nature, 135 Taking the Fort, . . 155 Conscience — Eecord — God, . 161 Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners OF Despair, . . 174 The Dangers of Delay, . . 191 Eighteousness and Life : Sin and Death, . . . .210 Wages of Sin vs. The Gift of God, . . . .226 Laying Up Money, . . 244 All Things Working Together for Good, . . . .263 Whosoever Will, . . 277 Contents, IX sermo:n' XYII. SERMON XYIII. SERMON XIX. SERMON XX. SERMON XXI. SERMON XXII. SERMON XXIII. SERMON XXIY. SERMON XXY. SERMON XXYI. SERMON XXYII. SERMON XXYIII. SERMON XXIX. SERMON XXX. Sam Jones^ Sayings, PAGE. True Repentance, . . 294 The Duty of Y/atchfulness, 816 The Call and the Rejection, . 336 The Prodigal Son, . . 358 Consecration, . . . 381; Sowing and Reaping, . 393 What Must I Do to be Saved ? 416 What are You Waiting For? 439 Our Burdens and Our Support, 461 Rest for the Weary, . 481 A Christian Life, the Expositor OF Christian Doctrine, . 501 The Eruit of the Spirit, . 520 A Living Example, Sam. W. Small, Esq., . . 541 In Bad Company, . . 556 570 iiST OF Illustrations. Frontispiece : Portrait of Eev. Sam. P. Jones Putting the Fodder Too High, The Devil Advertising Sam Jones Free, '^EeEP STILL; don't GET EXCITED !" Taking a Good Square Look at Himself, ^' Us FOUR AND NO MORE,'' ^' Give me something ! Give me something !" . Modern Churches' Fear of the Devil, An Unwelcome Guest, .... The Mortgaged JSTose, Sam Jones' Favorite Implement, Praying the Jjord to Change Sam Jones, The Bible Straight-Edge Test, " Colonels and Judges and Majors who grace our curb-stones and saloons, "Your father and the devil are together in that Bob Ingersoll's Anxious Enquirer, Burning the Bridge Behind Him, . The Great Epoch in Sam Jones' Life, Sister Martha and Mary and the Major, The Preacher and His Church Load, Sam Jones' Ideal Circus Crowd, '' i want mamma !" . . . The Wife's Constancy, The Soul's Longing for Christ, "The room is full of serpents," A Eogers Engine — Sam Jones' Beau Ideal of a Live Christian Man, The Millionaire Beggar's Dying Eequest, The Fallen Christian Knight, A Business in Which a Man Cannot Pray, . "Honey, all the old sinners takes the brimstone with 'em," ..... A. PAGE. 2 25 28 29 32 34 35 36 40 41 42 45 49 51 " 52 55 58 82 91 95 97 124 124 124 127 131 136 151 185 199 Illustrations. xi PAGE. "Could not find the hand of God," . . 235 Rev. Sam. P. Jones' Home, Cartersville, Ga., . 244 " Sally with her new teeth and the children in THEIR fine turnout," .... 248 Keeping Up with the Fashion, . . . 255 The Only Way Some People can be Convicted, . 270 The Finger, the Ant, and the Crumb, . . . 275 "Water! Water! We have found it! " . . 287 *'No, sir! I don't know one sort from another," 298 *'The dog runs out in the street before he knows it," . . . . . .323 *' Foolish thing, don't burn yourself to death," . 348 "Off these premises forever!" . . . 355 Sam Jones' New Version of the Parable of the Prodigal Son, . . . . .378 * ' How would you have it more economical than THAT?" ...... 383 "An old ox in a hot, dry lane," . . . 385 One Who Had Been Unloaded On, . . 405 " I am putting my tracks in your tracks,'* . . . 408 "Who! Who! Who! " The Old Maid and the Owl, 44 G Waiting to Sweat, ..... 449 The Gospel Wagon-Shop, .... 459 Old John and the Children, .... 462 "Boss, I AM going to develop your clothes," . 491 A Practical Sermon, . . . . .513 Home Entertainment for Husbands, . . 537 Portrait of Sam. W. Small, Esq., . . . 540 A Kicking Daddy's Welcome to the Fast Young Man, 565 'lOGR/iPHiCAL Sketch of Rev. S/IM. ff. lONES. 11)EV. Samuel Porter Jones, the great Georgia evangelist, J^ is undoubtedly the most unique and interesting figure now before the Americaii public. As an evangelist he is widely known. The very extent of his renown as a preach- er invests him with an interest that demands a better and more accurate account of himself, his ancestry, early life and career, before he leaped into fame as suddenly as the first lightning flash that heralds the coming storm. He was born in Chambers County, Alabama, October 16th, 1847. He comes of a race of preachers. His grandfather has preached sixty years. Robert L. Edwards, Mr. Jones' grandmother's grandfather, was one of the preachers of Methodism in the early years of this century, and is still re- membered as one of the most remarkable and gifted preach- ers that Georgia has produced. Of this generation, Mr, Jones has four uncles and two brothers in the ministry. Captain John J. Jones, his father, was a lawyer of note, a man of fine social qualities and at- tractive person. He served through the war with distinc- tion, and came home to die of consumption. Captain Jones' first wife, the mother of Sam, was a Miss Porter of Georgia, and a woman of marked personality, strong character, fine intelligence and deep piety. From her the evangelist de- rived his own peculiar physique and individuality of char- acter, though she died before he was sufficiently matured to bave felt any other permanent impression from her influ- ence than a tender memory of her afl'ection for him. 3di Biographical Sketch of Eev, Sam, P. Jones. xiii An incident of his childhood illustrates the manner of her interest in him, and now, after thirty years have gone, looks almost prophetic. He was going to school, and she had taught him a parody on the humorous lines beginning, *'^YouM scarce expect one of my age," which he was to speak at a public exhibition. He was only six years old, and when his time came to speak was asleep in his mother's lap. He was awakened and carried in his teacher's arms, to stand up- on a table on the stage. Here, on his first forum, in his first speech, his childish voice repeated the closing words of a little parody his fond mother had taught him ; " In thunder peals, and * Thornton tones, « The world shall hear from Samuel Jones ; " that at this distant day seems little short of inspiration. In another year she was dead, and his father removed to Cartersville, Ga. He did not attend school regularly during boyhood, but worked on a farm and went to school at intervals on account of his poor health. At nineteen he quit going to school altogether and never attended a col- lege, the war interfering with the education which was in- tended to prepare him for the legal profession. After the war he renewed preparations for college, but his health en- tirely failed, he being a victim of dyspepsia almost from his cradle. It had now fastened upon him in its most terrible form, and, under advice, he sought relief in the moderate use of intoxicating drinks. Temporary relief followed, but there also ensued the more terrible bondage of habitual drunkenness, and he sank into the lowest depths of dis- sipation. He still pursued the law, and at twenty-one was admitted to the bar, and began to practice with fine promise. Soon after, he went to Dallas, Paulding County, G-a., continuing in the law, but practicing principally at the bar of the vil- lage saloon. In a few months he again removed, going to Cherokee County, Alabama, where he taught school. *Thomion was a noted orator of the day. xiv Biographical Sketch of Bev. Sam. P. Jones, His habits of dissipation followed him; he grew more and more intemperate all the while, and never recovered him- self in the least until God laid his hand upon him and sent him forth to preach. In 1869 he married Miss Laura McElwain in Henry Coun- ty, Ky., and returned to Cartersville. Here he led a dissi- pated and almost vagrant life, nearly breaking the heart of his brave young wife, and embittering the last days of his father's life, worn down in a vain struggle with consumption. Captain Jones was dying. He gathered his family about him and sent for Sam. He gave each one of the sorrowing group his last farewell, and turned sadly to Sam. In the re- proachful but tender words of a dying father, he told the reprobate that he had given him more trouble than all of his children. He exhorted him with his last breath to give his heart to God and meet him in heaven. The prodigal son fell prostrate at his father's death-bed, exclaiming, "I'll quit! I'll quit! God be merciful to me a sinner!" His reforma- tion was complete from that moment, and another Paul was given to the world. He applied at once for a license to preach, taking counsel of no one, though all his family and friends strenuously op- posed the step. His wife objected bitterly, and threatened to leave him forever if he entered the ministry. His previ- ous life, present circumstances — he was heavily in debt and owned nothing — friends, kindred, even the wife of his bos- om, all contributed to the pressure upon him to break his re- solve; but through it all he heard the voice of the Master, " Deny thyself; follow Me," and fearlessly he obeyed the call. He was just twenty-five when he went to Atlanta, Ga., in 1872, to the meeting of thelN'orth Georgia Conference of the M. E. Church South, which received him on trial. His first appointment was the Van Wert Circuit, in Bartow and Polk Counties. It was one of the poorest Circuits in the Confer- ence, with a mere pittance for a living. His brethren gave him. but a "crumb from the Master's table." But nothing Biographical Sketch of Rev. Sam. P. Jones, xv could daunt him. He preached on this Circuit three years, the people petitioning Conference for his return each year. In 1876, he was sent to DeSoto Circuit, in Floyd County, where he preached two years. All the while, the young preacher was developing those peculiar traits that make him what he is — the most unique, sensational, and effective preacher in America to-day. His peculiarities offended many. His bitter, personal de- nunciations of vice and sin, particularly of the hypocritical conduct of his own Church members, brought down their wrath upon him. It is related that the stewards of his Church came to him officially and urged him to change his methods, or at least temper his scathing rebukes, for they feared his family would starve, because the people would not pay such a preacher. He paid no heed to their remonstrance, reply- ing that he was preaching his convictions and would make DO compromise. He now began to conduct revival meetings, and the timid stewards were astonished at the results. Every meeting was a Pentecost, and the proof of divine vindica- tion of the fearless preacher was cumulative. The following year he was sent to Newborn Circuit, !N'ew- ton County. This year was devoted to evangelizing in and around his Circuit. All the meetings were attended with phenomenal success. The following year, 1879, found him on another Circuit, Monticello, in Jasper County. But the calls for him all over the State were so numerous, and his preaching everywhere so signally successful, that he was not assigned to regular pastoral work again. In 1880, he was appointed to the agency of the ITorth Georgia Conference Orphans^ Home, located near Atlanta. He found this institution heavily in debt, and in a deplora- ble condition generally. The duties of his new work afford- ed him ample opportunity to ^' Do the work of an evangel- ist.'' He gave himself with incomparable zeal to this work^ and at the same time proved his fidelity to his appointed duties by bringing the Home back from the brink of finan- cial ruin, raising funds to erect new and commodious build- xvi Biographical Sketch of Rev, Sam. P. Jones, ings, and making the institution a worthy object of pride to his Church and State as well. For the last five years he has worked incessantly. It is during this period that he has be- come a famous evangelist, and made his name a household word all over the South and West. When he took charge of the Orphans' Home he brought his family to Cartersville, and his home has been there ever since. He declares his purpose to remain there always, and accordingly has built an elegant home, which, he says, is the gift of the women of Georgia to his wife. When it was com- pleted he called together his family and friends and solemn- ly dedicated the house, with all its belongings and occupants, to God. The Evangelist loves this home; though he enjoj^s rest and comforts little enough. After his grand triumph in Nashville, last year, the people of that city offered him twenty-five thousand dollars to make his home with them. It was a great act of self-denial to decline this munificent offer. In his great speech before the Georgia State Temperance Convention in Atlanta, on the IQth of June, 1885, speaking of his love and admiration for Georgia, he alluded feelingly to this incident: ^' I had a great trial not long ago," he said. "I have been a poor man all my life; and when friends in Nashville tendered me a home and offered to stand by me and back me up, it was a great temptation; but I looked down here and saw my old mother, Georgia. I never loved her so in all my life before. I said : ^ Brethren, no, I can't take it. Not that I love you less, but I love Georgia more !' " He is just as steadfast in his consecration to his work as in devotion to his home and State. Just after the Nashville meetings, and many times since, notably at St. Louis, he has received proposals written and in person, from some of the most successful managers in the Union, to go into the lecture field. Some of these offers were for a whole season and ranged as high as five hundred dollars a night and expenses. None of them did he enter^ tain for an instant; replying to all as he did when passing Biographical Sketch of Rev, Sam, P, Jones, xvii recently through Chattanooga. He was invited to stop over and preach one sermon, the inducement oifered being two hundred dollars: ^^ I am not after money, but souls." At the close of one of his grandest revivals in a large city, he was tendered a thousand dollars. He said it was too much, and would accept but half of it. These instances are strict- ly true, and overwhelmingly refute the charge that he is after the ''loaves and fishes." Sam Jones' methods of conducting revivals are, like him- self, unique and original, and, like his preaching, practical and incisive. He never "plans" a meeting, but always adapts what he does to the exigencies of each service. His surprising versatility and endless resource of means, enable him to supply with ready execution what other revivalists carefully determine beforehand. His humorous powers must not be overlooked in judging what are called his ''methods." His free use of anecdotes, jokes and humorous sayings often make him appear to some both irreverent and ridiculous. In Nashville, he heard of strong objections made to his jokes in the pulpit; and in his next sermon he tpld the con- gregation to " take those jokes home and crack them, and they would find a hornet in every one." Just so he often wings some of his keenest shafts of irony with a side-splitting joke. His pulpit manners, say the critics, lack dignity sadly. " Dignity," retorts the preacher, '' is the starch of a shroud. The more dignity a fellow has, the nearer dead he is. I ex- pect to be as dignified as any of you when I get into my coffin." Sam Jones never puts on dignity, nor does he dress himself in any other sham. He goes into the pulpit clothed in the effective power of his intense earnestness, and with- out pretense of the art of oratory, preaches at the people with all the irresistible eloquence of action. "Viewed in the light of results, we must believe in him for his very works' sake — an argument he never uses. Theo. M. Smith. Cartersville, Ga.j February Wth, 1886. Incidents in the Iield. tFTER Mr. Jones had become known as a revivalist throughout his own State and adjoining commonwealths, he made his first appearance in a large city. But we will let Talmage, the Brooklyn Tabernacle preacher, tell the story : It was during a tour iu the West that a friend spoke to me about Sam Jones, who was then unknown to fame, though he had already done wonder- fully etfective work. I went a hundred miles to witness his methods and their results, for I was anxious to secure a first-rate evangelist for the ensuing win- ter. It is a Tabernacle custom, 3'ou know, to try to have an arousal annually. We believe in revivals, and we endeavor to lose as little as possible of what we gain by them. Well, I was captivated at once by Sam, and we engaged him. Another account continues the story: Talmage took hmi to Brooklyn, where he preached a couple of months. The newspapers, however, didn't seem to discover much in Jones, and didn't quote him at all. He went back South, and there the newspapers commenced to find out who he was, and print extracts from his sermons, and it was but a short time until he was known all over the country. While Jones was in Brooklyn, though, he didn't indulge in many of the characteristic utterances which have sin^-e made him famous. I heard him preach several times, and received the impression that he was an earnest Christian and indefatigable worker, but not an exceptionally brilliant man. The coadjutor of Moody ought to know an evangelist on hearing him ; and yet it was Ira D. Sankey who formed this just quoted humdrum estimate of the now famous Georgian. This was in the winter of 1883-4. From that time onward we find him working in various cities of the South. The follow- ing passage tells, in his own inimitable style, of his success : I was in one town eight days. There were some 700 or 800 conversions, I believe, in the time, and some 400 accessions to the churches, in a town of some 4,000 inhabitants. It was the fourth night, I believe. Two brethren were sleeping in the room where I was to sleep. They slept out loud, which so dis- turbed me that I could not go to sleep. I said, "Brethren, I ought to be asleep, but you are keeping me awake. Will you move my bed into the par- lor?" We stumbled onto our host on his knees in the parlor. One of the brethren told me next morning, "Why, Sam, Brother Wisener was out in the hall on his knees again at three o'clock in the morning." I looked my brother in the face; said I, "Joe, listen ; God Almighty is going to stir this town from center to circumference. What! a man on his knees at twelve o'clock mid- night in his parlor and at three o'clock in the morning in the hall ! Mark! God is going to upturn this town." And that is what we want, so that when you run them out of the parlor they will pray in the hall until daylight. Incidents in the Field. xix The services conducted by him in Nashville may be called the first of the series which have given him national fame; they lasted twenty-one days, beginning on the 10th, and closing on the 20th of May, 1885. A judgment of the per- manence of Mr. Jones' work, expressed after the lapse of eight months, will be based upon some solid ground. Wo clip the following from an account of a meeting in Cincin- nati, held in January, 1886: At the opening of the service last night, Eev. Dr. Leftwich, of Nashville, spoke for a few minutes. He bore testimony to the character of the work done in Nashville through Brother Jones last spring. He knew how easy it was for people to say that this great religious excitement will soon pass away, and the results no longer be seen. He took great pleasure in testifying that many of the worst sinners in that city before Brother Jones' visit have been since, and are yet, among the best Christians they have. In that city many of the homes where the voice of prayer was never heard now have daily worship. The churches have been quickened with a higher, purer and holier life, and theater-going, card-playing and drinking have been largely diminished. He had never in his history known of a religious work anywhere that was so deep and thorough and permanent in its results. Mr. Jones, he said, is a subsoiler, and is planting the foundations deep for greater works hereafter. The golden opinions which he had won at Nashville fol- lowed him everywhere. In the Cartersville papers we find it noticed that a sack of corn, received at that place from Nashville, had on it, in bold black letters, the following: We admire, more than we can express, your great man, Ilev. Sam. P. Jones. We offered him a $10,000 house if he would come and live iu our city, but he would not leave you. Sept. 8 began a great meeting at his own home, Carters- ville. The prophet was not without honor here as else- where, for we read in the Atlanta Gonsiitutio7i that ^^ The con- gregation was rocked like a shi]) in a storm." Here his strictures against the liquor traffic greatly enraged the dealers, and, on the night of Sept. 19, the floor of his buggy^ house was blown out by dynamite, as a warning of what he might expect if he continued in his present course. It failed to produce the desired effect, however, as any one who knew the man might have predicted ; the evangelist did noa even allude to the circumstance in his sermon of the follow- ing day, and merely observed to a friend who spoke of it, that he ''would as soon go to Heaven by the dynamite route as by any other." But his course in regard to liquor-selling was not without more pleasant results. He was regarded as one of the most powerful friends of the prohibition movement, which was 2 XX Incidents in the Fidd. convulsing parts of the South ; and we find in the papers the following, showing the character of the man in more ways than one: In Murfreesboro, Tenn., where he had preached with wonderful success, the grateful citizens made up and presented him a purse of $800. Handing back $600 of it he said: " Distribute that among the saloon-keepers who have been converted and quit their business, that they may have something for their families till they find something else to do for their support." After the Cartersville meetings had lasted a few days, the manager of the Atlanta Constitution found it necessary to make a change in the reporter who wrote them up, and a brilliant young man, who had been connected with the Constitution for some j^ears, was sent to take his place. He was known to newspaper readers as "Old Si," one of the most consummate masters of dialect writing in this country; a humorist of great ability; a poet of no mean order, as his elegy on A. H. Stephens bears witness; a well-educated man, who had been enabled, by the united power of birth and wealth, to enter the "■ best society ; " talented, cultured, traveled — but he drank deeply. Such was the man of thirty-four, who, with his little son, and a quart bottle of whisky, the latter to supply a want which could not be gratified in Cartersville, came forty- eight miles to report the sermon of the day. The meeting was a " bush-arbor" one, in a grove where thousands had heard Sam Jones deliver his message in his own peculiar way. Sam was on the sub- ject of "Conscience," that terribly deep and touchy thing when aroused, and was firing heavy eighty-four pound shells, grape and shrapnel, with deadly effect, at sinners and saints all through the grove. In the heat of the engage- ment he happened to look down below him where the reporters were sitting. Small had dropped his pencil, and lost whole sentences which would not appear in the Co?istitutio7i next day. Jones watched him narrowly to see if he would take it up, but he did not. The shot and shells were whistling over his head, and when Jones looked again, Small's head was on his arm, ana soon the head was clear down on the table. One shot, at least, had struck him, and his con- science was wounded and bleeding on the field, close under the mouth of the cannon. It was on the 13th of September that this sermon was preached; the Constitution of the next day contains no re- port of the meeting. The rest of the story will be found in his own sermon, "A Living Example,'' in this volume. Many were doubtful of the staying qualities of the man; but said Sam Jones, later: The wise brethren walked up and $aid, "Brother Sam Small, you had better be very particular; if your foot was to happen to slip it would be death on you, Incidents in the Field. xxi and you had better be mighty particular now." " If he falls down," said I, " he shall fall on nic; I will hold him up and stand by him until I die myself." And, thank God Almighty, he never fell on me. I have never held up a pound for him ; but I have got so now I can lean on him, and he is helping to hold me up. The convert's first sermon was preached Sept. 15, in At- lanta ; Mr. Jones immediately telegraphed Mr. Small to join him, and ^' The Two Sams " have been co-workers ever since. From Cartersville, the Georgian went to St. Joseph, Mo., where his sermons had the same familiar result. 750 acces- sions to various churches were reported within six weeks after the close of the meetings. A great tent was erected to hold the throngs which could get into no church or hall in the city ; and it was filled by sunrise meetings and mid-day meetings, as well as by even- ing gatherings. He left on the 12th of October, but not be- fore he had accomplished an important and lasting work for the city, in more than one direction ; his stirring appeal in behalf of the Y. M. C. A. having so wrought upon the people, that in less than forty minutes the sum of $35,000 was sub- scribed for a new building for the Association. Subsequent subscriptions increased this to $45,000. The remarkable fact is, that the members and friends of the Association had been trying for years to accomplish this task of an hour. In the latter part of October, and the first few days of November, the evangelist was at Birmingham, Alabama. Here, as elsewhere, he met with opposition, by reason of the simple, forcible, pungent, every-day language in which he expressed himself. An Episcopal clergyman said to him : I turned up my nose and walked out of your meeting, and told my wife and cliildren they could not go where there was such slang going on." " But," he said, " then the good tSpirit of God touched my heart and wouldn't let me sleep the whole night, and the next morning I wont to my Bible and found every utterance of Sam Jones' there. Nov. 22, 1885, he began his work at St. Louis, the first of the largest class of cities in which he had preached since his experience in the Brookl3^n Tabernacle. He was welcomed to the work by some of the leading divines of the city, and his audiences increased so rapidly that the great new Music Hall had to be occupied. But although his welcome at the hands of evangelical Protestants was cordial, there was one class of the community to whom his ministry was less acceptable. The Eoman Catholic organ, The Western Watch- man^ remarked in its issue of Nov. 28 : xxii Incidents in the Field, Sam Jones, the unparsable revivalist, tells us he means to give this old town a shaking up. This old town has been the bete now of all the evangelists. They may abuse her to their heart's content, but she refuses to be " shaken." St. Louis has been the mausoleum of all the evangelical mountebanks who have ventured within her gates. Hanmiond came and died. Mood}- and Sankey came and went, and were heard of no more. Harrison sniffed of her atmosphere, and his youtliful stomach is not in working order yet. Varley came and went back to his butcher stall. Now Sam Jones braves her basilisk eye. He, too, might as well prepare to go out of the revival business. The reason is. Protestantism is dead in this town ; and Caiholics have no use for re- ligious burlesque. The evangelist heard of this paragraph, and replied: I'll be the livest man ever buried in this community. Father Phelan returned to the charge the next week with a still longer and more bitter editorial. But its effect was confined to his own Church, from which no aid could be ex- pected. One or two Protestant clergymen, in town were almost as trenchant, their opposition, however, being chief- ly based on charges of vulgarity and irreverence. But the general verdict was strongly in his favor. He occupied the pulpits of many of the leading churches. Music Hall was crowded whenever he preached there. On one occasion, nearly a thousand persons stayed to the after service. His meetings in St. Louis ended the 20th of December. On the day before the final gathering, a number of the most prominent ministers of the city prepared an expression of their feelings toward their helper in their good work; and- this testimonial, signed by twelve clergymen of the leading evangelical denominations, was widely published. After a brief period of rest at home, he proceeded to Cin- cinnati, where he was expected to accomplish less than else- where, on account of the peculiar wickedness of the " Paris of America.'' But this is from the Enquirer^ less than a week after the arrival of the "Two Sams" on the 12th of January : More people were turned away from Trinity Church last evening than could get in. The crush was indescribable, and a few minutes after the church doors were opened every foot of space was occupied, even the aisles and vestibule be- ing packed. The doors were then closed, and some two or three thousand were turned away. The jam to get into the church was so great that several women fainted and were trampled upon, men rushing over them to get into the church without regard for life or limb. Two or three women narrowly es- caped serious injury. The papers, containing full accounts of the meetings, were in as great demand as the St. Louis papers had been under similar circumstances. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat had been the first newspaper of the land to fully recognize the great- Incidents in the Field. xxiii ness of the Jones movement, and to print /m?/ verbatim re- ports of his sermons. In Cincinnati, at first, the papers print- ed somewhat curtailed reports ', but were finally, towards the last, aroused by the greatness of the work to improve on them ) and before the Sams left, the Commercial Gazette^ awak- ing to a realization of the public appetite, announced that the next series, in Chicago, would be telegraphed. Music Hall was secured, and the vast audience-chamber was packed, no matter what the weather might be. On one occasion there were nearly six hundred persons on the stage ; at another, there were sixty ministers present. Here is an incident from one of the sermons: One of the leading merchants said to me the other day : "A saloon-keeper came to me, and daring our conversation said: 'You know that on every Sat- urday I come to settle my bills, but I can't settle them to-day,' 'Wliy?' I asked. 'I don't know, but I've sold less whisky and beer in the last week than any week I've been in the business. People don't seem to drink any more. Maybe the hurrah down at Music Hall has broken into my trade.' " Mr. Jones usually preaches one or two sermons each to men alone, also to women alone, and in all the large cities a most extraordinary sight has been the vast audiences of from four to seven thousand, of one sex only, crowding the larg- est halls that could be obtained. On the evening of the 20th, fully two thousand persons arose when the evangelist called for those who would say : ^'I give my soul to Christ. '^ The meetings steadily increased. But the time at last came to an end. A dispatch to another city, dated Feb. 14, says : An extraordinary scene took place to-night at Music Hall. It was tlie closing night of the meetings of Sam Jones and Sam Small. The services were to begin at 7 : 30. At 6 o'clock, when the doors were opened, over G.OOO people were pressing for admission, and in live minutes after 6 every seat in the hall was taken. ^Thenthe stage was packed, until the people, among them women, sat on the front edge. Eight thousand peeple were packed in the house. The Odeon adjoining was also packed full. Small preached there. At 7 o'clock, whe?i Dr. Joyce made his way on the stage, he said he had en- tered with great difficulty; that the front of the hall was packed with people vainly trying to enter, and that the streets for three squares were a solid mass of people. He was sure 25,000 people had tried to enter Music Hall. Fifteen minutes later another minister arrived and said there were 30,000 unable to get in. Ten minutes later Sam Jones appeared, and said a policeman had told him there were 40,000 people in and about Music Hall. From Cincinnati the two Sams went home for a brief rest, preparatory to attacking another stronghold of sin, as stub- born as Cincinnati, and fully twice as large. The last of Feb- ruary the meetings in Chicago began, extending into April. xxiv Incidents in the Field, Mr. Small preached for a week before Mr. Jones came, and, alone without the help of that tower of strength, was subject- ed to a hot cross-fire. Even when Mr. Jones arrived, their re- ception, says ametropolitanpaper of the date, was *'chilling- ly critical;'' the dailies were full of adverse criticisms. The Casino Eink, which has a seating capacity of 7,000, was engaged for the services. The meetings were well at- tended from the first, but mainly by church members. On the 19th of March, leading ministers of the city issued an ad- dress to the Christian people of the country, calling for their prayers in behalf of Chicago, and detailing the wonderful awakening among the congregations there. This awakening itself may be taken as an evidence of success, as it is the first aim of the evangelist to quicken the members of the churches. One thing which had proved a hindrance to them in their work was the fact that both the evangelists chewed tobacco ; their opponents arguing that this filthy habit was just as in- compatible with the exercise of Christian self-denial as many of the vices so emphatically condemned in their sermons. They at first fought hard against this interpretation. At last, however, the announcement was made, first that Mr. Small, and then that Mr. Jones had given up the practice. Since the use of it was not a matter of principle with them they gave way ; thus a great victory over self was establish- ed, and the evangelists stood before the world clear of a hab- it which might lead their brothers to offend. At a ministerial meeting in Chicago, some most remarka- ble voluntary testimony was given by preachers famous over the whole land, that they had personally been greatly arous- ed and imbued with new ideas and purposes by Mr. Jones. The following may be regarded as an official statement of the result, coming from one who certainly had better op- portunities forjudging than the outside world : The Rev. R. W. Bland, Secretary of the Executive Committee which has had chari;e of the meetings, estimates that about 1,500 persons have professed religion during these meetings, and hundreds more have asked for prayers and signified their desire to lead better lives. They left for their homes on the 5th of April, to rest for a week, going then to Columbus, Mississippi. At this place seven hundred and eight persons were converted — a remark- able showing when the size of the place is considered, as well as the short length of the meeting — a week. Incidents in the Field, xxv After another week^s rest at home, the two Sams left for Baltimore, at which city they arrived on the 2d of May. Their fame had gone before them, and had prepared the way for their preaching. However, hostile criticism soon made itself manifest from that finical portion of the community on whose refined ears Sam Jones' rasping denunciations of mod- ern vices grated harshly. Paragraphs found their way into the press of the whole country declaring that he w/js a fail- ure in Baltimore; that while his style may have suited the wilder West and farther South, the people of this old and cul- tivated city received him coldly. But this was an old eom^ plaint to Sam, and he replied ; Some of you have been slipping around saying that Mr. Jones has found out that his style don't suit Baltimore, and he changed it. You'll see before I get through whether my style suits Baltimore or not. Do yovi think I owe Balti- more anything? I wonder if you think I came here to hev/ and cut to please the style of Baltimore. There's many a church dominated by a rich man, and the preacher has got to preach in the rich man's line. Probably that rich fel- low's worth $100,000, and only gives $5,000 to the Lord in his lifetime. If I was running perdition I wouldn't make him a corporal. The cavilers soon found that.when the coat was made it fitted admirably, and whereas their stay was first appointed for but three weeks, the revivalists were solicited to remain much longer, which they did. Said the American o^ the 13th: A large number went into the inquiry room. About one hundred, it is said, have been converted thus far. Sam Jones has expressed himself as much satisfied with the results of the meeting to date. Two weeks Irere have yielded better results than three in Chicago. He held a service at the Penitentiary on the 9th, in which he used these expressive words to his convict audience : The worst man in INIaryland is not in the penitentiary at all. He's too sharp for that. He don't allow himself to be caught. There are a good many men in Baltimore out of the penitentiary who have done worse things than those inside. God does not look at the clothes a man has on. I never see a man in striped clothes without thinking to myself: " But for grace, old fellow, you'd be in striped clothes yourself; and you came mighty near it, anyhow." If every deed of every man outside these walls were known and proved, there'd be more inside this place than you've any idea of. There are no striped clothes above, but all are robes of shining white. The meetings continued to increase in popularity and use- fulness. One service was held especially for the Jews. He had never preached to the Hebrews before, he said ; but the meeting was well attended, and the listeners deeply inter- ested. In Baltimore, as elsewhere, the interest was not confined to the city itself; casual visitors listened to him. One man came over from Philadelphia and heard him preach. He declared xxvi IncidP-nH in the Field. he was ignorant of tlit' Scriptures, and knew nothing about religion at all. When told that Sam had some designs on the City of Brotherly Love after he had laid Baltimore low, he declared he would go right home^and take meas- ures to have him barred out. There are several questions to be considered with regard to his work. What is his secret of success ? Will his converts be permanent gains to the side of the Church ? How does he endure such work as he imposes upon himself? He preaches a plain, practical religion, such as thinking men can see will be a real gain morally ; this is not the mere emotional frenzy into which many lash their hearers, and hence the change in his converts is likely to be more perma- nent. This apart from all question of the blessing from on high. As to the last question proposed, it is not so easy to answer it in a purely secular way, or from any standpoint^ but this of his own : I believe God has helped me to do a good deal of work. I don't believe that any man in the world could undergo the mental and nervous strain that 1 do unless God helped him. I don't believe that there is a lawyer who could go into an}^ court-room in this country, and plead a case week after week like I do with you. I do not think that he could stand five weeks of it, much lessf thirteen years. I have been preaching day after day, like 3^ou have lieard me here, for thirteen 3"ears. I commenced as a circuit rider — a circuit rider! That is probably where you may have got the circus idea about me. [Laugh- ter.] I generally preach twice a day nearly the year round — or rather once a day and" three times on Sunday. And I have been hard at it for thirteen years. The conversions in Baltimore were finally estimated at from 1,200 to 1,800. '^ But,'' said Mr. Jones to a reporter : A preacher never gets credit for the old rusty guns that he polishes up an(? puts in tighting shape. There are many old guns in this city, and some of them haven't been loaded since the war. They are loaded now, and I hope they'll do battle for the Lord. An editor once said to me ; " Jones, the newspapers have made you." Well, said I, tell 'em to make another. That paper also says : All the meetings have been well attended, most of them overflowing. Two- thirds of the audiences have been young girls and women. The largest num- ber of conversions at any one meeting was 300. The ladies became very en' thusiastic and frequently took their suppers with them, in order to be in timf to get a good place. But this is enough. Let him speak for himself in his ser- mons, as he goes from city to city in his tireless work. SEKMONS |.ET Your |^iqht ^o ^hine. Let 5'our light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. — Matthew 5; 16. will read the l:wo preceding verses: 14. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill can not be hid. 15. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. This is the fifteenth verse : Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candle stick. I have frequently gone into a community, and while there I have kicked the bushel oif a great many men's lights, and they would fall out with me and say I put their light out. And I didn't. Their light had gone out over ten j^cars be- fore, when they went and turned that bushel down over it. It went out the minute they turned that bushel over it. Sometimes it is the bushel of neglect. Sometimes it is the bushel of willful transgression. Sometimes it is the bushel of avarice. And there are a thousand bushels that will be furnished you at any time you want one to turn over your light. And at any moment, if you put a bushel over your light — if your light was burning and you have taken and turned a bushel and put it over it — you will find your light is out. And don't be foolish enough to think that the man that removed the bushel put your light out. It was the bushel turned down over it that put the light out. 23 24 Let Your Light So Shine. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candle- stick, that it may give light unto all that are in the house. Now the text : Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE. Joseph Cook, the Boston Monday lecturer, said on one occasion, ^'Gentlemen, this universe, up to the edge of the tomb, is no joke.'' And if in this world the realities of the world, the pleasures and enjoyments and friendshijos and as- sociations of this world, up to the edge of the tomb, are no joke, then we may rest assured that there is no joke in the tomb and no jokes beyond the tomb. And it is well enough for us, amid the rush and cracking on of life, to stop now and then and listen. There are some voices that may be heard if we would listen. God speaks occasionally. I know the roar of commerce and the rush of trade, and the whistle of the engine, and the click of the telegraph have well-nigh drowned out the voice of God; but amid all life's confusions, on our pilgrimage to the grave, we ought to stop now and then, and bend our ears, and listen to that voice that never misled a human step, nor ever misdirected a human heart — that still small voice that breaks through the silence from above and hushes the noises of earth, and makes me see who I am and what I am and whither I am tending. And in this verse this morning there is a message for every one of us. I got this verse from the memorable sermon of our Sav- ior. This was a wonderful sermon. I have often thought if I ever get to heaven I would hunt up some intelligent man who heard this sermon. I would go to him and I would ask him to describe the manner of its delivery, its ef- fect upon the audience, and I would have him give me a de- scription of the face of the Son of God as he uttered these words. We little preachers think we are doing well if we announce a text and play for a few minutes each on our ^'firstly" and ^^ secondly" and "thirdly;" but do you know that in this one sermon the Lord Jesus Christ announces and discusses one hundred and twenty different propositions. Oh, what a preacher he was. I have sometimes thought if he had had a different audience he would have preached Let Your Light So Shine. 25 quite a diiferent sermon. He was a man walking among men and preaching to men and among men. I often think of this sermon and of the discourse on homiletics delivered by the colored sexton of the First Methodist Church in Memphis. He had been sexton of that church for thirty years and more. He is a pious, consistent, good man. The preachers on one occasion, during a revival meeting there, were discussing the mode of preaching, and what was the j most efficient means. THE sexton's idea OF PREACHING. This old colored man jumped up, and said he, ^'Brethren, Putting the Fodder Too High. I have seen for years that mode of preaching. Our pastor don't put the fodder down low enough. I went to see our preacher in his study a few mornings ago, and he had six books open before him. I said to him, *' Brother, if you get one sermon out of six books, you are going to put that fodder up where I can't reach, and where a great many others can^t reach ; and," said he, *' before God, I have gone into church hungry many a Sunday morning, and left hung- ry ; and," said he, ^' thank God we have got a preacher now that just puts the fodder down on the ground and every- thing can reach it." And that's a fact. Evcrj^thing can reach a thing when it is on the ground ; and, as far as I am concerned, I believe it is the Chrislly v/ay to find a common level and stand on that level to preach to the masses. And 26 Let Your Light So Shine, if you see me drop down at all while I am here, you may know that f am seeking a level, and that's all the meaning there is in it at all. If you see my style donH exactly suit you, and the grammar and rhetoric and logic are a little butchered, I am just endeavoring to adapt my style to my crowd; don't forget that, and I'll find your level before I leave you. And I want to say before I proceed further, I will relieve your minds this far: I shall not ask the Centenary Church in St. Louis for a certificate of good behavior while I am here. I am not going to ask you for a certificate of any sort, or a recommendation to Cincinnati, the place to which we next go. In the first place, I don't think I need a cer- tificate from you at all, and in the second place I don't know whether your certificate would be worth anything, anyhow. So I will relieve your minds that far. And we say to you in love and kindness, we don't want anybody to indorse us, but want every Christian in St. Louis to co-operate with us. You all do the co-operating and God will do the indorsing, and then we will be elected by a large majority. And furth- er, we say : If anything suggests a smile or laughter, you can laugh or smile. If anything suggests a tear, there is nothing prettier in the house of Grod than the tear that wouldn't stain an angel's cheek, running down your face. But understand, there is just as much religion in laughing as in crying. Don't forget that. AN EXPLODED NOTION. This old idea that when God's children come together they must be solemn and serious — that's something that is as big a mistake as the j^reacher made when he told those sinners in St. Louis that God was mad with every one of them, and was just waiting to catch them in a close place, and was going for them when he got them in a tight fix. Both those mistakes are as big lies as were ever perpetrat- ed ujijon the face of this earth. Neither one is true. If you feel like laughing, you laugh. If you feel like crying, you cry. But don't think either one is pious. It is not. One of my children laughs a good deal — laughs a great deal ; an- other one cries. I don't think either is pious. And if you feel more like laughing than crying, you laugh. As far as solemn looks are concerned, if I had been stealing something, Let Your Light So Shine. 27 or robbed a widow, or been drunk during the past week, when I came into church on Sunday morning I would look solemn, because that would be the time to look solemn; but if you have been acting right, you just wear a smile as broad as you please when you come into the presence of God. God's children should smile when they have done right. That is the way my children do. When they have been doing right they are full of smiles and pleasantry. But as certain as one of them has been doing wrong, he comes up mighty solemn ; and it is a time to be solemn, too. When- ever you have been doing right you can smile in church. But if you have not, you want to be mighty solemn, and I want you to be so. Our Savior, as I said, was not only a wonderful preacher, but a pre-eminently practical one. He had something to say to every one, and this message comes to us this morning: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Did you ever see such a string of pearls as this text? such a monosyllabic utterance ? Let — your — light — so — shine — before — men — that — they — may — see — your — good — works — and — glorify ■ — your — Father — which — is — in — heaven. Now, let us take, perhaps, the most important word in this text, and let us analyze it. Let us take the word '* light.'' THE ANALYSIS OF LIGHT. Light. We know very little what it is as a principle un- less we analyze it. What is light in the sense in which it is used here? We will say, in order that we may be practical, that light in the sense in which it is used in this text is a trinity in unity. Its principle is faith in God. Its essence is love to God. Its development is obedience to God. Now, the plain English of the text is to tell us: " Let your faith and love and good works so shine, so appear, that others may see them and glorify your Father which is in heaven.'' ^'Let your faith," first. And now, Ictus be consistent with our- selves and consistent with the truth. If ''light" is this trinity in unity — faith, love and obedience — then what is the contrast? Darkness, or unbelief, enmity, disobedience. Now, these are unmixable. You can't mix either of the ingredients of the one with those of the other. I must have faith and love and obedience on the one hand, if I have light. 28 Let Your Light So Shine, I shall have the other elements if I have darkness. Kow, faith ! Oh, how omnipotent faith is ! Faith bring? God to my help, and if God be with me and all the world against me, I am in the infinite majority. God is on my side. I believe. NoWy there are people in this country called fanatics — en- thusiasts. JSTow, I say, if this book is true, and I believe this book, am I a fanatic? If this book is true, and I believe this book, am I an enthusiast? Now, you have read a great many strange things that I have done and said, and a great many things that I never did and never said [smiling at the re- porters], and if you had to be hanged to-morrow you couldnH pick out the things I had really said. I am not sorry that anything has been said about me, at all. The devil does a great deal of advertis- ing for me and does it free. If I had to pay for all the advertising I have got it would break me in three minutesj but he does it gratis. WHO IS CRAZY? But take it for granted that all that has been reported as having been done and said, is true — am I crazy ? If this book is true, and I believe it, I want to be so crazy that I can not keep my mouth shut a single moment. If this book is true, and I believe it, I want to be so crazy that I will work for God and souls just like I was hired by the day to work my way to heaven. If this book lis true, I am not crazy, but Brother Tudor has about three , or four hundred members of this church that are so crazy that they won't pray and won't open their mouths for God, that are so crazy that they won't do anything. Ah me ! the most deadly fixnaticism that ever overshadowed the soul is that which makes a man fold his arms, and walk right along down into the fire without quivering a nerve or jerking a muscle. That sort of fanaticism says: ''Keep cool. Don't get excited." That is the sort of fanaticism that breeds Devil A dvertising Jones Free. Sam Let Your Light So Shine, 29 stagnation; and Stagnation is the last station this side of Damnation. You can't go beyond Stagnation without going on to Damnation. I read a few days ago where an eminent preacher stood up on Sunday morning before a vast congre- gation that packed every pew, and preached against religi- ous sensationalism. He preached right square against religi- ous fanaticism; and there hadn't been a drunk in his church for twenty years! That is like a poor old fellow pushing up his tombstone lid, sticking his head out, and telling the other tombstones, '* Be quiet ! Don't kick up any row ! Keep perfectly still !" and then he drops his top slab back, and *^Keep still; don't get excited.''^ lies down in hisgravc,and says, "I'll neverdie until I'mdead.'' THE COMPULSION TO SPEAK. I never will bo quiet as long as I have a tongue to talk and lungs to breathe. God help me to believe and know this book is true, and chen the world may judge whether I am crazy or not. I believe, and when a man believes this book, he is going to do some mighty strange things in this world. When St. Paul believed, when Luther be- lieved, when John Wesley believed, when Melancthon believed, when George Whitfield believed, when Spurgcon believed, when Talmage believed, when Moody believed, 30 Let Your Light So Shine, you don't know how things moved round and stirred up, as they said of Paul, "no small stir/' Do you recollect how, over at Ephesus, he had them stirred up, burning their books on a great bonfire, and causing the Mayor and police to send and stop the crowd right there? And if St. Paul was to preach in St. Louis to-day, he would be telegraphed all over America as the greatest religious fanatic that ever made a crack in this country. I rather like that title, re- ligious fanatic. It is no reflection on me, but is death to the balance of you; do you see? It is a contrast that brings the thing out, you see. FAITH ! I BELIEVE ! I BELIEVE ! The man that says "I believe," and feels it in his blood and bones — that man is omnipotent. "I believe.^' The apostles talk about the "certainty of these things," the "infallible signs," the one word of prophecy." It was "I believe" that made St. Paul cry out, "This one thing I do." It was "I believe" that made St. Paul say, "Neither count I my life dear unto me. I count all things but loss." It was "I believe" that made St. Paul say, "I lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset me. I throw them aside. If my coat is in the way, off with it. If my hat, off with it. If my shoes, off with them. I will run my way to God, bare-headed, coatless and shoeless, so I make my race in safety to my God and peace." And, brother, when a man gets in earnest he believes, and when a man believes he gets in earnest, somehow or other. CHURCH INFIDELITY. When Mr. Moody came back from across the water, after the greatest revival in Europe, he was met in New York by an American delegation. They said : "Mr. Moody, we greet you. We glorify God in behalf of these things over in Eu- rope ; but, Mr. Moody, you can't do that over here." Mr. Moody looked at these Christian men and said: "If God Almighty will take the infidelity out of the heart of the Church in America we will bring all America to Christ." And he announced a truth as broad as the depravity of America. "If God Almighty will take the infidelity out of the heart of the Church in America we can bring all Amer- ica to Christ." Who cares about Bob IngersoU's infidelity, Let Your Light So Shine. 31 or who cares about anybody else's infidelity? The differ- ence between the men is that that man in the Church be- lieves everything and won't do anything, while Bob Inger- soU is a sort of theoretical infidel, that gets $1,500 a night for being one, and you, back there, like a fool, are one for nothing and board yourself. That's all there is about it. Let your light so shine. That is, let your faith so appear. ^'I believe." "Well, I might stop here and say something on faith, and we will, perhaps, on another occasion. Faith is the principle on which omnipotence slumbers. By faith the world was created. By faith all things are. By faith we are saved. By faith we are efficient. Faith. *'I believe.'' ^'I believe." While I have faith, there is also this other element and principle of love — love to God and love to man. If a man believes in his cause and believes he is right, the next thing is universal love; love for God and love for man. THE QUESTION OF CHARACTER. And we will say another thing. There are two kinds of love. There is love of that which is groveling and low and sensual, and there is love of that which is ennobling, inspir- ing, true and beautiful. Now, what a man loves and what he hates determine his character. If you will tell me what you love and what you hate, I will tell you what you are and who you are. The difference between the devil, the enemy of all men, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the friend of all men, the great difference that is manifested to us as living souls, is in what each loves and what each hates. God loves righteousness and hates sin. The devil hates righteousness and loves sin. What I love and what I hate will determine what I am now and what I will be forever. Now, if I love God there is but one test. Our Savior don't say, *'Ye shall talk faith and live in sin." He said, as you and I know, ''If you love me, keep my commandments." There is nothing in the book about feeling. We are not run- ning on feeling. The book don't say ^'whosoever feels," but ''whosoever will;" nofwhosocverfeeleth," but "whosoever believeth." Recollect that. It doesn't say "whosoever Let Your Light So Shine. feeleth," but ''whosoever doeth/^ There is a great deal of nonsense in this nineteenth century right along on that point. The religion that is here referred to is "principle," don't you see? and I never stop to ask whether I have got any feeling or not. If I have got any feeling at all this morning I donH know where it is. I couldn't locate It to save my life, but I have before me the undying, eternal, uncompromising reality of God and the right. And the man that does right when he doesn't feel like it deserves credit more than the fellow that feels like it. Don't you see ? THE GREATEST CONQUEROR. Right! Love! Oh, love divine, diffuse thy power and presence with us. The omnipotent principle of the world is love. When Alexander the Great wanted to conquer this world he mustered his forces and blood flowed like a river; and poor Alexander when he died was a conquered wretch. When JSTapoleon Bonaparte wanted to conquer this world, he mustered his forces and all Europe was drenched in blood; and Napoleon died a defeated wretch on the island of St. Helena. But when Jesus Christ wanted to conquer the earth he looked at it, and loved it, and walked upon Calvar}^ and laid down and died for it; and Christ has well nigh conquered this world. Napoleon said : "Alexander, Charle- magne and m^^self founded our kingdoms on force, and they have crumbled under our feet; but Jesus Christ founded his kingdom on love, and to-day millions of men would die for him." Love! One fellow said to me once, "Brother Jones, my great trouble is 1 can't love my neigh- bor as myself. I have tried my best and I can't do it." I told him, "Well, I don't have any trouble with that." He says, "How do you manage to do it?" I said, "I got a good square look at myself sixteen years ago, and I have Taking a Good Square Look at Himself. Let Your Light So Shine. 33 thought more of every nigger I met since then than I do of myself. I am getting along first rate, and if you get an honest, square and sincere look at yourself in the mirror of love, you won't be at all mashed on yourself after that. That's the truth about it. That cured me." LOVE vs. CONSCIENCE. Love. If we love ourselves and love humanity, we'll do something for humanity. Love. Why, conscience will make a man come along by that poor wounded creature, and make us pick him up and put him on our beast, and take him to the inn and pay a night's lodging for the poor wounded fellow. Conscience will make us do that; but love will make us pick him up and carry him to the inn and pay his night's lodging, and leave enough of money to pay his bill until he is well, and tell the inn-keeper to write us a note, and if there is anything lacking we'll give it all. Con- science whips a fellow up a great deal in this life, but love beats him, and love is an inspiration to him, and love don't say, "How little can I get off with ?" but "How much can I do?" Love! Love! Love! Love is the wheels under a fellow on which he rolls. The difference between a loco- motive and a stationary engine is, one has got wheels under it and the other has not. The difference between that en- gine out here in the piney woods of Georgia, sawing lumber, and that mighty engine that drove us here yesterday, some- times at the rate of fifty miles an hour, is, one has wheels under it and the other has not. The man who has love, who is prompted by the love which is omnipotent, has wheels un- der him, and he rolls grandly along. Love ! Love ! Most of us, though, are dropping back hurriedly on the old song. Of all the folks I ever saw, 1 love m^'self the best. There's a good deal in that — practically, I mean. THE VICE OP SELFISHNESS. I am sorry for any man in this world that has a great big two hundred pounds avoirdupois case of selfishness to take care of. I'd rather try to run a miracle than try to run a great big concentrated lump of selfishness. "I want the best house in town ; I want the best seat in church, and I want the best of everything; it is myself and my wife, and my son John and Sally — us four and no more." It is "God 34 Let Your LigTit So Shine, has put us in this world, and we want everything in it. It is nominative 7, possessive mine, and objective me. I donH know that I ever had any grammar beyond that/' I have heard many an old fellow get up in a class-meet- ing and talk, and he would confess a thousand things; but I have never heard of a man getting up in meeting anywhere and confessing that he was selfish or avaricious. Did you? " TJa Four and No More.'' I never have yet. That is a sort of a disease a fellow does not know he's got until it kills him. That's the truth of it. Selfish. Love is perfectly unselfish. Faith in God and in the right, and a love for humanity, and then it has develop- ed his obedience to God. Obedience ! I speak of faith. Just now there is a great deal of this sort of faith around in the world — going around with the mouth open and both hands up this way, "O, Lord, give me something! give me something! give me some- thing!'' ''Well, what do you want?" "Don't know; just want something!" And just about sense — religious sense — enough to keep out of the asj^lum. "Just want something !" Look here! The Bible represents God as my Father and me as his child. I am a father. I have my loved ones at my home that look up to me and lean upon me; but, as God is my judge, if, every time my children came around me, they were everlastingly begging and whining for some- thing, Fd never want to see them again as long as I lived ; and none of you ever went within a mile of the Almighty in your life, without "Give me something !" Let Your Light So Shine. 35 " Give Me Something ! Me Something /" Give A BEGGING SORT OF RELIGION. That's mighty straight doctrine. That — and some of you know it — just knocks your cake to dough — don't it? Why, sir, if you break up that idea [turning to Dr. Tudor] you'll ruin half of your number, brother, out there; for that's all there is among them, the ''give-me-some- thing" sort. ^'Giye me something." ''What do you want ?" '' I don't know — something." More grace, I reckon. How a fellow feels when he wants more grace ! You are in grace up to your chi^ every day, and what you want is to use the grace you have already got. Well, I want to pray this prayer once : '' Lord God ! give me a clean heart and a right spirit and an upright life. Grod give me the things I need." And when I pray that prayer once, then that is enough. And then I will tell you what sort of faith I want after that. It is the faith of the missionary; it is the faith of consecration ; it is the faith of meditation; that is the sort. In Lexington, Ky., in the High-Bridge camp-meeting in Kentucky, after preaching three or four days we had a talking meeting. THE KENTUCKY PASTOR's REGRET. One morning the pastor of the Lexington Church stood up in the talking meeting and said ; "Brethren, I feel like I ought to be in sackcloth and ashes. I am ashamed of myself ' — a grand man he was, too, a true man. Said he, ''I will tell you, when I look back twenty years ago or more, I see how my love for the Southern Confederacy and for the Southern cause marched me out in the ranks of Gren. Lee in Virginia; and my love for the Southern Confederacy and my conse- cration and my loyalty to the Southern Confederacy march- ed me many a day barefooted. I slept out many a night in the snow and mud, and I had many a day without anything to cat; I bared this breast to ten thousand bullets, and all for the Confederacy. And I have been a minister for twenty years, and I have never marched barefooted for Grod 3 J6 Let Your Light So Shine. and have never slept ont a night for God. I haven't gone hungry a single meal. And to-day I renew my allegiance to Grod, and I mean to march for him, die for him, or bear the load for him!" Oh, Lord Jesus! give us that sort of religion. This nasty sort of *' G-ive me something !" I despise it. I have a contemj^t for you, and God Almighty has, too. I tell you the sort of faith I like. Here is a fellow pray- ing for bread; got a hoe in his hand hoeing around that stalk of corn. Has that fellow got any faith? Yes, sir. By faith he sees an ear of corn that long [indicating] on that stalk. Pray "give me ^C^; this day my daily E3. '^^ffi bread'' atthe end -^^s^ Qf j^ hoe-handle with a good-sized hoe on it. That is a good prayer. This way we've got of doing all our praying with our tongues — that is the biggest mis- take ever made. Every Wednes- day night for six- teen years there have been meet- ings here pray- ing, "Lord, give me something." ISTow, what have you got? You've got a city absolutely steeped in guilt and in- iquity, and all the churches in this city backed up in a cor- ner like a lot of little children with a snake out on the floor afraid to move. You are afraid the devil will jump on you and clean you out. While I am here in St. Louis, God Al- mighty helping me, I'll give this old town an airing. St. Louis as a city don't care what Methodists, Baptists, Pres- byterians, Episcopalians or anybody else think. "We'll drink our beer on Sunday and desecrate the Sabbath, and run our lewd houses, and stick them right up by the side of Mode7'7i Churches^ Fear of the Devil. Let Your Light So Shine. 37 your church, and we'll debauch and damn this town, and we dare you Christian churches or members to open your mouths !" Ain't that so ? Well, they have got one little man here now they can't fight. !Now, all the decent j)eople ought to be out of town during the airing, for it's going to be odoriferous. RELIGION WITH A BACKBONE. Obedience ! A faith that works by love and that obeys the law of God Almighty. Obey God ! That is what we want. I'd rather be right and I'd rather do right than be king. If the Lord God frowns upoa me, what are the smiles of this world, and the fawnings of this world, and wealth of this world, if God's frown blights the whole and lights upon all earthly things! Yanity of vanity! and all is vanity and vexation of spirit ! But let the cannon boom and the mus- kets rattle, and let the earth frown and the earth fight; but, good Lord, let thy smile rest upon me, and show thy face, and all is bright. Give us a strong, sinewy, muscular relig- ion! ;N"ot this little, effeminate, weak, sentimental, sickly, singing and begging sort ! Give us a religion with vim and muscle and backbone and power and bravery! A great many people think that Christianity is just a little hot-bed of effeminacy — fellows crjnng, *' Peace ! peace! peace!'"' God says, first pure and then peaceable; and if you can have peace only at the expense of purity, you had better be in a war. Going about crying, ''Peace! peace!" when there is no peace; and hell with all its guns turned loose upon us, and our children falling by the thousands and going to destruction, and we wringing our hands and saying, "Lord, send us peace !" You pusillanimous wretch, you, you ain't fit to live. LANGUAGE FOR THE OCCASION. I use sometimes strong words, but I will tell you, you may know I am trying to reach the case. Don't you get excited now and think things are going to pieces. I tell you that you may save your feelings and your condignity for other oc- casions. I am just touching along in high places this morn- ing. I haven't got anywhere yet. Obedience ! Obedience is better than sacrifice. I will tell you another thing, that, more and more, this world is reach- ing to attain every day. It does not ask what Church a man belongs to. It asks, "Are you honest? do you tell the truth ? 38 Let Your Light So Shine. do you love your religion ?" They donH ask what sort of a profession he has made, but they ask now, "Has he a good character ?'' I like that. That is coming down to facts. Obedience ! An obedience that marches out to the front, and marches with the battle-cry of '^Yictory or death!" An obedience that dares to go, and dares to suffer, and dares to do. That is what we want. Now let your faith and love and obedience "so shine" among men — "so shine." Ah, me ! how this world gropes In darkness to-day ! And I will tell you of what the Church reminds me in its move- ment through the world to-day : it is of one of these night freight trains — did you ever see one ? — out on the road, the headlight gathering the rays of the lamp and pitching them all in front of the train ; and they put a little light blue or red lamp on the rear car, and leave all in the rear cars in darkness. The Church does just about the same thing. They put a headlight to throw light ahead, and leave a little col- ored light for sinners to travel by. Every Church is look- ing out for themselves, and every light they get they throw it on their own pathway; and, away back in the rear of the Church, they put a little lantern, and leave the world grop- ing in darkness. Oh, God, helpusto undo these things ; and, if we have to grope in darkness, God help us to throw what light we have back on this benighted world. Let your light so shine. Frequently, when our Savior was talking, he seemed to ransack our language for an adjective or descriptive for what he wanted to say. He found nothing to suit, and he would throw off an adverb like this " so." When he want- ted to tell us how God loved the world, he threw all descrip- tives aside, and said, " God so loved the world ;" and when he wanted to tell us to let our light shine, he said, "Let your light 50 shine that those behind you may see the way to God." I saw this illustrated one dark night at a church in Georgia. After service we walked out, and the darkness could almost be felt, so dense it was; and a gentleman came out of the church with one of those large reflecting lanterns; when he turned the lantern in front of him, everybody in front could see just as if it was daylight, and everybody in the rear was in darkness ; and when he turned his lantern around, every- body in the rear could see perfectly, and every one in front • Let Your Light So Shine. 39 was groping in darkness. And God says to the church, *' Gather all the rays, and reflect them back on this benight- ed world, and show them the way to God." That is what we want. PLACES WHERE LIGHTS WILL NOT BURN. Let your light so shine * * -J?-. No man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a bushel, but on a candlestick. There are some places where physical light won't reflect at jfll. I recollect once my father had two Irishmen dig a well, and they got it about fifty or sixty feet deep, and he paid them up on Saturday; and, like most of the Paddies then — the well-digging Paddies — they went on a spree away into the next week; when they came back, they asked my moth- er for a candle, and I said, ''Well, Paddy is not sober enough yet; he wants a candle to dig the well with.'' He got a rope and tied the candle to the end, and let it down into the well; and it got down deeper and deeper, until the light flickered and went out; and Paddy said, '' Mike, it is dan- gerous to go down there; there is gas in the well;" and then they got some pine tops, tied them together, and let them up and down until the light burned freely to the bot- tom; then he said, "It's all right, now." Keep your lamps trimmed. There are some places-in this world where your light won't burn, and I tell you that the best thing in the world is to get your preacher and your Bi- ble, and put them down ahead of you and see how they will look down-there. Try your lightin aball-room, for instance. It will go out. It won't burn there. See that Methodist dodging into a bar-room, with his light. I don't care how bright it was burning when j^ou went in, it is out when you come out. Red liquor and Christianity won't stay in the same hide at the same time. Go into a theatre and come back and look at your light. That is it. A QUESTION or SENSE AND RESPONSIBILITY. Oh, my! "When I was pastor, whenever I saw anything that was putting the'light out in my church or damaging the spirituality of my church, I turned all the guns of heaven loose, and if Dr. Tudor has dancing, theater-going, godless members, it is his own fault, and God will hold him re- 3poiisible for it. I would not have that sort of cattle in my Let Your Light So Shine. 41 Church forty-eight hours. That is a, Scriptural term, "cattle'' is; douH forget that. G-od says some of you ain't as good as cattle. Grod says : "The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib." But you won't consider. You ain't got sense enough to keep away from a bar-room or a theater. God tells you you ought to swap places with the ox, and eat a little hay. Let your light so shine. I tell 5'ou, brother, sister, the next time you start to the ball-room you put your preacher in there and get him a partner, and see how he will look in there dancing; put the Lord Jesus Christ by you in a theater and see how he looks at certain things said in that theater ; and there are Metho- dists in this house, and members in all the churches that patronize those places, and if they were to go intoyourpar- lor the next day and say the things they heard there the night before, you would kick them over your front gate — wouldn't you? Somehow or another, the fool Methodist thinks he ain't doing any harm if he is paying for it. If he pays seventy-five cents to go in there it is no harm, but if a fellow was to come to his house and say that for nothing he would kick him out. A MORTGAGED NOSE. And there are women in St. Louis that will go and hear things in the theater whose tendencies are the most vulgar of the vulgar, and she will be tickled all over; and she will come to the church, and she will have her poor little nerves all shocked to pieces at something Sam Jones says, and she will turn up her nose at me; and I can always tell when the devil has got a mort- gage on a woman's nose. It is always turning up. The Mortgaged Nose. And he is going to foreclose on it some one of these 42 Let Your Light So Shine. days, too, sister, and he will get the gal when he gets the nose. I am glad to see that there is some response out of you all. I can tolerate anything but a dead Church. You all can laugh, and that shows you are not dead, to say the least. I want to get your hide loosened up. Sometiriies the curry- comb is worth more than the corn in a hide-bound Church, to loosen them up, and to let them go. Dr. Tudor. Amen. Brother Jones. Brother Tudor says, ''Amen." He knows what he is talking about. Take an old hide-bound ox out in Texas in March, and you can catch hold of his hide upon his back, and you can pull it, and it will make him hop like a monkey ; and he will not grow until you loosen him up. We need loosen- ing up. I am glad to see you have some response in you. I like folks that have got some laugh in them. There is nothing to be done with a dead crowd. AN ACTIVE SPIRIT ! Oh, my! how we lack that in this city ! I'll tell you. Pull hard, one heart with another, catching fire. See those jets along the streets — those lamps. The lamp-lighter goes from one of them to another, and then to another, and on and on, un- til at last ray meets ray and light meets light and the whole city is lighted up. Brother, let us get our hearts on fire and let it leap heart to heart and home to home, until the whole city is afire with the love of the Spirit of Grod. We said this light is an active principle ; it will put us to work. A few hours ago this world was asleep ; it was dark. Oh, how the world sleeps when it is dark. Darkness is the emblem of inactiv- ity, sleepiness and death; light is the active principle. I^ow, a few hours^ago the oxen were lying down peaceably and asleep, the birds perched upon the limbs of the trees and all humanity asleep. Now God wants to wake up this world and put it in motion. What will he do ? Go over there on the hillside and strike that old ox on the head? And will he come over here and shake the boughs to wake up these birds? Sam Jones' FavoHte ImpleTnent. Let Your Light So Shine, 43 And will he go to my front door and knock to wake me up ? No, sir ! When God wants to wake this world up, he just lets the sun peep over the hills, and now we see the birds singing, and the oxen feeding, and humanity going on in a driving roar and rush. And when God shall turn the light of his Spirit loose upon us in this town, you will see ac- tivity and all things moving up. It's darkness and death that surround us. That is the trouble. A DEVELOPING PRINCIPLE. Let 3'our light so shine. An active principle to put us to work, and it is not only an active principle, but it is a developing principle. Oh, my, when light and labor bear in upon the right together, how there is development, development, growth, growth! And I will tell you another thing: It is grow or die. There is no alternative but that. It is grow or die, and the only way I can grow is to work. It is work, or die ! How many Christian people in this community, if you were to get them to write out the history of their lives, of all they have done for Christ in ten years, members of your Church, perhaps, would be ashamed to write it, and in disgust would drop down on theirknees. ^' What have I done ?'^ Work is the de- veloping principle. A great many in this world say, " Well, what can I do? "What can I do?'' Well, brothers, sometime ago at Chattanooga, I was going out on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, and I walked around the great engine that was going to pull us out in a few minutes, and as I did so I saw the engineer jump off his engine with one of those long necked oil cans in his hand to oil the machinery, first one part and then another. I saw him oil the driving wheel the piston rod, the rock-around and the steam che5-t. I saw him going from one piece of machineiy to the other, and I thoughtthisway : "Well, if I was any part of that grand en- gine, I'd like to be the driving wheel; there is the secret of the great speed. If I could not be the driving wheel, I'd like to be the truck and roll ahead of all the rest; and if I could not be that, I'd like to be the steam chest, where the power is lo- cated;" and I noticed that every part of that machinery got oil out of the same can, whether it be the big piece or little; and I want to tell you to-day, that, out of God's great reser- voir of grace, whether you be a big worker or a little 44 Let Your Light So Shine. worker, you get oil out of the same cau; and I want the spir- it of consecration to possess your church, Brother Tudor. Dr. Tudor. Amen ! THE NECESSITY FOR FUEL. Brother Jones. In G-eorgia we have a little Methodist minister. He ain't any bigger than I am. There is only one trouble with him j that is, he is parsimonious; he is very sting}^ "With that exception he is a grand man. He is worth $20,000, and we can't get but $1,500 a year outof himfor God and religion; but with the exception of that one thing of stinginess, he is a grand man. He is worth $20,000, and he won't give but $1,500 every year for the cause of God ! You have got one Methodist in St. Louis — 3^ou may have a thous- and— but you have got one Methodist in St. Louis that i-s an honor to G-od and a blessing to this city. I say you may have a thousand, but I say you have got one. I heard of him before I got here. I heard of him afar off. Well, we had a talking meeting in Trinity Church — I started on an engine, the different parts of the engine, the great engine of the Church, its various machinery — and one brother got up. Said he, *' Brethren, I'd like to be the boiler of the great engine, where the power is generated." Another said, "I'd like to be the cow-catcher, the fender, and keep the way clear. Another said he would like to be the headlight and throw his rays ahead ; another said he would like to be the whistle and sound the praises of God all over the country; and another said he would like to be the cab to protect the en- gineer. And so on they went; and directly this little Meth- odist got up. Said he, "Brethren, I am perfectly willing to be the old, black coal they pitch into the furnace to burn up and carry us on to glory!" Oh, if we had some of that sort that are willing to be the old black coal which shall burn out and generate heat! We decrease, but God increases. Oh, G-od! If necessary to pull this train to heaven, let me be the coal, and let me be consumed to save the city, whether I am consumed or not. VERY MUCH IN EARNEST. Brethren, I have been just as serious in this service as you would permit me. You got about what you came for, and you will always get that. Going to church is like going shopping. A sister goes into this magnificent dry goods Let Your Light So Shine. 45 store; there are $200,000 worth of goods in it, but she buys her paper of pins and goes out. That^s all she came for — just a paper of pins. And you know it is a good deal this way about going to church. We get what we come for. I have said just what you expected me to say — that is all. That is all I aimed to do — to give you what you came for. I always throw a few bones without any meat on, and in as large a crowd as this there are always some dogs that want a few bones. I throw them a few bones for them to gnaw ari growl at. They will growl, you know, and when you hear any one growl, let him alone; you know it is a dog, and just let him growl. And if you see one fellow running and hollering, you know that it is a hit dog. Let him alone, for if he is not hit, what is he hollering for? That is the point with me, and we just go on our way. Some of you would not preach like I do; you have your ways and meth- ods; and I tell you I am willing to swap fishing tackle with any fellow whose string of fish is bigger than mine; but I want to see the string of fish before I swap tackle with him. One preacher told me he got down on his knees one evening and prayed to heaven to G-od Almighty to straighten out Brother Jones and to change him in a few things, and that he would then be a good preacher. He prayed un- til about sundown, and got off his knees ; and the Lord seem- ed to say to him, ''Well, I heard you praying for Jones; but if I ^s to take those things away from him, he would be no more account than you are.'' He said it almost scared him to death, and he has not prayed on that line since. TRADING riSHINQ TACKLE. And when any of you all have a bigger string of fish be- hind your fishing tackle, I will trade with any fellow; but until you find more fish I will not trade. You come in and help me, and God will bless the work, and we'll all rejoice together and bring our fish home together. May the Lord encourage you to-day to do great things. Something tells Praying the Lord to Change Sam Jones. 4G Let Your Light So Shine, me we will take in thousands of souls during these meet- ings. You may say, "Well, it don't look like there can be anything done/' Well, brother, that old ram's horn was a peculiar thing to tear down the walls of Jericho with, wasn't it? But, sir, it did it. And that is what we can hope to do. We'll do it. Let us take these things, and let us not think I what part and lot we have got in these, and talk about oth- (ers. If you are against me, talk the more. I'd as soon you would throw mud at me as to praise me. I don't want any one to do that. Just say as much against me as for me, and if you hear any one down town bark, let him bark. So come back this afternoon. At 2:30 Brother Small will preach, and to-night, the Lord willing, I will preach again, and three times straight along every day, at 10:30, 2.30 and 7:30. I am very much in earnest. MUST HAVE CO-OPERATION. I have no time to throw away. If you want me and are willing to work, I am your man, God helping me; but to- morrow morning, if 3^ou are not here at 10:30 o'clock, I will not be here to-morrow night. There is a train goes awa^^, you know, in the evening, just before the meeting. If you ain't here to-morrow morning at 10:30 o'clock, and you meet anybody to-morrow evening, and they ask you if you were here, and you say, No, and they ask you why, don't you tell 'em any lie. You tell 'em it was because you didn't want to come. Because, I can take one thousand $100 bills every morning and fill this church up, and give every fellow a hundred dollars that will come. That will fill up every seat here, and every street for a mile around, if they'll get a hundred dollars. If you come for one hun- dred dollars, you ought to come for the salvation of jour Bouls. I am in earnest. Trust in God, give him all the glory. I want to see a gracious meeting here; believe me, we will. The sooner we take hold, the better. The time is short, and may God Almighty inspire us to great faith and great works. ^EF^MON II. ^I^ACE AJND ^y^LV/iTlOJM. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live so- berly, righteously and godly, in this present world. — Titus 2 ; 11 and 12. REDEEMED BY THE DIVINE BLOOD. <^/'E are not redeemed/^ said the apostle, by corrupti- W ble things, such as gold and silver, but by the precious blood of the Son of God.'' When that precious blood came gushing from his side the recording angel dipped his pen in that blood and in heaven's chancery wrote on mercy's page: " Peace on earth and good will to men." The grace of God that bringeth salvation, not the grace of God that makes me feel that I am a sinner; not the grace of God that saves me from sin, but the grace of God that bringeth ^' salvation" in all of its incomprehensible sense, hath unto all men appear- ed. I am so glad that I can put my eyes on this book and lay my hand on my heart and say, I believe that Jesus died forme personally; that he died for my precious wife; that he died for each one of my children. He died not for me only, but for you and your wife and children, and your children's children to all generations. Oh, I am so glad this work is reaching a right conclusion; that God is not mad with any- body ; that he loves the bad man as well as the best man. I am so glad the pulpit has got where it can look up to God, whi) is the author of pulpits, and say, "Jesus Christ tasted death for every man." O, what a truth ! God not only wills the salvation of all mankind, but he has provided for the salvation of each individual. I believe if it were possible to find one immortal soul for whom Jesus did not di^, that Jesus would leave heaven, and come back and suffer again on Calvary for that one immortal soul. 'No man was ever doom- ed to death and hell that did not have a good chance to get to heaven, and about all any man can claim is one good chance to get to heaven. A refusal to accept that chance 47 48 Grace and Salvation, ought to bring eternal damnation. A great many men think that about all religion is for is to prepare them in some mys- terious way for a happy death and a home by-and-by in heaven, and really we have wasted about nine-tenths of our time thinking of a home over yonder in the promised land. I have quit thinking about a heaven over yonder. I want it right here in Missouri. It is like preaching everlastingly for heavenly recognition. I tell them I want earthly recogni- tion. I want to be recognized here. When I get to heaven and have a crown on my head, and a harp in my hand, and am a heavenly millionaire, you need not recognize me. I do not want it then. I want earthly recognition ; I want heaven here ) I want to shun hell in St. Louis, although there is a good deal of it to the square inch here. Let us quit this ev- erlasting harping about heaven and hell hereafter. Let us talk about heaven and hell down here in our midst, for 1 de- clare that no man will ever go to heaven until by some means he manufactures him a little heaven to go to heaven in; and no man will ever go to hell until he generates enough brimstone to go with. THE TRANSFORMATION. Some talk about angels carrying souls to heaven. When a soul goes to heaven it outstrips the speed of angel's wings; but there are some of j^ou who would never get to heaven unless some angel band should take you there. To get to heaven you have got to either turn or back up into the gold- en gates. There is no doubt about that. There is too much heart religion in this world. It is generally locked in the heart and never seen upon the surface. Eeligion is as much a thing of the head, of the foot, of the tongue and of the brain as it is of the heart. If I could only have rejigion in one place I would have it in my right hand, so that I could go out and do something for Christ. There is nothing in heart religion, and I have told our colored brethren down South that they have run this heart religion until many of them have run themselves into a hen roost. There is' grace enough in this universe for every man of us to have every square inch of him full of grace. I have a contempt for heart religion. There are people who are afraid to say anything about their religion. They are afraid of being ranked as Pharisees. I have seen a great many different characters, Grace and Salvation, 49 but I never saw a Pharisee. I reckon that if Dr. Tudor had one in his congregation he would make him President of the Board of Trustees. A Pharisee would give one-tenth ofall he had to Grod; he would fast once a week and perform other sacrifices. There is not one of you who need be uneasy or afraid of being set down as a Pharisee. There is no use talk- ing about grace taking us to heaven as we are. There is many a fellow, if ho could get to heaven as he is, who would not be there long until there would be confusion. A MORTGAGE ON HEAVEN. Take a money-monger, one of those 20 joer cent, fellows ; if he were to be let into heaven, he would set up immediately on a corner lot and have a mortgage on half of heaven. I am glad God Almighty will not let such men into heaven. Take one of those old demijohns and carry him to heaven as he Is. When he would awake next morning the first thing he would want would be a drink, and if there was a low place in the fence he would jump over it, repair to the nearest bar-room and be back again before breakfast. Heaven is a prepared place for the prepared. Jesus said : '' I go to pre- pare a place for you.^' My only concern is, shall 1 be pre- pared to live in such a home ns he shall make for me. It is said that the great trouble Avith the nineteenth century re- ligion is that the truth is not preached. There has not been a sermon preached during the past fifty years that has not contained enough truth to save every man, woman and child in Christendom. "What is" the trouble, then? No one has any room for truth. Every fellow is chock-full of his own opinions. One says, ''It is my opinion that there is no harm in a social game of cards, if you do not bet." Another will say, "It is my opinion there is no harm in going to the theatre." Another will say, ''It is my opinion I can live out of the church and be just as good as I can be in the church." I assert that no man has a right to an opinion on a moral question. The only way to tell whether a man is crook- The Bible StraiQht-Edge Test. ed or straight, is to put the straight edge to him. It is no use standing up like a fool and guessing whether 50 Grace and Salvation, he is crooked or straight. Here is the straight-edge [pointing to the Bible]. I don't say a man has not a right to his opinions on doctrinal questions, but the constant iteration of ''It is my opinion/' by professing Christians, is crushing the life out of the Church and damning the world. THE WHISKY DRINKERS. I can sort of put up with a fellow who drinks whisky, if he hangs his head down like a dog; but when he holds his head up and says he likes to drink it, I have a contempt for him. I can put up with a Methodist who goes to the the- ater, if he wears a hang-dog look; but if he gets up and argues for it, I would not wipe my feet on him. I can sort of put up with a member of the church when he plays cards, but when he advocates card-playing I have a contempt for him. I have as much contempt for a member of a church that does these things as I have for a Georgia chain-gang negro, and that is pretty tough. A man once asked me how long it had been since I was at a theater. I told him I had not been at the theater since I had quit being a vagabond. But I am glad we have theaters, because they draw the line. A man in my own town once said to me : "If you will convince me it is wrong to play cards, I will never touch them again." I replied : ''There is one thing you are already convinced of, that you are of no account in your church. "Yes," he said, "I know that." "Then," I returned, "if you are of no account in your church I have no time to fool away with you," and I walked off and left him. When a man is of no account in his church it is of no use trying to convince him of anything. Such men should examine themselves and shun the sins that render them of no account. It is not the lying, thieving and drunken members of the church that do the most harm, but it is the tide of worldliness that is sweeping over the people and paralyzing their Christian life, and ruining their children, about whom a bulwark of sin is being erected which the Grospel cannot overreach, CONTEMPT FOR THE COLONELS. I have the profoundest contempt for those colonels and majors and judges who grace our curbstones and saloons. They have nothing to commend them to God but their money Grace and Salvation, 51 and their means. If there is anybody I want to see go to heaven it is poor white folks and niggers. The colonels and those big fellows who have had such a good time here, can sort of afford to go to hell. We can't. When the colonel " Colonels and Judges and Majors Who Gr-ace Ou?" Cu7'b-sto7ies and Saloons.^' says, ^'It's my opinion/' he claims that his opinions are original with him. They are not. He got them from hell, and they are going back to hell if they take the old colonel with them. If there is anything I hate, and hate with a bit- ter and uncompromising hatred, it is whisky. It blights the world, demoralizes society, damns souls and peoples hell with immortal beings. We talk about pitching into revival work here, and at best we shall bring but two thou- sand five hundred or three thousand souls to God, while there are one thousand eight hundred saloons hero damning the city week after week. We need some old-fashioned preaching. The only safe latitude for Christians to travel in is family prayer, thereading of the Scriptures and undying devotion to 4 52 Grace and Salvation, right. In the work I have undertaken here I want your co- operation. Some of you may leave and say, "I can't endorse that man." I don't want you to endorse me. I don't think it would do me any good to be endorsed by a one-horse member of a church. But I want every clerical and lay brother in a town where we are laboring for souls to come and help us. The daughter of a well-known minister once said to me, " My father does not believe in revivals." *' Your father and the devil are together in that," I replied, ^'I do not know how they stand on other things." I once said to a brother who attended one of my meetings, that his church was but the Lord's crocheting society. He went away insult- ed. I also told him that if the Lord did not change him somehow he would not be in heaven three days before he would have all the angels rigged out in lace. He came back a few nights afterwards, and, standing upon the plat- form, he said: ^'Brother Jones was right, and I am wrong. I have received a blessing. Call ^^Your father and the devil are together in thatr it what you will — getting religion or being converted — I have got it, I have got it." There are a good many listening to me who would be a sight on wheels, hut who are not now worth killing. Be prepared and keep right. The honor of Christ and the salvation of our own souls depend largely upon our holding and practicing proper views of the Scripture. Ignorance is a sort of heterogen- eous compound that God nor man can do much with. The fact is, we must know something before we are capacitated to do something, and all intelligent action is based on intel- ligent thought, and there can be no intelligent thought un- less, perhaps, we know some things. The man who really Grace and Salvation. 53 knows one thing well is on the road to know a great many things, and the trouble, perhaps, with a large mass of hu- manity, is they have never known one thing well. And the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us — instructing us, qualifying us. Teaching us what? That denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, right- eously and godly in this present world. NEGATIVE GOODNESS. In plain English, teaching us, ^^ Cease to do evil ; learn to do well." Conversion is a very common term in the church and in the pulpit. Sometimes we use it in a very vague sense. Conversion, scripturally, means simply two things : 1. " I have quit the wrong ; " 2. ^' I have taken hold of the right." '^o man is scripturally converted until he throws down the wrong, and walks off from the wrong, and walks up to the right and espouses the cause of the right. Relig- ion is a two-fold principle, or rather it is a principle that en- ables man to discern the right and to do the right, to discern the wrong and to make him hate the wrong. There are two elements in every pious life: 1. Negative goodness; 2. Pos- itive righteousness. Negative goodness is not religion. If negativegoodness was religion, then onjg of these lamp-posts out here would be the best Christian in town ; it never curs- ed, nor swore, nor drank a drop since it was made ; it never did anything wrong. If negative goodness is religion, then a stock, or stone, or mountain, would be the best specimen of Christian this world has. Negative goodness is, perhaps, one of the halves of religion ; but genuine religion, Christly religion, means not only that a man is negatively good, but that he is positively righteous. There is no power in a neg- ative position or in being negative. Christ Jesus saw this, when he told his preachers to go forth and affirm and preach the gospel — not to go to denying the denials of infidelity. I never uttered a sentence in my life to prove that the Bible was true. I never spent five minutes in my life trying to prove there was a hell. I never spent fifteen seconds in the pulpit in my life trying to prove there is a God. Nobody but a fool needs such arguments. A man told me once, '*I don't believe there is a God. I don't believe I am anything but mortal/' Said I, ^' If I was you I would get me a little 54 Grace and Salvation, more hair and a tail, and be a siire enough dog — ^I believe I would." NO POWER IN NEGATION. There is, as I said, no power in a negative force, and none in a negative position of any sort. We are not sent forth to deny anything that anybody says, but we are sent forth to affirm something. An aggressive Christianity is always affirmative. I am sorry for the preacher that has back- slidden far enough to try to prove in his sermon that there is a God. I am sorry for the preacher that has got so low down in his theology that he is trying to establish the fact that there is a hell sure enough. I know of men trying to establish the fact that there is no hell. A gentleman said to me the other day that the fact was nearly established. I said to him, ^'Whendid youstartyour exploring party down there, and when will they return to report?" He said he hadn't started anybody and he wasn't looking for them to return. Said I, ^'How are you going to prove anything, then?" And I want to tell you this much : The assertions of the word of God on all these questions stand unshaken to-day, and a little colored child of three yeaas old in this city knows just as much about hell as any living scientist. I suppose some of the dead ones know more about it. There's many afclfow that has written hell out of his theo- logy here, but he won't bo in hell fifteen seconds till he will jump up and say, ''My Lord! What a mistake I made in my theology. There is one, sure enough." Bob Ingcrsoll was speaking on one occasion — I have got a good deal of re- spect for Bob Ingersoll — a great deal more respect than I have for a great many members of the church in this town, a great deal. When Bob says he don't believe the Bible and don't pay any attention to its precepts, they say they still believe the Bible, but e it to him. He ought to have it." But 68 (j-race and Salvaiion. when I preach to the Church and say, ''You men who pro- fess to bo Christians, you are living in sin,^^ they say, ''Oh, he's one of these sanctificationists, and he's putting on airs." Burning the Bridge Behind Him. You want me to give it to these old sinners, but let you alone. Ah, me ! brother! If God Almighty expects these sinners to quit sin, what does he expect of you who profess to love him, who profess to be Christians? That's the way to talk it PROGRESSIVE EUCHRE SHOWN UP. Cease to do evil and learn to do well. I want to say here in my place to-night that I profess to know a few things along this line, and propose to say them to that member of the Church that dances and attends theaters and plays pro- gressive euchre — and that's the best named game I ever heard — "progressive euchre!" Progressive euchre double quick to hell right along. And I say another thing. There is no progressive euchre player in this house that ought not to be indicted for violating the laws of the State and be put in oneof the jails of this county. How do you like that ?, It is just gambling scientifically, magnificently, gloriously, soc- ially, and so forth. That's what it is. And I'll tell you that in our State we can indict a man and put him in the peni- tentiary for playing progressive euchre with his neighbors any time, and I want to see the day come, when, if Chris- tians haven't got faith enough in the Lord Jesus Christ and their profession to bind them to decency and right, that the Grrace and Salvation. 69 law will help us to make our members decent. I do. I do, sure. And the man who is running these things — Fll tell jou •\he truth, brethren — that man never was converted, that man never has repented, that man is still in the bonds of iniquity and the gall of bitterness. You ask me why? Well, I got religion fourteen years ago last August — I was right sure there — and if it did not knock that card-playing, theater-going system out of me right there ! And I never got a symptom of it since ; and, whenever the day comes in my religious experience when I want to play cards, and when I want to drink whisky, and when I want to attend the- aters, I want to drop down on my knees and tell the Lord, "My religion is played out, sure. I never felt this symp- tom since I was converted, and now. Lord, like most Methodists, my religion has left me; give it back to me again/' That's the way I talk, and all I can say of you Presbyterians and Christians and Baptists that are not on that line is, you never had any, because you can't lose yours, you know. When our members go to the devil we say, "They have lost their religion," and when your mem- bers go to the devil you say, "They never had any." Well, it don't make any difference which way it is ; the devil has got them sure. Teaching us that we must cease to do evil and learn to do well. This is the Christian truth that teaches me that I must deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and I must live soberly as to myself, righteously toward my neighbor, godly to- ward him unto whom I owe so much. CONSISTENT, REGULAR CHRISTIANITY. Now, here are the three positive attitudes of the Chris- tian : 1. He is a sober-minded man in his relations toward all the world around him. I like one of these sober-minded men that takes a particular view of eveiything and goes for the long run all the time, and cares nothing for counting the present results, but is looking to the great long run. J like one of these sober-minded men. He is the same QYQvy day, and the same under all circumstances, and the samt» everywhere; he is just as good in New York as he is^ io S* Louis. 60 Grace and Salvation. There is many a fellow that is a good Christian in St. Louis, but if he were to wear an indicator when he went to New York, when he got back his wife would quit him, in my candid judgment. He is just as sober and pious here in church and in this community as he can be; but let him go on a fishing trip and he'll carry a quart of liquor for every day he's going to be out. I like a religion that keeps me as good off of my knees as I am on my knees ; just as good on the outside as I am on the inside; just as good in New York as I am at home; just as good anywhere and every- where and forever, as my promises and my vows demand I should be. I like that sort of Christianity — a sober-minded sort, that regulates all my life. This dead-level sort, this straight-forward sort; I like that sort of a Christian. THE REGULATING FORCE OF LIFE. Sober-mindedness — that's the regulating force of every good man's life; that makes him step along in an even, smooth way towards the good world. Some people think heaven is away off yonder, and some people think hell is away down yonder, but I want to tell you that heaven is on a dead level with every good man's heart; and I want to tell you the way to heaven is a dead level. Christ dug down the mountains and filled up the valleys, and the way to heaven is a dead level, and the way to hell is a dead level, and there is only one road in the moral universe; and one end of that road is hell and the other end oftheroadis heaven, and it don't matter who you are, but which way are you going? Don't you see? Soberly, righteously, a sober- minded man. You look at that stationary engine out yonder at the saw-mill. You see little governors playing around over the steam chest, and you see there that saw as it runs into that large log — that sixty-two-inch circular saw runs right into the log, and the little governors let down, and additional steam is thrown against the piston-head, and I see that saw wade right along through the log and run out at the other end, and the little governors lift up and let off the steam, and the saw runs at the same revolution to the minute, whether it is in or out. There is the Christian man, like Job. Oh, my, he was a sober-minded man. In prosperity; Grace and Salvation, 61 and when adversity came, and the last dollar was swept away from him, Job run in and out that log, and he was run- ning the same revolutions to the minute when he run into infirmity and disease and pain, and as he run right through and came out, running the same revolution to the minute, he said: "I will trust him though he slay me;'' and when they placed the charge against his character that he had sinned and done wrong, he went right along through that and came out on the other side, and the Lord God said to him, ''Job, take my arm and walk with me, and I will make your latter days more prosperous than your former days/' I like a sober-minded man — a man who will do the same thing all the time; not one of those men who will do some- thing duringtherevival meeting, and who don'trecollectthat he did anything out of the revival, and one day he will shake your hands, and another day he will hardly know you when he meets you on the street. I don't like one of those per- simmon-headed sort of fellows. I want a fellow who knows you when he meets you, everywhere, and will do the same thing everywhere and under all circumstances. THE DEMAND FOR DOWNRIGHT HONESTY. Sober-minded ! A Christian man ought to be sober-mind- ed, and rest on this one promise — all things are given for good to them that love God — sober-minded as to ourselves and righteous towards our neighbors. I will tell you if there is anything that religion demands of a man, it is that he be downright honest. Honesty ! As somebody said: ''An honest man is the noblest work of God," and that is the grandest utterance outside of the lid of the Bible. "An honest man is the noblest work of God." And when I say an honest man, I don't mean a man simply that pays his debts — some of us ain't honest enough to do that. But I have known men that would walk across town to pay a nickel that they owed, and I never saw a man that would do that that I would not hide my pocket-book from at night. One of those fellows that are so scrupulous — he is fixing things to cheat somebody ! I am not talking about that class. I'll tell you what this world needs right now. It needs a larger course of downright honesty ; that's it. I will tell 62 Grace and Salvation. you what, the Church of God will never take this world until we get honest. There are too many men in the Church boarding with their wives — there are that — agents for their wives. I want to die the day before my wife appoints me her agent. Do you hear that? A man in the Church of God and a prominent character, and that man living in a $30,- 000 house, and riding around in a $1,200 turnout; and the poor widow woman whose money he has is walking these streets with scarcely bread to eat. And if there is a hell at all that man will go there as certain as God is just. THE BUSINESS VALUE OF RELIGION. Honesty ! We want in this country men in the Church of God who will do what they say they will do. That's it. Why, sir, a man's Methodism ain't worth anything to him in this country, and a man's Baptism and his Presbyteri- anism ain't worth anything to him. You go down to a store to-morrow and want a thousand dollars' worth of goods on credit, and the fellow says, ^'Can you give me any security ? " "No; I am a Methodist." The merchant answers, "O, Lord! You can't run that thing on me here." ^ndleta Baptist go down there and say, "I'm a Baptist, and I want credit." "Law, me! If you will come in here and let me show you how these Baptists have gouged me, you would not play yourself off as a Baptist." And so with every denomination. And I tell you here to-night, the Church of God will never do the work he wants her to do until she is honest — honest towards God and honest towards man. I want to see the day come when all the churches in the world will have the character in commercial life that the old Hardshell Church has in Georgia. Down in Athens, Ga., an old Hardshell walked in one day to a store and said to the merchant : "I want a couple of hun- dred dollars' worth of goods this year on credit." The merchant looked at his old hat and jeans pants, and he con- cluded that was not the sort of a man to trust, and he told him he would not give him the goods. The fellow turned and walked out, and the merchant asked a clerk in the store: "Who is that man?" "That's Mr. So-and-So ; he belongs to the Hardshell Church up here." The merchant went out after him and said : "Friend, come back here, Grace and Salvation. 