V^^A iJ' «\ SAM. JONES' ATTITUDES AND GESTRES; — SAM. JONES'=— LATE SERMONS — AS— DELIVERED BY THE GREAT PREACHER, Rev. SAM. P. JONES. In his Revival Work. Together with a Biographv of Mr. Jones and his Co-laborer Sam. Small — " Old Si" Handsomely Illustrated from Gustave Dore. "Behold I Bring you good Tidings of great joy, Which shall be to all poeple." — Luke, ii, 10. CHICAGO : Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company. 1898. The Libra rv of Congress washington .T«5" Lb 24071 Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1898 by the Rhodes & McClure Publishing Company, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C. All Rights Reserved. copies deceived. The favor with which the Gospel Sermons were re- ceived by the public has determined us to issued this volume of his Late Sermons, which together with the Gospel Sermons embraces Sam. Jones' Revival Sermons nearly complete. He is endorsed by Pulpit, Press and People, and the work that he is doing for the good cause is marvelous. Sam. Jones, as ho is commonly called, was born in Chambers county, Ala., Oct. 16, 1847. He was brought up, where he resides,, in Cartersville, Bartow county, Georgia. His relatives have been church-members for many years; four of his uncles were ministers of the gospel. Sam's father was a lawyer, and gave him the best possible education. His mother was, likewise, very religious. Samuel began legal practice with brilliant prospects. He became quite dissipated. His father's death-bed ex- hortation caused him to reform. Soon after, he married Miss Laura McElwain, of Eminence, Ky. , who cheers him yet. He became a traveling preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, in October, 1872. He was suc- cessful in his work. Gradually, he became a traveling evangelist. He met with extraordinary encouragement, and worked in several Southern states. He attracted the attention of Rev. T. De Witt Talmage, who employed him in a grand revival at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. Then, after holding meetings, which attracted wide- spread attention, in several Southern cities, Mr. Jones at- tacked Satan at St. Louis. Thence his work branched out Mr. Jones often uses slang and other uncouth lang- aag® to attract attention. He is one of the most sensational preachers in the world, yet his meetings produce intense interest and an immense harvest ci converts, most of whom "stick." Withal, he is indorsed by leading orthodox ministers wherever he goes. REV. SAM. P. JONES. Sam. W. Small. One of the curiosities of humanity is the history of Sam. Small, the converted journalist. "Moody and San- key" are no more inseparable than the "Two Sams." Mr. Jones' co-laborer in the Lord's work was born in Knoxville, Tenn., about 1842. He lived in Georgia and New Orleans in youth. He graduated at a Virginia col lege, and became a lawyer. Obeying natural impulse, he changed into a journalist. After working on several papers, and marrying a Con- gressman's daughter, Mr. Small accepted a place on the staff of the Atlanta Constitution, and became official sten- ographer of the Atlanta Superior Court. His writings, as "Old Si," in the Negro dialect, gave him a national repu- tation as a humorist. After occupying various government clerical positions, and working at the journalistic treadmill, he came to the pivotal point of his life. He took his children, a valise, a clean shirt, and a bot- tle of whisky, and went to Cartersville, to see and hear Sam. Jones. He became converted, and abjured whisky and journalism forever. Sam. Small is a gilt-edged, morocco-covered edition of Sam. Jones. They promise to do a grand and over in- creasing work. Mr. Small has more polish than Mr. Jones, and is a better speaker. Since Dec. 13, 1884, Mr. Small has done what he could for the advancement of the Re- deemer's kingdom, and has a brilliant future before him. SAM. SMALL— "Old Si." PAGE "Whosoever will may Come " ; 347 God's Latest Word to Man 347 Some Grand Days 348 The New Savior 349 The Sacrifice Accepted 350 The Comforter 351 The Wooing of the Spirit 352 The Fruit of the Spirit 353 Grieve not the Holy Spirit 354 The Spirit Beseeching Entreaty 355 Sparks of Divine Love 355 The Motherhood of God 356 The Unfaithful Bride 357 A Good word for the Church. 357 Thank God for the Church! 358 Him that Heareth -. . 359 The Application 360 Outside Workers 360 CONTENTS. Nearing the Kingdom 361 For the Thirsty Soul « 362 Whosoever Will .... 362 Another Story 363 A Universal Salvation. 364 Left to the Human Will 364 ' ' Let " Him Come 365 The Last Appeal. 366 Repentance not a Mystery 367 The Alphabet of Religion 368 Couldn't Shake the Alphabet 369 The Alphabet of Repentance 369 Two Definitions 370 The Test of Repentance 371 A Sinful Peculiarity 372 The Other Fellow 373 Blubbering Penitents 373 No Need for Blubbering 374 No Mystery About Religion 375 Church Penitents. 375 Nonsense About Feeling 376 Something Practical Wanted '$77 Feeling and Principle 377 Strange Ideas from the Pulpit 378 God Doesn't Hate Sinners 379 A Cure for Infidelity 379 Bound to Object 380 Another Conundrum , 381 A Georgia Incident 381 Trying it on ; 382 Living Religious is being Religious 383 CONTENTS. The Story of Zaccheus 384 Walking Godward 384 A Dire Dilemma 385 A Practical Illustration 386 The Promise of God 387 How to Test Religion 388 How to Get Religion 388 The Last Story for the Night 389 Two Apparent Hard Cases 390 A Glorious Moment 391 The Last Appeal 392 A Call to Penitents 392 The Blessed Gospel 394 I Shall wear a Crown, 394 Comes out Pure Gold 395 Covered with ten inches of Snow 396 Robs the Tree 367 A Very Gentle Horse 398 The Conditions of Sight 400 Ugly old Rocks 401 Christians Should Win Souls 403 An Afternoon Incident 403 A Call for more Faith 404 The Text 405 The Value of Last Words ,406 Be Viligant! 407 How to walk Circumspectly 4°8 Mis-locating the Devil 4°9 Christian Wisdom 4°9 The Folly of Neglect 410 The Troublesome Tongue 411 CONTENTS. The Idea of Temper 412 The Christian Temper vs Good Nature 413 A Lovely Tempered Girl 413 A Personal Fracas 414 A Good Story 415 The Endurance of Affliction 416 The Bearing Spirit . . / 416 No Use to Fight Back 417 The Tribulum 417 Blessing by Affliction 418 Voicing his Thanks . . 419 The Moral Therapeutics of Sickness 419 Not Seeking to Avoid Affliction 420 Evangelical Work 42 1 Brother Jones Starting Out 422 A Reference to Mr. Vanderbilt 423 Working for Souls 424 A Starless Crown 424 A Wife's Prayer Answered 425 A Second Siege of the Throne 426 Let's Get to Work 427 The Last Appeal 427 God's Calls and Love . . 429 God's Voice 429 God's Numberless Calls to Man 430 All God's Calls are to Better Things 431 The Need of the Holy. Spirit 431 The Holy Spirit Lighting up the Cross 433 Listen to God's Call e 433 The Calls in the Bible 434 No Excuse for Ignorance 435 CONTENTS. The Ministry's Call 43$ No Allusion to Liberal Missouri. 436 Going to Hell from Stoddard Addition 437 One Sermon a Piece, All Around 437 A Georgia Story 438. Hunting the Husband 439 God does His Best to Save Us 439 God's Last Resort 440 A Word to the Husbands 440 A Tender Memory 441 A War Story 442 In the Day of Trouble 442 The Result. 443 God Knows Best 444 A Thousand Calls to God 444 Home Life Calls to God. 445 The Heavenly Advocate 446 You have Heard These Calls 447 God Stretching out His Arms 448 The Divine Retribution 449 Better Make Peace with God 450 The Text Illustrated 451 How to Kill Loving Parents 451 The Story Resumed 452 The Fate of Jerusalem 453 A Call for Penitents 454 The Last Appeal 455 Intemperance 456 Which Side Shall I Take 456 No Politics in the Question 458 How some Newspapers Talk 459 CONTENTS. Whisky or Nigger — Which ? 460 Pay the Owners and Burn the Whisky 461 A Good Time to buy Still-houses 462 Why do Men Sell Whisky 462 A Home Thrust 463 " I Never Sold Whisky Nor Played Cards.".. . . 463 A Turn at the Whisky Gluzzlers 464 Which is the Wiser Hog 465 Not so Clever After All 465 Coming to the Question 465 A Lie Black as Hell 466 The Drunkard's Grand March 468 The Road to Hell. , . 468 Some Personal Points 469 The ' ' Prodigal Son " Modernized 472 The Text . 472 Hired Servants 473 A Divine Parable 473 The Parable Modernized 474 Standing up for the Prodigal 475 A Trustworthy Boy 475 Leaving Home 476 Moving Off 476 The First Night's Mistake . . 477 Moving Off Again 478 What Might have Been 478 Of Course, He Meant Honestly 479 Wanted to be Somebody 480 He was No Pauper 480 Moving in Style 48 1 CONTENTS. Did You ever Notice It? 481 Bringing the Matter Home 482 Everything Gone 483 A Story of Rum 484 A Sad Ending / 485 Getting Back to the Text = 486 Eating What You Feed to Others 487 A Desperate Hunger 488 The Insanity of Sin 489 When He came to Himself . 49° Something of a Difference . . 49 1 Can't hurt his Feelings now 49 l Dodging former Hospitality 49 2 As Illustrated from Real Life 493 Glad to have a Nigger Pray with Him. ....... 494 In sight of Home 495 The Meeting of Father and Son 496 He has been there 497 A Royal Welcome 497 The Announcements 498 Consecration 499 Graded Christianity 499 Church Economy 500 " Brother So-and-so." 501 We can Tolerate most anything 502 Three Grades of Christians 503 The Entered Apprentice Christian 504 Not 'Fully Initiated yet 505 Shipping Christians by Mail . 505 Pretty Low Ground for Christians 5°7 CONTENTS. Fellow-craft Christians 507 The Value of Unselfish Effort 508 The Master Christian 509 A Family Feud _. . . 510 A Pledge of Peace ." 511 The Sort of Christians we want 5 1 ' 1 The Harvest in Store 5 1 2 4 'Whatsoever A Man Soweth, " etc. 513 Three Absolute Impossibilities 5 J 3 Anxious for Flattery 5 r 4 Can't Deceive your Neighbors 5 T 4 Deceives Nobody, 5 l 5 You Can't Deceive God 5 l 5 God is not Mocked 516 True Under any Circumstances $16 A Common Acceptation 5 1 6 The Multiplying Nature of Seed S l 7 The Original Sowing 5 1 7 No Recalling the Sowing 5 1 8 Something Impossible 5 1 9 Sow Whisky, Reap Drunkards 5 ! 5 Sugar-coated Religion 5 2 ° Can Tell it by the Newspapers 5 21 A Novel Use for a License 5 22 Could do it if they Wanted to 5 2 3 Sowing Profanity .- 5 2 3 An Early Harvest 5 2 4 No Allusions to Governor Marmaduke! 525 The Fruit of Card-playing 5 2 ^ No Friend to Society, So-called 5 2 7 Sow Balls, Reap Germans 5 2 ^ CONTENTS. Prefers the old Maids 529 Sow Balls, Reap Germans 530 A Pretty Safe Conclusion 530 Following Parental Tracks 531 A Corner-grocery Tale , 533 The Law of Inheritance 533 Ruined Families 534 Just Look at It 535 Sowing unto the Spirit 536 A Card-playing Story 536 A Reunion of the Joneses 537 The Old Man's Story 538 The Statistics 538 The Preacher's Hope 539 What he expects in Heaven 540 The Last Appeal 541 How Can You Be Saved ? 542 The Minor Essentials 542 Good Advice 542 A Remarkable Incident 543 The Result " 543 The Church isn't Everything B . , 544 Keeping to the Text 545 A Great deal of Mystery 545 Getting Religion 546 Mystifying Matters 547 What Religion is not 547 A Mistaken Belief 548 Seeking Religion «, 549 What Salvation is not 549 Something to be Glad of 555 CONTENTS. A Pointed Difference 551 The Great Question 552 The Answer 552 Something Else to be Glad of 553 Concerning Creeds .. 553 Infant Salvation 554 A Story of Jonathan Edwards 554 Bring the Children to Christ 555 A Definition of Faith 555 Intellectual Belief Saves no Man 556 The Condition of faith 557 Must First Repent 557 A Hard Task Illustrated 558 Submission to God 559 Brought Round at Last 561 Believe on Him -761 What it Means 562 A Georgia Story 563 Getting into Deep Water 565 The Second Brother 566 A Notable Prayer Meeting 566 A Southern Planter and his W T ife 567 Dr. Hodges' Confession 568 The Last Appeal 569 Answering Objections to a Religious Life.... 571 A Common Salvation 571 Waiting to Consider 572 Could be Quickly Decided 572 Want to do it Deliberately 573 Enthusiasm 574 Should Act on his Decision 574 CONTENTS. Sam. Jones' Theology 575 A Plain Application 575 Another Illustration., 576 Common-sense Religion , 576 Waiting for Better Terms 577 Something to be Glad of 578 A Small Sacrifice 578 A Suggestion 579 Don't Like a No-fence Law 579 The Value of Denial 580 The Lord Help us! 580 A Doorway for Simple Souls 581 Waiting for the Church to get Right 581 A Disgusting Sight 582 Waiting for Feeling 583 Not Hypocrisy 583 Wanted Feeling 584 What can you do with him? 585 And they are Insincere, After all 586 Waiting for Fitness 586 Knows he isn't Fit 588 Wants to go Clear Through 589 The Illustration • • 589 Enough to Start With 590 A Startling Interruption 591 Make up your Mind and Don't Wait 592 A Man's Sure Hope 593 Is Trusting in God 594 The Wagon shop Story 594 A Broken Axle 596 Going to be Careful Now 596 A Grand Summary 597 CONTENTS. The Last Appeal 598 "Come Ye Weary and Heavy Laden." 599 A Decided Curiosity . . 599 Imaginary Troubles 600 They Hitch up 600 Knows Something has Happened 601 Trying to Scare Him 602 That's Just it 603 And the Men, too 603 An Apt Comparison 604 A Fiendish Joke 604 Let the Other Fellow Worry 605 Brother Jones' Tough Times 605 Don't Worry Uselessly. . 606 Real Troubles 607 A Pointed Illustration . 607 Visiting the Asylum 608 A Suicide's Voice 608 She had Real Trouble 609 The Wife and Child Safe 610 A Word on This Matter 610 Brother Jones' Learning 611 Another Doctor Called out 612 The Burden of Guilt 613 The Burden of Grief 614 A Sad Meeting 614 The Burden of Anxiety 615 The Result 6 j 6 What to do with Our Burdens 617 The Application 918 And Here we are 619 CONTENTS. You Can Depend on Christ 619 Unload the Hearts you Burdened 620 A Drummer's Story 62 1 Bearing Other's Burdens , 62 1 David had been There 622 The Desire for Rest 622 Carry your Troubles to Jesus 623 God Shall Wipe away their Tears 623 Religious Railroading 625 Something to be Glad of 625 Trust to Christ 626 The Great Physician 62J A Common Peculiarity 627 A Friend that Understands Me 628 Christ Knows 629 Family Interferences 629 An Essay on ' ' Tangents. " 630 The Way 631 What the Way is For 631 Off the Track 632 Made for Man. . , 633 Another Dirt Road 634 The Episcopalian Railroad 634 The Divine Trunk Line 635 Christ the Way 635 Christ Understands You « 636 Two Classes out of Christ 636 How About the Past? 637 The Laboring Ones 637 The Foolish Ones 638 Don't Want Developing 638 CONTENTS. God goes by Weight 639 The Other Sort , . 640 Rest 640 The Divine Diagnosis 641 Given Rest and Found Rest 642 A Great Difference 643 Some Reasonable Suppositions 644 Bearing the Yoke 645 A Glorious Service 646 The Precious Casket 647 To-night! 648 The Last Days of Grace 648 Christian Faith is shown by a Christ Life. . . 650 Ancient Doubters 651 Doubt the Child of Sin , 651 Defining Hypocrisy 652 Big Sinner, Big Doubter 652 Some Other Heretics 653 The Grandest Discovery of All 655 The Test of Christianity 655 A Physical Demonstration 656 The Result 657 A Divinity Proved 658 Very Likely . ' 658 Another Demonstration 659 What the Trouble is 660 Willful Incredulity 661 A Bold Challenge < . . 692 Hardshell 7's Armenian 662 Bringing the Hardshell to Terms 663 Turning Around 664 CONTENTS. An Apt Illustration 665 What Conversion Means 665 Take a Stand for the Right 666 Christian Owners of Liquor Stores 667 A Nice Little Story about the Devil 667 Fighting for a Crown 668 Take a Stand for God 670 A Personal Experience 671 Time for Action 672 The Last Appeal . . 673 The Judgment Day 674 A Few Words of Thanks 674 Discouraging Features 675 A Sad Summons 675 The Text 676 Who Shall Stand on that Day 676 The Term ' ' Day. " 677 A Final Judgment 677 ■ An Eternal Explanation 678 Where is the Preacher? 679 The Preacher's Idiosyncrasies 680 A Faithful Preacher's Standpoint 681 Religion or a Congregation : . 68 1 Frivolous Amusements 682 The Great Question 684 Shall I Plead "Not Guilty?" 685 To Mothers and Fathers 686 There is no Reason 687 The Christian Plea 688 The Present Opportunity 688 God Bless Us 689 The Last Appeal 690 From Gustave Dore. OPPOSITE PAGE. The Angel in the Planet Mercury 347 Pia in Purgatory 367 I-eah 394 The Vision of the Sixth Heaven 403 The Boat of Souls 429 Charon, the Ferryman of Hell 456 The Punishment of Gluttony 472 Dante and the Spirits of the Moon 499 Satan at the Gates of Hell 513 Dante and the River Lethe 542 The Conference with the Angel Raphael 571 The Heavenly Choir 599 Tigris, at the Foot Paradise 625 The Vision of the Cross 650 The Vision of the Golden Ladder 674 The Angels in the Planet Mercury. SAM JONES' LATEST SERMONS. WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of fhe water of life freely. — Revelation, xxii, 17. You see, I get this text from the last page of this blessed book. This is God's last message to man. And for fear that something might be added to, or that some- thing might be taken from, the Scripture, God puts this fearful admonition. He says: For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and from the things that are written in this book. I am glad that God winds up his revelation to man with this gracious verse: And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. god's LATEST WORD TO MAN. If I have been corresponding with a friend on any given subject, and he has written me a dozen or a hundred let- ters upon that subject — if I want to find his mind now concerning that, I will turn to the last letter received from him — the one bearing the most recent date. And now, if I would know God's will concerning the race of man, I won't run back over Genesis or Deuteronomy or the prophecies of Isaiah or the Epistle to the Romans by St. Paul. When I want to find out what were the concluding words, the last message of God to man, I run through the book, and I see God's last message, and I see the fearful warning added : 548 8AM JONES' SBRMOX& " Don't any man take away these word*. If he does, I w£D take away his part out of the book of life. And if any man shall add anything to this book which shall make it so that these are not my last words, then I will add unto him the plagues that are written in the book." And after all the fearful warnings and judgments and denunciations of the Scripture, thanks be to God, this is his last message to man: And the Spirit and the bride say, Gome. And let him that heareth say, Gome. And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. BOMB GRAND DATS. It was a grand day in the world's history when the even- ing and the morning were the seventh day, and the Son of God and angels shouted over a finished world. It was a grand day in the world's history when Adam and Eve, the first pair, stood before God, with their reason clear and perfect, unruffled by passion, unclouded by prejudice and unimpaired by disease. It was a grand conception to them as they looked out over a finished world and said that the flowers were God's thought in bloom ; that the rivers were God's thought imbedded ; that the mountains were God's thought piled up, and that the dewdrops were his thoughts in pearl as they mingle in loving tenderness and join to- gether on the leaf of the rose. And wherever man looked about him, all nature in its beauty and freshness whispered back, " The hand that made me is divine." It was a grand day in the world's history when it was announced through the moral universe of God that man had violated the law of God and had brought misery and woe upon himself and upon his progeny forever. It was a grand day in the world's history when God met the fallen and degenerate pair and said to Eve: "The seed of the woman shall WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 349 bruise the serpent's head." It was a grand day in the world's history when the last strong swimmer sank beneath the flood and left Noah in the ark with his three sons and their wives and two of all sorts to perpetuate the race upon the face of the earth. It was a grand day in this world's history when Pharaoh and his hosts and all of his chariots and men were swallowed up and engulfed by the Red Sea. It was a grand day in this world's history when a burning hail fell on Sodom and Gomorrah and all the plains thereof, and destroyed the cities of the plain. It was a grand day in this world's history when 185,000 soldiers under the blast of an archangel's wing were wrapped in their winding sheets. It was a grand day in this world's history when on Korah and Dathan and Abiram and their wicked com- pany the earth burst open and swallowed them up out of the sight of men. THE NEW SAVIOR. It was a grander day in the world's history when the old prophet of God stood on the hills of Judea with his spark in hand and let its beneficent rays shine down through seven centuries, and his voice was heard through the seven cen- turies, saying: " Simon and Anna prepare the cradle to rock the babe of Bethlehem." It was a grand day in this world's history when the star poised itself over the manger of Bethlehem and when the wise men gathered about the babe of Bethlehem. There they looked upon an everlasting God lying asleep in Mary's arms, and the King of Angels and God over all, blessed for evermore, as he was carried about in a virgin's arms, as they looked upon the King of Angels, the carpenter's despised boy. It was a grand day in this world's history, when at twelve years of age, this God-man surprised all the wisdom of Jerusalem by his forethought 350 SAM JONES' SKRMOMB. and by his intelligence. It was a grand day in this world's history when the Son of God notified his disciples, to whom he had been sent from the Father : " I put yon on notice that I must be crucified, dead, and that I will arise again on the third day." It was a grand day in the world's history when he hung there suspended between two thieves and cried out with a loud voice : " My God I My God I Why hast thou forsaken me ? " It was a grand day in the world's history when they buried this sacrifice yonder in the grav« of Joseph, and put the seal of the Roman government upon it, and put sturdy Roman soldiers around it to guard it THE 8ACRIFICE ACCEPTED. It was a grand day in the world's history when on the morn- ing of the third day God summoned an angel to his side, because Christ himself had announced the fact, " I am the sacrifice. I go to die for the world." And now the only question with his disciples and with all humanity is, " Will God accept the sacrifice ? " He has suffered, bled, died. He is buried. Will he ever rise again ? Will God accept the sacrifice ? . It was on the morning of the third day that God sum- moned an angel to his side and told him to go to earth as swift as morning light and roll away the stone from the grave, and when he made his appearance there at the grave and rolled away the stone, and the Son of God stood up ii the sepulchre and took the napkins from his jaws and the grave clothes from his body, and folded them up and laid them to one side, and walked forth from the tomb, the first fruits of the resurrection, then God accepted the sacrifice, and grasped the stylus in his own hand and signed the magna charta of man's salvation. And ever since that God blessed moment it has been written : Wnosoerer liveth and believeth shail never die- WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COM*. 351 I was a grand day in the world's history when the Savior of man stood yonder, surrounded by a company of five hundred, and a chariot descended from the skies, and he stepped into the chariot and above star and moon he disappeared until it overvaulted the very throne of God itself. And as they stood gazing into heaven, an angel flew back to earth and shouted aloud to them : Why stand ye here gazing up into heaven? As ye have seen the Son of Man ascending, so he shall descend at the last day to judge the world on righteousness. THE COMTOBTKB. That was a grand day in this world's history when the one hundred and twenty gathered in that upper room, that upper chamber yonder, in Jerusalem. And they had prayed the first day and the second day and the third day and on until the tenth day. They were praying for thp imbuement of power from on high. Christ had told them : Tarry ye here at Jerusalem until ye are imbued with power from on high. It is expedient for you that I go away. After I go away the Com- forter will come, the Holy Ghost. He will come to the world. I have often thought that that expression : Jesus said it is expedient—- " The best thing I can do for you is to leave the world and go home to the Father and then the Spirit will come." "Master, can there be anything better than thy presence! Thou art the bread of life to us. Thou art the water of life to us. Thou art the door by which if any man enter he shall go in and eat and find pasture. Thou art the truth and the way to life. Master, is it expedient, is it best that thou go away ? " He said : w It is expedient that I go to the Father." And on the morning of the tenth day, as that company gathered and prayed in that upper chamber, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the third person of the adorable Trinity, flew SAM JONES' SERMONS. right through the wounded side, of the Son of God and laved his wings in that precious blood, and flew down to earth and rushed in upon that company and filled the room like a rushing, mighty wind ; and Peter opened the door and the company followed him down upon the streets of Jerusalem, and there, on the morning of the tenth day, he preached that memorable sermon in Jerusalem that won 3,000 souls to Christ — more conversions to Peter in that one sermon than Christ had in all his ministry. And Christ knew what he was talking about when he said : It is expedient for you that I should go away. If I go away the Com- forter will come and the Spirit shall come. THE WOOING OF THE SPIRIT. That Spirit is the third person of the adorable Trinity God gave the Son and the Son comes to suffer, die and to arise again. And now the Spirit comes to woo and beseech and implore and enlighten and convict and convert the world to God. It seemed like after God had loved the race and called them to him and they had wandered off, that they would have died without excuse, but God sent his Son to live among us and to die for us and to preach to us and to instruct us, and -if he had stopped at that, man would have died without excuse. But he didn't stop there. And now the Holy Ghost comes into the world — the third person of the adorable Trinity, and every good resolution we ever have, and every good that ever inspired us, and every good deed ever done, we owe it all to the inspiration and blessed in- fluence of the Holy Spirit of God. Oh, thank God ! we have an even- present omniscient, omnipresent God with us to-night. When I bid wife and children " good-by" at home, God boards the train with me, and he is with me all the weary miles of my road from home. And then I am conscious God is at home with nqj WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 5 S 3 family, and when I come into the Christian homes of St. Louis I find God present in every Christian home, and that God is with the missionary in China, and God is with thou- sands and millions of pulpits on earth. No wonder the blessed Christ said : It is expedient for you that I go away. I will send the Comforter- THE FKUIT OF THE SPIRIT. Oh, brother, sister, hear me to-night I Is there in your soul the desire to be good ? Is there a purpose to be good ? Is there a resolution to be good ? It was born under the touch of the Divine Spirit upon these cold, dead hearts of ours. And the Spirit comes to woo. He comes to teach. He comes to implore. For when he shall come he will re- prove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment to come. Come Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove, With all thy quickening powers, Kindle a flame of sacred love In all these hearts of ours. Help us to walk close with God! Help us, Divine Spirit, ever to be tender and impressible! Help us ever to hear and heed the Gospel of the Son of God! The Divine Spirit broods over the congregation to-night. He touched your heart to-day. He touched your heart last night and day before yesterday. He has touched a thousand hearts or more, and called them to a better life in the last few days in this city. And the most fearful sin that you may commit is to wound the Spirit of God, to drive him out of your heart and to drive him away from your presence. The book says : Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the d&j of redemption. 354 SAM JONES' SERMONS. GRIEVE NOT THE HOLT SPIRIT. Yon may laugh at me. You may deride me. Yon may scoff at the church. You may defy God, and you may crucify my Savior afresh, and put him to open shame, but I warn you to-night: Take heed how you trifle with the Spirit of all grace 1 I have seen men reject and insult the Divine Spirit, until I could almost hear the Spirit of God as he closed the gates of Heaven forever in an immortal spirit's face. My friend, to-night, if there is in your soul the desire to be a Christian, nurse it, foster it, shield it. Keep it there, and pray God to fan the spark into a living flame that shall burn on and on when the stars have gone and when the mooo shall turn to blood. Let's you and I pray for this, and whatever others may do, God help us to be impressible and movable under the Divine Spirit of grace. The Spirit says, Come. The third person of the ever adorable Trinity is the active agency in the world to-day to teach men, to move men, to stir men and use men, and but for his divine pres- ence with me as I preach the gospel, I declare to the fact that I would never have the heart to take another text in this world. Oh, how many struggles the earnest preacher may have in the world ! God only knows the burdens that I have carried on my own poor head since I landed in your city. God only knows the wakeful hours, the tears and the prayers that have gone up from my poor heart, and I say: " God save the city 1 God arouse the city ! God save our young menl God save our young women! God save the fathers and mothers in this city ! " And I can almost hear God as he whispers back : " I'll be with you. I'll stand by jqxl" And when the din and smoke of the battle has WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 355 blown away, yon will find that I have been yonr friend through the thickest of the fight, and all God asks of the Christian people of St. Louis to-night is to come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. God arouse yon I And God help his church in St. Louis to heed the wooing of the Spirit, and come to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. The Spirit says, Come. THE SPIRIT'S BESEECHING ENTREATY. Well, if God had stopped at the point — given his Son, and sent his Spirit to woo men — we would have died with- out excuse. But God pushes his work on and on and on until he shall say to a guilty world : " What more could I have done to my vineyard that I have not already done ? " God will never leave a stone unturned, God will never leave an effort unput-forth as long as man is out of hell and out of the grave. And I tell you, my congregation, to-night, I know God is in earnest about the salvation of man, and I have felt thousands of times that the worst of sinners would rejoice if they were to see his face. God help men to look up to-night and see their Father's face, with all the love of his heart as it beams forth, and hear his voice as he calls them to the better life. God loves you, and he has given you every manifestation of his love. He tells yon in his blessed book : When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will 'sake me up. 8PAEKS OF DIVINE LOVE. I have seen a mother as she followed a wayward boj on, and on and on to the very brink of hell, and when the son made his final leap from his mother's arms she too) hia poor body and buried it, and would go to his grave and 356 SAM JONES' SERMONS. water it with her tears day after day. Oh, how that moth- er's heart clung to that wayward boy I I have seen the wife, when every friend in the world had forsaken her husband, and all mankind scoffed him away from their pres- ence — when he would come home drunken and debauched and ruined, his precious wife would meet him at the front gate and help him up the steps, and help him into the room and carry him to the bed and pull off his muddy shoes and bathe his fevered face, and imprint the kiss of love and fidelity upon his dissipated cheek. Oh, why did wife do that? Why does mother do that? It is just a little of the nature of God poured into that mother's heart and that wife's heart that makes her love and cling to that son and to that husband as she does. When my father and my mother forsake me, then God will take me up. THE MOTHERHOOD OF GOD. The sweetest thought in God's word to me is the place where we are taught the motherhood of God. God is not only my father, but God is my mother, too, in all his loving kindnesses and tender mercies to us. Oh, my Father! my Father! with the rod of correction, and with the stern words of advice, I look to thee in admiration and love ; and jh, God, my precious mother, I run to thy arms ! Thou art my mother, I love thee with all my heart And the Spirit, says Come ! Oh, God ! Thou art interested for us and thou art inter- ested in us. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. God did not stop with that. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. The Church of God is the bride of the lamb. I wish w% were wrapped in white waiting for the bridegroom. Ok, WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 357 how I wish we had always lived, and always been faith- ful to our bridegroom! He said: I go to prepare a place for you. THE UNFAITHFUL BRIDE. You see that young man yonder. He has plighted his vows to a young lady, and he bids her good-by for a short time. "I am going West. I am going West to pre- pare our fortune and build our house and have everything ready." Brethren, that young lady, instead of being faithful to that earnest, laborious young man preparing good things for her, is flirting with her betrothed hus- band's enemies and associating with those that despise her husband. God forgive the unfaithful girl. And while Christ is, by his divine power and infinite wisdom, ex- hausting all the riches and ..glories of heaven preparing for us, his bride, here we are consorting with his enemies and flirting with the gay and giddy godless ones of the world. Precious Savior, forgive us! Forgive us! We will not associate with the godless any longer. The bride says, Come ! A GOOD WORD FOR THE CHURCH. I wish we lived better. But there is one thing I have found out: We know we have been unfaithful; we know we have not been what we ought to have been. But one thing I can say and tell the truth: The Church of God Almighty has not lost her interest in sinners and in the world. For over one thousand years the church has been on her knees and praying for sinners, and the message of the Church of God is a God-given message. Come thcu and go with us and we '11 do thee gccd, for the Lc rd has promised gccd concerning us. Yoifhave cursed the church and abused the church, and bemeaned the church and called them hypocrites, but do you 3$f SAM JONES' SERMONS. want to see whether the church loves yon or not! If the worst old sinner in St. Louis would come with streaming 3jes and say to the Church of God, " Men and brethren, pray for me. I want to join your company and go with you to Heaven." I see the church in a minute, as her tears come flowing down to the earth and she , lifts her hand to God, and she says, "Blessed be God! Another sinner coming to repentance and coming to life." The old Church of God does love the world, and she has been praying for the world in all its ages, and while we have forgotten a thousand things and neglected a thousand things, thanks be unto God, we have never neglected to pray for you, my fellow- citizens. There is not a day or night in St. Louis that in the Church of God her best men and women are not on their knees praying, " God 6ave the wicked of the city and save the fallen of humanity;" and the cry of the church and the song of the church is, " Rescue the perishing and save the fallen." THANK GOD FOR THE OHTTBOH 1 Thank God for the old church. She has been worth all the world to me. I know now I should have wandered a poor, motherless orphan if it had not been for the Church of Jesus Christ. She has been so good to me ! Oh, she has been a mother in the best sense to me. I never joined the church because I thought I could help it along, but I joined the church that it might take me, a poor babe, in its arms, and nurture me and feed me and take care of me ; and, whatever the church has been to others, I can say of God's church to-night, they have given me my meat and my drink, and they have been friends and brothers to me. Oh, friend, you will never know what you have missed by staying out of the pale of the Church of God, and I beg WHOSOKVXB WILL MAT COMB. J5$ jou to hear the yoice of the Church of God as it eries to-night : Come thou and go with us, and we'll do thee good. W on't yon come ? Won't yon come ? The Church of God, with her Bibles and missionaries and preachers and consecrated ministry and good women and men on earth, with her churches and Sabbath-schools, and her prayer-meetings and family altars — they all cry aloud and say : Come thou and go with us, and we'll do thee good. HIM THAT HEARETH. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. It looks like if God had stopped there we'd have died without excuse. It goes further — And the Spirit and the bride say, Come, and let him that heareth say, Come. Gh, blessed thought 1 blessed thought! A man need not wait until he comes into the church before he says to those around him, Come, thou, and go with us. * * * Let him that heareth say, Come. We get this figure from the caravan crossing the desert. When the water is all given out on the desert and man and beast are famishing for water, then they hold a counsel and they start one on ahead hurriedly, and in about five minutes they start another, just so as to keep him in sound of the front one's voice, and in five minutes more they start another, and on and on until they are stretched out on the plains for miles, and finally the head man finds the oasis, and he halloes back : " Water, I have found it ! " to the next man, and the next man voices it on down the line, and on and on until the caravan hears the cry, " We have found it ! Water ! W\ fcerl We have found it!" And they hear the weL 360 SAM JONES' SERMONS. come news and press on with all their might, that they may slake their thirst and preserve their lives. THE APPLICATION. And all the way from Heaven to earth God has strung out a line, and he shouts it from his own lips in Heaven, and we catch it up and pass it on and on until we shout at the very gates of Hell, "Come! Cornel Come! and let him that heareth say Come ! " H you ever heard the gospel, preach it to somebody else and say, " Come on ! Let's go and live right and do right and get to Heaven." Let him that heareth say, Come ! Let each man be a power that will echo the call, and on and on down the line. Once one of our little boys ran up a stairway calling hie little brother, and as he said, "Buddie Paul " something up stairs echoed it back, " Buddie Paul 1" He ran down to his mother and said, " Mamma, what is that upstairs that said, 'Buddie Paul ' every time I said ' Buddie Paul!'" and his mother explained it by telling him it was the echo of hia voice — the walls of the room above echoing his voice back. And, brother, when God shouts from Heaven, let every man be the sounding board that will pass it on and on until this whole universe shall hear the glad word: Let whosoever heareth say, Come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Let him that heareth say, Come. OUTSIDE WORKERS. Why, I have often known men to go to work before th© word got to them. They have gone around among their friends, saying, " Boys, look a-here ! we have not done right. Suppose we go to church and give our heart* to God and live WHOSOEVER WILL MAT COME. 36) religious !" — and how many men have been brought t<% Christ by men who were not religious ? When I was in Jackson, Tennessee, I was met by the mayor of the city and other gentlemen, and they said to me " We were going to your room to see you. We \iave a friend in this town that we want you to talk to. Wr wanl him to be saved." Said I, " Gentlemen, I am glad to find you interested : but," said I, " gentlemen are you Christians ? Members of the church ? " " No, Mr. Jones, we are sorry we are not. We are nH Christians, but we feel an interest in our friend." " Well," said I, " God says that when a kingdom is di- vided against itself it can not stand. And Satan's kingdom is divided in this very town. Ilis very servants are going to the ministers of God and asking them to go and s#e their friends." neaking the kingdom. When a man is interested and says, " boys, let's do bet- ter," that man is not very far from the Kingdom of God. He has just put his foot over the line, and all he b*,s got to do is to put it down, and one other step and he is in the Kingdoro of God. Let him that hearetb say, Come. There are five hundred men and women here to-night that are just putting their foot over the dividing line, and all you've got to do is to put that foot down and bring the other foot even with it and you are in the Kingdom of God, a saved man, saved forever and forever. Will you put your foot down to-night and say, " God helping me, I wtfJ give myself to God, I won't stand here any longer V ' Let him that heareth say. Come. Ajid then he said : 36a SAM JONES 1 SERMONS. FOB THE THIRSTY SOUL. And let him that is athirst come. Whether you have heard anything or not, God bless you, the call is to you. If there is down in your soul a thirst, a hunger for a better life, God stood with one hand and touched your heart and made it hunger and made it thirst and then he stood with the other hand loaded with the bread and with the water of life, and he quenched that thirsty soul's thirst forever. Blessed be Gud ! He stands ready to quench thirst and to appease hunger to-night, and he is going all over St. Louis with one hand laden with* the bread of life, and the other with the water of life, and the hun- griest man will be the first man to get it ; and I tell you, hungry man, to-night, when God rings the dinner bell of grace throw down your hearts and come in, dinner is ready to eat, and satisfy your longing needs forever. Let him that is athirst come. If down in your soul there is a desire to be a good man, start to-night — start to-night. If there is a hungering for a better life, God says : Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Then he says again : Oh, how far down the line God brings this to us. He brings it right down to where he throws heaven and hell at every man's feet, and tells him to take his choice. Now he says : WHOSOEVER WILL. Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. I like that grand " whosoever " there. I have read a heap. Oh, I have read a great deal about election, but I think I have found out from God's word what you mean by election. The " elect " are the " whosoever-wills," and the * non-elect " are the " whosoever-wonts." Now which side WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. 363 will yon take — the elect or the whosoever-wills, or the non- elect or the whosoever-wonts ? " Elect," whosoever will. Thank God for that grand old word, and thank God that as the ages wear away men see God in nature, and see God in all his goodness, and see God in his books. Preachers are coming closer to that grand old word every day, and I verily believe that I shall live to see the day when every pulpit in this world will be bottomed on that grand old " whosoever will," and there they will stand and preach the gospel of the Son of God. Whosoever wilL ANOTHER STORY. That reminds me of the penitent down in Georgia at the altar. He was agonizing, praying. The preacher went up to him, trying to encourage him, and, " Well," he said, " I am not one of the elect, I am one of the reprobates ; I feel it all over " — and I don't reckon a poor soul ever did try to seek God that the devil didn't slip up with something of that sort — " You are one of the reprobates ; God never died to save you " — and there he was in agony, and the preacher said to him : " Well, my brother, listen to me a minute. Now," said he, " if you could see your name, ' James B. Green,' written upon the Lamb's book this minute, would you believe then Christ died for you and you were one of the elect?" The poor fellow thought a moment and he said, " No, air. There are other people in this world of my name." (Laughter.) " Well," said the preacher, " if you could see it, ' James B. Green, Scriven County, Ga.,' would you believe it was you then ? " * Well," he says, " there may have been other people of 3 64 SAM JONES' SERMONS. my name in this county before I was born. I don't know." " Well," said he, " if you could see it, l James B. Green> Scriven County, Ga.,' and the year i 1867/ would you believe it was you ? " " Well," he said, " it may be there is somebody in this county now of my name." " Well," said he, " if you could see it, ' James B. Green of Scriven County, and the Nineteenth District and the year '67/ would you believe it was you ?" " Well," he says, " I could not know definitely." " Now," said he, " my friend, God Almighty saw all that trouble and he just put it into one word and he said : ' Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.' " And the poor fellow jumped up and clapped his hands and said, " Thaiik God ! I know that means me." A UNIVERSAL SALVATION. AncHwhosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Blessed be God ! It is for all of us. It is for all of na, Whosoever will. Listen, brother. It ain't " Whosoever feels," it ain't " Whosoever is fit," it ain't " Whosoever has repented," it ain't " Whosoever has got faith," it ain't " Whosoever does this or that or the other," but it is, " Whosoever will —will— will." LEFT TO THE HUMAN WILL. God throws it all on the will, and I am glad he does. 1 know God traverses my emotional nature, and runs through hope and fear and desire and anxiety and dread and affec- tion. God runs all through my emotional nature and my sensibilities. God goes as he pleases through my sensibili- ties. When God reaches intellect he goes up through per- ception and conception and judgment and memory and rease* WHOSOEVER WILL If AY COME. 365 aad all the faculties of the mind. God goes through them all and asks me no questions. But when God goes to the door of the human will, he stands on tiptoe and knocks, and says: Behold I stand at the door and knock, and if any man will open unto me 1 will come in and sup with him and he shall sup with me. Thank God, it is " whosoever will." If you will, God will ; and I say to-night God don't say " whosoever feels," or whosoever says this or that or the other, but he throws it all on your will as a man, and says : Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. And I like the conclusion : Let him take the water of life freely. Blessed be God, ye thirsty men can drink, and there is enough for to-day, enough for all of us, enough forever and evermore. Come and drink freely. " LET " HIM COMB. And there is another little word in there I like, that little word " let." Let him take the water of life freely. Six thousand years ago God said : " Let there be light," and there was light. It was a word of command, and God looks out upon a famishing race with the water of life in reach, and he says : " Let him come ; " and when God says '* Let him come," he says, " Go behind him, powers and principalities, and clear the way. Let him take the water of life freely." God has taken down the mountains and filled up the valleys, and made you a straight and even and smooth way, so that you can drink and live forever, and if you perish you perish because you will not live. God nev- er suffered a soul to be captured and carried away by the en- emy of souls and will never suffer you to die; as long as yon look to Christ or lean to Christ or pray to Christ, God will 366 SAM JONES' SERMONS. not suffer yon to die. God never suffered the devil to take possession of an immortal souFand drag it down to Hell until that soul had walked up to the feet of the devil and stacked its arms, and said : " I surrender forever." Then God's own arm and power can never rescue you. God help you to-night to say : " God's goodness leadeth me to repentance, and I intend to lead a better life." THE LAST APPEAL. Now, before we leave this audience room, how many men in the church or out of the church will stand up to-night and say : " I will get closer to God, and drink more of the water of life, God being my helper." And I hope every man and woman in this house will long to-night for the bet- ter life, with the sweet assurance that God will reach down and give them that for which they seek. Now every man and woman here to-night that will stand on their feet and by standing up say : ." I will drink more freely of that water, and eat more of that bread. I will get closer to God. I will get closer to God." Now every man of you that feels that way stand up, and say, " Here is one ! Here is one ! " Now we will see how many here to-night, in the church or out of it, that will make this declaration. ( The vast audience rose in a body.) To-morrow night I will preach in Centenary Church. I can not hold out to preach in this hall. Let us go to Cen- tenary Church, and if you pack the upper room we will run services in both rooms. I do not say which one I will run. Now to-morrow night come out and let us bring souls to Christ. If any one wants to converse on religion to-night we will talk and sing and pray with you, and may God bless you and save your souls. Amen. Stay, friends, if yon waa* to be saved. And now may the blessing of God abide *tfe you forever and ever. Ames. Pia in Purgatory. REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 367 REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTEBI We select as our text on this occasion the 9th verse of the 1st chapter of the First Epistle General of John: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is an epitome of the gospel. It is wonderful how the apostle could put the whole gospel into three lines like this. I mean the whole of the gospel on the human side of the gospel, and I dare say at this point that the only side of the gospel that you and I have to do with at all is the hu- man side of the gospel. In the great work of redemption 1 have but one question to ask: " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" I'll never stop to ask God what he is going to do and how he is going to do it and when he is going to do it; but the question that engages my mind is, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " I never preach on the divine side of the gospel. The water is deep out there, and little boats ought to stay near the shore. (Laughter.) I'd want to be a first-class swimmer if I should go out in the depths of divine mysteries and inquire of God what are the divine plans and the divine modes and the divine " when " and the divine " how." These are questions that never bother me at all. I simply want to know what God wants me to do, and if he'll tell me I'll do that and trust him for the rest. And now St. John gives us clearly and pointedly our side of the gospel in these words : If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Suppose we read the text this way — and we do no vio- lence to the sense of the text: If we repent of our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. SAM JONES' SERMONS. THE ALPHABET OF RELIGION. Kopentance to a man in this world, in every moral spiritual sense, on his way to God, is just what the alphabet is to the man of letters and to the scholar. We see that little boy four years old standing at his mother's knee. She is teaching him the alphabet, just as my mother taught me the alj habet. And when I learned the alphabet so that I could I egin at "A" and go to "Z," and commence with "Z'' and go back to " A," then mother would put her finger at the middle of the alphabet and start me up and down, and I learmd the alphabet perfect and I knew my ABO well. 1 hen my mother turned the leaf and said : " Now, son, you may spell some." And I thought in my little heart : ki Well, I'll leave my A B the first week." So I turned o\ er to the next page and commenced to speil, but I saw befor $ I spelt a word that I could not spell without my A B C, ai i the first word was " a — b, ab," and " I — ib, ib," and I saw "hat I couldn't spell without my letters, and I spelled on, and she taught me on till I got over to " baker,* and " that's a good way," I thought, but I found I couldn't speU " baket ■ " without the " b " and the " a " and the " k " and the " e ' and the "r." And I went on until I got way over to "pullication," and I thought I was nearly graduated then, but I cc nldn't even spell " publication " without the "p" and the l< u" and the "b" and so on. Well, after I had started tc school and got through the spelling book, my teacher sai 1: " Now, tell your mother to get you a first reader." " W* 0," I thought " good-by A B C, I am done with you now," but when I opened my first reader, the first page of my first reader was covered with the alphabet, and I couldn't read a line without the alphabet REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 369 couldn't SHAKE THE ALPHABET. And so I went through the first, second and third readers, and then my teacher said, " Now you must get you an arithmetic." "Well," I thought, "I'm in arithmetic." That's the science of numbers, and I won't have any alpha- bet in that. It's ' good-by, alphabet,' now." And I opened my arithmetic and found they couldn't state a mathematical proposition or question without the alphabet, and I went on and on, and by and by they said, "Now, we'll put you into geography." " Well," said I, " that geography might give me some idea of this earth's surface, and I won't have any alphabet in that," but I found my geography, every page of it, was covered with the alphabet. And by and by I went into rhetoric, and into philosophy, and on and on, and after awhile they said, "We'll put you in Latin." "Well," I thought, "in Latin I'll never be troubled with the alphabet," but I found I needed the alphabet when I took up my Latin grammar ; and so I progressed in learning, and when I went into Greek they called the letters by different names, but I found out at last in the Greek that we needed the alphabet. And on and on as I go I need the alphabet, and when the student shall end his college course and his di- ploma is given him, why his very diploma is written in the alphabet ; and so the higher he climbs in literature and the higher heights he reaches the more he appreciates the fact that every step of his upward way is made through the alphabet and by the alphabet THE ALPHABET OF REPENTANCE. Well, now, just exactly what the alphabet is to the man of letters, just thatrepeutance is to the man on his waj 370 SAM JONES SERMONS. to God. The first religious thing a man ever did in this world was to repent, and as far as I am concerned, I have been repenting every day since I started; and about the last thing I ever want to do is to kneel down in hearty repent- ance before God and go to Heaven a sinner saved by grace. Repentance ! Well, we'll take the term of the text : If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive ua our Bins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, here is a plain, pointed declaration from the lips ol God. If we confess our sins. I like the term " confess." It is a very potent signifi- cant term in the sense in which this text uses it. " Repent- ance" can not mean more than "confession" means in this text. We might understand "repentance" better. We are more familiar with the discussion of that word " re- pentance," and yet after all the definitions of " repentance" I have seen in the book, a good old woman gave me thfc best definition of repentance I ever heard. TWO DEFINITIONS. I was out talking with her on religion and she said to me : " Brother, TO tell you what repentance is." Said I, " What ? " Said she, " It is being so sorry for your meanness that you ain't going to do it any more." " Well," said I, " you've got it down right for certain." There's no such definition in the books as that And she said: "TO tell you what religion is." Said I, "What?" She says it is this : " If God will forgive me for my meanness I won't want to do it any more." REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 371 " Well " said I, " now you have got the whole question down in a nutshell." Repentance is this : " I am so sorry for my meanness that I won't do it any more," and religion is, " I am so glad that God is so good to forgive me, that I won't want to ').<> it any more." Confession ! I have noticed this fact in my experience ; lhat a man's reformation will always go down as deep and Dut as broad as his. confession is. An honest confession, it is said, is good for the soul, and a man is never willing to confess until he is willing to quit. THE TEST OF REPENTANCE. Now, let me illustrate what I mean : You may take any drunkard in St. Louis ; let him confess his sins to God and man, let him quit and let him join the church and serve God, and every experience meeting you have that fellow will jump up and say, " Brethren, glory to God ! I was saved from a drunkard's grave ! I was the worst drunkard that ever lived in St. Louis, and, oh, what a miserable drunken wretch I have been." He has quit. There's another fellow, he hasn't quit — you can tell it by his nose, and you say : "Friend, do you drink?" " No, sir ! I don't know one sort from another. I never drank a drop in my life." (Laughter.) What's the matter with him ? He hasn't quit, you 6ee. And no man is ready to confess until he is ready to quit. You take a gambler, a notorious gambler, and let him be converted to God and join the church, and all at once he gets up and says : " Brethren, I have been the worst gam- bler. I have gambled every day. I have gambled all *ight many a time. I have led a miserable gambler's fife." 372 SAM JONES SERMONS. Well, you take one of the black-legs of the city now and get him up here and say : " Do you gamble ? " "No, 8irl I don't know one card from another. Never played a game in my life." (Laughter.) What's the matter with him ? lie hasn't qnit ; don't you see? A 8INFUL PECTJLIAEITY. And there is one peculiarity about sin. It not only makes a fool of a man, but it will make him a fraud. About nine tenths or eleven tenths of the lying done in this world is to get out of something we have done that is wrong. Isn't that true ? How many men in this house who drink whis. ky can stand up and say, " I never told my wife a lie about it in my life?" How many drinking men in St. Louis can stand up and say, " I am a regular steady drinker, but I never told my wife a falsehood about it in my life?" There isn't one drunkard in fifty that will confess to how much he does drink. There isn't one gambler in fifty that will ever confess to God or man the gambler's life that he leads. And the best proof in the world that a man has reformed is the fact of his confessing his guilt before God and man — or to illustrate further : I recollect that once while I was pastor, I had two mem- bers up in the church for drunkenness. One fellow got np and said he : "Brethren, I went to town the other day, and I didn't eat any dinner and I took one little drink. It flew to mj head and made me sort of tight, and I hope you'll all for. give me." Well the church forgave him, hut I said as he went out &£ the door to the brethren: REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 373 " That fellow will get drunk again the first time he goes to town ! " They said: "How do yon know?" " Well," said I, " he told two or three lies in his short con- fession. Did you notice that? He said he just took one little drink, and that wouldn't make anybody but a fool drunk in the first place ; and in the second place he said it made him ' sort of tight ; ' and from all I can hear he was the loosest fellow that has been floating round lately. He told two point blank lies in one little confession, and," said I, " he'll get drunk again the first time he goes to town again." And sure enough he did. (Laughter.) THE OTHEB FELLOW. The other one got up and said : "Brethren, if I may call you such, I went to town and I made a brute of myself. I disgraced myself and the Christ that I profess." And, said he, " If you all can bear with me and forgive me, I want you to pray for me and help me. I have been begging God to forgive me, and if you can bear with such a wretch as I, I hope you will, and par- don me this time." I said to them, after he went out: " TO go his security. Fll go on his bond almost with my immortality, if such a thing is necessary. He has grit'' " How do you know ? " they said. " Why," said I, " he confessed to the bottom, and when a mai* gets down to the bottom in his confession he is re- formed to the bottom." BLTTBBEBING PENITENTS. Confession ! Repentance ! It means nothing more than this: "I Slave quit! I have dene!" Repeats*** dtsa't 374 SAM JONES SERMONS. mean blubbering and crying. Here's a poor fellow now, who's been getting drunk every day for a month. He comes home at nights blubbering and tells his wife : " Sho sorry (hie) I got drunk ; but — " and it's boo boo — and cry and cry. " I'm so sorry I got drunk to-day. Wifey, I h-ope you'll for-give me." And he goes right down town and gets drunk again the next day, and comes home drunk, and he'll blubber and he'll cry. Well, you see, blubbering ain't the thing at all, and his wife gets disgusted with him, and tells him: " You needn't come round me with your blubbering. I despise it I despise it. It doesn't amount to anything in the world." But he comes home sober one evening, and he says, with his eye light and all his senses in full play : "Wife, I have quit and done now. I'll never drink an- other drop while God lets me live." Well, he don't blubber about it a bit. That's just what his wife wanted — just waiting for him to quit, that was alL Ajid a man needn't think because he comes to Christ snub- bing around the altar that " I'm the best penitent they have had," and then go to snubbing and crying. But it's "I have quit, quit" That's it " I have done with it." Repent- ance is reformation, and nothing else is repentance except reformation. NO NEED FOR BLUBBERING. Suppose you had a boy that was going into wickedness and prodigality and intemperance, and going on and on in that, what would you care for your boy coming to you every day or two and shedding tears and saying : " I am so sorry, father, I have done this way." You would just straighten him up and look at him and say : " Son, yon needn't come REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. Jf$ blubbering around me; you just quit, and when you are quit there's no use in blubbering, and you needn't blubber until you quit." God is my father and I am his child. And what does the Lord want me to do in every sense ? Brother, let you and me cease to do evil and learn to do well. Let the wicked man cease his way and the unrighteous man cease his way and come to God and he will pardon him. NO MYSTERY ABOUT RELIGION. How much mystery we have wrapped up with this thing we call religion ! The Lord wants every guilty man in the world to quit his wickedness, turn away from his sins and then come to God and he shall have eternal life. The devil don't want any better joke on a preacher than to get up in the pulpit and split a hair a whole mile long between evan- gelical repentance and legal repentance. (Laughter.) The devil is always glad when he sees a man giving his whole time to that kind of thing. And there is that preacher, and he is defining repentance now and he is giving the world his views of evangelical repentance and legal repentance. I say to the world — and it is the message of my Lord and Master — " If you want God to take hold of you, you quit ! you quitl you quit!" CHUBCH PENITENTS, Well, many a time we members of the church get very lorry, and we get so sorry we can shed some tears for our ^ast life. Now, let me speak a word to you brother, sister. There is a brother who is neglecting his family altar; he ha§ let the family altar fires go out and he is neglecting his duty as a father, as a husband, and now he comes up to the Lord here and says : " Oh, Lord ! I have been a great sinner. 