63 Are you a Hardshell ? '' He said, ^'Yes." '^Wcll/' said the merchant, ''you can have all you want; you can have all I have here in this store on credit for as long a time as you need." And down in Georgia the Hardshclls will turn a member out of church for taking the homestead exemption or going into bankruptcy, just as quick as they would for stealing — they will that. PAYING ONE HUNDRED CENTS ON THE DOLLAR. Honesty! I like that. We have collecting laws all over this country, and we have ruined our people ; we have made our people dishonest by our laws — that is the truth about it. Our people are made dishonest by our laws. Our law, our Congress, our Legislature, fix it so that a man can, by a turn of technicalities in law, just wipe out all his debts, and he can compromise with his creditors. Out in Waco, Tex., last year, there was a merchant there thrown into bankruptcy, and he compromised his debts at a hundred cents on the dollar — just think about that — and paid it, every bit. He compromised his debts at a hundred cents on the dollar! He was a fool, wasn't he? He was a fool. They say in one heathen country they make every holiday a day for a general handshaking among all enemies, and every fellow pays every dollar he owes in the world. That's a grand holiday, ain't it ? They are heathens, though, ain't they? They must be heathens if they do that way. Make friends with all my enemies and pay every dollar I owe every holiday ! Nobody but a heathen would do that, would he? Eighteously do the right thing; do the right thing. And I want to say about it, that those bankrupt and home- stead laws have been the curse of this country in all ages of it. I want to see the day come — and I beg your pardon for the expression — I want to see the day come when you can sell a man's shirt off of his back to pay his debts. I'd rather die than to be in debt, and have things that other people ought to have. That's the way I look at it. SAM JONES' EXPERIENCE. You say, '' Yes, j^ou are talking mighty big.'' Yes, and I've talked little, too, I want you'to understand. The devil bankrupted me for both worlds, and when God converted my soul and I was called into the ministry, I was hundred^ 64 Grace and Salvation. of dollars in debt, and I know how a man feels, I know how it cows a man, and I know how I have gone up with $2.50 at a time to pay a debt and my wife had one dress and I had one suit, and we were living at starvation rates, and my wife doing her own washing and ironing and her own nursing, and I splittingthe wood and working and saving every nickel I could to pay my debts ; and in spite of that I have heard of fellows saying, ^'If that fellow Jones would pay his debts I could have more confidence in him;" and if they had put their ears to this side of my head they could hear the blood, drip ! drip I I paid every cent, thank God ! a hundred cents on the dollar, and I was just as good a man after I paid as I was before. And thank God that a poor man can be an honest man ! Thank God, that is true. GOD^S APPRECIATION OF HONESTY. I'll tell you the sort I find in my Bible, where Obadiah borrowed $500 from Ahab and died before the money was due. After his death Ahab sued the widow for the debt, and levied on her and her two children for the money. They could levy on children in those days, and they were to be sold in this case to pay the debt. The mother was in distress, and she hunted up — I had almost said a lawyer, but she never went within a mile of one, God bless you. She hunted up the best old prophet of God on the face of the earth. She stated her case to him and said : ''My husband died owing this money, and they have levied on my two children to pay this debt. What must I do? The old prophet looked at her and said: "What have you in your house?" The poor woman replied, trembling: ''Nothing but a pot of oil, and that is to embalm our bodies with." The prophet never said a word about the homestead, but he said : "You go and sell that oil and pay that debt." She went home and borrowed vessels and drew enough oil out of the pot to pay the old debt, and she had more oil left afterwards than when she commenced to draw it. That was God Almighty standing by an honest woman, don't you see? I have seen it repeated again and again, and I tell you that God Almighty will take care of honest men, if he has to put the angels on half rations for twelve months. Grace and Salvation. 65 I was once appointed to certain work in a certain county in a Georgia circuit. Tlie year before the whole cr^untry was blighted with drouth. The people had not made a bale of cotton to twenty acres, when they ought to have made a bale to every two acres. Corn was not a paying crop, and merch- ants were pressing their claims. I commenced preaching righteousness. I said : " I know your soil has been parched by the drouth, I know your crops are failures, I know you are poor; but," I continued, ''listen to me. Ifthe sheriff comes on 3^ou and takes your house and your stock, and your all, let him take them ; and then walk out with your wife and children, bareheaded and barefooted, so that you can say, ' We are homeless and breadless, but my integrity is as un- stained as the character of God.'" Oh, for an unstained character ! That is what we want in this country. An honest man. I tell you there are too many men in this country who have widows' and orphans' legacies in their pockets, and lam sorry to say, too many of that sort have broken into the churches of this country, and every dollar of that money thatyou keep in your pocket as apreach- er, and in j^our treasury as a church, the devil will make you pay it back with compound interest. He well knows that that is his money, and he does not loan his money without interest, and big interest at that. OWE NO MAN ANYTHING. Righteously. Eighteous men. I like righteous men. Tom Moore, the poet, was righteous in this sense. They asked him when on his dying pillow, " Are there any of your man- uscripts that you have changed or altered ?" He said, "No j I never wrote a line in my life that I would now wipe out with my little finger." Yon are a merchant. Can you say on your dying pillow, "I never performed a deed I would not wipe out with my little finger?" Samuel, the prophet, was a righteous man, and when he walked out to his burial place, all Israel gathered around him, and the clear voice of the old prophet rang out, and ho asked these questions: ''Whom have I cheated ?" " Whom have I defrauded ?" "Of whom have I received a bribe of money to blind my eyes?" And all Israel echoed back, "No one." Oh, that was a grand victory. 66 Grace and Salvation. But, brethren, the man who does not recognize his obliga- tions to God is but half a man at best. I have my relations toward my family, and my relations toward my country, and my relations toward my God. I will meet the demands of my children and my home. I will meet the demands of my country. I will meet the demands of the God that made me and them. I am good for all worlds. A godly man is one that does everything with reference to the great eye of God that is looking down upon him, a man that is godly in his life and character, and that docs right toward the God that made him. Where do we find examples of godly men ? St. Paul, the author of this text, was a godly man. He lived for God, and counted all things as lost that he might please God. In his dying moments he sat in his dark dungeon and wrote in his last letter to Timothy : The time of my departure is at hand. Oh, what a thought. St. Paul meant to say to him: *'I shall have a cold supper to-night and a cold breakfast in the morning; I shall sleep on a hard bed to-night, but I shall take dinner in heaven to-morrow with God and the ang- els." He talked about his departure as a school boy talks of leaving school for home, and when his head was severed from his body, God stooped down, picked up that bloody head and placed a crown of everlasting life upon it. He was a godly man, and God will take care of that sort of man, liv- ing or dying. A NOBLE ENDING. Just such a man as this died in our State some months ago, and when his large family of Christian boys and girls stood around him, he struggled for breath in the last extremities of life. Just as his moments were drawing to a close he seemed restless and wanted to speak. His children's atten- tion was attracted by his looks and they said, ''Father, is there any request you wish to make ? If so, tell us what it is." He caught his breath and said, ''Bring — " but break- ing down, he could not utter another word. His children gathered close around him and said, "Oh, father, do not die without telling us what you want." Again he said, " Bring — " and could not utter another word. The children l?ent over him and said, " Father, do not die without telling Grace and Salvation. 67 us what you want/' Presently his system relaxed in death, and his lips moved freely as he said : Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown him Lord of all. Then the soul swept out of his body and he never breathed another breath. God help us to live righteously, soberly and godly in this world, a.nd to look forward with blessed hope to the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. At times within the past ten years I have thought of going back to the practice of law, and of accumulating a fortune, that my family might be provided for, and of preaching the gospel in after life ; but with the blessed hope of God before me I continued right on. My eyes were on something bet- ter, grander and nobler. When kind friends in JS'ashville said: ^' Here is a $10,000 home and thousands in bonds, if you will make your home in our midst,'' I replied : ^*No. In our own quiet little cottage my wife and children and my- self love God and are striving to get to heaven. Excuse me, I love you just as much as if I accepted it." Then my wife said to me, ''Husband, I am prouder of you for that than for any act in your history." THE UPWARD FLIGHT OF THE SOUL. And I want to say to this congregation that I am getting higher and higher. I S3'mpathize a good deal with the eag- let caged up yonder. Now a kind friend, pitying its droop- ing condition, opens the cage-door and lets it out. I see it leave its cage and turn its eye to the sun and to the moun- tain tops. Its ruffled feathers begin to smooth down and it raises its wings and shakes them for a moment. I see it fly up into the air and poise itself on its wings. It looks back toward the cage and utters a scream, as much as to say, " Farewell cage ; farewell imprisonment and weary hours !" I see it fly higher and higher, until at last it poises on its wings just in sight and I hear it scream again. It seems to say, " Farewell earth and imprisonment and cage and dreary days." Higher and higher it goes, poises itself, flies off and alights on the mountain top, free as air. Brethren, the soul of man, that has been ruffled by 10,000 cares, some of these days will look toward that blessed hope of God, plume its 6 68 Grace and Salvation, wings and fly upward. And the higher we go, earth shall hear our voices growing the fainter, saying, ''Farewell cares, imprisonment and earth!'' Higher and higher we shall go, until at last we fly oif in a bee-line for the other world. We shall go up until there is nothing in the way. That is what a bee-line means. The bee, after passing from flower to flower and filling its little honey cell, begins to circle up and up and up, until it gets above the highest tree top. Then it strikes a bee-line for its home. Brethren, let us get up above worldly care and sin and temptation, and let us strike a bee-line for that home beyond, where sin and suffering are felt no more. May God bless you all, and may you ponder over these words in thespiritin which they have been uttered. If you do not like anything that has been said, and if you come and apologize, I will forgive you, for I nev- er bear malice to anybody in this world. ^EI^MON III. pRyVWINQ THE ^INEg, Now while Paul waited for them at Athens his spirit was stirred in him when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. — Acts 17 ; 16. BY ''them" was meant Silas and Timothy, co-workers with Paul, who were to follow and accompany him on his mis- sionary tour. I believe Saul of Tarsus was the greatest man in this world's history. When I measure his head I look and ad- mire. When I measure his heart I am at a loss to know which is the greater, his head or his heart. It takes both head and heart to make a true man. If there was a leading characteristic in the life of this great man it was his sterling integrity, his downright honesty. There was never but one trouble in the mind of this great man, and that was touch- ing the divinity of Christ. It took the biggest guns of heaven to arouse and convince him, but when once con- vinced he was loyal forever. I believe I am ready to say here in my place, that St. Paul being an honest man God put him straight once, and he never gave Grod a moment's trouble after that, until God said : "It is enough ; come up higher.'' St. Paul was such a man as I would imitate. I admire his character, true, noble, courageous, honest. And now this man, waiting for his companions at Athens, sees the whole city given to idolatry. The charge that God brought against his ancient people was this: "My people will not consider." The etymolog- ical definition of that word is, "to look at a thing until you see it." I would illustrate the words "glance" and "consider" by reference to the study of a landscape picture. A glance would take in the main features, such as the mountain scenery, the stream and the hamlet. A consideration or careful examination would show the foliage of the mountain 69 70 Drawing the Lines, trees, the road leading to the mansion, the cattle grazing on the hill slopes, and so on. There is quite a difference be- tween glancing at an object and considering it. St. Paul had considered the state of affairs in Athens, and his spirit was stirred within him when he saw how the whole city was given to idolatry. ONE OF TWO THINGS. Now, I want to say right here : One of two things is true of the city of St. Louis to-night. Either the eyes of Chris- tian people are closed to the fact, or else the facts are false- hoods; one or the other. You can take whichever horn of the dilemma you please. I can take the daily papers of St. Louis and read your local columns and see without getting at the Bible that St. Louis is wrong, that there is something radically wrong about this city; there are too many de- bauched characters, too many suicides, too many murders, — too many that are drifting daily to destruction and ruin. 'The fact is, a man don't need a Bible to see this world is all wrong; all you need to do is just to read your morning and afternoon papers, and then walk this street with your eyes open. If you do that it will not be one week from to-day until you look on with horror that is indescrib- able. Now, let me ask each of you : Did you ever look at your heart until you saw it ? I grant you that you have glanced at it a thousand times, but did you ever kneel down and pray for light and look and look until you saw your heart ? My Bible teaches me that The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. My Bible teaches me: Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. My Bible teaches me : Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. DIFFERENT KINDS OF HEARTS. I once saw a pictorial representation of the human heart. It represented the sinner's heart; full of all kinds of wild beasts, reptiles and unclean birds — a hideous sight to look upon. Then there was the heart under conviction of sin, with the heads of all these animals turned outward as if they Drawing the Lines, 71 were getting ready to leave. Then I saw the heart con- verted, cleansed, and it was represented with a shining light and a cross. I saw also the backslider's heart, with the heads of all the beasts and reptiles as if they had turned backward; and I saw the apostate's heart — a Methodist's heart — as it was filled to overflowing with all manner of horrid things, and the last state of that man was worse than the first. Oh, the heart! the heart! This world reminds me in some of its phases of the man down in the spring branch trying to clear the water, so he could get a clear drink. He was doing all he could to filter and clear the water, when some friend called out to him : ^'Stranger, come up a little higher and run that hog out of that spring, and it will clear itself." No trouble then. And I declare to you to- night, the hardest job a man ever undertakes in this world is to lift up his life with an unclean heart. There is no such thing as a clean life outside of a clean heart. I know we have what we call moral men, but I don't believe you can separate morals and Christianity. In fact, the morals of this world are the paraphernalia of Christianity. The man who is moral in the sense that he will pay his debts and tell the truth, and that sort of thing, may be a villain at heart. Our Savior looked at the most moral men this world ever saw, and said: ''You white- washed rascals, you!" That is our version. His version was: *'Ye whited sepulchers!" I had rather be called the former. TO NON-PROFESSORS. And I want to say, to you men that don't profess to be Christians, I don't bring a railing charge against you. In the life of Jesus Christ not a single harsh word ever es- caped his lips toward a sinner. When Jesus would talk with a sinner, ho would fetch up the parable of the lost sheep, where the man left the ninety and nine safe in the fold and followed the poor, wandering sheep, and when he found it he didn't take a club and beat it back home, but picked up the poor, tired, hungry sheep and laid it on his shoulder and brought it back to the fold. But I tell you one thing. The Lord Jesus himself never lost a chance to pour hot shot and grape and canister into the Scribes and 72 Drawing the Lines. Pharisees, and they are the gentlemen I am after, begging your pardon. Now, if the sinners about this town want to go to the theaters, and want to dance and want to play cards, and want to curse and want to live licentious lives, I say, ''Gro it. Go it, boys;" but if you members of the Church want to do it, I will brand you as hypocrites, until you renounce your faith in Christ and have your name taken off the Church books. Tve got a right to say a few things along there, and neither this world, nor the flesh, nor the devil, will interpose any objection. DonH any- body say I interposed an objection to any man who don't profess to be a Christian, or placed any obstacle in the way of his doing just as he pleases. We will attend to your case later; but now I want to look in the faces of men who have made their vows and their promises to God, and who have sworn eternal allegiance to Jesus Christ, and their lives are a shame to the gospel and a disgrace to the charac- ter they profess. That's it. A STORY OF MOODY. Now let ns look at our hearts. I believe this incident, re- lated of Mr. Moody, will illustrate the point I am on. On one occasion, when he had invited penitents to the altar, there came forward a great many, and he walked back two or three pews to where two Christian ladies were sitting, and he said, "My sisters, will you walk forward and talk to those penitents?" They looked up at him and said, "No, sir; Mr. Moody, we are praying for you." " Praying for me? " he said. "Am I not trying to live right and get to heaven ? " "Yes, Mr. Moody; but we are praying that you may have a clean heart." And he said conviction entered his spirit in a moment, and he dismissed the services later and went home and fell down on his knees and prayed, " Lord God, show me my heart. Let me see it as it is." And he said, "When the light of heaven poured in upon my heart I saw it was full of Moody, and full of selfishness, and full of worldly pride; and then I said, * Lord God, help me to " 'Cast every idol out That dares to rival thee.' " "And," said he, "the Lord came and washed out all un- righteousness from my heart, and from that day until now I Drmvijig the Lines. 73 have never preached a sermon that didn't win souls to Christ/' And I declare to you, if Jesus had in this town an army of pure blood-washed hearts, we could win St. Louis to Christ. And never, never, never will we accomplish the work and bring the world to Christ until we, who profess Christ, arouse ourselves, and wake up, and shake the deviFs fleas ofl" ourselves, and get to be decent. HYPOCRITES AND HUMBUGS. I can stand anything better than I can a hypocrite. I al- ways did have a hatred for shams and humbugs and cheats, and of all the humbugs that ever cursed the universe, I reck- on the religious humbug is the humbuggest. You remem- ber how the students played a joke once on the professor — ■ at Princeton, I believe it was. He was one of those old bug- ologists, and I reckon he had specimens of all the bugs in the world in his frames and boxes. And the mischievous boys got the legs of one bug and the body of another an4 the head and wings of others and put them together like aa if nature had so formed them, and then they laid it on the old Professor's table, and walked in, and asked him what kind of a bug that was; and he said, ''Grentlemen, that is a Hum- bug." And I tell you that when a fellow gets a little Meth^ odism in him, and a little of theatres, and a Uttle card-play^ ing, and a little of most everything, and is made up out of a hundred different sorts of things, then he is a first-c?ass hum- bug in every sense of the word. He is just good f^ny where. Oh, my heart! With the heart right, with the fountain clear, the stream will be clear. With a good tree the fruit will be good. And I declare to you to-night that the hard- est work a man ever tried to do is to be a Christian without religion; to be a good man with a bad heart. Why, there are just scores sitting in front ^»f me to-night, that, if it were literally true that we had wilf^ beasts and ser- pents and other venomous things in bodily form in your hearts, as they are typically there, I would hate to be close round some of you, for fear I might get bit before I could get out of the way. Oh G-od, give us clear hearts and clear hands. CONCERNINa TONGUt^. And then I will say, to be practical all along the line, did 74 Drawing the Lines. you ever look at your tongue until you said that? Oh, these tongues of ours ! These tongues of ours ! We Methodists pour the water on, and the Presbyterians sprinkle it on, and the Baptists put us clean under,butl don^t care whether you sprinkle, or pour, or immerse, the tongue comes out as dry as powder. Did you ever see a baptized tongue? Say, did you? Did you ever see a tongue that belonged to the Church? You will generally find the tongue among man's reserved rights. There come in some reservations, and always where there is a reservation the tongue is retained. The ton- gue! The tongue! The tongue! Pambus, oneof the middle- age saints, went to his neighbor with a Bible in his hand and told him : "I w^ant you to read me a verse of Scripture every day. I can't read, and I want you to read to me." So the neighbor opened the Bible and read these words : I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. Pambus took the book out of his hand and walked back home, and about a week after that the neighbor met him, and he said : *' Pambus, I thought you were to come back and let me read you a passage of Scripture every da}^?'' And Pambus said, ''Do you recollect that verse you read to me the other day?'' "No," said the neighbor. "Well/' said Pambus, "I will quote it: I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue. " And," he said, "I never intend to learn another passage of Scripture until I learn to live that one." Oh, me! If every man, woman and child in this house to-night would go away from here determined to live that passage of Scrip- ture : I said, I will take heed to my waj^s that I sin not with my tongue. I will keep my tongue from evil and my lips from speaking guile. ; Oh, me ! Shakespeare told a great truth when he said : He that steals my purse steals trash, But he that filcheth from me my good name Takes that which not enricheth him, But makes me poor indeed. VIOLATORS OF CHARACTER. •These violators of character — I will venture the assertion there are many, many, many here to-night — if every word you said about people in this house was posted up there in Drawing the Lines, 75 legible words, here to-night, you would immediately leave this house and never be seen in public again. You would say, *' We ain't going anywhere where they put up every- thing we say for folks to look at." l^ow, I look at my ton- gue until I see it. There is many a man that in other things may do well, that at last will lie down in hell forever, and say : "I am conscious 1 am tongue-damned. I would have gone to heaven if I hadn't got a tongue.'' My tongue ! And I say to you to-night the best thing we can do with our tongues is to speak well and to speak kind- ly of all men. I dare assert here in my place to-night, when you take me from this sacred stand that I occupy to-night, I defy you to put your finger on a word of mine against the character or reputation of anybody. But I am not talking for myself up here. Understand that. Once in Jerusa- lem a great crowd — it was eighteen hundred years and more ago, as the legend goes, or the allegory — a great crowd was gathered in Jerusalem, and they were gathered around a dead dog, and they stood and looked, and one of them said, "That is the ugliest dog I ever saw." Another said, "Oh, he is not only the ugliest dog I ever saw, but I don't believe his old hide is worth taking off of him." Another said, "Just look how crooked his legs are." And so they criticised the poor dog. And directly one spoke up and said, "Ain't those the prettiest, pearly white teeth you ever looked at?" And they walked off and said, "That must have been Jesus of J^az- areth that could have found something good to say about a dead dog." Oh, me ! I like those people that always like to say something kind of people in their ways and walks of life. WATCHING one's FOOTSTEPS. And then, I ask you again, did you ever look at your feet until you saw them ? There is a good deal in that. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Oh, Lord God ! I would follow in the footsteps of him who led the way to heaven. There is no circumspect Christian who does not see to it that his feet are kept in the narrow way that leads from earth to heaven. A Methodist, a Bap- tist, a Presbyterian, a Catholic in a ball-room ! Their feet, that they have pledged should follow in the footsteps of 76 Drawing the Lines. Christ, are there cutting the pigeon-wing to music ! Now what do you think of that? And I hear this expression : They say, "Well, our Church don't object to it/^ Now, I would say a very strong thing here — and I hoj^e you will take it in the very spirit in which I say it, for I never said a kinder thing or a harder thing than that — you never, you never shall hear a truer thing. Whenever a Presbyterian, or a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Christian, or a Congregationalist, or a Catholic says that their Church don't object to dancing and theatres, and all such things as that, they could not tell a bigger lie if they would try in a hundred years! Thank God, there is not a Church named after Christ on earth that has not thundered out after these things with all the power it has got. "Our Church don't object !'' Well, now the Episcopal Church being a Church in authority — how they did thunder against these worldly amusements. That little Church you belong to may not. That rotten little thing! I would not stay in it long enough to get my hat if it didn't. A PLUCKY METHODIST LADY. I was sitting in a train some time ago and the train rolled up to the station, and just up on the platform, near-by, were three ladies. One of the ladies said to the other : "Are you going to the ball to-night?" The other lady said, "I ain't going." "But," she said, "I forgot; you are a Methodist, and you don't go to such places. I would not be a Method- ist. I want to enjof^ myself." The other said, "Yes, I am a Methodist, and, thank God ! I don't want to go to such places." "Oh," said the other one, "I would not be a Meth- odist," and the train rolled off, and I felt like jumping ontiie top of that train myself and hollering, "Hurrah for Method- ism !" And whenever she goes into copartnership with ball- rooms and with all of the worldly amusements that em- barrass the Christian and paralyze his power — whenever the Methodist Church goes into copartnership with these things, I will sever my connection with her forever. And I love her and honor her to-day because she has stood like a bulwark against these things, and denounced them from first to last. One of the honored preachers of this town, a man whose Drawing the Lines. 77 good opinion I value highly, one of the noblest, truest min- isters of this town, said to me: *'I declare to you, our church- es are little more than a grave-yard. We have been killed and almost buried by this tide of worldliness that has swept over our homes year after year/' And that is the truth. And I can read a ten-page letter that I got from a citizen of St. Louis to day, and turn every face in this house as pale as death. That man wrote like he knew what he was talking about. There is many a mother at twelve o'clock at night in this town that can sing, with the blood trickling in her heart, Oh, where is m}'^ wandering boy to-night? He was once as pure as the driven snow. REMOVING THE CARCASSES. And oh, why, why, why would I take this carcass, and that carcass, and the other carcass, that are so offensive? Why would I bring them out before this congz-regation? Nothing, nothing, nothing would make me do it, but to get you to take those carcasses that are despoiling the very odors of your city, and bury them out of sight forever. That is it. You all have spent two or three nights looking at me. God help you to look at yourselves awhile. And you will think I am a beauty before you got through. I look at my- self from head to foot — my hands, my heart, my feet, my tongue. I look at my wa3^s and walks and character in this community. Did you ever look at yourself as a member of the Church ? Did you ever wake up some morning, and shut your eyes, and lie there and say, ''Well, suppose every mem- ber of the Church in town was just like me, what sort of a Church would we have in this town? Suppose every mem- ber of the Church in town prayed as little as I pray, what sort of a Church would we have? Suppose every member of the Church in town paid as little as I pay, how long be- fore the whole thing would be sold out by the Sheriff?" Oh, my brother! it is well enough, now and then, for a fellow to ^t a square, honest look at himself. What sort of a Methodist are you ? There is a man that has promised to renounce the world, the flesh and the devil, and the vain pomp and the glory of this world, and he has promised on oath, before God and man, not to follow or be led by them. What is your life? There is that Presbyterian, consecra- 78 Drawing the Lines, ted to God by the most solemn ceremony that heaven ever listened to. Now, what is your character? There is the Ei^iscopalian; with the imposing hands of the clergy laid upon his head, and with a ceremony as solemn as eternity, he was dedicated in the Church to God last night, and to- night he is in the biggest ball in town, dancing his way to hell. SALVATION DURING LENT. And no longer ago than this very year, in one of the cities of the South, one gentleman told me — said he: "I saw the Episcopal clergyman lay his hand on the heads of a class of twenty, one night, and,'^ he said, "the next night eighteen out of that twenty were at a magnificent ball/' Now, you say, "I wouldn't have done that; I would have waited a week." Well, if a fellow is going to do it at all, better get right at it. Don't you think that's so? How long ought a fellow to wait after he joins the Church before he goes at his devilment ? Now, that's it. I wish I could get all the Methodists and Baptists and Presbyterians in this city, and all other churches, to live just like they promised to live. I wish I could get all the Episcopalians in town to be as good out of Lent as they are in Lent. That would be good, wouldn't it? And I never could see why a fellow ought not to be as good one time as another. Didj^ou? I never could. And I am going to be just as good the year round as any Episcopalian in this town is during Lent. I reckon they all hope to die in Lent. If a heap of them die out of Lent the devil will get them, in my judgment. In a great many places they dance Lent in and they dance it out. Like the Irishman talking about holydays in America — said he, ^^ Instead of hanging our heads and sorrowing over the crucifixion of our Savior, we Americans fire it in and fire it out." FIGHTING THE DEVIL. Now, I don't pick out any denomination and say anything about one denomination that I would not say about another. There is no denominationalism in this. I have no purpose and no desire in my heart to say one thing about one de- nomination that I would not say against another. That is true. I am just talking true things, and any night you Drawing the Lines, 79 come here, if you don't like the way this is rattled off, you can rack out of here just the minute you please. For I pro- pose, God being my helper, to speak of the truth as I see it, and I don't care what man, or devil, or cities, or earth, or hell may say, I am going to preach, while I do preach, what I believe to be the truth. And I will tell you Christian people, if you think the devil is going to surrender any ground in this town until every inch is covered with blood, you do not know the devil as well as I do. I will tell you that. I have been fightiug his Majesty several years, and I declare to you that he is al- ways ready for a fight. He has possessed nearly two-thirds of this city for nearly forty years, and if you think he is going to make a voluntary surrender of his territory you do not know him. He is going to fight and fight, and every child he has got is going to help him; you can put that down. And I tell you there is another thing: there is a heap of members of the Church going to help him, too. They will that. Some places that the devil goes to he never has anything to do himself. He puts his hands in his pockets and goes round and gets members of the Church to run his devilment for him. They do his work cheaper for him than any other class. He don't have to pay them, and they board themselves. In some towns the leading ball-room dude is a member of the Church — the fellow that gets them all up and runs the thing. PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY. I look at myself as a member of the Church. Oh me, brother! When you see yourself as a member of the Church, as a professor of religion, it will do you good. I will ask you again, did you ever look at yourself as a fath- er? Oh, me! how close you get to a man's heart when you talk to him of his family. Brother and sister, did you ever have your innocent child sit on your lap, put its little arms round your neck and imprint the kiss of innocence on your cheek? Have you ever looked on your lovely children lying in their bed, and said: " Of all the children God ever gave, my children have the purest and best of fathers." You can go home to-night and wake up your little Willie. Get him quite awake, and ask him, *'Who is the best man in St. Louis ?" He will answer, "Why, 80 Drawing the Lines. you, papa." Ask him, ''Who would you rather be most like V and he will repl}^, ''Why, you, papa/' Ask him who is the best man in the world, and he will say, "Why, you, pa- pa/' He ain't got no sense. And that is why we curse, and damn and ruin our children. They can see no harm in us, and just as we do they will follow and imitate us. A single man may drink as a single man ; he may swear ; as a single man he may lead a godless life; but as a married man you had better call a halt and ask where you are leading your children to day by day. You may sit in the chairs of this hall night after nightj you may simply have your curiosity excited; you may simply come here to laugh ; but when you gather your children in your arms and see thatyour bad example is lead- ing them to death and hell there is no joke about that — no laugh about that I God pity me and pity you in our rela- tions towards those that lean upon us; and if there is any fact in my history that I bless God for in my heart to-night, it is the fact that not a sweet child of mine ever looked in my face when I was not a Christian, trying to serve God and set it a good example. Did you ever look at yourself as a mother? Of all beings that earth claims its blessings from, it looks as though a mother ought to be the best. Mother, what is your life be- fore your children ? Consider yourself ! Did you ever look at your children till you saw them? Wife, did you ever look at your husband till you saw him ? Husband, did you ever look at your wife until you saw her? If there is any- body in the world I would have get to heaven, it is my wife; yet there is a husband who never talked ten minutes to his wife on religion ; and there is a wife who never opened her mouth to her husband about the way of life. Oh, me; when Ave think of a home that has been Christless, what a sad thing! SEEING ST. LOUIS. And then we ask again, did you ever look at St. Louis until you saw it? Did you ever take it by streets and blocks? Did you ever count the bar-rooms in this town ? Did you ever count the beer-gardens in this town ? Did you ever count the number of men that went in and out of the bar-rooms and beer-gardens ? I bring this question square before you. Did you ever count the number of soiled doves that curse Drawing the Lines, 81 this city and curse themselves ? Oh, my Grod, when we look at these pictures, we have to shut our eyes and drop down upon our knees. We say, *' God deliver us and God speed us/' Did you ever count the billiard tables in this town? Did you ever count the gambling hells in this town ? Oh, me! No wonder this one writes and that one writes, *'Jones, God bless you ! turn loose your guns and do your best to wake up the Christian people and show them how this town by streets and blocks is drifting to hell every day." Now, I am going to stick to truth while I am here, and I say to every man and to every influence in this town, un- friendly to Christ and unfriendly to the Bible, to fight back. I do not look for anything else. I want to say right now that I like to see things moving up, and if you can say anything worseof me than lean of you, lamm in, and I will beat you up to the tank in that line, maybe. Pickevery flaw you can in ev- ery sermon, and if I cannot pick more flaws in your life than 3^ou do in my sermons I will yield the feather to you. I say to you now, we propose to get your eyes open so that you can see yourselves. That is the first sight you ought to look at. Then look at St. Paul. When he went to the City of Athens, so wholly given up to idolatry, it stirred his heart within him. I have heard Christian people say that they had no feeling, no enthusiasm, no religious fervor; but nev- er since I joined Christ's church have I been devoid ojprelig- ious fervor and enthusiasm. The man who goes about like a corpse, with no feeling, no enthusiasm, that man is either dead to all intents and purposes, or he has closed his eyes to what is going on about him. When that great man visited the city of Athens, so wholly given up to idolatry, it stirred his heart within him. And he went over to Mar's Hill, pointed to the inscription ^' To the unknown God,'' and preached that grand sermon generated in his soul as he walked through the streets of the city and saw that it was wholly given uj) to idolatry; and I tell you to-night, when we see ourselves and our city and our surroundings as they are, there is hope for us. SEEING THE CROSS. There is just one thing more I want you to do — that is, to see the cross. It is the hope of the world. It is the Balm of Gilead. It has the power to save. It is the redemption of the 82 Drawing the Lines, race. Ob, my brother, it was fourteen years ago and a few days, when I, a poor, w^rctchcd, ruined, lost sinner, walked up to see my father die. Oh, how I loved that father, and how I broke his heart. I have wished a thousand times that I had my father back just one hour, tliat I might lean my head on his bosom and hear him speak the words of kindness and ad- vice he has spoken to me in the past. As I stood by his dying couch he took my hand in his bony hand, and a heavenly smile rested on his face just before he passed out of this world. He did not die ; he did not die. His faculties were as bright and his hope as buoyant in the very agonies of death as they ev- The Great Epoch in Sam Jones' Life, er had been. As I took his bony hand he said : '^ My poor, wayward, godless boy ! You have almost broken my heart, and you have given me so much trouble! Won't you tell your dying father, now, that you will meet him in the good world?" I stood there for a moment convulsed from head to foot. I said, ''Yes, father, I will meet you in the good world." I turned away from that dying couch, and every step I have made from that time to this has been to the good world. And I mean, with the grace of Grod, to keep my promise. I left that bed a wretched sinner, and looked to Grod. I looked up there and Drawing the Zines. 83 I saw one hanging on the tree In agonies of blood. He fixed his hinguid eyes on me, As near his cross I stood. Sure, never to my latest breath , Can I forget that look ; He seemed to charge me with his death, Though not a word he spoke. , My conscience felt and owned the guilt And plunged me in despair ; I saw my sins his blood had spilled And helped to nail him there. A second look he gave, which said : "I freely all forgive, My blood is shed to ransom thee, I die that you may live." Blessed Christ, live forever to save dying men. ^EI^MON IV. And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. — Galatiajsts 6 ; 9. JlJ^His exhortation may be wisely and prayerfully consider- W ed by us now. Moral forces necessarily move slowly. This city has been wicked for forty years, and if you think it can be brought to God in a day you know nothing of moral forces and how they operate. This exhortation comes in with a good deal of force upon us hereto-night: Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season — There's the promise — — for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Well now, this verse, like some verse of almost every chapter in the Bible, is a key to the whole chapter. This chapter before us to-night is a great palace of Scripture truth and this text is a key. I take this text and I walk up to this great palace of truth, and I unlock the front door and walk in, and the first thing my eyes fall upon is this : Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness. SELFISHNESS. Then I find from the lesson of to-night that the first well- doing of every Christian man is to ignore himself, and that of every good man to live for others. If there is anything incompatible with Christianity it is selfishness. If there is anything that Christianity fights and would have you and me put out of the way, it is selfishness. And hell itself is nothing but pure, unadulterated, concentrated selfishness. There is not an intolerable element in hell itself, that has not in it every element of selfishness. Ko man is in a posi- tion to do for others until he can get himself out of the way. The greatest man I ever saw was the most unselfish man. The 8t Perseverance in Well-Doing. 85 smallest man I ever saw was the most selfish. There is a little preacher upon a small circuit in Georgia, who, when I walk up into his presence, grows and expands and develops, and I commence to whittle and whittle down until I feel like a mole-hill by a mountain ; and do you know why that man seems so great and I seem so small? It is because when I look into his face I look into the face of the most un- selfish man my eyes ever looked upon. Why, he don't care anything for himself. His last thought at night, is, ^'How can I benefit somebody to-morrow?'' and his first thought in the morning, ''Where may I go and what may I do to benefit some one to-day?" And I speak the honest truth to- night when I say: that man don't care any more for him- self than he cares for a dog. I like that sort of man, and a man is never in position to do for others until he gets him- self down and gets his feet on himself and says to himself, ^'Now you lie there. If you ever get up or open your mouth again, I'll mash it. I never intend to hear from you any more.'' This world is run on selfish principles. "How much enjoyment may I get out of this, and how much profit out of that, and how much will I lose by the other." Selfishness always defeats itself — never carries its point. You let a man live for himself, and lay up money for himself, and provide for himself, and let all the world go. "Let all the world go, but I'm going to lay up for myself." Why, such a I le, and then to have to be introduced in heaven, on the streets of glory, by the angels, to one anoth- er. Why, that won't do ! If a Mason were to come here to St. Louis and he needed assistance and needed help, and he was a Methodist as well as a Mason, which would he go to, the Methodist Church or the Masonic fraternity, for help? If a man were an Odd Fel- low and a Baptist, to which class would he go to get means to follow his j -urney ? Would he go to the Odd Fellows or go to the Baptists? Ah, brother, the Irishman told a great truth when he said: ^' If there was a little more of the milk of human kindness in this world, what a grand world we would have." I tell you I had frequently rather go to a wholesale liquor dealer to get help than go to some mem- bers of the Church. These members of the Church ''broth- er" a fellow for about six months, and then think he belongs to them ; and that is just about the way the thing goes. A CHRISTIAN LAWYER. And we can never accomplish what we ought to as a Church unless this spirit of self-sacrifice and of brotherly kindness and love shall take possession of us. I can tell you of a lawyer, some fifty years of age, who joined the Church of which I was pastor, in one of the wickedest counties in Georgia. That man has never backslidden an inch in his 90 Perseverance in Well-Doing, life since he joined the Church. An old brother at a camp- meeting once turned to me and said: *^ Jones, haven't you been a wonderful backslider in your day V^ Said I : "I don't know ; why ?" " AVell," he says, '' you seem to know more backsliders than I ever saw in my life." ^'Well," said I, " brother, I ought to begin to know something about them. I have never associated with any other sort since I joined the Church." A fellow will learn something once in awhile if he will keep eyes and ears open. Now, why was it this lawyer never backslid an inch? Do you want to know why ? He literally spent his life looking after backsliders. Shortly after he joined the Church he commenced working with the brethren. If he saw two members of the Church quarreling on the street, no matter what Church they belonged to, he went out and put his hands on each's shoulder and said: *' You are my brother. You are brethren to one another. You musn't quarrel or fuss. If this is a question of financial difference, I will pay the money out of my own pocket be- fore I will see brothers fussing." And if a member of the Church went into a grocery to get a drink, he ran right in after him — not to take a drink with him, like some of you do — but to bring him out of there. And he walked into the grocery, and said he: " My brother, don't drink that, because Christian people ought not to drink. I used to drink when I was a child of the devil, but we can't drink T^hisky and be religious. My brother, walk out of here." And he would carry the brother out of there. A PRACTICAL TEMPERANCE REFORMER. And if a member of the Church got so drunk on the street that he could not walk home, he would say to another man : ''Here is my brother drunk on the street; will you help to carry him down to the house with me?" And he would carry that poor drunken fellow down to his house and say to his wife — the Major called his wife Sister Martha and Mar}^ — and she was the best Martha I most ever saw, and she was the best Mary I think I ever saw. She was good on both sides. She would sit at the Savior's feet, and when she came to house-keeping everything about her home would shine — and he would say, "Sister Martha and Mar}^, here is one of our brothers slipped up; he's done a little wrong; Perseverance in Weil-Doing. 91 fix a bed ; let us put our brother to bed/' And he would be put to bed and the Major would sit by his side and say to his wife: '^Fix a nice cup of coffee for our brother to drink when he wakes, and I'll pick out a few verses of Scrip- ture to read' to him, and I think he won't get drunk any more." And when he would wake up the Major would say to him, "Now drink some of Sister Martha and Mary's cof- fee.'* And then he would show her the wash-stand and towel and invite her to wash the dirt off his face, and when he was straightened up he would kneel down with her and pray, "God help my brother. He has made a little slip, be- ing tempted, but I don't think he'll do it any more." And Sistei^ Martha and Mary and ihe Majo7\ he never had to take a man to his house but once. The first dose of that treatment generally fetched them. A sister may s«:Ay, "Ah, me ! I would have no drunken dog in my bed!" That is because you are a good Sister Mar- tha, but you are a failure as a Mary. Don't you see? THE QUESTION OF SELF-SACRfFTCE. The Lord Jesus Christ lay out on that mountain top, bleak and dark and dreary, for forty days and forty nights, and suffered for you; the Lord Jesus Christ wej^t and prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, with a bloody sweat bursting 92 Perseverance in Well-Doing. from his body, and expired on Calvary for you : and there you are, claiming to have the spirit of Christ, and you would not soil one of your snow-white counterpanes to save a soul from hell ! Do you call that religion? Ah, me ! We've got to be different if we ever do anything. We go to church and sing- Christ gave his life for me. And then we'll break out on the next line — What have we done for him ? Just like as if we had done everything. And then we'll take up the next verse — Christ suffered much for me. And then we'll break out on the next line — What have I suffered for him ? And there seems to be an exultation of soul as we strike that second line. Brother, sister, look at the life and char- acter of Jesus Christ ? Take the life and character of Paul! Take the life and character of those men who rotted to death in dungeons, and who died at the stake, and who were im- prisoned and striped and abused for you and me, and then let us look how our hands have grown soft and white, and our own personal interest has absorbed all our energies and all our efforts. WHERE THE RUB COMES IN. I'll tell you where the rub is. There is a member of the Church and here is a poor drunkard ; he walks up and gives his heart to God and joins the Church, and that member of the Church sits back there and shakes his head, ^'Oh, my soul! I wish that fellow hadn't joined our Church;" and then, about three months after that, the poor fellow has tried to be faithful, but under temptation fell, and then the brother meets the preacher, and he tells him : "I knew you ought not to have taken that man into our Church; I knew when he joined he would be disgracing our Church." And I will tell you another thing : That poor fellow lying there in the gutter is a gentleman and a scholar and a Christian beside of that old Pharisee who stands by the side of him and says, " Just look at that ! Just look at that !" We have too much just such Phariseeism in this city as that. My G-od ! Help us to see that Jesus Christ died for Perseverance in Well-Doing, 93 the poorest and meanest wretch that ever walked on the face of the earth, and we can do nothing that can glorify Christ more than to put our arms around a poor, ruined wretch and bring him to God. And I praise my Savior now and forever that he is more able and willing to save the lowest, mean- est man on earth than any other character that lives. That man may be so mean that the common people on the street kick him out of their way, the bar-roQms have kicked him out at the door, his very wife has fled from him, but Christ says to all of us, when our father and mother forsake us then he will take us up. Oh, Christ ! let the race of man be as good to each other as thou art good to us ! A KENTUCKY STORY. In the Fifth and Walnut Church, at Louisville, Ky., two years ago, one night during a revival meeting, fifteen men came up and took the front seats, and those fifteen men on that front pew were the very imps of the devil. I never looked, and no man ever looked, at such men in the Church of God. IN'ow, how about those fifteen men ? The pastor of that church — one of the sweetest spirited, most Christly men I ever saw — he went to each one and took his name and said to him, ''Please remain here after this service.'' There sat the son of old Col. Harney, the editor of the Louisville Democrat, that had been drunk on the streets of Louisville for twenty years ; and here was another, the veriest repro- bate that ever walked the face of the earth; and here was another, and there was another, and there the fifteen men sat, the ver}^ imps of the devil, at the very gates of hell, and that preacher took their names and asked them to remain. He took his board of stewards and said, after services: "Now, let us take these fifteen men to the bath-room, and let us take them to the clothing house and let us put clothes on them and have them made respectable and win them to Christ." And I was at that Louisville Church just fifteen months after that. Now, how about the fifteen ? One of them had died — had gone home to heaven ; one of them had backslid; but thirteen of the most earnest workers at the Fifth and Walnut Church came off that front bench that I have been talking to you about; and the son of Col. Har- ney, of the Louisville Democrat^ a book-keeper for the Louis- 94 Perseverance in Well-Doing^ ville and Nashville Eailroad, that same man would jump up in the meeting now and then, and say: "Glory to God ! I get up to say that God has saved the lowest sinner that lived in Louisville/' God help us to go out among the wharf rats and the degraded of this town and bring them to Christ. Poor fellows ! How sorry we ought to be for them. They are kicked and cuffed about by humanity, and they toil every day for the meat they eat at night, and with the poor, cold house, and the shivering wife, and the ragged children. God help us to do what we can for those poor degraded men! And when we see such a spirit as that among you all, then you may look for God to touch this city with a power that will move it from center to circumference. HELP, NOT CRITICISM. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual go and restore him. It is not your business to criticise or say : "Just look how that man has degraded the Church and disgraced Christianity;'' but it is your business to go out to him, and rescue him and bring him back to God. There is many a member of the Church strayed off to-night and wandering away from God, that would have been a good active member of the Church if you had been a brother, indeed, to him. Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual go and restore him. "Why? If you don't you will backslide yourself. The spirit that makes j^ou neg- lectyour brother will make you backslide inevitably. Bishop Marvin, the noble man that died in your midst, related an incident how the faithful class leaders cared for a poor drunken man and straightened him up, and brought him to God, and took him into the Church, and labored with him, and labored for him, and had him praying night and morn- ing in his famil}^, and how that man moved farther out West, and how that man lived right there for several months, and how his wife wrote back to the noble class leaders and said to them: "My husband died happy last night, and said: ^ Write it back to my faithful class leaders that there is an- other sinner saved by Christ.' " Brethren, let us look to our Christianity. Does it send us out to those that need us? Is it bringing others to Christ Perseverance in Well-Doing. 95 through us? Are wc spending and being spent year after year in the great work of seeing that souls are marching home to Grod? BEARING others' BURDENS. Then I take this key and open into another apartment of this chapter, and I read this : Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. I see in the Church of God that all of its duties rest upon a few in all the churches. If you want any praying done, The Preacher and His Church Load. call on Brother A.; if you want any paying done, call on Brother B., and all that sort of thing. And I want to tell you to-night, we can never make the Church what it ought to be, until every man shall bear one another's burdens. We must do our part in all the phases of church work. I will tell how the thing stands now. You go about through the community, and you will find the whole of the Church up in the wagon — the whole thing ; some of them up there laugh- ing, some dancing, some cursing, some shouting, some pray- ing— the whole thing up in the wagon, and the poor little preacher out in the shafts trying to pull the thing to glory, and every little while some fellow up in the wagon will say, ''Tap him up a bit ! Move him up a little^ boys ! " and feed- 96 Perseverance in Weil-Doing, ing him on wheat straw all the year round. No horse ever made 2 : 40 on wheat straw. SHARING THE WORK. Bear ye one another's burdens. Listen ! If I were to go fishing to-morrow with four men, and we were to buy twenty-five cents' worth of lard to fry our fish, and we had to get wood to fry them, and prepare them to fry, if I didnH pay my five cents of that quarter, and I didn't get my part of the wood, and do my part of the cleaning of the fish, I would not consider myself a gentle- man, much less a Christian. If I was a member of any Church in this town, and I didn't do my part of the paying, and my part of the praying, and my part of the everything that was done, I wouldn'tconsidermyself a gentleman, much less a Christian. The shirks and sharks in the Church ! And the shirk don't run long until he turns to the shark. He will shirk every day, and like the old shark he'll eat every- thing within a mile of him. There's a good deal of that sort going on in the world. And I will tell you where all the growling comes in. These fellows that don't pay any and don't pray any, they are the growlers, and there ought to be an addition to every church in this country, and call it ''The Growlery," and run them in there. If there is anything in the world I have got a contempt for it is to see two or three fellows sitting back in a Pullman sleeper with a dead-head ticket in their pockets quarreling with the conductor about how he is pulling the train. Bear ye one another's burdens. Bear part in the great work of bringing the world to God. THE VIRTUE OF DOING. Then I take this same key and open into another apart ment and I read this : Tor if a man think himself something when he is (or when he does) nothing, he deceiveth himself. What a man does is the test of what a man is. If what a man does is not a test of what a man is, then what a man pays is the test of what a man is. I can sort of put up with a fel- low in the Church that won't do anything, but who'll pay well. There ain't a railroad in heaven or earth that don't charge extra for a sleeper, and you ought to pay it. That's Ferseverance in Well-Doing, 97 the truth about it. I believe in doing the thing yourself or hiring somebody else to do it. I will either pray every time they call on me at church, or I will have a fellow there paid by the month to do my praying — one or the other. And that's the only honest way to get out of it, sir. You've got a good many elements of the hog in youif j^ou donHrunitthat way. I declare to you, this shirking spirit — want all, all, all that can come to you, and yet never give back anything — is too prevalent in the Church to-day. And a man gets out of his religion just in proportion as he puts into it. I used to be pastor; and I'll toll you another thing: I never had a mem- ber of my Church in my life that would not pray in public and pray in his family that was any account — never did. They may be all right — I reckon they are — here in St. Louis, but I am talking of away down in Georgia. THEATER-GOING CHRISTIANS. How many theater-going Christians pray in public and pray in their families? I want every Christian man here to-night who prays in his . family night and morning, ^ '^. who goes to prayer meet- in-g every Wednesday night and prays when they call on him, who vis- its the sick and reads the Bible to them and prays for them, and who goes to the theater — I want you to stand up. I want to see how many there are here. [Nearly every one in the house looked around to see if any one stood up.] Oh, you need not be look- ing around! I just want to see one Christian who is doing his duty and run- ning to ball rooms, thea- ters, circuses, cards and '^"^ /owes' Ideal Circus Crowd. such like. Now I hardly ever mention circuses. They are too 98 Perseverance in Well-Doing. low-down for me. Down South all trashy niggers and low- down white folks go to circuses. My typical idea of a circus crowd is a sot, a one-eyed nigger and a dog. I think that is a pretty good circus crowd, and if I was a sot, or a one- eyed darkey, or a dog, I would go to a circus, but I never will go to one until I get to be one of those things. What a man does is the test of what he is, and when he does these things he does not do those things. When he does these things that are right he won't do the other things. Now listen to me, my friend. If I am doing my duty toward God I am not running into these other things. You ask me how I know, and I tell you I have tried it. I know how it goes. I know from personal, practical experienee that a man who j^rays in his family, and who prays in pub- lic, and who lives rightly before the community, does not go to such places. A GOOD WORD FOR "rIP." And you say: ''Jones, what are you always fighting the theater for? Why, don'tyou think Joe Jefferson is a worthy and good man?'' Certainly I do, and if you will kill all the other tribe off but Joe, I will never say another word against theaters. 'Now, what do you say? You say, "Let us re- form the theater." That would be like a lot of girls who, in a certain town, married all the drunken boys to reform them, and now there are more little old ''whipper-will" widows round that town than you ever saw. That is ''sorter" like a fellow pitching in and drinking up a barrel of whisky to keep the whisky from doing any harm. What a man does is the test of what he is. If he runs on that line, there is the test. If he runs on this line, there is the test; and if a man thinks he must be doing some- thing when he is doing nothing, he decciveth himself. What an engine does is a test of what an engine is. When the President of the Wabash Road writes to Mr. Rog- ers, at his locomotive-works, and says, "I want an engine that will pull twenty cars up a grade of so many feet to the mile," Mr. Rogers sends an engine. They couple twenty cars to it and start it up the grade, but it stands stock still -, and the President of the railroad telegraphs to Mr. Rogers: <'Come after your engine; I don't want it." Mr. Rogers Perseverance in Well-Doing. 99 comes. They walk up to the engine and he says : ''Look at that cab; it's the nicest cab ever sent out of the shop. Look at that bright piston rod ; how it glistens in the sunshine. Look at those magnificent driving wheels." The President replies, "I never said anything to you about cabs or piston rods or driving wheels. I want an engine that will take these cars up that grade." Another engine is built and it is ready for the trial. They fire her up until the guage indicates one hundred and sixty pounds pressure to the square inch. The engineer opens the throttle. The engine starts up hill mov- ing the cars with it, and when it turns the grade it seems to say, ''I could have pulled up ten more cars if you had put them on the train." The President says : "That is what we want." Grod does not want you because you live in a four story house. He does not want you because you have the finest turnout in town. He does not want you because you are the President of the leading bank. But God wants j^ou for what you can do. Sister, Grod docs not want you for how you can dress your children or how bang your hair. God wants you for whatj^ou can do. There is many a Pauline Christian around in this country. They exclaim : "Paul says it is a shame for women to speak in public." Paul also said : "It is a shame for woman to cut her hair off." How do you get along there ? You are Pauline when you want to.be and un-Pauline where you want to be. Lord, have mercy on us ! What a man does is a test of what he is. What a women does is a test of what she is. God does not want to know what you have, how you look or where you live; but God does want to know how much you can do in the kingdom of Christ. CATS AS A TEST FOR HOLINESS. I turn again to this chapter and read. Every man shall bear his own burden. There are some things you cannot delegate to another, I have a contempt for those folks who, when I go to their house, want me to conduct family prayers for them, and who uever have any at any other time. Somehow there is always something that will let the secret out. If a fellow is not in the habit of praying with his family you can always find it out without asking a question. An old preacher once went 7 100 Perseverance in Well-Doing. to a place like that. They asked him to read a chapter of the Bible and pray with them. After he had read the chapter of the Scriptures they all knelt down, and as they did so all the cats jumped out of the window. They had never seen anything like that before, and they did not know what was happening. I expect there is many a professing Christian in this house to-night, at whose home prayer is so great a stranger that if you were to pray with them the cats would jump out of the window. It is something unusual with them. I really believe some of us are like the man I once heard Dr. Young tell of. He awoke one morning and said to himself: " I have been a member of the church for fifteen years, and I have never been religious a single day." Afterward he lay thinking, and finally said, " I am going to put in this day as a Christian man. I am going to do my best this day to be re- ligious. He got up out of his bed and kneeling down beside it said, "Oh Lord, help me to be a Christian this day. Help me this day to live aright/' Then he rose from his knees, and before the breakfast bell rang he called his wife and family into the family room and said, '' Take your seats. Tm going to read a chapter with you all. I have never lived religious one day in my life, but by God's grace I am going to put in one day religiously." Then he read a chapter of the Bible and offered up prayer. After breakfast he bade his wife and children good bye pleasantly. He was kind to all his clerks during the day, and gentle in all his transactions. He came back to dinner, and when he sat down he said grace — a ^'blessing," aswesay — athistable. I like that, too. A man that will sit down to his table before his children and eat, with- out returning thanks to the Good Provider of all things, that fellow is eleven-tenths hog. All the human in him is turned to hog, and he is at best eleven-tenths hog. He sat down to his table and asked a blessing, and after dinner he said, "Wife, will you please fix up this half of a broiled chicken here; make some nice toast; and will you arrange it nicely on a waiter for Brother Johnson, living down here. He has been paralyzed two years. He is amembcr of our Church and I have not been to see him. I have not paid any atten- tion to him ; but if you fix up these things nicely on a waiter I will take them down to him." The waiter was fixed up, and he took it down to the sick brother. Then he said : "If Perseverance in Well-Doing, 101 you have a Bible I will read to you;" and he read ; ^^The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Then he knelt down and prayed heaven's blessing on the poor sick fellow. That night he held family prayer in his own home, and after they had gone to bed, his sons Bill and Tom, who slept in the next room with the door open between, began talking. Tom hunched Bill in the side and said : ^ ped to the front, and he told us that pure, white, physical light was the symmetrical blending of the seven primary colors we find in the rainbow — red and white and orange and green, etc. Jesus Christ said to his Church : Ye are the light of the world. They did not understand him. But Peter studied the question and stepped forth as the great philosopher in spir- itual things, and tolls us that pure, white spiritual light is the symmetrical blending of the seven primary Christian graces — faith and courage and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindness and charity. These seven graces will shed forth a light that will indeed light the whole world. ARCHITECTS FOR ETERNITY. Now, brother, let us change the figure a moment and look at it in this way: We are building for eternity. Every man ought to look well to the foundation. Jesus Christ is the great foundation upon which we rest all our hope and all our experience and all for time and eternity. Christ is the great bed-rock, and faith in him as we build this spir- ^Partakers of the Divine Nature, 147 itual temple, faith in Christ, is the first rock put down. And we build this temple without the sound of a hammer. We build this temple out of divine material and according to divine direction, and the first rock I put down — the bed- rock— is faith : Without faith it is impossible to please God. He that "believeth shall be saved. I may say that my heart rests upon this old book; I may say that I believe this book; I may say that I inherited ax faith from my father and mother in this blessed book; I may say that there is not a single utterance of God that I doubt in my heart to-night. Call me a dupe and call me a fool, but tell them — when you tell them I am a dupe and a fool — tell them I am a happy dupe and I am a joyful fool. Faith in my Bible? I believe this book; I believe this book, and this book has blessed thousands of men before I was born, and the best men on whom I lean every day, they whisper back in my ear, ^'That blessed book is a lamj) to my feet and a light unto my path." This blessed book, that never misled a human step and never misdirected a hu- man life; this book, with its moral so pure and with its Christ so ennobling and elevating to the race — I believe, I believe! RELIGIOUS BELIEF. I believe in God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord; I be- lieve in the Holy Ghost ; in the Church of God. I believe — I believe there is power in God, and virtue in the blood of Christ, and truth in the Holy Ghost; and, breth- ren, if I didn't believe this book, and believe God was its auth- or, and God was with me, I'd close this book, and I'd close my mouth, and leave this town on the first train that left for my home. I believe my Bible; and when the Christian people of this town believe this book we are going to take this book and conquer the whole city. I believe, I believe in God, as he is the father of all men, preserver of all life, inspirer of all that is good. I believe in God. And now to this faith in God and faith in the rio-ht, what is the next rock we lay down ? See how this will fit : Add unto your faith, virtue. Yirtus — courage. Now, don't you see that if a man believes 10 148 Partakers of the Divine Nature. he is right the very next thing he wants is a courage that dares to do right and dares to be tru6. I want to say at this point that I am not talking about physical courage. I am afraid that Christian people are sometimes physical cow- ards. I do not want a man to be a physical coward; but above all things, deliver me from a moral coward. I want to tell you that I have searched this book from Genesis to Kevelations and I find that God never did choose a man to do a great work for him but that that man was game from head to foot. God despises a coward. MORAL COURAGE. Moral courage ! Physical courage is not much. Physical courage will march me right up into the blazing mouth of a cannon without shaking a muscle in my body, but that is not much. I have known generals and colonels and majors and captains and privates in this last war that never had a mus- cle quiver in front of a cannon. Yet these men, after com- ing home from the war, would quake and wince and whine in the presence of public opinion. Afraid of that! Afraid of that! And I will tell you another thing : a fellow needs courage. There are a great many things in this world that stand look- ing a fellow in the face and shake their fist at him, and if he ain't got the grit he will run, no doubt about it. And I say to-night, every man that walks out before this world and would make it purer and better, that man shall, like his Lord, have his Getbsemane, and his Pilate's bar, and his Judas Iscariot, and his Simon Peter, and his cross. I tell you another thing. I would ratherface every cannon in America to-night as far as I am personally concerned, than face the opinion of the elite society of St. Louis. The hollow, miserable, heartless, godless old wretch that society is! Why, you can get on the street cars of this town, so I have been told, that are filled with theater-going, dancing, godless members of the Church, and Sam Jones is their text from the time you step on until you step off. Some say he is a brute. Some say he is as ignorant as a Southern plantation darkey. Some say he is a vicious man. Some say one thing, and some another thing ; and they shell the woods for a fellow. It is like the barking of a "fise" Partakers of the Divine Nature. 149 dog after a fast train — you can hear the little fellow bark, but you cannot see him. Right is right, and stand to it, and when the last storm of passion has swept over, God is with you. That is more than can be against you, and that is all that you need. You at- tack the ball-rooms in this town, and every dancing, worldly member of the church, and sinner, too, turns his guns right loose upon you. PERSONAL TO SAM JONES. And I will tell you ^mother thing. I want to say this to encourage you — good Christian brethren that need just a lit- tle more backbone : when they tell you Jones is low-bred, donH you believe them, for it is a lie ! When they tell you that Jones is ignorant, you tell them that won't do; that Jones will go into a class with any of them to-morrow, and let a professor examine on any sub- ject. What do you say to that? And when they tell you that Jones came from bad stock, you tell them that a purer, nobler woman God never made than my mother, and that a better, purer man God never let live than my precious father. lam from as good stock as God ever made. I want to tell you right now that I never was in society. I reckon that one reason for this is that I have been poor all my life, and they would have objected to me on that account. They would never have let me in, anyhow. They would have known that I would have told on them, and they don't want any tales told out of school. I have found that out. But I did not mean to say anything about society now. We shall take that up later. We will shake it, til] it is ready to be turned laose when we get through with it. There are things in your city day after day, and night af- ter night, that are enough to make a thousand mothers and fathers in this town call a halt, and say: *'You had better stop right here. This thing has gone far enough." I tell you, mothers and fathers, if jou will open your eyes and look around you a little, you will call, "Halt! halt! halt! I will s-hoot you down if you take another step." And when a man begins to talk about these things I know how little Miss Finnioky and old brother Finnicky and the whole dev- il's crowd will sit upon him. I have been around before. 150 Fartakers of the Divine Nature. PREACHING LIKE HIS MASTER. Courage! courage! Jesus Christ, the great exemplar in Christianity^ he j)reachcd his own gosj)el, and when he did, do you recollect that on one occasion a vast multitude turn- ed their backs on him and walked off in disgust; and Jesus turned to his disciples and said l ''Will ye also go away?^' And Simon Peter said: ''Lord, to whom shall we go? For thou hast the words of eternal life." I do not believe I ever preached the gospel as plainly as my Master preach (?d it; for I have never had a congregation to "rush out^' on me, and if ever I preach to a St. Louis congregation and see the people jump up and run out of the house, I will jump up too, and holler, '' Glory to God ! I am preaching like my Mas- ter now." But that would not be any joke on me. Every- where I have ever worked, God bless you, they would say you people in St. Louis were so mean you would not hear Sam Jones. They would brag on mo and cuss you. That is about the way the thing would go. Courage that dares to be right and dares to be true. If a thing is wrong, fight it ! fight it ! If it is right, stand up for it, if every man on earth is against you. Stand and fight, and fight, and fight, and when you go down and think 3^ou are alone, 1 tell you that when the din and smoke of the bat- tle have blown away and you open your eyes you will find God and the angels and good men standing around you. Courage, brother ! ISTow what does this mean ? One time Peter's courage failed him ; and of all the times in the world it was the time that Peter's courage ought to have held good. Yonder his Lord, defenceless and alone, given over to his enemies, stood before that cruel crowd, and they spat upon him, and buffeted him, and plaited a crown of thorns, and pressed it on his temple until the blood ran down his cheeks. And Peter stood there looking at it, no doubt, un- til his very blood boiled. And there was the Son of God and the Son of Man without a friend in the world he came to redeem. There Peter stood out in the distance, and when the fatal moment came the people approached him and said: "You are one of his disciples;" and Peter answered: "^N'o, I am not one of his disciples." And then again they ap- proached him and said : "You are one of his disciples." He said : "]S"o, I am not one of his disciples." And, again, a lit- Partakers of the Divine J^ature, 151 tie girl approached him and said: ^'You are one of his dis- ciples;" and Peter cursed and swore with an oath, and said : "I do not know him." The Fallen Christian Knight Brother, I do not object to the way G-od's word is written, but I have wished a thousand times that when my Master stood there, without a friend in the world, and they ap- proached Peter, I have wished that Peter had rushed up by the Son of God and said, ''I am one of his disciples and J will PIE by his side." If he had don© that I believe that God 162 Partakers of the Divine Nature. would have rushed every angel in heaven down to Peter's side and not have suffered a hair of his head to be touched. And we have forsaken our Master when he did not have a friend in the world ! Courage ! courage ! I tell you this sickly sentimentalism that we have that God's people are a peaceful, quiet and get- out-thc-deviTs-way sort of people, is a mistake. Down in my State I have been preaching prohibition, and in Georgia 1 have gone into those counties where prohibition was being fought the hardest, and said : " Brethren of the Church, take a stand and hold it. Do not let a barkeeper that has not got more than three gallons of whisky, and that bought on credit, come out on the square on election day with an old, rusty pistol in his hand that hasn't been loaded since the war, and curse two or three times and talk loud and run every member of the Church out of town. God have mercy on you pusillanimous wretches;" said I. "Hold your ground, and tell them that if they can die for their infernal traffic you can die for those precious children." And I said, "Go on, and God's approval will rest with you." THE POWER OF COURAGE. There was a day when one of God's armies was battling with the enemies of God. Joshua, the commander, was fight- ing with all the ransomed powers at his back, and the enemy was being beaten down in front of the ranks of God's hosts. But Joshua looked up and saw that the sun was going down, and he looked up and said : " Oh God, if you will give me two or three hours more of sunshine, I'll put this army to flight, and will win a victory that shall make thine armies famous forever." And God turned and told the sun, "Stand still ! and " don't you move an inch until Joshua routes this army root and branch and sweeps it almost from the face of the earth." And I tell you God will make the sun stand still in the heavens and the moon not move in the Valley of Ajalon, if God's people ever have the courage to stand up, and dare to be right and dare to be true. Well, what if you do get killed in the fight? It is just a nigh cut to heaven if you are all right. Don't jom see? Get- ting scared and running from heaven ! What do you think of that? Well, I never made much of a practice of being Partakers of the Divine Nature, 153 afraid of folks before I had religion, and thank God I am not now afraid of the universe, if I am in the right. Some- times I am afraid I ain^t exactly right; but if God says *'Go it," I know I am not afraid. Courage that dares to do right. Add to your faith the courage of your convictions. Sol have told them all over the country — these cotton-string back-bone fellows in the Church of God, with a little old slack-twisted cotton string run up the back, and two or three ribs knit to it on one side, who call themselves Christians — you know. God bless you, I want to be about 95 per cent, backbone. That makes good proportion for a man that proposes to do anything. Afraid ! afraid ! afraid ! Afraid of nothing but the wrong. I will do the right and trust in God. I will stand up for the right and do the right. And to courage add knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience. CONCLUDING WORDS. I wish I had time to run over all these words, but my hour is out, and I will just close with this last thought: And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. Now, as the first rock, we lay down faith in God. The next rock is courage that dares to execute what we know is right. The next rock is knowledge. You want to know how to do it. The next is temperance; you want a regulating force. And the next is patience toward God and all mankind. The next is godliness. The next brotherly kindness. And then charity, the keystone we drop into the arch. And the build- ing is finished, and God stoops down and puts one hand un- der it, and the other on the top, and transplants that man- sion to the beautiful streets of the city of God. And there is my ''house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.'' God help us to build on that platform, and build upon that line, and by-and-by we shall be transplanted to our eternal home. The fact is, that when you begin right and go on right your house is not really moved. God just runs the streets of the new Jerusalem right along in front of where you build, and your house is forever on the streets of the city of God, and it is there to stay forever and ever, God bless you all I 154 Partakers of the Divine Nature. And now I want every man in this house — earnest brother hear me — every man that would build on this pattern as a Christian man, whether you are in the church or not, will you conscientiously stand up with me and say: ^'Sir, I tell you in response to the truth you have preached, I want to build on that pattern, and, God helping me, I will do it." Now, every person here that feels that way, stand up. Let \is see how many men would build upon that platform. [All in the hall rose.] ^Ef^MON VIII. Y/iKINQ THE 'J^ORT. fHis service, brethren, is rather an unusual service in the city — Saturday night service — and we wind up the business of this week. And we'll wind up life after awhile. What will we be then ? Oh, to be a grand, a pure, a noble man, is the assurance, and the only assurance, that we'll be happy and pure and noble forever. I am very anxious in- deed to see us not only right ourselves, but I am so anxious to see the sinners of this town saved. "When all the church members get right — if such a consummation could be brought about — then we have only prepared ourselves to do the work God wants us to do. I will tell you how I feel about it. I have been feeling a good deal since I have been here. I have pulled, and pulled, and pulled at difPerent times in different places in my life ; and here I have pulled and pulled. Sometimes it looked like all the world was a load and I was pulling. • And, brethren, I have reached the point now where you ought to pull some and you ought to push some. I will tell you what is true: if God Almighty had blessed, me with the money that some of 3'ou have — and you may not have a great deal — if God Almighty had blessed me with such a home as some of you have, and with so many blessings as he has blessed you, I'd put in the nextweek for him as no Christian in this town ever put in a week for God. TOO FOND or NICKELS. We'll never do anything with this town, with this city, when the Christian world looks like you can just take nick- els and scatter them along, one every ten feet, and tote them right into hell with them. We'll never do anything with this world — never! Three thousand people out at night, five hundred out in daytime. What's the difference ? No 156 156 Taking the Fort. nickels at night to be gathered up around, as they are in the daytime. '^ I believe I'll gather nickels and let souls go to hell" — that's about the schedule they run. I will tell you another thing : you need not say I am a fool — and all that sort of thing. I've got a wife and I've got children to support, just like you have, and I love my wife and children just as jou do ; but I tell you one thing: here is one man that is going to do his duty every day to God and the right, and if me and my wife and children starve to death, we'll make out like we died with typhoid fever; we'll not say one word about it in any way, shape or form. But I want to see one man starve that is doing his duty. And we'll never take this town for Christ, and you down town at your business every hour of the day, and when night comes, pin on the pinions of an old owl, and flap out and come to meeting. We won't do it ! YES, THEY WOULD BE. Grod Almighty sent this very work along here in St. Louis to prepare some of you members of the church for your cof- fins, and to prepare many a sinner in this town for eternity. And if an angel were to alight on this stand this moment and say, ^' Ten Methodists in this town will be in their cof- fins next Saturday night," ah, rae I — without mentioning any names — I'll tell you that every soul in this house to-night would be here every time this bell rang. You are going to die next Saturday night. I don't know whether it is me or somebody else, but there's ten of us, and may be fifty of you, will be in your cofiins next Saturday night. We have no time to throw away in this work. One-third of my time is gone now. I have no time or disposition to come here and camp with you all through the winter — three or four or six months. I expect to be away from here, and before the first day of February I expect to see thousands of souls converted in another city. I expect to ; verily I do. I have no time to fool away with you all. If you want me and say so, I am your man, under G-od ; but if you don't, I want you to say so. I will take the first train that leaves this town on Monday morning. You ain't in earnest. You don't mean anything. I can Taking the Fort. 157 buy out joviY interest in this meeting for a quarter, and I ex- pect a great many of you havenH made a quarter each day while we were here serving and praying and working the best way we could. A DEARTH OF GOOD WOMEN. I believe it's the first meeting I ever run in my life when there were more men out at any service than women ; and I tell you when it gets so good women in a city are scarce, things are getting mighty bad, they are, sure's you're born. There ain't any doubt about that. Tve seen a few towns where good men were scarce, but I believe you've got less earnest Christian women in this town than any town I have ever known of its size. What do you think about that? Now, there is no use in quibbling over the matter at all, brethren. If St. Joseph can rush up under a tent four times a day, and turn everything loose — and God has blessed that town as I scarcely know God has ever blessed a town in the United States of America of its size, almost literally redeem- ed St. Joseph, Mo. — you can. How came that ? The people got interested and took stock ; don't you see ! That was all. Now, how may we obtain just such a blessing? By getting interested and taking stock. ST. LOUIS AS A TOMB FOR EVANGELISTS. I will tell you how I feel about it. I can afford to fail. Christ could afford to fail in some places, for in some places he didn't do many wonderful works. What paper is it — the Catholic paper in your city — that that article was in to-day that you spoke of about burjnng Sam Jones? Bro. Small. Yes, the Western Watchman. Bro. Jones. The Western Watchman ssijs : "Jones has come here to be buried." It says: "We buried Moody here, and he has never done anything since ; and we buried Harrison here, and he has never done anything since." I believe that is about the sense of the article. " And Jones has come to St. Louis to be buried." Yes, I will be the livest man that was ever buried in this community. You'll never bury Jones — I'll say that to you. My faith in God, and faith in the right, and faith in the cross of Christ, will be as strong when I leave this city if not asingle soul is blessed, asitshall beifonehun- dred thousand are blessed. My faith in God Almighty don't 158 Taking the Fort. depend upon what the Christian people in St. Louis will or willnotdo. I have no notion of going into my grave till I die, and then I will go in as gracefully and as dignified as a man ever didj but I will never be graceful or dignified until I do die. That's just the way I feel about it. Well, now, I don't like to call up the memories ofthe war, not at all; and if there is any section in all America that the war question brings up sad memories in, it is here and in Missouri. I would not lift the mantle and veil of charity from a single scar that was left by the war. Not that. A BATTLE STORY. But let me tell you a little war incident. I do not care which side you were on. You admire a brave man, to which- ever side he belonged. I do. I love a brave man to-day, whether he wore the blue or the gray. I like a brave man, for me or against me. I despise a coward in blue or gray. When Johnston turned over his army to Hood in Atlanta — Joe Johnston that carried his army on, back and back, re- treating before Sherman until he reached Atlanta — there Johnston turned over his army to Hood. Hood was a gallant man and a brave man. He had already lost one of his legs in battle, and when he took charge of Johnston's army became round back into Tennessee with it, and, you recollect, fought the bloody battle of Franklin, perhaps one of the most bloody battles ofthe war. When that battle was waging hot and thick. Gen. Hood's tent was on a prominence, and from that prominence Gen. Hood, in walking up and down in front of his tent, could seethe battle. He could see lines and he could hear the booming ofthe cannon and the rattle ofthe musketry. And as he walked up and down in front ofthe tent, halting with his artificial leg, qyqtj time ho turned his eyes downward towards the lines he saw that there was a fort out in a locust grove that was literally hewing down his ranks by the hundred. E-very time he walked up and down in front of his tent, limping as he walk- ed and every time he turned his face towards the lines he saw that that fort in the locust grove was literally hewing down his ranks. After he had watched the fight awhile he called his Adjutant General to him. That officer rode up on his bloody horse, and Gen. Hood said : *' Adjutant, go and pro- Taking the Fort. 159 sent my compliments to Gen. Cheatham, and tell him that I ask at his hands that fort in the locust grove." The Adju- tant General loped off with all the speed of his horse. In a few minutes he returned and said : Gen. Hood, Gen. Cheat- ham is missing. They think he has been killed. He has not been seen in two hours." Gen. Hood drooped his head, and marched up and down in front of his tent, and every time he turned his face to the lines, that fort in the locust grove was literally hewing down his ranks to the ground. And direct- ly he called his Adjutant General again, and he said : '' Ad- jutant General, go and present my compliments to Gen. Claib- orne, and tell bim I ask at his hands the fort in the locust grove." The Adjutant General loped off down the lines and in a few moments came back and said : " Gen. Hood, Gen. Claiborne is dead on the battle-field." CALLING ON COCKRELL. Gen. Hood dropped his head, and the tears ran down his cheeks as he marched up and down in front of his tent. He looked through the tears as they glistened in his eyes and saw that the fort in the locust grove was still hewing his ranks to the ground. And directly he called his Adjutant General again, and he said : ^'Adjutant General, go and pre- sent my love " — he is softening down now, no longer compli- ments— "Adjutant General, go and present my love to Gen. Cockrell and tell him I ask at his hands that fort in the lo- cust grove." The Adjutant General loped off down the line, and rode up to Gen. Cockrell — I believe he is, perhaps, from your city or State — one of the youngest Generals in the Southern army. The Adjutant General rode up to him and said: "Gen. Cockrell, Gen. Hood sends you his love, and says he asks at your hands that fort in the locust grove." Gen. Cockrell straightened himself up in his saddle, and said: "1st Missouri Brigade, attention ! " And he dropped his fingers on that fort. They charged upon the fort with intrepid courage and captured it, and Gen. Cockrell called his Adjutant General and said: "Adjutant General, go and present my love to Gen. Hood, and also tell him that I pre- sent him the fort in the locust grove." And I want to tell you Christian people here to-night, whether that incident be true or not, it illustrates what I de- 160 Taking the Fort. sire to say to you. I am here as the adjutant general of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I say to you Christian people, as 1 point over this wicked city, that the Lord Jesus Christ pre- sents his love to you Christian people, and he v\rants at your hands every fort of sin in this community, and in less than thirty days I hope you all with one accord will say, *'Lord Jesus, we present our love to you, and we also present the city redeemed by thy grace." THE EXHORTATION. I want every Christian man that is ready to march out into line, not to fight his fellow-man, but to bring his neighbor and friends to Grod and do what he can for the race. This coming week I will do my best, and I want every Christian in this house, of every denomination, who feels like saying: ''God is my helper; I will go into the fight, and pray and work and do my best;'' I want every such an one to stand up; and I hope you will all stand up immediately and say: "That is my honest conviction. I want to go into the fight. I want to do my best." [All in the church rose to their feet.] Well, thank God for this Saturday night meeting. God bless this service to the good of every Christian here. Now, we say to you all, we want the battle to begin now; we want the battle to be pushed on now, and to-morrow morning, at 10:30 o'clock, I am to preach here; at 3 o'clock sharp to men only, in the Music Hall, and Lord God help to take "that fort in the locust grove" to-morrow afternoon. If you good women will pray as you ought, you will hear of such a meeting as St. Louis never had before. God give us power, and I want to tell you that nothing but the power of God can ever reach this city. IS'othing but the power of God. God Almighty docs not ask any more odds in St. Louis, if you take hold right, than he does in the smallest town in the State. He is an omnipotent God, and can do all he undertakes. Now we are going to sing "Hold the Fort, for I am Coming." I want everybody to join in that song, and afterwards we will pronounce the benediction. ^EI^MON IX. JI!ojm3CI£:nc£: — I^ecoi^d — <^od. [To Men Only.l What I have written, I have written. — John 19 ; 22. MOW, brethren, let us all be prayerful. Let every man that believes God hears and ansvrers prayer lift his heart continually in prayer to Grod, while I try to teach in the name of my Master. I want to read to you three or four verses in different parts of this book — the Bible. Let us give especial attention to them, because they have much to do with the discussion that follows. Eejoice, O 3' oung man, in thy j^outh ; let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes; but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgment. — ECCLESIASTES 11 ; 9. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, — ECCLESIASTES 12 ; 13. And then we read again : So that every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. And then again we read : And the books were opened, and then another book. And now we come to the text: What I have written, I have written. AN IMPERISHABLE RECORD. There are two ^' somethings" and one " some one" that I had to do with yesterday. I have to do with them to-day. I shall have to do with them forever. ''Conscience" and "record" are the two somethings ,and God is the some one. Conscience — Record — God. Conscience and record are like two index fingers pointing right up into the face of God, and God is the great index finger pointing to the final judg- ment. Conscience — that something running over my life proving the right, disproving the wrong. Conscience when 161 162 Conscience — Record — God, outraged is that something that will not let me sleep, no matter how soft my pillow. Conscience — that something that will not let me eat, no matter how richly laden the table may be. Conscience — that something in me that makes me drop my head in guilt and shame before the world. Con- science— where is the man in this audience who never felt the pangs and pains of outraged conscience. The poet was right when he said : What conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do, This, teach me more than hell to shun, That, more than heaven pursue. And I am right in saying upon this occasion that the most fearful sin a man ever committed in this life is to sin directly and to sin persistently against his own conscience. Do you do that thing which consciencesays thououghtest notto do? Do you not do that thing which conscience says thou ought- est to do ? Do you persist in the evil when conscience cries, "Stop! hold! murder! murder! don't do it?'' Conscience — ah, me, brother! some one has said that an outraged conscience is the worm that shall never die amid the fires that shall never be quenched. Conscience! Conscience! Record! Record! My record is as much a part of me as my immortal being is a part of me. "Yes,'' but you say, "the surgeon's knife can soon separate that hand from me." ]^o, sir. No, sir! Some months ago I sat by the side of a man who had an empty sleeve dangling at his side. All at once he turned to me and said: "These fingers have been hurting me all day." Said I: "What fin- gers?" He replied : "The fingers of my right hand." Said I: "My friend, there is no right hand there." He returned: "They tell me this arm is buried on the battle fields of Vir- ginia, but, sir, that hand is as truly there to-day as it ever was, and the pains and the twinges and the pangs of this hour are almost intolerable to me in those fingers." SUBJECT AND RECORD INSEPARABLE. My record is a part of me. It belongs to me. It is in- separable from me. My record as a man ; your record as a man. A man without a record would be an anomaly. A man without a record would be a moral monstrosity in the universe of God. What I have said, what I have done, Conscience — Record — God, 163 where I have been, are but so many subjects discussed upon this record of the life of man. Eecord ! Eecord ! And then, with conscience and record pointing up into the face of the great God, and the great God pointing to a judgment seat — a judgment seat! I tell you, my friends, if there is not to be any final judg- ment when man shall be brought to a final bar to give an ac- count of all the deeds done in the body, if there is not to be any judgment hereafter, there are incidents and feelings and aspirations and fears and dreads about my being that can- not be explained in time or eternity. Every bad deed of my life, every wayward act of my life, every wicked word of my life, have been so many fingers pointing me ever and anon to the great day that I shall give an account to God, for the way I have lived, for what I have done, for what I have said. Judgment is a forensic term, and means simply the equit- able adjustment of an issue; but in an ecclesiastical sense it means the final sermon in heaven's chancery, when God shall summon men and angels alike around bis great w^hite throne and there sift the issue between himself and all cre- ated intellgience ; and when God once says to you, "Ye cursed,'^ there never shall be an after jurisdiction. The record of my guilt, as the glory of my commendation, will blaze forever in full view of my eyes as my vindication in heaven or my condemnation in hell is ordered. ESCAPING JUDGMENT. Judgment! Let us strip this subject of all its mystery. When a man has violated the laws of Missouri there are but three ways by which he can hope to escape. One is by force of law, another by force of testimony, another by par- don, where the Governor extends his clemency and pardons the criminal. Now I grant you that justice may be defeated in many ways. A criminal may violate the law of Missouri and fly from justice, and keep out of the way of Sheriff's and officers. He may bribe the Grand Jury so that they will not find a true bill against him. He may bribe the jury that tries him, or the Judge that tries him ; but when a man is once arraigned before the criminal courts of this country there are but three ways by which ho can escape justice. 11 164 Conscience — Record — God. One way is by force of law. Now, when a criminal is brought into the Court House, and one witness after anoth- er is introduced, and they prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt, and when the Judge picks up the Code of Missouri and saj's: ^'This man is guilty, but the law of Missouri does not make the offense a crime," the man is acquitted by force of law. There is no law that says his conduct is criminal, therefore he is acquitted. ' But if the thing charged in the indictment is a crime, then he may be acquitted by force of testimony. When the jury after hearing the evidence, say: '^ There is not suffic- ient evidence to convict, and we find the prisoner not guilty,'' then the prisoner is acquitted by force of testimony. But if he his condemned by law, and he is condemned by testimony, then there is but one hope, and that is the pardon of the G-overnor. ESCAPING DIVINE JUSTICE. I^ow, up yonder before that tribunal there can be but three ways by which men can hope to escape. You cannot dodge God's ministerial officers and keep out of their way. You will come to the judgment! to the judgment! to the judg- ment! When we leave this room this afternoon some will go this way, some that way, but every road you take converges right at the judgment seat of Christ, and if we never see each other's faces again we shall meet at the throne of G-od at last. I cannot dodge God's ministerial officers. As the Bi- ble would quote it: Oh, whither sliall I go from thy presence? And whither shall I flee from thy spirit ? If I take the wings of the morning and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, the Lord God is there. If I make my bed in hell the Lord God is there. No, sir! God Almighty will burn this world up and bring us to the judgment seat of Christ. You cannot dodge the ministerial officers already on your track. One of God's sheriffs put his hand on your head one day, and since that it has begun to frost. God's sheriff touched your eye one day, and you have been wearing spectacles ever since. God's sheriff touched your leg, and you are now walking with a cane along the streets. Wherever you meet men the touch of God's sheriff is upon them ; and that means simply, I have claimed you for my own I I will take you by-and-by. Conscience — Record — God. 165 And then, again. You cannot bribe God's grand jury. They have already sat upon your case, and the verdict reads: The soul that sinneth it shall die, and he that believeth not shall be con- demned. AN INCORRUPTIBLE JUDGE. I know in this country sometimes that a criminal occa- sionally rushes up and defies the Court and its authorities ; but can you defy the court of God that sits upon the throne ? Shall I rush ujj in the presence of the great God, who in the beginning held a great flaming mass on the anvil of eternal purpose, and pounded it with his own powerful arm, and when every spark that flew from it made a world — shall I rush up into the presence of such a God as that and defy him? ]^o, sir ! Shall I bribe the Judge of all the earth ? iNo, sir ! But when I shall be individualized at thatfinal moment, and shall walk out into the presence of that great God, I have but three ways in which I can hope to escape. One is by force of law. ISTow, hear me ! I shake that little bundleof paper (the Bible) in your face, and if that little bundle of paper is true, it outweighs all this universe. If this book is true, I have in my hand a bundle of paper that does not weigh ten ounces that outweighs all the stars of the universe. If this little book is true — and we have to die whether it is true or not — you and I must meet God and give an account of what we have done in the body. The law of God. I want to say at this point that God will spring no new law upon you up yonder. Men say: ^'I do not like to read that Bible, it condemns me.'' If this law condemns you down herein Missouri to-day, it will condemn you up yonder at the judgment to-morrow. You will be the same man. This will be the same book. VIOLATING THE SPIRIT OF LAW. ^'But," says that man, ''I have never violated many laws in that book." Well, listen: He that brcaketh the least commandment is guilty of all. How do you understand that? Yonder is a boat chained to a wharf on your levee. That chain has one hundred links, but if I want to cut that boat loose, how many links must I cut? Fifty of the biggest links? Ten of the middle-sized 166 Conscience — Rec'ord — God. ones? No. I need only cut the smallest link, and that boat is as effectually loosened as if I had cut them all. And he that breaks the least commandment is as guilty as if he had broken them all. Suppose I want to go to Kansas City. There is one right road to that place, and a thousand lead- ing in other directions. When I take oneof the wrong roads I am as effectually out of the way as if I had taken every wrong road in the universe. And, brother, hear me: God looks not upon sin with the least allowance, and can any man stand up before the final bar and say: "I have never violated a precept of that book/' Until you can do that you can never hope to escape by the force of law. The law condemns. The apostle tells us that No flesh shall be justified by the works of the law. The law is but a rule of action that prescribes what is right and prohibits what is wrong. And, brother, hear me ! If, in your past life, you have ever violated a precept in this book, you cannot hope to escape up yonder by force of law on the final judgment day. " I am guilty before God. I have vio- lated precept after precept. I have not only done it repeat- edly, but I have done it knowingly and willfully. I cannot hope to be acquitted by force of law." THE FORCE OE TESTIMONY. Then I say to you, how about the force of testimony ? Now we have come directly to the text: What I have written, I have written. I just quoted before that : So, then, every one of us shall give an account of himself to God. Know thou that for all these things thou shalt be brought unto judgment whether these things can be good or bad. Now we stand there before his final throne. What I have written, I have written. I declare to you this evening that it is my belief, and it is founded on Scripture, that every man and every boy of us is now writing testimony by which we shall stand or fall at the last judgment day. ^'Greenleaf on Evidence'' tells us that the best evidence a case is susceptible of must be pro- duced. He tells us again that written testimony is bet- ter than oral testimony. He tells us again that the evidence Conscience — Becord — God, 167 produced must correspond with the allegation and be con- fined to the point at issue. JSTow, brother, here is the best testimony (the Bible), and every word of it in God's own handwriting. Written testimony is better than oral testi- mony. Lumpkin, one of the grandest jurists that ever sat upon the Supreme bench cf Georgia, said: '^ I would rather trust the smallest slip of oaper than the best memory man Avas ever gifted with.'' A'^vq is written testimony : Start an engine from E'ew York to oan Francisco, and there is attach- ed to its side a little piece of mechanism Avhich indicates the number of miles it has traveled, the stoppages it has made, and how long it stopped at each station ; and if you want to know the record of the journey you need not ask the engi- neer a word. The little piece of mechanism on the side of the engine tells you its record. You go to the City of ]^ew York and you see the Fifth Avenue Hotel with its seven hun- dred rooms. You see that it is lighted up day after day and night after night, some rooms burning a hundred jets, some ten, some one. You step to the proprietor and say, "How can you keep an account of this gas? How do you know how much you burn ? " and he says, ''Come with me.'' You walk with him down underneath a double stairway. He strikes a match and lights a candle and holds it to the dial plate of the gas-meter. He says, ''You see that finger tremb- ling on the face of the dial ? That indicates to the one-hun- dredth part of an inch how much gas has passed through this meter during the past three months. There is the rec- ord for 3^ou!" And every man and every boy this evening must stand up and face this fact. What I have written, I have written up to this hour. A RECORD NOT FOR WIFE's PERUSAL. Ah, me! The record of some men, the record of some boys, who hear my voice this moment. If your wife could read your record just as you have written it down, she would spurn you from her presence and drive you ever from her home. There are boys listening to my voice whose mothers would drive them from their presence if they could read the last night's record of those boys. Oh, the record! Boj^s, every oath, every wicked deed, every midnight carousal, every de- bauched act of your life is written in legible, indelible letters, V 168 Conscience — Record — God. and shall sparkle forever on the tablets of your heart. Oh me ! Men sometimes say it makes no difference. Broth- ther, it makes no difference whether you approached this hall in this or that spirit ; but it makes an eternal difference whether you did right or wrong on your way here. Record ! Record ! We sometimes say, ^'As true as the Bi- ble;" but every record, every line on the tablet of your heart is just as true as the Bible is true. It is a secret record. God would not suffer an angel of heaven to touch that rec- ord. Grod would not suffer the worst enemy in the world to touch that record of yours. God would not suffer your prec- ious mother to put her finger on that record. It is a secret record of the soul by which it shall stand or fall at the judg- ment seat of Christ. True ! true ! Holy Spirit, shine on our record this evening ! Let us read it now in thirty seconds — a record of accumulated guilt that shall drive us to some power to save, some power to relieve. Record ! Record ! What is your record as a Presbyterian? On one side of your record I see recorded vows of eternal constancy to God. On that page I see, ^'I swear eternal al- legiance to God and the right." Brother, what is your record from that day to this? Brother Methodists, with vows upon you that would almost crush an angel, how have you lived since you knowingly and intentionally made these vows to God ? Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, what is your record since the day God called you unto his work, and you promised to be faithful to God and to man ? Oh, Holy Spir- it, shine on these records here this evening. Let us see what we must meet at the final bar of God. I want to say to you that I would frequently preach very differently, but for record-making. I want to say to this vast assemblage of fathers, husbands and sons here this evening, that while I preach the gospel to others, I never forget for a moment that I have a soul in my own body that will be saved or lost. God pity us here this evening, and turn our eyes inward, to see these records as God would have us see them. What is your record, husband? AVhat is your record, father ? Whatisyour record, son ? There are hundreds of men here this evening, and the only reason you can hold up your heads, the only Conscience — Record — God, 169 reason you can move among your fellows, is the conscious- ness that nobody on earth can read your record. It is hid- den out of the sight of man. There are men listening to me now who, if I could tear a page of the record from their heart and stick it there on that wall in legible letters, would shrink from this congregation, rush out of this hall and out of this town, and never be seen within its radius again.* Oh, brother, it is hidden now, but God's word for it, every wick- ed act, every secret sin shall be proclaimed from the house tops. Oh, fearful thought! Eecord ! It was this that made the poet say : It is not all of life to live, Nor all of death to die. A wipe's trick on her husband. I know that you may drown out this record in a night's spree, but it comes back with all its power to condemn in the morning. I know that in the giddy round of pleasure you may drown its voice for the hour; but ever and anon it shakes, it shakes its horny hand in your face, and says : ^'Look ! Eead the record of yesterday, of last week, of last year." What I have written, I have written. What have you written upon the record of your life ? What upon yours? And upon yours? I stand here to con- demn no man. I ask you, my brother, in all love and kind- ness, what is the record you have made to this hour ? Some months ago a lady slipped a pedometer into her husband's pocket as he went out in the evening. He was a business man in the city, but every night, as he left the supper table, he said : *'I have to go down to the store." On one occa- casion she put one of these indicators in his clothes, and when he came back she took it out and consulted it. The faithful little dial told her that her husband had walked sev- enteen miles that night. And she said to him : ^'Husband, where have you been to-night ?" He replied : ^' I have been posting my books." She said : ^' Husband, that won't do. Do you post your books as you walk ?" <^ No," he said, " I post my books sitting at my desk." She pulled the little indicator out and put it in his face, and said, '■'■ There is the record of your work ! Seventeen miles to-night. It is half 170 Conscience — Record — God. a mile to the store, and half a mile back. Explain yourself/' She made him explain, and it turned out he had walked six- teen miles around a billiard table playing pool. And I tell 3"0u, my congregation, to-night, that within your bosom there is a faithful record being kept every day, and when at last God. shall say, " Who art thou and what bast thou done?" the record has passed into the recording angel's hands, and he shall read line after line and page after page of guilt that is enough to damn the universe. A VARIANCE FROM THE RECORD. Oh, record, record! Every oath has been recorded. Every wicked act has been recorded. Every unfaithful act has been recorded. Oh, my brother, how about your re- cord? I have found out another thing: men talk one way with their tongue, and write another way upon the record of their heart. A man stands up there and says, "I do not believe inGrod." Then he writes down upon the tablet of his heart, *' I have just told a lie. I do. I do." A man out there says, " I do not see any use in revivals. I am as good as anybody in the Church." Then he takes up his pen and writes within, *' I have told one of the biggest lies I ever told. There is a big use in revivals. The world is going to destruction, and I am the meanest man in town." He writes one way and talks another. Brethren, I will know you by- and-by just as you are. Oh, record, record ! There are men who hear my voice this afternoon, who, if their record were to close with this hour, have sinned enough to damn the universe; and I beg you to never add another line to that accumulating record of guilt, which is enough to make the devil, when he looks at it, hide his black ftice under his wings ! God pity us this evening ! May the pen drop from our palsied hands ! May we never indite another line that may condemn us here or at the judgment bar of God. AN INEFFACEABLE RECORD. What I have written, I have written. And I want to tell you that once you put it down it is down forever. The autobiographies we write on paper can be altered and underlined, but the autobiography you have written on the tablet of your heart can never be altered or Conscience — Record — ^od, 171 erased. It goes down as it is. It abides with you forever. Record! record! record! At the age of twenty-four I was brought face to face with the fact that I had a record sufficient to damn the universe. Brother, let me turn to Spencer, let me read him through and through; and, having done so, I say to Mr. Spencer : " I have been charmed with your theory, but how about my conscience, my record, my Grod?'' Mr. Spencer says: ^'I do not treat on those sub- jects." I say : "Of all the subjects, those I am most in need of." Then I turn to Mr. Darwin, and after reading his evo- lution tjieories, I say: "But how about my conscience, my record, my God ?" He says : " I do not treat on those sub- jects." I go to Mr. Tynd/ill, and to all earthly philosophers and scientists just at the time I need help and enlightenment, but they turn their backs on me and walk off. Kow, with record enough to damn the universe, I stand with no phil- osopher to help me, and no scientist that can reach me. Brother, hear me ! All the tears of my precious mother could never have erased one single line of this record. All the prayers of my father would have been wasted on this record. All the prayers of the Church would avail noth- ing. All the combined chemicals of earth could not have erased one single word of it. Oh, what shall I do? And now, brother, I will tell you why I hang my highest hope of salvation on this blessed gospel. When every other source had failed me, I took this book in my hands and I sought the cross of Jesus Christ; and there a poor, guilty, wicked wretch, I fell down under the cross. And the precious Savior picked me up and pardoned all my sins. He blotted out this record of mine, and he took my arms and put them around the neck of God. And I love this religion and this Bible, because it proposes to do with conscience and with record and with God. And there is no other system in the moral universe that proposes to lead and direct a poor man in these dreadful extremities. GOING TO THE CROSS. Aye, with record enough to condemn all men, T went to the Cross : I saw one hanging on the tree In ngoriies of blood. He fixed his hinguid eyes on me, As near his cross I stood. 172 Conscience — Becord — God, Sure, never to my latest breath Can I forget that look ; He seemed to charge me with his death, Though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned the guilt And pluHged me in despair ; I saw my sins His blood had spilled And helped to nail him there. A second look He gave, which said: "I freely ail forgive, My blood is shed to ransom thee, I die that you may live." And now I understand that blessed old hymn: There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins. BROTHER JONES* HOPE. Bless God for that precious blood that saves a poor, lost, ruined sinner ! I want to say to you to-day that my hope of heaven rests on this point. Fourteen years ago a poor, wrecked, ruined sinner, his blood washed away my guilt, and now my record has been washed out in the precious blood of the Son of God. Now take heed to the judgment. Charge me with Sabbath-breaking, charge me with infidel- ity, charge me with everything; but there is the record, and the precious blood has washed out every page and every line, and I stand acquitted on the final judgment day by the force of testimony and the prerogative of pardon. Blessed be God ! Acquitted on the final judgment day. Brother, brother, the hope of the world is the cross of the Son of God. Let us rush up under that cross this evening, the lost, the wicked, and the wayward. Fourteen years ago I was the worst of the worst, and sometimes I think that God suffered me, in spite of my mother's prayers and my father's example, to go down to the gates of hell, that I might be sent back again to rescue the men closest to the gates of hell. God help you this evening ! I care not who you are, he will not only pardon your sins, but he will separate them as far as the East is from the West. He says : I will blot them out of the book of my remembrance. Oh, brethren, let us turn our eyes to the hope of the world. Conscience — Record — God, 173- This evening let us, on God's own terms of capitulation, run the white flag out of the citadel of our hearts, and God will tell the angels to spread their wings and fly down to earth, and convey peace and hope to every rebellious heart. I want ev- ery man that Would run up the white flag and surrender to God and the right, to try to live for God and make his way to heaven, to stand on his feet for a moment. [All rose to their feet, and Mr. Jones thanked God for that hopeful demonstration.] ^ERj^ON X. pRIgONf:^? OF j4oPE AJ^D pr^igo]NEi^3 OF pEgpyMR. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope ; even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto thee.— Zechariah 9 ; 12. JWiHE all-absorbing theme with God and angels and good F men is the salvation of the living. Not the salvation of men who lived fifty years ago, or a hundred years ago. They have had their opportunities and enjoyed their priv- ileges, and they have met their destiny. Not the salvation of men who shall live a hundred years hence; they have yet to be born, and yet to enjoy their privileges and opportu- nities. But the absorbing theme of God and angels and good men is the salvation of men and women who live and walk and talk upon the face of the earth to-night. And isn't it passing strange that this great question should so engage the heart and mind of God, and of angels and of good men, and yet, perhaps, you, and you, and you, should be the only creatures in all God's vast universe that seem to be totally uninterested in this great question ? And now, we purpose to-night, not to draw upon our imagination or try in the least to impose upon your credulity, but we stand squarely on the book, and we will talk about what we know. A COMMON KNOWLEDGE. Somehow or other I love frequently to talk over things with the friends that I know, and when we begin to talk about the "I knows" and the *'you knows" and the *' he knows" and the "she knows," then we begin to get very close to one another. There are some things that we all know in common. I know that I am twenty-four hours nearer the cemetery than when I assembled with you in this house last night. You know you have one day less to live 174 Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair. 175 than you had this morning when the sun arose upon this world. You know that these moments bear our life away, and are carrying us into the great beyond. You know that in your youthful days your heart was softer, your con- science was more tender, and your will was more easily af- fected by truth and by grace than it is to-night. You know that you are not such a husband as you ought to be. You know you do not set such an example to your children as' you ought to. You know your life and character to-night are not what they ought to be before God and man. I say that when we begin to talk about these things that we know, we are getting very close together, and there are some things that we know from the teachings of that book. And now we come squarely to the text: Turn ye to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. We stop at this point to say that there are three classes of prisoners with hope, and there are three classes of prisoners without hope. Now, let us find our latitude and longitude in spiritual things. Let us find where we are on this occa-. sion. It is the privilege of every man to know his bearings to-night, to know just where he is, and to know whither he is tending. FALLEN ANGELS WITHOUT HOPE. The first class of prisoners without hope that the book speaks of are the angels who kept not their first estate, but sinned against God and were driven away and put in chains of everlasting darkness to await the final judgment day. While you and I have had a chance of life, and while peace and pardon is for the fallen man, those angels who kept not their first estate are in that lone land of deep despair with- out a ray of heavenly light or a spark of hope forever and forever. As I look upon an immortal spirit whose chains confine it to hopeless and everlasting despair, my heart shudders as I look upon the picture. But I never saw an angel. I have never been brought into sympathy with an- gels by association. I know very little of them. Angels have not flesh and blood. They are not subjected to wrin- kles and gray hairs and old age and death, like you and I, and perhaps they are separated from our sympathy. But this book speaks of another class of prisoners with- 176 Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair. out hope. That is that man and that woman who have walk^ ed the streets of the city of St. Louis, enjoyed just such privileges as you and I enjoy, and then die without Grod and without hope in the world. There may be some gospel truth in that old couplet: While the lamp holds out to burn, The vilest sinner may return — but when fate snuffs the candle and it goes out in death, then all hope is gone forever. I ask you, mother, did you ever pray for your boy since he breathed his last breath? Wife, have you ever offered prayer for your husband since he bade you good-by in death? Sister, have you wrestled with God at the mercy-seat for the salvation of your brother since he passed out of the world ? !No, sir, the common con- victions of humanity are altogether on this proposition, that as the tree falleth so it shall lie forever, and that instead of there being anything in death to revere and to sanctify and to save, that death is the opening of the door, and the pass- ing out of the soul into eternity. WHERE PREACHING IS IN VAIN. I have preached the gospel in more than twenty States, perhaps, of this Union. I may proach the gospel in every State of this grand old Union. If God were to call me to China 1 would go to China and preach the gospel as willingly and as cheerfully as I bade wife and children good-by to come to your city. But there's one place I never have preached the gospel, and there's one place I never shall preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is out here in the cemetery. I shall never stand among the tombstones of earth and beg the bones of the cemetery to come to Christ. Xo, sir! Never! What you and I do with this question we must do between this and the gate of the cemetery. What you and I do upon this question we must do before the doctor lays his hand upon our pulse for the last time, and bids our weeping wife or loved ones to preparefor the worst — that death shall come in an hour. What you and I do upon this question must be done before that clock on the mantel-piece seems to click louder than ever before. What you and I do must be done before wife or loved ones shall bathe their handker- chiefs in their tears and weep over us as we pass out of time Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair. 177 into eternity. If that book teaches anything clearly, it teaches there is no knowledge or device or repentance in the grave, v^hither we are all tending, and I tell you, my brother, that whatever we may be in this life, or what pre- parations we may make and what character we form in this life, shall settle destiny for us when life shall bid us walk out of the body and go into the great beyond. And this man and this woman, who have lived and died in our midst, enjoyed the same privileges, enjoyed the same opportun- ities that you and I enjoy, yet, in spite of all overtures of grace and the wagon-loads of sermons that have been wasted upon them, in spite of all, have come to death's hour with- out preparation, and passed into eternity to be judged by the God of all the earth. Oh, Deatli rides on every passing breeze, And lurks in every flower; Each season hath its own disease, Its peril every hour. " NO TIME TO SELL." And perhaps one thousand of this congregation at this moment, if you were to die in your pew before I am through preaching, would be prisoners without hope forever. Your heart in your bosom is a muffled drum beating your funeral march to the tomb. And every step you and I take from this hour to our dying couch shall be towards the cemetery, and yet we rush right upon the gates of the cemetery unpre- pared for death and unp^^epared for eternity. I see men whiling away and throwing away hours of their life. Many and many in this city will be like the millionaire of London who gave his life to making money, and when stricken suddenly with meningitis his doctor hurried to him and said to him, ''You have meningitis and you'll bo dead in two hours." And the wealthy, worldly man looked him in the face and said: '' Doctor, if you'll keep me alive till to- morrow morning at eight o'clock, I'll give you £100,000. I'll give it to you checrfull3^" The doctor looked at him and said: "I have prescriptions to give and I have re- medies for disease, but, m}^ friend, I have no time to sell. Time belongs to G-od." Oh, poor wayward, worldly man, that whiled away all the precious hours of life, and now, forsooth, when death meets him, tells his physician, ''I will 178 Prisohers of Hope and Frisoners of Despair, give you half a million dollars if you will keep me alive foi sixteen hours/' Oh, poor humanity, throwing away hours and privileges that are worth all the world! PERSONAL CONGRATULATIONS. A prisoner without hope ! Oh, sir, if there is a fact in my history for which I am shouting, thankful, and hope to praise God for in heaven forever, it is the fact that God did not let me die in my sins. It is the fact that in and through the abounding mercy and grace of God I was brought to see myself and repent of my sins and make peace with God before I went hence and was no more among men. A prisoner without hope ! Oh, me! Have you ever shaken hands with a man who this moment is a prisoner without hope forever? I stood under the tent at St. Joseph and said on one occasion, " I am preaching now the funeral sermon of some soul in this con- gregation. I feel in my blood and bones that some man is rejecting his last chance to make peace w^th God.'' And in less than ten days from that hour a young man who sat in that congregation and heard the words of my lips, stagger- ed and fell in a drunken spree, and dropped dead on the streets of St. Joe ! Oh God ! help that man who is to pass out of time first! God help him to be prepared! And just as certain as we are gathered in this hall to-night God has thrown this revival meeting in your pathway, and has thrown all this between you and that estate where you will be a prisoner without hope forever! A SAD STORY. I have often thought of the experience and incident of a young man, vigorous and healthy and strong, raised by pious parents, who on his dying couch sent for his pastor. The pastor was a personal friend of his, and when he walked into the room and saw his sunken condition, the poor boy looked up in the preacher's face and said : '' I have sent for you, but not to pray for me. I have given all my life to sin and worldliness, and I hnve not courage now to turn over the poor dying man to God ; and," said he, *' I have not sent for you to pray, but 7 \ave sent for you that I might give Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair. 179 you a message to my friends at my funeral service, and/' said he, "I want you to tell my friends at my funeral that I am dying a lost man, and lost forever. But tell them that if any man had slapped me on the shoulder ten years ago, and said: ^Tom, ten years from to-day you will be dying with- out religion,' I would have told him : ^o, sir. I had a good mother. I have a respect for religion, and I intend to give my heart to God.' And," said he, " if any man had slapped^ me on the shoulder twelve months ago and said: ^Tom,' twelve months from to-day you will be dying without re ligion,' I would have looked the man in the face, and said ^ You don't know me; I will never die without religion my purposes are fixed to seek and obtain religion before I die.'" Said he: ^' If a man ten days ago had said to me ^Tom, ten days from now you will be dying without re ligion,' I would have said : ^No, sir; you don't know me; and," said he — and I want you to listen to this, the saddest thing dying man ever said — ''at last; at last; after all my mother's prayers, and all my good resolutions, and all the means that have been brought to bear upon me, at last, at last, I am dying without religion." And that is the saddest thing mortal man ever said upon his dying couch. And if you die to-night, the world would sit around your corpse to-morrow and say: "At last! at last! After all his resolu- tions and all his purposes, he died without religion."- THE WILLFULLY WICKED. But there is another class of prisoners without hope. Thank God, we are not among fallen angels ! Thank God, we are not among the dead ! There is another class of prison-, ers without hope : and that is the men and women of this city that are just as certain to be damned as they walk the streets of this city to-day. There are men in this city who have not heard a sermon for twenty years; there are men in this city who have settled it — "I never intend to hear another ;" there are men in this city who have fenced, effectually fenced, their souls off from good, and thrown around them bulwarks and doors that the grace and Spirit of God can never pene- trate in this world. And when I walk out on the streets of your town and find a man as he walks the street that has settled it — "I never intend to rei^ent" — I would as soon shake 12 180 Prisoners of Ho^e and Prisoners of Despair. hands with a dead man as to shake hands with him. He is dead to all that could lift his soul to God, dead to all that could make him good and happy, dead to all that could save him in time, and dead to all that could save him in eternity. I beg you, my friend, to-night to stop a moment and con- sider. Have you crossed the line? Have you crossed the line from beyond which no soul ever returned ? There is a time, I know not when, A place I know not where, The Spirit will poise his golden wings And leave me in despair. THE DIVINE DEAD LINE. There is a line by which all our paths are crossed, beyond which Grod himself has sworn that he who goes is lost. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of Grod, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. And in my short life as a preacher, I want to tell you to- night I have seen men reject, and reject, and reject, and re- ject the mercies of God, until I have almost heard the gates of mercy close in their faces forever. A prisoner without hope. Just as certain as he breathes he is a doomed man. He never will repent. The chances are all against us. The chances are all against us now, may be. Brother, will your heart ever be as tender as it has been in the past ? Will you ever be worked up under gospel truth as you have been in the past? And if, after all your tender years are gone and all the influences of your youthful days fail to reach jou, are not the probabilities to-night that you never will repent, that you will die like you are, "a prisoner without hope?"' Ah, me ! The poet said : The wretch condemned with life to part, Still, still on hope relies, And every pang that rends the heart Bids expectation rise. But, oh, sir ! when hope dies out and endless despair takes possession of the soul, oh, sir, then I ask you, what is there but the cry: ''Oh, miserable me ! which way shall I fly ? In- finite wrath! infinite despair ! Which wav I 13 v is hell ; Myself am" hell'" I^risoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair, 181 Oh, sir! the soul that is impenitent gravitates to its home, and its home can be nowhere else except in the perdition of the damned. A prisoner without hope. I wonder if there is a man here listening to me to-night that you could not move him with the gospel and the thun- ders of all the worlds ? if there are men here to-night who are not just as uninterested in what I say as if they had no soul to save, and there was no immortal interest at stake? My brother, let others do just as they please, and let others throw away their time and their souls, but let's you and I make our peace with God, and our calling and election sure, so that when we fail on earth we may secure a mansion in the skies. THE PRISONERS WITH HOPE. But, i thank God, there is a different side to this question, and lee us consider it but a moment. There are three classes of pHsoners with hope. The first class we mentioned are the ff^ithful men and women of the Church of God, striving, struggling, day after day, to keep the commandments of God, and love and serve Him with all their heart. Oh, thank God, there are many of this class in the City of St. Louis. They are prisoners, but, thank God, prisoners of hope — pris- oners of hope. Every good man that walks the face of the earth is a prisoner of hope, and — Oh, what a blessed day is ours, While here on earth we stay ; We more than taste the heavenly joys, And antedate that day. My mother was once a prisoner of hope, but when death cut the ligaments that bound her to earth, she went home to God, and for thirty years she has been walking the golden streets, one of God's freemen forever. My precious father was a prisoner, but, thank God! a prisoner of hope; and when at last he, upon his dying couch, pushed the doctors back from his bed, he overleaped the circle of loved ones about his dying couch, and above star and moon he went until he overvaulted the very throne of God itself, and to- night he walks the golden streets, a child of God and a free- man forever. Thank God these chains will not last always. Thank God these temptations are not forever. Thank God 182 Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair, these environments will not last further than the grave! Bless the Lord, O, my soul ! There is a world Where the wicked cease from troubling, And the weary are at rest. We, I say, are bent upon that gracious home up beyond the skies. HEAVENLY CONSOLATION. I never se*e a wife grow pale and suffer that I don't bless m^^ Grod there is a country where no wife shall ever pale, and where no sickness shall ever come. I never see my precious children suffer and swing like the pendulum of the clock be- tween life and death, that I donH thank God there is a coun- try where health blossoms forever upon the cheek, and the light of life shall ever sparkle from the eyes of our children. Oh, thank God! there is a world of freedom ! And these faithful Christians are on their way to the world where free- dom shall be enjoyed in its most blessed and its most glor- ious sense. Brother, you are a prisoner of hope, and as long as that star of hope shines over my pathway here is one man that is ready to deny himself and take up his cross and fol- low Christ. As long as that star of hope shines over my pathway I am ready unto every good word and work. As long as that star shines over my pathway, like St. Paul I will throw aside everything, and count it nothing; and neither will I count m}^ life dear unto myself, but that I may run with patience the race to that city of God where sickness and sorrow and pain and death are felt and feared no more. Oh, brother, if you mean that a man shall do his duty, shall preach the gospel, all right ; I will preach. If it is to pray, I will pray ; if it is to lead the devotions of my home, I will do that; if it is to divide my last cent with God and the poor, I will do that ; if it is anything, if it is everything. I will give up all things that I may have all things in the sweet by-and-by. A prisoner of hope. Blessed be God! There is an assurance in every man's heart that inspires him by day and by night. St. Paul said : That blessed hope! A HOPEFUL CLASS. Well, thank God, there is another class of prisoners with Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair. 183 hope. Tliat man out there that does not belong to any church, but he stood up here yesterday afternoon and said, " I run the white flag up ; I surrender to Grod, I want to be a Christian. '* Brother, hear me to-night: God loves the mean- est man in St. Louis, just like God loves the best man in St. Louis. Brother, yonder is a father that loves a son with all his heart, and that son is headed to a drunkard's grave. Does that father's love save that boy from the drunkard's grave? There is a mother with all her affections wrapped around her boy, and yet he drinks, and drinks, and drinks, until at last he leaps out from the presence of his mother in- to a drunkard's eternity, and that mother will goto his grave twice a week, acd carry flowers and plant them on the mound above him, and bathe the dust that covers his body in her precious tears ; but did that mother's love save that boy from the drunkard's grave? Neither can God's love save his son — you and me — unless we bring ourselves within the com- pass of grace and let Him save us. A NOBLE SURRENDER. A prisoner of hope. That man who has in his heart the burning desire to be a Christian is a prisoner of hope; and I tell you, my brother, the man who says to-night, "I surrender to God ; I give my life to him; I seek the cross ;" that man is a prisoner of hope; and you will never be damned if you will follow the inspir- ation and the desire, " God help me to be a Christian." Oh, brother, there are many men in this house to-night who have the burning desire in their heart to be good men — and some to be good women. Well, let me tell you that every one of you with such a desire in your heart, every one of you, if you foster that desire and follow the purpose out, God will meet you with peace and pardon, and you by-and-by shall be a free man forever. Friend, let's you and I look after our hearts to-night. Is there down in our souls an intense, burning desire to be a Christian ? If there is, let us surrender to that desire to-night and say, " I will make my peace with God." And, then there is another class of prisoners with hope, and that is, those men and women who have not made up their minds at all, but they are thinking on this ques- 184 I^risoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair, tion. Oh, brother, there is a chance there that yoii may be saved, and I wish every poor man here to-night, with the de- sire in his heart to be a Christian, I wish he would do like Garfield — President Garfield ; when they probed his wounds, he looked at the doctors and said, '' Doctors, is there any chance for my life?'' The doctors answered back, "Yes, there is a chance," and Mr. Garfield said : " Well, I will take that chance ;'' and he did, and wrestled and grappled with death for three long months as no hero in America, perhaps, ever did; and if that man and that woman will take the chance — a chance that you have to-night — and grapple with it with all your ransomed powers, as grandly and nobly as Garfield did for life, then I say to you it will issue into a bright, happy, joyous experience here, and heaven in the end. Listen ! A DIVINE PROMISE OF REWARD. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Even to-Jay I do declare I will render double unto thee. Now a word on this part. Hear me ! I will render double unto thee. A great many people think, ''Well, after all, lam notready yet to seek religion. If I were to seek religion now I would have to give up everything, and just live a poor, sad, grop- ing pauper the balance of my life.'' Well, you never made a bigger mistake in your life. Listen : Even to-day do I declare I will render double unto thee. ''Double." I never read that passage that I do not think of the incident a Church brother told me once. He said there was a young man in a revival-meeting he was carrying on who was seeking religion earnestly for two or three da3^?. One day he walked out of the church after the young man and said to him : "You are in earnest ; you are in earnest. I cannot see why you are not blessed and saved."' "Oh," said the young man, "I think I know the trouble. Every time I go to the altar and seek God on my knees, this fact comes up before my eyes: I clerk in a grocery store that retails liquor by the quart and pint, but not by the drink, and every time I kneel down and pray, the fact that I am clerking and selling liquor by the quart and pint comes up before me and stops my prayers." "Well," said the preacher, "I would giv<> Prisoners of Mope and Prisoners of Despair 185 up my clerkship." ''If I do," replied the young man, ''it looks as if my mother and sisters will starve. My mother is a widow, and my sisters are orphans, and every bite they eat comes from what I earn. I would surrender it in a mo- A Business in Which a Man Cannot Fray. ment if it was not for that." ''Well," said the preacher, "trust God and do the thing you ought to do, my brother." He told me the young man went on down to the store and told his employer: "Sir, I have been seeking religion earn- estly, and I cannot bo pardoned ; I cannot pray as long as I clerk for you and sell whisky in this house." 186 Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair. Do you hear this. A man cannot get religion and sell whisky at the same time. That is as true as that G-od made this world. And then I will tell you another thing: A man cannot keep it (religion) and sell it (whisky). A man can- not keep it and drink it. Listen to me a minute. FOR CATHOLICS. I saw in a paper in this city the other day a boast that this was a Catholic city and not a Protestant citj^ I deny it. With all my heart, I deny it. A Catholic city ! You may know and I know a man is a Catholic by his cross. What is the cross an emblem of? Purity, holiness, right- eousness. And 3^ou tell me that the cross of Jesus Christ is the foundation stone of all the devilment and whisky drink- ing and corruption of this city ! It is a lie as black as hell, I do not care who said it. The grand old Catholic Church will never father the corruption and guilt there is in this city. When I see the sisters of charity going forth on their errands of mercy and goodness, and when I look to the noble priests and the popes and bishops of the Catholic Church who teach us the purest morals and would lead us closest with Christ, I will not let any man say this is a Catholic city. It is a lie. I wish the city were that, or something else that would make the people qnit their mean- ness. I do. And if the Catholic Church willtake St. Louis and redeem her from her bar-rooms and her lewd houses, and her Sabbath-breaking and her corruption, I will put on my hat and turn the city over to the Catholic Church and say, " In Christ's name bring her to Christ." I am not here to fight the Catholic Church. God bless the Catholic Church and help her to be pure and holy every day and every- where! God bless the Catholic Church just in proportion as she is pure and holy and good, as she represents the em- blem of the cross she bears. AN IDEA FROM CHICAGO. I want to read this article. I want you to learn it Chicago, November 3. — The Chicago Reformed Alliance are about to take measures to have the saloons closed on Sundays. The City Government will not be asked to take any action in this movement, the method proposed being to prosecute all offenders against the State law known as the Dram Shop Act, which prohibits the opening of saloons on Sunday under a penalty of $200 for the first and second offence, and a term in the Penitentiary for the third. A num- Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair. 187 ber of prominent lawyers have volunteered their services for the prosecution of offenders. Among a number of saloons visited yesterday by the committee but one was found closed, and to-day indictments will be found against a few of the offenders. One of the members of the committee said there would bono trouble with the first-class saloons. Hear that. Well, I reckon hell itself is graded somehow. ^'The first-class saloons!" One of the members of the committee stated that, there would be no trouble with first-class saloons, as the owners seemed perfectly willing to close up on Sunday. Brother, let mo say to you this : Old Missouri on her sta- tute book has promulgated a law that forbids the sale of liquor on Sunday, and I want to tell you that the question, *'How men sworn to execute the law can let this city be de- bauched with Sunday saloons?" is a question deeper than I have power to probe into. If you will elect me Governor of this State — and you could not run after me fast enough to give it to me — I have something better than that; but if I were elected Governor of this State, I would not sleep three hours a night until I saw that the laws of my State were en- forced. Thank God, Georgia has a Governor who is one of the most pious men in our State. He loves Jesus Christ. He is an earnest deacon in the Baptist Church. The Chief Justice of our Supreme Court will pray all night around the altar with a penitent. Our judges and men in authority love God and are moral men. SWILL-TUB GOVERNORS AND MASH-TUB JUDGES. How can you reform any State in God Almighty^s world with an old swill-tub for a Governor and two or three old mash- tubs for Supreme Judges. A man who is privately corrupt can never be politically pure, and the first thing we did when we wanted to reform Georgia was to put God-fearing and good men in authority, and, by, the grace of God, we have the best State in the United States of America. You run a freight train through Georgia on Sunday, and the con- ductor and the brakesmen and the whole crew employed on the train will sleep in jail that night. And you open a bar- room in our State on Sunday and you will sleep in jail that night. "We have a God and a Sunday in Georgia, and they are as precious to us as our wives and our children. To-day do I declare I will render double. 188 Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of JDesjyair. Now there is no malice aforethought in what I have just said on this tangent, but I say this about selling whisky: 'No man can be a Christian and sell whisky. I hope to God Almighty the grand old Catholic Church will turn every barrel and every demijohn out of the whole concern. I hope the grand old Methodist and Presbyterian and Baptist Churches will touch not, and taste not, and handle not the men who sell it or the men who drink it. A TEMPERANCE STORY. That boy of whom I was speaking told his employers, '^ I can not stay any longer with you.'^ They said, '* Well, we are sorry to give you up. You have been a good boy since you have been with us." And they paid him off. They were paying him $50 a month. That boy went back to the services and surrendered his heart to God. And he went home and lifted up his heart to God. The next morning,just after breakfast, he received a note from his old employers. He went down to their store, and they said, "Walk into the liquor-room that was.'^ He walked in, and he saw that every barrel had been rolled out; and they said to him, "We have closed out that part of the business, and if you will come back and clerk for us again we will give you $100 a month. '^ To-day do I declare I will render double unto thee. 1^0 man ever lost anything by surrendering a wrong and giving his life to God. No, sir. Well, some man in the house may say, "I do not believe your anecdote." But lean tell you one a heap bigger than that. Fourteen years ago — my brethren of the ministry, hear me — fourteen years ago I gave my life and heart and all to God and entered into his service; and I read in that book — and I thought it was a big statement — If 3'ou will forsake houses and lands and all to follow me, T will give you one-hundred fold more in this life, and everlasting life in the world to come. Well, I took God at his word. When I started out to fol- low God, I left our little home in Cartersville ; but, blessed be God, he has given me one hundred homes wherever I have gone — just as good as homes could be. And I left one mother — a gracious stepmother she was to me — I left her to follow Christ; and, bless his holy name, he has given me Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair, 189 one thousand mothers wherever I have gone who have been as good to nie as my own precious mother. I left a few friends in my own home to follow Christ; but, blessed be God, he has given me one thousand friends for every one I have left. And, blessed be God, I have now one thousand-fold more in this life, and the bright hope of everlasting life in the world to come. God help every man here to-night to say, I will turn to the stronghold ! I will be a Christian ! I will give myself to God ! AN APPEAL TO THE PROFESSORS. Now, as we are going to dismiss this service in a moment, brethren, I wish to say, I have been here a week preaching, praying, doing the best in my poor humble way, with a thousand faults and a thousand mistakes. I know it. I know it. I know it. I need sympathy and the mercy of God for myself. But, brethren, will you be honest with God? Will every member of every church who sits before me to- night— and only members of some church — how many of you will stand up to-night and say : " God helping me, I in- tend to be loyal to my vows. I intend to help to win the w^orld to Christ by a faithful, earnest life and make my way to heaven. I am going to work out, under this star of hope, my salvation, with fear and trembling?'' Brethren, I say not now what your past life has been. But listen a moment. I want to talk for myself a moment. Brethren, whatever may have been my past, I feel like standing up and saying with you: '*0h, God ! If I have never done it before, right here and now I give myself to thee from head to foot, through and through, soul and body, for time and eternity.'' How many of you brethren in Christ of all Churches will stand up a minute with me and say, " That is my honest con- viction ; I give myself wholly to God?" Now every ©ne that feels that way stand up. THE PENITENTS. Well, thank God. What a host. Brethren, let us keep our vows and do our duty. Now, please be seated a moment. I am going to ask every man — you see what we have done — I am going to ask that every man not a member of any Church, not a professor of religion, will stand up. Oh, fath- ers, we cannot afford to be wicked and wayward. Boys with 190 Prisoners of Hope and Prisoners of Despair, good mothers, boys with good fathers, you cannot afford to be wicked and wayward. Brethren, how many of you, not members of any Church will stand up and say, honestly, " I want to be a Christian. I want to be a good man. I want to seek God. I want the prayers of all this people V Now, my friend, will you be honest with your soul and with your- self? I trust every inan not a Christian will stand up in his place for a moment and say — and having said it, stand by it forever — '' I want to be a Christian. I want to do right; I want to find my way to heaven.^' How many in this house, in the gallery or anywhere will stand up and say, '' It is true from the depths of my heart, I want to be a Christian?" Now, let every one not a member of a church stand up. Will you stand? [Some fifty persons rose.] Thatisright. Thank God! Thank God ! Evcr^^where over the house, stand up, and stand a moment! That is right. Thank God! Thank God ! JSTow in a moment we are going to pronounce the benediction, and will every -person here — you who stood \\^ and you who did not stand up — if you are not a Christian, wiien the congre- gation passes out, stay here about five minutes, and let us talk over this eternal question? Oh, this is business for eter- nity ? Won't you stay with us a few minutes ? Gather here in front after the congregation passes out, and let you and I talk a little on this question to-night. These preachers will help you. If you have yonr wife along she will come with you. If you have friends along, your friends will come with you. Let every soul not a Christian come to the front after the congregation passes out. Pray God to-night that you may all profess the precious hope that you may be saved for time and eternity. Blessed God, abide with us now and forever. Amen. . / ^EI^MON XL 'hile this damp night is keeping many away, let us who are here be earnest and prayerful. I have scarcely ever seen a rainy night during revival meetings that they were not better than any other nights of the meeting in re- sults and in blessings upon the congregation. I naturally take it for granted this congregation is in earnest, that you are here for good. And now let us be prayerful and let us expect, each of us, for himself, just such a blessing on our hearts as we need. If it is a blessing of consecration on the partof Christian people, let us expect that, and let us not be satisfied to go away without it. If it is of pardon, justifica- tion, peace — if that is the sort of blessing we are seeking, let us look for it to-nigh{, and let us not go away satisfied without it. SAVING HIS TEXT FOR THE ENDING. It is usually customary for a preacher to announce his text and then discuss it. We generally read our text and then expound it. But, without any purpose or desire to be singular or odd in this case, I shall first preach the sermon and then read the text, because this text is the answer to the question I want you to spend thirty minutes with me in dis- cussing. This is a wonderful old book from which we get our text. It goes back to the beginning of all things, and forward to the end of all things. In the first chapter of Genesis, I read of my own origin and the origin of all creation, and I read how the evening and the morning were the first da}^ and the second day, and how at the end of the sixth day the sons of Grod and the angels shouted over a finished world. One chapter of this book is devoted to my origin, and the thou- sand chapters which follow warn me of my destiny. God devotes one chapter of this book, one page of the book, to 191 192 The Dangers of Delay, telling me whence I come, and all the other warnings and all the other rebukes and promises and precepts of his word are but so many index fingers pointing into the great hereafter, warning me of my destiny. I believe there is but one thing condemned in this book, and that is sin, and sin is the only thing in the universe of God that can permanently harm a soul. Disappointment may sadden me. Yexation and cares may worry me, and a thousand environments of earth may fret me. But there is but one thing that can permanently damage the soul, and that is sin. And really, I don't need any enlightenment from this book or the pulpit to teach me that sin will do its greatest work on character, on the soul ; on my present, on my future destiny. And if it is sin that all the cannon of heaven are turned loose upon ; if it is sin that G-od would not have us commit; if it is sin that heaven frowns upon, and that perdition itself would have us commit ; if it is sin — then I stop and ask this question : Why will you continue in sin? SALVATION A PERSONAL MATTER. Now we notice a moment or two the words of this ques- tion. They are very simple and yet they are very forcible. Why will you continue in sin? Salvation is a personal matter. Damnation is a personal matter. I can get no one to die for me ; no one to be buried in my stead; no one to stand before God in my place; no one to pass into glory in my stead ; no one to be damned in my place. Salvation is pre-eminently a personal matter. Damnation is also pre-eminently a personal matter. I am saved, if saved at all, thank God, in myself and for myself. Iflamlost, it is I that am lost; and if every other man should make his way to God, I am shut up to the conscious- ness that heaven's door is closed in my face and that I personally am shut up in hell forever. Men sin in groups, and go in schools, and run with the multitude, but judgment is personal. Salvation is personal. You and I, if we walk into glory, will walk in just as personally and as really as if we were the only ones that left this earth for a better world. If we are damned, we shall be damned as personally as if we were the only men that the sentence of God should The Dangers of Delay. 193 fest upon through all eternity. And this question means something. THE QUESTION NARROWED DOWN. Why will you? — not why will the church; not why will the preachers ; not why will the cities ; not why will the States; but why will you, you, you? I don't mean the man in front of you or that one behind you, nor the one to your right or your left. I mean you ! you ! Why will you con- tinue in sin? Now, recollect: I don't ask you how it is you have lived in sin up to this hour. I don't ask you how it happened that you were born a sinner. That might involve a theolog- ical discussion that you and I haven't the capacity to go into. I don't ask why you have continued to live in sin up to this moment. That is a question that might involve ex- culpatory statements on your part that I have neither time nor disposition to listen to. The question, plainly put, is not why you have come into this hall to-night a sinner, nor why you were born in sin, but why will you go from this hall in rebellion against God and to lead another hour of a life of sin ? That's the question. Now some people think that sin is a something that floats around in the atmosphere. Some people think sin is a roar- ing lion going about seeking whom it may devour. But sin is not something in the atmosphere around, and sin is not a roaring lion on our track. Sin is an act committed. It is a deed done. It is a word spoken. '' Sin," said the apostle, " is transgressing the law" — doing something that you ought not to do and which you know you ought not to do. It is saying something that you ought not to say and which you know you ought not to say. It is the living of a life of re- bellion against God, and the doing of those things that God forbids, and the leaving undone those things that God com- mands we should do. Now, the question plainly put is : Why will you lead this life, and continue doing and saying those things, and neglecting these things? Why will you? THE PLEA OF IGNORANCE OF SIN. Now we answer first for you: Is it because you are ignor- ant of what sin is? Can any man in this house say, "I don't know that it is wrong to swear, and wrong to drink, and 194 The Dangers of Delay. wrong to lie, and wrong to rebel, and wrong to live in dark- ness when light is proffered ''? Can any man say that? Can any man raised in the land of Bibles look God and angels in the face and say, " The reason I live here an impenitent sin- ner is because I don't know what sin is^'? Will 3^011 say that? Have you never read in that book, '' Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain^'? Have you never read in that book, '^ Thou shalt not bear false wit- ness ^'? Have you never read, "Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy"? Have 3'ou never read: "He that breaketh the least commandment is guilty of all"? Then I ask you, friend, can you say now, or ever, that the reason you leave here impenitent to-night is because you don't know what sin is ? Will you say that? Do 3"ou know that every sinner in this land stands self- convicted on that proposition ? There's not a sinner in this city that hasn't for years been criticising the life of the Church, and you know that every criticism of your lips on the life of a member of the Church is incontestable proof that you know what right is, and that you know what wrong is. You won't suffer these members of the Church to do wrong, and when they do wrong you speak of it, and point the finger of scorn at them. The fact of the business is, the Church ought to live up to the world's standard of character; and my highestaspira- tion in this life is for all of us to come up to where the world knows and says we ought to get up to. That's it. These sinners don't permit us to do wrong. If we do wrong they say: "That isn't right! You've promised to do right." Oh, brother, don't let the Church's standard of righteousness be lower than the standard that sinners have raised for us! WRONG FOR PROFESSORS, WRONG FOR SINNERS. Yes, but you say, "I know it is wrong for the members of the Church to do that way, but is it wrong for us? Look here, friend ! I have got as much right to get drunk to-night after service as any man in this house, God being judge, you see. I have just as much right to go and gamble to-night till 3 o'clock in the morning as any man in this house has, God being judge. I have just as much right to tell a lie to-night when I am through preaching as any man in the house has The Dangers of Delay, 195 to tell a lie, God being judge. I wonder who gave you per- mission to do wrong. And the biggest mistake in this uni- verse is for a man, simply because he don't belong to the Church, to imagine that Grod has given him license to do wrong. God doesn^t lookuj^on sin with the least allowance, and *'the soul that sinneth, it shall die," whether in the Church or out. The only difference between men in the Church and men out of the Church is, one class acknowledge its obligations to live right and the other does not. That's all. You are under as many obligations to God and right, to be and to do good, as I am. Doesn't God feed you and clothe you and care for you, and doesn't his sun shine upon the just and the unjust alike, and hasn't the blood of Jesus Christ been poured out for you just like it has been poured out for me ? I have as much right to do wrong as any man in the world, if you let God be judge. A WHOLESOME DIFFERENCE. I know it looks worse for a member of the Church to do wrong, and I'll tell you why. The difference between a member of the Church and that sinner out of the Church is this: that member of the Church is like a white piece of can- vas, and jow. sprinkle any kind of mud or dirt on a white piece of canvas and it shows very plainly; and that's the member of the Church. But you take an old, dirty,. grimy piece of canvas, and jou can just rub anything you want to on it, and it don't show at all. And that's just the difference between a member of the Church and an old sinner out of it. If I were to go down to-night and get drunk, or if I were to get drunk on the streets of St. Louis to-morrow, the tele- graph wires of the country would catch it up, and it would be telegraphed all over the face of the Union, "Mr. Jones is in St. Louis drunk." But there's many an old red-nosed fellow in this town gets drunk every day, and nobody pays any more attention to it thnn they do to the sun shining. You see that's the dif- ference between a gentleman and a vagabond ! If I were to step out on the street to-morrow and swear and profane the name of God, the newspapers would catch it up and declare that I was blaspheming on the streets of this city. But there are ten thousand black-mouthed swear- 13 196 The Dangers of Delay. ers in this town who profane the name of God everyday up- on the streets, and people pay no attention whatever to them. Now, that's just the difference between a gentleman and a vagabond! Dont't you see? \ A DISTINCTION IN THINGS. I'm glad this world makes distinctions. There are some of you can't walk down street but some vagabond will say to you, ''Come in and take a drink with me." But I can walk these streets ten years and nobody will ever ask me to take a drink. Don't you see ? This world knows w^ho's who. I'm so glad this world will let a gentleman pass on and let him alone. And whenever a man asks you to take a drink with him in these bar-rooms down here, he's got you down in his book as a vagabond, and he ain't missing it much, either. You can put that down. I know the sort I used to ask when I drank. I know how I had them down, and I never mis- put a fellow, for I had him down right every time. Why, there were gentlemen down in Cartersville whom I would never let see me go into a grocery, muchness ask them in. And I am glad that a man never gets so but what he respects virtue and sobriety and goodness. No man here to-night can look the preacher in the face and say, ''The reason I live here a sinner is because I don't know what sin is." We know wrong is wrong and right is right. We know we ought not to do wrong, and we know we ought to do right. PLEADING IGNORANCE OP CONSEQUENCES. Well, then, I ask you again, Is it because you are ignorant of the consequences of sin? Willyousay that ? Is there a man here who never read in that book, "The wicked shall be turned into hell? - But you say, forsooth, " There is no hell." I know the cry of this nineteenth century is, " There is no hell;" and I am sorry to see that in this land, where men have sworn eternal allegiance to that book, there is not one preacher in twenty to-day that will stand up and preach hell as that book asserts it. Of course the preachers in St. Louis do, but I am speaking of preachers elsewhere. They won't doit. The Dangers of Delay, 197 "Why, it is considered vulgar now, really vulgar, for a man to get up and preach hell to sinners. Don't you know that it is so ? And I want to say to you this : I will take the re- cords of the Church of God, and every preacher that had power with God and influence with men, and that brought thousands to Christ, every one of them — I run back, and I will take Bunyan, and I will take "Whitfield, and I will take Jonathan Edwards, and I will take Charles G. Finney, and I will take your own leading evangel ist in America, Dwight L. Moodj^ I will take C. H. Spurgeon in London ; and every man that had power with God and influence with men be- lieved in a real, genuine, Scrij)tural, brimstone hell ! Kow, what do you say ? NOT POLITE TO BELIEVE IN HELL. It is not polite to believe that way and many a little fel- low has scratched that out of his creed • but he wonH be in hell more than fifteen minutes before he will revise his creed and have nothing in it but hell; he will scratch out all the rest. I am sorry for a fellow fooling away his time that way. And I want to say to you to-night, the biggest fool this world ever saw is the man that gets in the biggest, broadest, plainest road to hell, and stops on the way trying to persuade people that there is no such a place as hell! The biggest fool this world ever looked on is the man that spends all his probationary existence trying to persuade himselfthatthereisnohell,and then after death he lays down in hell, forever realizing that there is one. You say, *' Well, I don't like these hell-scared sinners." Why, bless you! they are the only sort I do like. And I want to tell you to-night that, fourteen years ago I got a good scare, and, blessed be God ! I ain't over it good yet; and I never want to get over it until I get into the pearly gates, safe forever. And I believe in hell just as strong as I believe in heaven ; and I believe that a topless heaven has Us counterpart in a bottomless hell. And jnst in propor- tion as you let up at this point, that minute you run riot in wickedness and sin and outrageous conduct; and I want to say to you all to-night, my fellow-citizens, I believe that if a man lives and dies in his sins, because that book says so, that he is lost — and lost forever ! If heaven is eternal, then hell is 198 The Dangers of Delay. eternal, for the same adjectives that apply to the one apply to the other j and this much I say, '' God help me ! God help me, that I may never go there/' THE LOCALITY OF HELL. A man asked me the other day where hell was? Said I, ^' I donH know, and by the grace of God I never will know — I never will know." And he asked me was there really genuine, burning, brimstone there ? Said I, ^' I am so afraid there is, I am never going there, and I am never going to see whether there is or not.'' God, keep the gate of heaven wide open before me, and some of these days I will run right into glory and to God ; and then, in heaven, shut up forever, I shall be delivered from hell forever. No, sir, no man here can say, '' The reason I live here a sin- ner is because I don't know whatsin will lead to." I like very well the definition of the old colored woman. When the old man came home he said, " Auntie, the preacher preached to- day about hell-fire and brimstone ;" and he said, '^ Auntie, where does God get all the brimstone to burn forever? The old woman said, "Honey, all the old sinners takes the brim- stone with 'em there to burn 'em forever." Then I come closer to you with this question. You say you will leave here a sinner to-night — and men will do it to- night. Impenitent sinners, you will leave here that way. Well, why? It is notbecausc you are ignorant ofthe nature of sin and ignorant of its consequences. You know whatsin is, and you know what sin will do for a man, and I know that sin will ruin a man in this world, and I know that sin is the same in all worlds. Men are the same in all worlds, and it is not a question how long he will endure, but how long- will sin endure ? THE PLEA OF INDIFFERENCE. Then, I ask you again, is it because you are indiiferent to the truth ? You knoAv what the truth is, and you know what sin will do for you ; and yet you are indifi'erent to the truth. Oh, how many indifferent men there are in this world, that wear a placid countenance when every nerve and muscle in them ought to be shaking under the pressure and power of truth as it is applied to them! Oh, how many indifferent men are here to-night — indifferent to the truth; indifferent to The Dangers of Delay. 199 their condition — and maybe in twenty-four hours from this moment they will be in eternity and their body in their cof- fin 'j and yet they are perfectly indifferent to the future — in- different! And I do thanJv God that whatever may have been my estate as a sinner, I never reached the point when ^^Honey, all the old sinriers iaJccs the hHfnstone loith 'e;n." I was indifferent to the truth. Sometimes I would not go to church once in six months, with the bells ringing all around me Sabbath morning, and yet I say to you to-night, I never went with my Christian wife to the house of God and heard an honest gospel sermon that it didnH move mo from head to foot. I tried to appear indifferent. I would not let my wife know how I felt for all the world ; I would not let the preach- er know it for all the world, and I carried a placid, in- different countenance through it all. And yet that man out 200 The Dangers of Delay. there says to-night, ^^That is my condition ; I feel a good deal different from what my wife thinks anything about, and what my neighbor thinks anj^thing about; I am concerned about the great hereafter/^ It is not indifference. THE PLEA OF RECKLESSNESS. When I ask you, "Is it because you are reckless as to the consequences?" Sometimes men put on an air of reckless- ness, and sometimes they seem to defy God and defy man; they curse with a loud voice and sin with an outstretched arm, and they think, "I have nothing to conceal; I sin pub- licly and openly; I defy God to his face;'^ and there is a recklessness that is enough to make men tremble as they look upon it. Eecklessness ! You say, "How foolish these things." In my own town one night, one of our citizens, a daring, reckless, drinking man, stood on the platform of the depot, and he said: "To-night I am going to walk up the railroad and meet the down passenger night express, and," said he, "I am going to meet it on the track, and gather the engine in my hands and hurl it into the ditch on the side of the track." They laughed at him ; they felt his recklessness had assumed a very humorous turn ; and that night, as the down passenger train come rolling and thundering along, just a quarter of a mile above the depot, this maddened, reckless wretch met it on the track and stooped to catch it by its de- fender, and it rushed and rolled on and he was ground to powder. Oh, how reckless that man was! And there is that man rushing right up into the face of God and his judgment, and by-and-by, instead of tossing God and the judgment to one side, "upon whom this stone shall fall, it shall grind him to powder." GREEDY FOR HELL. Eecklessness ! There are men in this city that are reckless in the highest degree. They are not willing to live out their threescore years and ten, and lie down and die, and go to per- dition by the natural order of things; but instead of living out their threescore years and ten and dying and going to hell, twenty, thirty, forty years hence, I see these men fre- quenting bar-rooms, pouring the liquid damnation down their throats, and I see it affecting their constitutions day by Hie Dangers of Delay. 201 day, and then I see the physician of the family tel) him: *'You must hold up, sir, or you will be in your grave;" but instead of holding uji, he drinks on, and drinks on, and now we see him with liquor bringing him within six months of his grave and of hell and of his lost estate, and he is not sat- isfied to drink on, but at the end of the six months he walks out on your streets and picks a quarrel with a friend, and that friend shoots him down on the sidewalk, and he leaps off of the sidewalk of your city down into hell twenty years before his time — and there is a man greedy for damnation ; he is in a hurry to be lost. God help that man to-night as he leaps recklessly into perdition and the chamber of the dead. Whatever you do, halt to-night and say, ''I will not rush on Grod and the grave and on eternity unprepared." AHEAD OF SCHEDULE TIME. There are men out here in your cemeteries to-night, if they had lived along as quiet, sober citizens they could have been here hearing this sermon to-night; they could have enjoyed the blessed privilege of these revival meetings. There are men in your cemeteries to-night who might find Christ in these meetings and be saved forever, but they were reckless and greedy for damnation and in a hurry to be damned. The Lord pity us to-night and check us up to-night, and if we never stop again, God bring us to a halt and bring us to our senses one more time before we die. You say, "I am not a reckless man." There's many a man appears to be reckless, but when he turns off the gas at night and sits alone with God, he is afraid of God, and he is afraid of the judgment, and he is afraid of eternity, and he is afraid of the great beyond. ^'JSTo, sir,'' it is not reckless- ness, you say. THE PLEA OF PRESENT SATISFACTION. Then I push this question on you and ask you this : Is it because you are satisfied with your present estate, your present condition? lam so glad, brethren, that God will not suffer any man to lie down and sleep his way to hell. No, sir! Twenty-four years of the life of a sinner taught me this fact: 202 The Dangers of Delay, A poor sinner's breast is like the troubled sea; It has no rest; it lives devoid of peace; A thousand stings within our soul Deprive our hearts of ease. And I tell you to-night, I never saw a minute of my life that I was satisfied with my condition. No, sir; I was an orphan and I was friendless and hopeless amid all the gay- eties of life, when I looked at my condition. "JSTo, sir,^' you say, ''it is not because I am satisfied with my present condi- tion.^' God won't sufl:er a man out of harmony with him to get into an estate like that. I don't care what jou say about your happiness and your peace and all that sort of thing. God bless you, brother; you know it is the truth, that the pleasures that you drown your life in are — Like poppies spread, You seize the flower, the bloom is shed; Or, like the snow falls in the river, A moment wliite, then melts forever. Lord pity us poor fellows, feeding on the husks of swine day after day, and trying to satisfy the immortal soul. A COMPROMISE LIFE. " No, sir," you say, '' It is not because I am satisfied with my present condition." Then I ask you again : " Is it be- cause you are leading a sort of a compromise life — 'I am going to be religious after awhile?'" If I were to make this proposition this moment — if I ask every man in this house who intends to prepare for death, between this and his dying moment to rise, every one in the house would stand up immediately. No man ever settled and fixed the ques- tion unalterably and forever, " I have made up my mind to be damned." I never saw the man that would say that. Then, brother, have you and I any more time to throw away ? I have often thought of that little fellow running down to the train with all his might, and, just as he reached the de- pot, the train rolled off, and there he stood sad and disap- pointed and dejected, and a kind friend looked on the little fellow and said, "My little man, I will tell you what is the matter." ''What?" said the boy. "Oh," said the man, "you didn't run fast enough." "Oh, yes, I did," said the boy. " I ran with all my might, but my trouble was I didn't start soon enough." And oh, me ! there's many a man in this The Dangers of Delay. 203 world that will miss heaven, not because he didnH start, but because he didn't start soon enough. And I have seen the passenger stand at the depot platform, and the train had gone, had gone, had gone, and I looked into his face and I saw written upon every tissue and ligament of his counten- ance, "Left! left! left!" And when the last hope shall have swept by you, and gone on without you, then upon every fibre and tissue of your soul will be written, "Left and lost! Lost and left forever !" Oh, my Lord ! teach men that while G-od Almighty runs his trains right at our feet every day, and checks up enough for us all to get abroad, it is the bounden duty of every man to step on board and go to God and to glory. EOLLY OF "going TO QUIT WRONG." A great many people think, "Well, Fm going to quit do- ing wrong; Tvemade my mind up for that." Yesj what is that worth ? Here is a man whose all depends on his reach- ing Cincinnati to-morrow morning at 8 o'clock. He goes down there to the depot to-night and stands there and lets the trains all pull out and leave him. You will say, " Friend, you have lost your all." " I know that." "Well, why didn't you get on board ? " " Well, I — I — I came down hereto the train, and I — I — I thought if I wouldn't throw any rocks *it the engineer and I wouldn't cuss the conductor, the thing would take me along anyhow. I thought all that was necessary was for me not to bother the engineer and conductor." And there's many a man in this world standing and being left forever who expects to get in at last because he didn't cuss the preacher and throw rocks at the meeting-house. There is a good deal of that sort of foolish- ness in this world. A PLEA OF SPIRITUAL APATHY. Then we come at you with this question : You say, " No, sir, I will not lead a compromise life. I know I ought to be religious, but I have not set a day ahead." Then I ask you this question: "Is it because a spiritual apathy has taken possession of your soul?" Listen, brother? Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. The saddest attitude of the soul as it lies on the brink of 204 The Bangers of Belay, perdition is the attitude of slumber. A man sleeping over his immortal interest! Can you imagine a man like that? In our State we have a Mr. William A. Eogers, President of the Marietta Female College. One morning his wife- was indisposed, and he sent his servant to the drug-store for quinine. In a few moments the servant came back. Mrs. Eogers took the powder and put it on her tongue. She rinsed it down with water, but as soon as she had swallowed it she walked to the front porch, and to her husband, who was in the flower-yard, she said. ^' Husband, that was not quinine I took just now. I sent for quinine, but I am satis- fied that was not quinine." Mr. Eogers ran down with all his might to the drug-store, and said : " What was that you sent my wife?^' The druggist threw up his hands and said: '' Sir, I have sent enough morphine to your house to kill a dozen persons." Mr. Eogers ran over to the doctor's office and carried two physicians home with him. They admin- istered emetics and strong coffee and various remedies, but directly a death-like stupor began to crawl over her frame. The agonized husband turned to the doctors and said : '■'■ Is there any chance to save my poor wife?" " Yes," they re- plied, *' if we can keep her awake for four hours we can save her life." The minutes seemed like hours, as they walked her up and down the floor, and threw cold water in her face, and whipped her person with cruel switches, and every means was used. That death-like stupor became so oppres- sive that she turned to her husband and said : "Husband, please let me go to sleep ;" and he said, " Oh, wife, if you go to sleep you will never wake up again in this world." " I know that," she said, " but please let m.e go to sleep." And they walked her up and down the floor, and soon, when the stupor overwhelmed her whole being, she turned to her hus- band, and said : " Husband ; please let me sleep for just five minutes." And he said: "Wife, if you go to sleep for five minutes, you will never wake up. Arouse ! Arouse ! " And thus they persevered until the four hours had passed, and the doctors pronounced her safe. THE OPIATE OF SIN. And I have seen the soul of man just in that condition. I have worked with him, prayed with him and wrestled with The Dangers of Delay, 205 him day after day and week after week ; and the devil would administer opiates to his soul, and he would say: *'Just let me sleep until this service is over — this last hour's service of the meeting. Just let me sleep through this/' And I have aroused him and we have sung^ '^Come, humble sinner," arid on and on ; and then he said : "Just let me sleep through this last verse" — But if T die, that mercy sought, Thjit on the King have cried, It's then to die — delightful thought — As sinner never died. And he sang the verse through, and he closed his eyes and slept and slept and slept, until in hell he opened his eyes, wideawake forever ! Oh, brother, can you sleep that way? Oh, brother! Oh, how men sleep over their immortal inter- ests ! How men sleep over the interests of their souls ! I can arouse this town with the cry that there is danger to a family there. In the City of Atlanta, a few months ago, the Wilson House, one of our second-class hotels — in size, I mean — caught fire. The flames burst out of the window, and directly the fire-bells commenced ringing, the fire compan- ies came thundering down the street, and multitudes pressed toward the hotel. The servants ran from room to room and awakened the guests. They waked up this one, and he dress- ed hurriedly and ran out. They waked up that one,. and he dressed hurriedly and ran ont. COULD NOT BE ROUSED. Finally a servant went to one room in which there were two guests, each in a different bed. He aroused one. He jumped out of bed. He aroused the other, but, with a moan and a groan, he went to sleep again. The guest who had been roused dressed himself hurriedly and ran to the bed of the other and shook him and said : "Get up, the house is on fire." He simply moaned and groaned and went back to sleep. When his friend had finished dressing he ran to the bed and pulled the man out of bed. He stood him on his feet and said: " The house is on fire! Hurry! hurry! or you will be burned up !" The man, as he was turned loose, shot back into his bed with a moan and a groan, and went to sleep again. And the next day, when they were raking among the debris of the building, they found his bones all charred 206 The Dangers of Delay, and burned. And many a time on earth, heaven seems to long to arouse ns and pull us away from our surroundings, and stand us on our feet, and cry " Fire ! eternal fire V And yet there we stand, and at last among sulphurous flames and eternal perdition, our bones lie burned and charred forever. Look here, friends, if we wake to-night let us stand up like men and flee from the wrath to come. A DEAD PEACE. You say, *'No, I am not asleep. I am wide awake. I hear it. I not only hear with my ear, but all you say is ringing- through the chambers of my soul.'' Then one more question and we come to God's answer. Is it because a spiritual apathy has taken possession of you? Is it because a spiritual peace — a peace that defies the cannon, that walks away unmoved from God, a peace thatmeans the certain, awful and dreadful death of the soul; a peace that a man gets at the cannon's mouth, and with the sound of musketry all around him, a conquered peace that means the apathy of the soul? I will illustrate it. At one of our big camp-meetings in Georgia Bishop Pierce was announced to preach at 11 o'clock on Sunday morning — BishopPierce, whom we love so well, and whom we believe to this day to be the grandest preacher America has ever pro- duced. Tented on that camping ground was a good woman, or rather, her husband tented there. She was a Christlike, good woman, her husband was a wicked, wayward sinner about 60 years old. He tented there on account of his wife, and he was kind and clever to the preachers and to all the guests at the camp-meeting. On that special occasion the old man brought his chair out and took a seat among the wor- shipers. And the bishop said that when he stood up and read his text something seemed to say to him, '' You are preach- ing the last awakening sermon that that old sinner will ever hear." He said the Spirit of God came down upon him and seemed to turn loose all the powers of his nature. He poured hot grape and canister on to the devoted head of that old sinner. A VICTORY FOR SIN. And there he sat in his chair and turned pale and red, and at times he would turn and twist in his chair and bite his The Bangers of Delay, 207 lip. He was very restless during the whole sermon, and as soon as the Bishop sat down the old sinner took his chair, went to his tent, fastened the front door, barred the back door, and shut the windows and fastened them. When his wife came to dinner with her guests she knocked for admit- tance. Theonly answer she received was an unearthly groan that was awful to listen to. She looked through a crack in the window and saw her husband prostrate in the straw on the floor. She said : "May God Almighty secure a victory over my poor husband. The good Spirit of God has touched his heart."' She went back there at 3 o'clock that afternoon and the battle was still going on. She knocked for admission, but received no answer except those moans and groans. She went back at midnight and the battle was still going on. At daylight next morning that battle was growing hotter and thicker — a battle greater in its results than Gettysburg or Waterloo or any other battle ever fought in this world — a battle between God and an immortal spirit. At 1 o'clock in the afternoon, just twenty-five hours after he shut that door, he opened it again. His wife was standing on the opposite side of the tent. She saw the tent door fly open, and she ran upon the wings of the wind to embrace her converted husband; but when she went up to him, the cold, marble look of his countenance and the rigid frown on his face told her that he had conquered the Spirit of God. But it took him twenty-five hours to do it, and that was the last battle that poor old man ever fought. He was never disturbed any more. And I want to tell every man here that you have that same battle to fight or to surrender to God. It may not take you twenty-five hours; it may not take you twenty- five minutes. You may fight God and conquer his Spirit within your heart in twenty-five seconds, and that will be the last battle you will ever fight on this side of eternity. Oh, me! This night surrender, if in your heart there has stirred the wooings and warnings of God's Holy Spirit. All sin will be forgiven you except sinning successively and per- sistently against the Holy Ghost. And he that doth this shall never be forgiven in this world or the world to come. And successively sinning against the Holy Ghost is the fighting of it for the last time out of your heart, and letting him leave you in despair. 208 The Dangers of Delay, THE ANSWER AND THE TEXT. Now, the answer comes right here. Listen, my friend. God says the reason a man will continue on in sin is this : Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. — Ecclesiastes 8; 11 That is to say, because the sentence or punishment for evil is delayed ten or twenty years before I am damned for it, I will just sin on. Here is the proof. Listen. If you kne\^ that immediate- ly the next oath crossed your lips, you w^ould be sent into eternity, you know you would never swear again. If you knew that the next time the intoxicating cup touched your lips, your sentence would be immediately pronounced, you would never drink again. The logic of sin is this : ^'Because God is good, I will sin ; because God is long-suifering, I will rebel againsc God, and I will make God's goodness a reason for my wickedness, and God's long-suffering an excuse for my continued crime." Oh Lord, have mercy on us^nd help us to decide here and now : "I will never sleep another moment on earth until my past is buried in the precious promise of God. I am going to look out for my soul in the future." I^ow friends. In all love and kindness, if you would make peace with God and get to heaven, how many of you who are not Christians to-night will say, ^' I don't want to fight that fight. I want to surrender to God." How many of you, young and old, fathers and mothers, will stand up where you are, and say, by standing up, "I would surrender to God to-night and live and be a Chris- tian?" Oh, if I were there in your place, I would be the first one to stand up ! Let us now decide to make our peace with God, and call a halt in our course of sin. [Several persons rose to their feet.] That is right. Whoever feels like saying, ''I will repent to-night," stand up. [More rising.] That is right, my brother. Do not be ashamed or afraid. Stand up in the gallery, in the dress circle or anywhere. Stand up all over, you who feel like saying, *'I want to repent to-night. I would not fight God out of my heart." • A CALL FOR PENITENTS. And now I will say to the congregation, we are going to The Dangers of Delay. 209 have an after service, and all of you that want to retire do so. Every one of you who are not Christians who stood up, stay with us and come to the front. All who did not stand up, and are Christians, come to the front, and may God to- night give us one hundred souls for Christ. Oh, friend, do not leave here if you are not a Christian ! I trust to-night one hundred or more honest penitents will come and take their seats in front here and tell me, '' I want to know God/' A good many were converted here last night, and a good many in the church to-day. !N'ow my friends, let us make our peace with God, and it will be the grandest night in our history. p^f^MON XII. ^IN AJND pEATH. As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. — Proverbs 11; 19. WHEN a good man dies he not only goes to heaven, drawn thither by the natural force of spiritual gravity and by the approval of God and angels, but by the common consent of all intelligent beings' in this world. When a bad man dies he not only goes to hell, drawn thither by the natural force of spiritual gravit}", by the approval oi God and an- gels, but by the common consent of GYcry other man in the universe. Did you ever attend the funeral of a good man; one that was known and read of all men as a good man? Haven't you satin the church as the preacher said, ^'Here lies the body of our brother, and his spirit is gone home to God to live forever with the angels;'' haven't you gone out of the church and heard saint and sinner both say, "That's the truth! That good man has gone home to heaven! That preacher told the truth when he said that good man has gone home to God"? Haven't you heard that in conversa- tion on the street, saint and sinner both speaking it out? Did 3^ou ever attend a funeral of a different character, one of these members of the church, may be, that did not live right, and haven't you heard the preacher stand up and say, "Here lies our brother's body and he has gone home to heaven," and then seen hundreds of heads begin to shake in a moment, and then you walk out on the street and saint and sinner both say, "The preacher outraged every principle of truth, and I'll never hear him preach again ? He knows that man hasn't gone to heaven, and we know it, and every- bodv else knows it." "210 Eighteousness and Life; Sin and Death, 211 NO PREACHING INTO HEAVEN. Oh, my brother ! This old world won't let a preacher preach a bad man into heaven, and this old world won't let a preacher preach a good man into hell. 1 have found that out. And the preacher's words don't go with us into heaven or to hell. If a man is in heaven at all'he is there long be- fore the preacher takes his text; and if a fellow is in hell he^ is there long before the preacher takes his text; and the preacher cannot j^reach a fellow into heaven or hell. They are down there before he takes his text, in one place or the other. It is all foolishness, and a great deal of harm is done in this world by preachers taking a false position on this point. And I'll tell you now. If your husband didn't live right, and your children didn't live right, and your mother didn't live right, I am the last man in the world you ought ever to get to funeralize, for I tell the truth — when I am talking to the living I tell the truth, because I can't harm the dead by telling the truth. As righteousness tendeth to life. Oh, my brother! the path of the just is as a shining light, shining more and more into the perfect day. A good man's tendency is upward and onward, and higher and higher. Oh, brother! the good man has the promise of the life that now is and everlasting life in the world to come. And just so sure as goodness and righteousness lead to life here- after, just so He that pursueth evil piirsueth it to his own death. Really, I don't need, as I have said before, any Bible to teach me that sin will kill, that sin will doom, that sin will^ destroy. I don't need any Bible on that point. I never saw a poor, staggering drunkard, but what I looked in his face and said : "Oh, Lord God, sin is ruining that man, and sin is killing that man, and sin will damn that man." I never saw a poor, pale, ruined woman halting along the streets of the city that I didn't look at her poor tottering form and say: "Sin has ruined that woman, and sin is dooming that woman, and sin is disgracing that woman, and sin will eventually damn that woman." No, sir. I^o, sir. I don't need any Bible to teach me that sin will ruin human beings; that sin is death to the body and death to the soul. 14 212 Righteousness and Life; Sin and Deaths THE PURSUIT OF EVIL. He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death. ' The full idea exj^ressed here, the real idea expressed here, is this: The natural tendencies of men are evil, and all a man need to do in order to be doomed here and damned hereafter is just to follow the bent, the inclinations, of his own heart and ways. Sin is a disease. It -is a leprosy. It is a cancer of the soul. I took up a newspaper some months ago and I read that Senator Hill, of Georgia^Senator Ben- jamin H. Hill — had a little trouble, as was said, with his ton- gue, and they made light of it and said it Was caused by a fractured tooth. A few days after that I took up a secular paper and I read that Senator Hill was under the surgeon's knife at Philadelphia and that they had taken out about one-third of his tongue. And they said, ^'It will heal up and he will be well in a few days.'' Well, a few days more, and I picked up the paper again, and it said. ^< Senator Hill is back under the surgeon's knife at Philadelphia;" and how the doctor had cut all the glands out of the side of his face and neck. Then young Ben Hill turned to the doctor and said: " Now sir, will my father get well?" The surgeon said : '^ If we have extracted the last particle of virus — this virus of cancer — from his system, he will certainly get well, but if there's the least particle of that virus of cancer left in his system it will stray off to some other gland and start a second cancer." THE VIRUS OF SIN, The next I heard of Senator Hill was that he was at the famous springs in the "West. I walked down to the depot of my town one day that I happened to be at home, and when I came to the track, the passenger train rolled down all trembling under its air-brakes, and stopped. 1 looked toward the car, and I thought I saw what was the outline of Senator Hill's face. I walked on down toward the car, and he pushed his bony hand out of the car and took mine, and I looked in his face and said: ''My Lord! Is this all that is left of Senator Hill, the grandest man that Georgia ever pro- duced ?" And a few days after that I took up the Atlanta Constitution and read : "The grandest procession that ever marched out of Atlanta marched out yesterday and buried Senator Hill out of the sisrht of men " Bighteousness and Life; Sin and Death. 213 And I want to tell this congregation to-night, just as cer- tain as the virus of cancer killed Senator Hill's body, just so certain the virus of sin will kill your soul at last. And it isn't a question of how you have been baptized. It is not a question of what Church you belong to. The only question for time and eternity with every mortal man is this : Has this virus of sin been extracted from my soul? Oh, thank God. Eighteen hundred years before I was born, the old world began to sing: There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins, And sinners plunged beneath that floodj Lose all their guilty stainSo The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day, And there mav I Thank God And there may I, though vile as he^, Wash all my sins away. STABS AT CONSCIENCE. Blessed be God, at this fountain opened up in the house of David for uncleanness, the world has been washing away its guilt for thousands of years. And here to-night I bid you all, ye wretched, ye hungry, ye starving, ye debauched, ye degraded, ye unclean men — come to this living fountain, and drink, and never be thirsty again. Oh, brother, is that virus of sin in your soul ? Nothing but the blood ! Nothing but the blood Can wash my sins away. Every sin of a man's life is a direct stab at his conscience. When men start in sin, and sin on and on, there comes a time by-and-by when their conscience is honey-combed with the stabs of sin, and it expires and breathes its last, and the man walks through life without a conscience at all. Oh, conscience ! that reigning principle in my bosom that speaks out when wrong presents itself, and thunders out against wrong; that something in me that approves the right. And every sin of my life is a stab at my conscience, and by-and-by I make the last fatal stab, and conscience is dead forever. 214 Righteousness and Life; Sin and Death, "Will you let me say to you, my congregation to-night, that the great trouble with the world to-day is that con- science is stabbed to death. "Why, do you tell me that this government in this State and this municipality here would be run like it is if conscience was alive? ISTo, sir! I^ational conscience is dead ! If a man goes into a credit mobilier or any other job in the country, and filches from this Govern- ment a few hundred thousand or a few million, he is dubbed ^'Colonel,'' and sent to the United States Senate, and con- sidered one of the leading citizens of America! But if a poor negro steals a dollar to buy him bread, he spends a lonely, weary time in jail and in the chain gang, "What is the matter? Conscience is dead I CONSCIENCE IS DEAD. Conscience is dead ! That's all. Oh, my fellow-citizens, let me say to you to-night that the trouble with this coun- try is that the national conscience is dead, and individual conscience is dead, and the Churches conscience is dead, and thus we are marching on; Tramp! tramp! tramp! the boys are marching, without conscience, and without the saving power of con- science to check them» Ah, me ! Look at St. Louis! And I want to tell jon right now that a Christian man cannot patronize the theaters in this town. "Why? The day of the week that a Christian man consecrates to God, he can go to the same play that he was at on Friday night, and see the same company desecrate God's Sabbath on Sunday night, in the same house that he sat and saw the jolay on Friday night ! And do you tell me that a Christian with a live conscience will look on a thing on Friday night and go to see a play on that same stage on which that same crowd are going to desecrate the Sabbath and violate God's law? ITo, sir. A Christian man with a live conscience cannot patronize an institution of that sort. And if I had nothing in God Almighty's world against the the'ater, I say I am down on any crowd that cannot make a living six days in the week, and that have to rush over on God's Sabbath and desecrate that day to make a living i I am down on that sox't of a crowd ! Bighteoustiess and Life; Sin and Death 215 DOWN ON THE THEATERS. They say I am down on theaters; but, God bless you, if chey will make the theaters as good as the Church — and that would not be hard to do — that ain't asking much of them, I pledge you my word, whenever theaters will keep the Ten Commandments, I will stand ujd and advocate them. But I am down on them as long as they are down on the Ten Com- mandments. Do you understand that? They are growling mightily on my track. The theatrical companies say they would rather run against the devil than Sam Jones, and they are down on me. One of the leading theatrical gentlemen just from a Southern tour, said: *'I tell you, a theatrical crowd badbetter keep clearofSam Jones' track, foryou cannot make salt where he has been." I like that. I want to cut a canal through the whole business, and ditch it off, and sun it awhile and make it decent. And no theater-man, nor theater-goer, need say one word to me about holding up — "don't denounce us " — until they keep the Ten Command- ments ; and when they do that I will bow to them politely and say, "Gentlemen, I sheath my sword and I will never hit you again." But I am going to fight anything that breaks the Ten Commandments. I am standing by these Ten Com- mandments, and I am going to die by them. TRAFFICKING WITH EVIL. The conscience of this city is dead. Don't you know that whenever St. Louis says, "You shan't sell whisky here in this town," don't you know it has got to get out of here? Don't you know that? And I will tell you another thing. We members of the Church will stand around here and curse bar-keepers — in a pious way I mean — and abuse bar-keepers and abuse saloons. Nowlet me tell you. Every citizen of this town walks up to the bar-keeper and pats him on the shoulder and says, "We'll license you if you will divide with us." Now, ain't that saying, "If you will pay us taxes for selling it, to fix up the streets and keep the town going — if you will divide with me" — that's it — "we'll pat you on the back and protect you." Ain't that so? " If you will slip $200 a year in this pocket here to help fix up the street leading to the church, WG will license you, pat you on the back, protect you, and we'll tell our preacher to shut his mouth — ^ Don't 216 Bighteousness and Life; Sin and Death. you open your mouth.' " Ain't that so [turning to the min- isters on the stage]? I don't know whether they ever told you preachers to shut your mouths or not, hut you have done it voluntarily, if they didn't make you do it. THE BAR-KEEPERS ARE GENTLEMEN. I want to say to St. Louis to-night that the bar-keepers and saloon-keepers are the gentlemen and St. Louis is the vagabond! Now, what do you say ? The bar-keeper is selling it to get a little money to feed his wife and children, and you are letting him sell it, if he will give you part of the money to fix up your streets. Ain't that the way it is go- ing? The Lord have mercy upon us ! And this is just the way it is standing in this country. And I tell you, if the Lord Almighty will come down to-night and rake and dig the dirt off our consciences where they are dead and buried, and if he will burst the tombstones oif of them and dig them out of the ground, and tear the grave-clothes off of our consciences, and let them walk the streets of this tawn one day, we'll revolutionize this town in one week so that a familiar friend would not recognize it. Conscience! Conscience! Do you want to know why I think your conscience is dead, brother? You don't j^ray in your family; you don't attend your prayer-meeting; you don't do anything scarcely that a Christian ought to do, and yet you say, "I feel all right." The old fool don't know the difference between feeling all right and not feeling at all — that's what is hurting him. And I will tell you it takes a philosopher to go in there and tell the difference, too. A dead man feels as good as anybody, but he doesn't feel at all. CONSCIENCE AND POLITICS. Conscience! Conscience! As soon as we got the conscience of Atlanta aroused we put whisky out of Atlanta; and they may file a hundred bills of injunctions; but, mark what I tell you ! When the majority of the people of a town say a thing can't be did, it ain't going to be did — that's all. The majority in this country rules. And when a fellow don't like to live in a country where the majority rules, then he can emigrate, and I'll buy him an emigrant ticket any day he wants to go. Talk about sumptuary laws, I will tell you. I was born Righteousness and Life; Sin and Death. 217 a Democrat and raised a Democrat, and never voted any- thing but a Democratic ticket, but if they try to ram sumptu- ary laws down my throat in the shape of a barrel and a demijohn, I ain't a Democrat — it's a lie. I'll die first. THE NIGGER BETTER THAN WHISKY. And ril tell you another thing. When you look for the Democratic party to come down the road, you can clear the way. You will see a Governor astraddle of a whisky bar- rel, and all the other little Democratic politicians riding demijohns right down the road— that's the way they have got the thing in this country. And I told them some time ago : '' You bring up your two parties now — the radical party running on the nigger and the Democrats on whisky — that's about the way the thing stands now — and they say, ^Now, if you are a good Democrat, just swallow this candidate and his barrel down ;' then if you ain't a good Democrat you are aEepublican : '■ You have got to swallow this man here or a darkey'— you are obliged to swal- low one or the other.'' I will look at the two. Now, there's the Democrat and his whisky; and here is the Eadical and his nigger ; and I say : ^' Have I got to gulp down one or the other?" ''Yes." " Well," I will say, ''one bottle of whisky — one might have done me more harm than all the nig- gers in the Southern States ;" and I will say : " You just pin that fellow's ears back and grease him, and down he goes." UNWISE PARTY LOYALTY. Those are just my honest sentiments about it. And I de- spise this miserable loyalty to party that takes the party lash and whips me into voting for anybody. I don't care who he is, or what the party is that nominates him. May God Almighty raise the conscience of America from the dead, and let us not ask whether he is this or that, but "Is he a pure, good man and will he do right in office?" That is it! I will never vote for a drunkard, nor a gambler, nor a de- bauchee, I don't care who nominates him. Never! I have got too much conscience for that. Conscience! And we have sinned and sinned until con- science is stabbed to death, and we are a good deal like the fellow that said that when he first joined the Church any little thing he did wrong nearly killed him, but "I've got so now, 218 Righteousness and J^ife; ^in and Death, I can steal a horse and it don't bother me at all." And that's just about the way we are going in this country now — every fellow's conscience dead ; and he can't see any harm in this, or any harm in that, or any harm in the other. May Al- mighty God arouse our conscience and bring it to life once more. We have stabbed it to death, and here we are to- night, quibbling over this thing, or that thing, or the other thing. Instead of drawing our swords and battling for the right, and daring to do the right, we are wincing and whin- ing around, and saying, "I don't see any harm in this, and I don't see any harm in that." Good Lord ! Let conscience come up from the grave, and then you can see the line just as clearly as you can see the sun at mid-day in its brightest shining. CLOSING ST. LOUIS SALOONS ON SUNDAY. Conscience! Whenever you get the conscienceof St. Louis alive you are going to stop these Sunday theaters here, and you are going to stop a heap of devilment that is going on here on Sunday; you are going to close up these saloons on Sunday. And I will say another thing: if I was a betting man and there wasn't any harm in betting, I'd stake all I could raise on saying that twelve months from to-day you will witness the last saloon open on Sunday in this city. I am down on any crowd that is so greedy they ain't will- ing to pour damnation down a fellow's throat six days in a week and quit with that. lam. They are the greediest men I ever saw, if they ain't willing to compromise on six days' work to put in for hell and damnation. That ought to satis- fy any fellow. Conscience! Conscience! Conscience! I know you will say I am a fanatic. You know the difference between a fanatic and one of your sort sitting back there — one's conscience is dead and buried, and the other has got a live conscience; and it don't take a live conscience long to make a fanatic out of a fellow. That's true! I found that out. Conscience! Every sin of my life is a direct stab at my conscience, and, stab after stab, the blows are given until conscience gasps and breathes its last, and now the man can do anything in the world, and he can see no harm in any- thing in the world. Mghteousness and Life; Sin and Death. 219 DEADENED SENSIBILITIES. Conscience ! But it does its work on. He that pursueth evil pursueth it to the death of his sensibilities. The natural tendency of sin is to dry up the fountain of a man's sensibil- ities. Oh, me ! There are men here to-night that could not shed a tear if they could get a kingdom for a single tear — all the sensibilities of their nature dried up; and you might just as well preach to a dead man as to preach to one of them. Why, he says all emotional flow,and all emotional feeling, and all concerning his sensibilities, were dead long ago. Oh, my God ? Pity a man that has stabbed his sensibili- ties to death and has no feeling about his immortal interests. And, then, he that pursueth evil not only kills conscience and stabs sensibility to death, but he goes on at his work, and then, he that pursueth evil pursueth it to the death of his powers of resistance. THE STOPPING POWER. You see that throttle and that engineer's hand on it; and you see that engine rolling at the rate of fifty miles an hour, with an impulse almost omnipotent! The greatest power of this nineteenth century is the throttle-valve of an engine. Next to that greatest power is the lever of those air-brakes — the stopping power. The first is the go-ahead power; the next greatest j)ower is the stopping power. I was sitting on an engine some months ago with a friend, and as we sat there talking I looked ahead. Said I, '' Look at those cattle on the track !'' We were rolling forty odd miles an hour. He just took hold of the lever of his air- brake and turned it around, and slapped on every brake on every wheel and blew his whistle and gave the cattle time to clear the track, and but for that brake power that day those cattle might have ditched that train and killed half the. men on it. The power to stop ! The power to stop ! WHEN THE BRAKE WON't WORK. I believe it was on the Baltimore and Ohio Eailroad that some months ago a passenger engineer pulled his great long passenger train of thirteen cars, seven passenger coaches and four sleepers, heavily up a steep grade until he reached a tunnel. When he ran out of the tunnel he pulled out his watch and saw that he was an hour behind time. He had 220 Uighteousness and Life; Sin and Death. thirteen miles of down grade to the river, and he shoved his lever forward, and pulled his throttle open; and that engine commenced to roll and thunder down that grade until she reached a speed of sixty miles an hour. Down that grade and on and on she rolled, with every pound of steam thrown against her piston heads, until she came within a mile of the bridge across the river. When he reached thatpoint he shut the steam off, and turned the lever of the air-brakes, but dis- covered they were out of fix. He instantly awoke to conscious- ness of his peril, and said; *'I am within a mile of the river, with a speed of sixty-seven miles an hour, and my air-brakes out of fix." Then he reached out and caught his whistle-lev- er and whistled a fearful blast that called for "down brakes." The brakeman ran to the car door and stood there. The car wasjumjDing and pitching and tossing, and the brakeman said : ^'It is certain death for me to walk out on that plat- form to those brakes." The engineer felt his train rolling on with an increased impulse, and he reached out again and caught hold of the whistle-lever, and again with fearful blast called for "down breaks." And the captain, the conductor, ran up to the rear end of the car where the brakeman stood, and said : " Go out and put on those brakes. Don't you see that we are near the bridge. The engineer has whistled for down brakes." The brakeman said: "Captain, we cannot go out on that platform. It is certain death to go out there. We can- not stand here in the car." And on and on the train rolled, and soon swept on to the bridge. The first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh cars rolled on to the bridge, but the first sleeper swung too far outto the left and struck the bridge, and the four sleepers were hurled into the river below, and the passengers swept into eternity. What was the matter? The brakes would not work, that is all. And I tell you here to-night in St. Louis there are twenty thousand men that have pulled to the top of the grade and have start- ed down and down, and on and on they roll to-day, and ev- ery brake on their nature is gone forever. POOR BOB HERRICK. Poor Bob Herrick, at Eome, a good-natured, kind-hearted man he was, with a pleading wife, and against the advice of physicians, drinking on and on ! And now he is on his dying Bighteousness and Life; Sin and Death. 221 bed and is surrounded by friends. It took four men to hold him on his dying couch, and when the last lucid moment came he said, "Doctor, is there any chance for my poor life?'' " No, Bob," he replied. " If you drink you will die, and if you don't drink you will die.'' And two hours after, poor Bob foundered on the rocks of damnation, with his wife and children clinging around his neck. Grone! gone! gone forever! There are men, perhaps, listening to me to-night who will never stop cursing, who will never stop drinking. You will die with an oath on your lips. God pity the man that has reached that point where he has said, " I can not quit ! I can not quit." It would seem plain that God had stricken such poor wretches with judicial impotency. Oh, my friend, to-night let us put the brakes on our nature and say, "I will quit! I will quit! I will drink no more ! 1 have drunk my last drop. I have sworn my last oath." Let you and I settle that once and forever, and say, " God being my judge I will quit to-night. You have no more time to throw away. You need not catch up any more momentum. No, the momentum some of you have will run you on and on until you make the final leap and you are gone forever. Your appetite for whisky could not be any stronger. The appe- tite of your lustful nature is such that you are debauched from head to foot now. On and on men go, until they awake to a realization of their doom, and say: "I am rolling on with a momentum that frightens me. Every brake is remov- ed from my machine. I am doomed, and I am certain I will be damned at last." THE LAST SLACKING UP. Look here, friend; let us stop to-night. I tell you I verily believe that if I had not stopped at my father's dying couch, fourteen years ago, I believe that would have been my last slacking up. I believe that if I had not then said, "Father !" father! I speak it from the depths of my nature, I have quit — I am done forever" — I believe, right then and there, that was my only chance to stop and recover myself. And, blessed be God, I made that stop. Blessed be God! there was a turning-table right there, and on that turning-table I rolled my engine, and turned round, and I am rolling the other way to-night, I trust with amomentum that will sweep me into the kingdom of God by-and-by. ^2^ Righteousness and Life; Sin and l>eath. And he that pursueth evil pursueth it to the death of his intellect and his reason. I believe that men sin against their intellect until they get to a point where their minds can no more grasp Scriptural truth than they can make a world. In G-eorgia, in my own State, in one of the towns there, a lawyer of great legal ability would come out and hear me every time I preached there, and shake hands with me. On one occasion I met him the next day, and he said: "I like to hear you preach. You seem to be candid and honest, but the gospel you preach is the veriest nonsense in the world tome. I can see nothing in it. ^' Oh, me, brother, the poor old fellow has sinned until a lie seemed to be the truth to him, and the truth a lie, and I verily believe a man can so distort his mind and becloud his intellect, that he cannot grasp a Scriptural truth any easier than he can make a world. Oh, friends, let us stop to-night! God pity the man that de- bauches his intellect and rolls on and on and on. And then, lastly — and I will be through in a word or two : He that pursueth evil pursueth it to the death of his own soul. Oh, me, I can understand you when you say a man has sinned his conscience to death, has sinned his sensibilities to death, and destroyed his power of resistance, and sinned his reason away; but, oh, sir, when you tell me that sin will kill the soul, when it comes to the death of the soul, then I stagger back, and I am lost in wonder and in dread. The death of the soul ! Take these two words ''Death," "eter- nal;" "eternal," "death." Both of these words are the most dreadful in our language, but coupled together, oh, what a compound! Eternal death. Death eternal! What does it mean? The death of the soul ! The death of the soul ! DEATH OF THE BODY. The death of the body. I see this body. I have walked up to the dying couch of a friend and stood over him as death was doing its work on his body. I have watched him closer and closer as death came upon him. I have watched him to the point where there was a glare in his eye, and a twitching in the muscles of his face, and a jerking in his nerves, and a heaving of his bosom; and then I walked oflP and shut my eyes and said : "Oh, death, how cruel thou art to that loved friend ! " I have gone back and put my hands Bighteousness and Life; Sin and Death. 223 on him, and he has had the same glare in his eyes, the same heaving of the bosom, the same jerking of the nerves, the same twitching of the muscles; and I looked and went away again and said : "Temporal death is not eternal death." And then I ask, "eternal death, what is it? Oh, does it mean an everlasting glare of the eye? Is it an everlasting jerking of the muscles? Is it an everlasting twitching of the nerves? Is it an everlasting heaving of the bosom? Is it to die forever?" And yet I can never die. Oh, God, Help me to make my own election sure, And when I fail on earth, secure A mansion in the skies. THE DEATH OF THE SOUL. Oh, thank God Almighty, there is no death to a good man. On my first pastorate a good man died. Death robbed him of his flesh and strength day after day, month after month; and I walked into his chamber the day before he died, and I saw that death had stripped him of almost every ounce of his flesh. I said, "Oh, literally, here is nothing left butskin and emaciated bones." I can never forget how death had done its work on him, and there he was without the power to raise his hand or move his body. And one morning death w^alkcd in at the door and struck him its last fatal stab. And as death walked up to his bed he looked it in the face and pushed his bony hands out before him. As death made a stab at his bosom, he bared it to death, and as death struck the blow he said, "Life eternal ! Eternal life;" and sweptout of the body and was gone forever. And I said, "Blessed be God, that as death did its worst and struck its last blow he cried, 'Eternal life,' right in its face." Blessed be God, I believe in eternal life. I cannot live with any other thought. Just thirty years ago I tip-toed into my father's parlor, one morning, and they said, "Be quiet; mamma's dead!" I was not old enough to under- stand it. I walked up to the casket and looked down upon my mother. She looked paler and sadder than I had ever seen her, and when they removed the lid father kissed her, and elder brother kissed her, and I kissed her, and I said: "Precious mamma's lips are so cold." She has been buried in the State of Alabama thirty years, and if I w^as to go down there to-morrow and dig the earth off of my mother's body 224 Bighteousness and Life; Sin and Death, and disinter her bones, I expect I could gather them all up in my hands, and as I would stand there looking at my mother's bones, would say, "Great God, is this all that is left of my precious mother ?'' And as I stand looking at those bones my knees smite together, and I am in despair, and all at once a voice s^^eaks audibly in my ear and says: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. And I look up and say; Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. A GOOD man's death. Death of a good man — what is it? What is it? Death to a sinner — what is it? Here he is now, bound hand and foot; there he is, without power to move, and here comes a veno- mous reptile and approaches closer and closer, w^ithout power to get out of the way of it. He looks at its ap- proach, and it comes closer and begins to coil around his limbs and around his body, and in the cold embraces of the venomous reptile he shudders, and when the snake makes its last coil around his body and draws back its head for the fatal bite, he looks down its mouth and sees the fatal fangs of damnation and death. The snake recoils a moment, and then plunges his fatal fangs into his victim, and then in the pangs of agony and death he dies forever! But the Chris- tian ! The snake approaches the Christian. He does not ap- pear to be able to get out of its way, but just as it approach- es, a kind hand reaches down and takes hold of the head of the snake, pries its mouth open and takes out the fangs right before the eyes of the Christian, and turns the offensive snake into the inoffensive snake; and the snake coils itself around his body ; and he recoils because he is in the embrace of a serpent; but when the serpent draws back for its last bite, the Christian laughs and says: Oh, death! where is thy sting; oh, grave! where is thy victory? And leaps out of the body forever. THE LAST APPEAL. Oh, brother, let us never sin ! Oh, brother, let us endeavor to begin a new life to-night. Brother and sister, let us never die. Let us give ourselves to God and begin eternal life. Righteousness and Life; Sin and Death. ':>t> I want to say in conclusion, I sympathize with every man that is not a Christian. Will every man that is not a Chris- tian stand up, and by doing so say : '' I want to be a Chris- tian/' [A great many persons rose to their feet.] Now, before we dismiss the congregation I want every member of any church to stand up and say : *' I pledge my- self anew to God for a better life. I am going to do better. I am going to set a better example to my children and to my city.'' [Almost the whole congregation stood.] Oh, brethren ! what a victory for Christ J ^EF^MON XIII. "VY^/lQEP Of ^IN Vg. fHE -(^IFT OF 'QoD. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Ohrist our Lord. — John 2 ; 10. Really, that should be the text; but we will take this text, ^ because it illustrates the principle we want to discuss: But thou hast kept the good wine until now. I want to say to you before I proceed that I feel less like preaching to-night and more like talking. I feel like i wanted to talk to each man and woman just as if we were sittiLg in our parlor or sitting in your family room face to face. Let us talk about this, and you talk back at me with vour mind, and let us see where we will get to-night in this discussion. There are two questions that alwaj-s come up natural/'y *ind legitimately, and, you might say, inevitably between employer and employe. There can be no such thing as a contract for labor without the asking and answering of two questions. Now, if you seek to employ a man for a day or a year or an hour, the first natural and inevitable question on his part will be : What kind of work do you want me to do ? And when this question is satisfactorily answered there )S another just as inevitable and natural, and that is: What will you pay me for it? We say these two questions are at the very basis of all contracts for labor. There can be no intelligent agreement without: 1. The question. What kind of work do you want me to do? And 2. What will you pay me for it ? WHOSE SERVANT AM I ? Now, tbere are persons here to-night who may boast of the fact: *'I never was in the employment of any one; 1 never sustained tho relationship of a hired servant.'^ They boast of the fact that they live under the freest Governmen\ the world ever saw, whose very Constitution guarantees tc 226 Wages of Sin vs. The Gift of God. 227 every man his life, and his liberty and his property. And yet there is a very special sense in which we are all ser- vants, and there is a very special sense in which we are em- ployed, and there is an awful sense in which pay-day is coming. Now, whose servant am I ? In a spiritual sense every man is a servant. He has his master and his employment, and pay-day is coming. Now, whose servant am I? "We may settle that very easily in a very short time. St. Paul said To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whora ye obey, whether of sin uuto death or of obedience unto righteousness. Our Savior said : No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. He said something a little stronger than that: He that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. The dividing line is so narrow that no man can stand on that line. I am either on the one side or the other. There are a great many men here to-night, though, that will tell you — you go to them with a question like this : "Are you a bad man ? " '' No, sir." " Are you a good man V " No, sir." A MIXED LOT. Neither good nor bad. There are a great many of this sort in the world. Eeally they are in the majority. Well, now let me tell you. There are two characters in every community I have ever been in, that are a puzzle to half the community. One character is that member of the Church that will pray in public and pray in his family, and do any- thing the Church wants him to do, and pays liberally, but he don't treat his fellow-men right; won't pay his debts; won't live right toward his fellow-men. He seems to do everything that God wants him to do and do right toward God, but he don't treat his neighbor right. Well, now, here's the other one standing right by his side. He's a just man and pays his debts; he is generous to the poor; he seems to be, all in all, a good citizen. Well, now, there the two stand, and the balance of the community, a large pro- portion of the community, stand and look at these two char- 16 228 Wages of Sin vs. The Gift of God. acters and say : " Well, I'd rather be that man out of the Church that's just and generous and pays his debts, than to be that man in the Church that mistreats his neighbors." Well, why do you want to be a fool and be like either one? I don't, I assure you, and by the grace of Grod I don't intend to be like either one. I am going to do right toward God, and I'm going to do right toward man, and there's the whole man. This is the first and great commandment: Thou shalt love the Lord, thy Grod, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And the second is like unto it; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. No man who is an enemy to his neighbor is a true friend to Grod. And no man who is an enemy of God can be a true friend to his neighbor. A half-man ! A half-man ! He will do right towards his neighbor. He won't do right towards God. He will do right towards God, but won't do right to- wards his neighbor. Now, my friend, I say in all love and kindness, if you are of these, I don't want to be like you. I don't care which character you represent, and, God helping me, I want to do right towards God, and I want to do right towards my fellow-men. And after all, these men, neither good nor bad, you ask them : " Will you go to heaven if you die?" ^'No, sir; I hardly think I will." '^ Go to hell?" "No, sir; I don't think I'll go to hell." And this sort will necessitate some kind of third universe or world in eternity. You are not fit for heaven ; you admit it, and you are hardly bad enough to go to hell. And here you are, and you have been to God and to this community all your life in just such an attitude as that. NO NEUTRAL GROUND. Brother, let me say this unto you, you are on one side or the other. I recollect once at a county camp-meeting a gentleman approached me, and said : ''I'm mighty glad to see this grand work going on here. I hope this whole community will be saved." '' Well," says I, " thank you, brother. What Church do you belong to?" He said: "I don't belong to the Church, but," he says, '^'m a Christian." I said : "You a Christian, and not belong to any Church ! Why, you are the man I've been looking for, too, these many Wages of Sin vs. The Gift of God. 229 years. I've offered a reward — a large reward — for one of your sort. Christians are sort of scarce in the Church, and the Lord knows I didn't know there was one out of the Church. I'm gone lost now. I've found an anomaly in the moral universe of God — a Christian out of the Church!" And I said to him, ''I am mighty glad to meet you, sir. Now," said I, '' this afternoon, when I call up the penitents^ I want to call on you to pray for them." " Oh, no !" he savs. '' I can't pray in public." Said I, '' Why ? "' Said he, ^' Because I am not a member of the Church." " Well,'" said I, " when the service is over this afternoon, take one of the boys — one of the penitents — out from the al- tar, and go out into the woods and pray with him." " Oh, no ! " he says. '^ I can't do that." ^'Why?" said I. ^' Because I'm not a member of the Church, Mr. Jones." ^' Well," said I, *' can't you just take one of the boys by the arm and carry him off out in the woods and talk with him about Christ ? " "JS'o!'^ he said, ^'my trouble is, I'm not a member of the Church." "No, sir," said I. "That ain't your trouble. Your trouble is, you belong to the devil from your hat to your heels ! That's your trouble." He that is not with me, is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad. SETTLING THE QUESTION. There is no neutral ground, sir. Every Christian man has his banner and his weapon, and he is out in the front ranks, and he is fighting for Christ and for his cause. Now, whose servant am I? To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are. Well, now, let's settle this question, each one for himself. The Lord Jesus Christ said this: If ye love me, keep my commandments. Do you do that? No, sir. He said again : Come out from among them and be ye separate. 230 Wages of JSin vs. The Gift of God. Have you done that? No, sir. Deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. Have you done that? No, sir. Well, that settles the question beyond all cavil that you are not a servant of the Lord God, and then, if you are not a servant of the Lord God Almighty, there is but one alterna- tive you have : you are a servant of the devil. Every man that walks this earth is a loving, willing, cheerful servant of God, or he is a servant of the devil — one or the other. Now, will you slip up to your master, the devil, and ask him what kind of work he wants you to do ? Ah me! That seems like a foolish proposition ! What kind of work docs the devil want his servants to do ? He wants them to pro- fane the name of God ; to violate the Sabbath ; to bear false witness; to do a thousand things that we are guilty of every day. He wants me to do those things that will make my wife think less of me, and make my children think less of me, and make my parents think less of me. He wants me to do those things that are disreputable, and that dishonor God, and that will doom my soul forever. Isn't that so? I can prove it by fifty thousand sinners in St. Louis that this is true. THE devil's wages. Then, if I must do such disreputable work as this, ana must engage in such disreputable employment as that, what are the wages? Woe and misery and anguish on earth and damna- tion in the end. Is that so ? Well, there are thousands of sinners living and thousands in eternity to-night that are living witnesses to the truth that the devil would ruin them upon earth and degrade them in time and damn them in eternity. Pay day is coming. It has come to millions. It is now coming to thousands. What are the wages ? Preaching once in my own church on aline of thought like this, I turned to an old gray-headed sinner sitting over to my left. Said I: " There you are, after sixty odd years of age, and I wish you would get up and tell this congregation your wages for sixty-five years of sinful bondage." The old man twisted and turned in his pew, and next day he met me on the road, and said ho: ^'Oh, Jones, when you put that Wages of Sin vs. The Gift of God, 231 question to me Lnst night, if I had stood up and told the plain truth it would have frightened many a soul last night. I can tell you, sir, that for sixty-five years of sinful bondage, all I have to show for it in the world is the most godless family in all this settlement, and a hard heart, and a stiff neck, and a rebellious soul, and no assurance at all that I will ever be saved." Oh, sir, when a man of sixty-five years of age reaches a point where his stock in trade is all things like that, it is enough to frighten a man who has not gone farther than some of you boys. Then, if I be a servant of the Lord God — and, thank God, he has many servants in this city — the question comes up. What does the Lord God want his servants to do ? He wants me to love mercy, and to do justly, and to walk humbly be- fore God. He wants me to bear the fruits of the Spirit, which are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness; faith, meekness, temperance. He wants me to work dili- gently and work righteousness and speak the truth in my heart. He wants me to do those things that will make my wife think more of me, and that will make my neighbor think more of me, and make my children think more of me. He wants me to do those things that will honor me in time, and elevate my soul every day, and ultimately bring me to the saint's everlasting rest in a world of bliss and peace". A DELIGHTFUL SERVICE. Now, brother, if this is true, the Lord wan^ us to serve him gladly and serve him joyfully, and there is nothing that the Lord wants me to do that I wonH be, in doing it, a bet- ter merchant, a better farmer, a better lawyer, a better doc- tor, a better mechanic, a belter everything and anything; for religion is the best thing on earth to mix with life, and there is nothing better in heaven than religion. Now, there are some seemingly hard things we have to do for Christ, but I will honor him with the following declara- tion, which is as true as earth or heaven ever listened to. Listen : I have done some seemingly hard things, but the hardest thing I ever did for Christ was the thing that made me most like him after T got through with it. He that sweats and toils and suffers for Christ shall have flagons of joy and 232 Wages of Si?i vs. The Gift of God, rivers of pleasure for every tear and pang he has ever had. Now, if it is such delightful service that I am to render in the employ of my God, what is the pay? Whatis the pay ? Why, brother, he gives me enough cash to live on every day, and when I get old and wrinkled and gray-headed, and cannot work any longer, God comes down and picks me up in his loving arms, and carries me home to heaven to live for- ever and ever. WHY NOT SERVE GOD ? Is that true ? True as heaven. Then I stop and ask my- self this question : If these things are true, and this world knows they are, then what? Why is it that every man in the world is not a servant of God? Why is it that there is a servant of the devil in the universe? If the devil wants to employ me in disreputable service and degrading service, and it is misery and anguish in time and damnation in eter- nity, and God gives me delightful, joyous employment and helps me to build a character that will stand the test of judgment, and finally sits me down on the streets of the par- adise of God a saved man — if one is true and the other is true, why is it that there is a servant of the devil in all this broad land ? Now, let us see why — Thou hast kept the good wine until now. This text illustrates a principle in this moral universe on both sides of the question. The deviTs economy is to give the best he has got first, and then it gets worse through all eter- nity. Now, to illustrate — and I always could illustrate a thing faster, and perhaps better, than I could talk it : THE PALACE OP SIN. Now, when I was a ten or twelve years' old boy, the devil took me up into a large capacious palace — a magnifi- cient structure it was, beautiful, glorious in all its architectur- al beauty. He carried me into the palace and led me around, and I looked upon and worshiped the pictures hanging around the walls ; and then I looked at the beautiful carpets on the floor ; I looked at those beautiful windows, with their lace curtains. I looked again and there was a table of pleas- ure, and a chair of ease, a sofa of contentment, and oh, how many thousand things in that palace charmed my heart. And then he said to me: '^ If you will be my servant, all this is Wages of Sin vs. The Gift of God, 233 yours/' And I surveyed those pictures, and those beauties, and that elegant furniture, and that beautiful palace, inside and out, and I said : " Well, sir, I enter your service. If all this is mine, what do I care for God and heaven and ever- lasting life?'' And I took possession. I remained in there joy- fully several days. But I walked out one day, and when I re- turned I saw my chair of ease was gone, and, somehow or other, I never felt rs easy in there afterward as I did before. I returned another day, and my sofa of contentment was gone, and, somehow or other, I never felt contented in there after that. I came back another day, and my table of pleas- ure was gone, and, somehow or other, the pleasure had de- parted with the table. ILLUSIVE PLEASURES. I came back another day, and one of those beautiful win- dows had been removed and a solid wall was placed in its stead, and I said, ^' It is not quite as light in here as it once was." I came back another day — a beautiful picture was re- moved, and how blank that wall looked ! Another day, and another piece of furniture gone. Back another day, and a window gone — perceptibly darker. Another day, and a door had been removed, and I said, ''There are not as many ways of ingress and egress now as I once had/' And on and on and on, until by-and-by the last picture was gone, the last window had been removed, and, oh, how dark and glooms- was my home! And again, and again, and the carpets were all taken up, and how bare and cold that floor ! And again, and again, and another door removed, until the last door had been removed except one, and the windows were re- moved, and everything gone, and oh, how desolate ! But fourteen years ago, the latter part of August last, I walked out of that palace to see my father die, and I promised him I'd never go back any more. THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. I know a man that staid there just a little longer than I did — my friend he was. He staid there until the last piece of furniture was gone, and every window removed, and the doors all taken out, and he said, "I can't get out of that large, capacious palace/' The walls were coming together every day, every hour, and on Thursday night, about one 234 Wages of Sin vs. The Gift of God, o'clock, as his wife stood by his bedside, the walls of that palace crushed together, and he admitted with his dying breath that "the wages of sin is death." My God ! how many souls in St. Louis there are encom- passed in that palace to-night! How many in there, with doors all removed and windows taken out; and they will realize some of these days, as the walls crush together, that "the wages of sin is death.'' SIN PROMISES BEST AT FIRST. But how on the other side? This is but a picture of life, brethren. Life! Why, I can remember the first dram I ever drank. It made me feel manly. I thought, "Well, surely I have found the elixir of life, the grand panacea for all sad feelings." But I drank, and drank, until I despised myself, and loathed, and loathed, and loathed my very being, because I was a miserable drunkard. I recollect the first oath I ever swore. I thought it sounded manly. But I cursed and swore until I was a black-mouthed villain, and I despised myself when I walked into the presence of a Christian gentleman. Oh, my congregation, to-night I tell you that sin has its richest, sweetest ingredient at the top of the cup, but as you go down, and down and down, the bitterest drink that a human being can swallow is the last dregs of the sinner's life. Oh, how painful ! Some of you know that to be true. The devil ofi'ers and gives the best first, and it gets worse and worse and worse through all eternity! And there is not a sinner twenty-five years old in this house but what you will realize in eternity that you saw more real pleasure in a life of sin up to twenty years of age than all eternity had for you after that time. A STORY OF BYRON. Lord Byron, who drank of every cup that earth could give him, and who had all the ministries of earth around him at his bed — Lord Byron, with an intellectual and physical nature that could dive down into deepest depths and could soar into the highest, and whose wings when spread could touch either pole — that poor man, just before he died, sitting in his gay company, was meditative and moody; and they looked at him and said : "Byron, what are you thinking about so seri- ously?" "Oh," he said, "I was sitting here counting up the Wages of Sin vs. The Gift of God. 235 number of happy days I had in this world/^ And they said : "How many do you make it?^^ ^'Oh/^ he said, "I can count but eleven, and I was sitting here now wondering if I would ever make up the dozen in this world of tears and pangs and sorrows." Oh, brother, he went to depths you know nothing of, and to heights you will never reach. Let me say to you to-night, you are reaching the point like the great prominent charac- ter In England, who was sitting thinking in his study, and a friend said: "What are you thinking about?" He said: "I was sitting here looking at my dog on the mat, and wishing in my heart I were that dog lying there." Oh, sir, there are depths to which humanity can go where we loathe ourselves and despise ourselves, and yet these things promise mighty nice in the beginning. THE FIRST CUP THE BITTEREST. But how about the other side of the picture? The first thing the Lord gives to a man is the bitterest cup that he ever swallowed up to that hour — the cup of conviction, re- pentance. Oh, me! When David took this cup in his hand and drank it down he said: They gave me also gall for my meatc The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. There is no experience in all the universe of God like the experience of the soul in the deepest hour of its spiritual anguish. And this cuj) that God presents — the cup of con- viction — to the honest soul, oh, how it makcv his knees smite together and what wormwood anll sin, and stay at that point with the white flag run up, that God did not go to that soul. I recol- lect, in my own experience, I thought I had cried a heap, and I thought I had mourned a heap, and I went along mourn- ing and crying, and I gave up such sins that I thought I could get on best without, and when I quit crying and mourning and threw my sins down in one bundle, I did not go fifteen steps until I was conscious God was my friend and that he was my Savior, 20 308 True Repentance. «- HOW ZACCHEUS DID. How did they get religion when Christ was on earth? He saw Zaccheus up a sycamore tree. I don't know what he was doing there. But Christ saw him. Zaccheus was a rich fellow, and I expect he had pretty high notions; and Christ said to him, "Come down, Zaccheus; this day salvation has entered your house." And Zaccheus started down that tree, and got religion somewhere hetween the lowest limb and the ground. At any rate he had it before he hit the ground. He said: "What I have taken wrongfully from any man I will restore it to him fourfold." He had a good case of re- ligion in him when he hit the ground, there is no doubt of that. WALKING GODWARD. If we repent of our sins, and if you quit doing wrong and determine upon the right, Grod will meet you Bishop Mar- vin said that repentance was "the first conscious movement of the soul from sin toward God," and he said that after a man threw down his sins and walked off from them, no matter in what direction he started, he started Grodward, and the further you walked off from sin the closer you got to God, and a man can go back and gather up his sins and start the other way, and every way is hellward and down- ward. It is not so much the direction you are going in, but what sort of a fellow j^ou are and what you have got along with you. Eepentance, repentance ! I wish I could get you to see, my friend, to-night, that God is the common father of us all, and that God loves the worst of us as much as he loves the best of us. God only asks us to "cease to do evil and to learn to do well." If we would confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Well, we need the pardon. We ought to be pardoned; but we need something else be- sides pardon. We need cleansing from all unrighteousness. Let me illustrate this : A DIRE DILEMMA. Yonder is a man in jail. He is sentenced by the court to hang on the third Friday of next month. Now last night he broke out with confluent small-pox. The impending exe- cution is over him and he knows that the third Friday of True Repentance. • 309 next month he is going to be hung, and last night he broke out with confluent small-pox. !N"ow if the doctor cures him he will be hung. If the Governor pardons him he will die of small-pox. He is in a bad fix, ain't he ? Can you imagine any worse ? Here is a sinner. If God would pardon me for all my past offences and leave me corrupt in hearty I would just go on and die as inevitably from spiritual disease as that poor criminal will die of small-pox. Now Avhat do I want? Lord God, thou great Governor of the universe, give me pardon for all my past offences, and then cleanse me from all un- righteousness, that I may lead a better, nobler and purer life. The man who is simply hardened and turned loose is just like a swine. You may take and wash the swine from head to foot with Pears' soap, if you please, and it won't be an hour before it is in another mud-hole. And you can take that drunkard out there, wipe out all his past offences, par- don him for every drunk he ever got on, and just watch him stagger to-morrow evening. Now what did he need ? He needed not only pardoning for his past misdoing, but he wanted God Almighty to cleanse his heart and mind so that he would never go into another bar-room or take another drink. Now hear me; I am talking dispassionately, and am perfectly honest with every man of you to-night. A PRACTICAL ILLUSTRATION. You take my friend sitting on my right to-night, my friend Small. There he sits. He was controlled and governed by a passion as remorseless as death. It swept through his soul almost with the power of a cyclone. The day after his pardon, the day after he felt " God has forgiven all my past sins/' this thirst for drink came on him with all its power and energy, and he went to his room and dropped on his knees, and said, ^'Oh, my God, I can never take a step out of my house; I can never go out on the streets of this city with such an appetite gnawing within me." He fought there with that appetite for two solid hours, and he said, '^God Al- mighty come down and help me to struggle with that thirst; and from that moment to this I have never had any desire to take another drink." I believe that just as strongly as I be- lieve that I am here to-night. I have been alonf^ there myself.' 310 . True Bepentance. ISTow, I want to tell you, this old race needs something else besides pardon for the little meannesses it has already committed. This old race needs cleansing, and God has promised that he will not only pardon our past, but that he will cleanse us from all sin. Is there any man here to-night who will say, ^'God helping me, I will quit. I am done. I know what sin is. I will quit it." If you do that, brother, you have taken the one step that brings you into the lati- tude where God can get hold of you. THE PROMISE OF GOD. Now here is a naked promise of God : If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us. And now let us put ourselves honestly and squarely on this one promise. The stockmen of the West, in order to prevent the cattle from wading into the pools in their pas- tures and making the water muddy, have built a rock wall about the pools, and put a platform over the pool, and put a trough on the side of the platform. The trough cannot be seen from the outside, and I expect that if an old ox were to rear up and look over the platform he would tell the others, *' There is not a drop of water in that trough, I can see it and there is not a drop of water in it.'' Mr. Tyndall got up there, and looked down, and. he said, ^'There is nothing in it." But that old ox, thirsty for water, walks around the wall and on to that platform, and the pressure of his weight on the platform forces the water, sparkling and gurgling, up into the trough, and he drinks and is never dr}^ Brother, this naked promise of God is right over the pools of the water of life, and these scientific gentlemen have somehow seen down into the trough and said, '' There is not a drop of water in it." They are right about that; but let the poor sinner walk out on the platform, and his weight will force the water of life into the trough, and he drinks and rejoices in the fact that religion is true. HOW TO TEST RELIGION. There ain't but one way of testing, and that is like a little fellow whose father said to him : ^' Son, how does candy taste?" And the little fellow stuck the candy he was eating up to his father's mouth and replied, "Father, taste for your- self." And hence the good book says : Taste and see that the Lord is good. True Repentance. 811 If we confess our sins, he is ftiithful and just to forgive us our sins. HOW TO GET RELIGION. My little Bob, when he was five years old, had more relig- ious sense than I had when I was twenty-four. I went home one da}^, one Monday, and when I went into the house I said, " Wife, where are the children V She said, '' Brother George Smith is preaching to the children, and our little fellow was much interested and had to go." And we sat down and talked awhile, and directly little Bob came run- ning in. I took him on my lap, and his mother talked to him. She said : ^'Eobert, what sort of a meeting did you have V He said : " We had a good meeting.'' '' What did you do ?" He said : ''Mr. Smith preached a good sermon and asked us to go to the altar.'' "Did you go, Bob?" *'Yes, ma'am." '' What did you go for?" *'I wanted to have my sins forgiven." *' Did you get them forgiven ?" '' Yes, ma'am." '' How do you know ?" "Mr. Smith said if we would come up and ask the Lord to do it he would do it." " Bob, are you going to sin any more ?" said his mother. " Yes'm, I expect I will." " What will you do then ?" " I will wait until Mr. Smith comes round again and go up again." And the little fellow had the whole thing as clearly in his mind as ever any man had. "I went up to confess my sins." "Were you forgiven ?" " Yes." " How do you know ?" "Because Grod says if a man will confess he will forgive him." And that is where God brought us when he said : Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 312 True Repentance. If we confess our sins, ho is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I wish this world could see that all a man need do is to re- pent of his sins and call on Grod, and he is a pardoned man right then and there. THE LAST STORY FOR THE NIGHT. Now this incident and I will quit. When I was pastor a few years ago of a circuit in Georgia, I had some fifth Sun- day appointment. I preached there the fifth Saturday and Sunday. And the fifth Sunday of March I went over there and preached two days. On the Saturday I went home with a gentleman named Gaither, notamember of the church. He was a well-to-do man, and a graduate of Emory College. I talked with him and said : "Mr. Gaither, you are not a member of the church?'' "No, sir,'' he said. "Well," said I, "I want you to join the church to-mor- row." "Why," he says, "Mr. Jones, I cannot join the church. I curse sometimes, and I drink a little." " That is the reason I want you to join." "Jones, you don't mean to say that you want a man that will curse and drink to join the Church." " No, but you are a man of honor and integrity, and if you were to promise God you would quit that sort of thing, you would quit it." But he had made up his mind that he would not join the Church until he got religion. Many a fellow has said that he would not know what religion was if he met it in the road. He would ask the first fellow he met afterward, "What was that?" Oh, me, if a man did not have more common sense than he has religious sense he would die in the asylum. Good sense on everything else in the world, but when it comes to religion the biggest lawyer and the blackest and most ig- norant darkey stand on the same platform. TWO APPARENTLY HARD CASES. When we arrived at his house, directly his wife came out and I said, "I have been trying to get your husband to join the Church, and I want you to join." True Bepentance, 813 "I can never commit the sin of joining the Church until I get religion/' she said. I had a long conversation with them on the subject, and I thought I had struck about two of the hardest cases I had ever encountered. I went and preached the next day at eleven o'clock, and on the conclusion of the sermon that man and his wife and eight or ten others walked right up and joined the Church. That was the fifth Sunday in March. On the fifth Sunday in July I was back there preaching three days. On Saturday night my wife was with me, and she and the wife of Mr. Gaither went round in the carriage and he and I walked through the fields. We were walking along, talk- ing, and the moon was shining brightly, and I said : ^'Brother Gaither, Old Watt is doing his whole duty'' — that was Gaither's l3rother-in-law who had also joined the church." *'Yes," was the reply. '^He can't be religious unless he is doing his whole duty," I said. *^Can any man?" he asked. ^'Old Watt cannot appear to be religious unless he does his whole duty." I said. <'01d Watt was a drinking, gam- bling bad fellow, when became into the Church, but he came all over and taught Sunday-school, worked as class leader and became Sunday-school Superintendent, doing his whole duty and loving religion. A GLORIOUS MOMENT. Mr. Gaither said: ''Yes. Now, what is there in appear- ances? I have been in the Church three months and I have no more religion than that horse pulling our wives to Church." He said; "I have not cursed any or drank any since I joined the Church ; but I am tired of being a mem- ber of the Church without religion." He said: "If you want me to pray to-night I will do my best. If you want me to teach Sunday-school I'll do it. I am going to pray night and morning until I get religion. I am going to do it. I want to do my whole duty until I get religion;" and, sud- denly shouting, he said: "Glory be to God, I have got it right here." That is the secret of the whole thing, brother. That is 314 True Repentance. the secret of the whole thing. Oh, that I could just get men to see how merciful G-od is to the man that wants to do the clean thing. THE LAST APPEAL. Now, my brother, my friend, God loves you, and all God asks of any man is that you Cease to do evil and learn to do well. And follow in the footsteps of him who loved you and gave his life for you, and died for you. That's it. And there is no mystery about it. There is no mystery about it. When an army official advertises the conditions on which ho will receive a regular soldier into the army, there is no more mystery about those conditions than when God adver- tises to the world how he will receive men and women into his kingdom on earth and into his kingdom in heaven. And turn your minds and thoughts away from the mys- teries connected with religion, and just take hold of the plain, practical facts of Christianity, and say: ^'I know right's right, and I will do it; and I know wrong is wrong, and I will quit it." Turn your life to God, and he will have mercy on you and pardon you. Will you do it? God help every man not in sympathy with God to-night to say: '' Whatever others may do, as for me I am going from this day to trust to my Maker to guide me in the way of everlasting life and peace." A CALL TO PENITENTS. I am going to pronounce the benediction in a moment, and if any men here to-night — and I never was more serious in any talk I have made in my life — want to be good men and turn away from your sins and be a Christian, will you stay here after the service a few minutes and let the world see, and let the world know, that '^here is one man willing to forsake his sin and come to God?" Will you do that? No more serious proposition was ever made to you, and God's own word shows us that If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. My brethren and friends, in all love and kindness I say, *' Will you stay Avith us in the after service to-night, and True Bepentance, 315 some of you Christian men and women stay and let us talk over these immortal things V 'Tis religion that can give Sweetest pleasures while we live* *Tis religion must supply- Solid comfort when we die. God help you to-night to surrender to God, and throw down your wrongs, and do the right from this day until you die. ^EF(MON XYIII. 7hE pUTY Of ■VV/TCHFUJ.J^Egg. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evan- gelist, make full proof of thy ministry. — 2d Timothy, 4 ; 5. MOW, brethren and friends, let ns by praj^er and faith make this truly a spiritual service. I saw this morning, in prayer and faith, looking to God, a bright streak in the moral heavens, and the sun had almost risen upon us. I have never preached more honestly and faithfully anywhere than I have here. This is the hardest rock into which I have ever put my drill as a preacher. But, thank God, at each tap of the hammer the drill has gone down a little, and if you, as Christian people, will put the pressure on the drill until we get to where God shall put in the blast for us, you will see such a moral upheaval as you have never seen in this city. There is a sense in which one victory will help us to win some other, but I never won anywhere, in the gospel sense, until I was defeated. God will not glorify any man or suffer a man to glorify himself, or suffer anything else to glorify a man. It is all of God. AN AFTERNOON INCIDENT. Some faithful preachers in the service this afternoon, have been spending sleepless hours over the fallen, backslidden state of a great many members of the church and the godless stateof the city. They have been praying every daj^. This afternoon these preachers went to Dr. Brookes' home and said, "Doctor, Sunday night, with all the force we have, we want to unite at your church and carry this work on." Dr. Brookes looked in the face of the brethren. Said he, " God sent you here, and," said he, " all the power of my head and heart and all shall be "Vith you." God has people here. There are seven thousand, or may be ten thousand, or may be twenty thousand in this city that have not bowed the knee to Baal. I tell you, brethren, one of these can chase a The Duty of Watchfulness, 317 thousand and two can put ten thousand to flight. God bless the grand old Presbyterian Church of this city. God bless the Baptist Church of this cit}^ God bless the Congrega- tional Church of this city. God bless every church that bears the name of Christ, and bring us with one accord together in our movements against the sins and wicked- ness of this city. And I tell you, when you unite every Christian heart and every Christian hand and every Chris- tian mouth in this city all to work against the world, the flesh and the devil, you have got a big job then. You have got a big job on your hands then. A CALL FOR MORE FAITH. INow, brethren, let your faith be inspired, and let us look up to God, and let us pray to God Almighty to carry on this work. One of the preachers got up this afternoon, and said : ^'Brethren, this work will not fail. It cannot fail, and I tell you what, as Christian people and as members of the Church, it won't do now for us to fail. Failure now will imperil things here. We can't afford it. This town is waked up. I have been on 'Change, I have been on the street, and they are talk- ing it from one side to the other." And one gentleman said to me this afternoon, "I heard their conversation, talk- ing it on the street cars and everywhere, and we took a street car, and, sure enough, the conversation turned on this sub- ject, the subject of the meeting." Well, God is in the move- ment. And if God is in the movement, and the forces itre wisely directed, you'll see such a moral upheaval in this city as will put religion on top, and that is what we want. God knows we have been kicked and cuffed about long enough. God knows that we have been at the bottom a long time. God knows we ought to get up and shake the dust off of our- selves and be somebody in this universe. It looks that way. Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evan- gelist, make full proof of your ministry, — And then he said : For I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand, I have fought a good fight, I have finished ray course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but uiito all them that love his appearing. 318 The Duty of Watchfulness. !N"ow, in the verse, the text which we read, St. Paul said four things to Timothy ; and these words we might denom- inate the dying words of St. Paul — the last words of one of the greatest men God ever made. And these words were said to Timothy, his own son in the gospel. I have been frequently touched by reading the words of St. Paul to Tim- othy. I have seen the fatherly interest and the tender, watchful care that St. Paul bestowed upon Timothy, his own son in the gospel; and now that they have had their last conversation, as they have preached and labored and ate and walked and talked together for the last time ; and as all earthly association and communication is cut off forever, as St. Paul is about to pass to his reward, he says he has some- thing to say to Timothy. THE VALUE OF LAST WORDS. How the last words of a dying neighbor impress us, and how the last words of a good father fasten themselves upon us ! How the last words of a good mother are cherished by us ! We can forget a thousand things father said while he lived, but we can never forget the last words of a good fath- er. We forget a thousand things that mother said in life and health, but the last words of a precious mother linger with us like the memory of a precious dream. The last words of Paul to Timothy, and through Timothy to us ! And oh ! how much St. Paul compassed in these three lines. The first thing he*said to Timothy was this : Watch thou in all things. If there ever was a day in the world's history when the people of Grod ought to be vigilant and watchful, it is now. This watchful spirit is the sentinel of the soul — the sentinel on the outpost. I am commanded to be vigilant, to be watch- ful, because my adversary, the devil, is going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. I am com- manded to be vigilant and to be watchful because I wrestle not simply with flesh and blood, but with powers and princi- palities and spiritual wickedness in high places. Watch thou in all things. Gen. Washington said, whenever danger was imminent and the enemy was near by: ''Put no one but Americans on the outposts to-night." And now while enemies surround The Duty of Watchfulness. 819 us on all sides and press upon ns in every direction, is it not best that we put none but the most vigilant souls upon the watch-tower, and that we put the most faithful sentinels that belong to our own souls on the outposts. BE vigilant! Watch thou in all things. It was death for a sentinel to sleep at his post. Do you wonder why they were so severe on poor fellows? I'll tell you why. The safety, the peace, the life of sixty thousand men is in the hands of that sentinel out there on the out- post, and for him to go to sleep means to have the enemy charge upon a camp of sleeping soldiers and butcher them in their bunks. No wonder the General says to his senti- nel, ''It is death to go to sleep on the outpost there. '^ And I tell you another thing: the way Grod talks to us, it is mighty near death to jom and death to me if we shall ever forget to obey the text and fail to be watchful. Another scriptural term for this same expression or thought is this: Wallc circumspectly. l^ow, that word '^circumspectly,'' is a Latin derived word, a compound word. It means ^'walk, looking around you." The Indian walking in the primal forests of this country, in- habited by all kinds of wild beasts and reptiles, walked with perfect safety, because he walked circumspectly. The In- dian bade his squaw and his children good-by in the morn- ing and went into the wild forests, inhabited by wild beasts and reptiles, and they did not think of his safety. They knew that if the enemy approached him from the right, he saw him. If the enemy came from the front, he saw him. To the left, he saw him. If he approached from the rear, his keen sense of hearing and seeing detected it. If it was a wild beast crouched on a limb above his pathway, he saw him. If it was a hissing serpent underneath on his path- way, he saw him. And the Indian walked in perfect safety, because he walked circumspectly. HOW TO WALK CIRCUMSPECTLY. Circumspectly ! A man walking along and looking ahead of him is not walking circumspectly. A man who just looks to the right and looks ahead is not walking circum- 320 The Duty of Watchfulness. spectly. If a man looks on both sides and to the front he is not walking circumspectly. If a man looks to the rear and in front and on both sides he is not walking circumspectly. If a man looks above him and in front and on both sides and to the rear, he is not walking circumspectly. But if he looks above and beneath and in front and to the right and to the left and in the rear, and in walking looks around all ways, then he is walking circumspectly. I know not from what direction the enemy may attack. I know not whether it shall be from the left or from the right, from the front or from rear. I know not what sort of enemy it may be, and I know not the direction he may come upon me; and so I shall obey the scripture and walk circumspect- ly, looking around both ways. Both ways ! Walking circumspectly! Well, I must not only walk looking all around me both ways and looking outward, but I must look within, look at myself. Spurgeon said, all our enemies are comprehended under three heads: the world, the flesh and the devil. *'The devil is a cunning old enemy. Oh, how cunning ! But, by the grace of God, I can conquer the devil. This old world is a multitudinous affair with ten thousand things to attract and seduce me, but, by the grace of God, I can conquer the world. But/' he said, ''Good Lord, deliver me from myself." MIS-LOCATING THE DEVIL. Nine-tenths of your trouble and my trouble is not on the outside at all. It is inside. There is where your trouble is. As I heard a brother say to-day: You can go out in the world as much as you please, but you had better mind how you get the world into you. Sometimes we mis-locate things, like the good old brother that called on Bishop Whiteman. Down in Mobile, Ala., the Bishop had been holding Confer- ence, and a good old brother came up to him in his room one day and said to the Bishop : ''I haven't been to my church in two years.* I haven't been out at all in that time." "Well," said the Bishop, "why is that, brother? " "Why," said he, "they have got the devil right behind the pulpit." "What? Got the devil right behind the pulpit?" The Duty of Watchfulness. 32 \ "Yes/' he says, "they have. Just as soon as I walk into the church, the first thing I see is the devil right behind the, pulpit." ''Why, brother," said the Bishop, "what in the world do you mean V "Why, it's the organ they've got in there." "Well," said Bishop Whiteman, in his polite way, " I ex- pect when you go into the church, the devil is in there sure enough, but you don't locate him right. He's not in there right behind the pulpit, but he's in you. He's in you. You've mis-located things. There's the trouble." CHRISTIAN WISDOM. I heard a good old brother say once that when a man got mad with him, he always spoke kind words and said kind things. " Why," said he, " when a man wants to raise a dif- ficulty with me and talks bad to me, if I get mad, the devil will come out of that fellow into me, and he'll divide devils with me. He's got enough for both." And the trouble with humanity is that they don't locate things right. And Avith- out locating your enemy, you can never fight him success- fully. That's the truth. The wisest genoral in this whole war was the general, that knew not so much how his troops were arranged, but who arranged his troops by the arrange- ment of his enemy's troops, so that his strongest point was just opposite the strongest point of his enemy. And the Christian man, who is best equipped to fight the devil, is the Christian man who not only knows the strength of the devil, but knows exactly where he is located and all about him. Watch ! Your trouble, if located, is within and not with- out you. I would rather fight a thousand enemies outside of the fort than to fight one enemy inside of the fort. There are more dangers on the inside. And now let us see what we have inside to betray us. Well, let's see! Is there anybody here troubled with a spirit of neglect? That is a fearful enemy on the inside — the spirit of neglect. I don't care what else you have or don't have — if you have got that you are bankrupted. As I said once before, you may take the best man in St. Louis, he may be everything you want him to be, but you just let him 822 The Duty of Watchfulness, neglect to pay his debts, and there isn't anybody in this town will have any respect for him. Ain't that true? And we must reach the point where we see that the strength of the Christian is in the earnest, persistent discharge of every duty that God enjoins upon him. THE FOLLY OF NEGLECT. Neglect! Neglect to pray; neglect to read my Bible; neglect to walk uprightly before God; neglect any Chris- tian duty — the man who does it, does it at the cost of his soul. The spirit of neglect! Now if you take a man who has prayed night and morning in his family, just get him to leaving it off at night, say, for instance, or leaving it off in the morning, for instance; and just let him neglect it a time or two, and you know that the next thing that has hap- pened is that he has quit it altogether. Just let a fellow neglect his prayer-meeting two or three times, and he gets so he wonH want to go at all. Just let a man neglect to read his Bible for a few days, and he^l get so he won't want to look towards his Bible at all. Oh, the spirit of neglect ! It has cost millions of souls ! Neglect! And every time Christ prefigured judgment, the fellow that was condemned, was condemned for neglect — ev- ery one of them — and in no instance were they condemned for what they had done, but condemned for what they had not done. Neglect! You let a man begin to neglect his business — it goes right down. Let a man begin to neglect his religion — it goes right down. Let the member of a church begin to neglect prayer-meeting — it goes right down to zero. Let the member of the church begin to neglect to pay the preacher, and the first thing you know he's a pauper. DonH you see how the thing goes? And I tell you all, in every part and department of religi- ous life, aggressiveness and fidelity is found in the fact that we do not leave any gaps open but close them all up. THE TROUBLESOME TONGUE. Neglect! "Well, then, I will watch not only the spirit of neglect that might take possession of me, but I will watch my tongue. Oh, me! these tongues of ours give us more trouble than anything and everything else in the world ! It The Duty of Watchfulness. 323 ain't what we do, but it's what we say that keeps us in troub- le every time. I will watch my tongue. > I declare, some- times I wish I hadn't any tongue. Neglect! And watch my tongue. Watch my tongue. Oh, me ! if we just had some way of recalling every word we had ut- "The dog runs out in the street hefore he knows it." tered, like a President can recall some Minister or some Con- sul that he had sent off somewhere — oh, what a grand thing that would be! Brethren, I'd spend the next ten j^ears in recall- ing— I think I would — I'd be busy at it, I'd be busy ; but the only way I can do now is to watch my tongue ; and I de- clare to you, if a man opens the door the dog runs out in the street before he knows it. It is astonishing how many things will come up, and come when he least expects it, from this tongue. THD IDEA or TEMPER. I will watch my tongue. I will watch my temper. The noun "temper" is not in the Bible at all. The verb "to temper" is in the Bible. Do you know where we get that idea of the word "temper?" A¥e get it from the blacksmith's 21 324 The Duty of Watchfulness, shop, where the blacksmith, for instance, is shaping an ax and upsetting the blade of it; he beats the blade again and pushes it down into the water, and, taking it out, he watches it take its color; and again he pushes it into the water and takes it out and watches it take its color, and then directly he passes it to the hand of the farmer and says : " I think that is tempered, but I don't know. If you will grind it and take it out to that knotty pine log and throw it in a time or two, I will be able to tell you whether it is temper- ed or not." And he takes up the ax, and he goes out to the knotty pine log and he strikes it a time or two, and it is full of notches and the edge all turned and gone. He takes it back to the blacksmith and says, "You missed it this time; look here, it is notched all over with gaps." And the black- smith takes it again and puts it in the fire and tests it, and when he takes it out there to the knotty pine log, its edge is all right, and he says, " This edge stands perfect." That is where we get what we call our idea of temper. CHRISTIAN TEMPER VS. GOOD NATURE. Many a time we have had our tempers, our dispositions in the shop, and we have upset them and we have tempered them ; and now we say, " Well, now, I never will get that way any more ; I have got the edge all right this time ; I got it tempered up in every respect;" and the first old knotty log we get to, away it goes, and the notches are all broke out and the edge is turned oif, and we say, " Law, me, its no use of my trying at all ! I did worse this time than I ever did before." Haven't you ever felt that ? Oh, this temper of ours. A good temperwill stand anything withoutthe break- ing out of a gap or the turning of the edge. Good temper! Good temper ! There is a heap of difference between good nature and good temper. I have heard people say, " Oh, that person has less temper than anybody I ever saw." Well, they are less account that any body you ever saw, if you mean by that they are simply good-natured. I tell you it takes some- body with an immense temper; but when that temper is rightly tempered, then it is you've got the finest character this world ever saw. A LOVELY TEMPERED GIRL. I heard a lady say about a cook once, '' That is the best The Duty of Watchfulness, 325 natured, kindest, cleverest, best girl in this world, and the only thing I have against her is she is of no account in the world. That's the only thing she had against her : *' She is of no account in the world/' I like temper, but I want it to be on the edge right, and I want to be sure that that temper is managed right; and we can only have good tempers with vigilant, watchful care over them. The best way I ever managed my temper was to clinch my teeth together and not let my tongue run a bit. My tongue was a sort of a revolving fan to the fire; and the first time you let your tongue go you are gone. Did you ever try to clinch your teeth this way together, and try to keep a padlock on your tongue when you felt like you were going to get mad ? Did you ever try to sit down on your tongue once ? If you'll do it you will be astonished. I will watch my temper, I will watch my tongue, I will watch my disposition, I will watch within, I will watch without, I will be vigilant, I won't be surprised by any- thing. I am going to see my enemy approach, I am going to watch him as he comes, and I am going to meet him as he comes. A PERSONAL FRACAS. I thought after I was converted and went to preaching, that it was a man's duty to defend himself, and a maii has to get mad always to do that; and I recollect a time or two when I got what I thought to be an insult, and there was a personal fracas. Well, the last one I had I got into the fuss all over, and it seemed like the Lord had about turned me loose for good; aud I just said : " Good Lord, if you takeme back I tell you what I'll do. I will never get mad with any man on the face of the earth until they treat me worse than I have treated you." Well, sir, I have been now at it eleven years since I had the difficulty, and I never found a man yet that treated me worse than I treated the Lord, and until I do I am going to stay in a good humor with humanity. That is my doctrine. A fellow will tell you, '^If a fellow was to treat you like so-and-so treated me you would get mad." " How did they treat you, anyhow ? What did a person ever do to you that you didn't do to God ? If they told falsehoods of you, ain't 326 The Duty of Watchfulness, my life a living falsehood? Isn't my profession a living false- hood ? " " Oh, well, I know it,is, but— ah, well, if you look at it that way, now," they will say, ^^of course I can't get mad at folks for telling falsehoods on me." "Well, but that man told the biggest lie I ever heard." "Well, but did you never tell God one ?" A GOOD STORY. So I often think of the incident when Talmage went to the father of the boy and said : " My brother, your son" — a lit- tle boy about ten j^ears old — "wants to join my church. What do you say?" "Oh, no," said the father, "he don't want it; he's too young, he don't know what he is doing." After a while he consented, and Talmage told him that he had joined the church. About three months after that, the father met Talmage, and he said : " There, Dr. Talmage, I told you that my little boy ought not to have joined the church." "Why?" said Dr. Talmage. "Why," he said, "no later than yesterday I caught him in a point-blank lie." "You.did?" "Yes." " How old were you when you joined the church ? " He said : "I didn't join the church until I was a grown man." " Well, how many lies have you told since you joined the church ? " "Well," he said, "that's a gray horse of another color. I never thought about that. That makes quite a difference, doesn't it." I will watch and watch in all directions, and see to it ev- ery day of my life that I watch the approaches of every enemj^, and fight them as they come. THE ENDURANCE OF AFFLICTION. Well, when he told me to manifest always and possess al- ways this watchful, vigilant spirit, then he said to me : Endure afflictions. It is one thing to do the will of God, and it is quite an- other thing to suffer the will of God. As I said this morn- Tlie Duty of Watchfulness, 327 ing, most anybody is willing to be a bammer and strike for Grod, and but very few people are willing to be an anvil and to be struck for G-od. And there is quite a diiference be- tween the two. Almost anybody is willing to go out and knock somebody down for God, but are you willing to be knocked down for God ? That is the question. ^*If they slap you on the right cheek, turn your left also." THE BEARING SPIRIT. I think one of the most impressive things I ever heard was where the young man belonging to the Young Men's Christian Association was standing out on the sidewalk in a city, handing dodgers to folks out in the street and pointing up to the room where they were going to hold the service, and a gentleman who walked along with the crowd saw this young man hand a dodger to a fellow, and the fellow peeled away with his fist and almost knocked him down on the side- walk ; but he regained his foothold and was ready with a dodger as another one came along; and directly this other one slapped him in the face as he gave him a dodger; and the gentleman got interested in watching how the young man took it; and, in a few minutes, he put a dodger in a man's hand, and the man caught him and just mashed him right down on the ground, and tore one of his coat-sleeves off, and bruised him up generally; but he got up and had another dodger ready for the next man that came along. And the stranger went up into the room and heard a young man talk, and he said : ^'Gentlemen, I never heard a sermon in my life yet that impressed me, but I stood out here before your door and saw how the roughs mistreated that young man over there, and I saw the spirit in which he accepted it; and I walked in here to your meeting, and I want the very same spirit which that boy manifested." NO USE TO FIGHT BACK. Ah, brethren, Endure affliction. And it is the hardest thing in the world to do. Humanity wants to fight back and kick back and talk back. I have felt that a thousand times, and I never fought back or kicked back or talked back in my life that I was not sorry that I did it. The best thing is to stand and hold out, and let your 328 The Duty of Watchfulness, enemy kick himself to death, and he will soon do that if you will hold right still. Endure affliction. One of the soldiers in the last war said : ''One of the hard- est things I had to do during the last war was to lie still under fire." THE TRIBULUM. And this affliction here is nothing but the bearing and pressure and weight of the "tribulum." That tribulum we get from the old threshing-floor where the wheat was spread out in the straw on the floor, and where fvman got a big long hickory pole and shaved it down thin in the middle so it would have a spring to it, and he came down on the wheat and beat away there by the hour; and that was the ''tribu- lum" coming down on the wheat. Do you know what he was up to? He was getting the wheat separated from the straw and chaif. The tribulum is the weight, you see, and when God comes down hard with the tribulum he is just beating the wheat out of the straw and chaff; and the great astonishment to me is that the Lord will beat away so hard and so long to get as little wheat as there is in us. And God is obliged to be patient, and, with tender mercy, to beat six- ty years on some of us and never get more than half a peck of wheat. BLESSING BY AFFLICTION. Endure affliction. That is it. Bear whatever is sent upon you; and I will tell you there is nothing like affliction. Many a time a man has grown careless and godless and worldly in the Church, and the Lord has tried every fair means to touch him and move him. And there is a man now. The doctor says : "I am sure it is typhoid fever ; " and on the fifteenth day he says to his wife: "His case is getting a little doubtful." On the twen- tieth day the doctor said: "Youmay prepare for the worst." He heard the whispering — he was laying there on his bed, and the old clock ticking so loud there on the mantel — he heard the doctor talking to his wife just outside of the room door, and he saw his wife's lips quiver, and he saw her wipe the tear from her eye, and he heard the doctor say, "You can The Duty of Watchfulness, 329 prepare for the worst." The twenty-first morning the doc- tor said, "He is a shade better : the crisis is come 3 he is turn- ing; there is a chance for him." VOICING HIS THANKS. The thirty-fifth day he was sitting up in a big old arm- rocker, with his dressing coat on, and his wife gone out of the room, and the children gone out of the room; and he says, ^' Well, thank God, I am up one more time in this world;" and he gets up and walks to the door by the help of the chair that he drags along with him; he turns the key and locks it, and he walks back and kneels down between the arms of that old chair, and he says, "Thank God, I am well one more time; getting well. He has spared my life, and, now, God, on my knees I promise you, I am going to make a better member of the church and a better father and a better husband than I have ever made." And he gets up off of his knees, and God blesses him ; and he claps his hands and says : "Glory to God ! He is so good to me." God had to take that fellow and put him on a forty days' case of ty- phoid fever to get him where he could bless him. DonH you see? THE MORAL THERAPEUTICS OF SICKNESS. Oh, how much goodness in the Lord ! He won't let us be lost until he has done his very best on us. Endure affliction. Sometimes it don't last very long. I recollect a case down in my town where I was pastor. I worked on a fellow all during the meeting, couldn't do anything with him, but he got down with bilious fever and he got to death's door. They thought he was gone. And, oh, what promises he made that he would do better if he got well. And two or three weeks after he got better I said : "Brother B , how are you getting along?" He said : " I am getting better all the time." "Well," I said, "how about your soul?" ''Well," he says, " I am afraid that ain't doing much bet- ter." "Didn't you promise the Lord that you would do better if you got well ?" "Yes," he said, "Mr. Jones, I did; but I tell you a fellow 330 The Duty of Watchfulness. is going to ]5romise most anything when he gets down as far as I did.'' NOT SEEKING TO AVOID AFFLICTION. Endure affliction. Whatever is sent upon you bear it without a word, for I declare to you there is nothing like patience under an afflic- tion. When the Lord's providences touch us, let us be like the son, a great big grown boy, who, when he had done some- thing wrong and his mother picked up a big brush and ran up to flail him, thinking he would either run from her or fight her, just folded his arms; then she threw up the brush and cried just like her heart would break. And, brethren, when the Lord runs up to us with the rod of correction, let us not fight, but lean up against God's arms, and perhaps he will lay the rod down and won't strike you a lick. The best way to fight God is to run up to God. I found out when I was twelve years old that when father wanted to lick me the closer I got to him the better. EVANGELICAL WORK. Then he said : Do the work of an evangelist. Now you say, *' That just had reference to Timothy ; that does not have a reference to us at all." Do you know that God intended in the salvation of every soul that you should be propagandists yourselves? Did j^ou ever think of that? The trouble is you have turned the world over to us preach- ers, and you have turned it over to a sorry set, and we are not half running it, God knows. But I reckon we do the best we can with the material on hand. There is some hick- ory the Lord himself could not make an ax-handle out of, unless he makes the hickory over again. Do the work of an evangelist. We preachers have had charge of the churches and the sal- vation of this world now, in a sense, for eighteen hundred years^ and we have just gotten one man in every twenty- eight to profess to be a Christian, and only about one in those twenty-eight is one when you weigh him up right. We are making a big headwaj^ ain't we? We preachers are good clever men and da'the best we can, but God never The Duty of Watchfulness. 831 intended that the world should be handed over to us. He intends that every converted man shall be a preacher in a sense, going out and doing work as an evangelist. Suppos- ing the members of Brother Lewis' Church started out on the scriptural line to-morrow. Supposing every member of the Church said : " Grod helping me, I will win one soul this year for Christ.^' Supposing you said last January, each member of St. John's Church will win a soul apiece for Christ. The membership was seven hundred and twenty then, and it would be one thousand four hundred and forty next January if that promise was observed. And if the prom- ise were renewed then, on the following January the mem- bership would be two thousand eight hundred and eighty. And on and on and on, and in this way, before your head grew gray all over, St. John's Church could turn this whole city to Christ. That is arithmetical progression, and God is going to convert this world just that way. Listen ! When one-half of the world is converted to God, and that half says : '' One soul apiece to-morrow for Christ," and all go out and bring one soul to Christ, then everybody is converted and a nation is born to God in a day ! You see how it works. BROTHER JONES STARTING OUT. Just think, only one soul a year ! It does look as if every Christian ought to win one soul a year, or go out of the business. If I could not do that I would just quit in utter, absolute despair, I would. And I want to say to you all to- night just this: Just a few years ago, down in Georgia, God stooped down and touched my poor, ruined, wilted, blasted soul and called it back to life. I started out the weakest, frailest thing, and I declare that when I went to Atlanta to join the Conference I had no idea that they would take me. I could not see how they would take such a fellow as I was and put me to work ; and when they put me on a circuit, I was the happiest man you ever saw; and when I got nearly home — I had not thought about what the thing would pay — a man stepped up and said: ''Mr. Jones, that circuit they have sent you on never paid but $65 a year to its preacher." I listened, but that statement did not bother me a bit. I was happy that I had a place to go to work in. I started in down there as best I could. My worldly assets, thoroughly mar- 332 TJie Duty of Watchfulness, shaled, were a wife, one child, a pony, and $8; — and my lia- bilities were several hundred dollars. That is just the way 1 started when I went down on that circuit. I commenced preaching six or seven or eight times a week, preaching and meeting in private houses, schools and churches, working as hard as I could and working right on. I started out to do my duty towards God and man, and the three years I spent in that work were the happiest three years, it seems now, of all my life. And God saw to it that we had three square meals a day and respectable clothes, and that is as much as you have. Do you have any more? If you do, where do you put it? Some of you put it in the bank; some in railroad stock. Yes! A REFERENCE TO MR. VANDERBILT. I do not reckon there has been a mind in this century that has been under higher pressure than that of William H. Yan- derbilt. There were many things about that man I honor — many things about his life I would have the business men of this world emulate ; I will say this much about him. The last evening, when he dropped out of his chair and fell on to the floor, when the railroad President was talking to him — when he sat in that chair he was the richest man in America ; when he fell on that floor he was as poor as I am — as poor as I am. When I leave this world I want my friends to say, "lam glad there is a good man gone to heaven." When Yanderbilt died everybody wanted to know, ''How will it affect the Stock Exchange?" That seems to be the only question in New York City now; "How will it affect the Stock Exchange ?" They do not seem to care much about the man. They do not seem to have much to say about his funeral. The whole thing rests as on a pivot on that one question : " How will his death affect the stock market?" WORKING FOR SOULS. Now, sir, as God is my judge, all along through my re- ligious life, the one burning desire of my soul has been to see others brought to Christ. I have worked on and on and I tell you, the happiest moments of my life have been the moments when I have seen men's souls given to Christ. The one earnest prayer of my life has been, "God help me to help souls to Christ." Brothers, how do you feel about that ? The Duty of Watchfulness, 333 I may gather together a fortune, but it may curse my child- ren ; but if I gather souls to Christ, how grand that is. This recalls the dream of a young lady — I do not go much on dreams, but there was something impressive about this one. A young lady dreamed that she died and went to heaven. As she stood around the great white throne she saw that every one there had on a beautiful crown, and that beautiful stars decked each crown. She approached a sister spirit and said, *'What do these stars represent in these crowns ?'' The sister spirit replied : '• These stars represent the souls we have been instrumental in saving;" and she said : " I thought I reached up and pulled off my crown and it was blank, and I began to be miserable in heaven. And all at once I awoke and praised Grod that I was still out of heaven; and I said, 'I will spend the rest of my days in trimming stars for my crown of rejoicing in the sweet by- and-by.' " STARLESS CROWN. How many of us here to-night, if we died and went to heaven, would wear a starless crown forever. May God help me as I journey through life to gather souls to God that they may be stars, not in my crown, but blessed be God I would put them all in my Master's crown, and say to him, ^'You are worthy of them. You shed your blood and died that they might be redeemed. Do the work of an evangelist. Let us go out and reach somebody. Then lastly he said, ^' Make full proof of your ministry.'' I do love to see a soul go and work in earnest for Christ and work on until the work is completed, and then shout over the results. That is just what this means. I will illustrate this. I can get through quicker in that way than any other. A wife's prayers answered. I had once in my charge when I was a pastor, a precious, good wife and mother. Fourteen years before that she married a young man, sober and industrious; but after their marriage he commenced associating with drinking men. He soon commenced to drink himself, and he led a very dissi- pated life for several years, and finally he was taken home with delirium tremens. One morning two doctors came 334 The Duty of Watchfulness, and examined him, and they called his wife aside and said: ''Madame, 5- our husband will die to-day." She looked at the doctor and said, "No, he wonH die to- day." ''Well," they said, " Madame, these symptoms that are on him never fail. He will die." "No," she said, " doctor, he won't die." "How do you know?" they asked. She said, "I have been praying for fourteen years to God to convert that mati and save him before he died. And I have prayed earnestly and with faith, and I know he is not going to die. I do not care a cent about your symptoms." That evening the doctors came back and examined her husband and said he was better. She said: " I have not been uneasy about him. I knew God had not converted him, and I knew God would not let him die until he was converted. If he were to die in the fix he is in I would die an infidel. I could never have believed that God heard and answered prayer. I have been prajdng for his conversion for fourteen years, and I knew God would not let him die before he was converted." A SECOND SIEGE OF THE THRONE. The man got better and he was converted, and he led a pure, good life for two years, and then, under some fearfal temptation, he fell and began drinking again. She went back to God and prayed : " Good Lord, save my poor hus- band at any cost. I will work my hands off to support my seven children. My God, save my poor husband. I do not care what becomes of us." Two or three months afterwards her husband was taken with articular rheumatism, the most fearful kind of rheuma- tism that ever affiicted humanity. There he suffered day after day, aiid he turned his heart again to God. He was the most meek and patient sufferer you ever saw, just trust- ing in God every moment. One morning, when his wife was standing by, he said, " Good-by, precious wife. The moments are coming when I shall leave you; I shall leave you — and I owe it all to you and Christ — I shall go to heaven and pass into the joys of the blessed." She stood over him until his last breath had gone^and his The Duty of Watchfulness, 335 face was placid and calm in death. As soon as she saw sure enough that he had gone into eternity, she clasped her hands and cried, " Glory to God, he is saved ! Now I will work my hands off to support my children/' And that woman to-day is a precious Christian mother of seven children, and she is training them for a better life. Mothers and sisters, when you get in earnest you will see this world with all its glitter and fearful influences over your children. You will see it as it is, and will say, " God help us to be in earn- est about children and neighbors. '^ let's get to work. ISTowletus say: ^'lam going to pray for some persons and will never stop until they are converted.^' Will you do that and interest yourselves in souls around us? I could stay here and relate incident after incident where I have seen parents, neighbors and friends get interested for others, and how they just surrendered to God, and how they were brought to Christ. Let us go away to-night and say : " God helping me, I will never wear a starless crown in heaven. I am going to win some souls to Christ." Oh, if every one in this meeting would save a soul for Christ ! Now, brother, we have a few minutes longer to stay here to-night, and we are going to hold an after service, and if any of you have more important business elsewhere than you have here, you can leave after benediction. If any of you feel that you want to obey the words of Paul to Timothy, when he said: Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of your ministry — remain. If you are a Christian we would like you to re- main; if you are not a Christian we would like you to re- main. The theater wonH be out for an hour and a half, and we ought to be willing to stay here and talk about Jesus and the saving of souls to about as late as they stay at the thea- ter. I think so -, I think there is more profit in it. THE LAST APPEAL. I never did preach more unsatisfactorily to myself than I have preached to-night, but I have done the best I could; and I pray God Almighty that some truth may take hold of your hearts to-night, and that you may roll up your sleeves and pitch in and help to win souls to Christ. ^ERJVION XIX. JhZ '^Ah'U /iND THE I^EJECTIOJ^I. Because I have called and ye refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; But ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh. — Proverbs 1 ; 24-26. fHE more I read this precious book I hold in my hand the more I am persuaded of this one fact, that God is doing all that infinite wisdom and infinite love could do to call back a wandering world to himself. There is not a page of this blessed book I hold in my hand on which I do not find expressions and declarations that convince me in my own mind that God loves me and is interested in me, that God wishes me well, and that he is ever ready to manifest him- self as a gracious benefactor. god's voice. And when I read this text and look at the pronouns of this text — Because I have called — I realize that this is God speaking, and when God speaks all mankind ought to rise to their feet and listen to what he has to say. Because I have called and ye — You and you and you — — and ye have refused ; I have stretched out my hand, and no man re- garded ; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would none of my re- proof: I also will laugh at your calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh. I said a moment ago that I was more and more persuaded everyday that God loves men; that God wishes us well; that he is continually calling us from something and con- tinually calling us to something. Every time God calls a soul from hell he calls that soul to heaven, and when God calls us to heaven he calls us from hell ; and when he calls The Call and the Rejection, 337 me up to his bosom he calls me from all that would offend him or damage me as an immortal man. And now we will discuss the text in a plain, pointed way, and will you give us your prayers and your attention while we discuss this text? Because I have called. god's numberless calls to man. Oh, the numberless ways in which (xod has been calling this world to repentance, calling us to a better life, to nobler things, to higher heights, to greater usefulness, to greater blessedness. And there never has been a call of God to man that did not draw us and bid us come to something better, and something happier, and something wiser, and something grander. There never has been a call of God that did not call us upward. Who is it to-night that does not want to be acquainted with a better state of things ? Who is it that would not have St. Louis called up on a higher and better plane of morals and right living? Who is it would not like to see his children on a better and higher plane of right living? Who is it that would not like to see this whole world lifted up into the perennial sunshine and blessing? Who is itto-night that would not like to have the facts announced : There is not a dram-drinker in our city ; there is not a gambler in our city; there is not a profane swearer in our city; there is not a licentious person in our city; there is not a wicked per- son in our city ? Who is it that would not like the electric wires to carry the grand and glorious news to the world to-night : " St. Louis is literally redeemed from sin and re- deemed to God ? Instead of profanity we have praying. In- stead of wickedness we have righteousness. Instead of thiev- ing and robbery we have the golden rule — ^ Do unto all men as you would they should do unto you?' " ALL god's calls ARE TO BETTER THINGS. And every call of this God-blessed book is a call to us away from something that is wrong, and calling us toward something that is better. As I hear God and heed God and obey his commands, I am always leaving that which is bad and going up to that which is better. Do you want to be abet- ter man ? God wants you to be. Do you want to be a better woman ? God wants you to be. Do you want to be a better father and citizen ? God wants you to be. And this old 338 The Call and the Rejection. book does not mean anything else, from Genesis to Revela- tion, except that its truths shall make you happier, freer, wiser, j^urer ; and every call in this book is to you and me to come up on a plane like this to something better. Because I have called — One of the divine agencies and one of the most omnipotent in calling men from sin to righteousness is the Divine Spirit. And in his gracious love God sent his Son to die for us. The Son came and took upon himself to redeem all the race. He suffered, bled, and died, and was buried, and he rose again from the dead, and said : It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. THE NEED OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. And I have thought many times that if God had left this world without the presence and power of his Spirit in the sacrifice of his Son, oh, what an unmeaning sacrifice that would have been ! You see that cross yonder, with its bleeding victim, the Savior of the world dying upon it, and all mankind gazing upon it ? It was the dim outline of some- thing. The world did not understand it. Just as with the hills of North Georgia. Some mornings, I have walked out on the front porch of a country residence before day- light, and I would look out upon the beautiful scenery of North Georgia by the dim darkness of the night, and I could not see anything but the dim outline of mountains and val- leys. It was an indistinct picture that did not mean any- thing. And I have gone back to my room, and after awhile I would walk out on the porch again. Then the sun had risen up over the eastern hills and bathed the mountains and valleys in a sea of glorious light. And then I looked over these mountains and valleys and saw beauties and glories my mind had not conceived before when I looked at them in the dark. At first, this old world looked on the cross and did not understand it. It was too dim. But when the Holy Spirit arose on the scene and bathed the cross in a sea of light, then we could see — One hanging on the tree In agonies of blood. He fixed his languid eyes on me, As near his cross I stood. The Call arid the Rejection, 339 Then I might say : Sure, never to my latest breath Can I forget that look ; He seemed to charge me with his death, Though not a word he spoke. And then My conscience felt and owned the guilt And plunged me in despair ; By that precious light I could see that My sins His blood had spilled And helped to nail him there. A second look- Under this divine light — He gave, which said : "I freely all forgive, My blood is shed to ransom thee, I die that thou may'st live." THE HOLY SPIRIT LIGHTING UP THE CROSS. And oh, the cross itself would never have been anything but a dim outline of God's goodness to us unless the Divine Spirit had bathed it in a sea of light, so that I could see on that cross my Ecdeemer and precious Savior. Oh, Holy Spirit, arise on the scene to-night and let us see that cross, and see our Savior, and see that He is the propitiation of our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. He calls us by his Spirit. His Spirit lights up Calvary and lets us see the bleeding victim. And then the Divine Spirit calls us to look on that scene. It calls us to view our Savior on the cross. It tells us that he is our Savior and Eedeemer. He calls us by his Spirit. And that Divine Spir- it is going into the world, To reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And, brethren, no wonder it is written in that book, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. I can afford to do anything else except to treat lightly the wooings and movings of the Divine Spirit. LISTEN TO god's CALL. Oh, brethrcD, mark the expression ! Whatever else you and I do, when Grod himself by his Spirit touches our heart, 340 TJie Call and the Rejection. let us yield to that touch and obey that voice ! And that Di- vine Spirit is in this city, in this congregation, in your heart. He calls you to a better life. Will you heed that call ? Will you obey that call? Will you say to-night, "Oh, Divine Spirit, I have long repulsed thee, bat to-night I yield my life to thee. I will be a better man. I will be a better woman ?" Whenever the Divine Spirit knocks at the door of yoxnY heart, like he is knocking at some of your hearts to-night, he simply knocks that you may open unto him, and he brings life and salvation in his train where'er he goes. He calls us by his Spirit to a better life. I know God is in earnest, because all the manifestations of his grace show that he has not left a stone unturned to make me a better man. He not only calls me by his Spirit, but by his word. Do you know how many calls there are in this book to men, that they may live better and serve God and their genera- tion by the will of God ? THE CALLS IN THE BIBLE. Have you any idea how many calls there are in this book to you, my brother, and to you, my sister? Oh, this book ! with each page, and sometimes with each verse, calling us to nobler and better things! And this book has been on the table at your home, and on the shelf at your home, and in your library at your house — this book to-day that has its millions of copies scattered over the earth, and almost a million calls in each book ! Oh, surely no man can sink down to hell at last and say, ''I would have gone to nobler heights and to a better life than I did, if I had had just one call of mercy and goodness from God to me." This blessed book, how full of calls! Oh, there is many a man who not only despises the God of this book, but he despises this book. I love this book. I am glad this book was the precious gift of mother to her children. I am glad my mother clasped this book to her heart and said a thousand times: Holy Bible ! book divine ! Precious treasure, thou art mine. NO EXCUSE FOR IGNORANCE. I am so glad my father's highest ambition was to live ac- cording to the precepts of this book. I am glad that the noblest and best friends I have in this world have charged The Call and the Bcjection. 341 me many times to read the word of God, and obey its pre- cepts. I am so glad of the ten millions of Bibles scattered over this sin-cursed earth, that go like blessings into every home. And friends, to-night, when we take this blessed book, we see the numberless calls God makes to each man. And in each call he says, " Come higher; live better; pre- pare to meet your God." Then, I say, if we should die impenitent, we are dumb and speechless in the end. This blessed book, so full of calls I Come thou, said this book, Come thou with us and we will do thee good. But I know God is in earnest. He not only calls us to a better life by his Son, and his Divine Spirit, but he calls us by his ministry. Just think of the numberless voices that are raised every day and every hour upon this earth. THE ministry's CALL. The ministry, the consecrated ministry of God ! I know frequently we think the preachers are not doing much. We think frequently, " Our preacher is a very inefficient man ;" but I can say this to the honor of our pulpits in America : There is not a soul in this house that ever heard a sermon by anybody — I care not if it was by an old African preacher, I care not what language he spoke — I say to you to-night, you never heard a sermon in your life that did not have truth enough in it to save your soul ! We can criticise preachers — oh, me! it takes less sense to criticise than it does to do anything else in the world, and there is many a preacher whose congregation will pack him in an ice-house and then abuse him because he does not perspire. And let me tell you that we would have more faithful preachers and mora persistent and earnest work in the pulpit, if they got a littla sympathy from the world around them. Sympathy! Say what you please about preachers, but I have noticed this much, that whatever infidelity has done, or whatever infidelity has proposed to do, I have never heard of its projecting an infidel city without a preacher or a church or a Bible. Have you ever heard of any such a project as that? The meanest, darkest, blackest old infidel in the world never intends to live among infidels, anywhere in this 342 ^ The Call and the Rejection, world, and he is going to be ruined because he is going to be shut up with them in hell forever, and that will be the meanest and most bitter pill he has to swallow down there ! The meanest and lowest down old infidel in this town — if you were going to establish a town of infidels and shut out all preachers and Bibles, and pass a law that no church shall be erected there — would not move his family there or establish himself there if he was an old bachelor. That's the truth. GOING TO HELL FROM STODDARD ADDITION. Brother, I am glad we have so many preachers. And I tell you another thing : this old Stoddard addition here, with its many spires and with its numberless preachers — the man that goes to hell from Stoddard addition, St. Louis, is going to hell with a vengeance ! Now, you mark that ! I declare to you that I have thought many a time, if I should be lost, and if I must be lost, I'd rather go from some lonely island of the sea, where no preacher's voice was ever lifted, and where no Bible ever comes, and where no influ- ence was ever brought to bear upon me. If I must be lost at last, let me go from some lonely island of the sea, where no voice of the pulpit and no pleading of the Church was ever heard. Butthe man or woman that sinks down to death and hell from under the voice of the pulpit must perish aw- fully and perish justly. ONE SERMON APIECE, ALL ROUND. Brethren, there has been one sermon to each soul of St. Louis preached in this city. There have not been less than four hundred thousand sermons preached in this city since the day it was incorporated. And now we are assured of this fact, that for every soul in St. Louis there has been an honest, earnest sermon preached. And, oh, brethren, just think how Peter ran down that day from that upper cham- ber and preached one short sermon ; and I say it reverently, and I speak it honestly and reverently — you never heard a sermon in your life, I dare assert, that was not as good a sermon in a literal sense as was Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost; and under that short, earnest talk, three thousand souls were brought to Grod. But with the wagon-loads of sermons that have been wasted upon us, to- day thousands and hundreds of thousands of our people The Call and the Rejection, 343 are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. I have called you by my ministry. I have sent you my preacher. I have sent preacher after preacher to knock at the door of your conscience and arouse you and awaken you from your lethargy. Thank God for every consecrated preacher that walks the face of the earth ! And we will never know how to esteem preachers in this life. The people of this world don't recognize how God himself has thrown the preacher in the pathway of every man to check him and stop him and turn him around to bring him to God. And he has not only called us by his ministry. If he had stopped at that, it seems to me that every man who perished would perish without excuse; but he has called us by his providences. Oh, how the providences of God arouse us and stir us up at times. The providences of God. A GEORGIA STORY. In our town was an old associate of mine, an old school- mate, a kind-hearted, clever boy ; we were raised boys to- gether. And I walked down to his house one day. I heard his child was sick. I walked down to his house and I was invited into the family room. His wife was an old friend of mine — we were boy and girl together. When I wont in, she sat in the family room, with a sweet, sick child in her arms; and I looked at that child, and I looked at her. I said: "Virginia, God is going to take this little fellow, too, from you; it certainly cannot live.'' And I saw the tears leap to her eyes and spatter down into the face of the sweet child. Said I : *' Virginia, has it ever appeared to you, have you ever thought, that God is doing his best to save your poor husband" — her husband had drank and drank and drank, aud ho had suffered with delirium tremens but a short time before that. And she utterly broke down and sobbed, and said : '' This is the sixth sweet child I have given up, if it dies; but if God will save my husband I would give them all up, if it should break my heart." HUNTING THE HUSBAND. I went down town and hunted her husband up. I met her 344 The Call and the Rejection. husband on the sidewalk and walked up to him, and I slap- ped him on the shoulder, and said I : ''John, I am just from your house, old fellow. And you've just got almost an an- gel for a wife, and that woman is bathing that sweet sick child of yours with her tears this moment, and I said to your wife, 'Virginia, do you reckon God is doing his best to save your husband?' and she just sobbed aloud and said: '"If Grod can save my husband by taking my sweet chil- dren from me, he can have them all/ And," said I, "John, in the name of Grod, surrender, and give your heart to God and be a religious man." I want to say to you to-night, that man is an earnest, faith- ful, efficient member of one of the churches in our town, and walking arm in arm with his wife to the church. GOD DOES HIS BEST TO SAVE US. Oh, I am so glad that God will not suffer us to perish until he has done his best to save us. If a man had asked me fifteen years ago — fourteen years and three months ago — if a man had asked me, "My friend, what is the worst thing that could happen to you?" I reck- on I would have justspoken up involuntarily and said, "The death of my precious father. Oh, I'd rather lose all than him!" And yet my father came to death's door and the providence of God brought me to his dying pillow, where I watched him as he passed out of this world. And I want to say to you this, that God Almighty put my father's corpse in my pathway, and I turned around and said, "I will go back ! I will go back !" god's last RESORT. And many a time a man has traveled so far that God can never stop him until he has to put his dead wife in his path- way; and many a man has turned around and said, "I will go back! I will go back!" Many a time God has thrown the sweet angel babe, like a sweet angel chiseled out of mar- ble, in the pathway of the father, and stopped him. This much I know: God will never suffer any man to be damned until he has done his best to save him. There are many happy home circles in this town. A preacher said to me to-day: "Brother Jones, one of the troubles in St. Louis is, there are too many husbands and The Call and the Rejection. 345 fathers out of the Church and irreligious." One preacher said: ''In my church I know twenty good women who have wicked, godless husbands." Twenty good, pious, conse- crated wives who have wicked, wayward, irreligious hus- bands ! A WORD TO HUSBANDS. I just want to look at every man to-night who has a g*ood, religious wife. I want to say this to you, and may the Holy Spirit of God burn it into your conscience. Listen to me, friend! Listen ! The man who stamps upon a good wife's heart and almost crushes the last drop of blood out of it; let me say to you, sir, you owe that wife a debt that you can never pay her until you pay it at the cross of Jesus Christ ! You owe those innocent children that throw their arms around your neck and love you with all their heart, you owe those precious innocent children a debt that you never can pay, until you pay it with your wife around the consecrated altar of God. A TENDER MEMORY. I had at my home a precious child, when I was a wicked, wayward, godless man. It was the only sweet child lever had that looked in my face when I was a wicked, wayward, godless man. That child is in heaven ; but, thank God, I have not now a single child that ever looked in its father's face when he was not trying to serve God and to do right. The saddest picture in this world is to see a good wife and good mother do all she can to train her children right and lead her children to heaven, and the husband by his example and by his life doing all he can to undo the work of his wife and to curse his children. I have thought many a time, that if there is a deeper, darker, more awful place in hell for one than another, it must be for that husband ar.^ that father who, in spite of his wife's prayers and children following her example, broke through it all and despised it all and made his bed in hell. Oh, friend, when you talk about children ! If you cannot touch a man when you bring to bear the relation of his pre- cious children, then he is dead to everything that is noble and true and good. God will surely take some things from us. As I said just now, there is many a happy circle in this town that the 846 The Call and the Rejection. Lord has let go on through other means. But you mark what I say at this moment. You had better look out ! God may not like the way you are doing, brother. He may not like the example 3'ou are setting j'our children; and if God takes two or three of your sweet children to heaven this win- ter, you are going to be a better father to those that are left. A WAR STORY. 1 In a meeting once like this, I threw it open for talking, and one gentleman stood up in the congregation. Said he: " I am from a distant city ; I am a stranger to you all, but I love God, and I. want to be a Christian all my daj^s; but I want to say some things to fathers. I want you to hear me. I went through the last war, and never went into a battle — and I was in forty or fifty hard fought battles — thatldind't go in with a solemn vow that if God woul d spare me through that battle I would be a Christian. Then when the battle was over I would promise God that after I got home from the army I would be a Christian. And/^ said he, ^' God spared me through the whole war, and I came home after receiving only one slight wound during the war. And when I got home, I promised God if I married I would be a Christinn; and then God gave me a good wife ; and then I said, 'If we ever have children that need to follow a father's exam- ple, then I will be religious.' And," he said, ^Mn the course of time God blessed us with a sweet little Mary and a sweet little Martha. IN THE DAY OF TROUBLE. '^And,'' he said, ''when Mary was eight years old and Martha six — and a thousand times, I reckon, I had promised God I would be a Christian — I walked in home from the plantation on© day, and wife said to me, 'Husband, little Mary is very sick j she has got a very high fever; she is iiow scarcely conscious in her mind.' I walked into that room, and as soon as my eyes fell upon that child I said to myself, ' Now, sir, your vows to God. Do you recollect the promises you made?' The child got worse and worse, and the next day that precious child died, and over the grave of that child I said I would keep my vows; but I got home and I didn't do it. I kept putting it off till next day. Just a week from that I walked into the room, and wife said, The Call and the Rejection, S47 'Husband, precious little Martha is taken just like little Mary/ and I never went into the house at all — I just went oif to the woods and fell down on my knees and said, ' Lord, if you will spare that precious little child I am going to be a Chris- tian right here and now/ And I made my surrender un- compromisingly to God right there, and THE RESULT. I got up off my knees and went back to the house, and my wife met me on the porch and said, 'Strange to say, hus- band, the fever is all gone, and the child is getting right peart/ I said, ' Wife, I am not astonished. I have just got off my knees out yonder in the woods, and I told tTie Lord if he would spare my child I would be a Christian from this day ; and, oh, if I had done that a week ago our precious lit- tle Mary would have been with us to-day/ " Oh, you don't know, brother, how many thousand ways God has used to bring you to a better and nobler life. I knew there are people that will laugh and people that will ridicule the very thought that I am on to-night; but I be- lieve in the providence of God as strong as I believe in my existence. I believe that God rules in this world yet, and that the very hairs of my head are numbered, and that God does not allow the sparrow that chirps in the thicket to fall to the gronnd until he has signed its death-warrant.. GOD KNOWS BEST. God knows me and knows my children, and he knows best. I have said to God on my knees: ''God, you know best what is needed for my soul. If anything in the ordinary means of grace won't save me, God, use extraordinary means on me; whatever in thy wisdom will bring me closer to thee, grac- ious Father, let those means be used on me !" Can you feel that way to-night? Many a time I have gone home — and if there ever was any fellow that loved home I reckon I do — and I thought of this persistent effort I was making here in St. Louis, leaving all I had to come and help you — left everything in the world — loving wife that I loved, anything — to come here and help you in this meeting; and I want to say to you, brethren and friends here to-night, whatever is best for me, whatever is best for my children and for my home, my God, may that come upon us. If it is 348 The Call and the Bejection. poverty, I would rather starve to death in one poor hovel, if that means getting to heaven, than have the wealth of Yanderbilt and ride in purple and fine linen, and be damn- ed at last. Nothing in this world will pay me for going to hell ; and I say, Lord Grod ! let anything come but that. A THOUSAND CALLS TO GOD. God calls us by his providence. I believe in the provi- dence of God ; can not help believing it. And God not only calls us by his providence, and not only by his ministry, but, as Mr. Spurgeon said once, God calls us in a thousand ways if we would just stop and listen. Why, said he, when we walk out in the morning God makes his sun preach to us. As the sun climbs the slippery steeps of the skies, God makes him whisper down to us, ^' Oh, man, look at my pathway, upward and onward, brighter and brighter ! How is your pathway?" And when the sun poiseshimself at meridian, he says, ''Man, I have gone half of my day's journey. Have you?" And as he descends toward the West, he says : ''Man, I am going down behind the Western hills, and you are go- ing down to the grave." And when he sinks behind the Western hills, he says : " Man, will you go down with me to- day and paint the splendors of your life over the horizon of your death, or will you go down to a cloudy, fearful, dark, hopeless abyss ?" And when we walk into our family room at night and light up, and the little candle-fly flits around, and we brush it off and say, "Foolish thing, don't burn yourself to death," and then the little fly, the little mote, " Foolish t/il/u/, ihm't hum yuur6olf -Q^ies around the light, and darts to death." j^^q [^^ ^nd burns itself to death, God makes the little dead mote speak and say, "Man, you are doing the very same thing. You are dazzled by the pleasures and appearances of life, and you have al- Tlie Call and the Uejection. 