376 SAM JONES' SERMONS. Forgive me for Christ's sake." And he sheds a great many tears, but he don't take up his family prayer, he don't make any repentance in the world. Brother, you need not get ap out of your seat, but sit right^ there and say : " I am sorry I have neglected the family altar and, God helping me, I will quit my neglect and follow up my family prayers until God calls me to him." There is another brother says : " I have not been to a prayer-meeting for a year." Brother, you need not cry about it, but say, " God helping me, I am going to be out here every Wednesday night to the prayer-meeting, else I will send my doctor's certificate to my preacher, and show I was sick abed and couldn't come." NONSENSE ABOUT FEELING. We have got theories enough ; we have got all sorts of theories, and plenty of theories to run one hundred worlds. What we want now is something practical — something that means something. A fellow has done wrong, has swindled a customer, and he is feeling awful bad about it (laughter); he never felt so bad in his life. Now, brother, it doesn't matter how yon feel. Are you willing to take the overplus back home to your brother and say, " Here is what I overcharged yon with?" or will you keep it? There is something practical about that. I like the sort of feeling a fellow felt when he heard that a neighbor's cow died and he said to the other neighbors : " Oh, how sad it is ! I am so sorry for it" u How sorry do you feel ? Ten dollars' worth to help him get another cow ? " I like to see a fellow's sorrow take a turn on him and manifest itself in a practical way, don't you seel REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. tf? SOMETHING PRACTICAL WANTED. And that's what's the matter with the world to-day* They are looking for a practical test in our Christianity; and they just simply think that religion is confined to the meeting-house and to our connection with the church. Oh, brethren, let us teach this world there is something grander and nobler about religion than simply a few myste- rious theories about a person or a substance. That is it. Repentance ! Confession ! I am never troubled much about a man when he says to me, " Jones, I have made up my mind to quit everything that God's book condemns. I will never do it again." I get very hopeful of that sort of a fellow ; and when he says to me, " Well, I haven't got any feeling." " Well," said I, " what do you want to talk about feeling for? Who said anything about feeling? The Lord said : Let the wicked man forsake his way and the unrighteous man hk thoughts. And here you are, after you know what the Lord wants you to do, you are growling about feeling. Where do you get that idea ? Where does that come from ? " Brethren, I say to you to-night, if there is nothing in religion but feeling, I haven't got a bit, for if I have any feeling in me to-night I couldn't locate it to save my life. FEELING AND PRINCIPLE. Feeling! You know the difference between feeling and principle? Yonder is an old sail boat out in the mid- dle of the Atlantic Ocean, and when the wind blows, why, 6he travels ten miles an hour ; but let the wind lull and she will lie there two weeks within one hundred yards of where the wind left her. She don't go anywhere. That i* feeling. When the wind blows, off she goes. 378 SAM JONES' SERMONS. What is principle ? Yonder is a grand old ocean steam- er, and when the wind blows she spreads her sails and works her steam and on she goes, and when the wind lulls the engineer turns his throttle wider open and she goes at the rate of fifteen miles an hour whether the wind blows or not. And that is the difference between principle and feel- ing. And if I haven't got any more feeling this side of eternity I am going to serve God and do right because it is right, and I won't do wrong because it is wrong. A man that's hunting for feeling ! STRANGE IDEAS FROM THE PULPIT. And we have taught this world a great many strange ideas about religion from the pulpit. There is a sort of a semi- infidel. He is a little fellow. He has never grown much. But he thinks, "Well, from what I heard the preacher say, there 'ain't any hope for me. I am shut out of the pale; no hope for me, because I don't believe a heap of things in the Bible," and he thinks he is ruined because he don't I strike a heap of these little infidels that want religion, and I never struck any of the sort except these small ones. (Laughter.) He says he wants to be a Christian, but don't believe that Jonah swallowed the whale (laughter), and he don't believe that the three Hebrew children went into the fiery furnace, and he don't believe in these big fish tales (laughter), and I just say to him, " You poor little simple- headed thing, God never said ' Give me your head,' or ' Give me your feet,' but ' Give me your heart,' and God knows your little, old persimmon head is chock full of devilment. He never bothers about your head. He doesn't say 'Give me your head,' but he says 'Give me your heart,' and God will comb the kinks out of your head mighty fast if you will ju6t give him your heart" (Laugk- REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 379 ter.) He is just one of those "end fiddles," as the boys caH him, and he just thinks because his little head is chock full of little things for a great many years, that will make the Lord turn away from him in despair. GOD DOESN'T HATE SINNERS, Why, brother, when my boy gets wrong notions in his head that don't make me hate my boy. I just turn to him and I say : " My son, if you will submit yourself to my dis- cipline I will promise you a pure life." And I will say this to you : Your head will get right straight when I get your life straight. A man don't do like he believes, but he believes like he does. Don't you see? Here is a man talking about doubts. I never had any- thing but doubts in my life. And if you want to get doubt out of your heart you go right down and pull it up by the roots, and there is a seed at the bottom of that top root, and the name of that seed is sin. A CURE FOR INFIDELITY. And I will say to you all to-night that the best cure for in- fidelity in the earth is for a fellow to just go on living the pure precepts of the Bible and his head will become straight. A man can not start head foremost toward God. He will strike a hard substance and break his old head. (Laughter.) You start heart foremost — that's the way. A man goes heart foremost toward God — and that's the way to go. God says : Give me thine heart — give me thine heart. Down in one of the towns in a Southern State a man — some of you know the man if 1 were to call his name — he ,got interested in the meeting and came to me and said: " Mr. Jones, I really in my heart want to be a good man, 38O SAM JONES' SERMONS. but I don't believe in the divinity of Christ — I can't to save my life — and I want to be a good man." Said I, "Do you?" He said, " Yes." "Well," said I, "to-night when I open the doors of the church, you come up and join the church." "What! " said he "me join the church, Mr. Jones, and I don't believe in the divinity of Christ I " laid I, " Your trouble is your mouth. If you just shut your mouth I will just get you straight in twenty-four hours." (Laughter.) BOUND TO OBJECT. "Now," said I, "to-night you come up and join the church." "Why,"— "Now just listen to that mouth. It has been your trouble all your life and you'll just talk yourself to Hell if you don't shut your mouth. (Laughter.) Now," I said, "when I open the doors to-night you come up and say, 'The best I can do is to give my heart to God.'" "Why, Mr. Jones,"— " You don't open your mouth. You don't understand. Will you just shut your mouth and I will get you all straight" "Well," said he, "I can not,"— "Now,"say8l, "just listen at that. You will talkyour- •elf into the pit." And next day I met him and he said : " Mr. Jones, I have been thinking very seriously of what you said, but my head ii not straight ; I can not believe right." " Well," said I, " You just shut your mouth and go and do just like a Christian ought to do and you will come out •traight" REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 38 1 Well, that night, to my utter astonishment, that fellow came up trembling and joined the church, and he said to me the next day : ANOTHER CONUNDRUM. " Now, sir, Mr. Jones, when they ask me whether I be- lieve in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord — when they ask me that, what must I say ? " Said I : " You shut your mouth," and said I, " if you won't talk I will get you straight — just shut your mouth for about forty-eight hours." (Laughter.) And he came through as happy a Christian man as I know in all this land. But it was a hard matter with him. His head was wrong, and he gave his tongue in charge of his head and he was talking himself to perdition. Did you ever see an infidel in your life that could sit still and be quiet when he once got going ? That's the way he's going. Repentance ! I will quit ! I will quit I I will cease to do evil ! I will learn to do good ! The best way in the world to get religion is to do, before you get religion, just what you think you will do after you get it A GEORGIA INCIDENT. An incident of that sort happened in Georgia. It is told of one of our best men. He was a married man ; he was young, and he came to church one day and his wife was not with him on that occasion, and when the brother had preached the word he stood up, and that preacher had said in his sermon, " If a man will do before he gets religion like he thinks he will do after he gets it, he will get it." When he was through preaching, the preacher opened the door of 3&2 SAM JONES' SERMONS. the church and this man walked right np and joined the church. He went home and his wife said : " What sort of a meeting did you have ? " He said, " We had a splendid meeting and I joined the church." u You joined the church ? n " Yes." " Have you got religion ? " "No." ' " Well, what in the world did you join the church for before you got religion ? " " Well," he said, " the preacher said if I'd do before I got religion like I thought I ought to do after I got religion to come up and join the church, and I joined it." u Well, ' she said, " that's a mighty strange way to me." TRYING IT ON. That night before going to bed, he said : " Wife, get the Bible. I'm going to read a chapter and have family prayer." " What are you going to do that for and you ain't got religion ? " " Well, the preacher said if I wanted to get religion to do before I got religion as I thought I would do after I got religion, and you know if I was a Christian I'd have family prayers in my house every night." And the next morning before breakfast he told hii wife to get the Bible and that he was going to pray again, ind she said : " You are the strangest man I ever saw, to pray in your arnily when you have not got any religion." \nd he went on and on, and the next Wednesday night ♦he went to the prayer-meeting with him, and at the prayv REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 383 meeting the preacher called on him to pray, and he knelt down and prayed the best he could, and after he got out of church his wife took his arm and she said : " Ain't you a nice man to pray in public and got no religion- What in the world did you do that for, husband ? " " Well," he said, " the preacher told me if I would do before I got religion as I thought I ought to do after I got religion, I would get religion, and I know that Christians pray in public. " And he just kept right on, on that line, for three weeks, and the biggest case of religion broke out on him of any man in all that part of the country. (Laughter.) LIVING RELIGIOUS IS BEING RELIGIOUS. A man can not live religious without being religious, and a man can not be religious without living religious. It works both ways. It is just as certain that Pine street leads down to Fourth street, and just as certain that the way of grace will take a man to God. Just as certain as the L. and N. Railroad leads from St. Louis to Nashville, just so certain the plain naked test that God imposes on man will take any man to God and Heaven. I wish we could eliminate everything we call mysterious from religion. We ministers get up in the pulpit and we mystify and bamfoosle the world with this thing that we call religion. I used to hear the Christian people get up and talk about the birds singing sweeter and the trees look- ing brighter and everything like that after they got relig- ion. I just thought it was something, and how magnificent it was, until I read it in a book one day, and I wondered ever since if that old brother got that out of that book. (Laughter.) If birds sing more sweetly and trees look prettier after a fellow gets religion, I never had religion. Birds alwayi 384 SAM JONES' SERMONS. sang sweetly and trees always looked pretty to me. There is not a word in the Book about birds and trees, but there is a heap in there about quitting meanness and learning to do well. This is THE STOET OF ZACOHETJS. Repentance ! Repentance ! I think I never in my ex- perience as a preacher found a soul that was willing to give up sin, give up all sin, and stay at that point with the white flag run up, that God did not go to that soul. I recollect in my own experience I thought I had cried a heap, and I thought I had mourned a heap, and I went along mourning and crying, and I gave up such sins that I thought I could get on best without (laughter), 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. (Amen.) 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 ex- pect 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 relig- ion somewhere between 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 four-fold, ne had a good case of religion in him when he bit the ground, there is no doubt of that (Laugh- ter.) WALKING GODWARD. If we repent of our sins, and if you quit doing wrong and determine upon the right God will meet you. Bishop Mxr^m said that repentance was " the first conscious move* REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 385 ment 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 Godward, 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 you are and what you have got along with you. Repentance! Repentance! I wish I could get you to see, my friends, 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 some- thing else besides pardon. We need cleansing from all un- righteousness. 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 execution is over him and he knows that the third Friday of next month he is going to be hung, and last night he broke out with confluent small-pox. Now 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 ? (Laughter,) Can you imagine any worse ? Here is a sinner. \{ God would pardon me for all my past offenses and leave me corrupt in heart, I would just go on and die as inevitably from spiritual disease as that poor criminal will die of small pox. Now what do I want ? 25 j86 SAM JONES' SERMONS. Lord God, thou great Governor of the universe, give me pardon for all my past offenses, ind then cleanse me from all unrighteousness that I may lead a better, nobler and purer life. The man who is simply pardoned 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, md 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 offenses, pardon him for every drunk he ever got on> and just watch him stagger to-morrow evening. Now what did he want ? He wanted 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 per- fectly 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, controlled and governed by a passion that was 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, 1 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." lie fought there with that appetite for two solid hours, and he said, " God Almighty came down and helped mo 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 believe that I am here to-night I have been along there myself. REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY 387 Now, 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 " ? If you do that, brother, you have taken the one 6tep 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 tc 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 can not be seen from the outside, and I expect that if an old ox were to rear up and look over the platform, he would telithe 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 onto 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 dry. Broth, er, 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 hie 3$8 SAM JONES* SERMONS 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 yourself." And hence the good book says : Taste and see that the Lord is good. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive tw our sins. HOW TO GET RELIGION. My little Bob, when he was five years old, had more re- ligious 6ense then I had when I was twenty-four. I went home one day, one Monday, and when I went into the house, I said, " Wife, where are the children ? " She said, " Brother George Smith is preaching to the children, and our little fellow was much interested and had to go.'' And we sat and talked awhile, and directly little Bob came running in. I took him on my lap, and his mother talked \o him. She said : " Robert, what sort of a meeting did you have ? " 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 I " REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 389 M 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 around again and go lp again." ( Laughter.) And the little fellow had the whole thing as clearly in hie mind as ever any man had. " I went up to conf ess my sins." " Were you forgiven ? " " Yes." " How do you know ?" " Because God says if a man will confess he will forgive him." And that is where God brought us when he said : Except ye be a**' little children ye can in no wise enter the kingdom of Heaven. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us ourjedns 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 God, and he is a pardoned man right then and there. THE LAST STOEY FOB 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, not a member 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 t " 390 SAM JONES' SERMONS. "No, sir, " he said. " Well," said I, " I want yon to join the chnrch to-mor- row." " Why," he says, " Mr. Jones, I can not 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 a ill 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 done 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. (Laughter.) lie would ask the first fellow he met afterward wLat was that? Oh, me, if a man did not have more common sense than he has religious sense he would die in an asylmi. (Laughter.) Good sense on every- thing else in the woild, but when it comes to religion the biggest lawyer and th j blackest and most ignorant darkey stand on the same plati>rm. TWO APPi iENTLY HARD CASES. Directly his wife came <^ut and I said, " I have been trying to get your husband to jom the church, and I want you to join." " I can never commit the sin of joining the church untL 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 11 o'clock, and on the conclusion of the sermon that man and his wife and eight or ten others walked right up and joined REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. J9 1 the church. That was thejfif th Sunday in March. On the fifth Sunday in July I was back there preaching three days. On Saturday night wife was with me, and she and the wife of Mr. Gaither went round in the carriage and he and myself walked through the fields. We were walking along, talking, and the moon wasshining brightly, and I said: "Brother Gaither, old Watt is doing his whole duty "— that was Gaither's brother-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 can not appear to be religious unless he does his whole duty," I said. Old Watt was a drinking, gambling, bad fellow when he came 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 OLOSIOUS MOMENT. M/. Gaither said : " Yes. Now, what is there in appear- ances I have been in the church three months and I have no n.ore religion than that horse pulling our wives to churc h." He said : " I have not cursed any or drank any 6ince I joined the church ; but I am tired of being a member of tbi church without religion." He said: "If you want sue 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 ri^ht here." (Laughter and applause.) 392 SAM JONES' SERMONS. That is the secret of the whole thing, brother. (Amen.) That is the secret of the whole thing. Oh that I could just get men to see how merciful God 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 yo.u 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 he will receive a regular soldier into the army there is no more mystery about those conditions than when God ad- vertises 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 mysteries 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 in 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 man here to-night — and I never was more seri- ous in any talk I have made in my life — if you 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 REPENTANCE NOT A MYSTERY. 393 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 with us in the after service to-night, and some of you Christian men and women stay and let us talk over these immortal things?" 'Tis religion that can give Sweetest pleasure 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. — :o: — 394 SAU JONES* SERMONS THE BLESSED GOSPEL. We will take up where we left off yesterday afternoon taking for our text: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentle- ness, goodness, meekness, faith and temperance. Against such there is no law. By their fruits you shall know them. No good tree will bear corrupt fruit, and no corrupt tree good fruit. So it is with our spir- itual tree. The fruit of the Spirit is love. That is the fruit of our spiritual tree. Love doesn't count its fruitage ; love doesn't hesitate ; when you develop love you develop joy. It is not only my care in life to develop love, but also joy. You nave noticed a tree in a yard bearing fruit Perhaps that tree is so situated that it has to feed from all kinds of unwholesome things, and yet, in spite of all its dis- advantages, it develops fruit. Now that tree is valuable just as it develops fruit according to disadvantages. And so it is with the spirit. It is valuable just as it develops fruit and its fruit is love. "The fruit of the Spirit is joy. Every religion should have joy. A joyless religion is a Christless religion. What a beautiful thing is joy ! It is often said that this is a world of care, anxiety and disappointment, and this is to a large extent true, but when care and anxiety press hard upon me, the thoughts of the hereafter and the fact that I SHALL WEAR A CROWN, requently dispels all my troubles. What joy there is in - thought that I *hall *ee rivers of joy in the life to come. v .,wik «t<.d rhere it- such a thing as joy in this world trial*-' I aever felt the force of St Paul's language, "I Leah. THE BLESSED GOSPEL. 395 take joy in my greatest affliction," so mush as when I heard an old preacher, a messenger from God himself, at a meek ing that was being held for my good and the good of many others. After calling on God to bless everybody else present the old man knelt down and said : " God, now bless me. I have been a great sinner, but am sorry for it and glad I am sorry." Now just think of those words: "I have been a great sinner, but am sorry for it and glad I am sorry." Are they not beautiful ? His very sorrow was a sourco of joy to him. Job wears a crown and you would all, no doubt, like to wear his crown, but when we see what he went through to get the crown few of us would try to inveigle him out of it You would probably also like to be Abraham and wear his crown, but if you had to go through all he did to obtain it you would probably allow him to retain the crown. And I want to say a word here about homes. There should be joy in every home. Sometimes loved ones don't like to stay at home, and when we look at home we don't wonder that such is the case ; it is a joyless, cheerless home. No wonder some frequent billiard rooms instead of remaining at home of an evening, and no wondei husbands frequent gambling dens. It is because 0*ey find things more congenial and more joy in these placea than at their homes. Unless a man is very depraved indeed he pre- fers a joyful home to anywhere else, and when he do 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 ever tell God one ?" A GOOD STOEY. So I often think of the incident where Talmage went to the father of the boy and said, " My brother, your son " — a little boy about 10 years old — "wants to join my church. What do you say ? " " Oh, no," said the father, " he don't want it ; he is 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 grows man." 4l6 SAM JONES' SERMONS. " Well," he said, " how many lies have you told since 70U joined the church ? " "Well," he said, "that's a gray horse of another color. I never thought about that. (Laughter.) That makes quite a difference, doesn't it ? " I will watch and watch in all directions, and see to it every day of my life that I watch the approaches of every enemy, and I 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 another thing to suffer the will of God. As I said this morning ; most anybody is willing to be a hammer and strike for God, and but very few people are willing to be an anvil and to be struck for God. And there is quite a difference between the two. Most anybody is willing to go out and knock any- body 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 Chris- tian 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 gentleman, or man, pooled away with his fist and had like to knocked him down on the sidewalk; and the fellow regained his foot- hold and was ready with a dodger as another one came CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 417 along; and directly another one slapped him in the face as he gave him a dodger; and the gentleman got interested in watching how the fellow took it, and he said he stayed there and in a few minutes he put a dodger in a man's hand, and the man just caught him and just mashed him right down on the ground and tore one of his coat-sleeves off, and bruised him up generally, and he got up and had another dodger ready for the next man that came along. And the stranger went up in 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 there before your door and saw how the rough mistreated that young man over there, I saw the spirit in which he accepted it, and I walked in here to your meeting, and I want the very same spirit that made that boy take all that in the spirit in which he did." NO USE TO FIGHT BACK. Ah, brethren, Endure afflictions. 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 thing is to stand and hold out and let your enemy kick himself to death, and he will soon do that if you will hold right still. THE TRIBULUM. And this affliction here is nothing but the bearing 27 41 9 SAM JONES' SERMONS. and pressure and weight of the " tribulum. " That tribiu lum we get from the old threshing floor where the wheat was spread out in the straw on the floor, and where a man got a long, big hickory pole and shaved it down thin in the middle so it would have a spring to it, and he come lown on the wheat and beat away there by the hour ; md that was the " tribulum " coming down on the wheat. Do you know what he was u p to ? He was getting the wheat separated from the straw and chaff. The tribu- lum 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. (Laughter.) And God is obliged to be patient and, with tender mercy, to beat sixty years on some of us and never get more than half a peck of wheat after sixty years. (Laughter.) 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 : "You may prepare for the worst." He heard the whispering — he was lying there on his bed, and the old clock ticking so loud there on the man- tel — he heard the doctor talking to his wife just outside of the room door, and he saw his wife'6 lip quiver and he law her wipe the tear from her eye and he heard the doctor CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 419 Bay: "Toucan prepare for the worst." The twenty-first morning the doctor 6aid : " He is a shade better, the crisis is come, he is turning, 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 he 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 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 typhoid fever to get him where he could bless him. Don't 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. I tell you, take most any fellow and take him over a coffin a time or two and turn him loose and he will hit the ground running time. (Laughter.) He will do better. 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 fel- low 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- ^h, what promises 420 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 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 ? n He said : "I am getting better all the time." "Well," I said, " How about your soul ? " "Well," he says, "I'm afraid that ain't doing much better." " Didn't you promise the Lord that you would do bettei if you got well ? " "Yes," he said, " Mr. Jones, I did, but I tell you a fellow is going to promise most anything when he gets down as far as I did." (Laughter.) 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 providence touches us let us be like the mother who had a son, a great big grown boy. The preacher told me he was at the house one day, and he said that the boy did something wrong and the mother ran out in the yard and picked up a big brush and ran up to her boy to flail him, and when she ran up to him, she thought the boy would run from her or fight her, either one, and when she ran up to him, he just folded his arms and 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. (Laughter.) I found that out CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 431 EVANGELICAL WOBX. 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 you ever think of that ? The trouble is you have turned the world over to us preachers, and you have turned it over to a sorry set, (laughter) and we are not half running it, God knows. But I reckon we do the best we can with the material on hand. (Laughter.) There is some hickory the Lord him- self 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 salvation of this world now, in a sense, for 1800 years, and we have just gotten one man in every twenty-eight to pro- fess to be a Christian, and only about one in those twenty- eight is one when you weigh him up right. We are mak- ing big headway, ain't we? We preachers are good, clever men and do the best we can, but God never 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. Supposing the mem- bers of Brother Lewis' church started out on the scriptural line to-morrow . Supposing every member of the church said : " God 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 720 then, and it would be 1,440 next Jan- nary if that promise was observed. And if the promise- 422 SAM JONES' SERMONS. were renewed then, on the following January the member* ship would be 2,880. 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 con- verted 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 1 Dr. Tudor. — God speed the day. BROTHER JONES STARTING OUT. Brother Jones. — 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 Geor- gia, 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 him 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 : " 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 marshaled, were a wife, one child, a pony, and $8. These were my assets spread out, and my liabilities were several hundred dollars. (Laughter.) CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 4*3 This iw jubt the way I started when I went dowi 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 work- ing right on. I started out to do my duty toward 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 re- spectable 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 I A REFERENCE TO MR. VANDERBILT. I do not reckon there has been a mind in this century that has been under higher pressure than William H. Van- 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 onto 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, " I am 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" 4*4 8AM JONES' SERMONS. WORKING FOR SOUL*. 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 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? I may gather together a for- tune, but it may curse my children ; 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 dreamt 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 God that I was still out of Heaven, and I said ' I will spend the rest of my days in trim- ming stars for my crown of rejoicing in the sweet by and by.' " STARLESS GROWN. 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 pat them all in mv Master's crown and say to him CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. 425 M 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 dis- sipated life for several years, and finally he was taken home with delirium tremens. One morning two doctors came and examined him, and they called his wife aside and said: " Madame, your husband will die to-day." She looked at the doctor and said, " No, he' won't 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 man and save him before he died. And," she said, " I have prayed earnestly and with faith, and J know he is not going to die. I do not care a cent al»out your symptoms." That evening the doctors came back and examined hei husband and said he was better. She said : " I have not 4^6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 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 praying for his conver- sion 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 fearful 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 afterward her husband was taken with articular rheumatism, the most fearful kind of rheu- matism that ever afflicted humanity. There he suffered day after day, and he turned his heart again to God. He was the most meek and patient sufferer you ever saw, just trusting 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, and when I shall leave you — and I owe it all to you and Christ — J shall go to Heaven and pass into the joys of the blessed." She stood over him until his last breath had gone, and his face was placid and calm in death. As 60on 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 chil- dren, and she is training them for a better life. Mo then CHRISTIANS SHOULD WIN SOULS. \1J 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 earnest about children and neighbors." let's get to work. Now let us say: " I am 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 6een parents, neighbors and fr'ends 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 return after benediction. If any of you feel that you want to hear the words of Paul to Timo- thy, when he said : Watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangel- ist and make full proof of your ministry — remain. I want to see how many will remain to that after- service. If you are a Christian we would like you to re main; if you are not a Christian we would like you to remain. The theater won't 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. After making the announcements Mr. Jones said : " I 428 SAM JONES' SERMONS. pray that this may be the beginning of a great religions movement here. (Amen.) I never did preach more unsat- isfactorily to myself than I have preached to-night, but I have done the best I could; and 1 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." The Boat of Souls. GODS CALLS AND LOVS. 429 GOD'S CALLS AND LOYE. We invite your attention to three verses to be fonnd in tbe first chapter of the Book of Proverbs : 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 re- proof. I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh. The 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 himself as a gracious benefactor. And when I read this text and look at the pronouns of this text Because I have called — god's voiob. 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 refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man re- tarded; but have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my r«jproof. 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 persuad- ed eis and put the money into their pockets and then began cursing us because we had the nigger. (Laughter.) That was just about as mean as wanting to destroy these still- 462 SAM JONES' SERMONS. houses, after taking money for their license. Let us bn honest while we propose to be moral. A GOOD TI1IE TO BUY STILL-HOUSES. I want to tell you another thing. There is not a still- house in America that wouldn't sell out to you cheap, right now. These little wild-cat fellows around here in the mountains wouldn't do it, because it is fruit time now ; but if you will wait a little while they'll sell cheap, too. There's not a government distillery in the United States that you couldn't buy at fifty cents on the dollar. WHY DO MEN SELL WHISKY. When it comes to the liquor sellers, I want to say a word or two about them. Do you know what makes a man sell liquor ? Is it for the good he is doing humanity ? For the kindness he is doing the race ? Does he sell at a loss because he is doing the community good ? Did you ever hear a man in the liquor business claim to be a benefactor to his race ? When a man proposed to swear that he was ready to relinquish his claim on heaven for $500, it was the money — the $500— he wanted, for which he was willing to go to hell. That's the very thing that makes men sell whisky. Do you know that? It has been my privilege to preach the gospel to many a bar-keeper, and to take him into the church, and the universal verdict of every bar- keeper thus convicted has been that, from the time he em barked in the business till he quit it, he knew and felt it was wrong. One fellow said he was drunk every day he was in the business. He was drunk nine months at a stretch. I sort o' admire that kind of fellow. I like that. The whisky seller, I say, apart from his traffic, may be as clever & man as anybody INTEMPERANCE. 