349 ready scorched your immortality, and you are darting down into an eternal and everlasting despair, by-and-by/' HOME LIFE CALLS TO GOD. "When you come in to your table and sit down, and there are the children gathered around you, and you help their plates, God says, " As you are willing to give food and rai- ment to your children around you, man, come to me. I am more willing to give good things than you are to give food to your children.'' As you go into your room at night and shut the door, God says, "So, man, heaven's door is going to be shut some of these days. Will you be on the outside, or will you be in- side forever V And when some sudden move awakens you at night, then God says: "Be ye also ready, for ye know not the day or hour when the Son of Man cometh." Are you a farmer ? Every time you go out in your field to sow seed, God says : " Man, I have been sowing the seed of life in yeur heart all your days." When you come out to look at the grain coming so beautifully, God says: "Man, where are those seeds I have sown in your heart?" When you go out to reap your wheat, God says : "Man, the sickle of death will reap jou. down after awhile." When you thresh it and separate the wheat from the chaff, God says: " Man, that is just where I shall be by-and-by, separating the wheat from the chaff, and the chaff shall be burned with unquench- able fire." THE HEAVENLY ADVOCATE. Are you a lawyer ? Every time a client comes to you, God whispers back and says, " Man, have you an advocate up yonder to plead your cause before the eternal bar of God?'' Are you a school teacher? Jesus says, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." Are you a blacksmith ? Every time you bring your ham- mer down on the anvil, God says, "Oh, man, I have been hammering your heart with the hammer of my word and love, all your days, and yet it will not give." Are you a merchant? Every time you measure off a yard of calico, God says, "Man, I am measuring off your days to you." And when you take the scissors and clip the cloth, 850 l^he Call and the BejccUon. God says, ''Man, the scissors of death will cut you loose from time some of these days/' As 3-0U put your sugar in the scales and weigh it, God sa3^s, " i¥e/ze, mene, tekel ; you are weighed in the balance and found wanting/' As I turn my eyes to the burning iire in the grate at night God says, ''Man, will you shun that fire that shall never be extinguished?" As the grand old Mississippi floats by you, here, God says, " Man, will you flow over the banks of the Biver of Life, and drink its waters forever V And as you look out upon the shade trees of this city, God says, "Man, will you eat of the fruit of life, and sit down under the tree of life in the world above up yonder?'' As you look at the stars above your head, God whispers back and says, "I have sprinkled the canopy of this moral universe with golden promises, and I bid you look up and live/' As I look at the sun he says, "I will grow dim, but you shall live on/' As I look at the moon, she says, "I shall sink in darkness and be turned to blood, but your immortal spirit shall live in heaven forever, or be with the damned cast out/' And no matter who I am, or where I am, or what I am doing, God is calling me every minute to a nobler and bettei life. YOU HAVE HEARD THESE CALLS. Friend, will you hear these calls? Because I have called and ye have refused — I want to say, brethren — and I hurry through — oh, the numberless calls of God. God not only calls me once, but he has called me a thousand times; and not only called me a thousand times, but has called me ten thousand times. And then I say another thing right at this point, and the Holy Spirit of all grace help me to seal these words upon the consciences of this people here; God has not only called you a thousand times, but you have heard every one of those calls. Oh, my brother, 5^ou have not only heard them with your ears, but those calls have been ringing down through the chambers of your soul and you have heard them down to the innermost depths of your conscience. You have heard all the calls of God. The Call and the Bejection. 351 And God has not only called you ten thousand times, and you have not only heard all those calls, but — most awful point of all — you have understood those calls. You knew ■what they meant. But there is something else at hand ; there is something else you wanted to look to; something else you wanted to attend to; and now, my brother, after God has called us one thousand times, and w^e have heard all those calls, and we have understood all those calls, then if we perish, we perish awfully, and we perish eternally! Oh, just think a moment! Oh, how many calls ! How many calls! GOD STRETCHING OUT HIS ARMS. Because I have called and ye have refused : I have stretched out my hands, and no man regarded. Oh, when I think that God has not only called us w^ith his divine voice, but is stretching out his merciful hand, and says; ''Here, take it! take it! Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.^' How God has stooped down from heaven and pushed his divine hand out in the reach of every man in the world ! He says : ''Whosoeverwill, let him take that which I am offering to him.'^ You see that mother yonder. She is calling little Willie, and little Willie turns his head and hears mamma calling, and he runs on; and mamma calls little Willie and he pays no attention to her voice; and directly little Willie looks back at mamma and mamma has stretched out her arms to him ; and those arms have always been resistless to him, and he has always run to them when they were stretched out. And if you just look up and listen to the voice of God to-night, as you hear it, you may look and see the great lov- ing arms of God outstretched towards you! Oh, how true, this is : The father saw him a great way off, and ran to him, and fell on his necl: and kissed him. God's arm is extended to save man. I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded. THE DIVINE RETRIBUTION. !N'ow : I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. Brethren, I announce the most fearful truth this moment 352 The Gall and the Rejection. in the moral universe of God. Hear it. I see men laughing to-day, and scoffing to-day, and reviling to-day, and despis- ing to-day ! Listen ! The most fearful announcement in the book of God is this : What measure ye mete shall be measured to you again. Your time now is spent in laughing and scoffing and de- spising. Just the way you treat God now he will treat you by-and-by. What measure ye mete shall be measured to you again. Good measure ! heaped up ! shaken down and running over ! Oh, brother, as you laugh to-night at the pleading, earnest face of God, just so, when you plead, the book says God Will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh. Oh, sir! now you have got me at a point in the moral thought of this world that I do not understand. " God laugh- ing at the calamity of a soul ! God laughing at my calamity! Do you mean that?'' Then I ask this question — while God in his divine love and compassion calls you to-night, I will ask you one question. Do you laugh at God? Do you? As God stretches out his hands and begs and pleads, will you, can you laugh ? Do you laugh at God? Will you explain that? Then if you will, I will explain to you how God Will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh. BETTER MAKE PEACE WITH GOD. I tell you how I'm going to do, God helping me. I am going to treat God to-night just like I want him to treat me when I am helpless and powerless at the judgment bar. As I look to-night at the loving, gentle face of God, and he yearns in heart and soul for me now, I return that yearning to God and say, ^' My God and my Father, I hear thee j I will obey thee." And then by-and-by, when I call upon God, when I lift my voice at the judgment and say: Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly, While the raging billows roll, While the tempest still is high. Hide me, O, my Savior hide, Till the storm of life be past; Safe into the haven guide, Oh, receive my soul at last. The Call and the Rejection. 853 Other refuge have I none, Hangs my helpless soul on thee ; And Jesus will say, "Inasmuch as I called you yonder and you answered not, when you call on me I will answer:^' The measure ye mete shall be measured to you again. And brother, I am going to heed Grod to-night, and he will heed me by-and-by ; that's it. THE TEXT ILLUSTRATED. IN'ow, I say, I can't explain the text! I don't know its depth 'j but I will say this : A preacher some time ago gave me the finest illustration of what this text means that I ever found or heard of before. He said, in the town where he was pastor there lived out about two miles in the country a wealthy gentleman — a very wealthy man, and a good man, too. He said that gentleman had only one child, a son, and that gentleman just lavished all his kindness and generosity and wealth upon that boy, that was the pride of his father's heart. That young man went off to college. His father sent him to college and just lavished everything in the educational line upon him that could be given him. When that boy returned from college, instead of an educated, refined gentleman, he returned a drunken sot. And, he said, that boy came home, and his father, after he returned home a drunken sot, just lavished every kindness that the human heart could conceive upon that drunken, wayward boy. But the boy went from bad to worse; and, he said, I have looked at his father and thought to myself, " That boy is literally stabbing his father to death." HOW TO KILL LOVING PARENTS. Oh, me ! There is a way to kill a mother or a father with- out any weapon. The father of two or three drunken boys said to me, "Jones, my boys are killing their mother, my precious wife. Jones, what can I do ? What would you do? It don't look like their mother will live twelve months long- er." "Well," said I, "I don't know, brother, I declare! You puzzle me with that question ; but I'll say this much. If I ever raise a boy at my house that is a drunken debauchee, and my boys turn out to be drunken vagabonds, and just crush their mother's heart with it, some night or morning when they wake up sober, I'm going to call them into their 354 TJie Call and the Rejection, room, and say, 'Boys, you are killing your precious mother by the inch. She is dying a hundred deaths ! Boys, listen to me : Go up in your room and get the old breech-loading shotgun, and put forty buckshot into each barrel, and walk down to the breakfast table this morning, and put it to your mother's head and fire both barrels off. You shan't kill my precious wife by inches. You may bring j^our shotgun and shoot her down, but you shan't kill her by inches that way, boys." Oh, me! There's many a precious woman in this town that is dying by the inch, and you can run home to-night and put your ear to your wife's heart, and you can hear the blood drip! drip! drip! May Grod have mercy upon us. Husband, as you look at home to-night, think a moment. Now, to go back to my story. THE STORY RESUMED. That boy went on from bad to worse, aud from worse to worst, until one day, the preacher told me, the father drove in town one morning, and got out of his buggy, and started down the sidewalk, and met this drunken boy. And this drunken boy, in his rage from liquor, took hold of his father and cursed him and handled him rudely. He said the father turned right round, and went back and got in his buggy, and drove off towards home. And he was watched ; they could see from his face that there had been an awful change in that father's mind and heart. And that father drove up in the grove in front of his house, and hitched his horse, and walked down to the far edge of the grove; and when he reached the farthest point from the house he was seen to clasp his hands above his head and give the most awful screams that ever escaped human lips. He took his hands down, and then placed his hands above his head again, and a wail of infinite despair, as loud almost as human voice could be pitched, escaped his lips ; and then he threw his hands up one more time, and such another wail scarcely ever greeted the ear of human being; and then he turned calmly round and walked back to his house. And in about half an hour, he said, this drunken boy came staggering up on the steps, and the father met him on the front porch, and turned him deliberately round, and said : The Call and the Rejection. 355 "Off these premises forever ! You are no longer anything to me. I have cut loose from you forever !" And he drove that boy off his premises. " Off these premises forever /" And ten days from that, that poor miserable boy died in the gutter in that town, and his father never went about him J never attended his funeral; never paid any more at- tention than if he had been a stranger in a strange land. THE FATE OF JERUSALEM. Listen to me, friends. I know, if Jesus Christ ever did his best anywhere, it was in Jerusalem. If there was a spot on 23 356 The Call and the Rejection, earth that Christ loved, it was Jerusalem. Iftherewasa people he had longed for and prayed over, it was for the people of Jerusalem. And listen ! As he looked over the doomed city, he said : Oh, Jerusalem ! Jerusalem! How oft would I have gathered thee under my wings as a hen gathereth her chickens, but ye would not. Now, behold, your house is left unto you desolate ! Oh, the soul, the soul that God tells '^good-by," is gone forever. The soul, the soul that God shall speak to in lan- guage like this : Ye shall seek and shall not find me. Ye shall die in your sins. God has spoken it and God shall never retract his word in time or eternity. The Lord God have mercy upon us, and whatever else we do, God help us to attend to the salvation of our souls, and hear and obey the calls of God. Will you, to-night? Will you, to-night? A CALL FOR PENITENTS. I am going to announce preaching here by myself in the morning at 10:30. To-morrow afternoon, or rather morning, is a special service. I shall lead the service with a short talk about consecration. These other preachers will be here and have a few words to say. I want you here to say something. I want to see the room in the morning as full as it is to-night, with both rooms and the galleries full of people. God is going to do a great work. Some of you will give your souls to God to-night, or some of you never will, never will. There's a point in every man's life when it is " now or never," ^< Now or never." I say "Now" to- night, and maybe you'll say "Never^ but it's one or the other. To-morrow night we have service in the church. Sabbath night I believe the preachers have arranged for the services to begin in Brother Brookes' church. And then we will go on through next week, and oh, brethren, I want to see next week in St. Louis a harvest week. A thousand souls a day I would like to see come to God next week. And now we are going to pronounce the benediction in a minute, and sing a piece, and every soul here to-night that The Call and the Rejection. 357 wants to answer the calls of God — and this may be your last call — is invited to remain. You say: '^ Oh, don't try to scare folks." Well, brother, I have said it to many men and it was so, sure enough. I don't know any more about wh^t is going to happen than you do, but I can say this much ; I have told many men, " This is your last call," and it was. It was. THE LAST APPEAL. Will you stay here a few minutes. Will you? If you are a Christian man and a member of a St. Louis church, will you stay here to-night a few minutes? God help us ! God help us one more time before we die to do just what we ought to do. If you are a sinner, stay here and confess it. If you are a Christian, stay here and let us bring some souls to God to-night. Now we are going to pronounce the benediction, and will you, friend, will you stay if you want to heed the calls of God ? And if you have nothing to keep you but idle curiosi- ty, then we don't want you to stay any longer to-night. We want you to come back to-morrow and to-morrow night, but we don't want you any longer to-night. But if you are interested, because interested for yourself, or interested for somebody else, then, friend, let us this night decide that we swear eternal allegiance to God. Let us to-night settle this question: ^'I have been putting it off long enough," PEF(M0N XX. And he said ; A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into afar country, and there wasted his substance in riotous living. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country ; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat ; and no man gave unto him. And when ho camo to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger ! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, father, I have sin- ned against heaven and before thee. And am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.— Luke 15 ; 11-19. i^.^/'e have a thousand reasons for gratitude as we look around us day by day. Oh, how many things have come to our ears, how many things have we looked upon this day that caused our hearts to say : Bless the Lord, O, my soul ! and all that is within me, bless his holy name! God is beginning a gracious work. The under-currents of the last two or three weeks are now bursting up in all their life-giving and fertilizing forces. Thismorning, at the consecration nnieeting, this church was full of men and women, and the veiy atmosphere of heaven surrounded us. Perhaps all the hearts present realized this was the house of God and the very gate of heaven to their souls. This is the last night's service we hold in this church. On Sabbath night— there will be no service to-morrow night- there will be service at Dr. Brookes' church— Presbyterian Church ; and the meetings go on at night there next week, and I look for and pray for a gracious harvest week. I 358 The Prodigal Son, 359 think in the last week of the lN"ashville meeting there were more than a thousand souls born to G-od ; in the last week of the Birmingham meeting there were more than a thou- sand souls professed faith in Christ; and I feel as if this work just beginning will manifest itself in power and grace as we shall go on. Next week will be the last week possible for me to be with you, but these earnest preachers will take up this work and it will go on, and I steadfastly believe that these are the beginnings of meetings that shall bring thousands of souls to Christ. God grant it, and we all say "Amen!'' and '^Amen!" We invite your prayerful attention to-night to the very familiar lesson, the parable of the Prodigal Son. And am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. HIRED SERVANTS. That boy made a mistake right there. I am glad his fa- ther corrected it afterwards. Make me as one of thy hired servants. There are no hired servants in the kingdom of the pa- tience of Jesus Christ. After that boy had gone home and his father had made a hired servant out of him and given him $20 a month as afield hand, he would have been stealing something before he had been there ten days with his father. I am glad his father saw proper to correct that fatal error in that boy's mind. There are too many hired servants around in the kingdom of Christ now, on the outer edges, hanging on for the loaves and fishes, may be. Make me as one of thy hired servants. I am glad to see a man get to the point, though, where he is just willing to be anything. There is a good deal in that. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compas- sion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him : Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants : Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat and bo merry; For this, my son, was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found. And they began to be merry. 360 The Prodigal Son, A DIVINE PARABLE. You recognize this immediately as the parable of the Pro- digal Son. Some one said that this parable carries on its very face that its author is divine. If there was no otherproof of the divinity of Jesus Christ this parable alone vrould entitle him for ever to the name of" God-man!" This is a wonderful parable. There is a great deal in it. And we propose to-night to make a running comment on the whole parable. And oh ! We may go all around human na- ture to-night — we can spot ourselves all along the line. I scarcely ever read the parable that it don't become a mir- ror to me that reflects my whole image from head to foot! But, Lord God ! make it to-night a mirror, and in that mir- ror may we not only see ourselves prodigals, but may we see a father's outstretched arms to save us ! THE PARABLE MODERNIZED. And we propose in the discussion to modernize the para- ble, so it will be practical, doing no violence at any point to its truth and force ; we shall modernize it so that it will be practical in the best sense to us. And the first line here — And he said : A certain man had two sons; And the j'ounger of them said to his father: Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me — And immediately the father — Divided unto them his living. I have heard preachers get up in the pulpit aud say some mighty bad things about this boy. Oh, I have heard good preachers get up and say he was the worst boy in all the neighborhood, and that he was prodigal and dissipated and wasteful and vicious. STANDING UP FOR THE PRODIGAL. I don't know where they get such an idea about this boy. The very face of the parable shows to the contrary. The very face of the parable shows us that this was a good boy and an honest boy and a trustworthy boj^ The facts in the case are : This young man, being the younger brother, in law, had no claims upon his father at all; had no right to de- mand anything; the elder brother inherited the fortune; The Prodigal Son. 361 and here is this younger brother walking up to the father and saying: Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And the book says, immediately He divided unto them his living. Now, will you believe me, brother, that a father who had sense enough to accumulate a fortune, or a father who had sense enough to take care of a fortune if he inherited it — don't you think he had too much sense to turn over a vast amount of property to a wayward, prodigal boy, when that boy had no legal claims upon it, even without a word of re- monstrance, without a word of hesitancy or a word of ad- vice? If the young man was a prodigal, the old man was a fool, to start with. A TRUSTWORTHY BOY. A certain man had two sons. And the younger son said, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me, and Immediately He divided unto them his living, showing clearly upon the very face of the parable that, up to that hour, the father had the utmost confidence in this boy. That father had reason to believe this boy would use this vast property right; that that boy had given every evidence to his father that he was trustful and worthy, and that he would do and be what his father expected him to be. He divided unto them his living. And not many da3's after that — I imagine that boy was very busy those few days he staid at home. He was gathering up his flocks, and his herds, and his camels, and his horses, and his servants, and whatever his inheritance was; he was busily engaged gathering all together. LEAVING HOME. And we may imagine that, after all preparation had been made for the journej^, and all his inheritance had been gath- ered together (on Monday morning, we'll say), he drove his immense caravan out in front of the old homestead and gave the order, "Halt a moment !" And this grand caravan was brought to a halt, and amid the neighing of the horses and the bleating of sheep and cattle, and the hum of servants' voices, this boy stepped to the front gate of the old home- 362 The Prodigal Son, stead, and walked up on its porch and took his father's hand to tell him "Good-by !" And that father stood with a trembling hand, and looked on his second born son's face, and no doubt the tears trickled down his cheek as he told his boy ^'Grood-by !" And I imagine, when he turned to his precious old mother, she just rolled her arms clear around her boy and imprinted a hundred kisses of love and kind- ness upon his cheek, and bid him "Good-by V* And that boy turned his back on house and home and father and mother, and walked out to the front and gave the order, *'Move off!" MOVING OFF. And on they moved, and on they moved, until the sun was going down ; and now, here is a beautiful place to spend the night. They pitched their tents, fed their stock, provided for themselves and all the company, and, weMl say, about nine o'clock, this young man retired, and as he pillowed his head and looked up at the heavens that were sprinkled with stars like a swarm of golden bees, that boy thought to him- self: *'Well, this is the first night I have ever spent out from under the roof of the old homestead. This is the first night I have ever spent away from home. This is the first night I have ever been from beneath my mother's voice and my mother's audible prayers." THE FIRST night's MISTAKE. I have wished many a time in my heart that that boy, on that first night, before he went to sleep, had made up his mind, "By the grace of God, I will right about in the morning and go back home." Oh, me ! If he had done that, how many heartaches he would have shunned ! How much trouble, and care, and pain he would have avoided, if he had just gone back the next day. And when the sun had gone down the •second day he would be back home, where mother and father and home and peace was, and he could have said in time and eternity, ''I never spent but one night from under the roof of the old homestead." But, instead of that, he slept through the night, and in the morning orders were given, and off they drove; and on they drove until the second night. And the same scene is re- peated. The boy retires. And^ T have thought to myself. The Prodigal Son. 863 ^^ Well, old fellow, you made a mistake in not deciding the question last night; wish you'd decide it to-night, and say : ^ By the grace of God, in the morning, as soon as the sun rises on this old world, I'll right about and go back home.' " If he had said that, he would not have been but three nights from under the roof of the old homestead. When he had traveled one day and camped out one night, then one more day's travel would put him back, and he would not have be^ out but one night. E'ow he is two days away from home, and he must necessarily spend four days travel- ing and be out three nights from home. MOVING OFF AGAIN. See how he is going on his journey, with each night re- peating these scenes and incidents, along until Saturday night. And now he has sought and found a beautiful camping ground. And he spends the Sabbath. He has not forgotten that yet. And I have wished many a time that when the Sabbath sun arose on his camp, and he looked on its beau- ties and splendor poured down on him, he could have said to himself; ''This is the first time the Sabbath's sun ever arose on me away from my father and mother and home." I have wished, as he looked on the light of that sun, and enjoyed the benedictions of that Sabbath — with all day to think, and all day to ponder, and all day to pray — I have wished that that boy had come to the conclusion, '' The best thing I can do is to go back home." I have wished that night, as he retired and was thinking about home and father and peace and plenty, he had said, " This is the first Sabbath I ever spent from home, and, by the grace of God, I'll right about to-mor- row morning, I'll go back home; when the next Sabbath's sun shall rise it shall rise on me under the roof of the old homestead." WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. If that boy had said that, oh, how many heartaches he would have shunned, how many tears, how much fearful an- guish, and how much disgrace — how much that boy would forever have shunned if he had started back home next morning. But on he drives, on he drives; and we imagine at the end of the second week ho drives into a beautiful, fertile country. 364 The Trodigal Son. Its very trees, its hills, its valleys, its springs, its flowers, are all a charm to him; and as he looks upon the scene he says, '' I believe I will look me out a beautiful plantation in this settlement and buy and settle." But as he thought about it a little he said to himself: ''Well, if I had aplantation here and settled down I wouldn't be here a month until father and mother would be driving up here and interfering with my plans and disarranging my pro- gramme, and the fact of the business is that th« only reason why I wanted to take my part of my inheritance was that I might go off into some other country and manage at will, and, after I had arranged it perfectly, then I could bring father and mother into the secret of my success." OF COURSE, HE MEANT HONESTLY. That boy was just as honest in that as that man back there. When he was a moderate drinker he was just as honest that he would never be a drunkard as he was that he breathed. That boy was honest. Nothing vicious in him. Law, me! He had everything in his mind. He had all that plantation in his mind, and he had the most beautiful residencCj and everything was just a perfect picture in his mind; and he started out to fulfill that picture and bring it into actual facts. And on he drove until, I imagine, about the next week he drives into another fertile country, and looking on the right and on the left, he says: "Well, here is another beautiful section; I believe I will buy and settle down right here." But maybe the thought occurred to him, "There is a post of- fice here in this settlement, and I won't he here two weeks until I get a letter from mother telling me how to do every- thing; and father, he'll write a great long letter, and he has got a whole lot of advice to give me; and, the fact of the business is, I don't want any advice from the old folks. If I had wanted their advice I'd have bought a farm next to them; but I want to be somebody, and I want to do something, and I will make the old folks proud some day to have me call them father and mother." WANTED TO BE SOMEBODY. And he wanted to be somebody, and on he drove, and on he drove — and what does the book say? The Prodigal Son. 365 And he went into a far country, and after reaching that far country he bought a half million acres of beautiful land, built him a magnificent residence, and was king and lord of all of that country ? ]S"o, it doesnH say that. It says that in that far country he Wasted liis substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land. And I will tell you another thing about this boy. He moved off in style. I imagine that the natives all along the line of route he pursued were astonished at his pageant and his caravan. I imagine that when they met at the different places in the community there, for the next month that was the subject of conversation. ^^ Who was that man that passed ? Did }■ ou see that magnificent young man and his troop and train as they marched along?" Why, it was the talk of the neighborhood. • HE WAS NO PAUPER. I imagine if that young man stopped at a place and spent a night in a residence while the camp was around him, I imagine, next morning, when he asked what his bill was, and the kind host said, "I don't charge you a cent, sir," he would have said: '' Oh, sir, I am no pauper; just give me your bill. You can't insult me by giving me a night's lodg- ing !" MOVING IN STYLE. And on he moved — and he moved in style, too ! And I imagine, if cash got a little scarce with him, he could sell a servant, you know, or sell a lot of camels. Why, there was no need that he should be a pauper as he moved off in his magnificence. And on he moved, and on he moved. And when he got to that far-off country he spent the last dollar of his inheritance in riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. Did you ever notice how scarce everything was when you didn't have any yourself? Why, there's a fearful money panic all over this country when a fellow hasn't got a dollar in the world himself and can't get a dollar. Oh, me! It is astonishing how a whole neighborhood can run out of a certain article at one time. Did you ever notice it? 366 The Prodigal Son. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. DID YOU EVER NOTICE IT ? Mister, havenHyou noticed many a time at your house that flour, and sugar, and coffee, and pepper, and salt and soda just gave out at once — did you ever notice that? — and you just had to take the ground start at provisions? And what a clamoi' there would have been at j^our house, if you hadn't the w^herewith to supply your pantry ? And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. It is astonishing how when a man has plenty of money, everybody will take money to him and ask him to keep it for them. It is astonishing, when a poor fellow hasn't got a dollar in the world, he can't get a dollar in the world. Th^-e are hundreds of people in this town have got more money than they know how to use, and there's five hundred people in this town running to them wnth money and saying. <'Keep this for me, and just use it as you please until I call forit;'' and the fellow keeps it. And the day of trouble comes, and then that same man, under financial stringency will break and go down; and then, brother, these same people who have been running to him with their money won't speak to him on the sidewalk. Why? He is a hog. He has spent it. When a fellow has got plenty, there is always plenty around him, and when he spends all and has nothing, then it looks like nobody else has anything. BRINGING THE MATTER HOME. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. Now let us run back a few minutes and take the practical lesson that we have in the text. Every boy and girl and ev- ery man and woman in this house to-night, in this great city to-night, have a certain advantage in their life. They have looked up into the face of God and said, '' Give me my spir- itual heritage that cometh to me." And God turned overto us our spiritual heritage. What did he give us? He gave us a good mother's counsel, a kind father's advice, a good moth- er's praj^ers, a kind father's love. He gave us our Sunday- school training. He gave us a tender heart. He gave us the precious Bible to be a light to our feet and a lamp to our path. He gave us the ministry of his word. He scattered The Prodigal Son, 367 the seed of life in our hearts. He gave us his divine provi- dence to shed its glory and its beauty all about us on every step in life. Oh, what an inheritance God turned over to ev- ery one of us in our youthful days. Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he started off into a far-off country, and as he went he scattered all his spiritual heritage. "Mother, give nie the Bible, and give me your prayers, a^d give me the influences of the Divine Spirit, and give me all my spiritual heritage, and I am sure I can do well with it, and meet you in heav- en.^' There is mother sitting back there, your mother : God turned over to you your memory of a good mother, and her prayers, and your father's advice, and the word of God, and the institutions of the Church, and a tender heart. God gave you an inheritance that would make an angel rich. Where is it to-night? EVERYTHING GONE. There are men in this house and in this city that have thrown away the memory of a precious mother's prayers. Gone! gone .'gone! There are men in this house that have forgotten their godly father's counsel and have thrown it to the breezes. There are men in this house whose precious mother gave them the word of God and said : My son, make this book the mainstay of your life. Where is the Bible your mother gave you? Gone! gone! gone! forever gone! Where is the tender heart of your youthful days that God turned over to you as a spiritual heritage? Gone! gone! gone! Scattered in your prodigality; and all you have to show for it is a heart as hard as adamant, that God's word and power can never penetrate again. Oh, where are the blessed in- structions of the Sabbath-school ? Gone! gone! forever gone! You have scattered them along the wayside. You have spent them. You have spent them all ! And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. Now, sir, you may take a character who has spent his all in riotous living, and to that man there is nothing left. You can turn to that poor wretched man and say, " There is a Bi- ble," and he will reply. "It is not my Bible. It was mine once ; it is not mine now. It is sacrilege for me to put my hands upon it." 368 The Prodigal Son. " Well, remember your precious mother. ^' Oh, my mother ! Oh, my precious mother; she has ceased to sing, Oh, where is my wandering boy to-night." "My mother has forgotten me in my wild, godless life/' I ask that man, "Where are the precious Sabbath-school lessons and your faith ? " And he says : "I have forgotten them all. I have scattered them to the winds in my dissipa- tion." I say to that man, "Where are the kind and good words of your good father?'' They are all forgotten; and oh, the infinite misery and desolation and want of the soul that has no Bible, that has no precious mother's memory, no father's advice, and no blessed influences of his youthful days left to him. All gone forever! He had spent all in riotous living. A STORY OP RUM. A presiding elder in our Conference told me that at the same college from which he graduated, and belonging to the same class, there was a young man who entered the college with him, and they graduated together. And he said he had not met the young man for fifteen years. He said: "Down in my district, one day I was going along in a buggy. I passed a grocery in a country place, and just as I was driv- ing past, a pale, haggard, unsteady, nervous, wretched, rag- ged, desolate man walked out of that grocery; and as I passed along he caught up with me, and ran to my buggy, and said: *How do you do? You don't know me; but we graduated in the same class, and we joined the Church the same night. I lived right for a while, but got into bad com- pany, commenced to dissipate, and went from bad to worse. 1 have been on a four-weeks' spree now; and I am almost in a fit of delirium tremens this moment;' and he added, 'I want to give you this incident: I just walked into that gro- cery, and when I walked in and called for a drink to steady my nerves, I could not pour it out of the bottle into a glass, my nerves were so unsteady. The barkeeper poured it out, and I took it in both my hands and carried it to my lips; but while I was holding the tottering glass to my lips I felt my good old mother's hand come down on my head; and she said : The Prodigal Son. 369 Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord iny soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. A SAD ENDING. *' 'I dropped that glass out of my hands, and was just walk- ing out of that grocery when you came along.'" That precious, good old mother, she followed her boy right down to the gates of hell, and put her hand on his head.. He said, ^'Mother has been in heaven twenty years, but she just put her hand on me as she did when she was living.'' And that man went on drinking and drinking that day in that grocery; and he was carried out a corpse that night, gone forever! A spiritual heritage. Oh, I may waste money and stocks and bonds and thousands of investments that wealth and father may turn over to me, and I am left a financial bank- rupt, and die a financial bankrupt; yet I may not be eter- nally ruined. But if by prodigality and wickedness and wastefulness a man ruthlessly throws away his mother's Bible, his mother's counsels, his father's advice, his tender heart, and all the blessed recollections of his early years, and scatters them to the breeze, there is an eternal bankrupt that, in the very appearance of his condition, makes the angels tremble and good men weep over the eternal bank- ruptcy of the soul. All gone I All gone! GETTING BACK TO THE TEXT. And now wo take up the lesson, and we shall hurry through as fast as we can. Oh, brothers, let us get practical lessons to-night, if it does take a little more time than usual. Let us see if we jjannot get some light that will make us bet- ter, wiser and purer people in the days to come. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. It is said hunger knows no law. And he began to be in want. The very object of the devil, brother, is to strip us of every vestige, and then make us lie and steal and do a thou- sand things to get subsistence to live upon. The devil made 370 The Prodigal Son. that young clerk a few months ago steal money to ride his girl about, and to pay theater bills, and to spend in Louisi- ana State Lottery tickets, until that young man had absolute- ly wasted his life in extravagance ; and finally, when the Sheriff took hold of him, the devil turned round, walked off from him and left him in despair. It is astonishing how men can have anything to do with the devil after they learn his infinite meanness one time. And when he had spent all, and the famine came on him, hebegan to be in want; and want knows no law — no law of respectability, no law of morality. He began to be in want, and bound himself to a citizen of that country. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. He was a Jew, you recollect. I reckon that was about as low down as any Jew ever did get. And be sent him into his fields to feed swine. A Jew don't have much afiinity for a live or dead hog, and I am about nine-tenths Jew myself on that line. I think that there is a good deal in the old adage, the statement that the more hog meat we eat, the more we get like a hog intellect- ually ; and there may be something in it, as far as I know. EATING WHAT YOU FEED TO OTHERS. And he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And then what ? He would fain — Listen ! He would have been delighted if he could have received enough of the husks upon which he fed the swine, to have filled himself. What did the devil do to him? Put him to feeding swine ? What did he feed to the swine ? Husks. What did he eat himself? Husks. Did you ever notice that just exactly what you feed other folks on in your meanness the devil makes you eat? Did you ever notice it? Here is abar-keeper who is selling liquor and making drunk- ards, and nine-tenths of bar-keepers die drunkard's deaths. Just what you poke down other people's throats the devil pokes down yours. It is a law in the moral universe of God that is as inevitable as life itself. Here is a man that gam- bles and wins money ; and that is all he does ; and the devil will see to it that he raises up a friend forthat gambler whose The Prodigal Son. 371 only business is gambling awd winning money; and every dollar he has won from other people the devil makes the other gambler win back. Just what you feed other folks the devil makes you eat. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. He fed husks to the hogs and then ate husks himself. Here is a woman whose peculiar business is tattling through the settlement and getting up difficulties between the neighbors. The first thing you know, every neighbor within five blocks begins to tattle on her. Just what you feed to other people the devil will feed you on. Here is a fellow who would not pay his debts, and now he is going around saying: '' I can- not collect a cent; I would pay my debts if I could." It is astonishing how surely this law of the moral universe works. I believe I will treat my neighbors right. I want to be treated right myself. I believe I will feed others on nobler and better things, because I want nobler and better things myself. And they are in that condition. A DESPERATE HUNGER. He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. And listen — And no man gave unto him. And now it is said : And when he came to himself. Look here; what was the matter with that boy? Was he crazy? Was he living under a sort of mental delusion? What was the matter with that boy there ? He was from the happiest home a boy ever left — where there was wealth and love ever manifested towards him. There he was; he had spent all he had ; began to be in want ; joined himself to a citizen of that country, and served in that disreputable ca- pacity. One day he came to himself. THE INSANITY OF SIN. What was the matter with that boy ? Was he crazy? Look here. Right there in this parable is set out one of the most fearful truths in the moral universe of God. Let hie say to this congregation to-night: At twenty-four years of age I waked up in a moment to a 24 372 The Prodigal Son, living consciousness of what I was and whither I was going. My life from that moment until this has been no more the same life I led before, than if I had been two different men. I came to myself. Do you mean to tell me that if I had been clothed in my right mind that I would have done like I did? Do you mean to tell me that I would have acted like I did ? Do you tell me that if my eyes had been open and I had seen as I ought to have seen, that I would have gone to such depths and lengths as I did go to? J^o, sir. I tell you to-night, there is many a man in this world, to. whom all you have to do is to get him to come to himself. There is not a man in this whole land to whom, if you will just show him what he is, who he is, and where he is going to, you will not need to do anything more. God bless you ! He will move up, and move out, and go back. And when he came to himself. Listen how he talks ! He talks now like a fellow of sense. I will arise and go to my father. In my father's house the very hired ser- vants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. Oh, it is a good thing when a man finds out he is hungry, and then finds out where the bread is. You have done some- thing for that fellow if you have made him conscious of hun- ger, and let him know where the table is loaded with bread to appease that hunger. You have done something for him. WHEN HE CAME TO HIMSELF. And when ne came to himself he said : How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger. And now he said : I will arise and go to my father. "Yes! But let's argue that thing a little, young man! How far are you from home ? " • '' A thousand miles.'' " How much money have 3'ou got to pay your way back ? " <'Not acent." " Where's your shoes?'' "Haven't any shoes." ^ ' "Where's your hat?" "Got no hat." "Where's your coat?" "Got no coat." The Prodigal Son, 873 ''A thousand miles from home; not a cent; coatless and hatless and shoeless ! Talk about going home ! " '' Yes, sir." ^^ What do you say about it?'' I WILL arise and go to my father. And I tell you when a man says that he goes hy telegraphy. He is there now. There ain't any trouble when a man says^ that. I WILL arise and go to my f\\ther. I will. Suppose the poor fellow had done like many of us would have done — stopped to consider! ^' It's so far and I've got no shoes to walk in, and I've got no money to pay my fare by any route. I haven't a dollar to buy a crumb of bread on the way; and, the fact of the business is, these clothes are not fit to go home in; and I think it's very doubtful whether father'U ever let me in there any more or not?" But it seems the only fact about the business was, when you come right clean down to it, that '' I'm perishing ; and here I've got a father whose very hired servants have bread enough and to spare. And, money or no money, shoes or no shoes, hat or no hat, fit or not fit, I'm going back. God helping me, I'll start back." SOMETHING OP A DIFFERENCE. And I'll tell you another thing. When that boy started back home there was a wonderful difference between him going back and him coming! Oh, you let a fellow start the wrong way, and he's a whale. And if there's anything bigger than that, he's that. All along the route — magnificent. Why, sir, every man along the route of that prodigal boy had to be just as particular in speaking to him and addressing him as he could be. Why, he was sensitive as he could be, and he would get mad in a minute with anybody, and when that good old fellow wanted to give him a night's lodgings, he like to have got whipped about it. The boy'd liked to have jumped on him ; '^I'm no pauper, sir!" But the boy is coming back now. You can't hurt his feel- ings now. can't hurt his feelings now. Oh me! I can tell which way a fellow is going without any trouble. I have had wives say to me : " Brother Jones, 374 Tlie Prodigal Son. I am going to bring mj husband to-night, and I want you to be mighty particular not to say anything to hurt his feelings. I had him out once before, and the jDreacher said something that hurt his feelings, and he ain't been near the church since/' Do you know what I say ? " Throw swill to the hog pen. That's where he's going. That's where he's headed. I can put the hounds out and trail j^our husband, and when I've trailed him I'll find him at the hog pen.'' ''You've got to be mighty particular with my husband or he'll get his feelings hurt and never want to come back again." The Lord have mercy upon us ! Oh, he's moving off in style — in grand style ! He can pay his own way, and he asks no man any difference. And on he moves ! But he's com- ing back now ! DODGING FORMER HOSPITALITY. I imagine when that boy passes the magnificent residence where he kicked up that row going out, and where he was about to whip a man because the good old fellow wanted to give him a night's lodging — when he saw that house about half a mile ahead, he got over the fence, and left the road, and took to the woods there. ''I'm going the other way now. I don't want any of that family to see me." I imagine that he goes on until night overtakes him, and without a dollar or a cent in his pocket. He goes backway to some poor nigger cabin, and he says to the good old ne- gro woman : "I wish, auntie, you'd give me just a little bread. I don't ask for any meat, but just a little brelid. I haven't had anything to eat to-day. And I haven't got a. cent to pay you for what you give me, but I've got the best father boy ever had, and if ever you pass by my father's house you'll never lose anything for your kindness to his boy." He takes the cold pone of bread, and he goes on a little further, and turns out into the woods, and rakes him a big pile of leaves, and shoots down into them and sleeps safely till morning. And, then, in the morning he gets up and strikes out again J and I imagine that when the neighbors gather, one of them will say: The Prodigal Son. 375 *'Did you see that ragged, dejected-looking young man go- ing up the road the other day ?" ^'Yes, I saw him/' ''Well, I think his face — there was something about his countenance that reminded meof that fellow that went down with that grand pageant a few years ago/' '' Oh, no ! That ain't the same fellow. I saw him. He was moving in style ! This can't be that same fellow." • '' Yes, but I tell you he has the very same countenance. There's something about his eyes that made me think it was the same fellow." AS ILLUSTRATED FROM REAL LIFE. Look here ! There's a young man in St. Louis — mark the expression ! Twenty years or ten years ago he was the pride of this city, or the pride of this State, maj^ be; the pride of a fond father and of his mother's heart. Somebody left St. Louis. We'll say fifteen years ago. Last week he was back. And there came staggering along the street a poor, besotted, desolate, ruined wretch ; and this visiting gentle- man, who was once a citizen here, says to his companion: ''Who is that fellow?" " Why, that's the son of Col. John So-and-so. Didn't you know Col. John's son ?" " Yes, but sure that can't be the same fellow. Why, the man, the one I used to know, John So-and-so, was one of the leading business men in this community ! Why, he was the pride of the city. Why, that can't be — this vagabond and dead-besotted wretch — surely that can't be the same fel- low !" " I don't care how he looks. That's the very same fellow." Oh, me ! How sin changes a man in this world ! Just look at the features of the man, dwelling upon his eyes. As you look upon him, and look him in the eye, you say, " That eye looks mighty like old John's, that I used to know; it does." GLAD TO HAVE A NIGGER PRAY WITH HIM. And on that boy comes, and on he comes ! Look here ! I have seen many a man ; I have talked to many a man and woman headed the wrong way, going away from God, and going toward hell, and they insulted me. I've said : 376 The Prodigal Son. '^ Well, if I can't do anything else for you, Til pray for you." ^' Don't want your prayers. I despise your prayers." Ah, rae! I have talked with them, and begged and plead- ed with them when they were insulting to me, and I have said to myself: *' Old fellow, if you ever turn round, I want to meet you. You'll be a very different fellow." And that man that said to me once, " I despise you, sir, I despise the gospel you preach," he turned around one day, and he started back to God and right, and he went home and went down to a poor old colored man— a good old man he was — and said, " Uncle Tony, I wish you'd come to my room and pray with me. I'm the most wicked, ruined wretch that ever lived on the face of this earth." He's glad now to get the old colored man to pray for him ; and don't you see the difference between a fellow going away and a fellow coming back ? And, my friend, I'm getting to grow hopeful about you when you come to yourself, so that you'll let decent people talk to you about your meanness. I'll get very hopeful about you then. I will. IN SIGHT OF HOME. And on this boy went. I imagine that if a mill-boy in a cart let him get up and ride a few miles, he was the most grateful fellow in the world. And on he would go ; until, one day, worn out and weary and desolate, with scarcely power to make another mile, all at once he comes up in plain sight of the old homestead. And he takes a view of the old homestead, and as he looks the tears run down his cheeks in penitence and sorrow; and he says ; '' Oh, how sorry I am that I ever left such a home i" And he looks and sees the cattle feeding in the meadow, and sees the barns well filled, and sees the house folks as they sit on the front porch, and sees a lovely home with peace and plenty. He stops there, I imagine, and sits down on the root of the big old oak tree in the road, and gazes to- ward the homestead; and he says : ^' I am not worthy to go another step toward that home. If I can just die here now, and father will find me and give mo a burial-place in the old family burial -yard back of the The Prodigal Son, 379 house, that's the highest honor that such a being as lam can ask/' And he sits and looks ashamed, afraid to go another step towards that home — what does the book say? THE MEETING OF FATHER AND SON. And his father saw him a great way ofF. That father was looking out toward that boy, and his eyes saw him a great way oif ; and they were eyes of mercy that looked at that poor boy, and the book tells us — And he ran to him. And they were legs of mercy that carried that father, and his father ran up to him and spoke to him ; and they were words of mercy that that father had for that boy. And then the father threw his arms around him ; and they were arms of mercy that encompassed that poor boy. And then his father kissed him ; and they were kisses of mercy that that father imprinted upon that boy's face. And the poor fellow turned his face for the first time up into his father's, and looked at his father's benign countenance, and said : "Father! Father! I am no longer worthy to be called thy son. I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no longer worthy to be called thy son. Let me — " And the father just put his hand right over the boy's mouth and wouldn't let him say another word ; and then said : " Son ! Son ! This is your father !" And he turned to the servants, as much as to say : " Don't stand there gazing at my poor, ragged boy ! Go and bring a robe to put on his person, and bring a ring for his finger, and-shoes for his poor, bleeding feet; and then order the fatted calf killed, and let's be merry, for this my boy was lost and is found. He was dead and is alive again." HE HAS BEEN THERE. Blessed be God ! How that reminds me of the grand wealth that God gave me, his poor, wretched, ruined son, fourteen years ago. Brother, I'd got to the point in my sin and hunting after God, and trying to get home to my soul — I had reached the point where I saw I was not worthy or fit to go one step further toward God, and I broke down and said : *' Lord God, I perish forever, because I am so unworthy." And the first thing I knew, the arms were around me, and the words 380 The Prodigal Son. of mercy were whispered in my ears, and the gracious Fath- er's eyes were looking down in my face; and I have been as- tonished for fourteen years, not only that God Almighty should pardon such a wayward man, but that God Almighty would ever let me come into his house and be his son. A ROYAL WELCOME. And now how many men to-night will say, ''I will arise jand go to my father?'^ There's aroyal welcome waiting you, brother. You feel mighty mean to-day, and mighty deject- ed, and mighty desolate; but, brother, there's a royal wel- come waiting for you. The angels of God hover over you to-night, and when they can hear you say, " I will arise and go to Jesus, '^ every angel will catch up your words, and hur- ry back to heaven, and say The dead is alive and the lost is found. Friend, let us go back. Gracious Father, I thank thee ten thousand thanks that there's room enough in the divine homestead to take us all in. Oh, brother! you who have been wandering so long, let us not go to sleep to-night until we can turn our heads and consciences, blessed be God, in the way back to the old homestead, and live one more time in the land of peace and spiritual plenty, and we will abide there forever. God help us. We are going to hold an after-service, and in that after- service we want to spend a few minutes with those prodigals present to-night that want to go back. That's it, brother, let's come back to-night. We have had misery enough, and there is going to be eternal joy to those who will come in. If there is any Christian brother or sister here that enjoys religion, and you are willing to work and encourage your friends, you stay. If there is any sinner here to-night who has gone off from God, and you want to comeback, you stay. But if you are indifferent and careless, don't remain, because the service is specially for the interested and for the Chris- tian people that want to be useful in the service of God. Now, when we pronounce the benediction, all of you who want to go, go, and all of you who will, remain. And I have prayed God to-night that, before we sleep, hundreds of these prodigals will be back to the roof of the old homestead. ^ERJVION XXI. j]!0NgECP^/.T10JH. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 3'our reason- able service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renew- ing of 3^our mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and per- fect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highl}^ than be ought to think, but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. — Ko- MANS 12 ; 1-3. GRADED CHRISTIANITY. grs we look round us in the Christian world, brethren, we ^1 are forced to admit that there is such a thing as graduated Christianity, that there are such things as grades among the people of God. Why, some members of St. John's Church are just as unlike other members as they can be. Some members of Dr. Brookes^ Church are just as dissimilar, and just as unlike the other members of his Church as it is possi- ble for one man to be unlike another. What a difference there is between people with the same hopes and the same fears, who are bending their steps to the same judgment, ac- countable alike to God for vain and idle thoughts and every word they say. What a difference! Did you ever think about it? That man sitting back there says, ^' My wife is better than I am. She is a good Christian. I am not much of a Christian.'' That boy says, '' Mother is the best woman I ever saw. I belong to the same Church she docs, but I am not much of a Christian/' I do wonder if there is such a thing in the kingdom of Christ as the Lord demanding that some of us shall do our best while others are let off very easily. I wonder if my Father in heaven wanted my mother to be a better Christian than he wants me to be. I wonder if, in the arrangement of his divine plan, he fixed it so that 381 382 Consecration, my mother could be a whole ChristiaY* and me only a piece of one. Ihave thought about these things. I have thought whether the kingdom of Christ reserved for my father priv- ileges which helped to make him a magnificent Christian, while I, his son, can enjoy none of those privileges. CHURCH ECONOMY. In regard to this, I often think of the good old brother in the Quarterly Conference in our State. It was the first Quarterly Conference of the year, and the new preacher had only been in two or three weeks. The Presiding Elder pre- sided, and when the question came up, "How much has been raised during the present quarterforthe supportof the min- ister ?'' one member got up and reported from his Church, and another from his ; and directly a good old brother stood up and said : "Well, I have been wanting to see the preach- er, and see how many children he had, because we want to arrange matters just as economically as we can ; it is a hard time among us; and, up to this time I have not raised any- thing.'' The Presiding Elder glared over at the old broth- er, and said : "Brother, you say you have not raised a cent?" "No, sir, not a cent," was the reply, "up to this time." "Well," said he, "how would you have it more economical than that? You have raised nothing up to this time." And I have many a time, in looking at some people who do not want their religion to be in their way, who do not want it to become burdensome to them, who do not want their religion to affect their reserved rights, and all that sort of thing — I have looked at them many a time and thought, how would you have your religion looser than it is? What more privileges would you ask than you have? I tell you, every slack-twisted, one-horse, no-account member of the Church is a positive damage to the Church. He lowers the standard, and would let down the kingdom and patience of Jesus to a plane where it is hardly possible to distinguish between a man in the Church and one out of the Church. " BROTHER SO-AND-SO." A good many of us are like the good brother they intro- duced to me once in Chattanooga. He was introduced to me as Mr. So-and-so. "i¥"r. So-and-so," I said, or ^'Brother So- Consecration. 383 and-GO?" Ho replied himself, ''Mr. So-and-so." The next day he met the brother who introduced him to me, and he said : "Mr. Jones asked me whether I was Mr. So-and-so or Brother So-and-so, and I told him I was Mr. So-and-so, al- *' How would you have it tnore economical than that?" though I am a member of the Methodist Church. But I never said much about it, and there are not many people who know it, and I reckon I told him as near right as pos- sible when I said 3fr. So-and-so." We have let the standard down among us, until really we do not think.hard of people who do a heap of things that are wrong. It is not regarded as radically wrong here in St. Louis to play cards, or to dance, or to attend the theat- ers. Why, I heard a preacher say yesterday that some of the iest people in St. Louis attend the theaters. Well, I de- nied it. I said, "It ain't so," and I would hate very much for that to be true. Before God I would. 384 Consecration. WE CAN TOLERATE MOST ANYTHING. Oh, we are getting the thing down now to where we are something like the preacher in Georgia, who, when he held his Church Conference and called the list of members, had the members answer for themselves, when they were pres- ent, and when they were absent somebody represented them. And he called the name of an absent brother, and the preach- er said, '^ Well, how about this brother who is away ? Where does he live? What sort of a man is he?'' One brother said : '' I know the man. He does not go to church as much as he might, but he is a good, clever man/' Another broth- er got up and said about the same; and directly another brother got up and said , " I live close by the man. He is a close neighbor of mine. Although it is true he does not do his whole duty, he is a mighty good man, and there is only one thing that can be said against him, and that is he is a little inclined to be quarrelsome when he is drunk.'' That was the only difficulty with him. How often do we hear it said : ^'She is a mighty good woman, but she goes to the theater ;" "They are mighty pious people, they are, but they play cards every night;" "They are very good people, and there is only one thing to be said against them, and that is that they dance." Oh! how we are letting down, down, down. The fact is, we have let the Church down so low that you cannot ditch her oif. There is not fall enough to ditch her, and we are getting in- to a sad fix when thatis the case. A good lady told me this morning, "There are many people who never lived in the country, and the}" do not understand your illustrations." I am not responsible for 3-our ignorance. They are very plain to me. We have got down too low, that is the idea. THREE GRADES OF CHRISTIANS. ISTow I suppose we have in all the churches about three grades of Christians. In our blue Masonic lodges we have what we call Entered Apprentice Masons, Fellow-Craft ^la- sons and Master Masons. Those are the three grades in the blue lodge. Some will stop at the entered apprentice degree and never go any further, and they are called entered ap- prentices. Others pass to the fellow-craft degree and stop there, and then they are what we denominate fellow-craft Consecration. 885 Masons. Others rise to the sublime degree of master Ma- son, and they are called master Masons. I might say that we have three classes of Christians in our churches; our en- tered apprentice Christian, our fellow-craft Christian and our master Christian. The entered apprentice Christian, he is the little fellow out there that made profession and joined the church, and that is all he has ever done, and that is all he is ever go- ing to do. That is the end of it with him. I used to get out of patience with these people. If you want them to do anything they will say : '' I never was called upon to do that;" and they would not advance and get religion right. They will say : '' Oh, I am a member of the Church,'^ and then get on the other side of the fence and remain there. To me they seem like an old ox in a hot, dry lane, and he just lives in that lane, with the beau- tiful green pastures on both sides of the road, and all the grass the poor old fellow gets, he bites through the fence, and he gets his nose rubbed sore by always biting through the fence. I am always sorry for those "^^ ^^^ oa? in a hot, dry lane:* old oxen. And there is many a Christian in the lane, be- tween Christ and the world, you know. They won't go over into the green pastures of Grod's love, and they won't go over into the valley on the deviFs side. They are what you might call starvelings in the land, and they are numer- ous, too. ^ THE ENTERED APPRENTICE CHRISTIAN. The entered apprentice Christian. '' Oh, I have made a profession of religion. I have been baptized.'' And thatis all they seem to know, and all they want to know, about Christianity at all. The Lord forgive us if we have ever had such low, groveling ideas of Christianity as that. Why, bro- ther, just think a moment. Suppose that all there was in 386 Consecration. Christianity to you, my brother, or you suppose that all there was in it, was the simple fact that you had made pro- fession and joined the church; and that was the end of the whole matter. Suppose it was. I declare to you that if that was all there was in it, here is one brother who would hush his mouth and never try to make another convert to Chris- tianity. I would do that if Christianity was simply joining the church and making a profession of religion. The entered apprentice Christian. They are the little fel- lows in the Church. I was sitting on a steam car one day, and when the conductor came round and took up the tickets there were eight or ten passengers whom he never asked for any tickets. He let them go free. They were the little fel- lows, two and three and four years old. He never bothered them at all. And, I think, in the Church of God, we ought to pass these little fellows and not make them pay a cent. Just let them go free. The only way you little fellows can get to heaven is hj hanging on the skirt of some good old mother and making out that you are one of her little child- ren. I do not know how else you are to get in. NOT FULLY INITIATED YET. There is a little fellow just twelve months old. He never walked a step, and you know it. He cannot understand when you tell him anything. He is mentally and physically incapacitated from being of service to you. And those little fellows in the Church. They only join the church and make a profession of religion. They have not the physical, or at least the intellectual ability, to be of any account in the Church. Now, I grant that it is a grand effort in a man's life when he gives his life to God and joins the ranks of Christ. Oh, that is grand ! But suppose every soldier in the last war had gone and registered his name as a soldier and sworn allegi- ance to the army, and then turned round and gone back home. He would have met the other forces with a ven- geance, would he not? And when we go up and put our name down on God's side, and swear allegiance to his cause, and then go about our business, and say : "That is all there is to it," it is just a question of census. We can just tell how many there are in the family and give their names. That is all Consecration, 387 there is in Christianity. Just barely the taking of the census. SHIPPING CHRISTIANS BY MAIL. The entered apprenticeship Christian. A number of them got mad with me once because I said that if I got an order for one hundred of them I would not ship them by freight or ex- press, but I would put them in a paper box and put a two cent stamp on it, and send them off that way — these little entered apprentice fellows. It would be foolish to make them into a twenty-five cent package when you could send them O. K. anywhere for two cents. But I reckon I shall never get an order for any of that sort. I never heard of any of them being of any account in heaven or earth. The entered apprentice degree comes before the fellow- craft degree. You must take that step first — profess Christ and openly and publicly join the church. That is the right step. But do not let that be the end. Let that be a step to something higher. Well, the next step is the fellow-craft degree. And the fellow-craft Christians have notonlyjoined the church and made an open and public profession of relig- ion, but they will do some things very readily and willingly when you want them to be done. If you want them to pay, why, they will pull out their pocket-book and divide the last dollar with you. That is good, too. I like to see a liberal man. In fact, I have no patience with any other except a liberal man. I never saw a Christian succeed in doing much that was a downright stingy man. Now we have what we call fellow- craft Christians that have made profession of religion and joined the church. They will pay every time you ask them; but if you say, ^'Brother, let iis hear you pray," they say, '^ I never pray in public." He has reserved rights, and no man ever made a good Christia^i who had reserved rights. ''Some things I will do, some I won't." The fellow-craft Christians, when they feel like it, will do anything you ask them to do; but if they don't feel like it they won't touch it. Well, if a fellow has got no brains he ought to let his emotional nature direct him. That is my judgment. If a fellow has no intellectual nature, then his emotional nature ought to run him, and he ought to keep red-hot all the time. But if I have any brains at all I am never going to let my feelings run me." 25 388 Consecration. PRETTY LOW GROUND FOR CHRISTIANS. When our child cries with pain, it puts its hand on its pain, and we hear and heed it ; and I reckon that when the Lord^s people cry they can put their hand on their pain and cry. And a great many of his little children are crying from the fact that they will be damned. That is about as low a ground as you can afford to stand on. Some of us are crying, "Lord, I want to get to heaven." That is the object. They say, "I will take care of myself here, if the Lord will take care of me when I die. Oh, if I can just get to heaven when I die, I will be the happiest person that ever lived on the face of this earth." They are fellow-craft Christians. Will do anything in the world if they feel like it. I have known Brother A. to be called upon to pray at a big revival meet- ing, and he would pray earnestly in a big, loud voice. But let him cool off a little, and he won't pray for his life. He must be excused. I never did understand that a good Chris- tian could do at one time what he could not do at another. I never could understand a man that would grow beautifully less all the time. I thought that as Christianity was devel- oped it grew larger and stronger. FELLOW-CRAFT CHRISTIANS. Fellow-craft Christians running on feeling — I have told them down South — with all due respect to some of our col- ored people there — I have told the fellow-craft Christians down South: " If you think feeling is the best thing you have, if I were you I would go to that colored church. They just shout out there, and fall down, and almost die shouting with feeling. And a good many of the biggest shouters never raise any chickens until they are half-grown. And if you are running on feeling, I would go and join that church; they have plenty of it there." Feeling. Sister, I run on this idea. If a thing is right I'll do it, and I will never stop to ask whether I feel like it or not. "I'll do it if I feel like it. If I don't I won't." The most efficient sermons I ever preached were when I felt least like preaching. God blesses us not by the success of our ef- forts, nor by the spirit of bouj^ancy that actuates us, but by the efforts we put forth, whether we feel like it or not. Consecration. 389 THE VALUE OF UNSELFISH EFFORT. A woman's child is sick. The mother never stops to see whether her own head aches or not; whether she has rheu- matism or not. But she looks at the interest of that child and cares for it. And so every Christian person ought to look and see what the claims of God are upon him. Yovl can tell the fellow-craft Christian in this way ; If it is a right pretty Wednesday night, he is always out at prayer-meeting. If it is sort of dark or misty or rainy, they won't come out; they are afraid they will take cold. There are a great many people in this world who have an idea that a church is the most unhealthy place in the world. "Why," they say, "I took cold there one day, and did not get over it in six weeks." Look here ! I have been going to church two and three times a day for years, and did you ever see a fatter, healthier look- ing man in your life than I am. I tell you it is not church- going that makes folks sick. That ain't it. "If it is pleas- ant and everything works all right I will go." Or, to put it in a sensible, solemn, serious way, if you would rather have it, there is a man physically afraid to go to church. Here is a man going to church three or four times a day, and I am a stronger man physically than I have been in fifteen years. The fellow-craft Christian. If everythingis fair he is there. If there is anything in the way he is absent. "If it is con- venient to have family prayers, we will have them." "If it is right convenient to go to prayer-meeting, we will go, but if it ain't we won't." "When the high-toned Sister So-and- so calls, we play cards; but when ordinary folks call we tell them we don't play cards. '^ Don't you see how we can make our religion bend to it as fellow-craft Christians? Well, I am tired of talking about this sort of Christians in the world. But a fellow must be a fellow-craft Christian as he must be an entered apprentice Christian. I would want to be an entered apprentice Christian about sixty seconds, and a fellow-craft Christian about thirty minutes, and a master Christian forever and ever. A master Christian forever and ever I THE MASTER CHRISTIAN. What constitutes a master Christian ? He is one that has presented his body as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable un- 390 Consecration, to God, which is his reasonable service. It is one that has not conformed to this world in any way, but has transform- ed himself by renewing his mind. It is one that thinks so- berly and wisely on all things ; one that loves God with all his heart, and loves his neighbor as himself. A master Christian! Oh, brethren and sisters, he is worth his weight in gold to any community in the world. He is wor- thy to be cherished. He will do what he promises to do. He is living to God, and to duty, and to every good word and work. The master Christian ! Now letme tell you : The entered apprentice Christian, as an entered apprentice Christian, can never be a master Christian. A fellow-craft Christian, as a fellow-craft Christian, can never be a master Christian. The master Christian, thank God Almighty, can never, and will never, be satisfied on any lower plane than that which God and Christ raises. Now, I wish we could take this twelfth chapter of Romans and read it through. There is not a verse in it but what ties rightalong on to the discussion this morning. There is room in there for all of your thought, and all your will, and all your muscles, and all jowv desires. If you take that twelfth chapter of Romans, which is practically a plain setting forth of Christian duty, march out in this character and look for Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. A FAMILY FEUD. I was once preaching in a town of one thousand two hun- dred or fifteen hundred inhabitants, and there had long been a family feud there, which had involved nearly all the family connections. It went from bad to worse, until pistols were used, and until the thing had gotten into the most cor- rupt shape. Now, one of the principal parties was a wid- ow, whose heart and life, and whose children were involved in this fearful difficulty. While we were sitting in the church — and the first time, I reckon, for months and years that both parties were in God's house at one time — when I had finished preaching, the meeting was thrown open for talk. One talked, and then another talked; and directly this wom- an stood up about the middle of the house. She looked at me with a flush on her face and a sparkle in her eye — and Consecration, 391 she was one of the most intelligent-looking women I ever met — she looked at me, and dropped her finger on me, and said : *'Sir, if there is a woman on God's earth who has liter- ally lived in a fire for years, I am that woman. I was once a happy child of God, and how utterly miserable I have been.'' A PLEDGE OF PEACE. And now she said : ^'Listen to me, sir — I record the words before the judgment bar of God and before mankind — if cru- cifying myself, and denying myself, and giving up all that God despises, loving my enemies, doing good to those that despitefully use me — if that will take a soul to salvation, I am just as good for salvation as if I had stepped inside the golden gates." Then she stepped across the house, and, taking the hand of herenemy,shesaid : ''To-day I bury many fathoms below the surface of the earth every unkind thought, word and act of my life. From this moment what I do shall be by the faith of the Son of God that loved me and gave his life for me." I returned, and saw that woman twelve months after that, and she said; '' Blessed be God! Twelve months of my way to the good world have passed without a disturbing ripple or a darkening cloud." Twelve months later 1 met her again ; and she said : '']!^ot a cloud, not a difficulty. Just swept right along to the good world; and if you get there yourself you may look out for me ; I am going through." THE SORT OF CHRISTIANS WE WANT. Dh, the soul that settles all these questions, that will deny and crucify himself, that will give up the world and all that God despises, and trusts in Jesus, can say: ''That will take me to heaven ; I am just as good for heaven as if I was there." What a consecration it is to put all you have got in God's bank and say: " Now, Lord, there it is, use it! Use it to thy glory;" and then turning around to this old world say, " All I have got is in God Almighty's bank; and if that bank don't break, I am a millionaire for ever. I will trust all I have in the hands of God." That is the sort of Christianity we want. 892 Consecration. But you say, "I have for months and years listened to the voice of God, and may he direct me; but sometimes the voice of the world has been so loud that I admit my ear has been turned to hear what the world had to say. God forgive me, I will not do it any more." Listen only to God. You can- not get into grander and deeper water. Let us say now : ''I will never listen to the old world any more. I will listen only to Christ." THE HARVEST IN STORE. I want to say to you this morning that there is a great har- vest in store for us, if the Lord can only get us in time where he can pour down his Spirit upon us. I tell you an- other thing: — the reason I know Christianity is divine — If Grover Cleveland had gone through the United States denouncing the Democratic party and the members of the party as I have denounced members of the Church and professors of religion in this town, he would have broken his party all to pieces. But you attack religion, and the more fuel you put around the fire the more it burns, and the more there is left. Oh, for a pure Christianity, and may it permeate this whole city ! Oh, give us the sacred apostolic Christianity that counts all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us work as if we were hired to work our way to heaven. Let us trust Jesus as if you could not work without him, and God will bathe you in the spirit of Christianity and bless you for it your entire life. ^EF(MON XXII. ^OWIJ^iq AND I^Ey^PIJMQ. Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man sowefh, that shall he also reap ; he that soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption. But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. — Gala- TiANS 6 ; 7 and 8. If ET US heed this exhortation a moment — the first clause M of the text : Be not deceived. THREE ABSOLUTE IMPOSSIBILITIES. We say there are three absolute impossibilities in this life. There may be a thousand, but we know of three. In the first place, we say it is an absolute impossibility for a man to continuously and successful!}" practice a fraud upon his immortality. The price God puts on the soul is too great for him, the author of the soul, to suffer me to practice a fraud upon him. If I am a good man, I know I am a good man; if I am not a good man, I know it. It is perfectly natural for human nature at times to bring to bear upon itself the flattery of its friends and the good opinion it may naturally hold of itself; but after we have listened to the flattery of those who speak to us, and after we bring to bear all our self-pride, thank God, there are moments in our life when God breaks the silence of eternity and speaks out to us in unmistakable language; he shows us who we are, and he shows us what we are, and he shows us whither we are tending. I am so glad God will not let a man lie down and sleep his way to hell. I am so glad that ever and anon God will wake humanity up and show us exactly what we are. ANXIOUS FOR FLATTERY. Poor human nature! It would listen to the flattery of the world — would it? It would bring to bear all of its self- 893 89-1: Sowing and Reaping, pride and find a refuge in these things; but God will sweep away these refuges of lies and show us what we are — in spite of ourselves, in spite of our friends, in spite of earth, in spite of devils — God will make us see ourselves. It is a blessed consolation; if I am a good man, I know it. It is an awful condemnation; if I am a bad man, I know it. It is absolutely impossible for a man to continuously prac- ti-ce a fraud upon his immortality. We say again that it is absolutely impossible for a man to practice a fraud upon his neighbor. Now, if you are a good man your neighbor knows it, and if you are not a good man your neighbor knows it. can't deceive your neighbor. The Bible tells us that the good on earth are like a city set upon a hill that can't be hid. The Book tells us that the good are like a light upon the candlestick setting upon a table, and no matter how great the darkness the brilliancy of the candle shows itself to all that are in the room. It is a delusion of human nature, of human kind, that, "After all, I am not so bad as I thought I was, and, after all, men don't think me as bad as I am.'^ Oh, what a luxury in human experience, the consciousness that *•' nobody knows me just as I am. There are some things that are covered up ; there are some things that no eye ever looked at; there are some things that I can shut the door upon the world and say, " Thou canst not enter and see." deceives nobody. But after all, you are deceiving nobody. I tell you what, if you dress up in disguise and go to-morrow night to one of your neighbors, and sit and talk with him two or three hours, get him talking about you and get him to spend about an hour on you, he wnll tell you things about yourself that you didn't dream anybody in this universe knew anything about; and your property may be for sale, for aught I know you may say, *'I will migrate; I thought nobody in the world knew me as I am. Why, that man told me somethings about me that I thought were buried ten fathoms in forget- fulness and ignorance." Oh, me! this world knows us as we are. This old world Solving and Heaping. 895 knows preachers, knows official members, knows the little insignificant members. This world knows you, friend of the world, and what you are and who you are. No man can successfully and persistently practice a fraud upon his neighbor. We know you. By their fruits ye shall know them. YOU CAN^T DECEIVE GOD. Then again, no man can successfully and continuously practice a fraud upon God. Grod knows me through and through. He knows all about me. He knows where I live. He knows which room I sleep in. His eye is upon me from my mother's knee up to this hour. He has not only seen all the acts of my life, but he saw the thoughts and motives behind. And God knows me through and through. I am as transparent in his sight as the clearest glass you ever looked through. God knows me as I am. Be not deceived. First, don't suffer yourself to begin in the thought that you can practice a fraud upon yourself. Don't suffer yourself to be beguiled into the notion that you are deceiving your neighbor, and, above all things, GOD IS NOT MOCKED. Be not deceived, God is not mocked. The literal every-day translation of that is this: ''You need not be turning up your nose on God like you were playing pranks on him; heknowsyou through and through." That is about the most straightforward and practical way we can put that sentence. That is just what it means, ^'through and through." God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. TRUE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. That text- Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap — is true whether there is any God at all or not; that text is true whether a man is immortal or not; that text is true whether there is a heaven or not, or a hell or not ; that text would have been as true if you had found it in Hume's His- tory of England, as it is true found in the word of God; that 396 Sowing and Reaping. would have been as true if Socrates had said it as it is true as God says it; that text is true whether there is anything else true in the moral universe of God or not. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. This is a common platform upon which all humanity are agreed. This is one of IngersoU's favorite texts. A COMMON ACCEPTATION. No matter whether he he Jew or Gentile, whether he bo Christian or Infidel, whether he be Theist or Deist, they all meet on this truism. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. I^ow, this is true in the physical world about us. This is true in all nature around us. Whatever you sow, that you reap. If I go into my garden and sow a row of lettuce, I don't expect anything from the time the seed drops from my fingers until they are gathered for the table, but let'_>uce. If I go into my field and sow wheat, I don't expect any- thing but wheat. If I drop corn in a row, from the tin^e the furrows cover up the corn until I gather the full ear, I don't expect anything but corn. Whatever I sow, that I reap. THE MULTIPLYING NATURE OF SEED. And then, again, I notice the multiplying nature of the seed sown. A member of our Conference said to me once — he was then stationed at Cedar Town, Ga., — that in the spring he saw that a seed of oats came up and began to grow. As he be- gan cultivating his garden, he said, he cultivated around it and left it; and it grew out and bunched oif until it matur- ed ; and he said : "I went into my garden and pulled up the bunch of oats, and went into my house and counted the seed ; and there were eight hundred seeds of oats come from that one seed of grain." Now, suppose you sow in the spring those eight hundred seeds of oats, then the next summer, you have forty bushels. Sow those forty bushels, then you have one thousand six hundred bushels, sow those one thousand six hundred bushels, and you could sec, if such a thing were possible, in time there could not be less than this world one hundred feet deep in oats, all cc/iie from a single grain. Sowing and Heaping, S97 THE ORIGINAL SOWING. Oh, how that reminds me. Away back yonder in the Gar- den of Eden, six thousand years ago, Adam dropped one lit- tle seed of sin in that Garden of Eden, and to-day this world is full of sin and full of woe. Like not only begets its like, but we know it is the multiplying nature of the seed sown. Well, this is just as true in the moral universe as it is true in the physical universe. Every man and woman in this house to-night, you carry about with you with this arm a basket of spiritual seed, and every step in your life your hand goes down into the basket, and you are scattering the seed to the right and to the left, and they come up and grow off and produce and reproduce after their kind ; and the in- iquity and the nbominations and the wickedness of St. Louis to-day follow as inevitably from the seed sown the past few years as ever effect followed cause, or water runs down hill. When I would know the moral status and the moral life of a community I would know something of its history — the previous history of that community. If you will tell me what kind of seed have been sown in this community in the last twenty years, I will tell you what the harvest will be. Just as truly as if you told me what kind of seed you put in the ground, 1 will tell you then what sort of harvest there will be in the field. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Every act of my life is a seed, every word is a seed, every deed is a seed, and we are not going about through this country scattering these seeds in these valleys or on these hillsides, but we are scattering them in human hearts, and they come up and produce and reproduce, just like the seed we sow. NO RECALLING THE SOWING. And — and then fearful thought! When once a seed drops from your hand it is gone forever. An old woman went to her priest and confessed, among other things, that she had talked, and talked unwisely and unscripturally to one of the neighbors, until there was a furor in that community on ac- count of it ; and she had been the cause of it by her tattling to one of the neighbors. And the priest said to her : ^'Now, I give you as a penance, as a punishment, before I absolve 398 Sowing and Heaping. you, this to do : ^' No w go and gather a basket of thistle seed, and go in the pathway between these neighbors and scatter to the right and to the left, and when you have done that come back to me;" and in a few moments she returned, and she said : I have done as you bid me." SOMETHING IMPOSSIBLE. ^' Now," he said, " I want you to go and gather up those seeds in the basket and bring them to me." ''Oh," she said, "that I can never do!" "Oh," said the devout priest, "neither can you undo the mischief you have done in that community." Fearful thought! Whenever a seed is gone from my grasp, it is gone forever. ^ Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. There are a few great principles in the moral universe around us which we might notice, and then narrow the dis- cussion to the practical one, so that we may take hold of it as individuals. Suppose I announce this fact : sow WHISKY, REAP DRUNKARDS. Sow whisky, reap drunkards. Would you deny the pro- position? If you do I beg you go to the desolate home, to the fatherless children, to every staggering drunkard that curs- es this city to-night, and as they look you in the face you will say it is a truth as deep as the universe, if you sow whisky you will reap drunkards. And St. Louis with her two thousand dram shops is illustrating this truth in God's moral universe to an extent that is enough to make the angels themselves weep tearsof blood. And in this sowingof whisky and reaping of drunkards, you, as the God-fearingpeople of St. Jjouh, are particeps crimiiiis in the whole business. Every man is responsible for every drop of liquor sold in this city untiTne has done his level best to put it out. I know there is a cry of "Peace! Peace!" when there is no peace, and so long as this traffic is indorsed by the press and parlor and winked at by the pulpit, this fearful curse will blight humanity for all ages to come. Sow whisky, reap drunkards ! I have been frequently, my fellow citizens, accused of exaggeration. The}'" say I speak in hyperbole j that I over-color things ; that I say things Sowing and Reaping, 399 that are too strong. I can go to our cemetery, to-night, and I can unearth a dozen skeletons and bring them and stand them at this sacred desk by my side and bid you look; and I defy earth and hell to exaggerate the picture. You can't exaggerate what sin is doing for humanity, any more than you can exaggerate the beauties and joys of heaven. Not one bit. SUGAR-COATED RELIGION. But humanity leans toward the sugar-coat. They want everj^thing sugar-coated, no matter what, and I declare to you, to-night, this world is sick and sick unto death, and what's the matter ? You take the ohl book, and if you'll read this book from Genesis to Eevelations, and read it with an eye to*lhe truth it asserts, you'll never say preach- ers exaggerate any more ! Here's a patient sick and here's a nurse standing by his side. The doctor gives the prescription to the nurse and says : *'Give it every two hours. '^ Next morning the doctor returns and the patient is worse, and the doctor says: "I see the patient is much worse. Did you give the pre- scription at the right time? Did you give them to him like I told you?" ''No — I — doctor, I thought these powders w^ere so large I was afraid to give them to him that way, and I took out about half of the powder, and I thought it would kill the fellow to give it to him just like you gave it to me, and I took out some of the powders V And the patient dies! Who is to blame? Who is lo blame? God Almighty tells every preacher, "I put you by the side of the death-bed of this world, and I give you the pro- scription. Now give it to the patient.'' And we as preach- ers are dividing up the doses, and we say, " It would kill the poor fellow to give it to him." Well, God bless us, let's kill him. I'm no homeopath when it comes to morals. CAN TELL IT BY THE NEWSPAPERS. I know this old world is sick. I can shut my Bible for twelve months, and simply road your daily newspapers, and 400 Sowing and Heaping. see that this old world is sick unto death. And, God being my helper and my judge, I'm going to give you the powders just as he means them; and, if they kill the patient, then no one can point his bony finger at me at the judgment, and *'If you had given it like God said for you to do, sir, I wouldn't have been here in this condition/' There's one beauty about religion. If President Cleve- land had commenced bemeaning the Democratic party and showing up its corruption as I have tried to show up the corruption of the churches of this city, the Democratic par- ty would have been disrupted and disbanded and gone to pieces to-day. If James G.Blaine had gone and talked about the Republican party and showed up the rascality and mean- ness in the Eepublican party as I have tried to show up the wickedness and worldliness of the churches of this town, the Republican party would have gone to pieces. But the Lord Jesus Christ, with his grand system of recovery — the more you set fire to and the more you burn up, the more there is left, thank God. And the more you denounce the thing, the more the thing will rally to the right, and to-day Jesus Christ with his system of religion has the only system that will bear such an ordeal as that. And I tell you people, to-day, if you want to make the world good, set on fire and burn up everything that ought to be burned up, and tell God to take what is left — and there's more left than there was when you commenced — and use it for his glory, and we will have a grand church down here in this world. A NOVEL USE FOR A LICENSE. Whatsoever a man soweth, that he shall also reap. Announce the truth to the world ! If you sow whisky you'll reap drunkards. You'll reap drunkards. I declare to you, if I were ever to sell whisky, or wanted to sell whisky — and I never will and never shall; but if I should — I would want to go to a city in a Christian country, and I would want to have the indorsement of Christian Aldermen and Chris- tian Councilmen. And when I procured my license, signed up and indorsed, I would file it away in charge of my wife, and tell her: "Wife, when I come to die put this license in my coffin with me." Sowing and Heaping. 401 And when the resurrection trump should wake me from the dead, the first thing I would think of would be my li- cense. And when God called me to the judgment and show- ed me what I had done for the race, I would pull out my li- cense, indorsed by Christian people and signed by Christian mayors and council, and tell God : "I didn't know there was a bit of harm in it. These Chris- tian people backed me.^' And God Almighty will put the whole shebang in hell together. Now you mark that. It is time for us to wake up. COULD DO IT IF THEY WANTED TO. Whatsoever a man soweth, that he shall also reap. I am responsible for the sowing of all evil until I have done my best to arrest it and stop it. And ril tell you another thing: There are enough pro- fessing Christians, I expect, in all the churches of this city, to put a stop to the sowing of this seed in a month, if you all wanted to. And I'll say another thing: If the members of all the churches in this town will stop drinking whisky, they will shut up about half of the bar-rooms, to start with. You old red-nosed devil in God Almighty's Church, you are a dis- grace to this universe ! SOWING PR'OFANITY. If we sow liquor, we reap drunkards. "Well, we get farth- er along down the line. If I sow profanity, I will reap pro- fanity. Oh, how many swearing boys in St. Louis to-night ! how many little ones! how many smaller ones! In a con- versation with a house full of little boys the other day, I asked the question: ^'Boys, do you use bad words?" One little fellow said ''Yes, sir." Said I : "Where did you learn that ? " "Men learned me to say bad words," was the reply. Sow profanity — reap profanity. Every little profane boy that blights the morals of this town is a living witness that if you sow profanity you reap profanity. God pity the brute that will swear in the presence of his children. Sow profanity, reap profanity. In one town in Georgia there was, pej*haps, the most profane man in the State, and 402 Sowing and Beaming. this profane man was the father of a little boy. One morn- ing the little boy, the son of this man, came walking down the sidewalk, and just before he got to his father's store, where his father and several were standing out in front of the door, some one tripped the little fellow ; and when they tripped him he had like to have fallen on the walk. Here- covered himself, and then turned, and such a string of oaths ryou hardly ever heard escape human lips. And the father turned with the other gentlemen and looked, and the father said : ^'Why, son ! was that you V And the little boy dropped his head and said : ^'Yes, sir." The father said : "Gentlemen, hear me ! I'll never^swear another oath while I live." AN EARLY HARVEST. But why stop it now? He has sown his little boy's heart full of the seed of damnation, and reaped a harvest for hell before his child was four years old. Oh, what a thought ! Oh, what a thought ! God pity the man who will deliberately demoralize the pure children of his home. Profanity ! Sow profanity, reap profanity. And then we say: Sow cards, reap gamblers. JSTow I discuss general propositions. A great many dis- agree with me; but I reckon we will all agree in the discus- sion here to-night. I dare assert it, there isn't a man fool enough to deny a proposition when its legitimate results and when all its logic is as clear as the mind of God and as resist- less as the judgment of God. You can't get round these re- sults. They are before you as facts, as deep and broad as the universe. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Sow cards, reap gamblers. And every gambler that curses this city to-night, is the legitimate product of card-playing at home. Nine gamblers out often are the product of Chris- tian homes. Statistics will show it. NO ALLUSIONS TO GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI. Now, I have said a great many hard things, so-called, and a great many of those things that I have said have been ap- plied. I don't apply things ! I run a sort of wholesale gos- pel shoe establishment and just make shoes for the public; Sowing and Reaping. 403 and every man puts on those that fit him, you know, and goes out. That^smy line. I'm never personal, and there never was a bigger mistake made by press or people than to think my remarks about swill-tubs and mash-tubs the other night had any reference to the Governor and Supreme Court of Missouri. They were not in my mind at all. I wasn't think- ing about them at all. And why the press of this State should have such an idea as that I meant the G-overnor of Missouri is the profoundest mystery in the world to me. For 1 disown it, and say candidly and honestly, the Governor of Missouri and the Supreme Court of Missouri were no more in my mind when I made the assertion than something I never thought of at all. I am sorry. I am sorry that anybody should ever think that I would say such a thing of the Supreme Court of this State or the Governor of this State. I run a shoe-shop and I am not responsible who you put the shoes on. THE TRUIT OF CARD-PLAYING. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you sow cards you'll reap gamblers — reap gamblers. I want to say to you parents here to-night, I know some of you have not only thought hard things, but j^ou have said a heap harder things about me than I ever said about you. Now, listen ! There is one verse in scripture I wish every parent in this country would heed and understand. It is where David said : Blessed are ye simple ones concerning iniqmty. Blessed are you boys and girls that don't know how to sin ! Do you get the idea ? I was guilty of a great many vices, but I never knew how to gamble. I believe if my father and mother had taught me the different games in cards, I believe I would have gone with that vice added to others, beyond all recovery, forever and forever! God being my helper, cards and wine and balls and such as that shall never come into my home until they come over my dead body at the front door. This tide of worldliness that is sweeping children to hell and hardness of heart every day, shall never come into my home until I have spilt my last drop of blood at the front door. 26 404 Sowing and Reaping. '' "Well," you say, '' you stick to that, and you can never get into society/' Society ! That heartless old wretch ? Society ! Society ! ! Society ! ! the leech of the soul, that sucks it until it is as hol- low as a drum ! E"othing in there ! Nothing in there ! NO FRIEND TO SOCIETY, SO-CALLED. Society! the heartless old wretch! She has cursed ten thousand homes in this world — society, so-called, I mean. Grod being my helper, and God being my trust and judge on the final day, I shall never go into anything, orbe in partner- ship with anything that will curse my children when I am dead and gone. There are mothers and fathers in this house who are laughing in their sleeves at what I am saying this mo- ment, and if you could just run down twenty years from this moment and see some members of your household, you would absolutely weep tears of blood and faint in the pew where you sit ! I have seen wives who set wine around on their table in the first years of their married life, and cut up a big shine accor- ding to the latest fashion of society — I have seen such a wife with streaming eyes and with a face that God must pity to look at, begging me : '' Oh, help me save my husband ! He's gone forever." And I've said it many a time : if I was the wife of any man and he brought his demijohns and his wines to my home, I would tell him ; '■'■ Sir, in the name of God, don't bring that here in the presence of my children," instead of doing like some of you, who stir it and sweeten it and fix it for him. And I would tell him in the presence of my children : " You go down and get your bar-keeper to do that. I won't soil my hands and damn my children, stirring your toddies for you !" My God ! We need some wives and mothers in this coun- try who will suffer anything before they will allow their lit- tle children to be demoralized and damned in their own homes. Sow cards, reap gamblers ! God Almighty pity the Chris- tian home that can't get along without a pack of cards. [Turning to the brethren on the platform] I wish y^u'd all say ''Amen" along occasionally. Sowing and Heaping. 405 And now, I wonH say which one of your boys may be a gambler, or which one of your daughters will marry a gamb- ler— a man that you taught to play cards around your so- cial circle at home — but I will say this much : If you'll burn up your cards and quit card-playing, you'll never have any reason to regret it when you come to die. Til say that much. God being my helper, I know that cards have curs- ed thousands of lives in this world, and we know they will curse thousands more of lives. But I say, they will never curse my children with my knowledge, and especially with my consent. sow BALLS, REAP GERMANS. Sow cards, reap gamblers. Sow balls, reap germans. And I'm glad it's called ^'german.'^ I'm glad it ain't "Ameri- can." I'm glad we had enough respect for Amer- ica to give that thing a for- eign name. German! There is nothing more de- moralizing to society than what you call the german. And when you sow the german you are mighty nearly run out ! Sow ger- mans and reap spider-leg- ged dudes ! And sow spid- er-legged dudes and reap half a thimbleful of calves- foot jelly — that's all the brains they've got. I got to fighting the dudes over there in ^N'ash- ville, and the " boys" un- loaded on the darkies. You could see more dark- ies going about there with tight pants and toothpick shoes on than I ever saw in my life. Came pretty near reforming the town. The darkies don't care, you know; and I don't think they ever got on to the joke. Oh, me ! I tell you humanity is running out mighty far along those lines. And they say to me : "Except you par- One Who Had Been Unloaded On. 406 Sowing and Heaping. take, except you mix with and go into these things, your daughters will all die old maids." Well, bless my life, there are ten thousand things worse than old maid-dom. PREFERS THE OLD MAIDS. The Lord knows I would rather have fifty old maids on my hands than have a son-in-law like some of j^ou have got. I would. I say to you all to-night, that the legitimate end of such lives as are manifested in some homes in this town is the reaping of just such sons-in-law. I have thought about that many a time. If the devil^I do not care how much he has against afellow — if the devil just puts one or two drunk- en sons-in-law off on him, you can get a clean receipt on him right there. There is nothing in earth or hell that will beat one. Some of you have tried it, and know. And the natur- al and legitimate end of such a life, as some holy shams in this town manifest in their homes, is that you will reap that which will curse you when you are dead and gone. The Lord God Almighty help us as parents to build a wall a mile high around our homes to keep out everything that ever demoralized humanity or cursed the immortality of the soul. That is what we want. But now to give the discussion for a few moments, in conclusion, a practical turn — I mean more personal in its application : Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. SOW BALLS, REAP GERMANS. Sow profanity and reap it. Sow dram-drinking, and reap drunkenness. Sow cards, reap gamblers. Sow balls, reap ger- mans. The german is the legitimate product of the ball-room. I tell you, humanity, when you start it down hill, ain't going to stop. It goes from one to the other. This world was con- tent with the square dance for a while. Then they said, *'Let us go a little further:'' and then it was the round dance ; and on and on and on. I could tell jo\x some things at this point that would make your blood boil, but I forbear. It will come up legitimately before I leave here. There are some things along on that line that every faithful preacher on this earth ought to say. He owes it to those who are just as certainly drifting to destruction as we are certain that we are in the house of God to-night. As parents let us go home a while. I preached on the sub- Sowing and Heaping. 