463 A. HOME THRUST. No man in America engages in the liquor traffic on any other principle than for the money that is in it. No man ■teals for any other reason. I didn't say that a fellow that would sell whisky would steal. You thought that was what I was going to say, and your thinking makes it that way. I will say this much. I will steal every bite I eat and every bite my children eat before I will sell it. I would. (Laugh- ter and applause.) Why, I said something like that once, and a bar-keeper took me to task. " I don't agree with what you said to-day, sir." " What? " "Did you not say you would rather steal than sell whisky ? It is as honorable a business, sir, as a man ever followed." I said to him : " You know that widow on the hill ? " "Yes." " She has two boys. Their father died about the time they were grown, and left them about $3,000 or $4,000, and they began drinking with you, sir. One of those boys is in the peni- tentiary now, and the other is off somewhere, the mother don't know where, and she is grieving her life away. Which would be worse, to have broken into that house and stole that money, or to have debauched her boys, as you have done — putting one into the penitentiary and running the other off ? " He said he didn't want to talk about it, no- how." " I NEVER SOLD WHISKY NOR PLATED CARDS." It has been circulated all over this country that I was a bar-keeper and gambler and all that sort of thing, but, sir, I never, in the worst hour of my life, got my consent to put the bottle to my neighbor's mouth. I never saw a moment when I would sit down and play cards. There are some of you trifling fellows listening to me now that are meaner and 464 SAM JONES' SERMONS. more reckless than I ever was. Some of you tell on me to this day that I won't pay my debts. If you will buy a claim against me, you will get paid with compound interest from the time it was due. If you will find me any man at my home that says I won't pay my debts, I will eat him raw, without salt. (Great laughter.) There is the place to find out all that is bad about a fellow — where he lives. I say it, with all the earnestness of my heart, I would steal before I would sell whisky. A TURN AT THE WHISKY GUZZLERS Another thing I will touch on right along here is the whisky guzzlers themselves. We come up to this poor fellow who drinks, blubbering over him and telling him what a magnificent, kind hearted fellow he is, and how sorry we are to see him intoxicated. I don't know how many people I have had to tell me : " Jones you are a clever, big hearted fellow. You should quit drinking. It is a pity to drink." Now, it makes these whisky drinking fellows feel big if you brag over them. Whenever you walk up to one of these guzzling fellows, you just tell him : " You imbruted hog, you miserable sneak, you." " What do you talk to me that way for ? " he will ask. You tell him: "Whenever a man like you, sir, bleeds his wife's heart, ruins his home, pauperizes his children and debauch- es his own body, I want police billies to persuade you, sir." I will tell you what you may do with any four-legged hog on this mountain. Just take a pint of the whisky you drink in this country and pour it down his throat, and when he gets sober, if it doesn't kill him, he will quit these diggins without stopping to say good-bye or settle his bill. (Much laughter.) These two-legged hogs will not only drink all they can get, but will pawn all their children's clothes to get more. INTEMPERANCE. WHICH 18 THE WISER HOO of the two? If I were you, I would get 6ome more lege and a little more hair, and be the other kind of a hog. (Laughter.) If you are a whisky drinker you are not a clever man, a kind-hearted man, a first-class citizen, or any- thing of the sort — you are a dog, dog, d-o-g! I would rather have my little boys run with a dog than with you, sir, for they might get fleas on them from a dog, but they would not get drunk, as with you. A dog will beat you sir, as a fellow to run with. You all can understand that; you can see that ; you can see anything that is on a level with a bottle or demijohn ; that is down on a level with you. NOT SO CLEVER AFTER ALL Nobody but a covetous rascal and covetous scoundrel will sell whisky, and nobody but a miserable fool will drink it. (Sensation.) Now, we are getting the thing down about right! (Applause.) Now, that is cheering. Good! If you want to cheer, just cheer! The man who makes whisky ought to be re-imbursed for the amount he has put into it. The man who sells it ought to be ready to quit, for if he has any intelligence at all, he has more to quit, except, perhaps, the three gallon fellow, and these little three gallon bar-keepers and the bob- tailed yellow dogs under the wagon — the meanest of their species. (Laugh- ter and applause.) COMING TO THE QUESTION. Now, as I have said, there are three elements involved on the whisky side of this issue — the men who make it, the men who sell it, and the men who drink it These last 466 SAM JONES* SERMONS. form the largest class of humanity. Now we come to the main preposition — prohibition or no prohibition. And just as soon as you spring this question, men are going to talk about " liberty," and say " he wants to destroy the lib- erty of the American people." Do you know that liberty means the power to do right? License means the power to do wrong. There is the difference — liberty is to right what license is to wrong. Every whisky license in America to-day is sold for so much, with the distinct understanding that wrong is to come of it. I am opposed to licensing a bar, because it puts the poor, helpless family at the mercy of the most heartless brutes that curse the fair face of earth. The child of a physician in our town went to one of these fiends and said : " Please don't sell papa any more whisky. He has been on this spree for two weeks." And then the bar-keeper turned around and crushed the heart of that pure girl with, " Madam, I pay license for my business." Iler heart bled as she went home to tell her mother. I am down on license! " What are you going to do? Prohibition don't prohibit," you say. Let me tell you why that is A LIE BLACK AS HELL every time you say it. I can prove that you have lied, and that you are a fool to keep saying it. One gentleman, who thinks he is a statesman, says: "The reason I am against prohibition is, I believe it will ruin the trade of the country." A man can lie, no matter how low down he gets. The first town below my town is Acworth. Thirteen years ago Acworth voted whisky out. There were more than ten to one in favor of prohibition. There was not a single nigger in the whole town or district that voted for whisky. There were some white men that did. That was one time I said, and the first time, that ] INTEMPERANCE. 4&7 would rather be a " nigger " than a " poor white man." At Murfreesboro I talked on temperance and prohibition, and I said I wanted every colored man that will put his vote in against whisky to rise, and every one of them stood 1 on his feet. When I was ready to call up the white folks, 8 man arose and said : " Jones, you took the advantage of us : you voted the niggers first." Now, maybe there's some thing in that, for a fellow that has got lower [down than a larkey on a moral question don't like to display his mean- ness in public. " Prohibition does not prohibit, and then il injures trade." All over Georgia, in counties where pro- hibition has been carried and practiced from two to ten years, and in some counties longer, the communities are growing and are better off, in a business point of view, than they ever have been. Well, you say: "We all see towns that vote whisky out and still keep it there." They are selling it around the edges. In Cartersviile we are doing our best in this matter. I heard there was a little around the edges, and I said I will give a $50 suit of clothes to any nigger or to any white man that can get a drink of whisky. If I can't stop it that way, I am going to Atlanta, and if necessary, to New York, to get a detective to keep this thing out. Two or three men in a town can see to it that it stays out, and there will be no more trouble. You can go to Cartersviile and get a fine suit of clothes any morning if you can get a drink" of whisky there. I am so glad I got whisky out. I am raising my boys there. I said to a whisky man there: "I am going to give you till the first of January to sell out. We will put you and your demi- johns both out then, if you are not ready. If my little Paul comes to your place for whisky, take him out in the back yard and chop his head off. I would rather yon would do that than to give him a drink of whisky. If you 468 SAM JONES' SERMONS. chop his head off he goes to God, but if you give him whisky you ruin him forever." In all the love and kind- ness of my soul, I believe that every citizen of this coun- try has the right to say whether he wants whisky or not. If every man will take this question fairly before his mind there is not a father that will not put this stuff out of the reach of his boys. THE DRUNKARD'S GRAND MARCH. Out they march — 60,000 of them a year — into drunk- ards' graves. St. Louis has 1,800 bar-rooms; Chicago and Cincinnati 3,000 each. Cincinnati, with its 3,000 bar-rooms, can alone make the 60, 000 drunkards. That would be only twenty to the bar-room. The old dog died drunk, but they say he died of apoplexy, heart disease, or something of the sort. They always lie about it. No- body can say he died drunk. They will hatch up a "sun- stroke" if they can't find anything more plausible — that is, if he has any family. You can tell absolutely nothing from the statistics. But you know what that bar-room is. It is the recording office of Hell ! And is sustained by the voice of the community ! Sixty thousand go down into drunkards' graves this year. They go into your family for recruits to keep the ranks of this army of drunkards full. Your John, William or Henry they inveigle into THE ROAD TO HELL. If men will make and sell and drink whisky, let them hide and skulk in the mountains, and let it be known that every man involved in the infamous business is a crimi- nal. (Applause.) You say: "We will defend you. Our laws defend you and sustain you in all you say." Now, this is the very question. Your laws forbid selling liquor to minors. That is a lick at the whisky business. Your INTEMPERANCE. 469 license laws forbid selling liquor on election days. That is an abridgment of the business. There is a snake. It is biting the race. You believe in hitting it on the tail or body. I don't. I think you ought to cut its head off. I don't care anything about its tail. If I have a right to strike its tail I will strike it hard, and I will strike to kill. I want to locate its head and cut it off forever. (Ap- plause.) If we could just put it all out of America at once! "I would vote for it, but I don't believe in prohibiting it in one place and selling it in another," you say. If your wife were to start to make you a coat and should say "I can't sew up all the sleeves at once," she would talk just as you are talking now. The old man is out there shiv- ering in the cold. He says: "Wife, sit down there, and take a stitch at a time." Let us take a district, a county, a State at a time, until we roll every barrel out into the Atlantic ocean, and then say: "Thank God, we are free now." SOME PERSONAL POINTS. The reason we drink is that we can not control our- selves. Go to the hog-pen and pour out corn. Say to one hog: "You take six grains of this corn, and no more." To another hog: "You take ten grains." That is "temperance," and temperance with a vengeance. I might say "You take three drinks a day," and soon you will be taking ten before breakfast, ten before dinner, and lie drunk all night. You will have drunkards as long as you have these young dram-drinking bucks growing up here. I am against whisky every time the issue comes up. I am in favor of every measure that is opposed to it. I don't care how imperfect the method and the letter may be, whenever the question ot whisky is raised, you will have my voice and my vote against it. When I fall down on my knees, when I get up 470 SAM JONES SERMONS. off my knees, I am going to pray against it I am going to work against it. I am going to live against it, and I am going to die lighting whisky. I have drank to almost my eternal ruin ; but, God being my helper, I can now say, here is one man that will die sober. I will drink no more, and when I get to where nothing but whisky will save me, get me a shroud and a coffin ready, for I am going to die 6ober. The greatest curse this country has are these little quack doctors who have just sense enough to collect their bills and prescribe whisky. If anybody is sick the little quack will say: "I think a little corn whisky, with a little bark in it, will help you." If I were a doctor I would not prescribe whisky for a fellow until he had been dead three days, nor to an old woman until she had just died. These are the only two classes in the universe that I would give whisky to. Whenever a doctor says whisky is the best thing for that trouble, Sam Jone^ says : " You are a liar, sir." There's not a disease that whisky does not aggravate. You little old quacking thing running about here with a sort of trav- eling bar-room, I have a contempt for you. I am dead down on it, now and forever. I am against the traffic now. I shall be against whisky when I come to die, and I shall have no regrets about this thing. I never heard a man say, " I am sorry because I set a sober example: I am sorry I never drank before my children." You whisk} sellers will have to meet your customers up yonder where there are no demijohns, and whisky barrels, and ten cent pieces passed over the bar. You will have to give an ac- count to God for your corner in this business down here. This grand old State I She has gone through many agonies that have shaken her from center to circumference. This old State has gone through blood and death, and 1 INTEMPERANCE. 4fl hope to see' the tlty when every mother can call her boys around her dyirift couch, and, closing her eyes upon all of earth, say : "Whatever else may happen, my precious boys will never be drunkards. I die with the consciousness that my boys will never go down to hell through drink." (Ap- plause.) A poor woman in one of my meetings sat but about ten feet from me, and looking up in my face said: " Thank God for what that man is saying. I left my poor husband so drunk he could not get on his feet." All over the land there are hearts and homes desolate and ruined by this curse, and if there is no other man to fight for them, iiere is one man that will 6tand faithfully to the last. We vill now receive the benediction. 4/2 SAM JONES' SERMONS. THE"PRODIGAL SON" MODERNIZED. We 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, 0, my soull and all that is within me, bless his holy name. God is beginning a gracious work. The undercurrents of the last two or three weeks are now bursting up in all their life-giving and fertilizing forces. This morning, at the consecration meeting, this church was full of men and women, and the very atmosphere of Veaven surrounded us. Perhaps all the hearts present real- ized this was the house of God and the very gate of heaven to their souls. THE TEXT. We invite your piTiyerful attention to-night to the very familiar lesson, the parable of the prodigal son. And he said : A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, father, give me the por- tion 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 a far country, and there wasted his substance in riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country ; and ht^ 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 he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of «y father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with The Punishment of Gluttony. THE PRODIGAL SON. 473 r I will arise and go to my father, and will say onto him, father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee ; And am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. HIRED 8EBVANTS. That boy made a mistake right there. I am glad hi* father corrected it afterward. Make me as one of thy hired servants. There are no hired servants in the kingdom of the patience of Jesus Christ. After that boy had gone home, if his father had made a hired servant out of him and given him $20 a month as a field-hand, he would have been stealing something before he had been there ten days with his father. (Laughter.) I am glad his father saw proper to correct that fatal error in the boy*s mind. There's too many hired servants around in the kingdom of Christ now on the outer edges, hanging on for the loaves and fishes, may be. There is, indeed. — Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. I am glad to see a man get to the point, though, where he is just willing to be anything. Ther<* \a a good deal in that A DIVINE PARABLE. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw htm and had com- passion, 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 he^t robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on bis feet; And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let u« eat and be merry; For this, my son, was dead and is alive again; he was lost «•** * tand Vnd they began to be merry. «t/4 SAM JONES* SERMONS. Yon recognize this immediately as the parable of the Prodigal Son. Some one said that this parable carries on its very face that its author is divine. If there was no other proof of the divinity of Jesus Christ this parable alone would entitle him forever 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 nature to-night, we can spot ourselves all along the line. I never read the parable scarcely that it don't become a mirror to me that reflects my whole image from head to foot! But, Lord God ! make it to-night a mirror, and in that mirror may we not only see ourselves prodigals, but may we see a father's outstretched arms to save us I THE PARABLE MODERNIZED. And we propose in the discussion to modernize the par- able 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 m the best sense to us. And the first line here — And he said: A certain man had two sons; And the younger of them said to his father: Father, give me the por- tion of goods that falleth to me — And immediately the father — Divided unto them his living. I have heard preachers get up in the pulpit and 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 neighboihood, and that he was prodigal and dissipated and wasteful rnd vicious. THE PRODIGAL SON. 475 »TAtfDlNG UP FOB THE PRODIGAL. I don't know where they get such an idea abont this boy. The very face of the parable shows to the contrary. The very face of the parable shows ns that this was a good boy and an honest boy and a trustworthy boy. 