407 ject of family religion when I was a pastor once, and about three or four weeks afterwards I met one of the leading members of my Church. He was one of the most intelligent men of whom I was ever pastor. And when I met him in the road, he in his buggy, and I in mine, he stopped me and said : ^* You know you preached a few weeks ago down at our church on family religion. That waked me up ; it put me to thinking; it put me to studying; it put me to praying. I have gone home and studied my children all those days since I saw you, and I have reached a conclusion." A PRETTY SAFE CONCLUSION. ^'What is it?" I asked. ^'Let me hear it." **After three weeks of close study of my children I have found out that my children " — Hear it, parents. " — have not a single fault that either I or their mother has not got." That is enough to bring parents to their senses. ''My children have not a single fault that either I or their mother has not got." I was reading once where a father, a famous climber, great in strength and muscle, was climbing up the slippery, steep side of the mountains, and as he was making the most fearful struggles in forcing his way headward he heard the voice of his little boy saying: "Father, keep in the safe path ; your little boy is following you, your little boy is following you." Some years ago a father started down to the rear of his plantation to look after the stock, and after he had gone 100 yards or more, his little Willie, seven years old, called out: "Father, may I come with you?" "Yes, son, come along," responded his father. The snow was ten inches deep and the father went on a piece, and turning around and • looking back, said: "How are you getting along, son ?" "Fine, father," said the boy. "I am putting my tracks in your tracks," and the little fellow was jumping from oneof his father's tracks to the other. FOLLOWING PARENTAL TRACKS. The godless father said: " That is true in more senses than one, and by the help of God I'll reform my life. I'll never lead that boy to hell." 408 Sowing and Heaping. ^' I am putting my tracks in your tracks/' Oh, my fellow- citizens, when you bring this thing down to where "My children will imitate and follow me," then I say, above all things, "May God guide my doubtful foot-steps aright. Let me make no mistakes. My children are on my track." When I wtvo preaching in a certain town there was a boy came staggering into the church two or three nights successively, and laid down in a back pew and went to sleep. His father got him home that night and put him to bed. The father of the boy, eight years before, had been converted, when he was the worst drunkard in the town. The father was now a consistent and official member of the church, doing his duty. The father carried his drunken boy home and watched him. The next night, earl}^, as the boy came down the stairway, his father met him at the foot of the stairs, and said, "Son, hold on son j I want you to get sober and go with me, and give your heart to Grod and become religious, like your father has done." And the son said : "Get out of my way, father, and don't try to stop me." The man stood in front of his son, and said : " Son, please stop, you will break my heart." He looked at his father with a wild glare, and said : " Father, get out of my way j I tell j^ou not to stop me; I am going down town." The father said: " Oh, son, your mother has not slept a wink of late, thinking of you, and your father has been praying to God for you. Oh, my son, don't go." The boy looked at him again with a wild glare in his eye, and said : " Do j^ou know the man who gave me the first drink I ever took?" "No," escaped from the father's lips. ''Well, you are the man, sir. You poured " / a7n putting my tracks in your tracks y Sowing and Heaping. 409 it out and presented it to my lips.'' And this good brother told me: ^' If my boy had shot me through the heart with a minnie ball he could not have hurt me like he did." A CORNER-GROCERY TALE. Another father told me he had gone into a grocery store to get provisions, and in the back room of that store was a bar. A gentleman said to him : ''Won't you go back and take a glass of lager-beer with me ?" And he said: "Not thinking — and I had not taken a glass of lager-beer or any- thing else in ten years — I did so ; and when the beer was drawn I took it up in my hand and pressed it to my lips. Then, for the first time, I remembered that my little boy was with me, and as I pressed the glass to my lips he pulled my finger and said, ' Papa, what is that you are drinking?' I took my glass from my lips and said, 'lager beer, son.' Af- ter I had drunk the beer I put the glass down and we walk- ed out of the store, and as we walked out of the door the lit- tle fellow pulled my finger again and said, ' Papa, what did you say that was you were drinking in there just now?' and I said, 'Son, it was lager beer.' " And he said, "as we walked on home the little fellow pulled at my fingers again and said: 'Papa, I cannot recollect what that was you drank just now; whatwasit, papa?' " And he said, "The littlefellow asked the same question again next day," and he said: "I would have given thousands if I could have recalled that one act. I am afraid that one thing will make a drunkard out of my poor little boy." Oh ! my friends, you had better mind how you sow. The harvest is coming. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. My life before my children will be reproduced in my chil- dren. I walk yonder into your home and into your parlor, and your little Willie runs into the room, and I have met you and your wife frequently at church; and little Willie runs in and speaks to me in there, and I look in his face and I see a sweet, beautiful little boy ; aud I can see his mother's eye and his father's forehead; and I can see his mother's mouth and his father's chin, and as I look in the face of the sweet child I see the features of father and mother planted 410 Sowing and Heaping. in the face of their little boy, and then I say : ^' My children are no more like me physically than my children will be like me morally." I tell you like begets like, and just as you sow so shall you reap. Sad thought! Sad thought I Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. RUINED FAMILIES. I can take the history of families in this world, I can take the history of families in this State, I can take the history of families in this city, — enough to startle every conscience here to-night. Read the histories of these families, of the greatgrandfather, of the grandfather, of the father, of the son, of the grandson. There they are, as impenetrable to truth and as impervious to right as it seems that rock or stone could be. Brother, hear me to-night. Do you not know that in the city of St. Louis there are whole families going to hell ! Not one of them was ever religious. Oh, it is the sad- dest sight ever looked upon. God has seen this old Missis- sippi River Valley with the blight of yellow fever, cursing the whole country and bringing its thousands to their graves; God has seen whole provinces in China starve to death; God has seen our whole Southern land covered with blood and desolation ; but the saddest sight God ever looked upon was to see a father take his wife by the hand, and the wife take the eldest child by the hand, and the eldest child take the next child by the hand, and so on down to little "Willie, and to see the whole family, parents and children, founder on the rocks of damnation, and lost forever. It seems that if there is a hell beyond all toleration, for time and eternity, it must be for that man who lets his children go de- liberately down to death and hell. Friends, will you hear to night? Will you heed to-night ? Do you know that you are sowing seed, and that He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. I will not argue the proposition long, but I want to say in conclusion a thing or two. Hear me : But he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. JUST LOOK AT IT. Look at the actual sin of some of our cities and of some families. We have been sowing to the flesh and of the flesh Sowing and Heaping, 411 reaping corruption. What are we going to do. There is but one thing to do. "What is that?" you ask. Change the sowing. That is the only thing left us, and thank God that is all we need in life or eternity — to change the sowing. I want to say to this congregation that I was leader perhaps among the boys of my town in wickedness and mischief, and perhaps I led many into wickedness and sin. I was converted in the midst of those I led astray. I have preached the gospel in the churches of our town and on the streets of our town, and last year in our big harbor meet- ing in our town G-od blessed me in preaching the word at home, and he gave me in that meeting the last associate of my boyhood, and there is not a single boy I ever led astray who is not a member of the church and on his way to heaven. Thank Grod Almighty there is such a thing as reversing the sowing. Thank God there is such a thing as breaking into this powerful tide of evil and turning it back in all its force and fury, and carrying souls to salvation instead of sweep- ing them down to hell. SOWING UNTO THE SPIRIT. He that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. Thank God for that. Though the sowing of twenty-four years of my life was sowing in the wrong direction, God has given me fourteen years of right sowing — of sowing the right sort of seed. And, thank God, while I have led a sin- ner or two away from God, I trust him and pray to him to help me to lead dozens back to him in righteousness and peace and joy in that holy cause. Brother of the Church of God, fathers, have you not sowed long enough in the wrong direction? Mothers, have you not sowed long enough in the wrong direction ? Let every mother say as the good woman in Chattanooga did. A CARD-]PLAYINa STORY. Her son entered the house one evening and said, ''Mother, you and sister go and get the cards ; I can beat you a game to-nigl^t." His mother spoke: "You didn't hear that sermon I did this evening ; son, those cards are burned up, and there will be no more cards here." And she said in addition to that, "I promised this evening at the meeting to pray to- 41^ Sowing and Reaping, night for God to bless the men's meeting, and I shall go up- stairs and begin to pray now. It is nearly meeting time/' Then he said, "Sister, if I get more cards, will j^ou play?'' She said, "No, I heard that same sermon, and I am going up-stairs to pray." That boy turned right round, went down town, and walked into the meeting, and that night he was converted and gave his heart to God ; and when he got back home he took his mother in his arms and said, "Here is your saved boy, and from this time on I shall be a Christian for- ever and ever.'' That boy was soundly converted. Look here, mothers. Let us say to our children, I beg your par- don, I beg God's pardon. Nothing that ever harmed a soul or cursed humanity shall ever be fostered in my house any longer. Out with it. I am done. I am done. And that may produce conviction in your boy's heart, and before next Sunday night meeting is over, every child you have got may be a Christian, and on its way to heaven. A REUNION OF THE JONESES. Now a word of personal history and you will pardon me; although I do notknow whether it is necessary for a preach- er ever to ask anybody's pardon. Whether you pardon or not, I will say this just in illustration of the thought I am on. About six years ago now in February I received a let- ter from my old grandfather Jones. He wrote me this : My dear grandson, you and your wife and your children come down on the 27th of February to our humble home. Your grandmother and myself will have been married fifty years on that day. "We have lived fifty years in happy wedlock, and we are going to celebrate our golden wedding. I never thought much about it for a few days, but as the time drew near I said, "Wife, let us go down to old grand- father's." He lived two counties below me, and he lived in a double log-cabin. He had been poor all his life, and he had always been a hard-working man. We got down to grandfather's, and there were gathered all his kinsfolk, sons, son-in-laws, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. "We ate dinner in that humble cabin, and after dinner we went into the large room, as it was called, and we gathered around grandfather and grandmother in a double circle, g^rand- father and grandmother sat in the center of the circle, and my old grandfather, a saintly old man, said : "I want to tell you some history and statistics." He said : Sowing and Heaping. 413 *^Way back yonder, in Elbert County, Ga., when a sixteen year old boy, bound out — my father and mother were both dead, and I was bound out to a gentleman until I was twenty- one years old — the Methodists came into that county and preached. And they started a meeting, and I went up to the altar and gave my heart to God and joined the Church. ^' And shortly after I joined, they made a class-leader out of me, and then an exhorter, and then they licensed me to preach, and for about fifty years I have been a preacher. In the meantime, when I was about twenty-one I married this your grandmother, and mother, and the first night we went into our humble home we commenced evening and morning family prayer, and for fifty years steadily we have kept up our devotions night and morning." And he said: ^' I have preached the gospel in my poor way the best I could. I have thought many a time that I might just as well give it up and quit it all ; I was doing no good ; but I have been faithful to God and duty. And now, children, here are the statistics. THE STATISTICS. ''There are fifty-two of us in all — children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Twenty -two of that number have crossed over and gone to glory. Sixteen of the twenty-two were infants, and I have God's word for it that they have gone safe. The other six remaining ones that have passed over all died happy in Christ and went home to heaven.'' And one of these six was the man I had the honor to call my father, and I stood by his bed and saw him literally shout his way out of this world. ''And now," said my grand- father, "there are thirty of us living, and every one of those thirty were in the Church and on their way to heaven except one! one! one! My God, how that boy has crushed my life's blood out! And I have stood up and preached to oth- ers about Jesus Christ and his power to save, when you could hear the blood dripping in my own heart ! Oh, my poor, wayward brother! He went right to the gates of hell, but God brought him back. But I trust and believe to-night that he is a better man than I am. They say that he is, and that he preaches with more power and efficiency than I do. Poor 414 Sowing and Heaping, fellow ! He went very near to the gates of hell, but he was reclaimed." THE preacher's HOPE. "Now," said my old grandfather, "twenty-two over yon- der, thirty down here. I do not care much whether I stay down here with you or go up yonder and stay with them un- til you come." Well, since then my good old grandmother has gone. That grand old man who was bound out in Elbert County, Geor- gia, and gave his heart to God, and went about sowing good seed, now has five sons that are preaching. I believe it is five sons and two grandsons that are preaching the gospel of Christ all over the land, and the work is going on. And I have thought many a time that if God Almight}?- should give me a million of souls as trophies for the cross, when I get to heaven I will hang them all on my old grandfather's crown and tell God he is worthy of them all. He has been the stay of my life, and to-night, while I am preaching in St, Louis, that grand old man no doubt is on his knees praying God to bless his grandson and help him preach the gospel of Christ. Well, I went off after that, thinking about all this, saying : "I have been wanting to get to heaven all my life; I cannot miss it now." As my old grandfather said, twenty -two are safe over there and the other thirty on the way, and I can- not miss that glorious world. I am on my way thereto-night, blessed be God ! All the money I have got is in this bank, and it shall stay there forever. WHAT HE EXPECTS IN HEAVEN. I have sat down and buried my face in my hands, and said, many a time, "Dear Lord, if I ever get to heaven — the very thought is charming to me — if I ever get to heaven, I expect to know my mother there and see my father and loved ones there, and it will be a joy to me to look up in the face of Jesus Christ, my precious Savior, as I walk the golden streets; but I'll tell you that the grandest hour I shall see in heaven is some sweet moment as I walk the golden streets, when I shall see my precious wife winging her way into the shining courts and I shall join hands with hor. "We jour- neyed hand in hand down yonder and we are here forever." Sowing and Reaping, 415 Then the next gladdest moment shall be when wife and I shall sit down in the shade of the tree of life, and an archan- gel wings his way to us and lights at our side, and brushes our little Mary out from under his wings. He says : "Here she is. You trained her for everlasting life and she shall live with you forever/' And another glad hour will be when an angel shall wing his way to us and brush sweet little Annie from under his wing, and shall say : "Here she is, another cherub you trained for joys on high )" and until at last every sweet child shall come sweeping in, and we shall all join hands in the courts above and shout aloud : " Here are all of us, and home forever V* Oh, what a glad hour that will be to this poor weary man! God help me to live so that my children following in my footsteps shall come to the world of bliss and peace up yon- der. THE LAST APPEAL. Before I dismiss to you to-night, how many of you in this house, as parents and children, will stand up with me in an honest prayer, " God helping me, I will live the life of the righteous, that I may die his happy death, and that my last end may be like his?^' How many of you, fathers and you mothers, to-night, can say, "God helping me, I will live better and set a better example"? Will every fa- ther and mother here to-night and every son and daughter here to-night who feels that way, stand up in this congrega- tion a minute with us all in honest prayer ? If you mean it, stand up! How many now will stand up and say: "God helping me, I will give my life to better and nobler and truer things." [About four-fifths of the congregation rose.] Well, thank God! Now let us breathe an earnest prayer to heaven. If any of you want to be prayed for, if you will stand up, we'll pray for you — any sitting down ? Now let's all pray earnestly a moment together. ^ERJVION XXIII. "\Yh/T ^UgT I pO TO BJE ^/.VED? What must I do to be saved? And they said ; Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. — Acts 16 ; 30, 31. ts a minister of the gospel of Christ I have no right to ad- vise a man to do anything that he cannot die doing that and die saved. When that question is propounded to me as a minister of the gospel, I can answer it in no way except the scriptural way. As a minister I have no right to advise a man to do anything in order that he may be saved, unless I am conscious the advice given will surely bring about salva- tion to him. THE MINOR ESSENTIALS. ITow, I might advise a man to pray in his family — and every father ought to pray with the children of his home. I cannot see how any man who loves his children and believes that his children are immortal, can let morning and night pass by day after day, and no devotion in his home j and yet I see how a man may pray in his family all his life and die unsaved. I might advise a man to read good books — and I know that that is good advice, and I am satisfied that noth- ing can be more pernicious than bad books, and nothing more helpful than good books — yet I see how a man may read good books all of his life and dieunsaved. I might advise a man to keep good company — and above all things we ought to keep no other sort — and yet I see how a man may keep company with God's people, with good men and women, all his life and die unsaved. GOOD ADVICE. I might advise a man to join the Church of Jesus Christ — and I know that is good advice. I wish every man and wom- an and boy and girl in St. Louis would join the Church of God to-night and take the vows of the Church upon them and live up to those vows. Oh, how much better and bright- 416 What Must I Do to he Saved r 417 er this world would be around us ! I say when I advise a man to go into the Church of Jesus Christ, that is good ad- vice. The message of th e Church of God to this old world is : Come thou and go with us and we will do thee good. And I k'now I give you good advice when I say to all men, come into the Church ; it will be healthful to you, it will be like a restraint thrown around you, it may lead you to a no- bler, better life. A REMARKABLE INCIDENT. One of the most remarkable incidents— I now think of it in connection with this thought-one of the best women 1 remember to have had in my charge as a pastor-true^ noble, good Christian woman-she said to mo one day, -Did you !ver hear how it was I got into the Church r Said I -No. "Well " she said, -I was about a fifteen-year-old girl, and i was st'anding outside of my pew in the aisle when the con- g-reo-ation arose to sing, and the preacher invited inquirers forward. I had stepped a little out from between the pews and took my stand in the aisle, and stood there singing, and a mischievous schoolmate of mine standing behind me gave me a push and started me up the aisle, and started me so forcibly I could not stop, and I just went right on up and gave the preacher my hand, and,- she said, -that is how I came in the Church." THE RESULT. She said, - I was so impressed by the fact that I did join the Church, that it made me very serious; and the following week, whenever wrong or error would come up, i d say, i cannot do that; I am a member of the Church; and she said -that thing so weighed upon me until finally i said, ^Can I perpetuate a membership in the Church and not be relio-ious r And I sought the Savior, and found him. And she^said to me, -I would not take the world for that push that c;irl gave me that day." , ,.«, The fact of the business is, it don't make much difference what starts you, so you get a good start. There s a heap in ^^ And I will say another thing. You don't live many blocks from here, and the way is just as plain before your eye ft-om here to your house as it is from where you sit to where these burners are lighted; and yet you could not get to your 418 What Must I Bo to he Saved ? home to-night without starting; much less to heaven with- out starting. THE CHURCH ISN^T EVERYTHING. I say 1 would give you good advice if I were to say to you, ^'Come into the Church of Grod ;" and yet I can see how a man may live and die outside of the Church of God and be saved. I would say, ''Commemorate the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ," and I believe every soul for whom Jesus died ought to commemorate his sufferings and death around the sacra- mental board — and yet I see how a man may partake of the sacrament regularly and then sit down in hell at last. I might advise a man to be baptized in the name of the Trinity — God said to the ministers, ''Go out into the world and preach the gospel to every creature, and tell them they that believe and are baptized shall be saved" — and yet I can see how a man may go from baptism to death and hell. I may advise a man to make a profession of religion and love it, and yet I can see how a man may go from the heights of pro- fession down into the depths of damnation. These are all grand instrumentalities in the hands of God — and I would not underestimate any one of them — but there is one suffic iency, and that is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, » KEEPING TO THE TEXT. Now we propose to speak to the text straight through. What must I do to be saved ? We'll notice some of these small words in this text. There is force in each one of them. This is infinitely the most important question ever pro- pounded by man — What must I do to be saved ? Now it is not "What must I think ?" It is not "How must I feel?" It is not "Where must I go?" but "What must I do to be saved ?" We get to God through movement. A man cannot think his way to God. This world, by its wisdom, cannot know God. A man cannot find God by going to the temple, or on this mountain. The question is not "How must I feel?" nor "What must I think?" but it is: What must I do to be saved ? Not every one that sayeth, "Lord, Lord," but ho thiit doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. What Must I Do to be Saved ? 419 A GREAT DEAL OF MYSTERY. Now, we have got a great deal of mystery mixed up with what we call religion. Why, if there were not mysteries in the Bible I'd discard it in a moment; I'd know some trick- ster wrote it. If I knew every mystery in the word of God, I'd know some man like myself wrote it. Ingersoll said in one of his lectures: ^'The Bible ! the Bible ! Why," said he,' "I could write a better book myself." Some old woman goti up and said: *' You'd better get at it : there's money in it." And money is what Ingersoll is after. I say there are mysteries there that I can never solve. I grant you that I never can see with my finite eye how the God over all could ever have been an infant a span long. I can never understand that. I can never see how the babe in the manger at Bethlehem can be the king of angels. I can- not solve that problem. I never could understand how the great God who upholds all things could be carried about in Mary's arms. I can never solve that. I never could under- stand how he that 'owned the cattle upon the thousand hills and implanted the bowels of this earth with gold, could send his disciples to the fish's mouth to. get money to pay his taxes. These are things I can never solve. But I be- lieve in my heart that Jesus of J^azareth, the carpenter's des- pised boy, was the king of angels, and God's only begotten Son, and the brightest hopes in this world cluster, around and bud and blossom out of just such faith as this. GETTING RELIGION. Now, we ministers — and I expect others hereto-night not preachers — have adopted a phrase that is delusive in itself — *' getting religion." '' When did you got religion ?" " I got religion so and so." Well, what does a man mean when he says, " I have got religion"? There's nothing in the book about folks getting religion — there's not a word on that sub- ject. You cannot point your finger to a single instance where any man ever said, <' I got religion away back yonder, so and so." That term is deceptive in itself. And a great many people think that '' When I get religion I will get hold of a huge sentiment that will stir me up from head to foot." Well, religion is not a shout, it is not a song, it is not a sentiment, it is not a getting happy, it is not shouting. 27 420 What Must I Do to be Saved ? Shouting, getting happy, are no more a part of religion than my coat is a part of me. I have got a coat, thank God ! I couldn't get along without one ; but I would be just as much myself without the coat as I am with one; and, thank God Almighty, I can be just as good, and just as religious, and just as Christ-like, and never shout, as I can be shouting my way to glory. MYSTIFYING MATTERS. We have really mystified this whole subject in our exper- iences. We have taught men to believe that somehow or other religion was something that came down on a man and was thrust into his soul ; and, after all, he was a differ- ent man altogether in an instant. Many a fellow gets up at meeting, saying, "I got it ! I got it! I got it right in here!" Well — got what ? Now that is the big question. Got what ? And if he donH mind, it will be buried with him right in there ; it will never get out — never get out. When they bury him, they can say, ''Here lies a solid lump; it never evaporates, effervesces, or anything. '' What must I do to be saved ? What is '' Getting religion '7 What do you mean by that ? I notice that when Christ himself mingled with men, and talked with men face to face, Christ's term was, '' Follow me; follow me ; go with me somewhere." Not '' Take some- thing and sit down there and enjoy it," but " Come, take my hand and go with me somewhere." WHAT RELIGION IS NOT. Eeligion is not a something that bubbles out of the lips and from the lungs of a man, but religion is motive power taking one somewhere. Or, in other words, when a man says, '' I have got religion," I have just got one question to ask him. I mean sir, thi&: When Jesus Christ knocked at the door of your heart, did you open the door of your heart and let Christ in, and is he there now ? And is the life that you now live by the faith of the Son of God that loved you and gave himself for you? You can run Mormonism with- out John Smith, and you can run Confucianism without Con- fucius, but you cannot run Christianity without Christ. He is the living embodiment of our souls; of all that he would have us to be externally. What Must I Do to he Saved? 421 A MISTAKEN BELIEF. Now, I have seen a man get up from an altar and shout and clap his hands together and say: ^' Glory to God! I have got it !'' And yet that same man, three months from that time, gave the falsehood to all of the profession he made by an unfaithful lie. Some of the best men I have ever known in my life came to God in the most quiet, unassuming way; and they said to me : " I don^t know the time nor the place when God touched me into life ; but this much I know, that I live by faith in Christ this moment." Being made partaker of the divine nature. is the scriptural term. And what do you mean by that? This old, dead, dormant, wicked nature of mine has been touched by divine power, and I feel now like I had strength to do what God wanted me to do ; and I have now courage to refuse to do the thing that the devil wants me to do and the world wants me to do. A great part of my life, when- ever I had got stirred up and began to think about who I was, and what I was, and where I was going to, the very next thing I thought about was : ^' Well, religion is all a mystery ; I don't know anything about it.'' SEEKING RELIGION. A man came up last night and grabbed my hand and said : ^' I want to be what you said, but, I don't know what to be. I don't know anything in the world aboutit." Eeligion is a very plain thing. Do you know that nine- tenths of humanity are very ignorant,and do you think that Jesus Christ would promulgate a religion that nine-tenths of the world would not understand ? Do you think that the Lord Jesus Christ would envelop religion in such a fog that the clearest minds would not see into it? He has given us a religion that is so plain that the most ignorant man, though he be a wayfarer, can see through it. WHAT SALVATION IS NOT. What must I do to be saved ? Now, salvation is not a song, as I said just now. It is not sentiment. It is not '^ getting it ;" but salvation, if it means anything, means this: Salvation from something and salva- 422 Wiat Must I Do to be Saved ? tion to something; salvation from the wrong and salvation to the right. There is something practical about a thing of that sort. Salvation from the demijohn and salvation to so- briety. Don't you see? Salvation from profanity and sal- vation to chastity. Salvation from gambling and salvation toward justice in all my ways. Salvation from the things that degrade me, and salvation to the things that ennoble me and elevate me. "What must I do to be saved ? What is salvation ? "Well, when you sum it all up, here it is in a nutshell : Salvation is loving everything that Grod loves and hating everything that G-od hates. That is salva- tion. What a man loves and what a man hates determines his character. If a man will tell me what he loves and what he hates, I can tell him what he is; and the difference be- tween the best man in St. Louis and the worst man in St.- Louis is found in these likes and dislikes. A good man loves the good and hates the evil. A bad man hates the good and loves the evil. That is the difference. Salvation means be- ing in harmony with the good and out of harmony with the evil, so as to be able to say, ^' I love the good and hate the evil.'' SOMETHING TO BE GLAD OF. I am SO glad that a man is considered orthodox among Protestant Christians still when he saysr^^Grod made me, and I am certain that if God made me, G-od could so alter, vary and change my nature that he could make me love the good and hate the evil, and it is God's own work. Open my eyes, show me the evil, show me the good, and make me, in answer to my prayer and my surrender to him, to hate the evil and love the good." What must I do to be saved ? Salvation means deliverance from the guilt of sin; deliv- erance from the love of sin ; deliverance from the dominion of sin. Oh, I do not think there is a Protestant book of the- ology extant that teaches salvation is anything else than de- liverance from the guilt of sin : deliverance from the love of sin and from the dominion of sin. I wish we Christian peo- ple would live up as high as our books teach us on that sub- ject. 1 am not a sanctificationist; but I will declare to you What Must I Do to he Saved ? 423 that you cannot raise a bigger, higher, deeper howl in the churches of God in this country, than to preach about sanc- tification, than to say that a man can be a sanctified man throughout soul and body and spirit, and made to walk arm- in-arm with God every day. And now people will say, '' That man is running oif like wild-fire ; now he has got off on a tangent, and he is preaching something; and the first thing you know about him he will be in the asylum/' Thatis just about the talk of people who preach on that line. Now, listen, my dear friend : there is not a plane of Christ where the soul is allowed to sin. The soul is not allowed to sin on the lowest plane, and the only difference between sancti- fying a man and regenerating him, as we call it, is the ex- ternal difference. There is not a particle of internal differ- ence. If there is an enemy lurking in the soul, sanctification puts it on the outside. I like that. God knows I have plenty out there to fight, but I do not want any more on the inside. Sanctification puts the last enemy of a man on the outside. A POINTED DIFFERENCE. I get up here and preach : '' If these sinners do not quit sinning, God will damn them forever.'^ But the Church itself has some reserved rights. They say, ''Give it to those sinners, but do not say anything about us. Tell them that the Lord will damn them every one.'' That is the way we run it off, and other preachers say to those sinners : The soul that sinneth it shall die ? What is the message of God to them? If the righteous man forsake his righteousness and commit iniquity, his righteousness shall be forgotten and he shall die in his sin. Did you ever read that? And God says to the wicked : If the wicked man will forsake his wickedness and do right his wicked- ness shall not be remembered against him and he shall be saved. That is the message. Ah, me! There is no better army to fight this world with than an army of Jesus Christ that has been truly saved from sin. I do not want any senti- ments or shouting connected with my religion, if I can just feel conscious that I am saved from sin- The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth me from sin. 424 What Must I Do to be Saved ? THE GREAT QUESTION. Ah, my brethren in the Church, God lets some of us ask this question: "What must I do to be saved ? To be saved from sin? To be saved to do righteousness? That is the question. The saved man has power with God. A saved man has influence with his fellows. Lord God Al- mighty, save us to to-night as professors of religion, save us from sin and save us to righteousness. What must I do to be saved ? Let us rush into the presence of God to-night with this earnest question coming up from our hearts, and let us ar- ticulate it with our tongues: What must I do to be saved ? What must the Church do? What must the city do? What must the family do? What must I do? Salvation is a per- sonal matter. I, I, I can get nobody to die for me. I can get nobody to be buried in my place. I cannot get any one to stand before God atthe judgment in my place. God won't say to any other man, *■'- Come wear this man's crown," or to an- other man, '-'■ Go into everlasting darkness and suffer for this one; but I stand personally before God, all in my own per- sonal character, just like I was the only man that ever lived in the State of Missouri, or the only man that ever walked on the face of the earth. THE ANSWER. What must I do to be saved ? What can I do to be saved from the guilt, and the life and the dominion of sin ? That is the question. What must I do in order to love everything that God loves, and to hate everything that God hates? That is the question. Well now, thank God, we have an answer, and that answer comes straight to the conscience of every one of us. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. SOMETHING ELSE TO BE GLAD OP. Oh, I am so glad that it did not read this way : Believe the Methodist creed and follow the Methodist discipline, and you shall get to heaven. What Must I Do to be Saved ? 425 I am so glad that it did not read that way. If it had, there is many a man who would have stopped and said : That I cann^ot do." I am so glad it did not read : Believe the Baptist creed and be immersed by the Baptists and follow their precepts, and you shall be saved. I am glad they did not put it that way, for some of us might have objected. I am glad it is not written : Whosoever believeth the Presbyterian creed and conforms to their usages shall be saved. Some of us might have objected. But, blessed be God, it is not faith in the creed, but faith in the person, that saves the soul. CONCERNING CREEDS. "What is a creed ? It is nothing but the skin of truth set up and stuffed with something. There is no life in it, no life- giving powers, and no creed, |;cr se, ever saved any man. I am glad we have formulated our doctrines and formulated our creeds. That was necessary, that was right; but, thanks be to God, when I want to be saved — when a poor sinner wants to be saved to God and from sin, and saved in heav- en— I have nothing to do but fall down at the feet of Jesus Christ and say : ^' God be merciful to me a sinner." That is it. !N'ow, there is many a man in heaven that never heard of the Methodist creed. There is many a man in heaven who went there before there was a Methodist. Don't you see ? There is many a man in the good world who never heard of the Baptist Church. Brethren, don't you bother yourself about this creed or that creed, or try to understand all there may be in any creed, but look yonder — Hanging on that tree In agonies of blood, and as He fixed his languid eyes on — on you J and you surrender to that divine person on that tree. That is it. INFANT SALVATION. Now, a great many people say that a child is too young to understand the Scriptures; it is too young to join the Church. Well, brother, when did you graduate? That is the question. That little ten-year-old boy of yours under- 426 What Must I Do to be Saved f stands just about as much of the mysteries of redemption as you do. Ain't that so ? And our Savior pushed your sort back, and said : Suffer little children to come unto me. And he said something else to you gray-headed gentle- men : Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. ' And yonder little child can, blessed be Grod, take Christ as his Savior or her Savior. A STORY OP JONATHAN EDWARDS. This incident I have heard related of Jonathan Edwards, perhaps the greatest man that ever preached the gospel in America. He heard of the conversion, say, of little Minnie Lee, in a distant State. That good man did not believe that children could know Christ, and he went hundreds of miles to hunt the home of this little girl. And when he knock- ed at the door, and was admitted by the mother of the child, he gave her his hand and said, '^I am Dr. Edwards. Is this Mistress Lee ?" And she bowed and said, ^'I am Mrs. • Lee.'' ^'Well," he said, "I have come to talk with your lit- tle Minnie." And she said: ''Walk into the parlor." He walked in and took a seat. The mother went and dressed little Minnie, combed her hair and brought her into the par- lor looking almost like a little angel, sure enough. And Dr. Edwards took her up on his knee and questioned her and probed and dissected every utterance for almost an hour. Then he took little Minnie and set her in her mother's lap, and took out a handkerchief and wiped the big tears from his eyes, and said: -'Thank God Almighty, a child four years old can have the Lord Jesus Christ." BRING THE CHILDREN TO CHRIST.' Oh, brethren, let us bring our children to Christ; let us save them in their younger days. Won't you ? Thank God for every agency in this country that brings children to Christ. God bless you, Sunday-school superintendents, and you Sunday-school teachers, and God help you to know Christ yourself; and let the great aim of your lessons at the Sunda5^-school be to teach your children to come to Christ a divine person. What Must I Do to he Saved? 43:j "What must I do to be saved ? The answer comes : Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Wilt thou believe in Christ? I have read a good many- books on faith, but I never read one yet that was not as clear as mud. I never read a work on faith that I was not more dissatisfied when I quit reading it than I was before I com- menced. I have watched authors split a hair a mile long in their efforts to get at the different shades and views and opinions on faith. But I will tell you what faith is. A DEFINITION OF FAITH. Steve Holcomb, with his little wharf-rats before him at Louisville — a poor little beggar children's Sunday-school — called four of them out before him, and pulled half a dollar out of his pocket, and said, "Johnny, you can have that/' Johnny sat and looked at it, but never opened his mouth. And he said, ''Willie, you may have that;" but the little fel- low sat and grinned but never opened his mouth. And he said, "Henry, you may have that," but Henry sat there and never said a word. And he said, "Tommy, you may have that;" and Tommy put out his hand, grabbed the money, and ran it down into his pocket. And Brother Holcomb said, "That is faith." The other boys cried and cried because they did not take it. Faith is taking just what God offers you. God offers you Christ and salvation. It is just taking what is offered you, don't you see? INTELLECTUAL BELIEF SAVES NO MAN. I want to say at this point, brethren, that if a man believes anything after he gets religion that he did not believe before he got religion, I have never got religion. I believe nothing since I got religion that I did not believe before. That is, I never saw a day in my life that I did not believe the Bible. I never saw a line in the Bible in my life that I did not be- lieve. I may be happily constituted, but I want to tell you I believed everything in the Bible, and everything it said about Christ. And I believed he was the Savior of men. And I believed that twenty-four years ago, when I went with- in half a mile of eternal perdition. I believe the same thing 428 What Must I Do to he Saved ? to-day. But for the last fourteen years, thank God, I have not only believed it, but I have been trying to do it to the best of my ability. I believed it twenty-four years, but went on just like there was nothing meant. For fourteen years, thank God Almighty, I have not only believed in Jesus Christ in the sense that I did before, but I have been following right after him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ THE CONDITION OF FAITH. But I will tell you what my trouble was. I did not know faith had its conditions. Saving faith. ^ow, if I put my hands up that way, I cannot see that gas burner to save my life; but if I take my hands down I can- not help seeing it. But when I put my hands up I do not comply with the conditions of sight. When I take them down, I do. If I put my hands up I cannot see it to save my life. Take them down and I cannot help seeing it. Or, if I am riding along the road, and I see an apple on a tree by the side of the road, I say I cannot taste that apple. But a lit- tle boy says: ^'Mister, if you will climb that tree and shake that apple down, and bite it, you cannot help tasting it." DonH you see that when I am riding along that lane I am not complying with the conditions of taste; but when I stick my teeth in the apple, I am. Now, what are the conditions of faith ? I do not know of but one in this round world, and that is repentance. MUST FIRST REPENT. When a man doesn't repent he can't believe unto salvation to save his life, and if he will repent he can't help from be- lieving to save his life, and then he just believes right on. And faith is an act. Faith is adjusting the soul rightly towards God, and taking what he is willing to give. That's the fact. In other words, faith in the old washerwoman that God would send the rain to do her washing — her faith was to ask God for rain, and tighten every hoop on every tub and push them up under the eaves. There's many a fellow praying for a show- er of grace in this country; and all your tubs with every hoop loose, and turned bottom side up ; and it might rain grace a thousand years, and you'd never catch anything. What Must I Do to he Saved ? 429 G-od himself canH fill a tub that is bottom side up, unless he reverses gravity. Believe ! How may I believe ? That's the question. Row, brethren,! bring this down so every man of you can eee it, and I aim to be perfectly deliberate, and I aim to be straightforward in this argument. I am trying to put the matter so every one of you can see it, and I waritj^ou to see it in the light that God's word teaches it to us — that faith is the attitude of the soul presented toward God, so that he may come and do what he wants to do for us and with us. And I tell you another thing : The hardest thing a poor fellow ever tries to do in this world is to give himself to God just like he is. He wants to fix up and brush up and arrange the matter. Oh, how bad we do hate to turn just such a case over to God ! We would like to make him about half-way what we want him to be, before we turn him over. It is the hardest job a man ever undertook to turn himself over to Uod just like he is, just like I am. A HARD TASK ILLUSTRATED. I have often thought of that moral, upright boy that was convicted of sin at the camp-meeting, and at the same time his servant boy that drove him about was converted. The servant boy went off to the woods and knelt down and gave his heapt to God in an hour, and was converted ; and this boy sought religion all during the camp-meeting at the altar and had them all praying for him. He went home and prayed for two or three weeks, and still was not converted ; and one day this colored boy came along by his door, and he called him in and said : *'Harry, look here. I want to understand how it is. You have been the worst boy in this town and you were convert- ed at the same camp-meeting that I was at, and you went down in the woods and got religion and gave yourself to God in an hour, and here I've been praying and trying and I am still in darkness. I know you've got it, but here I've been a moral upright boy all my life, and I don't know why God will pardon a mean nigger like you are ; and here I am, can't get either religion or pardon." *^ Well, Mas'r Henry," says the boy, '^I can explain that. As soon as the Lord gave me the spirit of religion I saw my- 430 What Must I Do to be Saved ^ self all in dirty rags, and that moment I went out in the woods and shucked off my dirty rags, and said, ' Oh, Lord, clothe me in garments of righteousness; and the Lord gave them to me right there. But, Mas'rHenry,you've been a good boy all your life, and you've only got a splotch of mud on oneof your clothes, and you've been trying to brush it off about three weeks; but," says he, ''if you'll only shuck them off and pray the Lord to clothe you in garments of right- eousness, he'll do it right there." • And when the boy walked out, the young man fell on his knees and prayed : '' God be merciful to me a sinner. I'm a poor, lost, ruined, sinful boy." And it wasn't long before he was able to say to his driver boy : ^' Harry, I've got it. I've got it. Blessed be God. You taught me a great truth — that I've got to come to God just like I am ; no brushing off the mud, and no fixing up about it, but ask God to give you garments brushed for all eternity, and there you are." SUBMISSION TO GOD. And God Almighty can take the meanest, most abject, wicked sinner in this town, and in five minutes he can make the most gentlemanly, clever, kind-hearted fellow out of him that you ever saw in your life. "What must I do to be saved? A man who had been seeking religion for a number of years sent finally for the preacher — the preacher told me this himself — and when he got there this man said : ''I have been seeking religion more or less for twenty years, and I'm afraid I'll die at last without it; and I've heard of you and Tve sent for you to come and tell me what to do." The brother looked at him and said : '' Submit to God." " Well," he says, '' what do you mean by submitting to God ?" " Well," he says, will you let me baptize you in the name of the Triune God?" <'No," he says, " I never can do that. I never can be bap- tized wicked as I am. That would be wrong." '* Well," said the preacher, " if you won't take the medi- cine, I'll go. I won't fool with a patient that won't take the prescription." *'Well," says he, ''if you think I ought to be, I will." Wiat Must I Do to be Saved ? 431 " That ain't the question. Will you let me baptize you in the name of the Trinity ? Will you submit to the ordinances of God?'' *' Well," he says, ''if you think I ought to be, I will be?" *' Now," he says, ''will you let me administer the sacra- ment?" " Oh," he says, that would be sacrilege for me to take the sacrament; I can't do that." " The question is, will you submit to the sacrament of God, ^ sir ?" He says, "I can't do that. I never can do that." " Well, then there's no use in me talking to you. You won't take my prescription, and I can't cure you." BROUGHT ROUND AT LAST. He said, finally: "If you think I ought to be baptized and "Ought to take the sacrament, I'll do it." " JS'ow," he says, " let me receive you into the Church." " Oh, no," he says, " a man ought neverto join the Church until he gets religion. I can't do that." " Well," says the preacher, " there's no use in bandying words at all." "Well," says the fellow, " if you think I ought, I will." The preacher said : "Now, get down, sir, we will pray K)Ver this matter." He got down on his knees and prayed devoutly, and when tfee preacher arose from his knees, the man said — on his knees and all at once, with his eyes shut tight, he says — "Thank God, I see it now. I'm a saved man." It is submission to God that is religion. It is walking up and stacking your old gun right at the foot of the cross, tak- ing off your cartridge-box and up with your hands : " Good Lord, I'm a surrendered rebel, right here. I'll die before I'll ever touch that old musket, and I'll never take up that cart- ridge-box again. I've fired my last shot on the devil's side, and now, Lord, I'm a surrendered rebel." You give all to the Lord, and he'll meet you and bring you safe in his arms be- fore any devil in hell can get to you. Surrenderl Submis- sion What must I do to be saved ? 432 What Must I Do to be Saved ? BELIEVE ON HIM. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on him, not believe him. Simply believe on him. Now, I believe Ban- croft when he writes a history of the United States — believe every word he says ; but I don't believe on Bancroft. He's of a different party from me, and I don't know that I want to run with him much. And I may believe Benedict Arnold when he writes a histoiy of the American revolution — be- lieve every word he writes ) but I don't believe on Benedict Arnold. He was a traitor and I don't take any stock in such. But I believe George Washington when he makes a statement, and I not only believe what he says, but I'll follow him and imitate him. I'll love him and revere him. And when I say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," I mean not only believing every word he says, but put your foot in every track that Christ ever made toward heaven, and as sure as he is at the right hand of the Father you will be there, too. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. WHAT IT MEANS. And thank G-od, there is no uncertainty about this thing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is taking up your cross and following along in his foot- steps. When he said to Matthew, "Follow me,'^ Matthew followed him, and I believe to-night Matthew is crowned in eternal glory. Why? Because he followed Christ. There isn't a word in the book about his getting religion, either. But I'll say one thing: there ainH any mystery about this part of it. Whenever an old sinner turns loose all his sins and begins to follow Christ, if he hasn't got religion, what has he got? That has been the question with me. I ain't going to raise any discussion here about what religion is, but I'll say I'll go your security with my immortal soul if you'll just quit.your meanness and follow along in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. I'll risk my immortality on your safe entrance into the good world up yonder. No mystery in that. And thou shalt be saved, and thy bouse. Well, bless you, it looks like if a man gives himself to Christ, and Christ gives himself to the man, that that ought to be enough. But listen — And thy house. What Must I Do to be Saved ? 433 Thank God, we can go to heaven in families, and I believe that is generally the way we go ; and I like to see father and mother gather around a family of children and say, " Chil- dren, we're all going to heaven together, or we'll go all to hell together. We're not going to split up the family in eternity." And, brother and sister, if you love your chil- dren and say, '' Children, I'll lead you to heaven or I'll lead you to hell ;" if you'll talk that way a minute in your mind, you are going to talk right to your children, and you'll be a family in the good world. See the wife taking her husband's arm and walking along by his side, the two oldest children right behind, and from them on down to the smallest child, and the whole family marching right along to the kingdom of everlasting peace! Can any one look upon a grander sight than that — a whole family marching into the kingdom of God. Brother, sister, thank God, he will give us our children to go with us. A GEORGIA STORY. lN"ow, I havenH time to argue this last point. Let me give you a simple illustration, as told by one of the presiding el- ders of our conference. He said he was holding a quarterly conference down in Georgia — in middle Georgia — and he said at the love feast, or before preaching on Sunday morn- ing— a Methodist love feast is like a Baptist experience meeting: it is where they tell their experiences — one got up and thanked God for a Christian mother and a Christian father; and another got up and thanked God they were raised in the lap of piety ; and anotherthanked God for good parents; and directly a pale, light-eyed young man, about twenty-two years old — he was then a licentiate Methodist preacher, just licensed — stood up and said: *' I'm sorry I can't give the experience of those who have just taken their seats. I wish I could say that I was rais- ed by a pious mother and a good father, but it was to the contrary. Two years ago my father was an atheist, my mother an infidel, and nine brothers and sisters, older than myself, were all infidels and atheists, and I was myself the best I knew how to be. And two years ago I went into an adjoining county to a camp-meeting. I happened to go by myself, and went down there to have fun, as I usually did. 434 What Must I Do to he Saved? At the first service that night when I got there, I was stand- ing against one of the posts that held the arbor up, on the outer edge ; and all at once every word of the preacher com- menced striking fire down in my soul, and I stood transfixed to that post. I felt like I wanted to be away, but yet felt I couldn't leave, and when the preacher ended his sermon and invited up the penitents,! went immediately to the altar and knelt down and commenced praying, ''God be merciful to me a sinner/' and after awhile they dismissed the congre- gation and all went to the tents, and the preacher came to me and said : '' Come out to the tent and we'll pray with you." I looked up at the preacher and told him: '' I never knew un- til an hour ago that there was a God in heaven, and I never expect to leave my knees at this altar till 1 make him my friend and he promises me heaven." They sang and prayed with me till one o'clock that night. A little after one, all at once, I felt indeed and in truth that I had opened my soul and Christ had come in as my Savior. And I got up, and slapped my hands together, and said, ' I have made friends with God ,' and I went out of the tent and laid down and went to sleep. Oh what a peaceful sleep it was; and when I woke up the next morning the bright sun was pouring in through the window of the tent upon my face, and I opened my eyes and I thought it was the brightest world I ever looked upon." GETTING INTO DEEP WATER. *^ After breakfast I got on my horse and started home, and this impression came upon me: 'Your father'U never speak to you again. Your mother'll disown you and your broth- ers and sisters will all despise you. Now, what have you done?' And," he says, "Oh, how oppressed I was. And just before I got home I turned out in the grove and knell down and said, ^ God help me to be faithful. God keep me in this den of lions ;' and I went on to the house. I took off my better clothes, donned my everyday clothes and Aventto work. About eight or ten days after I came back from camp- meeting my older brother and I were out cutting rail tim- ber, and about 9 o'clock we sat down on a log, and directly I turned to my brother — I hadn't opened my mouth before to anyone — and said: 'Brother Tom, do you know I was converted last week down at that camp-meeting.' And such What Must I Do to be Saved f 435 a look as fell on his face, and the great big tears were run- ning down his cheeks, and he says: "^Brother Henry, we've all been watching you since you came back from that camp-meeting. Mother says you look and talk like an angel, and sisters say they never saw such a change in a boy in their life, and father says you are the most agreeable one now about the place; and,' he says, 'Brother Henry, do jow. reckon God would do for me what he has done for you V " < Why, yes ! brother Tom. There's a camp-meeting be- gins to-morrow near here in this county, and I'll go down there with you, and I believe God will do for you just what he has done for me.' THE SECOND BROTHER. "We went on home that night. We never opened our mouths to a single one, and next day brother and I fixed up and put off to that camp-meeting, and the third night after we got there my brother was soundly converted to God. "And we came back home, and I said, 'Brother Tom, let's put our candle on a candlestick and let it give light to that old dark home. Let's get the Bible down to-night and pray, if mother will let us.' And we went on, and after supper, about bedtime, I turned to my mother and said: 'Mother, do you care if Brother Tom and I get down that old dust-covered Bible and read a chapter here to-night and have prayer?' And mother commenced to snub and cry, and she said : " 'Yes, Henrj^, you came home ten days ago just like an angel, and here comes your brother Tom this evening with the same expression upon his face, and you can just do anything you please here. God knows in my heart I want just what lights up the countenances of my two boys.' A NOTABLE PRAYER-MEETING. And we got down that old Bible, and I read a chapter and called on brother Tom to pray, and he got down and knelt on the floor and prayed earnestly for father and mother and children, and I heard mother snubbing over there, and I heard my brother groaning over there, and my sister crying over here, and Brother Tom got hold upon the horns of the altar, and before we got off our knees my mother was con- 28 436 What Must I Bo to be Saved ? verted and one of my brothers and one of my sisters; and we just kept praying night and morning until the last mem- ber of the family was converted ; and there sits my old fa- ther, now seventy years old — he was the last one to come in — and now he is clothed and in his right mind and on his way to heaven." Precious Saviour, fill us so full of thy presence that we shall have our homes filled with thy presence, so that others seeing our good works may be constrained to glorify thee and our Father which is in heaven. A SOUTHERN PLANTER AND HIS WIPE. I wish some of you good men and women out of the Church, here to-night, would be like Dr. Hodges, at luka, Miss. He was a river bottom planter, a man of means, and one of the most cultured men I ever met, about fifty years old. The day I commenced the meeting at luka — we held the meeting down in a grove in the Spring Park — I walked down to the spring, and the pastor introduced me to Dr. Hodges and his wife — a magnificent-looking gentleman, and his wife a magnificent woman. When they were gone ofi", the preacher said, " Dr. Hodges is an atheist and his wife is an infidel.'' "Why," said I, ''that cultured gentleman an atheist?" ''Yes." "And that bright woman an infidel ?" " Yes." But every time I preached — three times a day — I noticed Mrs. Hodges and the Doctor sitting in the aisle in chairs. I was watching them, and after I had preached three or four days, we had an afternoon service, and that woman walked right down the aisle, and I took her hand, and one night I looked in her face, and said I : "Mrs. Hodges, give your heart to God and be religious. You may be in your grave and in torment before the first day of October. Give your heart to God." She threw her bright eyes up in my face all suddenly and says: "What can I do, sir?" I said, "My sister, come up and kneel down there and say, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner;'" and she says: "That What Must I Do to be Saved ? 437 can do me no good ;" and about that time a lady came to me and caught my sleeve and pulled me off; she wanted me to go off to her husband over there, and I didn't get to talk to this woman any more that night. Next day, at ten o'clock, Dr. Hodges was sitting in front of his wife, and she further back. I went out and took his hand in the after service, and says I: "Doctor, Tm troubled about you. You are upon my heart. I have been praying for you. Won't you give your heart to God?" He looked up at me with that magnificent, honest face of his, and he says : , ^'Mr. Jones, will you please go back to the rostrum there and read the eighth and ninth and tenth verses of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews?" Said I, ^^ Yes, sir." I went back and opened the Bible and read in substance this: God called Abraham into a country that he knew not of, and Abraham went knowing not whither he went. And he sojourned in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him, of the same promise, and they looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. I read the verses distinctly and sat down, and Dr. Hodges stood up and said: " My fellow-countrymen : I have spent my summers for a dozen years here with you all. You are my neighbors and my friends, and I stand up here before you all to confess my sins to God. I have roamed over all the range of science and literature, and now^here have I found rest for my soul; and to-day my mind goes back to my precious Christian mother and my noble, pious father, and to-day I say, 'Oh God, take my hand, I know not whith- er,' and I build a tabernacle here to-day, and I want my preci- ous wife to come in and live with me, and we will look for a city whose maker and builder is God." Mrs. Hodges rose and rushed up to the side of her hus- band, and leaned her head on his bosom, with tears just run- ning out of her eyes, and she said, ''My husband's God shall be my God, and his people shall be my people, and his peace shall be my peace." 438 What Must I Do to be Saved P THE LAST APPEAL. And oh, how Grod blessed us that day. One hundred souls for Christ at that one service. Oh, I wish some of you no- ble men would say to-night: "Every step of my future life shall be put down in the footprints of Jesus Christ/' Oh, friends, we have prayed. We have prayed. God only knows what I have carried in my heart in the last ten days. God only knows the feelings that I have had. God only knows how much I have prayed for you. Oh, friends, this night won't you say, "Let others do as they will; as for me and my house we will serve God." Have you not courage to do it ? Let us espouse the cause of the right. Let us die on that side. Brother and sister, won't you do it to-night? And now, we are going to stand up and sing that precious old hymn : I am so glad our Father in heaven Tells of his love in the book he has given. And while we stand and sing, let me say that I would do anything I know of to help you to come to God. I would come and kneel down by your side and pray there till the clock struck twelve, if that would do you good. I am will- ing to do anything you say, and now, brother, friend, how many will come down here to-night in this aisle and give me your hand and say: "Sir, I want to be good. I want to fol- low Christ. Now, while we sing this precious song, won't you come, sister, brother, young man, young lady and let us decide this matter to-night? ^ERJVION XXIV. •VYhat af^e You "VY/m^iq "pof^? And now, Lord, what wait I for ? my hope is in thee. — Psalms 39 ; 7. WOULD get very close to every person in this congrega- tion to-night. I would talk face to face with you, and I would have my heart pulsate against your heart. I know that Christ is all the world to me, and I believe his glory I shall see, and I'd rather lie down and die than leave my Sa- vior. Christ is precious to many hearts in this house and in this city. Christ has blessed thousands of the blood- washed throng that have gone home to heaven from this city. The multitude in this city that are in the straight and narrow path to-night rejoice in the Savior's love. A COMMON SALVATION. I have found out that we are all of one blood. What is good for one of us is good for all of us. Anything that will help me will help you. Anything that will make m« a bet- ter father will make you a better father. Anything that will make my wife a better mother will make your wife a better mother. Anything that will make my children good and cheerful and sweet, will make your children good and cheerful and sweet. Oh, precious Savior! Show us thatthy gi-ace and peace can make a world happy and joyous and good. Will you listen, and as I preach to-night, will you think as I talk. I would have you do this in your mind; talk back at me just as you would if we sat in your parlor face to face and carried on a conversation. Now, as I talk, you an- swer me immediately. You think answers, as I talk to ques- tions as we proceed. Let us get close to each other; let us talk, for very soon these tongues are going to be silent, and these ears will hear no more in this world. Let us use our «ars and our tongues to glorify God to-night and to get better. 439 440 What are You Waiting For? WAITING TO CONSIDER. What wait I for? My hope is in Go d. Well, now, friends, I will come down on your side of the question, and will talk on that side a while. That man sitting back there, he is attentive and thought- ful, and when we press this question upon him he says: *' I tell you what I am waiting for. I am waiting for time to consider this question. This is a momentous question. It is the most weighty question of time and eternity, and I don't want to be hurried into a thing of so much import- ance. I want time to consider this great question. All in- telligent action is based upon wise, careful, intelligent thought. DonH hurry me in this great matter." ^' Want time to consider." ^'I am waiting to consider this question." Listen to me a moment, friend. Do you want time to consider whether you'd rather be good than be bad? Do you want time to consider whether you'd rather .go to heaven than go to hell ? Do you want time to consider whether it is better to do right than it is to do wrong? Do you want time to consider whether it is better to set a good example to your home or to set a bad example? Do you want time to consider questions like that? COULD BE QUICKLY DECIDED. How long ought it to take a sensible man to decide the question whether he would rather go to heaven than go to hell? Whether it was better to do right than to do wrong? Whether it was better to love God and keep his command- ments, or to love the wrong and serve the devil ? How much time does a sensible, wise man want on a question like that? Why, brother, you can answer it in the twinkling of an eye. I never saw a moment in my life, but what, if you would bring my mind with all its powers to bear upon those ques- tions for fifteen seconds, for ten seconds, for five seconds, I could decide it. Eeally, friend, you sit back there to-night wanting time to consider a question that some of you settled twenty years ago. There are men in this house to-night that settled that question twenty-five years ago. *'It is right to do right, and I ought to do right 3 it is wrong to do wrong, ^nd I ought What are You Waiting For? 441 not to do it; Td rather go to heaven than goto hell." Why, friend, consider. You are talking for time to consider a question that you have settled ten years ago, twenty years ago, thirty years ago, some of you. Oh, gray-headed fath- er, out of the church, forty years ago you settled the ques- tion that right is right, and you ought to do it, that wrong is wrong, and you ought not to do it. '^I'd rather be good than to be bad.'' Then, my friend, what wait you for? You certainly don't want time to consider this question. WANT TO DO IT DELIBERATELY. "Oh, when I make up my mind about this I want it done deliberately, carefully, prayerfully. I don't want any ex- citement about it." I notice this much: Whenever any worldly influence wants to carry its point they get up an ex- citement. Why, I can take Gilmore's Band and get up a big- ger stir in this town than all the sermons that are preached in any church any Sunday. You say, why? It enthuses the people. How it stirs the people! I am ashamed of myself as a minister that I cannot stir the people to deeper enthu- siasm than Gilmore's Band can do. These, with a few in- struments as they blow their breath into them, and the tink- ling cymbals, arouse people and enthuse people more than any gospel sermon I can preach. Brethren, I am ashamed of myself, or I am ashamed of my race — one or both. ENTHUSIASM. Enthusiasm ! Without enthusiasm a man is already half dead; and if there is anything that ought to arouse excite- ment and enthusiasm it is the great question of eternity ; and the only use I'd have for enthusiasm anyway is to make you do the thing that is right for you to do. There's many a log adrift, floating way out on the ocean ; but when the spring tide, with its fearful breezes and its in- flowing waters, shall sweep out and out, there's many a log swept out high and dry that would never come out but for those brisk breezes and those rising tides. Lord God, send us such a heavenward tide to-night as will sweep us out to the kingdom of God — and sweep us in spite of ourselves; for if some of us will ever be saved at all, we must be saved in spite of ourselves. "I am waiting for time to consider this thing, and as soon 442 Wiat are You Waiting For? as I consider it long enough I am going to decide it." SHOULD ACT ON HIS DECISION. Now, my friend, let me say to you at this point : You have already considered it ; and all the preachers wait for, and all the angels wait for, and God waits for, and heaven and earth wait for, is for you to act on your decision. You have al- ready decided it is right to do right, and wrong to do wrong; and the decision does not amount to that [fiUipping], until the man says: ^'I will act on my decision." I might decide to go home, but Fd die right here in the corporate limits of this city unless I acted on my decision, and took a train and went. Don't you see? And, then, I donH consider a ques- tion decided in any sense at all until it is decided in the sense that I act upon my decision. And I speak it reverently, my brethren of the ministry, and my brethren in Christ, to- night; I speak it reverently; but God himself canH help a man to be good until the man decides and starts out on his decision. My theology is this — I havenH got much, but I have got enough, thank God, to keep me straight if I keep up with it — and that is this: SAM JONES' THEOLOGY. God Almighty cannot make any man a good man, and the devil cannot make him bad. God can help folks to be good, and the devil can help them to be bad, too. If God could arbitrarily make anybody good, he would make them good, because he wishes us all to be good ; and if the devil could arbitrarily make anybody bad, we would all be bad, because he wants us all to be bad; and if you want to be good the Lord will help you, and if you want to be bad the devil will help you. Now — I speak it reverently — God won't help a a man to be good unless the man decides to be good. A PLAIN APPLICATION. Let us take a common sense view of this subject. Here is a father and he has a son, and he wants to make a farmer out of that boy. What will he do now ? Well, he goes out here ten miles, buys a thousand acres of land and stocks the farm, employs hands, furnishes the house, and says, ''Son, now sir, there is the plantation and it is stocked, and there are j^our hands ; now go ahead to farm it." The boy, spending every What are You Waiting For? 443 day in the week in St, Louis here in the saloons, spending all his time here in the city, has never been out on the farm and never intends to go. That father is making a farmer out of him with a vengeance — isn't he? How will a man make a farmer out of his boy by buying some land and buying some stock, when that boy wonH go to it, won't look at it, and won't touch it ? ANOTHER ILLUSTRATION. Here is a father going to make a lawyer out of his boy. He buys every law book extant, and builds an office, and puts all the best law books in the office, and locks it, and gives the boy the key and says: '' Son, I'm going to make a lawyer out of you. I have built that office and have stock- ed it with law books for your use." And the boy puts the key in his pocket, and twelve months have passed, and he hasn't been in that office one day, and he hasn't looked in a law book. He is making a lawyer out of his boy ! And if a father cannot make a lawyer out of his boy until he has de- cided to become a lawyer, how can he help him ! If he can- not make a farmer out of his boy until he has decided to become a farmer, how can he help him? If God cannot make a man good until he has decided to be good, how can he help him ? ]^ow, I won't say how much God has to do in helping you to decide it, but it is a common sense declara- tiovi that God helps no man to be good until he decides to be good, COMMON-SENSE RELIGION. And I tell you another thing : Whenever a man chooses to begood— God throwsthedeciding point on aman's will— "who- soever will" — you choose this day and say, *'I will choose to be good" — then you can command the resources of God's omnipotence and love ; but until you decide to be good, God himself cannot help you to be good. That is common-sense theology. And I do believe you can mix common-sense and religion, and I do believe that when you mix them it is the best compound you ever looked at — common-sense and re- ligion mixed up in equal parts — and then you have a man that loves God and humanity. And God says," " Whosoever will." He throws it on your will ; and says, " Whatsoever you choose." He tells you to choose; and when you do choose he throws his omnij^otence to help you, and decides 444 What are You Waiting For? the question. And until you decide it, there is no use dis- cussing the question at all. WAITING FOR BETTER TERMS. But the man says, "Well, really, I am not waiting for time to decide this. There is no use discussing that. I am wait- ing for better terms. I tell you, the terms, the conditions of salvation, are pretty tough where a man has to give up every- thing/' ♦ Well, a man has to give up mighty little and he get a great deal — I tell you that much. And here is one thing about religion. A man waiting for terms ! I am so glad the terms are just what they are. I am very glad the good Lord will nev- er take any man into his kingdom until that man decides to "cease to do evil and learn to do well.'' Suppose the Lord had said to me when I was seeking religion, " You needn't give up drinking. You can be my child and just drink on." I would be in a drunkard's grave this moment if he had said that. I am so glad I threw down the cup and told my Lord, "I have taken my last drink." SOMETHING TO BE GLAD OE. I am so glad that God Almighty don't take a man into the kingdom until the man has quit everything that could dis- grace him in time, or harm him in time, or damn him in etern- ity. I am not going to stand here and say that some things were not hard for me to give up ; but I will stand here and say this much : I have heard some people talk about sacrifi- ces. Blessed Christ ! Blessed Saviour! I have never made a sacrifice to Thee, and to-day I stand here with the con- sciousness and utter it, there is no cross for me now. I used to sing — Simply to the cross I cling — I have sung that many a time, and I thank God for the priv- ilege of singing it j but my song all the day now is : Safe in the arms of Jesus. It is a prostrate, it is a recumbent, it is a resting posture. A SMALL SACRIFICE. Sacrifice ! Fourteen years ago I emptied a whole lot of dirt out of my pockets and God filled them up with diamonds, and shall I go around here saying: "I had to give away a Wliat are You Waiting For? 445 whole lot of dirt to get apocket-full of diamonds." Is'ntthat a nice thing to give up ? Talk about sacrifice ! Well, I gave up dancing, God being my judge, I gave it up ; I gave up dram drinking, I gave up profanity, I gave up everj'thing that my preacher said was wrong, and I tell you what: I have in place of it joy and peace in this world, and bright, everlasting peace in the world to come. Why, suppose I danced on and drank on and enjoyed the world, and then, as I walked through the lurid flames of damnation with some poor, lost fellow like myself, he and I locked arms and said, '' Well, I could have got to heaven, but I could not give up dancing. I am here in hell forever, but I tell you I danced with more pretty girls and drank more champagne and had more fun than any fellow you ever saw in your life. Clear the pit." A SUGGESTION. If some of you ain't going to do something better than you are doing, that's where you're going, and you might just as well cut your patching on that line, and just enjoy this world all you can — that's my candid advice. If I hadn't made up my mind to give myself to God and go to heaven at any cost, I would have all the fun there is in this world. I would that. '^ I am waiting for better terms. I am waiting till God lets the terms down, so I can curse a little when I get mad, or drink a little at Christmas, or when I go fishing, or have a good time in the parlors. I want to drink a little, I want the terms to come down some; it's up too high." Oh, foolish thing ! don't like a no-fence law in religion. I like this no-fence law they have down in Georgia. Every man has to keep up his stock, and the planters turn out at their own risk. I like that when it comes to physical agricul- ture; but. Lord bless you, when it comes to religion, no no- fence law for me. I want God Almighty to make the king- dom of heaven with a ten-rail fence, stake and rider, all around. I want the devil's goats fenced out; I don't want them turned loose with us. I say to every man: ^' If you don't want to get up where you can get into the kingdom of God, you stay out." God knows I would not lower the 446 What are You Waiting For? standard one-half inch. I would not. I have to deny my- self and struggle to the top of yonder hill, but, blessed be God, when I have struggled on and pulled on — and I have pulled loads that would break me down — and I have fallen down the shafts many a time panting for breath, with shoulders all sore, and I have told God I could not pull another inch — '■'• My God, I am broken down" — the good Lord would come and pour his grace into my soul and the water of life all over me, and then tell me, '■'■ Get up now and I will push for you;" and the Lord God has pushed me up some of the steepest places on my route to that hill of glory. THE VALUE OF DENIAL. And, brothers, I have got to deny myself and take up my cross to get to heaven, and when I do get to heaven I am go- ing to be badly disappointed if it ainH a grand old heaven. I will see enough in heaven the first hour I am there to pay for every suffering and for all the sacrifices I have made and everything I have ever given up. Waiting for better terms ! Well, now, there are churches in this country that will take you on most any terms — I don't say God will — there are churches here that will takeyoumostanyway. And that is consistent to-day with the atti- tude of this world. Sort of like the wom- an praying for a hus- band, and th e o wl shouting back or whis- pering and hooting back, and she thought itwas the Lord asking her, ''Who ?" And she said, ''Just anybody. Lord! Anybody." And there is many stretched out, saying. Whot Who I W/ior The Old Maid and the Owl. a church now standing with its arms "Give us anybody; give us anybody !' What are You Waiting For? 447 THE LORD HELP US. Lord help us preachers who claim to be religious and pro- claim the gospel of Christ. God help us to protect the king- dom of Christ, and say, "Unless you deny yourself and take up your cross, then we can't take you and compromise the religion of Christ.^' God help me ! If I am a Baptist, I will be one all over. If I am a Methodist, I will be one all over. If lam a Chris- tian, I will be one all over. If I am a Presbyterian, I will be one all over — I will be as loyal to my Church as angels are to God. I will be what I profess to be and what my re- ligion demands I should be. That's it. A DOORWAY FOR SIMPLE SOULS. " I am waiting until they will take a fellow that is just about half-way ready. That is what I am waiting for." Now, if you are in earnest about that, you can go in. I don't think the Lord will be hard on you. There is a side door to heaven, I have heard, where idiots and infants get in, and I think maybe they will motion you around to that side door and let you in there. Another one said: "Well, I am not waiting for better terms. The Lord knows I want to be a good Christian. If ever I start at all I want to be a good one. I do not want to be one of those hypocrites in the Church. I want to be a grand Christian in the Church ;" — and they are not any- thing there. WAITING FOR THE CHURCH TO GET RIGHT. Another one says : "I am not waiting for time to consider the question, and I am not waiting for better terms, but I tell you what I am waiting for — I am waiting for the Church to get right." And that is the biggest fool in the lot, when you get right down to him. 1 tell him, "You will be in hell a million years before the Church will be right." And it will be a great consolation to hira after being a million years in hell to know that the Church has got right at last, won't it ? Waiting for the Church to get right I Brother, what have you and I got to do with the Church ? I used to stand on the outside and say, " Well, I am as good as this one in the Church, and that one in the Church." But I tell you I al- 448 What are You Waiting For? ways picked out some little, old, lame, wrinkled case that was not much. A DISGUSTING SIGHT. And if there is a disgusting sight in this world to me it is to see a man calling himself a gentleman out in the world, who will go out and drag one of those little, old, lame dwarfs out into the road, and stretch him out in the road and lay himself by his side, and say, ^'I am going to measure this fellow and show you that I am as long as he is.'' And after he has laid down and measured himself with the little thing he jumps up and says, " I am just the same length as this fellow in the Church." Let me ask you, '^ Why did'nt you get a first-class Christian, and measure with him?" You take a first-class Christian and lay him down there, and then, brother, you lie down beside him and see how you look. You would look like a rat terrier lying by an elephant. And the fact of the business is we have got some sorry members, and we got them from your side, and we were never able to do anything with them, and you can take them back when j^ou want them. And we tell you right here that you are welcome to them. And the reason we have never been able to do anything with them is because they are so much like you. And is it not strange that you should put a few of your sortoff onus, and then make it a reason that you wonH come up and live right? Lord have mercy onus! That is the schedule we are running. There is not a low- down member of the Church we donH get from your side, • and the reason they are not good members is because they are just like they were when we got them. We have never been able to improve them because they would not let us im- prove them. WAITING FOR FEELING. Another says: ''I am not waiting for the Church to get ready. The Lord knows the Church is too good for me like it is. I will tell you what lam waiting for. lam waiting for feel- ing. Now, as soon as I have feeling, then I tell you right plainly I am going to move." As soon as I get feeling ! I told you about a fellow who stood in a wood with his back against a tree one cold, frosty morning, and with his ax resting against his knee. I walk- ed up to him and said : ^'Friend, good morning." Wliat are You Waiting For? 449 '^Good morning," ho returned. '^What are you going to do ?" I asked. He said : ^'I am going to cut down this tree/' "Why don't you get at it?'' I said. "I am waiting until I begin to sweat," he said. I asked again: "Waiting until 3^ou begin to sweat?" "Yes." "Why don't you get up and go to cutting, and you will begin to sweat." "No," he said, "I'm not going to cut a lick until I begin to sweat." What are you going to do with a case like that? NOT HYPOCRISY. "I am waiting for feel- ing ;" and people think, "Well, if I do a thing that I do not feel like doing, I am a hypocrite." That Waiting to Sweat • is the way they talk. Look here, doctor: When you were sent for the other night at midnight, you had been up a great deal and had lost a great deal of sleep, and when the sum- mons came you got up and rubbed your eyes and said: "Wife, I declare I don't feel like going." But you got out of bed, dressed yourself and relieved the patient. Were you a hypocrite? You did not feel like going, but you went like a true man and did your dut}^ Were you a hypocrite? Sister, when j^ou get up in the morning you do not feel like getting up, much less like proceeding to the table to at- tend to your household duties ; but just as the time came for you to rise you got up and went at them. Were you a hypo- crite when you got up and went to work, when you did not feel like it? Look here, why cannot we have just as much sense in 450 What are You Waiting For? religious matters as in all other matters ? That is the way to talk. WANTED FEELING. A fellow ruDning on feeling reminds me of a man who had just returned from Nashville. A neighbor called to see him and asked : ^'Did you have a nice trip ?" ''Yes/' was the reply, " we made quick time. "We had a pleasant trip, but when only about ten miles this side of Nashville, I turned deathly sick and had to raise the window of the car.'' ''And you were sick?" the neighbor said. ''I was, and I was deadly sick for about ten minutes." Well, the next week this neighbor finds that he has got to go to Nashville. Every station he passes is right. He is on the Louisville and Nashville cars. It is an L. and N. conduc- tor. The engineer is an L. and N. engineer and the engine is an L. and N. engine. And there he is and he sits there all right, perfectly satisfied, until he gets within ten miles of this side of Nashville. The conductor passed through the car, and he said: "Captain, hold on and put me off this train." "What is the matter?" asked the conductor. "I want to go to Nashville." "You are going there at the rate of forty miles an hour." "No, we are not." "What makes you think we are not?" "I have a friend who went to Nashville last week, and he was taken sick ten miles before he got there, and I know — I am certain we are not on the right road, or I would be taken sick here." WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH HIM. What are you going to do with a man like that, that ain't got any sense ? Feeling, feeling, running on feeling. And if you were to start him down to Nashville, about every ten minutes he would say, "I do not feel like I am going to Nashville ;" and he would turn to the fellow in the next seat and ask him lots of question j and he would have to be tied before he got there, and the passengers would all go into the next car. " I don't know whether I feel right about the matter or What are You Waiting For? 451 not. If I feel like I was going to Nashville I would be all right. But somehow or other I do not feel that way. Cap- tain, just stop this train and put me off/' There is a man that is running on feeling. Oh, I wish we could see and keep good and sensible, viewing all these things as God intended we should. And the Lord knows that you are laughing and showing merriment here, and I was never more solemn in my life. I do not think it will be fun for some of you, but whenever people see themselves they laugh at themselves. When you holdup a mirror before them they quickly form an estimate which makes them laugh at themselves. That is a mystery to me. Feeling! Do you wait for feeling? Look here, friends. What do you mean when you say " feeling?'' ^' I want feel- ing." Do you mean serious thought on the subject? What do you mean? What do you mean by feeling? That you hadn't to blubber and blubber and blubber? What do you mean by feeling? Brethren, if you mean serious thought, you are right. Every man that goes to Grod ought to go with serious thought and prayer. Or, when you say feeling, do you mean an emotional spur ? Do you mean that ? AND THEY ARE INSINCERE, AFTER ALL. I walked out into the congregation in a meeting once, and a man stood there trembling from head to foot. I took hold of him by the hand and said to him : '' Come to the altar and give your heart to God." He said : '' Mr. Jones, Til go in a minute, butlain'tgot a bit of feeling." Such people are insin- cere in this. They don't mean what they say, and when they are shaken from head to foot with what they call emo- tional sincerity, they say that ain't what they want. Breth- ren, hear me to-night, if you mean *' serious thought about my soul's eternal interest." Every man ought to have it. Serious thought. WAITING FOR FITNESS. Another one says, ''No, I am not waiting for feeling. I have found it. I'll tell you what I am waiting for. I ain't fit to be religious. I ain't fit to be a Christian." And they make that a reason why they don't come to Christ. "If I was fit I would come !" Brethren, do you know that mv 20 452 What are You Waiting For? acceptance is the only thing that commends me to Christ; and if that man was fit to come, then Christ would wave him back. He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. ^ And again : He loved us and gave himself to die for us. And listen again: It is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. When it comes to pleading want of fitness, the most intel- ligent lawyer in this town and the most ignorant colored man are on the same level ! That reminds me of a poor fellow that is absolutely starv- ed to death. A friend walks up to him, takes him by the hand and leads him up in five steps to a heavily-loaded ta- ble, with every luxury on it. He says, "Friend, are you hungry?" *' Never was more hungry in my life." He says^ "There is a table loaded with every luxury; walk up and eat." "JS-o." "Why?" "Because my hands ain't fit." " Here is soap, water and towel. Wash your hands." "No." "Why?" " Because they ain't fit to be washed." And there he stands, starving to death, with plenty within his reach, because he ain't fit to eat and because his hands ain't fit to be washed. I go and tell yonder man to give himself to the Church of God. He says: "I ain't fit." " Why? " I ain't fitten to get fit;" and he stands there starving to death. "Now that is true, and you needn't laugh. The Lord knows we ought to be grave over these things, for that is what we have been doing for years and years — that very thing. There he stands and dies. It is a sad thing. What are You Waiting For f • 453 KNOWS HE isn't FIT. Another one says: ''Well, I know Fm not fit. I can see that. My wife sees it. My neighbors can see that. My heart is harder now than last year, and my will is more ob- durate than it was last year, and the truth of the business is there's no use in my putting up such a story as that 3 for If I tarry till I'm better, I shall never come at all." And bless God for this old hymn — this old verse — this grand old verse : All the fitness he requireth Is to feel my need of him. The money, the influence that buy a ticket to Grod's table is the fact that you are hungry. The only thing that com- mends you to the outgushing waters of life is the fact that you are thirsty. DonH you see ? All the fitness he requireth Is to feel our need of him. WANTS TO GO CLEAR THROUGH. Another man says : '' Well, a man ought not to talk about being fit, for the Lord knows we are all unfit, and that's the reason we are where we are to-day ; but I tell you what Tm waiting for : Tm waiting till I get enough religion to take me through before I make any start at all. Because, I tell you, Tve seen the beginning andendingof so many good I'eligious lives, Tm afraid to start on a small capital.'' I've been right there many a time in my thoughts. Oh, how it did trouble me to think I had joined the church, and "hight run well for awhile, like some of them, and then quit. That bothered me a great deal. There's a stumbling block to a good many minds there. But let's see how it looks. 'Tm going to wait till I get religion enough to run me through before I start." I illustrate it this way. THE ILLUSTRATION. I was standing in Atlanta, in the great Union Depot there. The engines stand out from under the shed a few feet and the passenger coaches under the depot. That day, be- fore our train left on the State Eoad, I walked outround the engine. I wanted to look at the magnificent engine that was going to pull us to our destination. I walked around the 454 What are You Waiting For? engine, and the engineer was oiling his engine all round, and he looked up at the cab of the engine and said to the fireman : *' Have you got enough steam to start with ?" And the fireman looked at the gauge and said, '^ Yes." I threw my eye round on the gauge, and he had 70 or 80 pounds of steam. I said to myself: ^' Well, that engine carries 180 pounds of steam and she has 138 miles to pull this heavy train. I wonder what that man is thinking about, pulling out with less than 80 pounds. That wonH do." In about two minutes he reversed the lever of his engine and drove her back to couple her on to the eight or ten coaches, and the bell rang and the engineer pushed his lever forward and pulled his throttle open, and the engine began to move out and out. And when we got out six miles, near- ly, to the Chattahoochee Eiver, one of those short cuts and curves, I pushed my head out of the window and I saw the engine was blowing off. Her safety valve was lifted and she was blowing off steam. She had more than she wanted, more thanl80pounds. And I said: "Well,that engineer never ask- ed the fireman, did he have steam enough torun to the river, that seven miles; nor whether he had enough to run him to Cartersville, about fifty miles; nor whether he had enough to run him into Chattanooga, 140 miles; buthesays: 'Haveyou got enough to start with ! If you have, off we go and away we start.^ " An engine generates steam faster running than she does standing still, and she only ran seven miles before she was blowing off. Suppose that engineer had staid there on his engine till he had got steam enough to run to Chat- tanooga, about 138 miles; if he had tried to compress enough steam in that boiler to have run him that 138 miles, he would have blown that engine into 10,000 pieces. He couldn't have helped it. ENOUGH TO START WITH. And there's a man out there. He says : ^' I want enough religion to carry me through to glory before I'll move a wheel." Well, brother, if the Lord were to come down and com- press enough religion to carry you clear through to glory into that little soul of yours, it would blow it into 10,000 pieces — you couldn't hold it. And all a man wants in this universe is to get enough to start with. Wiat are You Waiting For? 465 Well, wiiat^s enough to start with ? Wrong is wrong and ril quit it. Right is right and I'm going to do it. Now, there's enough to start with. There's enough. Brother, just pull the throttle and you'll start up, and you'll not run ten miles toward the celestial city before j^ou'll be shouting praise to God and have more religion than you can hold. That's true. '^ Waiting to get enough to carry me through before I start." Now, brother, hear me to-night. Every man of us has grace enough to make a start. And it seems to me, some- times, brother, that when I started I had none at all and you had to take a crowbar and punch my engine along to get a start at all. Oh, all I had in the universe was," I'm lost! I'm ruined ! And I've promised my dying father I'll quit my ways and go to him in heaven. '^ That's all I had. Well, we have already taken up nearly an hour of the time with the fiistpart of the text. Now, brother, is it right to wait for time to consider this question? Is it right for us to wait for better terms ? Is it right for us to wait for the churches to get right? Is it right for us to wait for feeling? Is it right for us to wait till we are fit? Is it right for us to wait till we can get religion enough to take us clear through ? A STARTLING INTERRUPTION. At this moment Dr. Brookes stepped to the front of the platform, and said : '^ Here is a comment on our brother's earnest talk. I have a note for a person probably in this house, it is supposed — Mr. Buckingham. He is wanted im- mediately at the door. His father is dead ! And this is a sort of solemn comment on this earnest appeal to you to make this start now, and not to put it off." A gentleman sitting in the northwest corner of the tran- sept of the church arose hurriedly, and, with one or two friends, left the church in response to the sad announcement made by Dr. Brookes. As soon as the momentary excite- mentsubsided Bro. Jones said : MAKE UP YOUR MIND AND DON't WAIT. Oh, this latter clauseof this text comes in now with a great deal of force. What wait I for? My hope is in God. Wow, brothers, let's pay special attention to this point. 456 What are You Waiting For? Give me your attention for a few minutes, and let's see if we can't decide: ''I'll wait no longer. There's no reason for waiting, but ten thousand reasons why I ought not to wait a single moment." And now hear me : What wait I for? Said the Psalmist: For my hope is in God. Thank God! My hope is in him. If my hope was in stocks and bonds and I had all the world could give, those stocks and bonds might take unto themselves wings and fly awp^y from me, and then my hope is gone forever. Suppose mj^ hope was in my father; and my father has been buried fourteen years ! My hope is buried fourteen years ! Suppose my hope was in my precious mother! For nearly thirty years precious mother has been buried ! My hope in the ground for thirty years ! Suppose my hope was in my wife ! And she has been all the world to me. Since the day God gave her to me she has been like a crutch under each one of my arms to hold me up. But suppose my wife should die or by a railroad accident to-night should be cut off in a minute; my hope is gone forever. Suppose my hope was in my children! The time might come when I would kiss the cold lips of the last childlhave in the world; and then my hope is gone forever. Suppose my hope was in preachers ! The time might come when every one would turn their backs on me and forsake me; and then my hope is departed. Suppose my hope was in the Church ! The time might come when the Church would drive me from her pews and forbid me to enter her doors ; and then my hope has vanished away. If my hope was in angels, the time might come when I would lose their sympathy, and they would leave me; and then my hope is gone forever. If my hope was in my friends around me; then those friends might all depart and leave me. A man's sure hope. But, brother, here to-night my hope is not in wife. It is not in children. It is iiot in neighbors. It is not in the What are You Waiting For? 457 Church. It is not in preachers. It is not in angels. But my hope is in Grod, who is my trust and my portion forever. Brother, do you know that a man is just as strong as the thing he commits himself to, that he trusts himself to? Why, if I start to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a paper box, just as soon as my box gets wet and goes to pieces, I'll go down with it. If I start across the Atlantic Ocean in a grand old ocean steamer, then all the strength of her hull, and. all the power in her boilers, and all the comfort of her cabin, is mine, and I'll never go down till she does. If I commit myself to the arm of flesh, I am no stronger than the arm I commit myself to ; but if I commit myself to God rU never go down until God goes down. Blessed be his holy name. The man who puts his trust in God is as strong as God. He can live like God, and he can conquer like God, and he can triumph like God, and he shall live with God forever. Blessed be the name of God; my hope is in him., TRUSTING IN GOD. But they say: "Why, ain't you afraid to start? You're mighty weak." "Yes," I say, "I'm mighty weak, but my hope is in God." They say: "Look here; you'll be tempted all the way along." " Well, I know I will, but my hope is in God." "Yes, but there'll be ten thousand trials along your path- way !" "I know that, but my hope is in God." And brother, now : "If you want to go to God, just lift your hands up, and just take hold of the hand of God, and say: " Father, lead me into the life everlasting." And to have your hand in the hand of God is not only a post of hon- or, but it is also a post of safety. Brother, think about this to-night and let every one of us say, '"'I know I have no strength of my own, but my hope is in God, and I'm not afraid to start." THE WAGON-SHOP PARABLE. Oh, poor humanity, so afraid it can't hold out ! Well, brother, I reckon I have been as afraid along there as any* body, but the way I conceive the gospel to be to-night, it is nothing more nor less than a succession of wagon shops on 458 Wliat are You Waiting Forf the way to glory, just remedial all along. Here, fourteen years ago, I run my old broken-down wagon of humanity right up under the cross. I don't think it would have rolled ten feet further until it would have gone all to pieces for- ever. I got it clear up under the wagon-shop at the cross. Well, sir, it wasn't there but a few minutes until it was made all new from bottom to top 3 and then I hitched up my reso- lutions to it and drove off, and I said : ^^Thank God for roll- ing stock that will take me clear through to glory. I'm all right now." And I drove off. I hadn't gone a mile till I made a miss-drive, somehow or other, and struck a stump, and smashed one wheel all to pieces. And I said : ^' Well, just look at that. Ain't no use me trying to go anywhere. Broke down already !" Well, I was just about to give up and turn round and start back, but about that time I looked up at the side of the road and a kind, benevolent-looking gentleman says: ^'Bring that wheel up here. I run th^s shop in the inter- ests of fellows breaking down going the road that you are going." And I took off my wheel and carried it up to the shop and he fixed it good as new — better, maybe — and I put it on and said : ''What do you charge ?" He said : '' Don't charge anything ; only I charge you es- pecially that if you break down again, you go to the first shop on the way." And he said again : "You can't break down out of sight of a shop all the way. Now recollect that." A BROKEN AXLE. Well, I drove off. I said : ''^^Tow, I ain't going to break down any more. I'm going to mind what I'm about." And I drove off. I hadn't got two miles further till I run into a gully there and broke the axle right square off, and I said : "Well ! just look at that ! I'll turn round and go back. I'm disgusted at myself, I am ; and just look at me !" I was in utter despair. I thought I would give up and quit; but, blessed be God! about the time I was going to despair I thought about what that kind old man said, and I looked up at the roadside and another man motioned his hand and said: What are You Waiting For? 459 The Gospel Wagon Shop. *' Bring that axle up here. Fm running this shop in the interest of parties broken down in the direction you are go- ing." I took my axle up and got it fixed, and I said : ''What is the charge?" "Nothing, only be mighty careful now. There's danger all along." GOING TO BE CAREFUL NOW. I drove off and I said, "Well, now, I will watch what Tm doing from this time on. Til look now how Fm going sure. This way of being mended up every two or three miles of the way don't quite suit me." And I drove off. And directly, I was making a short turn, sir, and snap went the tongue, right square off my wagon ; and I said : "FU give up and quit. There ain't any use me talking about doing anything. Why, just look here, I'm breaking down every mile or two." And I was just about to give up again when I looked up, and there was another shop, and the man said . " Bring that tongue up here." He waved his hand to me and said: "Fm running this shop in the interest of men that break tongues off wagons in the direction you are go- ing." A GRAND SUMMARY. And, brother, I want to say this to you: There hasn't been a day since I started that I havn't been in the shop to repair. And I can say this much: Sometimes I have driven along ten miles and never broke anything, and then struck a rough piece of road ; and the rougher the road the thicker the shops all along. And I have been troubled sometimes to know whether the shops would hold out. Some time ago I walked up by the side of an old, dying Christian man and said : " Brother, do the shops hold out?" 460 J\^at are You Waiting For? He said, ^' Yes, glory to God ; it hasn't been ten minutes since I was in the shop, and I've got the last finishing touch, and I'll ride into glory now.'' Blessed be God, no soul ever broke down out of sight of the shop all along the way. And let us come to-night, God helping us, and roll our broken down wagons into the shop of the cross, and have them repaired, and then let us drive on, and on, and on, and some of these days I shall light off this old wagon of humanity and I shall be in heaven. And if ever I get to heaven, and my mother runs and throws her arms around my neck and says: " Son, I con- gratulate you on your quick trip to heaven ;" and my father says : '' Son, I'm glad you kept your promise f and my friends there remark on my safe trip to the good world, I shall tell them: "Friends, all of you hush ! I have had very little to do with this thing. Where is the Lord Jesus? Show me to him, and I will show you the divine being that went out and sought me, a poor wandering sheep, and when he found me poor and starved and tired and hungry and lost, he didn't scold me; he didn't upbraid me; he didn't take a club and beat me; but he walked up to me and put his arms close around me and laid me upon his shoulder, and brought me safe to peace, and finally safe to heaven." THE LAST APPEAL. Precious Christ, seek these lost sheep to-night and help them to the cross. Brothers, won't you be saved ? I'm sorry there has been anything like levity. I don't believe it has been levity at all ! I have never felt more serious in any discussion in my life. God help you to-night to decide: "Others doing as they may, I intend to give myself to God to-night. Why wait for anything? God is my hope, and he is strong enough to take care of me, and I'll just put my hands in his to-night." Won't you say that? God help you all to say that to-night! ^Ef^MON XXV. 