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 demand anything ; the elder brother inherited the fortune; and here is this younger brother walking up to the father and saying: Give me the portion falling 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 the wayward, prodigal boy, when that boy had no legal claims upon it, even without a word of remonstrance, without a word of hesitancy or a word of advice ? If the young man was a prodigal, the old man was a fool, to start with. A TBTJSTWOBTHY BOY. A certain man had two sons. And the younger son said : Father, give me the portion of goods that f alleth 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 476 SAM JONES' SERMONS. that he would do and be what his father expected him to be. Immediately He divided unto them his living. And not many days 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 what- ever 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 journey, and all his inheritance had been gathered together, that on Monday morning, we'll say, he drove his immense caravan out in front of the old home- stead and gave orders: " 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 the cattle, and the hum of the servants' voices, this boy stepped in the front gate of the old homestead 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 in his second-born son's face, and no doubt the tears trickled down his cheek as he told his boy " good by 1 " 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 ! " And that boy turned his back on house and home and father and mother, and walked out to the front and gave orders: "Move off!" MOVING OFF. And on they moved, and on they moved, until the sue vas going down, and now, here is a beautiful place to spend THE PRODIGAL SON. 4/7 the night. They pitched their tents, fed their stock, pro- vided for themselves and all the company, and, well, say about nine o'clock, this young man retired, and as he pillows his head and looks up at the heavens that are 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 wished many a time in my heart that boy that 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, oh, how many heartaches he would have shunned! Oh, how much trouble and how much care and how much 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 repeated. The boy retires. And I have thought to my- self : " Well, old fellow, you made a mistake in not decid- ing 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 4/8 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 been out but one night. Now he is two days away from home, and he must necessarily spend four days' trav- eling and be out three nights from home. MOVING OFF AGAIN. See how he is going off and on his journey, with each night repeating these scenes and incidents along until Saturday night. And now he has sought and found a beautiful camp- ing ground. And he spends the Sabbath. lie has not for- gotten that yet. And I have wished many a time that when the Sabbath sun arose on his camp, and he looked on its beauties and splendor poured down on him, lie could have said to himself : u 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-morrow 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, and how much tears and how much tearful anguish and how much disgrace — how much that THE PRODIGAL SON. 479 boy would forever have shunned if he started back home next morning. But on ne drives, and on he drives, and we imagine at the end of the second week he drives into a beautiful, fer- tile country. Its very trees and its hills and its val eys, its springs, its flowers, it's all charm to him, and as he looks upon the scene he says : " 1 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 a plantation here and settled down I wouldn't be here a month until father and mother will be driving up here and interfering with my plans and disarranging my programme, and the fact of the business is that the 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 Ijhad arranged it perfectly, then I could bring father and mother into the secret of my success." OF COTJBSE, 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 residence, and everything was just a perfect picture in his mind; and he started out to fulfill that picture and bring it into actual facts — he did, as sure as you live. And on he drove until, I imagine, about the next week he drives into another fertile country, and he looks on the right and on the left, and he says : " Well, here is another beautiful section; I believe I will buy and settle down right here." But may be the thought occurred to him, " Here SAlf JONES' SERMONS. is a postoffice here in this settlement, and I won't be here two weeks until I get a letter from mother telling me how to do everything; 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, J 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." WAITED TO BE SOMEBODY. And he wanted to be somebody, and on he drove and on he drove — and what does the book say ? And he went into a far off country, and after reaching that far off country he bought a half million acres of beautiful land and built him a magnificent residence, and he was king and lord of all of that country ? No, it doesn't say that. It says that in that far off country he Wasted his 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 — he did, that. (Laughter.) 1 imagine that the natives all along the line of the route he pursued were astonished at his pageant and at 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 that passed ? Did you see that magnificent young man and his troop and train aa they marched along ? " Why it was the talk of the neigh- borhood. HE WAS NO PAUPER. I imagine if that young man stopped at a place and spent THE PRODIGAL SON. 48 1 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 jour bill. You can't insult me by giving me a night's lodging ! " (Laughter.) MOVING IN STYLE. And on he moved — and he moved in style, too, he did ! 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 ? (Laughter.) 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 dol- lar. (Laughter.) Oh, me ! It is astonishing how a whole neighborhood can run out of a certain article at one time. Did you ever notice it ? And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. DID YOU EVER NOTICE IT? Mister, haven't you 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 clamor there would have been at yoar house if you hadn't the wherewith 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, 482 SAM JONES' SERMONS. everybody will take money to him and ask him to keej it for them. It is astonishing when a poor fellow hasn't got a dolla; in the world, he can't get a dollar in the world. There are hundreds of people in this town have got ZAjre money than they know how to use, and there's five hundred people in this town running to them with money and saying, " Keep this for me and just use it as you please till I call for it," and the fellows keep 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 peo- ple who have been running to him with their money won't speak to him on the sidewalk — they won't do it. 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 to me it looks li ko nobody else has anything. BRINGING THE MATTER HOME. Anu wnen ae 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 every man and woman in this house to-night, in this great city to-night, have had a certain advantage in their life. They have looked up into the face of God and said, " Give me my spiritual heritage that cometh to me." And God turned over to us our spiritual heritage. What did he give us ? He gave us a good mother's counsel, a kind father's advice, a good mother's prayers, 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 unto our path. He gave ns the ministry with his word. He scattered the seed of life in our hearu. THE PRODIGAL SON. 483 He gave us his divine providence to shed its glory and its beauty all about us in every step in life. Oh, what an in- heritance God turned over to every one of us in our faithful 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 me the Bible, and give me your prayers, and give me the influ- ences 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 Heaven." There is mother sitting back there, your mother. God turned over to you a 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 ten- der 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 pre- cious 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 my prodigality and all I 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 instructions of the Sabbath-school ? Gone ! gone ! forever gone 1 I have scattered them along the wayside. I have spent them. I have spent them all 1 484 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 Bible," 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. "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 forgotton 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 forgot- ten them all. I have scattered them to the winds in my dissipation." I say to that man: "Where are the kind and good words of your good father?" They are all for- gotten, and oh, 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 faithful days left to him. All gone forever." He had spent all in riotous living. A STORY OF RUM. A presiding elder in our conference told me that at the game 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 through in a buggy. I passed a grocery in a country place, and just as I was driving past the grocery a pale, haggard, unsteady, aervous, wretched, ragged, desolate man walked out of that grocery, and as I passed along he caught up with me, THE PRODIGAL SON. and ran by my buggy, and said: 'How do yon do?' and he said: 'You don't know me, but we graduated in the same class and we joined the church the same night,' and he said: 'I lived right for a while, but I got into bad company, and I commenced to dissipate, and I went from worse to worse,' and he said: 'I have been on a four- peeks' spree now,' and he said : ' I am almost in a fit of lelirium tremens this momeut,' and he said: 'I want to give you this incident. I just walked into that grocery, 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.' He said ' The barkeeper poured it out and I took it in both hands and carried it to my lips, and 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: Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. A SAD ENDING. 'And,' he said : ' I dropped that glass out of my hands, and I was just walking 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 hia nead. 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. 486 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 counsel, his father's advice, his tender heart, his bashful days and all the blessed recollections of a pure heart, and scatters them to the breeze, there is an eter- nal bankrupt that in the very appearance of his condition makes the angels tremble and good men weep over the eternal bankruptcy of the soul. All gone! All gone I GETTING BACK TO THE TEXT. And now we take up the lesson, and .we shall hurry through as fast as we can. Oh, brothers, let us get prac- tical lessons to-night if it takes a little more time than usual. Let us see if we can not get some light that will make us better, 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 begun to be in want. It is 6aid hunger knows no law And he begun 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 thousand things to get subsistence to live upon. The devil made that young clerk a few months ago steal money to ride his girl about and to pay theater bills, and to spend in Louisiana State Lottery tickets until that young man had absolutely 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. (Laughter.) THE PRODIGAL SON. 487 And when he had spent all, and the famine came on him, he came 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 the field to feed swine. He was a Jew, you recollect ; And he sent him into the field to feed swine. I reckon that is about as low down as any Jew ever did get. And they sent him into the field to feed swine. A Jew don't have much affinity 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 state* ment that the more hog meat we eat, the more we get like a hog intellectually, and there may be something in it, as far as I know. EATING WHAT YOU FEED TO OTHERS. And he put him into the field 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 a bar-keeper who is selling liquor and making drunkards, and nine tenths of bar-keepers die drunk- ard's deaths. Just what you poke down other people's throats the devil pokes down yours. It is a law in the moral uni- verse of God that is as inevitable as life itself. Here is a man that gambles and wins money, and that is all he does, 488 SAM JONES' SERMONS. and the devil will see to it that he raises up a friend for that gambler whose only business is gambling and winning money, and every dollar he has won from other people the devil makes the other gambler win back. Just what you teed other folks the devil makes you eat yourself. And he fain would have filled himself with the husks the swine did eat. He fed husks to the hogs and then eat husks himself. Here is a woman whose peculiar business is tattling through the settlement and getting up difficulties between the neigh- bors. The first thing you know every neighbor within five blocks begins to tattle on her. (Laughter.) 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 : u 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. Just what you feed to others you have to eat yourself. I believe I will treat my neigh- bors 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 fain would have filled himself on the husks that the twine did eat. And listen — And no man gave unto him. And now it is said — And when he came to himself. Look-a-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 afflu. •n**, wealth and love ever manifested toward him. Thert THE PRODIGAL SON. 489 he was, after he had spent all he had and he began to be in want, and he joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he had served in that disreputable capacity. 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 me say this to this congregation to-night : At twenty-four years of age I waked up in a moment to a 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 I came to myself. Do you mean to tell me that if I had been clothed in my right mindl 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 ? No, sir. I tell you to- night that there is many a man in this world that all you have to do to him is to get him to come to himself. There is not a man in this whole land who, if you will just show him what he is, who he is and what 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 he came to himself. And when he did, listen how he talks I He talks now like a fellow of sense. I will arise and go unto my father. In my father's house the very hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hun- ger. Oh, it is a good thing when a man finds out he is hungry, and then finds out where the bread is. You have 4one 490 *AM JONES SERMONS. gomething for that fellow if you have made him conscious of hunger 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 he 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. " Yesl But let's argue that .thing a little, young man ! How far are you from home ? " " A thousand miles." " How much money have you got to pay your way oack?" " Not a cent." " Where's your shoes? " " Haven't any shoes." "Where's your hat?" " Got no hat." " Where's your coat ? " "Got no coat." " 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 by telegraph. He is there now. Ain't any trouble when a man says that I will arise and go to my father. I will. Suppose the poor fellow had done like many of us would have done — stop to consider : " It's so far and I've got no ihoes to walk in 2 and I've got no money to pay my fare by THE PRODIGAL SON. 49 1 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 aren't fit to go home in, and I think it's very doubtful whether father '11 ever let me in there any more or not" But it seems the only fact about the business was, when you came 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 OF 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 ! There was that ! 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 address- ing him as they 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 lodging he like to have got whipped about it The boy'd like to jumped on him ; " I'm no pauper, sir." And the boy is coming back now. (Laughter.) Y01 can't hurt his feelings now. oan't hurt his feelings now. Oh, me ! I can tell which way a fellow is going withov t any trouble. I have had wives say to me : " Brother Jones, I am going to bring my husband to-night, and I want you to be mighty particular not to say anything to hurt his feel- ings. I had him out once before, and the preachex said 49^ SAM JONES' SERMONS. something that hurt his feelings, and he ain't been near the church since." (Laughter.) Do you know what I say ? " Throw swill to the hog pen. (Laughter.) That's where he's going. That's where he's headed. I can put the hounds out and trail your husband, and when I've trailed him I'll find him at the hog pen." (Laughter.) " You've got to be mighty particular with my husband or he'll get his feelings hurt and never want to come back again." (Laughter.) (The way in which this was said and acted can not be put on paper ; but any one who has ever heard Neil Bur- gess play in the Widow Bedott, where the widow is scold- ing her daughter for being in love with a shiftless young man, can imagine how Brother Jones mimicked the wife of the tender-footed husband.) The Lurd have mercy upon us 1 Oh, he's moving off in style — in grand style I He can pay his own way, and he asks no man any difference. And on he moves ! But he's coming back now ! (Laughter.) DODGING FORMER HOSPITALITY. I imagine when that boy passes the magnificent residence where he kicked up that row going on out, and where he was about to whip a man because the good old fellow want- ed to give him a night's lodging -when lie saw that house about half a mile ahead, he got over the fence and left the road and took to the woods there. (Laughter.) " I'm go- ing the other way now. I don't want any of that family to see me." (Laughter.) 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» THE PRODIGAL SON. 493 gro woman: "I wish, auntie, you'd give me just a little bread. I don't ask for any meat, but just a little bread. 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, and I imagine that when the neighbors gather, one of them will say : " Did you see that ragged, dejected-looking young man going up the road the other day ? " " Yes, I saw him." "Well, I think his face — there was something about his countenance that reminded me of 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 countenance. There is something about his eyes that made me think it was the same fellow." (Laughter.) AS ILLUSTRATED FROM REAL LIFE. Look a-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, may be, the pride of a fond father and of his mother's heart. Some- body left St. Louis, — we'll say fifteen years ago. Last week they were back. And there came straggling along 494 iAM JONES' SERMONS. the street a poor, besotted, desolate, ruined wretch, and this visiting gentleman who was once a citizen here says to hia companion : " Who is that fellow ? " " Why, that's the son of Col. John So-and-so. Didn't yon 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 of this town, of 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 fellow." " I don't care how he looks. That's the very same fel- low." Ch, me ! 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 a-here 1 I have seen many a man ; I have talked to many a man and woman headed the wrong way, going the wrong way ; go- ing away from God and going toward Hell, and they in- sulted me. I've said : " Well, if I can't do anything else for yon, I'll pray foi you. " " Don't want your prayers. I despise your prayers." Ah, me 1 I have talked with them, and begged and pleaded 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 jqxl You'll be a very different fellow. " THE PRODIGAL SON. 49$ And that man that said to me once, " I despise yon, sir, I despise the gospel you preach, " he turned round 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 be at yourself so that you'll let decent people talk to you about your meanness. I'll get verj hope- ful about you then. I will. I will. IN SIGHT OF HOME. And, on this boy went. I imagine that if a mill boy in a cart would 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 ! " 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 toward the homestead, and he says : " I am not worthy to go another step toward that home 496 SAM JONES' SERMONS. If I can just die here now and father will find me and give me a burial place in the old family burial yard back of the house, that's the highest honor that such a being as I am can ask." And he sits and looks ashamed, afraid to go another step toward that home — and what does the book say ? THE MEETING OF FATHER AND SON. And his father 8aw him a great way off. That father is looking out toward that boy, and his eyes saw him a great way off, 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 ! Qo and bring a robe to put on his person and bring a ring for kis finger and shoes for his poor, bleeding feet, and then THE PRODICAL SON. 497 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 of mercy were whispered in my ears, and the gracious father's eyes were looking down in my face, and I have been aston- ished for fourteen years, not only that God Almighty should pardon such a wayward man, but that God Al- mighty would ever let me come into his house and be his son. Blessed be God! Blessed be God! A ROYAL WELCOME. And now how many men to-night will say, " I will arise and go to my father?" There's a royal welcome waiting you, brother. You feel mighty mean to-day and mighty dejected and desolate; but, brother, there's a royal welcome 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 hurry 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. 