'pUF( pURDENg y\ND ^UR ^UPPOF(T, Cast thy "burden upon the Lord and he will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. — Psalms 55 ; 22. SUPPOSE the greatest curiosity that could be presented to the gaze of this world would be an unburdened human heart — a heart perfectly free from every care and every bur- den and every anxiety. Four thousand years ago and more a wise man of God said : "Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward." Just as naturally as the sparks ascend from the burning wood, so naturally is man subjected to trouble. And after all, the great question of the philosopher is not, how many troubles I have, but it is wisdom to classify troubles in one sense, aud then to know what to do with them. I grant you there are a great many imaginary troubles in this world. We are always looking for something Ave'll never see; we are always going out to meet something that is not coming toward us; we are always expecting something that will never happen. That is human nature. And I reckon the first thing we had better do to-night — because it has much to do with the text and with the discussion — is to classify our troubles. The imaginary we'll call the one class, the real we'll call the other class. IMAGINARY TROUBLES. Imaginary troubles ! Home-made trouble, we sometimes call this class of troubles. And home-made trouble is like home-made jeans and home-made shoes — they outlast any other sort, and frequently last till we are heartily tired of them. Now, what do I mean by home-made trouble, bor- rowed imaginary trouble ? I can illustrate it faster than I can present it in any other way. Well, say here is a good mother, a kind-hearted woman, 461 462 Our Burdens and Our J^upport. to say nothing of her strong mind. Her little children, from sixteen, fourteen years old down, come and say, " Mamma, let's hitch up old John and drive over to Mrs. Brown's this evening, or up to Mrs. Smith's, or let us go out riding." And, kind-hearted mother, she says, '^Well, children, all right." She knows old John is perfectly safe. He is a roted ani- mal. Every man in the community knows old John, And, Old John and the Children. oh, what a valuable animal he is, because of being so trust- worthy; so gentle! Some of the little children can go down into the lot and climb up his legs, he is so humble, and they can hitch him up to a sleigh or buggy or anything ; and real- ly, when the children come around him on the lot and play about him, as he puts his foot down he seems to shake it and see whether any of ;the little fellows' fingers or feet are un- der his hoof. Eeally, old John has learned to love the chil- dren, and he seems to think as much of them as mother does. Our Burdens and Our Support, 463 THEY HITCH UP. And this is the horse they hitch up. And nothing is thought until the clock strikes four — that is the hour they promised to be back — and mother looks up and says : ''The children haven't come back, and they promised to be back at four o'clock. They have never deceived me before in their life. I am satisfied something has happened.'' ]^ow, you see she will start her trouble-machine at that point — and an old trouble-machine is like one of those old looms. Did you ever see an old vi^oman at her loom? lean just remember having seen an old woman sitting with both feet working the pedal and both hands throwingthe broach, or the shuttle, and the spool of broach in her mouth — hands, feet and mouth all going just as hard as she can run. And I have seen these trouble-machines start hand, heart, soul, foot, spirit, body, everything at work together, conjuring up trouble. KNOW SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED. And this good wife thinks, " Well, now, I know something has happened." The minute finger points at fifteen min- utes over time. " I know something has happened. And the fact of the business is, I recollect now, I had a presenti- ment the other day that that horse was going to run away and kill every child I had. The Lord knows I am not fit for a mother. I am not worthy to have any children. And, in addition to that, I recollect now, the last time I drove old John he took a fearful fright, and I said right then I never would let those children ride after that horse again. The Lord knows I am the most careless creature, and I deserve nothing better than that every child I have in the world should be dead on the roadside right now, and I am satis- fied they are, for a judgment on me." Well, about this time the old gentleman walks in, and he sees the situation. "Wife, what in the world is the matter?" "Well," she says, "I gave the children permissio«^to drive old John off this afternoon, and they promised me to be back at four o'clock; and it's past four o'clock, and they haven't come, though they promised me they would ; and you know, husband, they never told me a story in their life." "Why, wife," says the husband, "they tell them here ev- ery day." 464 Our Burdens and Our Support, Anything to run your trouble mill ! TRYING TO SCARE HIM. ''Well," she says, ''I had a presentiment about those chil- dren being killed by that horse." '' Why, wife, you're always having something. Hush ! those children will be here directly." And directly she says : "Yes, and I never told you about that horse getting so frightened with me the other day, and I know those chil- dren are killed, and I want you to go right off and bring them back dead or alive, and do it quick. I'll be crazy in a minute." "Wife, I ain't going off to bother about those children. They'll be here directly." "Well," she says, "if you don't go, I'll go myself." And well he knows what that means. And he starts right off, and about the time he gets to the front gate, here comes old John jogging up in his old camp-meeting trot, you know, and stops right in front of the gate, and the children light out with a laugh of merriment; mother looks on the picture, and she goes back in her room and sits down and buries her face in her hands, and she says, "What a goose I have been." that's just it. And I say so, too. That is exactly my judgment on that question. And of all the geese the world ever saw, the featherless goose is the most ridiculous. I saw her at church one day. She didn't seem to hear one word I said. She was looking out the window, she was look- ing out the door, and as soon as I pronounced the benedic- tion she hurried to her buggy and drove off at breakneck speed, and I learned afterwards that she left a little fire at home in the old fireplace, and she thought the house was afire, and she was looking out every moment to see the flames and smoke; and when the service was dismissed she hurried off home, expecting at every turn of the wheels to see the flames and smoke burst out; and when she drove up to the house, unlocked the door and went in, there was a dead pile of ashes in her fireplace, and she looked at it and said : " Law, me, what a goose I have been ! '^ Our Burdens and Our Support. 465 Women are not the only creatures in this world. I am sorry they do borrow trouble. But I am sorry to say they are not the only ones. Oh, me ! how we men borrow trouble ! There^s many a man in this house that has rolled and tumbled in his bed with a feverish brain all night over some problem that he ought to have gone to sleep over at nine o'clock, and woke up fresh the next morning, and started out to work out his problem. Did you not know that a bed was made to sleep in, and God sent night in this world so we could sleep and rest for the next day's battles ? And, oh, how wickedly foolish a man is that tries to work out his problems at night instead of sleeping ! And he says, "Well, David said, *I have been young, and now am old, and I have never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.' But he'll see it this time. I just tell you what, starvation is right at the door. I have made buckle and tongue meet up to this time, but they'll never meet any more." And there he worries ! AN APT COMPARISON. A good deal like the old woman that prayed God for twenty years to give her grace to die in the poor-house. She had an elegant mansion, yet that was the burden of her prayers for twenty years. "Good Lord, give me grace to die in the poor house," and at last she died in an elegant mansion worth $30,000. The Lord will never let you die in a poor house when 3^ou are going to die rich. I speak about this that we each may classify his trouble. If a man is young and strong and vigorous why does he need to borrow trouble about the bread and meat question? And this world is a very small question. As God is my judge, I was born poor and raised poor, and I never worried about a meal in my life up to this hour. I never want to take any more trouble to bed with me than I can kick off in one lick. A FIENDISH JOKE. The devil has got a great big joke on a Christian when he can keep him awake half the night, and I imagine when the devil bids some Christians "good-by " he will turn around and say: " He has gone to glory, but I had enough fun out 466 Our Burdens and Our Support. of him before he left, and you can take him along/' I am not going to be joked that way. I am not going to be kick- ed around that way. I have the promise of God's word that if I trust in him and do good I shall dwell in the land and verily I shall be fed, and as long as the lambs and the or- phans are fed I know God will take care of the man that trusts him. LET THE OTHER FELLOW WORRY. / And I have often thought of the sound philosophy of the man I heard of once. In an upper room a man was walking till the clock struck twelve, and struck one, and struck two, and the fellow down in the room below wanted to go to sleep, and he could not go to sleep for that man's walking. Final- ly he got up and dressed himself, and went up-stairs and knocked at the door, and when the man opened the door he said : " Friend, what in the world is the matter with you ? I cannot go to sleep with you walking the floor." *' Why," he answered," I owe $10,000 and it is due to-morrow, and I have done my best and cannot pay it." ^' Do you say you have done your best and cannot pay it?" ^'Yes." ^'Why, my friend, if you have, go to bed and sleep, and let the other fellow do the walking to-morrow night; he is the fellow that has got to do the walking." Well, I will worry over most anything in day time, but let the other fellow do the walking after nine o'clock. BROTHER JONES' TOUGH TIMES. Trouble ! Borrowed trouble, home-made trouble, and all that sort of thing. As I have said, I have been worried. I might have been troubled a great deal, I think. Among the hardest worked months of my ministry, depending on God and doing my duty, I have seen my home when the last bite we had in the world was on the table, and I knew it, and I told my wife that evening, and went out to cut stove wood to get supper when there was nota thing in the pantry ; and she said, " I tell you it is all out." ''Well, said I, " I have done my best, and have preached and worked and prayed, and tried to do my wholeduty, and wife, we'll juststickitoutright here. If we starve to death we'll make it out like we died of typhoid fever." Well, sir, that night, before supper, there was a wagon drove into my yard, and when it unloaded its Our Burdens and Our Support. 467 good things into my house I had more to eat at one time than I ever had before or since. don't worry uselessly. No trouble about those things. Trust to God and do right, and donH bother about anything you cannot help. In day- time put in your best licks, and at night sleep soundly like you had pillowed your head on the bosom of the God that made you. Well, the reason I talk this way is not to tickle your hu- mor at all — we have got over beyond that in this meeting — but to show you this much : you must contradistinguish, you must separate, you must classify. JSTow, that good sister need not have dropped down on her knees, and asked the Lord to head old John, and stop old John. The Lord ain't going to head old John, when he ain't running away. And you need not ask the Lord to put out the fire in your house when it is not on fire. He is too busy to do that. And you need not ask the Lord to keep you from starving, when the Lord is in heaven and knows you won't starve. Let us classify these things. There is but one remedy for borrowed trouble; there is but one remedy for home-made trouble; there is but one remedy for heart trouble; and that is good old hard com- mon sense; bring it to bear on these things, and sweep them out of your way, just as you would cobwebs. REAL TROUBLES. But let us come to the real troubles — and these are the hardest. They have shape and form and being. There are real troubles in life that touch us all along the line. There are burdens that I cannot bear, and that you cannot bear. There are burdens to-day pressing upon mil- lions of hearts in this world — burdens that an angel would shudder at if he had to carry them an hour. Oh, how many burdens press upon the hearts of mothers and the hearts of fathers and the hearts of children, and the hearts of men all over this world ! And I will say another thing: There is a point bd yond which you cannot go with your load. I have said it a thousand times, and said it because I felt it. I believe 468 Our Burdens and Our Support, if it was not for the cross of Jesus Christ, the great heart of this world would break. A POINTED ILLUSTRATIONo Brethren ! What are my real burdens and what are your real burdens ? There are burdens of anxiety that press sorely upon many a heart. My Brother Black, the pastor of the Cumberland Presby- terian Church, stood in St. John's this morning and told us how his godly father in the pulpit stood with his eye fixed on him and preached earnestly, and said, "Come to-night^" he was watching his godless boy, and said "Come to-night." The pressure upon his heart was so great that he trembled a moment, and then fell prostrate in the pulpit and died. Oh, how that boy saw the pressure upon his father^s heart 1 The father carried it until he threw it down in death. And, thank God, he never carried it beyond death. I have seen a great many things in this world, young as I am. VISITING THE ASYLUM. I visited the Insane Asylum of Georgia when I was preach- ing at Milledgeville. I went over and went through the dif- ferent wards with the keeper of the asylum, and as we walk- ed through I could see, as I went along, the distorted, mad woman's face of a once pure, sweet mother. I looked at the glare of her eye, I looked at the hideous expression of her face, and when we passed by, the doctor said: "There is the wife of Mr. So-and-So ? There is the mother of a family of children?" And I looked back and mentally said: "Moth- er ! mother ! what tore you away from your home ? Mother, what robbed you of the care of your children ? What took you from the side of your husband? What shut you up in this doleful place? Mother, what did it?" And her very face spoke the answer back. " Trouble did this ; trouble did this." A suicide's voice, I go yonder to that hotel some morning, and there is a poor suicide. The pistol is lying at his side. The derringer ball entered his temple. He is there covered with his own blood. And as I look at the poor corpse, baptized in its own Our Burdens and Our Support, 468 blood, I look down and say: ''Oh, man, man, what did this?" And he speaks back in unmistakable language: *' Trouble did this. I got more than I could carry." Trouble ! This incident I read some time ago of a mother : She was sitting in company with a dozen other ladies in a parlor, and the conversation turned on trouble. One related hertrouble, and another hers, another hers, until at last every one had spoken except a pale, sad-faced lady, and they turn- ed to her and said : '' You have not told us your trouble." *' Oh," she said, '' ladies, I have been listening to your trou- bles ; but I have thought your troubles are merely bubbles on life's current. They are Like the snow-flake on the river, A moment white, then melts forever. SHE HAD REAL TROUBLE. "But, I have had trouble. I was raised in affluence and wealth, and never knew a want. My husband was also wealthy, and we married and united our fortunes and settled on our beautiful plantation on the banks of the Savannah River. We lived there happily and peacefully for a number of years, and G-od blessed us with five sweet children. One night I woke up. My hand dropped out of the side of the bed and it touched a current of water in my room. I wak- ened my husband up immediately, and the water was eigh- teen inches deep in my room. He rushed for the children and saw they were all safe ; he got myself and the chil- dren out of the house on to a little knoll right by. "We stood there only a moment, to see the water coming higher and higher — it was one of those water-spouts above that caused this unheard of rapid rise in the river — and husband stood there a moment, and said : 'Wife, I will take you and the babies to the hillside there and get you where you will be safe.' THE WIFE AND CHILD SAFE. "He carried me and my children to the hillside, and as he came back through the valley between two of those mounds, another of those fearful spouts came sweeping down and swept my husband out ; and I never saw his face since. But, that was not trouble. I stood there under the pale light of the moon and saw the turbid waters rise to my child 470 Our Burdens and Our Support. next to the baby, and the troubled waters rose a moment and swcj.t him out of sight, and I never saw him since. I stood thereuntil the waters rose above the head of the next and car- ried him out of my sight. I stood there until the waters stood up to the very neck and mouth of my oldest child. I stood there a moment and the little child struggled and went out of sight. But, that was not trouble. I thought it was, but even that left me with the precious little babe in my arms — all I had left. And I trained and nurtured that child until he was seventeen years old, and then, a pure, good boy, I sent him off to college." A WORD ON THIS MATTER. There is the epitome and the doom of thousands of boys, ^'I sent him off to college." Would anybody think from that remark, and the repeat- ing of that remark, that I didnH believe in colleges and education? No, sir. I believe in them as much as any man in this house; but I have said — and I repeat it — I'd rather see my boy in heaven learning his A B C's than to have him sit down in hell and read Greek forever. All unsanctified knowledge is degrading! Just let us take that thought. I am willing to be taken for an ignoramus, but I am never willing to be taken for a rascal. Do you understand that? I can afford to be called a fool, but God save me from any- thing that will make anybody think I am a rascal. BRO. JONES' LEARNING. I was tickled with a kind, clever boy in this city. He was sitting down talking to me kindly, and said he; ''Mr. Jones, how far did you go in your education? Did you go far." "Well, sir," I said, ''I got so I could lay all round Latin and just handle Greek right along. Why ? " "Well," he says, "most of them are talking about your appearing to be very ignorant and don't know much, and Fve been out to meeting several times and I think they're mistaken." I say you can afford to be taken for a poor, ignorant fel- low ', but God keep me and you from being anything that will put us on the other list. I reckon we'll have little else to do in heaven but learn forever. If I can keep from sin Our Burdens and Our Support. 471 down here, then God will help me in heaven to learn his lessons there. Now to go back to my story : '^I sent my boy off to college. When he came back home he was dissipated, wicked, unruly, godless in all his ways. Oh, how wicked he was. And I did my best and lavished every kindness and all the generosity of my wealth upon that boy; but he went from bad to worse, until at last, at last,'' she said, "I received a newspaper yesterday giving an account of my boy's being hung in a distant State; and he died a felon's death, on a felon's gallows, and has gone to a felon's hell. And, oh^ here's trouble. Here's trouble !" Oh ! how many hearts in the house to-night carry weights that an angel would shudder at if he had them to carry, ANOTHER DOCTOR CALLED OUT. Brother Brookes: I am very sorry to be called on to in- terrupt our brother again, but some one at the door wants to see Dr. Scott immediately. Probably it is a case of sick- ness, and as such ought to be attended to. I'm sorry we have to make this announcement. Brother Jones : Do you know the necessity for the doc- tor? Do you know what makes it necessary for such calls as that? Sometimes there are thousands of people that would unload every burden of their souls and throw them away forever. Do you know what pain in the soul is? Pain in the soul is to the soul just what physical pain is to the body. Do you know what pain is to the body ? I wake up this morning, and this lung! Oh, it pains me! What is pain? It is the voice of the physical nature crying out, '^ Send for the doctor! Something is wrong! Something wrong! Hurry! JSTo time to lose! Go to the church and have the announcement made! When there is something wrong the pain speaks out. And every trouble, every pang, of your soul, tells you ^'something is wrong in there. Send for the Great Physician." And the Great Physician now is near, the sympathizing Jesus. And just what pain is to my body, just so trouble is to my soul. ^' Something wrong! Send for the Great Physician." May be wrong with the child ; then tell him about it. May be wrong with the house ! Tell your Great Physician about it. Oh, friends- 472 Our Burdens and Our Support, hear me to-night. This trouble ! trouble ! trouble ! It is the warning voice of God to my soul, telling us, '^ Something wrong ! Send for the Great Physician ! " THE BURDEN OF GUILT. Trouble. There are the troubles and there are the bur- dens of grief, the burdens of anxiety, burdens of a thous- and kinds that press upon us. The burden of guilt — oh, how it presses upon poor human nature. Here's a poor sinner, sick, laden, heavy laden ! Oh, look at him as he presents his case before the throne, undone, wretched, borne down with the pressure of guilt enough to crush a world, and there he is with his burden of guilt! He comes to God with it! He comes to Christ with his burden, and the great burden- bearer takes up his burden and tells him to go in peace. Oh, the burden of guilt! I have felt it a thousand times. I have felt down in the depths of my soul, I am the most guilty wretch in all the universe. I have knelt in sight of the cross, and, oh, how gloriously and grandly Christ would lift that burden from my soul ! Bunyan represents his pilgrim as reaching the Wicket Gate and passing up to the cross, and the burden rolled off of him and he stood upright before God. Andnomancan ever stand upright before God until this burden shall roll oif of him. THE BURDEN OF GRIEFo Then there's the burden of grief. Every black veil in this congregation to-night carries upon its very texture a history. Oh, the burden of bereavements! Death came to my humble cottage home when I was not a Christian. It was the darkest hour in my life's history. God blessed wife and me with a sweet little cherub just nineteen months old. She was so playful and joyous and happy! Wife ran down on a visit to my sister in another State. The day she was to come home I had gone down town and bought some nice little presents for that sweet child. I thought, ''This evening I'll take her in my arms, and I'll see her eyes dance and her little pink fingers catch at the nice things, and I shall see her little heart made glad." Wicked like I was, the highest aspiration of my heart was to make my child happy and glad. I walked down town after dinner, and here came one of those fearful telegrams: Little Beulah is very ill. Come immediately. Our Burdens and Our Support. . 473 I started with a weight that almost crushed me, and on my way there I dozed off into a disquieted sleep two or three times, and each time dreamed that I had that sweet little playful thing in my arms j and I would wake up and say, ^'I know she's better/' A SAD MEETING. I had to go part of the way in a buggy — the last part of the journey — and as I drove up to the front gate my wife came to the door. I shall never forget how she looked ! My heart sunk. I went into the room, the parlor, and there was something so unusual to be seen in a parlor. I walked up with my wife clinging to my arm, and turned back the beauti- ful white cloth, and there was my sweet child looking like a little angel chiseled out of marble. I put my hand on her face, and it was so cold ! I went into the other room and just fell down and cried like a child. Oh, how cheerless ! How dark ! Oh, how these burdens press upon these poor hearts of ours ! The burden of grief! But I can say this much to you : God has one of my chil- dren. I committed it to him forever, and I say this much: My other sweet children have a much better father than they ever would have had if they had not a sweet little sister in heaven. I am a better father to my children than I ever would have been if it had not been for the precious one that has gone, and I'm going to try to train my children in the path where they may meet that sweet one up yonder. THE BURDEN OF ANXIETY. And there is the burden of anxiety. I have seen wives that were literally crushed with burdens of anxiety. At luka. Miss., I recollect a wife came to the altar, and knelt down, and prayed, and prayed, and by-and-by, when the others had walked away, I said to her: '^ISTow, can't you trust it all to God." She says, '' I tell you, Mr. Jones, I have been praying for my husband for weeks, and months, and j^ears, and I'm go- ing to stay right here until my husband gives his heart to God." Well, T had met her husband, the coldest-blooded infidel I ever looked in the face in my life. ''Well," said I, ''sister, if I was you I would talk and pray with my husband at home." 474 . Our Burdens and Our Support. ^'Ko/' she says, ^^I have done my best, and right here Vm going to stay on my knees until my husband gives his heart to Grod." I walked back in the congregation, walked up to that man and gave him my hand. Said I : '^ Sir, no weapons were ever loaded and cocked in my face ready to fire at me, that could keep me from going to my wife if she had such a burden on her heart as your wife has. Go up there and kneel down and give your heart to God." "Oh," he said, '' Mr. Jones, I am not concerned about re- ligion. I tion't want to be a hypocrite." Said I: <'My friend, how can you break your wife's heart?" THE RESULT. I went back to her and said, "Your husband won't come." "Well," she says, " he has not come ) but I'll never get off my knees until my husband gives his heart to God." The first thing I knew he was there, right by her. And when the first prayer was over with, he got up, and then tried to get her off her knees. She looked at him, and said : "Have you surrendered your heart to God, sir?'' "No." "Well, I'll never get off from here until you do." We knelt and prayed again, and directly that husband got up, and he says : "Wife, get up now." She says: "Have you surrendered to God, sir, and will you seek him until you find him?" He looked down at her, and said : " Yes." "Well," she said, "husband, you never deceived me m my life. You never told me a falsehood, and I take you at your word, sir; and I believe God Almighty will do now just what I have been asking him to do." And it looked like that wife would have died there upon her knees. Oh, the pressure! the pressure ! I have carried such burdens for those I loved. Oh, brother, to-night you are burdened with these things that press sorely upon you ! WHAT TO DO WITH OUR BURDENS. Well, now, the great, question is another matter. We won't discuss the burdens any longer. Our Burdens and Our Support, 475 What will we do with them ? It is not wise to sit down and count them to see how many X have, or how crushing they are, or to think about other people's burdens. But what will I do with them ? The an- swer comes thus: Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. That is why you have your burdens. I wouldn't refuse to take one, but I'll use them wisely if they come upon me. Here you see a Newfoundland dog swimming out yonder in that lake at will. His master stands on the bank and calls him, but he won't come. He beckons, and the dog won't come. He rebukes, and he won't come. And then the mas- ter stoops and picks u]) a little Stick and pitches it into the lake near the dog, and the dog swims to it and catches it in his mouth, and swims to his master and puts it down at his feet. That was the only way his master could get him to come. THE APPLICATION. Many a time, brother^ sister, we have wandered off on the sea of sin and death away from God, and he calls us and we won't come, and he beckons us and we won't come; and he rebukes, and we won't come. And then God pitches a crushing burden on our hearts, and with that burden he says: *'N"ow, bring it back and lay it down at my feet. I'll hear your cause and heal all your wounds." Blessed be God ! Every burden of life is to bring me back to God. It is a message from God to bring it to him. Ob,many are the hearts in this house that are overloaded. You see that little frail vessel yonder as she is pitching and tossing on the rolling ocean; she's overloaded. Now and again the waves sweep over her bulwarks and she is about to go down under her fearful weight, and the captain says to the crew : ^'We must all go down to the bottom." And about that time the Great Eastern, the grandest ves- sel tiiat ever swam the Atlantic Ocean, comes plowing along- right up beside the little frail vessel, and the captain of the Great Eastern walks up to the outer edge of her bulwark, and looks down at the little vessel and crew, and says: " You're all overloaded ! Cast your cargo upon me. I can carry it for you on this grand old ship so you can make port in safety." 476 Our Burdens and Our Support. And the crew go to work with block and tackle, and they lift out their cargo until they have lightened their ship so it can go on its way rejoicing, and it doesn't sink the Great Eastern the hundreth part of an inch. She scarcely knows that she has taken on any more burden. AND HERE WE ARE ! And here we are, out on the sea of sin and death, our frail little human vessel overloaded, and we are about to go down with everything, and right about that time the grand old ship of Zion plows its way along right up by our side, and its good captain steps over to the outer bulwark and looks down at the frail, sinking little ship, and says : ^'Cast your burden upon me. I'll carry it for you. It won't sink me the hundredth part of an inch, and in that way you can make port in safety." And we cast our burden on him, and then we go along and say: ''Now, thank God, Not a wave of trouble rolls Across my peaceful breast. I have found my heavenly home. The burden has been taken oif me." And the little boat strikes a bee-line for the shore of ever- lasting deliverance! YOU CAN DEPEND ON CHRIST. Brethren, I want to say this: Whenever you get in trouble, you can go to Christ. I have found that out. Blessed Jesus! When his disciples were going along smoothly sailing on the lake, he went aside for prayer, but when one of those fearful squalls came down on that lake, and pitched these disciples with their little ship hither and thither, and was about to engulf them, he looked down on that little lake, and said: "My disciples are in danger!" And he rushed down the mountain side and stood on the bank of the little lake, and saw them as they were pitching and tossing J and he looked around and there was no boat there for him to ride out to them. He looked again. He said : " My disciples are in danger and trouble, and I'm go- ing to them, boat or no boat." Down he moved right on to the water and ran out and stopped the boat, and immediate- ly it ran to the shore. Our Burdens and Our Support, ' 477 I tell you, brother, you are not far from land — whenever Christ gets on board — you are not far from the shore of heaven. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. UNLOAD YOUR HEARTS. Brother! Young man! Father! Husband! Hear me a minute now. Let's you and I help unload mother's heart to- night ! Let's you and I help unload wife's heart to-night! Let's you and I help unload our children's hearts to-night. Oh, me ! A most touching incident in my ministry is when some little girl, twelve years old, comes up and says: ^' Mr. Jones, please, sir; pray for papa. He is so wicked, and he won't come to church V And then directly here comes up another little girl, and says : ''Mr. Jones, the Lord has blessed me 3 but I am so anxious about papa.'' Oh, brother ! Let's you and I to-night unload wife's heart ! My wife carried me like a million-pound weight on her heart for months and months and months. I owed my wife a debt I never could pay until I paid it at the cross; and my wife unloaded this burden at the cross, and since that time, how glorious and joyous her life has been ! Brother, let's you and I meet wife at the cross to-night! Let's you and I, young man, meet precious, good mother at the cross! Oh, boys, look at mamma's gray hairs! Look at those wrinkles in mother's face! And say, boys, did you ever plow one of those wrinkles there ? Did you ever cause one of those hairs to turn gray? A drummer's story. I met on the train, some time ago, a drummer. Said he: "Mr. Jones, I was very much touched the other day. I got a letter from my mother. It was a sweet, good.letter; but, it wasn't mother's words that troubled me so. It was not how she wrote. It was not what she said ; but it was the tremu- lous hand on the paper. Mother has nearly done writing to her boy. And, Mr. Jones, that letter has touched me, and before God, I want to be a joy to my mother the balance of her life." 478 Ou?- Burdens and Our Support. Boys, let's think about precious mother! Husbands, let's think about wife! Neighbor, let's think about neighbor! Let's go to work to-night and unload every burden that we have ever put upon anybody's heart ! Won't you? BEARING others' BURDENS. I tell you how I think about it. If in innocence I have f|3ut a care or burden on anybody's heart I would walk till daylight came and take that burden off their heart. If my precious wife has a burden on her heart to-night on my ac- count, or one of my children, I would walk till daylight and lift with all my power to get that burden off. The fact of the business is, mother has got as much as she can carry without us troubling her. Poor wife has all she can carry without us putting on any more. Oh, brother, let's you and I never wring another tear from mother's eye or another sigh from wife's lips! Let's to-night be a joyous peace to those homes of ours, won't you ? I want to make home hap- py, and I reckon I had the darkest, most desolate one once that ever good wife lived in. Oh, how dark! how dark! DAVID HAD BEEN THERE. David knew what he was talking about. Listen : Give ear to my pra^'er, 0 God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me and hear me; I mourn in my complaint and make a noise. Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me. And I said: Oh, that I had wings like a dove ! for then would I fly away and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander afar off and remain in the wilderness. THE DESIRE FOR REST. Brother, I have felt that way many a time. Oh, that I had wings like a dove. I have felt, *' Well, I am just weighted down j all the pres- sure of my ministry upon me ; the care of my family and ten thousand burdens that mothers and wives have put upon my heartj" and I have almost literally stood in many a wife's tracks with burdens on my soul for this one and for Our Burdens and Our Support 479 that one and for the other one, and I have carried these burdens until I have felt in my heart, O, that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away to some peaceful mountain and have one week's rest, that I might forget that I had a wife or for- get I had children, or forget that I was called to preach; that I might forget everything in the universe and just have one week's happy rest. I felt like I could come back to this world a new man ; that I would be new all over. I have carried burdens; but, blessed be Grod ! I have learn- ed this blessed text now : Cast your burdens on the Lord, and he will sustain you. CARRY YOUR TROUBLES TO JESUS. Just think about that! Is there any trouble anywhere? Then take it all to Jesus in prayer. Just take your burdens and lay them down at his feet. That is all we can do with them ! And I have seen thousands of souls come up and throw their burdens down at the foot of the cross and go away singing: Now not a wave of trouble rolls Across my peaceful breast. Let us throw them all down there, whether of sin or guilt, or anxiety or grief. Let us cast them all at his feet, and saj^: *' Blessed Christ! there they are. I can carry them no fui"- ther." Thank God ! It won't be much longer till The wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. I have thought — tired and worn out, I have thought — of that world of rest. I have thought of that world where there is no pain nor trouble; where there shall be no more tears. GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY THEIR TEARS. 1 have thought of that expression : And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. I have thought in this way : I am sitting here in the family room with mother, and di- rectly here comes little six-year-old Annie crying like her little heart would break, the tears just raining from her lit- tleface. And the mother says: ^'What is it, darling? Don't cry." But she says : ^'JVIarama, I can't help it." And moth- 480 Our Burdens and Our Support er reaches out her gentle hand and catches her little girl's arm and pulls her up against her knee, and puts her gentle, motherly hand over this eye and then over that eye, and the tears are gone and they don't appear any more in the child's eyes. And then I have thought, as we pass into the gates of ever- lasting deliverance, the blessed Christ will run his gentle fingers over these eyes that have been drowned with tears a thousand times, and my tears will be gone forever. That's God! No tears there! No sadness there! No sickness there ! No pain there, forever ! Oh, brother, let us start to that good world to-night. ^ERJVION XXVI. I^EgT FOF( THE V/e/F^Y. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will givo you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of nie, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.— Matthew 11 ; 28, 29 and 30. SOMETHING TO BE GLAD OF. AM glad the first verse of this text as given is peculiarly the laDgnage of the New Testament Scriptures to the children of men. In the Old Testament it was, " Do this and live," ^' Do that and die." But since the precious blood of Christ was poured out, the language has changed, and now it is. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Come unto me ! Christ was not only a divine Savior and a divine philosopher, but he was pre-eminently a divine phy- sician. Oh, for a world to listen to the Savior, to the philosopher, to the physician. Come unto me. Not " Gro to this one ;" not " Make your appeals to angels or to men •/* but ^' to me," '' to me." TRUST TO CHRIST. No man need fear to intrust himself in the hands of Christ, because there may be mistakes and difficulties in his case that cannot be overcome. The great question with physi- cians in this world is understanding the disease — "diagnos- ing" the case, as they say. Any physician knows what the remedy is if ho just knows what the trouble is, what the sick- ness is. An eminent physician told me that the treatment of children is the most difficult treatment in their practice. And I said, ''Why ? The system of the child is much more 481 482 Best for the Weary, sensitive to medicine, to treatment, than that of a grown person, and why do you have your greatest trouble in the cases of children V He said, ^' Because the difficulty with children is in the diagnosis. They can't talk with you and tell you whore their trouble is, where their pain is ; and my trouble with children has grown out of the difficulty in the diagnosis — finding out what the trouble is. After that ques- tion is settled, I never have so much trouble. Every physi- cian knows the remedy for certain diseases, but the deter- mining of the nature of the disease is the chief trouble." I have watched my family physician — noble, true man he is ! I have watched his face, the movement of his hand, and I have never felt safe concerning my child until I saw a look of confidence on the face of my physician, and my questions with him were not, *'Will my child get well ? or will it die?'' but, ^'Doctor, have you the case in hand? Do you know what the trouble is with the little fellow ? Doctor, do you know what the disease is?" And there is the point: I know the case is hopeful, and I know that the remedies may be efficacious, if the doctor has the disease in hand — if he knows what the trouble is. THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. Kow, brethren, to-night we'll hear the voice of the Great Physician who never mis-diagnosed a single case; never made a mistake in a single case, but sudden, eternal healing always comes on your putting yourself in his hands. Come unto me. Oh, blessed Christ! We have been deceived a thousand times by our enemy. He has persuaded us that ours was a peculiar case. "There is nothing like mine in all human nature; my difficulties are different from other men; my obstacles are diiferent; really, mine is a peculiar case." And the devil can use no more subtle, no stronger argument to a mortal man than the fact that his is a very peculiar case. You should not wonder if so and so was treated and healed; 3^ou should not wonder if this one and that one should be saved in this meeting, but '^mine is a very pecu- liar case; my temptations are peculiar, and I have such a peculiar disposition" — and all that sort of thing. A COMMON PECULIARITY. Look here, brother I You would be astonished, in the first Best for the Weary » 483 place, to know how many thousand people have broken down right where you have broken down j you would be astonished to know how many j^eople are weak right where you are weak; you would be astonished to know really how many people think their case was peculiar when their case was only peculiar to the race. Oh, brother, don't listen to the voice of the enemy that would keep you from under the treatment of the G-reat Physician, but rush to him with the consciousness, ''He understands me/' It is very painful to me, anyway, to deal with a person that misunderstands me. I always could lean on my father with more confidence than any human being in the world, because I knew my father understood me. He had studied my char- acter, he had studied my characteristics, and I could al- ways put myself in the hands of my father with such con- fidence and such trust, just because my father understood me. I knew he was in sympathy with me, and I knew that my father knew all my weak points and my strong points, and he understood his boy, and he was the most helpful friend I ever had, because he understood me better than anybody, A FRIEND THAT UNDERSTANDS ME. Oh, how many people in this world misunderstand us and misconstrue us, and misjudge us ! Oh, what a blessing it is to have a friend that always understands us! Now, with your peculiarities, you can go immediately to Christ, and I tell you, before you get there he has already diagnosed your case, and he has the remedy at hand ready to give you in an instant. He knows which wheel is brok- en down, brother. He saw you when you bioke down, and he has been watching you in your despair for years. He knows which one of your axles is broken down ; he knows whether it is the coupling-tongue or the singletree broke; he knows all about humanity; he knows where the break is; and I tell you he always has the means at hand ready to sup- ply every broken bone in the moral nature of man ; he knows which limb to apply the splints to; he knows which part needs the ointment; he knows all about you, and he knows just how to treat you. And, brethren, when I see my blessed Savior take charge of the poor soul, I just look in his face and see the expres- ol 484 Rest for the Weary, sion of confidence, aDd T say: ^'Well, thankGod I the physi- cian has him in hand now and understands his case, and there's going to be a healing now." CHRIST KNOWS. Oh, could all the world look to him in confidence 1 That is what we mean by faith. Trust I That is just exactly what we mean. I put myself in the hands of the Great Physician, with the understanding that he knows me better than I know myself. I think my trouble may be one thing; but he knows what troubles me, and can put his hand on the diseased i3art, and always makes his treatment efficient. Come unto me. Now, if he had sent me to the priest, it might have taken me a lifetime to have made that priest understand me. If he had sent me to my pastor, I am afraid my pastor has never sufl^ered in common with me and knows not exactly how to treat me. There is a preacher who never drank a drop in his life; he knows nothing of the effects of liquor; and there is a poor fellow absolutely storm-swept by an appetite that swamped him. This preacher cannot put himself in sympathy with this poor fellow. But, brother, Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, without sin, and yet he knows just exactly how to sympathize with the drunkard, just as much as any poor drunkard who had been cursed with the appetite that ruined him. FAMILY INTERFERENCES. I might go on here to enumerate a hundred instances where men could not sympathize with their fellow man. I have seen wives who could not understand their husbands — and they seem to misunderstand their husbands in a hun- dred things. And, oh, what a sad thing it is when hus- band and wife misunderstand each other. And you just no- tice, when husband and wife don't come to understand each other there is always a ''Mr. Know-it-all" and a ''Mrs. Know-it-all" that are ready to step in and fix the matter up and talk around. Well, thank God, there is no misunder- standing in my family; but if there are a thousand "Mr. Know-so-and-so," and "Mrs. Know-so-and-so" comes nos- ing around my home, they will get kicked out. I don't want to have my family matters interfered with. There's a Best for the Weary, 485 heap of that going on in this world — a great deal of it. It is unfortunate to have family misunderstandings, hut it is criminal for you to let anybody else come poking their nose into your home affairs. And I use that expression because it is forcible. !N"ow, there are five hundred persons here in this house who think, '^Wonder why Jones runs off at that tangent to- night?" And there's a whole lot more of you that think, ''There's somebody has told him about us now; I know there's somebody told him about our trouble." Now, many a time you see me run off at a tangent that way, and you don't understand me. But there's a fellow here that does — you may put that down. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He speaks with confidence. He speaks with infinite confi- dence. "Entrust your case into my hands. Let me treat you. I am not only a philosopher in the sense that I know all truth, and know how to believe all truth, but I am also the Physician of the soul that knows all the tissues, liga- ments and fibres of the soul, and I can detect any diseased part in the twinkling of an eye." THE WAY. Come unto me. *'Come unto me just because I am the way." The great trouble with humanity is, it has wandered off and is lost; and about all humanity needs now is to be put in the way, the high way, the holy way. Brother, I don't blame you for the condition you are in. The only question I have to ask you is, if you ever heard of a way out of your troubles, a way out of your difiiculties, a high way and a holy way. If you ever heard of a better way, then I blame you that you have not gone in that way. Hear! Christ said : I am the way. What is the way? It is a highway ; it is a thoroughfare to go on, to walk on, to run on. That is what we mean by a way. Our way in this world is frequently spoken of as a pilgrimage — from this world to a better. Brother, we are 486 Rest for the Weary, on our journey here; there we'll be at our journey's end; and Christ said, " Come to me, because I am the way, I am the thoroughfare to a better world." WHAT THE WAY IS FOR. Let us see about this way. I go down here to the Wa- bash Railroad. There is a way. There is a highway. I never saw a railroad before in my life. I wonder why those ties are laid along there and those steel rails are strung along these ties. What are those for? I never saw anything like this ; I am going to find out, though, and I say : "Get me a wheelbarrow/' And I get a wheelbarrow, and I roll it ten steps on that way, and I say: " Well, this thing was never made for a wheelbarrow ; that won't do for a wheelbarrow; sure." And I say: "Well, I will try it till I see what it is for." And I say : " Drive me a wagon up on this way." And I drive that wagon ten steps upon that track, and I say : "Take it off ; this way was never made for a wagon, that's certain. This don't suit a wagon." I go out in the round-house searching for something that suits that way, and I step down and I see a magnificent Rog- ers'engine, and I look at that magnificently constructed en- gine, and I step down and examine the engine. I measure the bulk of the wheels and the flanges on the wheels ; I ex- amine that engine through and through, and I say, " I believe that is suited for this way;" and I roll that upon the steel rails, and I put the steam on until the guage indicates that that engine is carrying one hundred and fifty pounds of steam; and I see that engine thundering down the road at the rate of sixty miles an hour, and I say, " Well, I have found out what this way is for now. This way was built for this en- gine, and that engine was built for this way." Don't you see? OFF THE TRACK. Hear me, brother ! The most helpless thing I ever saw in my life, except one thing, is an engine off the track. Did you ever see one off the track on a dirt road ? Why, she can't pull herself, much less pull any cars. She can't roll a wheel. She just mires and sinks down in the ground. A locomo- tive engine on the track is the grandest thing my eyes ever Best for the Weary. 487 looked at; and I have sat upon an engine and felt her wheels and machinery rolling under me, until I was enthused from head to foot. Oh, not only will she run a mile a minute, but she will pull forty cars with their freighted tons. What a magnificent thing — how omnipotent it is on the track ! But off the track she is as helpless as a rock. She canH move herself. Hear me ! I find a highway up here, and a holy way, and a grand way. I say, " I never saw this way before. What is it for V And I say, " I believe I will try this way ; I will see what it is for." And I get me an ox and lead him up on this way, and I don't lead him on ten steps, when I say, ^'This road was never constructed for an ox ; he cannot walk on this way." And then I will say, " Takethis ox oif. Get me ahorse and bring him up here on this highway." I will lead him along a few steps and I will say, " This way never was made for a horse, that's certain. It don't suit him." MADE FOR MAN. Then! go out and meet an immortal man, an immortal being, and I measure the distances and proportions of his soul, and I say, *' I believe I have found the creature that was made for this way and that this way was made for," and I take that creature and put him on the way; and then I see him mov- ing at the rate of sixty miles an hour full tilt off. I say, ^'My God, this is the way that suits him, and he suits the way;" and I see him moving like an engine on the highway, to glory and to the good world. But the soul won't run on any other way but that. Did you ever try that? Let us try the dirt road of profanity now, and just run your soul out on that road for a while, and it mires down and it is covered with mud and filth from head to foot. Try the road of licentiousness, and oh, how we sink in shame before God and man. Let us try the road of atheism, and I run out in a quagmire, and mire over my head, and if I didn't move out of it it would get ten feet above me. And there you are. ANOTHER DIRT ROAD. You get the profane, the licentious and the Sabbath-break- er mired up in sin and shame on the dirt road to hell ; and you get him hereon this highway to glory, and you see him mov- ing off to the world of bliss with a momentum that gladdens 488 Best for the Weary, the heart of angels, and I tell you, brother, when he blows his whistle for the gates of deliverance, the angels will throw the doors wide open, and he will run into glory and into everlasting life ; and he will say, *'Sure enough, this road leads from earth to heaven/' I tell you there are a good many branch concerns down here in this world that don't go anywhere. I like a railway, a highway, that runs frona earth to heaven. / There is a little branch road that starts out to Desire. It is a nice little town — a pleasant little place; but it is at the end of that little road. You can get on at Desire, and it's about an hour's run to Confirmation -, and you get off there, and you do not go anywhere much ; and you can walk back next day, and you have not been very far anywhere. Or, there is another little branch road. It is a sort of a little short affair that don't go far. You can get on at Eeso- lution. That is a right nice little town — a great many live there; and you can get off just this side of Eepentance; and you have got to walk across there a piece ; it don't connect with the main line. Brother, when I start for glory, I want to get on Grod Almighty's grand old trunk line, and check my baggage through on a limited ticket, and run clear through to glory; and I'll entrust my soul to.no railroad moral scheme that don't take me through to glory direct. THE DIVINE TRUNK LINE. And I'll tell you where I got on it. I got on at Convic- tion. That is where Grod's road starts from; and I tell you that was the awfulest town I ever stayed at all night in my life. I did not sleep a wink, I could not eat a bite or drink a drop, but called on God Almighty to bring relief. I ran on a few miles and got off at Conversion. Oh, that is a mag- nificent city, and I was so glad to meet so many of my friends there. And we rested there a few days, and then ran up to Entire Consecration, or Sanctification. Brother, that is the sweetest town this side of heaven; consecrated to God, soul and body, for time and eternity. And when you jump off the train at last, by the Lord's orders, j^ou will find you are within an hour's ride of the Celestial City. God help us to get on at the right stations, and if we ever get off at all, let us get off at the right stations. God help us, and save Uflf Best for the Weary. 489 from those little branch railway lines that start mighty near nowhere, and I am certain go nowhere. Now, some people will say: *'Now, that is a sharp rebuke he has made at a certain Church." Now, I never call any names. Every fellow knows his number, though. CHRIST THE WAY. A Highway ! Come unto me, for I am the Way ! Come unto me, for I am the Truth ! Come unto me, for I am the Light ! Come unto me, for I am the Bread, and I am the Water, and I am all that you need for time and eternity. On one occasion, when his disciples had been without food for two days, and when they said, "Master, shall we tell them to go away and provide food ?" Jesus said, "They need not depart.'^ Blessed be God. A man need not go away from Christ for anything, but we can get everything we want for time and eternity right from Christ. CHRIST UNDERSTANDS YOU. Come unto me all ye that labor. I not only understand you — I not only understand your desires — but I understand what you need when you get well. Oh, my brother! there is many a man who has recovered from a spell of sickness, and been reduced to so much pov- erty, that when he gets well he hardly has any heart to start out to do anything. Jesus Christ knows not only what we need to cure us, but he knows what we need when cured. He not only gives us health, but he gives us everything con- ducive to health afterward; and I can recommend him to every one with a consciousness that he will understand us, because he knows what we need all along the line. Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest. TWO CLASSES OUT OF CHRIST. There are two classes out of Christ: One class is those that are laboring, and the other those that come heavy laden; those that are trying to get to heaven without a Sa- vior, and those that are trying to keep the commandments of God and do everything right. The}'- are honest and pay their debts, and will do anything that is right, and shun wrong, and they are laboring so hard to get to heaven. They are laboring to keep the commandments of God. Oh, 490 Best for the Weary. how they strive to do right! How they are laboring! Jesus looks at you and he says : All ye that labor to keep the commandments of God, come '^o me, and I will give you rest. ^'Do not put new wine into old bottles; if you do they will brealc. Do not put new patches into old cloth, or they will rend immediately.'^ Come unto me all ye that labor, and I will give you rest. HOW ABOUT THE PAST? Brother, keep right the balance of your days; but what are you going to do about the devilment you have already done? Some follews say, " From this time I am going to do right." Well, what are you going to do about what you have done? Here is a fellow who has just killed a man in St. Louis. He walks up to the Grovernor and shakes hands with him, and says : *' I am sorry to have to tell you that I killed a man in St. Louis just now, but, before God, I am never going to kill another man. I am done now. You can trust me for that.'' But the Governor is not satisfied with that. He says: "Here, you hold on. I am going to have you hung for that murder. You need not come any of that sort of impudence with me, telling me that you have killed one man and that you are never goingto kill another." Now, brother, suppose you keep all the commandments from this time till you die, what are you going to do about those you have broken? Brother, you will find out sooner or later. You will find that you cannot stand alone before the judgment bar of God. You will find, somewhere be- tween this and eternity, that you need help. THE LABORING ONES. Come unto me all ye that labor. The fellow laboring to keep the commandments, and who keeps away from Christ, reminds me of a man that is stand- ing beside the roadside and lets the train pass. I say to him, ''That train has passed. Which way are you going?" He says : "I am going to New York." I say : " Well, why don't you get on that train ?" And he replies: ''Well, I like a good, honest way of getting anywhere. I can walk. I did not want to crowd the train, for 1 saw there were a good /nany passengers on it. I prefer walking." Hest for the Weary. 491 ^^Have you got money to pay your way V I ask. ^'Yes, I have got money/' he says, '^and could have gone on the train if I had wanted, to. But I prefer to walk." What are you going to do with a dunce like that? THE FOOLISH ONES. And here is a fellow who is trying to keep decent. He is brushing his clothes so much t'hat he is brushing them away, instead of shucking them off and clothing himself in the gar- ments of righteousness, and mixing with the heav- enly throng. Let us run to Christ and give ourselves to Grod. It is ourselves and not our clothes, that need cleansing. A good many people be- lieve that they can devel- op into Christians; they run upon the developing process. They say: "lam budding now, and by-and- by I will blossom. I am getting along fine. I have quit cursing." Yes, you ought to have one hundred Xashes for the cursing you have already done. Another says, '-I have quit drink- ing; but how about the drinking ne has done in the past. ]^ow he is going to bud and develop into a Christian, and be religious. What would you think of an old washerwoman who "jBoss, I am going to develop your Clothes.'' would put a pile of clothing on her head, and say, "Boss, I am going to develop your clothes." You would say, "You old dunce, I want those clothes cleaned. I do not want any developing about them.'' don't want any developing. Sinner, you don't want any developing; you are big 492 Rest for the Weary. enough ! You want cleansing. It is like old members of the Church going to the altar and praying for more re- ligion, when they have already got enough to damn them — enough to let them stay from' prayer-meeting, to neglect family prayers, to go to theaters and to play cards. Brother, do you want any more of that sort ? Lord ! If you get it you are gone. You are mighty near gone anyhow. I'll tell you, you do not want more religion. You want a pure re- ligion ; and whenever you get just a little speck of pure religion in your soul, and you go home, your husband or your wife would not know you. Give us, not more, but a pure and undefiled religion. It does not take much of that sort to save a poor fellow like jou and me, because there is not much of us when you boil the thing down right. How easy it is for a man to be conceited when he gets on avoir- dupois scales. He looks at the beam and sees that ho weighs two hundred pounds. God put him on his scales, and he never shook them at all, and he is going to glory with the idea that he weighs two hundred pounds! GOD GOES BY WEIGHT. And that is God's plan. He goes by weight. He donH go by measure over much. He goes by weight. Brethren, above all things, let us be weighed in righteousness. Rec- ollect, God can weigh cities and weigh towns, and weigh families and weigh individuals, and recollect the '^ Mene, mene, tekel.'^ *' You are weighed and you are found want- ing." You that are trying to be decent without the Savior, you who are trying to represent morality; let me say to you that, except your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the most moral man the world ever saw, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. "Come unto me, I know what you need, and I will give you what you need.'' Come unto me all ye that labor. That is one clause. All that are trying to be honest, de- cent, law-abiding people. It is just as much a necessity that you come as anybody, "for by the works of the law shall no man be justified." THE OTHER SORT. Then the other invitation is to — All that are heavy laden. Best for the Weary, 493 That tak^s. m f>\[ those poor fellows that have tried to be moral and upri/^ht, and who feel, '' I am guilty before God and man. I have broken the law in a thousand places. I hava sinned against Grod and' done wrong to God and man, and I am conscious of it." God invites you. He calls " all you that are heavy laden with your guilt, who feel your guilt, who recognize your guilt, who admit your guilt, come to God ; all you nice sinners, you must come, and all you guilty sinners, you come, too." Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. REST. That is just what this old world wants. Oh, how tired humanity is. Why, some of your citizens are in Europe now hunting r?st. I would not give one night at the cross for all the European trips ever taken from this city. Rest! Rest ! I will tell you something that is just as true as that I am standing in this pulpit to-night. I had been preaching during the summer months in Corinth, Miss., to a great mul- titude of people, four times a day. I had preached at 6 o'clock in the morning, 10 o'clock, 3 o'clock in the after- noon, and 7 o'clock in the evening, right straight along. Wife was there with me a few days, and one night we started to church; and I told wife: ^' I cannot stand and preach to-night; it is too trying; I have not strength enough to stand up and preach, and I am going to ask the people to let me sit down and talk to them." I went to the church, and when I got up and took my text and commenced preaching, the power of God came on me, and I preached for more than an hour as hard as I could talk. And I worked among that great audience until eleven o'clock, and then we started home; and I said to wife: ''I am the best rested man you ever looked at in your life. I do not feel like I ever worked a lick in my life." I went to bed and fell asleep immediately my head touched the pil- low, and I slept soundly all night, and awoke in th© morn- ing with the breezes of salvation blowing over my soul; and, as God is my judge, I never felt the sensation of tiredness for three months after that. Oh, if you want a rest, go the direct route to that rest which is the rest of the soul, the rest of the body, and the rest of all for time and eternity. 494 Uest for the Weary. ^ THE DIVINE DIAGNOSIS. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Well, I really did not know what was wanted. Of course, I did not know what was the matter with me. I could not tell, as a diseased man, what I would want as a well man ; but I will say this much, that the Lord Jesus Christ spoke peace and joy to my soul, and I felt his arms around me, and I felt his love being poured into my heart; and I said, "Blessed Master, if you call this rest, this is the very thing I want. I do not know what it is, but whatever you call it, this is just what I have wanted all the time. Oh, how this old tired nature has been beaten and driven and tossed by ten thousand storms and temptations ! Blessed Master, I am so glad you did to me as you did to the little Lake Gen- esareth when it was lashed and tossed into fury by the winds. When the storm was most furious and the disciples were afraid, they approi>ched Jesus, who was sleeping, and waked him up, and said: " Master, this little boat with its crew is about to be engulfed. ^^ And Jesus awoke and wiped the spray from his forehead ; and walked up to the prow of the little boat and pulled the little angry lake on his knee and hushed it to sleep, like a mother would hush her infant. Then the disciples said : "What manner of man is this, that the very winds and waves obey him?" God brings the tempest-tossed soul to himself, and hushes it to sleep on his loving knee, and protects it from the storms of life. This is something about what this rest in the text means. GIVEN REST AND FOUND REST. I will give you rest. That^s it. Eest, Lord. That is what we seek, and that is what we want, and just what the Lord will give for what- ever you offer him in exchange when you give him yourself. Come unto me * * * and I will give you rest. Then he said : Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. And you shall find: (1.) Given rest. (2.) Found rest. Don't you see? Two rests. I like the found rest a little better than I do the given rest. Let us take the found rest. A man sits down and he says: Rest for the Weary, 495 ^Tm so tired." Andlsaj^: " What are you doing?" And he says: ^'I'm resting/' Do you notice that as soon as he gets rested he wants to get up and go on at something else. There's the difference between rest and resting. Did you ever know it? In the first instance, I wanted to rest. I was tired from head to foot. Now I am rested, and now I want to find rest. I want to walk out and do something. "What's giving and what's finding? Come out to the heart of the West. God sprinkled gold on the top of the ground, and you can go along and pick it up. That is given gold. Now, I want some of the found gold, and I take my pick and shovel and sink a shaft three hundred feet deep, and dig and delve until I strike the rich vein of pure gold three hundred feet down under the ground. That is found gold. That on the top was given gold ; this down under ground is found gold. And when you come to Christ he gives you enough to let you see it is good and glorious ; and ^'now," he says, ^Hake the pick and shovel of gospel duty, and dig and go down until you strike the richest vein of the glories of God's in- finite goodness and love. Go down, and the more you dig and the deeper jovl get the better the yield. And the more gallons you sweat the more ease to come. Don't you see? Take my yoke upon you. A GREAT DIFFERENCE. There's a heap of difference between an ox yoked work- ing and a wild ox in the wilderness; a good deal of differ- ence. See that old ox out yonder in the forest: he just goes where he pleases, and he does as he pleases, just like you do! You don't work in the vinej-ard 1 You do just as 3-011 please; and that's the poorest business a fellow ever went at — doing as he pleases. There's many a fellow in hell, just because he did as he pleased — don't you see? ^^ I ain't go- ing to let the Church lord it over me. I'm going to be a free man." Yes, and your freedom has made jo\xv nose as red as fire! That's freedom, ain't it? That's fun! Your freedom is absolutely damning you ! Your freedom is put- ting you where, when decent people know you, they won't associate with you. That's an ideal freedom, isn't it? Call that freedom ? '*0h, I go where I please !" 496 Best for the Weary, See that wild ox, just goes where he pleases I I get him down here and get a yoke on his neck; and now, whatever his master says do, he will do; his master says ^'Come," and he comes; his master says ''Stop," and he stops; his master says ''Eat," and he eats; "Drink," and he drinks; "Lie down," and he lies down. Whatever the master says, he does it. See that old sinner roaming yonder: goes wherever he pleases; does as he pleases. Just see him go and put his neck in the yoke of the gospel. Whatever the Master says do, he does; if the Master says "Come," he comes; "Stop," and he stops ; he bids him " Do this," and he does it ; " Do that," and he does that; and in all things he does like his Master says. SOME REASONABLE SUPPOSITIONS. Now, brother, Tm so glad it is the truth that " this yoke is easy and the burden light." I reckon, if there was ever a man that looked to some peo- ple like he had a hard time, away from home, hard at work all the time, you see the man. And I tell you that the four- teen years of work for Christ seems to me at times like four- teen months; and I have had it look like it was just fourteen days. And, brother, those fourteen years have been to me fourteen years of rapture and joy and peace. And I have sat do wn in the glory of a new peace an d joy and wondered if heaven itself had anything better than this. My yoke is easy and my burden light. If you suffer with me, you shall reign with me. Bear the yoke and wear the crown I The crown is going to be given in exchange for the yoke ! Oh, I want my neck to show in heaven that I have worn that yoke diligently ! You all try to put a yoke on some of your members; you'd better have your stock tied before you undertake it! The policeman will have to clear the streets of this town if you were to yoke up part of your stock and start down the street with them ! I reckon you would cut a shine. The3^'re what you call " unbroke" fellows ; never yoked any before. Some of these fathers, with grown children to-day : if you were to go home and put the yoke of family prayer on you, I expect 3^ou would run away and tear the whole thing to Best for the Weary. 497 pieces before bed-time. You wonH wear any yoke. Lord, have mercy upon us as Christian people, that don't know anything about the yoke, the emblem of our loyalty, the em- blem of our faithful service in the cause of Christ — the yoke ! Must Jesus bear the cross alone, And all the world go free? No I There's a cross for every one, And there's a cross for me. BEARING THE YOKE. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Here comes the illustration: Here's a little stream run- ning along down through the meadow; and it glides and rolls and frolics along in its course, and we see it leaping over this precipice and rolling down through park and farm yonder J and on it rolls, and on it rolls; and by-and-by the little creek says, *' I'm so tired ! I have been rolling and running and jumping ever since I was born into the world, and I am so tired." And all at once a kind friend throws a dam right across its bosom and stops it in its course, and the little creek piles its placid water up against the dam — the obstruction ; and there the little creek piles up its wa- ter, so calm, so placid ! It is resting so sweetly? It stays there — resting, resting, resting. But by-and-by it begins to breed miasma and many other little things — mosquitoes and so forth, and its inactivity breeds corruption. And then that creek says: "I'm tired of resting; now turn me loose." And the dam is removed, and on it rolls, and down yonder it turns the mill-wheel, and over there it turns a factory-wheel; and as it rolls along on its verdant course, its waters clear themselves, the birds sip of its tide and sing its praise, and the trees on its bank are made glad and green. And so in industrious joy, it runs clear on to the ocean, and there finds rest. Brother, the first thing Christ ever did for the soul was to put his arms around it and let it feel the rest of heaven ; and then the soul in its inactivity said : "Master, turn me loose now, and let me go out and bless the world in a thou- sand ways, and find rest to my soul as I move among the children of men." A GLORIOUS SERVICE. My yoke is easy and my burden light. 498 Best for the Weary. Blessed G-od, the service of Christ is a glorious service. Master, thou hast never asked me to do anything that did not make my wife think more of me, and didn't make me more like thyself when I was through with it. Blessed Master, be- cause I love and serve thee, my children love and serve me. Blessed Christ, thou didst pick me up from the lowest depths, and put me wherever I am in the strata of this universe to- day. If I am anything above a poor, wrecked and ruined Jlife, I owe it all to thee; and thou shalt have the praise of my lips and thepraiseof my heart for all time. And I have felt a thousand times like the good old woman out at the camp- meeting. She said: ^' Good Lord, if you'll just save me in heaven, you shall never hear the last of it. I'll praise you till all eternity rolls away/' Oh, religion! Brother, if I was a young man I would want religion. If I was an old man I'd want religion. If I was at home I'd want religion. If I was abroad I'd want re- ligion. If I was rich I'd want religion. If I was poor I'd want religion. If I was living I'd want religion. Iflwasdy- ing I'd want religion. If I was in heaven I'd want religion. If I was in hell I'd want religion. There is no age, nor con- dition in life, in heaven or earth, or hell, where I would not crave this priceless blessing of peace and pardon through Jesus Christ. THE PRECIOUS CASKET. Will you seek it to-night? Will you seek it- to-night ? Ke- ligion really is like a beautiful little casket given to a friend, richly inlaid on its surface with pearls and diamonds. And the friend takes it because of its beauty and its elegance, and places it on the centre table in the parlor. It is the gift of a friend, and oh, how beautiful it is, and how it is prized ! But one day the friend was looking at it, when the owner touched a secret spring, and the beautiful casket flew wide open, and its richest treasure was found to be within. Brother, religion is beautiful, a beautiful gift from God, that adorns the outward man and makes the world look on a man W' ith love and respect, and approve him for what he is. But, in death, the Christian touches a secret spring and heav- en, with its beauties and glories, opens up to his vision and charms his life and soul through all eternity. God help us to seek this peace that comes through Jesus Rest for the Weary. 499 Christ, and whatever else we do or don't do, God help us to put our case into the hands of faith to-night, to-night, to- night. I went to two friends in the congregation last night, and said to one of them : *' Friend, are you not interested? Don't you want to be a Christian V "Oh, yes," he said, " I am interested. I want to be a Chris- tian." Said I, "Take this seat there and let it be known to the world." And he said, " Not to-night." I went to the other one, trembling over there, and said I : " Friend, come and yield to-night." " No," he said, " Not to-night." Oh, friend ! If he is such a Savior and such a friend, don't stay away from him another hour. Let's make friends with him to-night! Let's put our case in his hand, and then we can trust it there for time and for eternity ! Oh, will you put your cause in the hands of Christ? The Lord help you to do it to-night in this calm, peaceful, sweet hour, in this church dedicated to God ! God help you to say : " Whatever else I do or don't do, God helping me, my cause is in the hands of Christ from this time on." THE LAST DAYS OP GRACE. How swiftly these hours are passing away ! And I am looking in the faces of men to-night who feel in their hearts, " I ought to give mj'sclf to God," whom I may never meet again, maybe, until we meet in another world. You may not be able to leave your home to-morrow night, or you may be sick. And you may never meet me again until I see you at the judgment bar of God. I hope to see you safe, because this night you put your cause in the hands of Christ. Oh, how anxious I am to see you do this to-night. I have done all I can. •! have prayed, and wept, too. I have preached and talked, although with less effect, it seems to me, than I have ever talked anywhere, but — no matter about that — let's leave that, and let's you and I put our cause in the hands of Christ to-night! Will you do it? Now we are go- ing to stand and we will pronounce the benediction, and 32 500 Best for the Weary, then we will sing, and if anybody has got more important business elsewhere, or wants to go, let him go. But will you stay to-night; just a few minutes, friends? Grod help you to stay and give yourself to Christ! JSEF^IVION XXVII. yV J^JhRI^TIAJSI |.IFE, the i)xPOgITOR OF If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be :>f God, or whether I speak of myself. — John 7; 17. 'e will read three of the preceding verses : Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, how knoweth this man letters, having never learned ? Jesus answered them, and said : My doctrine is not mine but his that sent me. If any man will do his will — That is, if any man will do God's will — He shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. ANCIENT DOUBTERS. At the time Jesus uttered these words he was surrounded by the sharp, calculating Sadducees, and the shrewd, cun- ning Pharisees, and the probing, dissecting minds of the lawyersof his day. They were doubting ; they were hating; they were despising; they were wondering. It is natural for man to doubt ; it is very common for man to despise; and very frequently we are made to wonder at some things. It is as natural for a man to doubt as it is for him to live a sinner, and I suppose some of you find that very natural. A great many think, ^'Wcll, I am a sinner because I am an infidel;" but you are an infidel because you are a sinner. You have got the thing reversed. A man does not sin be- cause ho doubts, but he doubts because he sins. I believe the quickest, clearest, grandest conversion Christ had under his own immediate ministry was the case of Na- thaniel. When Nathaniel came up into the presence of Christ, he dropped his finger on him and said : 501 502 A Christian Life^ Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. And the door of Nathaniel's heart flew wide open, and he said, ''Rabbi, thou art the Son of God 3 thou art the King of Israel/' He was without guile, and a heart without guile always opens itself when Christ is near. DOUBT THE CHILD OF SIN. We sin, and doubt because we sin. I said once before, you never had a doubt in your life but what if you would take hold of it and pull it up by the roots, you would find there was a seed at the bottom of the tap root, and the name of that seed is Sin. And if you will quit sinning you will quit doubting, just as naturally as possible. ]^ow, these Scribes and Pharisees and lawyers stood around Christ, all probing, all despising, all wondering, and all hypocrites. The Bible has a good deal to say about hy- pocrisy and about hypocrites ; but nine-tenths of all the hypocrites I ever saw were out of the Church. They do not belong to the Church at all. When a man out there says he is as good as anybody, if he could get anybody to believe him, he would be a first-class hypocrite; but his unreliabil- ity saves him from the charge of hj^pocrisy. Kobody be- lieves him, and therefore he passes for what he is worth. If that man out there could create the impression that he had done as much good as anybody, he would be a first-class hy- pocrite. His failure to make the impression saves him from the charge of being a hypocrite. DEFINING HYPOCRISY. Do you know what a hypocrite is ? A hypocrite is a man that donH do right, but wants to make people believe he is doing right. It takes these elements to make a hypocrite. Now how many hypocrites do you know in the churches of this town that do not do right, but want to make people be- lieve they do right? How many hypocrites have you in the churches of this town according to that rule? And it is not so much what you look at as it is what sort of a fellow is looking at you. There is a great deal in that. There stood a dozen round there looking at Christ, and Christ dropped his finger on them and said, "Whom say you — you, you, and you — that I am V* And they said, "You are an impostor, and you are a blasphemer, and you are the son of — an harlot." The Expositor of Christian Doctrine, 503 And Jesus looked over to Peter who was standing there, and said, " Peter whom say ye that I am ?" I wish I could have seen Peter about that time. Just lifting his face up he said : ^'Thou art the Christ, the son of the living Grod/' Peter was a man just like the rest of them, but Peter had got into a secret they did not know much about. We say a man doubts only as he sins, and that he will doubt as long as he is a sinner. But if you want to believe, and believe with all your heart, empty your heart of guile, empty your heart of all sin, strip yourself of all this, and then you take in G-od for all he can do for a soul. BIG SINNER, BIG DOUBTER. You have heard Christian people say, '' Oh, I have so many doubts/' Well, it is no credit to you. I will say that, and if I were you I would keep it to myself. You just size your- self up as a great big sinner, if you have great big doubts. One is the result of the other. ''Thou art the Son of God!'' is the language of the man who saw Christ for the first time; and he took him into his soul the first time he had an opportunity. There is some- thing very practical on the human side of salvation, what- ever you may say about the mysteries on the other side, and I have noticed that the practical discharge of the duties God imposes on us makes a great many mysteries very plain to us. I have found that out. IS'ow, I grant you that in all the ages of the world the great discoveries of this world have met with doubts and opposition, and frequently with doom. You may take Gali- leo, who asserted the discovery of Copernicus that this world rotated on its axis. He was arraigned, tried and con- victed as the greatest heretic this world ever saw. And they laughed his theory to scorn and made him retract it; and yet, when he walked out from that august body he turned and said : " And yet the world rolls on." And to-day any little school-boy in this town will tell you thatthe world rotates on its axis and rolls round the sun in its yearly rev- olution. I believe everybody has accepted tne lliccr;' ^I'^t the world moves round the sun, except Jasper, the colorcv* preacher, at Richmond. 1 heard the other day he was dead. I would hate to have such a case to funeralize. I would 504 A Christian Life^ preach him to heaven, though, on the ground of downright ignorance, for I think there are a good many going there on that platform. All opposition to this grand discoverer has died away long ago. The world has accepted his theory and praises its author for it to-day. SOME OTHER HERETICS. When Harvey discovered that the blood circulated from the heart to the extremities, and back again to the heart, he was arraigned by the world. They admitted that the earth rotated on its axis, but they would not admit that the blood circulated. They thought Harvey a great heretic. Yet now we honor him as one of the earth's greatest dis~ coverers; and to-day, when the physician walks into youi- sick room and lays his finger on your pulse, he determines the nature of the disease by the accelerated action of the pulse, which is the indicator of the arterial circulation. No one doubts now that the blood circulates. When Watts discovered that steam — a bland vapor — had a power almost omnipotent, the world laughed him to scorn, and considered him a great heretic. And when Stephenson constructed his engine, that infidel world stood and looked on, ready to laugh him to scorn ; but when he pulled back the throttle and the engine moved off before the gaze of an infidel world with an astonishing power and velocity, the world hung its head. ^'We give it up.'' Can anybody doubt the power of steam who sees these iron horses moving over this country a mile a minute, pulling their freighted tons along ? All opposition to this grand discoverer has died out with the past. When Morse discovered that a man might chain electricity to a wire, and that one man might sit in one city and talk to a person in another city, the world pricked its ears up and said, ^'We have a sure-enough humbug now, and we will condemn him without trial. It is the most astounding hum- bug the world ever saw; there is no truth in it." Who doubts now that I can go into a telegraph office in this town and talk for an hour to a friend in Liverpool, England? And I sa}^, to-night, of these grand discoverers who have proclaimed these discoveries to the world, that in this da}" thfl TJ^orld builds monuciQ^V tp them and honors them? The Expositor of Christian Doctrine, 505 THE GRANDEST DISCOVERY OF ALL. But the grandest discoverer in this world's history was he who eighteen hundred j^ears ago discovered the balm of G-i- lead and poured his own j^recious blood out to redeem this world; and that precious blood has been washing its millions for eighteen hundred years ; and yet, to-day, after all the tri- umphs of the cross and the cleansing power of the blood, there is as much opposition from science to-day to the Christ crucified as there ever was in any age of the world. I reck- on we would have been fighting Galileo to-day if he had abused dram-drinking, cursing and making money. I ex- pect we would have been fighting Harvey on the same line. I expect we will fight anything that proposes to abridge our privileges to go to hell. Oh, why is it that we accept every- thing from everybody that is proven true, and yet when the blood-washed throng in heaven, and the best of earth, stand up and testify of Jesus' power to save, there are those who have doubts and misgivings about his power to save a soul to God. THE TEST OP CHRISTIANITY. Thank God ! Eighteen hundred years ago, before I ever saw the light of this world, that precious blood was shed tore- deem me; and thank God ! eighteen hundred years after it was poured out, my poor heart was washed in the blood Jesus Christ shed to save sinners. Now, brother, I say this, and I talk with the Bible open before me, and with intelligent men and women before me. Listen. The science of Christ cru- cified, the religion of Christianity, may be tested just like anything else. A great many say it is a sentiment for old women and children. I recollect that in the town where I lived there was a poor fellow whom they called half-witted. All the sense he had in the world was religious sense — all the sense he had was good sense — pious sense. And they used to dub him a crank, and say he was crazy. They said he was crazy on the subject of religion. Well, I told those people they would all feel like there had been an eternal practical joke played upon them, when they walked up to the bar of God for judgment and found that poor Gus, whom they had called crazy, was the only sensible man in the town. Let me say to those who speak of the religion of Je- sus Christ as the plaything of an idiot, or as a sentiment for 506 A Christian LifCj a poor old woman in her dotage to hug to her heart, that there is in it something to engage the grandest minds and to keep busy the biggest hearts this worl'd ever saw. Let us stop to think before we deride the science that has blood- washed the world alread}^, and that proposes to save me and my child from the sins that beset us, and make us meet and fit for the Master's house in heaven. A PHYSICAL DEMONSTRATION. ' Now we stop for a moment. The science of mathematics, for instance, is a science that has been demonstrated to be true. A man tells a class: '' True it is that the science is true.'' I will say : ^' Demonstrate it to me.'' He says : '' Twice two are four." I say, "Hush, that is child's talk. Now demonstrate to me that mathematics is a true science." And he says, " Six times six are thirty-six." I say, ''I do not want any foolishness. I want a grand demonstration that the science of mathematics is a true science." He says: ''You are a sensible man, and I will take you over here to these Alps" — those grand mountains piled up there between France and Switzerland. Those two Govern- ments want to tunnel that mountain, and they want to begin on opposite sides of the mountain and meet each other in the middle of the mountain. Millions are involved in the undertaking, and the science of mathematics starts up and says, " I will guide you through that old dark mountain and bring you together in the heart of it." "But," say these gov- ernments, " If you fail to do it we have lost millions." The engineers say they will not fail, and they bring their instru- ments to bear on that old mountain and mark out the lines. THE RESULT. They work there for weeks and months and years, and 'thousands are spent, and people wonder how this is going to come out. Oneday the workmen on France's side sat down to dinner. The workmen on Switzerland's side rose from their mid-day meal and commenced work first. The French work- men suddenly hear the rumblings of the picks on the other side, and they jump up and take up their tools, and com- mence work again on the partition of earth ; and in fifteen The Expositor of Christian Doctrine, 507 minutes the middle wall fell out, and they had struck one another to the one-thousandth part of an inch. And there is one everlasting demonstration of the truth of the science of mathematics. Well, we say that Christianity may be tested just precise- ly like the science of mathematics may be tested. It is a true science, and you can subject it to the most severe test, and demonstrate it for yourself. That is it. Well, here is a man who declares it to be a true science, and says : " I believe in Jesus Christ.^' *' Well, what makes you believe in Jesus Christ." " Because he pardoned all my sins.'' " Oh, well, there may be a sentiment about that. I do not know about that. None of your foolishness, now. I want to know whether he is divine. I want to know whether he is Grod or not.'' A DIVINITY PROVED. '' I will tell you what I will do. Hunt me up a man born blind. One that never saw the light of this world; one whose eyes the doctors have failed to open. Get me a man born stone blind that never saw the light of day, and let me see him. Bring him out here. Let us give the world a demonstration that thou art God." Jesus calls the blind man up to him, and he stoops down and spits on the ground, and makes clay with the spittle. And then he takes the clay and rubs it on the blind man's eyes, and he says, ^'Now, go and wash in yonder pool." VERY LIKELY. I expect if some of the scientific of our congregations had been there that day they would have said, ''Look at that now, will you? He is making a fool of that poor fellow. Science demonstrates that there are oiirative properties in dry earth, but wet it, and the curative power is destroyed. To rub inert wet dirt on a man's eyes and then tell him to go and wash his eyes in that pool — why, he has washed all ov- er in that pool many a time — there is nothing in it." ''Well," the poor blind fellow says, '' don't you go on spec- ulating. You can afford to speculate on this question, but it is a question of eyesight with me, and I am going to try this thing. I heard what he said." And the blind man groped off 508 A Christian Life, in the darkness until he struck the edge of the pool; then he stooped down and pulled the water up and washed the clay from his eyes, and wiped the water out of his eyes; and when he looked up he saw rocks and rivers and mountains that his eyes never looked on before. The scientific gentlemen pressed around him, and said, '' Look here, old fellow, we want to make something out of this case. We admit that he has healed your eyes. We admit all that, but we want you to say he has got a devil, can't you?" The poor fellow looked up, with his eyes dancing in his head, and said, '' I don't know whether he has a devil or not. I cannot tell you anything about that, but I know, '■ Where- as, I was blind, I now see/ " And, brothers, there is demon- stration for you. ANOTHER DEMONSTRATION. '' I like that. But can't you demonstrate it some other way V ''Bring me up ten lepers this way" — and this old world has done its best on lepers in all of its ages, and admitted hav- ing done nothing. They bring those ten lepers up to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they say : ^'Master, that we may be made whole.'^ Jesus looked atthe poor lepers, and said: "Go and show yourselves to the priest." The poor skeptics yonder say, ^'Master, the priests won't let these lepers come around; they will hold up their hands, and tell them to keep off before anybody gets to them." Oh, how ridiculous they make the poor lepers ! Well, the lepers said : '■'■ You can argue with the Savior, but we're go- ing to try this thing; we're going to the priest." Off they start. And before they got one hundred j^ards from the Son of G-od, one said: "The scales are falling from my body:" and another said : *' Such is the case with me :" and one said : ''I am sound from head to foot:" and another said, "I am :" and one ran back to praise God for the healing of the whole. WHAT THE TROUBLE IS. Do you want a better demonstration of the fact that God Almighty has power and strength to heal a man than when he does such things as these ? Put it to the test — that's the question. The Expositor of Christian Doctrine, 509 I'll tell you what's the matter with this old world. They don't want to test anything. In this connection, this old world reminds me of a man standing down on the far side of the hill; and I say: " Friend, there is a bright light on the other side of the hill." He says, '^No, there ain't." I say, ''Well, come; I'll show you." '' I ain't going." I catch him by the hand and I pull him along until I get to the top of the hill, where he can see the light, and as soon as he gets to where he can see the light he turns his head over so he can't see; and I turn his head back so he can see the light, and he shuts his eyes so he can't see; and I prize his eyes open, and he says, '' I don't want to see. It'll cost me something to see that light." I say to a friend here in this town — he don't believe in railroads, he don't believe a locomotive can run a lick, he has looked at them, he has examined them; they weigh about forty tons, and he doesn't see how they can run — I say to him : " Well, friend, I have ridden on that train. It can run forty miles an hour. It can run from here to Nashville in eleven hours — three hundred and forty miles." ''Oh, well," he says, "you can't fool me." "Well," I say, "friend, there is something important in this move. I want to get you on my side, and now come down with me and I will show you." " Well," he says, " I ain't got the money to spare." " Well, I will pay your way. What do you say." "Well, I ain't going to. I don't believe it. The train don't move at all." ISTow, you ain't got time to fool away with that fellow at all — have j^ou? WILLFUL INCREDULITY. And here is a grand science proposing to make the best for the universe; and we stand up prepared to prove what it has done; and that man stands up there and says, prac- tically on his lips, "I don't believe a word of it." Now, brother, you may test this thing. And when an in- fidel sits down and proposes to argue with me, I don't argue with him. I just ask him three questions, and when 510 A Christian Life. lie gets through answering them the argument is closed, so far as I am concerned. He says : ^' I don't believe Jesus Christ has power on earth to forgive sins." I say : " Have you ever tried him ? Have you ever tried him?'' "No." "Well, will you try him?" "No." " Well, will you acknowledge you are a fool?" "No." Now, you .see, we can't argue this thing any further. That just settles the matter right there. " I have never tried him, I am never going to try him, and I ain't a fool." Now, when a man denies everything that you want to as- sert, then there is no ground there for an argument at all, and I just bid him good-by, and we go off, and I feel like I have done right, in that I have not wasted my time on a case like that. A BOLD CHALLENGE. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. And when those Scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites stood around Christ and were j^robing and dissecting and analyzing every word he said, Jesus turned around and threw the gauntlet down right at their feet, and he says, to put the thing to the test, "And if you don't find it true, I will acknowledge myself an impostor and blasphemer in the sight of Grod and angels. What more do you want than that?" And I — if you will pardon the expression — I dare any man this night who doubts — I dare you to give up your sins and take him who is a Savior from sin as your portion. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. Now, it is important we stop right at this point, and find out what is the will of God concerning a sinner. Now, what is it? Peter was versed, and learned at the feet of Jesus himself, what the duty of a sinner was. What did Peter say to him that day he had three thousand con- verts under one sermon ? He said : " Eepent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. Ee- pent! repent! repent!" The Expositor of Christian Doctrine, 511 HARDSHELL VS. ARMENIAN. Kow, brother, repentance is your part j salvation from sin is God's part with the world j and you need never expect God to do his part until you have done your part. I heard of an old Hardshell once — he was not a converted Hardshell; he was an unconverted Hardshell — and that's the worst shape I have found the devil in yet. He was an un- converted Hardshell, and he would say, "What is to be is to be, you know ;" and, "If you seek religion you canH find it, and if you find it you ain't got it, and if you've got it you can't lose it, and if you lose it you don't have it." And this is the way the world goes with him. But when you strike an Armenian sinner, a sinner who says, " I must do some- thing; I must seek if I would find ; I must knock if I would have the door opened ; I must ask if I would receive ;" and when you find that sort of a sinner, he says : " Well, thank God, if I seek religion, I'll find it, and if I find it, I've got it, and if I've got it I can lose it, and if I lose it, I've had it." And he works along on that plan. And, after all, brethren, I want to be the Armenian before I get religion, and a good Hardshell after I get it. Now, that is how I fix the thing. But, God Almighty, deliver me from Hardshell- ism before I get it. If I get to be a Hardshell before I get to be a Christian, I am gone sure. BRINGINGr THE HARDSHELL TO TERMS. ISTow, this old Hardshell was about sixty years old. The preacher said: "We've got a good meeting; I wish you would come down to the meeting and give your heart to God." "Oh," said the Hardshell, "I have been listening for that still small voice for sixty years." "Have you heard it?" "No." "Well, you're getting pretty deaf, and if you couldn't hear it when your e.ais were good, how do you ex- pect to hear it now?" He told the old Hardshell: "You come down to the meeting, and seek God, and you will find him;" and to his astonishment the old Hardshell was down at the altar, and on his knees, tind praying that night. And next morning, at the service, before the service was con- cluded, the Hardshell was converted to God, and he stood up and slapped his hands together, a^id he said : "Brethren, I tell you that Methodism has done m^^re for me in twelve 512 A Christian Life, hours than Hardshellism did for me in sixty years." He did, sure. And, now, we tell him, *'If Methodism did that for you, you stay in it, and don't let the devil break in on you." That's my doctrine. But don't you try that thing on you until you get religion. If we seek him we'll find him; if we knock it will be opened; and my duty is to repent. Repent and be converted. Repent and be turned around. TURNING ROUND. Be turned around ! I have said before — I repeat it to every man here to-night — there is but one road in the moral universe of God, and that one road goes to both worlds. I can take that street out there in front of this church, and I can go to anywhere in the world I want to go. That road out there goes to everywhere — don't it? There is not a spot in America that I can't go to from that road out there. And, friends, every road is one road in the moral sense, and every Christian in this world is in the road to heaven, and every sinner is in the road to hell. The only difference between them at all is — here is heaven at that end of the road, and here is hell at this end, and the Christians are all going that way and the sinners are all going this way; and it is not which road you are in, but which direction you are going. Don't you see? I used to think that a fellow had to go a week's journey, and had to cross the hills and mountains and creeks and rivers, and jump gullies and swim rivers. I thought it would take him a solid week to get to the road to heaven. But 1 found at last I had been in the road to hell all my life, and all I had to do to go to heaven was to turn around in the road I was in. As soon as you turn around, you are on the road to heaven as soon as anybody. Don't you see ? AN APT ILLUSTRATION. Old John Knight, of our Conference — Bishop [turning to Bishop Grranberry, who was on the platform], you knew him — a saintly old man he was — was sitting back in the church one night listening to G-eorge Smith, and George was preaching repentance ; and was speaking of evangelical re- pentance and legal repentance, splitting hairs a mile long and quartering them, showing which was legal repentance and which was evangelical repentance. Old Uncle John The Expositor of Christian Doctrine. lb 613 Knight sat back there listening until he was tired. Then he stood up and said : *' George, won't you stop a minute and let me tell them what repentance is V And G-eorge said, ^'Yes, Uncle John. I always like to hear you talk." And Uncle John started up the aisle this way, and he said, '^ Tm A Practical Sermon. going to hell; I am going to hell; I am going to hell." And when he got up to about the end of the aisle, he started right back, and he said, ''I am going to heaven; I am go- ing to heaven ; I am going to heaven. Now," said he, ''George, tell 'cm to turn round; that means repentance; that means conversion; and don't stand there splitting hairs on evangelical and legal repentance. WHAT CONVERSION MEANS. God have mercy upon us and show us that the will of God is that we be converted. And converted means nothing more than turn around. '' Yerto" means " to turn." A man takes that road to the right hand and turns to the right — that is '' verto " to the right; and a man takes* this road to the left — that is "verto" to the left; and if you add on that 514 A Christian Life, little ^^ con," meaning ^^ altogether," it means to turn round and go right back in the other direction. And when a man turns his back on sin and turns to God, he is as much on the road to heaven as any man in the universe. God help us to see that. If you want to go to heaven, and are on the road to hell, just right about. If you are on the way to heaven and you want to go to hell, Christian, just rightabout. We have heaven at one end of the road and hell at the other. God help us to-night, all of us, to turn our backs on sin ; and then we have turned our backs on hell and our faces to heaven. And then let us move off. That is the will of God. That is it; that is it. Oh, how I wish I could get five hundred persons to-night that are on the broad road just to see that all that God asks of them is to turn around. It is yours to turn around, and then it is God's to bring the times of refreshing upon your soul. That is it. TAKE A STAND FOR THE RIGHT. Now, I turn to another point here. The greatest man whose heart Christ ever touched was St. Paul. When he fell down before God and the voice said, " Why persecu- test thou me V he said, '' What wilt thou have me to do ?" The Lord said to him, " Eise, stand upon thy feet." Brother, the first thing a man ought to do is to get up from a life of sin and take a stand for the right. ''I will, take a stand." That's it. St. Paul put it afterwards in this shape: "I fought a good fight." And when St. Paul said "I fought a good fight," he said two things in that one sentence, with a vengeance : First, ''I got over on the good side;" and secondly, ''I have fought with all my ransomed powers." First, I get over on the good side; and when I am clear over I want a fellow to get so far over the line, that if he wants to fall over the line his head would not fall within ten feet of it. If he falls over, I want him to fall clear over. A Christian has no right in the devil's territory. CHRISTIAN OWNERS OP LIQUOR STORES. A fellow says: ^'I go in a bar-room because I have busi- ness in there." But what business has a Christian in there — ■ that's the mystery to me. **Well, I go in there to collect my rents." The Expositor of Christian Doctrine, 515 Tes, yes; and I'll risk the bar-keeper^s chances of heaven before I'll risk yours, jovl old hypocrite, you ! You under- stand that? The bar-keepers and whisky men are not the meanest men in this town. But if you can find mo a mem- ber of the Church that rents a place of business to them, I will show you a man that is not only as mean as a bar-keeper in every other respect, but he adds to it the sin of hypocrisy. JSTow [turning to the ministers on the platform], say ''Amen !" [To the reporters] Put that down. These preachers state they said " Amen ! " They said it in their hearts. They say the reason they didn't holler the ""Amen" is because I leave in a few days and they have to stay here, you know, A LITTLE STORY ABOUT THE DEVIL. I say, let a man stay on God's territory if he is a Chris- tian, and let him stand there with his weapons drawn, and let him fight for the right. That's it. I saw some time ago where a young lady member of the Church went to a ball and danced, and died there in the ball- room; and the incident said, further, that after a few min- utes the devil came right in and gathered up her soul and started off with it. A few minutes more and St. Peter came along, and he saw that a Christian, a member of the Church, had died, and he said: ^'Where's the soul of the member of the Church?" They said : "The devil has just carried it off." "Well, how long has it been gone?" " Oh, just a few minutes ; not long." And St. Peter started off at break-neck speed, and said he would overtake that soul and the devil shouldn't have it. It was a Christian soul, he said, and away he ran ; and pres- ently he overtook the devil, and he said : " Hold ! Hold on there ! You made a mistake this time ! " "What?" said the devil. "Why ! you've got the soul of that girl, and she^s a Chris- tian." "Well," says the devil, "I didn't know that. I got her over in my territory and I reckon she's mine." FIGHTING FOR A CROWN. Well, now, you can't afford to run over on the devil's side. S3 616 A Christian Life^ Anyhow, youM better mind how you die over there. I want to get back before I die. St. Paul said : I have fouglit a good fight. And by that he meant, '' I have come over. I have taken a stand on God's side." And when a man takes his stand on God's side the powers of hell rush upon him, almost before he has time to draw his sword. It is like Bunyan pictures it, when his Pilgrim is in the Interpreter's house. I saw, also, that the Interpreter took him again by the hand and led him into a pleasant place, where was built a stately palace beautiful to behold, at the sight of which Christian was greatly delighted. He saw, also, upon the top thereof, certain persons walking who were clothed all in gold. And the Interpreter took him and led him toward the door of the palace ; and, behold, at the door stood a great company of men, as desirous to go in, but durst not. Therealso sat a man a little distance from the door, at a table-side, with a book and his inkhorn before him, to take the name of him that should en- ter therein. He saw also that in the doorway stood many men in armor to keep it, being resolved to do the men that would enter what hurt and mischief they could. Now was Christian somewhat in amaze. At last, when every man started back for fear of the armed men. Christian saw a man of a very stout countenance come up to the man that sat there to write, saying : "Set down my name, sir." And when he had done this he saw the man draw his sword and put a helmet upon his head, and rush toward the door upon the armed men, who laid upon him with deadly force. But the man, not at all discouraged, fell to cutting and hacking most fiercely. So after he had received and given many wounds to those that attempted to keep him out, he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward into the palace, at which there was a pleasant voice heard from those that were within, even of those that walked upon the top of the palace, saying : " Come in ! Come in ! Eternal glory thou shalt win." So he went in and was clothed with such garments as they. And so with you, brother. After you have fought the good fight, and steel has clanged against steel, and you have warded off blow after blow and dealt stroke after stroke up- on the enemy, until your worn-out blade drops from your nerveless hand, God shall say to you: ^'Come up higher. You have fought the good fight, and I have helped you ! You have conquered, and I will crown you." And heaven is just the other side of the hardest battle man ever fought in the world. TAKE A STAND FOR GOD. Take a stand for God and the right ! That's it. The Expositor of Christian Doctrine, 517 What is the will of God concerning me ? Peter said, ^' Ee- pent and be converted/' Grod said to Paul, ^' Arise ! Stand on your feet/' Take a stand! Take a stand ! I have never yet known a Christian man — a man who wanted to be a Christian — to take a stand, that God didn't come to him. Take a stand ! I have never yet known a soul to eschew evil and say, " 1/ take a stand for the right/' that God didn't come to him. Sir, what is the will of God concerning me ? Listen just a^ moment ! It is to give up evil, and take a stand for the right. Are you willing to do that ? There's something very practi- cal about that, brother. Listen ! If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine. That is, know it for himself. And then I would have you notice another fact in the text. If any man — That looks in the face a whole world of human beings, and points its finger at each one of you, and says : '' If you," and *' If you, sir — if you, sir, do what God tells you to do, you shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether Christ spoke it of himself." That's the text. And I say another thing. I'm never troubled with any doubts when I'm doing the will of God. I'm never troubled with any doubts when I'm doing what God tells me. to do, and every doubt I ever had was when I had refused to do something God told me to do, or else Iwillingly lent myself to evil influence. A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. Now, just a word or two, brother, and I close. I feel very earnestly in sympathy with, and very prayerfully concerned about, many*people in this house to-night. I have stood here and looked in your faces night after night, and time after time, and I see that this is the crisis in many lives in this house. A man told me last night: *' I went home last even- ing with a promise made to a gentleman at the church, 'I will pray to-night before I go to bed.'" He wouldn't come to this altar night before hist, but he made that friend prom- ise to pray for him. He said: ^'I went home, and the impres- sion upon my mind was : ^ Well, there's a crisis upon you, sir. 518 A Christian Life, It's now or never, maybe, with you/ and he said: "I knelt down and said: ^O God, the crisis is upon me ! Show me hope in thy word/" And he opened his Bible, and his eyes fell on this : I cried unto the Lord and he heard me. And he found hope in God, and last night he testified to his experience in Jesus Christ, his Lord. ^Now, brother, hear me. The time has come for action. The devil don't care who does the will of God. It is not who feels the will of God, nor who is willing to do the will of God; but if you want to throw off all the enemies of your soul and walk up to heaven, you just commence to do the will of God ! That's it. TIME FOR ACTION. Time for action now. J^ow, or never. You have thought enough. You have looked enough ! You have listened enough ! You have heard enough I You have shed tears enough ! You have been serious long enough ! The time comes now for action. How long halt ye between two opinions ? How many more hairs in your head would you have turn gray ? How many more days would you have misspent? How many more Sab- baths would you while away in sin ? How many more prec- ious opportunities would you lose for doing good? Why not start to-night, and say, '' I will do the will of God the rest of my days." Fourteen years ago, a sultry, warm August day in our Southern State of Georgia, a poor, helpless, wretched, un- done being I was. Oh, how dark my life, and how helpless my future, and how sad my surroundings! And I refer to these things with the utmost shame, and never refer to them except to glorify the poWer of my gracious Savior for what he has done for me; and I want to tell you, brother: You might get me to doubt that I had on a coat; you might get me to doubt that I am in Dr. Brookes' Church to-night; you might get me to doubt I have been in St. Louis four weeks; you might get me to doubt that I have a wife I love more than myself; you might get me to doubt that I love my children ; but I can never doubt this fact, that fourteen years ago last August some divine power called me up from my grave of shame and guilt and made me a new creature; and The Expositor of Christian Doctrine, 619 from that day until this I have been no more the same man that I was before than if I had been two different men alto- gether. THE LAST APPEAL. Now, brother, hear me ! Give your heart to God to- night, and start this 18th day of the December month, so that you can say, " From that time until death comes to me I want to be as much changed as if I had been a different man altogether." Won't j^ou say that? God help you! I never found peace until I began to move toward God. And the way to get out of the way of God is to run up to him, and the way to make friends with God is to walk up in his pres- ence and surrender to him. Oh, how I wish many souls here to-night would say, ^' God being my helper, I intend to start to-night. I have put off this question long enough." Won't you, to-night? This is the last week-day night service here to-night, and won't you now say, " God being my helper, I will make my peace with God. I will turn round to-night. I have been going in the wrong direction all my life. ^ERJVION XXVIII. JhE "pRUIT Of THE ^PIRIT. [7b Women Only-I But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, ff\ith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.— Galatiaj^s 5 ; 22. *IVES," I believe, is the question before us this morn- ing— wives in all the tender relations toward those whom she loves. For this cause she would leave father, mother and home, and these twain shall be one. There is no more sacred relation than this. There is no relation in life that has so much life and so much self-sacrifice as this holy relation, ordained of God. This man, this woman, mutually agree to take each other as husband and wife, and live together after God's holy ordinance in the sacred rela- tion of marriage, and they further sacredly promise to agree to love, treasure and keep each other in sickness and in health as long as they both shall live, and, forsaking all others, they cleave unto each other. How solemn the rite of matrimony ! How solemn the vows on that occasion; and your happiness and the happi- ness of your husband depend largely upon his unflinching and your unswerving loyalty to your vows. All trouble and all heartaches in this relation have been brought about by a want of fidelity to the vows we have made to each other in the presence of God. Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder. There is no spot on earth that you enter more sacredly, and yet some enter more ruthlessly, than that spot between husband and wife, and interference there may cost two per- sons their souls. It may cost you your life. There is no re- lation in life in which we need more patience and more for- bearance and more of the forgiving spirit. BUSY-BODIES. There is no relation in life that you and I, as third parties, 520 The Fruit of the Spirit. 521 have less business to be interested in. ^' Busy-bodies" sug- gesting, planning, advising, have broken up the peace of many a home in this country. A mother-in-law, a father-in- law, a cousin, an aunt, a nephew, oh, if you could remember that God said it! — " Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder." I believe I will let anybody in the world talk to me about anything and everything except only about how my wife is doing. If she has any faults I want to know it. If she has done anything wrong I would rather die than to know if there is anything that would be unpleas- ant for me to know. I despise tattlers and gossip-mongers. You've heard of 'em, haven't you ? I tell you, in this sacred relation, about the best thing that you can do for those that have any trouble, is to get down on your knees and ask God to bless that woman and help her to understand her husband, and to bless that husband and help him to understand his wife. Nine-tenths of the difficulties of wives and husbands oc- cur out of the fact that they misunderstand each other, and the woman that will believe no ill of her husband, and the husband that believes no ill thing of his wife, they are the happy people in this life; and the reason the wife believes no ill is because she knows her husband is true to her, true to God and true in all the relations of life; and the reason the husband believes no ill of the wife is because he knows her to be faithful to him, to her God, and pure and good in all the relations of life. I don't think we ever made a great- er mistake than to attempt to deceive each other. Husband and wife — I would rather see my wife buried than to catch her in a downright falsehood. And how can a woman ever respect a man that has told her one downright falsehood. Truthfulness, patience, a desire to understand the whole question — perhaps all these things are at the bottom of home felicity and home happiness. Now, in order that I may do as I should do, it is all important that I should be what I ought to be. Now, we are not going to talk so much on what we ought to do as we are going to talk on doing. I must be something in order to do something. That old song that I was talking about the other day : "Oh, to be nothing, nothing! " 622 The Fruit of the Spirit. We have sung that and cried over it until it has turned out to be nearly true ; but I don't want to be nothing. I am will- ing to be nothing until the Lord gets hold of me and makes me something, and then I want to be something all the rest of my life. This morning we have an interesting subject ujd. I may be able to see many things more interesting, but I can dis- cuss no question more profitable than the one I have up, the fruit of the Spirit. If there is a good woman, if there is but one true, good woman in the universe, I want that woman for my wife. If there is but one true woman and one noble woman and one pure woman, I want that woman for the mother of my children, and that is the sentiment of every man who lives on earth. Whatever all others may be, God give me a pure wife and good mother for those around my hearthstone that call her mother. We will flee away this morning into a higher and better experience and spirit. The fact of the business is we have groped around in these old pastures of society and city life, and we have lived so long on these old pastures that the grass has become mighty short, and y;ou have to bite well down to the ground to get any grass at all. THE BUD AND BLOSSOM. The Lord help us up into the green pastures and beside the still waters, where we can feast and fatten on the grass of righteousness. Ain't you getting tired of the old pas- tures? Won't you be led out in the greener ones, and enjoy God in the best and highest sense? Then listen to this dis- cussion. The fruit — the fruit. The fruit of the Spirit. The ultimatum of all vegetation around us is to mature fruit. I look now at that grand old oak tree with its bare .branches, and in a few more weeks, in the spring, it will be- gin to bud and blossom, and leaf out ; and then I notice that grand old oak tree is gathering from all the stores in the at- mosphere, and drinking in all the moisture at its roots, and by-and-by I see that old oak tree pouring its vital fluid into the little acorn; and I see the acorn, week after week, growing and developing and expanding, and the old tree is bending all its forces and gathering from all resources, and The Fruit of the Spirit. 523 pouring its vital fluids into the little acorn, and still the acorn grows, until by-and-by I see the yellow, rounded, beautiful, matured acorn lying on the ground beneath; and then I see the grand old tree shed its leaves in the fall, and see its forces going back to winter quarters. That old tree, from the first bud on its branch until it shed its leaves — the ultimatum of its efforts was to produce ripe acorns. Go into the garden in the spring, and see that old apple tree bud and leaf out and blossom, and the little apple ap- pears, and then I see the tree bending all its energies and gathering from all sources and pouring out into the little apple all its vital fluid, and I see the little apple growing, developing and expanding, and by-and-by there's a ripe, juicy, red, luscious apple; and then I see the tree cease its efforts, shed its leaves and go back into winter quarters. The tree started out to mature ripe apples, and as soon as matured it ceased. It has reached its ultimatum when it bore matured fruit. I grant you there are a good many in- tervening difliculties between the blossom and the ripe fruit; there are the cold frosts of April and the wintry winds of March and the worms that gnaw at the vitals of the fruit; but the tree answers the end for which it was created just in proportion as it overcomes all these obstacles and matures the fruit for your garnering. The fruit of the Spirit. In the vegetable world around us, just as the ultimatum of the oak and apple tree is to mature fruit, so the ultima- tum of every Christian life is to produce and mature Chris- tian fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is love. This is the fruit that blossoms highest up the tree; this is the fruit that Christ raised upon the spiritual tree, and shed its blossoms on all below. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Every Christian woman and every Christian man in this world, in the hour of their conversion, buds and blossoms into this Christal fruitage of love. If there's anything that's Christianity in the concrete, it's love; if there is anything that's contrary to Christianity, it's ill-will, hatred. I don't know how you feel, but I can tell you this much. THE CHRISTIAN FRUITAGE OF LOVE. The hour I was converted to God I blossomed into this 524 The Fruit of the Spirit. Christian fruitage of love. I recollect down in my town there was a fellow I had an uncompromising dislike and con- tempt for. I actually hated the man, and yet I didnH know the reason for it. HavenHyouseen people you didnH like, and sort of hated them whether you wanted to or not? The Lord loves every- body. I know he does, but I thought many a time there were people the Lord didn't admire, to say the least of it; but I didn't admire this fellow from our town — I disliked him. When I was seeking religion I never thought of this, but after my conversion I met this man on the street, and I saw I loved him just as much as anj^body else, and I have never had anything against the man from that day to this. If religion does anything for me it makes me have love for everybody that God loves, and that means everybody. Love ! Fourteen years ago I budded and blossomed into a Christian life and love. There are a great many interven- ing difficulties between the blossom and the ripe fruit; lean tell you that. There are the cold winds of neglect, and there are the blighting frosts of temptation, and the worms of depravity that gnaw at the vitals of the spiritual tree; but I answer the end for which I was created in Christ just in proportion as I overcome all difficulties and by the grace of God mature my fruit; for this is a world of fruitage, a world in which I grow and develop and mature fruit; and after a while God will gather my fruit in heaven and I shall have fruit and bread forever, and he or she who fails to ma- ture Christian fruitage in this life will have no fruitage to eat and rejoice in the world without end. There are a great many intervening difficulties between the blossom and the ripe fruit. Many a woman, when she tastes of the pardoning power, says she will love everybody. Love is the sublimest passion that ever moved the heart of God. Love is the power of Christ — a power known unto men. Mother, your control over your children is owing to your love for them. Your supreme command over your husband is largely owing to the fact that your love conquered and your love controlled him. Love will go a long way in this world. What you can't do by love you need not try to ac- complish any other way. The Fruit of the Spirit. 525 woman's irresistible argument. Love will argue, love will contend, and love will pledge itself; but above all things love can cry. That's a great thing. I have had my wife argue and contend with me over points, but I could always beat her at an argument or in a war of words • but I never had her yet to cry but what I sur- rendered right there and then. ^'Just quit crying, and I'll do anything you say.'' Sister, you have made a mistake if you use any weapon ex- cept love to fight with. Love ! Now, at this point I must grow and develop the fruitage. Whatever there is to make you mad or angry, or resentful, or make j'ou bear malice in your heart, here comes in the worms of depravitj^, the biting frosts, the chilling winds, and it is my business to see to it I overcome all these little difficulties, and mature Christian fruit. It is a sad sight to see a wife or mother who blos- somed into this fruitage, and just about the time the little fruit made its appearance she let some one walk up under her spiritual fruit tree, and flail the last particle of the little amateur fruit off of it. Sister, you have had that done many a time. The saddest sight in the neighborhood is to see a spiritual tree standing stripped of its fruit, and the little amateur fruit lying all over the ground under the tree. Ever do anything of that sort? Fruitage ! I tell you, too, if they do you like they did me you'd have no fruit at all. I must tell you about how other folks do about maturing fruit. Down in Georgia, in the peach orchards, after the trees have blossomed out, the farmer sees there's going to be a cold north wind and a clear sky, and he knows he's going to have a frost, and he rolls logs and makes big heaps of brush, and burns them all night, and lets the heat and smoke blow over the orchard and keep away the frost of the night. Oh, how essential it is to keep the warm fires of the Holy Ghost burning all around us to keep the deadly frost away. It is all essential that I pray to de- velop my fruit. Look at your apple tree in the garden. You see it in full bloom — and God never made a prettier bouquet than an apple tree in full bloom — you keep and preserve it just in proportion to the apples it bears. <' Three different years," saith the Lord, '' have I sought fruit and found no blossoms. Cut it down. Why cumbereth 526 The Fruit of the Spirit. it the ground ?" The axe is laid at the root of many a good tree in this town. God has planted and dug and fertilized many trees in this town until it seems his patience has al- most given out. If we ever bud and blossom letus pray God to letus live long enough to mature ripe fruit. Love ! Bless- ed Christ, thou art the one we would follow. Look how glor- iously he matured his fruit. To those who surrounded his cross in his last moments, when he said, '' Father, forgive them, they know not what they do/' through all the cruelty and neglect and ingratitude manifested towards him, Jesus bore through it all a spirit of love and good-will to- wards mankind. Kow, where there's love there's no enmity or malice or ill-will. A woman whose heart is full of love is happy ; but a woman that runs love out of her heart is a miserable woman. FUSSY WIVES. You've been mad a whole day. Wasn't that a great day for you ? I have known women who pouted all day. I can stand a quarrelling woman, but these pouters get away with me. They pout at the table, and they pout in the parlor, and they pout on the street. Now, my little Bob used to pout, but he got behind a door or under a bed to do his pout- ing. I like that. If I was going to pout, I would get under abed and have my meals sent to me. I would never have anybody see me pouting. I'm sorry that old pouting wom- an ain't here this morning. Pout; when your husband don't eat, you pout. So sweet! She's a perfect angel pouting. Sister, when your heart is full of love your face will be full of sunshine, and you'll make home a happy place. Let me say this to you : Many a woman is always quarrelling with her husband about staying home at night, and when he does stay home she's everlastingly after him, and God will have to reverse the universe before you can make your home lov- able. You quarrel with your husband to stay home, and when he does stay home you quarrel with him. ''I've got the con- trariest husband in the world. I can't keep him home a minute," says many a woman. You make home the happi- est place in the world, and you can't drive him away. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but if home is the hap- The Fruit of the Spirit. 527 piest place in the world, I'm going to show you that human nature is going to go where it can enjoy the most pleasant place in the world. You can do anything with your hus- band with this spirit of love. I have known mothers to manifest ill-will and spite towards their children. I'll tell you another thing ; when a wife gets mad with her husband she can say the worst things in the world ; but when a wom- an gets mad with her children she can be the hardest upon them. I have seen that mother get mad with little Johnny be- cause he knocks the pitcher off the table, and slap him clear across the room. Next day, Willie Brown, her neighbor's boy, knocked the pitcher off the table, and she said; ^'Oh, that don't make any difference, Willie.'^ Why not slap Wil- lie Brown over? I'd slap my neighbor's boy as quick as I would my own. I like my children better than those on the other square — that's strange, but true. Enmity! Enmity!! There's another thing. I have been in different cities and towns, and have seen some mothers' conduct towards their children — their married children. MARRYING FOR MONEY. I know one mother who had her notions and mind fixed that her daughter should marry a wealthy young man ; but the daughter didn't love him. And I tell you anotherthing, whenever a woman marries for money she is making her a hard bed right there. I tell you, every woman ought to marry on the same principle my wife did. I neither had mon- ey, nor was I very pretty — it was a case of pure love. Well, as I was going to say, that mother had picked out some rich young man for her daughter to marry; but the daughter could not think that way and love that way, and she married another young man ; and they did well in life and prospered, and God was good to them, and they had everything to make life comfortable; but that mother, as unrelenting as death, never forgave that daughter. Oh, what a thought ! Is there a mother in this town that don't speak to her daughter and love her with all the tenderness of her nature ? Sister, I point you to the Zoological Grarden ! Hear me. Go out to the Zoo and see that little mouse, how it fond- les and rubs its young. Go a little higher, and sec the fami- 528 The Fruit of the Spirit, liar house cat as she carries her little ones in her mouth, and carries them around into corners and out of harm. Gro high- er, and see the lioness as she fondles her young; and she would fight all humanity to j^rotect her young. Oh, mothers, will not the Zoo be a lesson to you in your conduct towards your children and teach you to love them ? What is it that could make me dislike my children? What could rob any child of mine of the love of my heart? Whatever our children do, let's win them by love, and keep their confidence, and train them for a better life. A mother that won't speak to her children ! I don't believe there's an old cat in town that wouldn't speak to one of its kittens — I don't believe there's a lioness in the Zoo that wouldn't speak to its young! Oh, mother, shall you be more degra- ded than the lion or the cat or the mouse ? If you will, come to understand that whenever pride takes the place that love ought to occupy, you are going to do a heap of mighty fool- ish and mean things. Whenever pride takes the place that love ought to occupy, how cruel pride is, and how selfish pride is, and how stubborn pride is. When you get thatcompound into a thing it's mighty bad — cruelty, stubbornness, willful- ness, pride! Sister, just open your eyes to the genial rays of the Sun of Eighteousness, and let love spring up in your heart and live therein, and live everywhere, and live under all circum- stances, and say, ^' O God ! if you will let me bud and blos- som into this fruitage, I will gather from every source, from all points, from the heaven above and the earth beneath me, from communion with G-od,from visiting the sick and giving to the poor, and from all good words and works will I gather and pour into this Christian fruitage of love !" The fruit of the Spirit is love. I am a Christian just as I love, and I am not a Christian just as I hate; and with love reigning in your heart and shining out on all, you are like your G-od, for God is love, and he that loveth is begotten of God. There is not a woman in this hall this morning that has anything in her heart, but what she could turn it out right here. Every woman here that is mad or don't speak to The Fruit of the Spirit, 529 some one, stand up ! [Not a woman arose, and all looked cautiously around.] You needn't be looking around ! She's here all the same, and if you stood where I do with the eye I have, you could pick them out all over this house. Oh what a thought! Mad ! Oh, love, come back again, implant thyself in my heart, and I will gather from all sources and cultivate the spirit of love towards all mankind. Let love do all for you, and remember that love is all that Grod expects. I will tell you what I'd do; if there's a person in all this city this morning mad with me, I believe I'd go and hunt for him if it took me till sundown. I had two brethren in my church once who fell out and quarreled, and they liked to have fought; and I tried my best to get them to settle up, but they wouldn't do it; and then I tried my best to get them to fight it out, but they wouldn't fight; but about six months after that, at a revi- val service, I looked over, and there I saw these two broth- ers hugging one another in the church. They made up all their difficulties, and oh, how happy they were. I took one of 'em to one side after service, and I said : '' Brother, an- swer me an honest question. You have been mad six months. God saj^s, when thou bringest a gift to the altar, and remem- berestif thy brother has ought against thee, first be reconcil- ed to thy brother, and then offer thy gift. You prayed while you were mad many a time, didn't j^ou?" Said he: ''Mr. Jones, if I have acted the rascal I haven't acted the fool. I haven't been on my knees since I got mad." I like that! Some people will get on their knees to pray while they are mad with somebody. I found out that if I did the joke was all on me then. I am hurting none but myself. Let love through all your actions run, And all your words be mild. I remember once, myself, a minister about forty years old met me, with other brethren, and we commenced talking; and after awhile the preacher lost his patience and got mad, and said, oh, so many hard things to me; and I sat and en- joyed the whole thing, and started off and walked down street; and after I got down a piece, I heard some one call- ing after me, and looking across the street I saw it was the preacher, and he ran across the street with the perspiration 530 The Fruit of the Spirit. pouring oif his face. Said he: '' You're an awful hard man to catch. I've tried to find you so bad, to beg your pardon for what I said. Do forgive me, and I'll never do it again." Said I: ''I've nothing to forgive." Whenever you stay in good humor and they get mad you may be sure they'll come back to 3^ou. Don't say anything to them, and they'll be racking over to straighten it out. Keep your temper and love everybody ; and the Lord says: "If a man's ways please the Lord, I will make his enemies keep the peace." The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy ) and I believe a jo3^Iess religion is a Christless religion, and every religious life buds and blossoms into the fruitage of joy. I like that old song, ''Eeligion was never designed to make our pleasures less." If anybody ought to be joyous and happy it is a Christian person. Christian wives, joy will keep you in perfect peace if you make your home attractive to husband. Wear a smile always. You see a wife who is always moping, and she looks like her Father in heaven had just died and hadn't left her a cent in the world, and she's so disconsolate! SMILING CHRISTIANITY. If you would make home wear one big smile always, what a grand thing it would be. I love to see everything smiling. I love anything that will bring a smile. As I said the other day, let's quit singing "The Sweet By-and- By," and sing the sweet "Now-and-Now." Injoy make home pleasant! Make home pleasant! A thing of joy is a thing of beauty forever, as well as a thing of beauty is a thing of joy forever. Trytobejoyousandpleasantfora whole week. Keep your faces straight, and if they get out of shape let it be with a great big smile as broad as the double doors on your parlor. I like a smile a mile long sometimes. Some of you can't keep your faces straight a week. If you will go home and be right joyous, and look happ}^ for a week, your husband will say, " Well, if Sam Jones hasn't done anything else in this town, he has changed my wife. I have a pleasant home." Many a poor fellow wants to see a brighter face on his wife and sometimes we do so wretchedly we can't smile. The children see it all — the children hear it all. Many a woman whipped Billy, and Johnny, and Mary and Julia about fuss- The Fruit of the Spirit. 531 ing with one another, and the truth of the business is they had learned to fuss from their father and mother. I don't mean to say you women fuss with your husbands or husbands fuss with you, but I know a woman in Georgia that fusses with her husband, and I know you wouldn't have a fuss if you could see her. I asked a man once, " How of- ten have you and your wife quarreled?" ^' We don't quar- rel," said he. "Do you mean to say you never said an un- kind word to your wife ?" " That's so," he replied. I turn- ed to his wife and asked, " Don't your husband ever speak unkindly to you?" " No, sir ; never," she said. I looked at him again and asked : " Hasn't your wife ever given you one cross, crabbed word?" "N^o, sir; she never did," he said. I said, "I would like to get your pictures to take home with me — man and wife that never said an unkind thing to one another in their life !" Why not have it always joy and peace and pleasure and contentment? Oh, these little riffles — these little troubles ! We must gather from all sources and mature this fruitage. And then he said : '^ The fruit of the Spiritis love, joy, peace." It is grand to love and glorious to have joy, but how sub- lime to have peace growing and developing in the heart. I heard of a man who was put away in a corner room of a hotel, and every morning he opened his eyes the first thing that greeted his ears was the tramp of men and the jar. of the horses' feet and the roar of the street cars and the confusion of the wagons-. One morning he woke up and everything was quiet. He didn't know what was the matter. "Havel left the city? No! Have I changed rooms? No, this is the same room ! Is it Sunday? No ! Then what's the mat- ter?" He got up and looked out, and there were the street cars and horses and men and wagons going and coming just as usual, but there was no noise. He looked again, and saw that the snow had fallen some ten inches deep, and all was going on as usual, but there was no noise — the snow deaden- ed the sound! PEACE AT HOME. Sister, let's stay under the snow clouds of peace, and let them fall down upon us, and you and we will have peace and quiet — peace at home, peace abroad. I like very much the old woman in Stewart County, Georgia, when my father was U 532 The Fruit of the Spirit. refugeeing South. Father was going along one day, and drove up and asked : '^Mother, is your Imsband in?'' "No, sir/' "I want to get some corn, if you please, for my stock/' said my father. "I think my husband has corn to sell, but he isn't at home," the old woman said. "When will he be home?" "Not before to-morrow." "I would like very much for you to let me have some corn," my father said again. "I can't do it ; I don't know whether he has corn or not," the old woman said. "It's very necessary I get some, "said my father. "But, Mister," the old woman said, "I don't know whether husband would like it or not; and I would rather have peace at home than abroad," said the old woman, finally. Sisters, think of that sometimes when your neighbors make suggestions to you about entertaining and one thing or another. You know how that thing works. Whatever pleases your husband, please him. "I would a heap rather have peace at home than abroad. I don't live with you. I live with my husband ; heap rather have peace at home than abroad" — that's what you should say. "Peace, love, joy, long-suffering'^ — do you know what that means? That's one of the greatest fruits. "Long-suffering" means, I will bear it always. How many w^omen sin and say, "I've borne that old thing as long as I'm going to, and if she does it again I'll give her a piece of my mind." A piece of your mind ? — how big a piece would you give her? You ought to take that back, and say, "I'll give her a piece of my tongue" — j^ou can spare that! Long-suffering! I used to think after I had become a Christian minister it was right to resent things, and I had two or three fights after I began preaching. I thought if a man insulted me, I ought to go fight him. I'll never get mad again with anybody in the world unless some one treats me worse than I have treated God, and I've never done anything bad since I made that resolution. When you go to get revenge next time, say, "I will never give anybody apiece of my mind or tongue until some one treats me worse than I have treated the Lord." Oh, how ungrateful we have been to God, and if you wait until some one treats you worse than you have treated God,3^ou'll never get mad again as long as you live. Long-suffering. The Fruit of the Spirit. 533 "The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, ^en- • tleness." That sister yonder can get up in style for some entertain- ment, but when it comes to getting up clothing for the or- phans, how she ain't there! She never was one of those church members who could do anything. I often think of the fellow who w^ent to Dr. King, and said his wife and daughter wanted to join the church, and said he was ready to pay for his pew. If the devil lived in Cincinnati he would run you out of church — he's always at meeting, and would naturally want a comfortable seat. "I will rent my pew, but if 5^ou want me or my wife or daughter to do anything, we can't do it. I'll pay the pew rent, however." Dr. King said : "My friend, the Church of the Heavenly Eest is right around the corner." Many a woman in this town thinks she belongs to the Church of Heavenly Eest. Nothing to do — husband pays pew rent, and does mighty little at that. Woman over yon- der says, " That's mighty little;" but I have got to get down to many little things to strike you. " Mighty little ! I think she has little to do." That's so ! I saw a great big fine horse once, a magnificently develoj^ed animal, but he wouldn't work to anything but a little red-striped buggy; hitch him to that and he would go a clipping. He w^as a great horse in a little red-striped buggy, but he wouldn't pull a wagon, or a carriage, or anything else ! Sister, did you ever see one of these striped-buggy Methodists racking out Sunday morning at eleven o'clock ? And you can hitch them up to any little entertainment and they'll drive grandly, but you couldn't hitch one of 'em to a prayer-meeting to save your life — won't work anywhere but Sunday morning at eleven o'clock at dress parade ! UP-ON-THE-HILL-FOLKS. Many a woman in this house this morning hasn't been to church any morning but Sunday morning for years. Those old hills are depopulated every Sunday morning at eleven o'clock, and when I speak of the hills don't you think I mean aught againstthose good people. Some of the bestpeopleGod ever blessed this earth with live on those grand hills around this town of Cincinnati. By up-on-the-hill folks, I mean those folks who are up so high on the hill of pride they can't 634 The Fruit of the Spirit, come down on the earth where Christ would meet them and bless them and save them. When I refer to up-on-the-hill folks I mean folks that won't work to anything under heaven but a Sunday morning eleven o'clock buggy. Suppose you had a horse that wouldn't work to anything but a red striped buggy, and then wouldn't work to that even — what would you do with him? [" Sell him," said Dr. Joyce.] Suppose you couldn't sell him, that being a swindle ? Why, take him out and kill him. I wouldn't sell such a horse as that to an3^body. Taking your crowd, Brother Pearne and Brother Brodbeck — if you picked out your Sunday morning eleven o'clock crowd, what would you ask for them? If you would do like many stores to sell dead stock, you'd have to start a five-cent counter, or you'd have to put 'em in bunches and sell 'em five cents a bunch, and then you'd have to beg a fellow's pardon for cheating him. The more of them you have the poorer you are. Sunday-morning-eleven-o'clock Christians ain't worth the powder and lead it would to take to kill'em! Gentleness ! I'll tell you another thing, sister — j^our hus- band is one of that sort, and it's your fault, too ! When you first married, your husband wanted to go to meeting with you, but you wouldn't get up ; and now he don't want to go, and the devil will get you both as certain as we are hereto- day, if you don't improve. Many a woman in this country has gone into partnership with the devil to damn her hus- band. In a Church down our way, at Eaton, Brother Dodge was pastor, and he told me he married a Christian girl to a young man who didn't belong to the Church, and in less than six months that Christian girl had her husband hard on the road to the devil. It would be impossible for me to be a good man without a good woman to help me. Y'our husband will never be any better than you are. A woinan must never follow her hus- band, but must take his arm and walk by his side! I don't believe in seeing a husband first and a wife next — husband and wife must be side by side. I don't believe a man has any more sense than a woman ! I've seen many a woman who ought to have swapped places with her husband, to say the least of it. What does a great big first-class sensible woman want toddling about in this world with a little old The Fruit of the Spirit. 535 sawcd-off, one-horse man, that ain't worth a cent? I would go to the Legislature and have my name changed, and make him take my name ! How would it sound to hear one man ask another, ''What was your name before you were mar- ried?" Another woman, her husband comes home and says, "Wife, let's go to prayer-meeting." ^'No," she says, " I've been thinking about you; you look so care-worn and tired, I don't think it's best for you to go out at night. I am going to rub your head." She's gone into partnership with the devil to damn that fellow. Sister, you do your duty, or move your boarding-house. Love supreme! Gentleness! Gentleness! A woman can win with gentleness when everything else fails. I recollect a fellow was gambling one night, and when one o'clock came he jumped up from the table and said: "Boys, I'm going home. I've one of the best wives in the world waiting for me. Why, she's so kind and gentle that if you were to come up home with me now and I was to ask her to get you all supper, she would do it." One of the old gamblers laughed, and said: "I've been hearing of that sort all my life, but I never seen one." Well, they all went up to see, and they rang the door bell, and then he introduced her to his gambling friends and said : "Wife, we're all hungry and want supper." She invited them with smiles into the parlor, and said she would get supper as quick as she could, and when it was ready they all sat down and were waited on like princes ! And when the meal was over, one old gambler turned to her and said : "Your husband told us ; but we wouldn't believe you were such a good woman. Tell me, how can you be such a wife to such a husband?" Her lips trembled, and then the tears ran down her cheeks, as she said: "My husband is a poor gambler, and I have prayed for twenty years that God would save him : but God will not answer my prayer, and the poor fellow will soon be dead ; but I will make this life as pleasant as possible to him." The old gambler turned to the husband and said; "How can you be such a husband to such a wife?" And he jumped up and said: "Gentlemen, I am going to surrender to my wife to-night. I give myself to God and wife for a 536 The jltuU of the Spirit. better life from this hour." And it is said that afterward that man preached the sermon that won all those other gamblers to Christ. If your husband will not be good, and will go to hell, make it as pleasant in this world as you can. ^'G-entleness, goodness, temperance." Fll stop here a mo- ment and say something about temperance, as I haven^t (?) said anything about it since I've been here. If your hus- band wants to drink, tell him he can't make a bar-room of your home. If he wants you to stir toddies for him, you must say: ^'Husband, go down town and let those fearful wretches that are damning people stir your toddies in the bar-room. I can't do it." The biggest fool, sister — and I say fool as the Bible uses it — in Cincinnati is the woman who will stir toddies for her husband and make them sweet and nice! Gone into partnership with the devil to damn her husband and make him die a drunkard." Look here! Whatever sin may be brought against my' wife in my drinking days, the angels will clear her of that; for she never suffered a drop of the infernal stuff brought in- to her home ! If my wife had sweetened my toddies for me like you do for your husbands — some of you — I would have been in a drunkard's grave before this. If there's anything in the world a woman ought to hate, it's whisky. Temper- ance ! Go home this morning and gather those demijohns and bottles up, and take them into the back-yard and knock 'em to pieces. Some of you say, "I'll want some for my next entertain- ment." Yes, the devil will entertain you for awhile, and that will be the end of you! Look here, wife, my Bible teaches : " Taste not, handle not, the unclean thing." Best thing to do is throw out everything in the house that ever poisoned a soul or drove a man to degradation and death. One woman said the other day, " It's ridiculous the way Mr. Jones talks about cards. How can I entertain husband with- out playing cards ?" Have you an idiot for a husband ? In the asylum the superintendent recommends cards, and you go there and you can see the poor insane persons playing cards! Sister, send your husband to the asylum, and have him entertained there ! What do you say? "Can't entertain husband without cards !" Poor old soul ! Musthave been like the woman who was entertaining her husband at table, and The Fruit of the Spirit. 537 they had a little spat, and she fired something at his head, but missed it and hit the motto up over the door, '' God Bless Our Home." The little boy said : <'You missed pap's head, ma, but didn't you give the motto Hail Columbia!" Stop that progressive euchre business! Quitit! It's gam- bling as certain as God reigns in heaven*! Whenever at a game of cards you put a party on this side and a party on the other, and put up a prize for the winner, that's just as much gambling as if the prize was a thousand-dollar bill ! Ho'tne Entertainment for Husbands. That's playing a game of chance for a thing that's put up, and progressive euchre is gambling, as certain as death, and nobody but gamblers play it. Sister, I would hate to sink down to hell with the stigma on me that I lived and died a gambler. It is bad enough for men to gamble, but when women begin to gamble it's a disgrace to God's creation! Stop it! Stop it! Play Old Smut, and the best way to play that is to go to the chimney and black you rischt ! That's the most sensible game of smut I ever saw. 538 The Fruit of the Spirit. '^ Goodness, temperance and faith.** I sometimes stay on these things too long. Let's live right, and let them adorn your every-day life, and then, some of these days, we are going to have a glorious recognition up yonder! Let us all go away this morning to live right and do our duty, and may God bless and keep you all ! I want every woman in this house that can stand up and say *' God help- ing me, I want to live on the line of that text," to arise. If you're going to run your own schedule, keep your seat, [The vast congregation arose simultaneously.] SAM. W. SMALL. ^£I^MON XXIX. [By Smn. W. S^nall, Esq.'] And his name, through fiiith in his name, hnth made this man strong, whom ye see and know ; yea, tlie faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. — Acts 3 ; 16. AN EASTERN STORY. §N one oceasion there came into the market place of a far Eastern city an aged and decrepit and travel-stained man who was a stranger to them all. He wandered through the vast bazaar without seeming to regard or take notice of the vaststores of merchandise and wealth and the accumula- ted wondrous handicraft of the people. Aimlessly he thread- ed his way about in that multitude until he attracted the at- tention of the people. Suddenly he stopped before one of the booths, where hung gilded cages in which had been im- prisoned birds of precious and sweetest song. They were fluttering their little wings against the bars of their prison, and he listened intently that he might haply catch so.me note of their song; but they, thus imprisoned, refused to give forth any of the melody of their notes, but struggled and struggled impatiently and ineffectually against their im- prisonment. Suddenly the old man put his hands in the folds of his gar- ment and drew therefrom a coin of a strange realm. He ask- ed the price of a cage. He bought it, and opening the door he turned the feathered songster loose, and it fluttered its wings, so long untried ; and for a little while it balanced its slight body in mid-air, until nature restored its powers of equilibrium; and then it mounted up and up and up, and with a glad song of joy circled above the heads of the multi- tude until it caught sight of the distant cloud-capped moun- tain, where its home had been ; and then, with its precious melody flowing from its soul, it winged its way into the far and ethereal distance and was lost to sight. Thus one by one 541 o-±ii A Living Examjple. he bought these little birds, and thus one by one he loosed them, and they repeated the glad notes of surprise and took the same course back to their native mountain fastnesses; and he seemed to take a greater pleasure and a sweeter joy as each little prisoner regained his liberty, and the tears streamed down his travel-stained and dust-covered face. Those who stood by said to him, ''Why dost thou do these strange things V He said to them in reply, with a look of charity and joy indescribable on his face: ''I was once a prisoner myself, and I know something of the sweets of lib- erty/' ONCE A PRISONER HIMSELF. I, brethren, was once a prisoner myself, and now I have tasted something of the sweets of liberty in Christ, and with the precious bondage of his mercies and his promises! stand before this multitude to-night and purchase with these promises the willing hearts of men, the liberty of their souls, from bondage more despicable and deadly and more repres- sive of the natural melody of men's souls than were these gilded cages to the birds of this far Eastern mart. I have been under the bondage of sin, a bondage that was galling every moment almost; a bondage from which there was eliminated every element of joy, and from which there seemed to be at times no avenue of escape. HIS LIFE EXPERIENCE. If you will pardon me, I will refer to myself. I will tell you something of my experience, because I would have my young compatriots know it, and know it to the good of their souls. I would have my fellow-men who are in middle life with families hear it; I would have these veteran fathers of this community hear it. I was well born. I was given by kindly parents all the true and the religious culture that a boy could have in a loving home. I was instructed in right speaking. I was encouraged in right doing. I was inspirited at times to consider myself a child of Grod, and to recognize in my youth my responsibility to him. And when I had left m}^ mother's side, and had left my father's counsel, and left the old hearth tree, and the family altar, and gone out into the avenues of the world seeking, A Living Example. 543 first an education, and afterwards position and prosperity, I fell into evil ways. . With the strong and lusty passions of youth, with those whom I mingled I found there were courses and ways, there were allurements and temptations that were strange to me; and I stood reliant only upon m}'- self, forgetting the prayers and teachings of mother and father, and I was eager for a place, eager for the pleasures of this world, eager for the happiness and the enjoyments that I saw about me. And thus I easily fell in allurements; thus easily fell from virtuous thoughts and virtuous acts, and from the virtuous course of my life. The great bane, as I look back over my life, and conjure up the recollections of my past — the great bane of all my sinfulness, the great moving cause of all the moral iniquities I committed, was nothing more or less than this great gor- gon-headed evil that is devouring so many of the people of this land, and sowing broadcast sin and sorrow in this chos- en nation of ours — the sin of intemperance. I thought that it would be manly to do as every man I saw about me did. I thought there would be some addition to my pleasure and experience by going with them into their drinking places and indulging with them. I felt all the time that I had strength of will enough, that I had force of charac- ter enough to protect me from the excesses that I could see other men had fallen into. I believed that when I reached a dangerous point, if 1 ever did, I could put on the brakes of my nature and stop. STRUGGLING AND PALLING. I went away to college, and there again fell into evil courses. I struggled at times with the innate manhood that was in me, and attempted to throw off the growing appetite for these things. When I came away, after I had graduated, and began to enter among men and their pursuits, and en- deavored to acquire a profession, I thought still that I must mingle with my fellow-men; have some participations in their customs, and in their habits; that I must bring myself into some sort of agreement and harmony with their ideas of social enjoyments; and lyielded again and again to the temp- tations thus presented, and again and again I fell from my rectitude and away from ideas that lingered with me of what 644 A Living Example, was right and proper. And thus day after day, time after time, these passions grew stronger and stronger within me. GUIEVING NOBLE PARENTS. I could feel and see that I was falling, falling, falling all the time. I saw that there would not be left in me strength enough to save me, though I was unconscious at times of the fearful length to which I had fallen ; but I would not look at the picture I knew I was presenting to others. I went on and on. I went until I brought tears from the eyes of my precious mother, until I brought, fearful lines unto her face, until I brought gi'ay streaks to her beautiful hair, until I had brought the lines of care about her loving eyes ; and until I knew I was dragging drop by drop the life-blood from her devoted heart. I knew that my strong and manly father was suffering on my account tortures that he would not in his courage let the world know were gnawing at his heart and at his soul. I knew how it went out to me ; how it fol- lowed me abroad in other lands, and I knew that the failing of his step, and the silvering of his hair, and the deepening of the lines of grief about his mouth, that had so often spok- en golden words of counsel, were due to the course and ways into which I had fallen, and to the apparent hopelessness of my ever coming out of them and being reformed and being renewed in mind and body. Oh, I shall never feel satisfied short of the ability in heav- en to make obeisance at their feet and crave their pardon, which I know has long since been granted me, and which 1 shall ever see beam on their angelic faces until I am in my grave. WIFE AND CHILDREN. I married a lovable woman. I married one who was proud of disposition; one who had high and noble traits of charac- ter; one who had quick and responsive sensibilities; one to whom the very taint of anything that was disreputable was like a knife stab to her heart ; but I disregarded the love and devotion of that precious wife. I went on and on, unheeding her counsel, disregarding her prayers, and from day to day getting grosser and grosser in my appetites, and getting more brutal in my insensibility to her pleadings and her prayers. And when children came to bless my home, even the sight of A Living Bxa7nple. 545 them in their little cradles, unconscious in the first moments of their life, and with the smiles of God drawing responsive smiles from them — I found it impossible forme to know that I was doing that which would sooner or later bring shame and sorrow and degradation upon those innocent babes ; and as they grew from year to year, their voices came and they prattled about me; it was only at distant intervals that I began to regard the future that was stretching far off in the distance before them, and which I must make either one of peace and pleasure, or despair and wretchedness. THE LIGHT OF HOME WENT OUT. And year after year I went on and on in this course of sin and wickedness, and the light of my home went out. The love of my wife gave way, but the process of the murder of affection could not last forever; and I saw at last, it seem- ed to me, that she had returned it to the sepulchre in which she had laid it away in its tear-bedewed cerements forever. I could see that the love and affection of my children was turn- ing from me daily, seemingly by intuition. They saw I was not him who was appointed to be their father, in the mani> festations of fatherhood that I made to them. I could know, and know with a treble emphasis, that drove unutterable horrors into my soul — but it seemed only to drive me fur- ther and further into despair — that they would at my coming flee from my presence far away into the darkest and remot- est parts of the house, for fear of the consequences of meet- ing their father. I had friends, friends in position, friends high in authori- ty, friends who were true and steadfast to me; but they too were unable to paint to me any picture that would allure me from the one I was painting with my own hand in the horri- ble colors of hell itself. They would point me to a goal that my bleared and confused vision would not see. They would endeavor to lift me up on plains of hope and sensibilities of ambition that I had ceased to be sensible of, as being worthy of achievement. They would endeavor to control my appe- tite, and find it as useless as to bind with a cotton-woven string the raging lion of the arid and tempest-swept desert. I had at times my lucid intervals when there would come memories of mother's prayers, of father's counsel, of wife's 546 A Living Example, tears and of children's mute and helpless look; and I would say to myself, '' I will summon to my aid all the powers of my soul and manhood and I will put under foot this monster of hideous mien that is dragging me down into degradation, into social ruin, and taking a fast hold upon my soul, and which sooner or later will drag it a trophy into hell. I would summon all my powers, but only to find that I was weaker than a babe in the arms of so strong a passion as I had awakened. NO EARTHLY CURE. I would go to physicians and ask them in the name of my family and future to do something for me, if indeed there have been found medicines on earth to minister to a mind dis- eased and an appetite debauched; and they would exhaust their knowledge and their skill; and hundreds and thou- sands of dollars did I spend in the endeavor to reinforce will, manhood and my own powers of repression; but all in vain. There were antidotes that were published abroad in the world, one that is distinguished by its manufacture in Cin- cinnati, and with the use of which cures are guaranteed; but all, all in vain. I spent dollars and thousands of dol- lars, and hours and daysof time, and I purchased advertised efficient and warranted cures for drunkenness, and I was as faithful in the application of them as ever human being was; but it was all in vain ! vain ! ! vain ! ! ! There was no medicament in them to my aroused passion and appetite. I went so far that my wife, under the laws then existing in Georgia, had written by the Judge of the Court in which I was the official short-hand reporter, a legal notice, couched in the language of the law, and had this notice served upon every dealer in liquor in the city of Atlanta, warning them, under penalty of the law, not to let me have any of their damning fluid over their counters; and yet, outlaws as they were, disregarding my interest, disregarding my wife's pleadings and the tears of my children, and disregarding the very law of the land, they still continued to supply me with the horrible draught for which my inmost nature seemed craving with insatiety. I even employed attendants and detectives who followed A Living Example, 547 me as I went about on my business in the streets of my city, and they followed me with the purpose, and were employed for the purpose, of keeping these men who would not keep the law themselves from furnishing me with whisky ; and yet I, in conjunction with them, was able to hoodwink and defy both detectives and law. DOWN INTO THE DEPTHS. Further and further, and deeper and deeper I was sink-, ing; I was getting hopeless for business ; hopeless for all so- cial standing; hopeless for all the temporal interests of this world; hopeless for eternity; and in the very madness of my disordered brain, and in my very soul, there seemed at times no avenue at all of escape from this self-imposed bondage except through insanity on one hand and through suicide on the other. I saw that my wife and children had given up all hope; they did not know, from day to day, how I would come home to them. They had seen me brought there, day after day, time after time, insensible and unable to recognize them, from the influence of this deadly and poisonous drug. They had seen me when I was brought in and laid on my bed cov- ered with blood, and it seemed as though my days were in- deed numbered, and that I would soon fall in the midst of my iniquity. They had seen me when I was brought home with the wounds of the knife and pistol on my body, and they had heard the rumors from the streets and dives of dangers with which I had been constantly surrounded of late. To them it seemed as though there was no avenue, no loophole of escape for me from a terrible death. There was not the sign of hope or spirit beaming out from their beauti- ful faces. They knew not, from day to day, whether I would live to greet them another day. They knew not whether, if my life was prolonged, they would be able to procure the very necessities of life from day to day. They knew not at what hour the very shelter that shield- ed them from the storm and from the heat would be remov- ed from over their heads. There were visions of uncertain- ty, of the Sheriff to dispossess, of the heartless landlord to distrain for rent, of the creditor to come and take all. There was no future ahead of them, except of impenetrable gloom, 35 548 A Living Exam-pie, through which seemed to appear nothing but warnings of deeper woe and agonies yet to come. Oh, Lord, how good thou wast to me j thou hast given me relief from that bond- age at my seeking ! SAM JONES TO THE RESCUE. At last there came a time when I seemed to have reached the limit. Something strange impelled me to take my little children, as a loving act, an act it seemed to me of repara- tion for neglects of weeks preceding, and go upon the train to Cartersville, where Brother Jones was preaching to im- mense audiences, and from which the report had come that there were many and many hundreds, and even thousands who were coming back into harmony with God. And as I sat upon the platform endeavoring to take in stenography the words as they fell from his lips, it seemed to me that Grod had inspired him to preach upon one certain line. He l^reached it with that faith which is his alone ; he preached it with that fidelity which is his distinguishing characteris- tic; he preached with the earnestness and with the convic- tion that broke down the casements of my heart, and went home to it. When he had finished, those words of *' Conscience! Conscience! Conscience!'' and of ''Eecord! Eecord ! Eecord !" of "God," the infinite, the all-seeing and the ever-judging God, came home to me. I went away from there troubled in mind and soul; I went home and back into the devious ways, back into the bar- room, back into the open highways, back to the maddening pool, in order to get away from the torments I was suffering from an awakened conscience. But they would not leave me. I could find no solace where I had often found insensi- bility; I could find no relief in potations, where I had often found indifl'erence and capability to take on a cool exterior. There was nothing there to give me surcease from the sor- row in my bosom; and I went on and on until the second day, on Tuesday, at noon, I went into my library-room, fell upon my knees, buried my face in my hands, and I pleaded with Christ that he would let me cling to his cross, lay down all my burdens and sins there, and be rescued and saved by his compassion ; that I might be washed in the stream of his blood from his bleeding side, and that my sins, though they were scarlet, might be white as snow. A Living Example, 549 I wrestled for four long hours in as much agony as I ever suffered. At the end of that time, when I had reached a conclusion, when I had come to understand that there was nothing of earth that could avail me, least of all with Christ, then I gave myself entirely to him, made an uncon- ditional sui'render, and that moment he seized my soul. He dipped it in the stream which was white and pure, and the- light of heaven shone in upon me. In my new-found joy I rushed into the presence of wife and children. I proclaimed the glad tidings to their aston- ished ears, and they could hardly believe it, though they saw that some great revolution had taken place. They knew not whether it was a surrender to Christ, or whether it had been a surrender to madness. PROCLAMING HIS CONVERSION. But when I went out that evening I had three thousand circulars printed and distributed all over Atlanta, telling the people I had found my Savior, I had made my peace with God, and that I would live a life of righteousness ever after, and desired to make a proclamation for once and irrevoca- ble. They had gathered at 7 o'clock upon the public streets that night, and there before them I proclaimed the fact, and, blessed be God, I have been proclaiming it ever since with increased joy, and with the certainty that my salvation is complete. Eeturning home I could see that Jesus had knocked at the tomb of my wife's life, as it did at that of Lazarus, and had called it forth in all its pristine strength and beauty, and its bloom and blossom has been my pathway ever since. I could see that my children had found tongue to sing the joy and praise, and their hearts had been set attuned, as they never had been before, to the melody of childhood, singing to the ears of fatherhood. I could see that there was gladness, wher- ever I went, upon the faces of friends and acquaintances j and when the news had gone abroad in the land, they who had known me abroad sent me their glad congratulations and their encouragement. Blessed be God, that from the day he reached down and lifted me up from the miry pit, and established my feet upon the rock of Christ that is higher than we, I have been going 550 A Living Example, on from joy to joy, a bird of liberty, singing the praises of my Eedeemer. And so, having been thus saved and thus healed, I would call you who are in that terrible bondage to seek relief of the same great physician, and to draw your medicine from the same infallible spring. PREACHING GOSPEL TEMPERANCE. What are we doing with ourselves? Oh how, when we look abroad in this land, we can see how intemj^erance is be- coming the great National vice, and how it is becoming the fell destroyer of so many thousands and thousands of our loved ones. What are we doing with these bodies of ours? *'What, know ye not that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost, which you have in you, and which you have from God, and are not your own?" Fellow men, fellow men, let me bring you to the contemplation of the fact that these bodies of ours are the temples of the Holy Ghost, and that they were fashioned after the architecture of his great brain, by the great being who is the architect of the universe. These bodies he made of the dust of the earth are bones of his rock; he filled them with veins and with arteries, and filled them with the blood from the seas of his providence; he gave us the breath, which, like the wind, cometh and scattereth, and which cometh we know not whence, goeth we know not where; he gave us sight for all the beauties and grandeurs of the world, and inflamed it with fire from the center of his storehouse of fire ; he gave us thought from the clouds, or like them they move ; and as they play in the sunlight of righteousness are transformed into beauty, whether it be the beauty of the dawn, presaging what is to come, or the beauty of the sunset, presaging the glorious death towards which we tend. And we can make these bodies of ours reflect the light of heaven, or they can have the light of heaven withdrawn and be dark and dismal and foreboding as the storm-clouds from which the mutterings of heaven come and roll the thun^ ders of agony that spread destruction and death upon us. And in these temples he has placed the Holy Ghost in Spirit k us, and we arc its custodians, the priests of these temples ; A Living Example, 551 and when we degrade and defile them, we are degrading and defiling the architecture of G-od and his chosen resting-place in us. THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST. Oh, what a touching instance it was when the favorite son of Tertullian died. His companions were bearing his corpse to the cemetery upon their shoulders, and as they went along, occupied with their thoughts of sorrow and grief, they stumbled by the way, when the grief-stricken father noticing it, called out to them; "Young men, beware how you walk; you bear upon your shoulders the temple of the Holy Ghost. So with us. We go about bearing with us the temple of the Holy Ghost, and we are recreant to our own creation, recreant to our own destiny, recreant to the great God who fashioned us, recreant to the great God who made us his temples, when we defile these bodies of ours and ruin them with the licenses of our baser natures and our depraved appetites. One time Diogenes saw a young man going to a place of revelry where drinking was the custom, and from which men who went in sober and rational beings emerged besot- ted, and not knowing their way. He seized upon the young man, carried him to his friends, and informed them that he had rescued their precious boy from a great and awful dan- ger. So it would be well if we had friends who would thus res- cue us. But there are times when friends, as I told you, can have no influence, and no Diogenes, however wise, however honest, however mindful of his neighbor, could restrain us from going into these places. But how many Diogonescs it would take to seize upon those that night after night and day after day are going into these places of danger and ultimate death in the city of Cin- cinnati. Oh, let us seek to save ourselves through the only influence, the only medicament, and the only physician, that this universe affords us. What is intemperance doing? It is not necessary to mar- shal here before you the figures ; you can see it all about you. YOU KNOW HOW IT IS YOURSELF. Young man, you know that you started in your intomper- 5^2 A. Living Example. ate habits just as I did. You know what influences have led you j you know what ambitions you thought you could cul- tivate by listening to them ; you know how you have run out and gone into these places with like ideas of strength and ability to control yourselves, just as I had. And no.w j^ou are buoyant in the consciousness that you think that at any time you can slap on the brakes of your nature and save yourselves from degradation that you see upon the planes 'just below you. Beware, beware of that fatal cup. There are fathers, mid- dle-aged ; they know what intemperance will do. They are listening to me to-night, and they started on that road just as I started, but if they have not reached the same length to which I went, they are on the high road to it. They can already know that they are not received where once they were welcome guests; they know that they are passed every day on the streets of Cincinnati by men who form.erly regarded them with esteem and claimed them as friends. They know that avenues were once open to them of use- fulness, which are now closed upon them forever on ac- count of their habits, their companionship and their places of resort. They know that the happiness of their families, once complete, is now gone, apparently forever. They know that the blanched cheek of that wife, that the constant red- ness of eye when they enter home, that the fleeing chil- dren, are all evidences of the steady growth of the evil ; and they have grown just in proportion as they have gone deep- er and deeper into this besotted condition. There are old men here to-night who have led a long life, it seemed, of moderation, and who thought that they were exemplifying the ability of a man to drink and drink and drink, and yet preserve his manhood and his honest posi- tion; but they can see that their excesses are not only sapping the foundations of their health ; they can feel that they are untimely gray; they can feel that they have diseases in them that they would not have had but for their intemperance; and they can see before them no life that is leading them on and brightening their way as they go. But they are seeing, upon the other hand — and if they are honest with themselves thej^ will confess it to their souls — that they are losing their powers, and that sooner or later they too must sink into the A Living Example. 553 lowest depths of degradation and be untimely cut oif and go to hell to everlasting death. Families and individuals, whole cities, prostrated. There is nothing that is so glaring about them as intemperance, which sweeps over them like the storm over a forest, day after day and night after night. Thank God that my city of Atlanta has redeemed herself under the white banner of temperance, with the cross of Christ on it. Thank God, she will shine as a city set upon a hill, giving a light to this Na- tion. Ohio to-day is giving full liberty to the whisky dealers to d ebauch and damn the most precious so nsofyour household. God cannot bless a people who are thus recreant to them- selves and thus recreant to their duties both to humanity and to God. Thank God that old Georgia is rapidly redeem- ing herself, and that after a while she will still be lying in the very apron of this Nation, a redeemed State from the tyranny of alcohol, and that she will raise her banner and commend it in its purity to every State in this Nation, as it blazons with the legend of Wisdom^ Justice and Moder'a- tionj under the broad and glittering arch of the Constitution. A NEW WAR FOR THE RIGHT. Nearly twenty-five years ago misguided men in the South heard the shot upon Fort Sumter that awakened this entire Nation, and led to reform, and led to liberties, and led to the release of slaves from bondage, led to what no man had con- temj^lated of being capable of realization. It marshaled the most impregnable arms of this continent, and that shot re- verberated all through civilization. I tell-you that whatever were the disasters of war, it struck the shackles from six million slaves; but to-day, in a holier and grander cause, by the approving smile of God, old Georgia has fired a gun upon the Sumters of sin and intemperance in this country that will arouse this whole Nation ; and we will batter down these forts of intemperance, whether they are in Cincinnati, Chicago or New York. The army of God in this Nation is on the march. And you may listen here; but if you have not the courage and the Christian zeal, we will come and break down the bar- riers; we will impound the demon of alcohol, and we will release you from this terrible bondage. ^^"i A Living Example. In the midst of influences like this, with these facts star- ing them in the face, statesmen of this country are too cow- ardly to seize upon this great question and make it a ques- tion of public policy for the Christian people. Politicians go wandering about among the lower classes, and talk and rant about personal liberty and sumptuaiy laws, as though they had a right to give laws to these people, when these smiling scoundrels are only seeking popularity and applause from the foolish and depraved. Scientists are disputing and debating, when all history and all true science have demonstrated that no curse is great- er upon a people than to have the saloons and the dissemin- ation of these deadly compounds in the community. These whisky dealers are outlaws ; they are against the law; they are anomalous creatures, and the anarchists of the nineteenth century. If they would disobey and disregard the laws in my case, they will do it in yours, and they will do it in the case of every precious son you have got, of every living father you have got, of every devoted husband you have got in this country. INDIFFERENCE TO THE WRONG IN HIGH PLACES. Churches meet in conventions, meet in conferences, meet in assemblies, meet in synods and pass resolutions on the subject of temperance, and yet the very ministers, it seems, in places, are unwilling to enforce the declarations and laws of their own churches against their own members, notwith- standing that right here in Cincinnati ministers of the Gos- pel have been disrobed through its influences and churches have been debauched. And thus our very rulers, law-makers, public men and public teachers are thus indifl'erent or cowardly in the face of an evil like that, while the red-winged and fiery-eyed Zam- ael of these distillers and brewers of the country is sweep- ing over this land and laying low in horrible death the first-born of American homes, as the angel did at the com- mand of Grod in the land of Pharaoh centuries ago. And ev- ery man and every woman, especially in America, has a di- rect personal interest in seeing the banner of Christ triumph over the sign of the beer barrel and the whisky worm. Is there anything needed to arouse the humanity and the A Living Example, 555 patriotism of you people to the iniquities that are being thus committed in your midst, and the sad havoc that is being made in your homes? If I to-night were to call around me a staff of bailiffs and furnish them with subpoenas, I could send them into the streets, and into the back-yards, and into the slums and alleys and tenement districts of Cincinnati, and I could send to Walnut Hills, and to Mount Auburn, and Avondale, and Mount Adams, and other of your respectable and high-toned suburbs of Cincinnati, and from the palaces of your richest down to the humblest huts and dens of your poorest, and examine the widows and the orphans that whisky has made, and array them here in a grand mass by the thousands with their weeping eyes, with their dismal recol- lections, with their mourning, with their hearts crushed and bleeding, and they would say to you, '' If you are men, in the name of G-od and humanity rise in your might and drive this monster out before he destroys and ruins your homes too/' Let us do this. Let us rely, and trust, and work, upon the promises of Christ, and be true to ourselves and true to humanity, and true to the great God who made us. ^ERJVION XXX. |j^ ^AD j^OMPANY, Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, norsitteth in the seat of the scornful ; but his de- light is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night, — Psalms 1 ; 1 and 2. [Mhese Psalms are an interesting study to any man. I like F to read Dickens, and Thackeray, and Bulwer, and Shaks- peare, because they give me such a deep insight into human nature. A man may study himself upon the pages of books like these ; but there is more for me in these one hundred and fifty Psalms than in perhaps the writings of all these mas- ters. These men I have named, they give me human nature, " Simon pure," as we would have it if we were standing on the street or in our store j but David gives us human nature as it is acted upon and influenced by the divine nature. I never have much to say against human nature. I have very little abuse for a man in his normal state. I preach to the colored people frequently in my State, but on one occasion I preached to them, and the colored preach- er, after I was through preaching, got up and said : "Breth- ren, there was a truth that struck my mind while Mr. Jones was preaching, and I believe it was the truth before God ; I believe that the nigger is worse right now than he were when he were born." I thought it was the most self-evident proposition I ever heard stated in my life. It is perverted human nature that I fight. It is the perversion hand and foot and tongue and mind that I pronounce all the maledictions of my nature up- on ; and I have very little to say against human nature in any of its normal and right attitudes. DAVID^S MERITS AS AN AUTHOR. But David gives me human nature as it is acted upon and 656 In Bad Company. bbl influenced in the best sense and in the best way. I love to hear a man talk that seems to know what he is talking about. I have heard men try to explain a great many things they did not understand themselves, and I have heard men dis- cussing subjects that they didn't seem to know anything about. Well, I love to read David because David seems to know what he is talking about. JSTo man before him knew more of God and knew more of humanity, than David ; and the best preacher that ever planted his foot in Chicago is the preacher that knows the most about God and knows the most about humanity. He acts between the two; and every preacher ought to know God and lay his hand upon the shoulder of his loving Father in heaven, and then the other arm around the whole race of humanity, and try and j)ull humanity up to God. And this was David. He knew man with the broad views of the Psalmist, who had studied life in all its phases; he was a man who seemed to understand God as no man before him — and very few after him; a man who seemed to under- stand himself, and understand human nature. THE psalmist's WISDOM. He gives us the result of his study, he gives us the conclu- sion he had reached, in these words : Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. ^'Not in the counsel of the ungodly;" as much as to say, '' If 5^ou want to be a happy man" — and all men do want to be happy — ''now, if you really are in search of happiness, listen to this prescription :" Blessed, happy, you will be, if you do not walk in the coun- sel of the ungodly. An ungodly man may be a very moral man. An ungodly man need not swear or drink or violate the Sabbath, or com- mit any of the flagrant sins which men are so often guilty of. An " ungodly " man means simpl}^ an ungodlike m.an. Un- godliness and ungodlikeness are synonymous. They mean the same thing. "Now, what is an ungodly man ?" We say, it is a man who is not acquainted with God's way. Every man in Chicago who knows God, loves God ; and every man who don't know God, don't love him. It is just as natur- 558 In Bad Company. al for a soul that knows God, to love God, as it isforamothr er to love her babe, as it is for a father to love his son. An ungodly man is a man who cares nothing about God. He is moral in a great many senses. He does not drink, he paj^s his debts and walks uprightly in a thousand ways; and I will tell j^ou the distinguishing characteristic of that sort of man: He loves to talk and he loves to give people advice. You know him, don't you ? Old Colonel so-and-so; and old Judge so-and-so; old Major so-and-so, and old General so-and-so. You have seen them. They donH belong to the church. They don't make any pretensions for religion. They scoff at the idea that anybody ever died for them, you know. They are all right. They can give more advice and practice less of it than any tribe in creation. "Why," the old Colonel says, " I don't see any use in these meetings." He says : "I can be as good and not go to church as 1 can be and go." He says: '^ I can be as good and stay at home as I can be running out to church so much ; and then I don't see any harm in a social game of cards. I never could in my life. Itisnot a sinful game. It is a scientific game ;" and whenever a man wants to be a first- class sinner he always rings in that sort of "science " some- where or somehow all along the line. "It is a scientific game." Well, if he wants to dance: "Why, what harm in the world can there be in this, that and the other?" And the way I can tell an ungodly man — he is always ask- ing : "What harm is there in this ?" and "What harm is there in that?" And the way I can tell a godly man, he is always hunting something that has got good in it, and not going about try- ing to find something that people can see no harm in at all. DOWN ON CARDS AND DANCING. Why, if there is any harm in cards at all I have not got time to play cards, and I am sorry for any one, who profess- es to be a true man, that has time to play cards. I am sorry for a woman that has time to play cards. I am sorry for a man that has got time to dance. I tell you, when I look around me and see a sinking world and humanity drifting off from God, and so many seeking beds of pleasure, and so many that are needy that need sympathy In Bad Company. 559 and help from my hands ; when I look about me, God knows I tell the truth when I say I have not seen a day in thirteen years when I had a minute to spare to give to these things ; and you would not either if you were of any account. Just as well be at that, though, as far as you are personal- ly concerned, as to be at anything else; for if you wasn't at that you would be asleep about all the time you are awake. You are hunting for something that you think will amuse you, and the only difference between you awake and asleep, as far as this world is concerned is, you are just a little more quiet when you are asleep — if you are not one of the snor- ing tribe. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. In other words, if you want to be happy in this life, don't you take counsel, advice, from an ungodly man. SAXONIZED SCRIPTURAL SATIRE. When you are lost in a moral problem you go to the best man, the best woman, that you know in the world, for your advice. They are capable of advising you. I want a man first to practice what he preaches, and show me that it is good to do it, and then tell me how he did it; then I want to do just like him. An ungodly man. As I said, you can hardly pick a flaw in him. He never goes far enough to be dubbed immoral. What is the difference between a moral sinner and an im- moral sinner? Just the difference between the typhoid fev- er and the small-pox. That is the only difference you can make at all. One is internal and the other is external, and both kill nine times in ten if you are not careful. Our Savior used to look at your sort and drop his finger on your sort; and he said: '' Oh, you whited sepulchres, beautiful without, but within you arc full of rottenness and dead men's bones;" and if you will translate that into nine- teenth century language, he means, ''You whitewashed ras- cals you, that is what you are." And if you rub the whitewash off him in spots, he is the most deformed, ugly wretch you ever looked at in your life. Haven't you seen it scale off? An ungodly man sees no harm in anything. He is like the Irishman in our town. He was a devout member of the church and a very profane fellow. A gentleman said to him I'^O In Bad Company. one day: ^'Jack, how can you be a devout member of your church and swear like you do V ''Well/' he says, ''an' faith an' there's no harm in cursing unless you make harm out of it." I am not hunting those things that have no harm in them. I am hunting the things that have good in them, and so are all good men under all circumstances. They are not inquir- ing whether there is much harm or little harm in this; but is there good in this? TYPES OF SELF-COMPLACENCY. Good in this. Now if you want to be happy, don't take counsel of those men that run on the line of things that will get you into trouble sooner or later, but 3'ou take your ad- vice, your counsel, from the best men and women that this earth has ever seen. You take the question of theater-going, and nine-tenths of those ungodly people in the church and out of it go to the theaters. Well now, let us raise that question just a little here. One of our Chicago preachers told me in St. Louis that (during his pastorate in this city, I believe) there was a young lady, a bright young lady, who was a teacher in one of the schools. She came to him during his revivals. She was asked up, and her conscience disturbed. She came to him and said : " I want to be a Christian and I want to join your Church, and you object to theater-going, and I can't see any harm in it in the world." "Well," he said, "Young sister, give your heart to God and join the Church and then go to the theater as much as you please." Well, I did that very way. I have been to the theater every time I wanted to go since I joined the Church, and, thank God, I never have wanted to go. Never got that low down in my religious experience from the day I gave my heart to God up to this minute. And whenever I do, T am going back, as that brother said, to that old stump, to get it over again, for it will have about played out my first stock. SHE MUST GO TO THE THEATER. He says this young ladj^gave her heart to God and joined the Church, and he heard, may be twice after that, that the young lady attended the theater, and the next summer the In Bad Company, 561 revival started again and this young lady had come into the Church and taken a class in the Sunday school and tried to live right; and one day, during the revival, one of this young lady's class in the Sunda^^-school who had been com ing out among the penitents in the meeting, came to her teacher and said: ''Miss So-and-so, I have an engagement to go to the theater to-night ; if you were me would you go?'' She said, "I thought about that girl being a penitent last night at the altar, and I said, 'If I were you I would not go; I would come to the services to-night and I would seek further the salvation of my soul.'" She said, "The young lady looked me in the face and said, 'Do you think there is any harm in going to the theater?' And I said, 'Well, I — I — I — well, I should any how while I was seeking religion, I wouldn't go.' " " Well," she said, ' Miss So-and-So, do you go to the theater?' I said, 'I — I — I — I do; occasionally" I go.' 'Well, do you think it is right for you to go as a Christian ?' 'Well, I don't know,' she says, 'Miss So-and-So, if you can go as a Christian, can't I go as a penitent?' and I looked that sweet girl in the face and said, ' Darling, I will never put my feet in another theater while I live, Grod being my helper."' And she said to her pastor, " Sir, I saw that my liberty as a Christian was costing that girl her soul, and I said my liberty shall never do that, and I gave up the thing that would lead her soul away from God." That is the way Christian people should settle questions every time. My liberty and license in these things shall never cost a human being his soul. No harm in this, and no harm in that. The Lord cure us of this abominable way we have got of talking about "what harm is there in this ?" and pat us all hunting things that we don't have to ask that question about. conscience's misgivings. Why, I have been asked many a time if there is any harm in theaters, and this, that, and the other, but nobody ever did ask me did I think there was any harm in family pray- er. Never ! Nobody ever asked me if I thought there was any harm in reading the Bible. Nobody ever asked me if I thought 562 In Bad Company. there was any harm in praj^ing secretly for God's grace and help. Noboby ever asked me that question. Do you want to know why ? Just because they knew there was no harm in it ; and you know why they asked me the other questions? Because they knew there was harm in it. That settles the whole question. You take a Universalist (and I have a great many friends who are Universalists) — and I am sorry for a fellow that has got to go on that sort of a free coach, that has got to take every scoundrel on earth and out of hell to heaven with him in order to get there himself. I never did like that sort of a schedule, and I say to you, my brethren, don't risk yourselves on those theories. You come square up to the measure and get j^our advice from the good of the earth, and live on that plane with them and die by their sides. ^'The counsel of the ungodly.^' ^Now, "Bless- ed is the man that walketh" — w-a-1-k-e-t-h — "not in the counsel of the ungodly." And now, when a man gets to listening to this bad com- pany for awhile, the next thing you know he is going to "stand in the way of sinners." Just now he was " walking in the counsel of the ungodly, and now he is "standing in the way of sinners." Now I have heard of preachers saying that standing in the way of sinners meant getting ahead of them and blocking up the way, so that they couldn't get by the kingdom. Well, there's no such thing as that anywhere in this expression. Standing in the way of sinners means keeping company with sinners, and the man who is going to listen to bad company will, after a while, get to keeping company with that sort. And I tell you another thing: I don't care whose boy, or whose girl or whose wife, or whose husband you are, you can't stand the pressure of bad com- pany. When a man gets so he listens to bad company, the next thing you hear from him he is in bad company. We have got to reform ourselves on this question of com- pany. HITTING THEIR FRIENDS. There is not an angel in heaven that could keep the com- pany some of you do and be pure; and above everything else in the universe, a man ought to be choice about his company and about his books. If you will show me the com' In Bad Corny any. 563 pany yon keep, I'll write your biography ten years ahead of your death, and I'll never miss the mark one time in ten. AH I want to know of any man or any boy is what sort of company he is keeping. Evil communications corrupt good morals. ^' Birds of a feather flock together;'' and I tell you another thing : there is but one safe rule on this line. Don't you ever go with anybody else that will say what you won't say, or who will do a thing that jo\i won't do. You won't run with them long until you will be doing and saying those things yourself. Always hunt better company than you are — although, when some of ourselves get off all to ourselves, we are keeping company with the biggest rascal in town, right there. I am sorry for a fellow, that, every time he gets off' to himself, he is in the worst company he was ever in in his life. I will illustrate that for you. A STINGY MAN. There was a very stingy man I heard of once. Thej?- are scarce, you know; but occasionally you will run across a stin- gy man. Well, we run across one down in our country. His wife was a Methodist, and he would go with his wife to the church, but he would not even give a dime towards the sup- port of the Church. He was very close. One summer he em- braced religion and joined the Church himself. Well, short- ly after he joined the Church the steward went over to his house and spoke to him kindly, and told him : ^' Our preach- er is scarcely supplied now with provisions, and I came ov- er to see if I could get some meat from you for him." He had a smokehouse full ; and he thought a minute ; and, '^ Why," said he, ^^ certainly, I will give the preacher some meat." He went out to the smc kehouse — the steward was at the win- dow looking — he walked out to the smokehouse and unlock- ed the door, and took a big, fine ham down, and brought it about half-way across toward the house ; and then he laid it down in the path and looked at it a minute ; then he turned around and walked back to the smokehouse and got anoth- er, and came and laid it down and stood and looked at it a minute; and then he turned right around to the smokehouse and got another, and came and laid it down; the steward was watching him ; he looked down at the three hams, and, says he, '^ If you won't shut your mouth, you old stingy dev- 36 564 In Bad Company. il you, I'll go and give him all the meat that is in that smoke- house/' The devil was in him. The devil was in him, and the devil asked him every time: " Are you going to give away that ham ? Give away that ham ?'' And the devil just kept after him, and he tried to hush the devil's mouth by putting in one ham at a time, hanging on to him so that he finally said: "If you don't hush, I'll give him every ham in town." So a man can be in bad company when he is by himself. Bad company will ruin you. HELL IN CITY CLUBS. Above all things, we ought to be careful of the associations of our children, If that neighbor of j^ours is worth $50,000 or $75,000, or $100,000, he may have the worst chileren in town, and yet you let his children come and play with and ruin yours because he has a little money. Did you ever notice that streak in human nature ? If that neighbor's son of yours is the worst debauched young man in this town, and yet drives a fine horse to a buggy in the streets of this city, and belongs to one of the fashionable clubs — and, G-od bless you, that's all I want to know of any man; and it's only a question of time when he will be drowned in debauchery and ruin if he's a member in a city club. I have preached in different cities, and I have worked with all my might, and I have preached to hundreds and thousands of people. I have seen almost — I have seen thousands converted in different cities; but, as God is my judge, I have never yet known of anj^ member of a city club ever being converted to God, and that is the saddest com- mentary that God or man can pronounce on that kind of company. Just as soon as one of them becomes impressed with the gospel, and he gets back into his company, they ridicule him and laugh him out of his impression. A man is almost as certainly doomed as he will ever be damned when he gets into these institutions. Bad company! And I have nothing worse to say about clubs than the fact that in all my ministry I have never seen a member of a club give his heart to God and join the In Bad Company. 565 Church ; and I don't care if yon are as pious as Job, if you will join one of these clubs and begin to run with them, I would swap chances with Judas Iscariot, if I was you, for your hope of heaven. I am determined to be understood, you see, and you all can disagree with me, if you want to -, but you can't go away from here and say, ''I declare I didn't understand that fellow." I want you to know, you see, what I am talking about. SOME KICKING DADDIES WANTED. Company! A young man can move out in this town A KicJdng Dadchfs Welcoine to the Fast Young Man. that has $20,000 or $100,000 in his own right. He drives round here in style, and smokes the finest Havana cigars, and drinks the finest wines, and he can debauch himself all the week in his drunkenness and spreeing; and Saturday 566 In Bad Company. he can spend the whole night in a shameless place, and on Sunday afternoon, all dressed up and perfumed, he can sit in your parlor with one of the nicest young ladies in this city. I tell you what we need. We need some daddies in this country that will just meet these young bucks at the frontdoor and kick them right out over the front gate. [Here Brother Jones suited the action to the words, and the audience responded with two rounds of applause.] Some one said, ^' If I could mother the world I could save the world;" and in this kicking sense, if I could father the world, I could come nigher to saving the world. A young lady, a girl, or a grown woman, that will marry a man with his breath tainted with whisky is the biggest fool this world ever looked in the face of. Nor standeth in the way of sinners. Keep out of bad company. You recollect the young lady who said, '^ Father, may I go to the ball to-night at a certain place?" "No, daughter, I don't want you to go." "Well, why, father?" "Well, daughter, I don't like the company you will be in." " Well, father, I knowall of them are notgood thatwill be there, but I am not afraid of their hurting me." About that time there was a dead coal lying upon the hearth, and he said : " Daughter, what is that?" She said, "A dead coal." " Pick it up." She picked it up in her fingers, and he said, '■'■ Does itburn you ?" "No, sir." Well, throw it down." She threw it down, and he said, "Daughter, what is that on your fingers?" She said, " It is smut." " Well, daughter, remember when you go in- to bad company, if they don't burn you they will smut you every time." Every time. You can't dodge it. AN APPEAL TO PARENTS. O, man, look to the company of your children ; fathers, look to the company of your young sons, and I say to you to-night, whenever it becomes a known fact that my daugh- ters keep company with dissipated young men and my sons have gone out into bad company, I shall lose all hope forthe future of my children. Oh, stand by your children and protect them. In Bad Company, 567 Nor stand in the way of the sinful. Now, boys, listen to me. You never can get higher than the company you keep. Listen, boys : If you would be noble and true, seek the best atmosphere of earth and live in it forever. Nor stand in the way of the sinner. Now, he said : ^ Nor sit in the seat of the scornful. Now, brethren, we notice, first, he is walking along, walking along, in the counsel of the ungodly. Now, you see that posture, that attitude, walking along in the counsel of the ungodly. Well, now, when a man is walk- ing along his way, he can turn to the right or turn to the left by the movement of a set of muscles; but you let him stand right so, still, and he has got to move every muscle in his body to get off, and then let him sit down, and nine times out often he is there to stay. Walk along in your youthful days in Grod's ways, and let him embrace and love you, and turn you, and by-and-by you get to standing. You get into a standing posture, and now the thunder of all worlds cannot shake you or turn you from the wretched last stage, the ante-room of hell ; and that is sitting in the seat of the scornful. God pity the poor wretch that went, through bad counsel, into bad company, until finally he has sat down in the seat of the scornful, where he can laughatthepreacher and make fun of God and scorn the Bible. Nor sit in the seat of the scornful. I will tell you, among other things, what has done agreat deal of harm in Chicago: these opera houses and places filling up to hear such men as Bob IngersoU lecture. I have said it before, and I can say it in Chicago, where I understand he is a very popular lecturer : If I had a dog and he were to jump out of my yard at night and go to hear Bob Ingcrsoll blaspheming the name of God, if he ever got over in my yard again I would fill him with buck-shot. He should eat no more of my meat and bread, and sleep under my house no longer. He said -• 568 In Bad Company, Nor sit in the seat of the scornful. A man that could sit in the presence of the scoffer at the God that made him, and scoff and stand there or sit there, and see Bob IngersoU chip these words off his mother's tombstone: I am the resurrection and the life. To see Bob IngersoU as l^e demolishes the forces and pow- ers of Christianity^, so far as he is able to do it ! Thank God, I never had a man closer than a forty-fifth cousin of mine that ever had that sort of idea of life that would force him. to go and pay a dollar to sit down and hear the like of that. WHERE BOB IS UNLIKE PREACHERS. I would not be that sort of an infidel Bob is for a thousand dollars a night. You say you decide you won't pay old Bob IngersoU for that, and he is done. Do you hear that ? It is so much a head. Bob can make $500 a night lecturing that there is no God, but if you will put him on the other side and let him lecture that there isa God^ he couldn't make $10 a night to save his life ; so you see there is just $490 differ- ence in the proposition. And all Bob is after is the dollar. I know that by the way he treated your Infidel Convention. It is said he was to lecture and give them the profits, but gave them the lecture and he took the profits. Nor sit in the seat of the scornful. A man never gets over the fact that he has taken such an attitude toward God. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. I tell you, brother, when you get to where you like this book [the Bible] and read this book, jovi are laying a good foundation for yourself. Young boys, let your delight be in the law of the Lord. I never think of what this Bible is to a man but what I think of a little boy. He was the good boy in the town, and all the boys recognized him as a good, upright boy, and they set their traps to get him drunk. They sent one of the shrewdest of the bad boys to him, and he met him on the street, and he says: ''Johnny, come into the grocery and let us have a mint julep." Johnny says: "Oh, no, I can't go in there." " Well, why ?" " Well, my book says, ' Look not In Bad Company. -^^^ nponthe wine when it is red/ much less drink it.'' The bad boy- says, " I know the book says that, but come in and take one drink." He says, '' I can't do that.'' " Well, why V '' Be- cause my book says, 'At last it biteth like an adder and stingeth like a serpent.' " ''Yes, I know the Bible says that, but come in and take one drink." " No," he says, "My Bi- ble says: 'When a sinner entices thee, consent thou not.'" And the bad boy turned oifand left him and went over to his companions, and they said : "Did you see him?" "Yes." " Did you get him to drink ?" " No, I couldn't get him into the grocery." " Well, why ?" He says : " That boy wasjust as chuck-full of the Bible as he could be, and I couldn't do anything with him." Ah, brother : But bis delight is in the law of the Lord. Now, my congregation, let me say to you in conclusion, however poor the discussion may have been, let me say to you that a germ of happiness may spring up and become a tree under which you can sit beneath its shade and eat its fruit. Listen to this text. These two verses find and furnish the secret of a happy life to you. Then I beg of you don't walk in the counsel of the un- godly. Don't stand in the way of sinners. Don't sit in the seat of the scornful, but take the book of God and make it the man of your counsel. Give yourself to the right and live and die for God. :am Iones' Iayings. You take a first-class Christian and lay him down there, and then, brother, you lie down beside him and see how you look. You would look like a rat terrier lying by an elephant. A beautiful tract of river land is so covered with timber that it would be impossible to raise a crop in their shade; and where God's grace and the desire to live a right life fill a man's heart, there can be no room for the devil. You have lots of men who are neither good nor bad. Ask them ifthey are good. ''No, sir." "Bad?" "No, sir." They are these goody-goody fellows. They are not worth ten cents a dozen in any market in heaven, or earth, or hell. "I am waiting until they will take a fellow that is just about half-way ready. Thkt is what I am waiting for." Now, if you are in earnest about that, you can go in. I donH think the Lord will be hard on you. There is a side door to heaven, I have heard, where idiots and infants get in, and I think maybe they will motion you around to that side door and let you in there. It is submission to God that is religion. It is walking up and stacking your old gun right at the foot of the cross, taking off your cartridge-box and up with your hands. "Good Lord, I'm a surrendered rebel, right here. Til die before I'll ever cock that old musket, and I'll never take up that old cartridge-box again. I've fired my last shot on the devil's side, and now. Lord, I'm a surrendered rebel." A man that will sit down to his table before his children and eat, without returning thanks to the Good Provider of all things — that fellow is eleven-tenths hog. "I don't know whether I am orthodox or not ; but you preachers can attend to the orthodoxy after I am gone, 570 Sam Jones* Sayings. 571 You will see these preachers in their pulpits next Sunday with mud on their horns. They will show you what ortho- doxy is, and clean you up too. My typical idea of a circus crowd is a sot, a one-eyed nig- ger and a dog. I think that is a pretty good circus crowd, and if I was a sot, or a one-eyed darkey, or a dog, I would go to a circus; but I never will go to one until I get to be one of those things. When your little cup is full, you can just rack out. It is absolutely impossible for a man to practice success- fully a fraud upon his immortality. If you are a good man, you know it ; if you are a bad man, you know it. God breaks the silence of eternity to bring you face to face with what you are, who you are, and whither you are going. You can run Mormonism with Joe Smith and Brigham Young in their graves ; it goes right on. You can run Confu- cianism without Confucius. But you canH run Christianity without Christ. There are men in this town, and I expect some men in this house, that, if God were to check on you to-day for $100 or $1,000 for some good cause, you would let that check go to protest, and swear you didn't have the money. And yet if you could go down here on a certain corner and buy a piece of property at thirty-three per cent, discount, you would give a cash check for every dollar of it. And God keeps books, and he'll put your sort in hell by-and-by for lying, if you never do anything else wrong. Sow whisky, reap drunkards. Fill a town with bar- rooms, make a generation of drunkards, whose children are born drunkards, and thus the world is swept on and down. Don't trouble about those things. Trust to God and do right, and don't bother about anything you cannot help. In daytime put in your best licks, and at night sleep soundly like you had pillowed your head on the bosom of the God that made you. Eed liquor and Christianity won't stay in the same hide. As one comes in, the other goes out. Stand and fight, and fight, and when you go down and think you are alone, I tell you that when the din and smoke of the battle have blown away and you open your eyes, you 572 Sam Jones^ Sayings. will find God and the angels and good men standing around you. Do not let a bar-keeper that has not got more than three gallons of whisky, and that bought on credit, come out on the square on election day with an old, rusty pistol in his hand that hasn't been loaded since the war, and curse two or three times and talk loud, and run every member of the Church out of town. God have mercy on you pusillanimous wretches. Hold your ground, and tell them that if they can die for their infernal traffic you can die for those precious children. A fellow says : ^' I sought religion a whole month, and I never got it.^' You got something else. That is what satis- fied you. You say you have doubts. ]^o wonder. Now if you will pull up one of your doubts by the roots, you will find something at the tap-root, and the name of that something is sin. I expect a great many professing Christians in this town will be astonished when they get to heaven to find how God Almighty can run the Celestial City without a few saloons to keep up the taxes. A great many people think that Christianity is just a lit- tle hot-bed of effeminacy — fellows crying, ''Peace! peace! peace!'' God says, first pure, then peaceable; and if you can have peace only at the expense of purity, you had better be in a war. We'll never take this town for Christ, and you down town at your business every hour of the day, and when night comes, pin on the pinions of an old owl, and flap out and come to meeting. All the money I have got in the universe is in the bank of heaven, and if it don't break I am a millionaire. But can you defy the court of God that sits upon the throne? Shall I rush up in the presence of the great God, who in the beginning held a great flaming mass on the anvil of eternal purpose, and pounded it with his own powerful arm, and every spark that flew from it made a world ? Christ dug down the mountains and filled up the val- leys, and the way to heaven is a dead level, and the way to hell is a dead level, and there is only one road in the moral Sam Jones' Sayings. 573 universe; and one end of that road is hell and the other end of the road is heaven; and it don't matter who you are, but which way are you going ? Sacrifice ! Fourteen years ago I emptied a whole lot of dirt out of my pockets and God filled them up with dia- monds; and shall I go around here saying:" I had to give away a whole lot of dirt to get a pocket-fall of diamonds/' It is not polite to believe in hell and many a little fellow has scratched that out of his creed; but he won't be in hell more than fifteen minutes before he will revise his creed and have nothing in it but hell; he will scratch out all the rest. I use sometimes strong words, but I will tell you, you may know I am trying to reach the case. Don't you get excited now and think things are going to pieces. I tell you that you may save your feelings and your condignity for other occasions. I am just touching along in high places this morning. I haven't got anywhere yet. Why will you? — not why will the church; not why will the preachers; not why will the cities; not why will the State; but why will you, you, you. I don't mean the man in front of you or that one behind you, nor the one to your right or your left. I mean you! you! Why will you con- tinue in sin ? How can you reform any State in God Almighty's world with an old swill-tub for a Governor and two or three old mash-tubs for Supreme Judges. A man who is privately corrupt can never be politically pure. If any man doesn't like what I say, let him come to me after the meeting and say so, and I will — forgive him. There's many a fellow praying for a shower of grace in this country; and all your tubs with every hoop loose, and turned bottom side up; and it might rain grace a thousand years, and you'd never catch anything. God himself can't fill a tub that is bottom side up, unless he reverses gravity. I want you all to have legacies and live in fine houses, and I will go around and take dinner with you, and let you pay the taxes and servants, and I will enjoy the thing. I propose, God being my helper, to speak of the truth as I see it, and I don't care what man, or devil, or cities, or 574 Sci'ni Jones* Sayings. eartR, or hell may say; I am going to preach, while I do preach, what I believe to be the truth. God Almighty tells every preacher, ''I put you beside the death-bed of this world, and give you the prescription. Now give it to the patient." And we, as preachers, are dividing up the doses ; and we say, ''It would kill the poor fellow to give it to him.'' Well, God bless us, let's kill him. I'm no homeopath when it comes to morals. If you will let me, I will cut the last ligament that binds you to a life of sin, and let you swim out into the bottomless, boundless ocean of God's saving love. Now, I have said a great many hard things, so called ; and a great many of those things have been applied. I don't apply things. I run a sort of wholesale shoe establishment, and juct make shoes for the public; and every man puts on those that fit him, you know. That's my line. I'm never personal. He who sweats and toils and suffers for Christ shall have flagons of joy and rivers of pleasure for every tear and pang he has ever had. The Lord knows I would rather have fifty old maids on my hands than have a son-in-law like some of you have got. And I say to you in all love and kindness, I don't want anybody to indorse me, but want every Christian in this town to co-operate with me. You do the co-operating, and God will do the endorsing, and then I will be elected by a large majority. Take one of those old demijohn fellows and carry him to heaven as he is. When he would awake next morning the first thing he would want would be a drink, and if there was a low place in the fence he would jump over it, repair to the nearest bar-room, and be back again before breakfast. The devil is too much of a gentleman to stay where he is not welcome. Why does he stay in your heart ? If you see my style don't exactly suit 5^ou, and the gram- mar and rhetoric and logic are a little butchered, why, I am just endeavoring to adapt my style to my crowd ; don't for- get that, and I'll find your level before I leave you. I despise theology and botany, but I love religion and flowers. iriVv »^;; >M'. DATE DUE •-...v^ iT^^;^. ^«:^ ^^*^; i^»C:'- ;• t^-^ ?-;^