49$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 THE ANNOUNCEMENTS. 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 come back, you stay. But if you are indifferent and careless, don't remain, because the service is specially for the interested and for the Christian 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, re- main, and after the benediction we will sing hymn No. 335. And I have prayed God to-night that before we sleep hun- dreds of these prodigals will be back to the roof of the old homestead. -.^A"g «i^wB^BP|«WIMj|M»rt^ Dante and the Spirits of the Moon, CONSECRATION. 499 CONSECRATION. Xow let 11s be prayerful while we collider different phases of the same subject presented yesterday morning — consecration. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye pre- sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the re- newing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and accept- able and perfect 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 highly than he ought to think, but to think solely according as God dealt to every man the measure of faith. GRADED CHRISTIANITY. As we look round us in the Christian world, brethren, we are forced to admit that there is such a thing as gradu- ated 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 possible for one man to be unlike another. What a differ, ence there is between people with the same hopes and the same fears, who are bending their steps to the same judg- ment, accountable 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 does, but I am not much of a Christian." I do wonder if $00 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 my mother could be a whole Chris- tian and me only a piece of one. I have thought about these things. I have thought whether the kingdom of Christ reserved for my father privileges which helped to make him a magnificent Christian, while I, his son, have none of those privileges and can enjoy none of those privi- leges. 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 presided, and when the question came up, " How much has been raised during the present quarter for the support of the minister ? " one member got up and reported from his church, and another from his, and directly a good old broth- er stood up and said : " Well, I have been wanting to see the preacher, and see how many children he had, because we want to arrange matters just as economically as we can ; " and he said : " It is a hard time among us ; and," said he, " up to this time I have not raised anything." The Presiding Elder glared his eyes over at the old brother 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 econom- ical than that ? You have raised nothing up to this time." (Laughter.) CONSECRATION. 50 1 And I have many a time, in looking at 6ome 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-horsed, no-account mem- ber 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 80-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. " Mr. So-and-so," I said, or "Brother So-and-so?/' He 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, although 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 possible when I said Mr. 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 theaters. Why, I heard a preacher say yesterday that some of the best people in St. Louis attend the theaters. Well, I denied it. I said " It ain't so," and I would hate very much for that to be true. Before God I would. (AmeiL> 503 8AM JONES' SERMONS. WB CAN TOLERATE MOST ANYTHING. Oh, we are getting the thing down now to where we are somewhat like the preacher in Georgia who, when he held his Church Conference and called the list of the members, had the members answer for themselves when they were present, and when they were absent somebody represented them. And he called the name of an absent brother and the preacher 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. lie does not go to church as much as he might, but he is a good, clever man." Another brother got up and said about the same, and directly another brother got up and said : " I live close by the man. lie 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 ODly one thing that can be said against him, and that is he is a little inclined to be quarrelsome when he is drunk." (Laughter.) That was the only difficulty with him. How often 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 can not ditch her off. There is not fall enough to ditch her, and we are get- ting into a sad fix when that is the case. A good lady told me this morning : " There is a heap of people never lived n the country, and they do not understand your illustra- tions." I am not responsible for your ignorance. They CONSECRATION. 503 are Yery plain to me. We have got down too low, that is the idea. THREE GRADES OF CHRISTIANS. Now 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 Masons 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 Masons. Others rise to the sublime degree of master Masons, and they are called master Masons. I might say that we have three classes of Christians in our churches ; our entered apprentice Christian, our fellow-craft Christian and our master Mason Christian. The entered apprentice Christain, 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 going 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 any- thing 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 beautiful 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 old oxen. And there is many a Christian in the lane, between Chenot and the world, you know. 504 SAM JONES* SERMONS. They won't go over into the green pastures of God's love, and they won't go over into the valley on the devil's side. They are what you might call starvelings in the land, and they are numerous, too. THE ENTERED APPRENTICE CHRISTIAN. The entered apprentice Christian. "Oh, I have made a profession of religion. I have been baptized." And that is 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, brother, just think a moment. Suppose that all there was in Christianity to you, my brother, or you suppose that all there was in it was the simple fact that you had made profession 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 con. vert to Christianity. I would do that if Christianity was simply joining the church and making a profession of re- ligion. The entered apprentice Christian. They are the little fellows in the church. I was sitting on a car one our hand it is gone forever. The old woman who went to her priest and confessed, among other things, that she had talked, and talked unwisely and unscripturally to one of the neighbors, and there was a furor in that com- munity on account 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 you, this to do. Now go and gather a basket of thistle seed and go in the pathway between those neighbors and scatter those thistle seed to the rigl* L and to the left, and when you have done that come back to me," and in a few moments 6he returned and she said : " I have done as you bid me." 80METHING IMPOSSIBLE. " Now," he said, " I want you to go and gather up those 6eed 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 we might notice, and then narrow the discussion to the practical one, so that we may take hold of it as indi- viduals. Suppose I announce this fact : SOW WHISKY, REAr DRUNKARDS. Sow whisky, reap drunkards. Would you deny the prop- osition ? If you do I beg you go to the desulate home, to the fatherless children, to every staggering drunkard that curses this city to-night, and as they look you in the face fxrii will say it is a truth as deep as the unive r se, if you bow $20 SAM JONES SERMONS. whisky you will reap drunkards. And St. Louis with her 2,000 dram shops is illustrating this truth in God's moral universe to an extent that is enough to make the angels themselves weep tears of Wood. And in this sowing of whisky and reaping of drunkards you as the God-fearing people of St. Louis are jparticejps criminis in the whole busi- ness. Every man is responsible for every drop of liquor sold in this city, until he 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 fear- ful curse will blight humanity for all ages to come. Sow whisky, reap drunkards ! I have been frequently, my fellow-citizens, accused of exaggeration. They say I speak in hyperbole ; that I over-color things ; that I say things 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. STJGAB-COATED RELIGION. But humanity leans toward the sugar-coat. They want everything 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 old book, and if you'll read this book from Genesis to Revelations, and read it with an eye to the truth it asserts, you'll never say preachers ex- aggerate any more ! Here's a patient sick and here's a nurse tending by his side. The doctor gives the prescription to the nurse and says: WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 521 " 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 were 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 ! " And the patient dies I Who is to blame ? Who is to blame ? God Almighty tells every preacher, " I put you by the side of the death-bed of this world, and I give you the pre- 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. (Laughter.) I'm no homeopath when it comes to morals. (Laughter.) CAN TELL IT BY THE NEWSPAPERS. I know this old world is sick. I can shut my Bible for twelve months, and simply read your daily newspapers and see that this old world is sick unto death. And, God being my helper and my judge, I'm going to give you the pow- ders 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 say : " If you had given it like God said for you to do, sir, I wouldn't have been here in this condition." As I said yesterday morning at St. John's, there's one beauty about religion. If President Cleveland had com- 522 SAM JONES' SERMONS. menced demeaning the Democratic party and showing tip its corruption as I have tried to show up the corruption of the churches of this city, the Democratic party 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 meanness in the Re- publican party as I have tried to show up the wickedness and worldliness of the churches of this town, the Republi- can 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 shall he 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, IVould want to go to a Christian [city in a Christian country, and I would want to have the indorsement of Christian alder- men and Christian 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." WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 523 And when the resurrection trump should wake me from the dead, the first thing I would think of would be my license. (Laughter.) And when God called me to the judgment and showed me what I had done for the race, I would pull out my license, indorsed by Christian people and signed by Christian mayors and couDcil and tell God : " I didn't know there was a bit of harm in it These Christian people backed me." And God Almighty will pour the whole shebang in hell together. Now you mark that (Applause.) It is time for us to wake up. (There was a little interruption at this point, caused by Dr. Brookes reading a note sent up to him, which requested Dr. Rowland to return home, if in the church, as he was urgently needed.) COULD DO IT IF THEY WANTED TO. Brother Jones resumed : Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. I am responsible for the sowing of all evil until I have done my best to arrest it and stop it. And I'll tell you another thing : There's enough profes- sing 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 6hut up about half of the bar-rooms, to start with. (Laugh- ter and applause.) You old red-nosed devil in God Al- mighty's church, you are a disgrace to this universe. (Laughter.) Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. SOWING PROFANITY. If we sow liquor, we rean drunkards. Well, we get 524 SAM JONES* SERMONS. farther along down the line. If I sow profanity, I will reap profanity. Oh, how many swearing boys .in St. Louis to-night I how many little ones ! how many smaller ones ! In a conversation with a house-full of little boys the other day, I asked the question : "Boy, 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. (Ap- plause.) Sow profanity, reap profanity. In one town in Georgia there was, perhaps, the most profane man in the State, and 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 others 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. He recovered himself and then turned and such a string of oaths you 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?" 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 eaely habvest. But why stop it now ? He had sown his little boy's heart WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. $25 full of this 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. Now I discuss general propositions. A great many disa- gree 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 any proposition when its legitimate results and when all its logic is as clear as the mind of God and as resistless as the judgment of God. You can't get round these results. They are before you as facts, as deep and broad as the universe. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he 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 of ten are the prod- Set of Christian homes. Statistics will show it. NO ALLUSIONS TO GOVERNOR MARMADUKE ! 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, and every man puts on those that fit him, you know, and goes out. (Laughter.) That's my 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 thinking about them at all. And why the press of this State should have such an idea as that I meant $26 SAM JONES* SERMONS. the Governor of Missouri is the prof oundest mystery in the world to me ; for I disown it, and say candidly and hon- estly, the Governor of Missouri and the Supreme Court of Missouri were no more in my mind when I made the asser- tion than something I never thought of at all. I am sorry. I am sorry that anybody should ever think that I would say 6uch a thing of the Supreme Court of this State or the Gov- ernor of this State. I run a shoe-shop (laughter), and I am not responsible who you put the sh oes on. (Laughter.) THE FRUIT OF OAUD-PLATINO. 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 you have said a heap harder things about me than I ever said about you. Now listen! Sow cards, reap gamblers. There is one verse in scrip- ture I wish every parent in this country would heed and understand. It is where David said : Blessed are ye simple ones concerning iniquity. 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 recov- ery, 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 in over my dead body at the front door. (Applause.) This tide of worldliness that is sweep- ing 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. WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. "Well," you say, "you stick to that, and you can never get into society." Society! (with a look of infinite derision) that heartless old wretch ! Society I Society ! ! Society ! ! ! The leech of the soul, that sucks the soul until the soul is as hollow as a drum ! Nothing in there ! Nothing in there ! NO FRIEND TO SOCIETY, SO-CALLED. Society ! the heartless old wretch I She has cursed ten thousand homes in this world — society, so-called, I mean. (Laughter.) God being my helper and God being my trust and my judge on the final day, I shall never go into anything, or be in partnership with anything that will curse my children when I am dead and gone. There are moth- ers and fathers in this house laughing in their sleeves at what I am saying this moment, and if you could just run down twenty years from this moment, and see some mem- bers of your household, you would absolutely weep tears of blood and faint in the pew where you sit. ( Sensation.) I have had wives who set wine around their table in the first years of their married life arid cut up a big shine, according to the latest fashion of society — I have had that wife with streaming eyes and with a face that God must pity to look at it, begging me: "Oh, help me save my husband ! He's gone forever." And Fve 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, stir- ring your toddies for you!" (Applause.) 528 SAM JONES' SERMONS. My God! We need some wives in this country and liothers who will suffer anything before they will suffer their little children to be demoralized and damned in their own homes. Sow cards, reap gamblers ! , God Almighty pity the CL/istian home that can't get along without a deck of cards. (Applause and laughter.) (Turning to the breth- ren on the platform,) I wish you'd all say "Amen" along occasionally. ( Laughter.) Anvi now, I won't say which one of your boys may be a gamblor, or which one of your daughters will marry a gambler — a man that you taught to play cards around your social 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. I'll say that much, &od being my helper, I know that cards have cursed thoujands 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. WW BALLS, SEAP GERMANS. Sow cards, reap gamblers. Sow balls, reap germans. And I'm glad it's called "german." I'm glad it ain't " American." ( Laughter.) I'm glad we had enough respect for America to give that thing a foreign name. (Laugh- ter.) German! (Laughter.) There is nothing more demoralizing to society than what you call the german. The german ! ( Laughter.) And when you sow the ger- man (laughter) you are mighty nearly run out! (Great laughter.) Sow germans and reap spider-legged dudes! (Immense laughter.) And sow spider-legged dudes and reap half a thimbleful of calved foot jelly— that's aD ihe brains he's got (Applause and laughter.) WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 529 I got fighting the dudes over here in Nashville, and the u boys " unloaded on the darkies. (Laughter.) You could see more darkies going about there with tight pants and toothpick shoes on than I ever saw in my life. Come pretty near reforming the town. The darkies don't care, you know. (Laughter.) And I don't think they ever got on to the joke. (Laughter.) Oh, me I I tell you humanity is running out mighty far along those lines. And they say to me : " Except yon partake, except you mix with and go unto these things, your daughters will all die old maids." Well, bless my life, there's ten thousand things worse than old maiddom. There is that! (Laughter and applause.) 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 you have got (Laughter.) 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 a fellow — if the devil just puts one or two drunken 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. (Laughter.) My ! my ! And the natural and legitimate end of such a life as some holy shams in this town manifest in theii 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 demoralizes humanity or cursed the immortality of the soul. That is what we want But now to give the discus- 530 SAM JONES' SERMONS. gion for a few moments, in conclusion, a practical turn — 1 mean more personal in its application. Whatsoever he soweth, that shall he also reap. SOW BALLS, REAP GERMANS. Sow profanity and reap it. Sow dram-drinking, reap drunkenness. Sow cards, reap gamblers. Sow balls, reap germans. The german is the legitimate product of the ball-room. I tell you humanity, when you start it down hill, it ain't going to stop. It goes from one to the other. This world was content 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 you 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 subject of family religion when I was a pastor once, and about three or four weeks afterward I met one of the lead- ing members of my church. He was one of the most intel- ligent 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 he said : " You know you preached a few weeks ago down at our church on family religion." tie said : u That waked me up ; it put me to thinking ; it put me to studying ; it put me to praying." He said : " 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* WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC 53 1 " After three weeks of close study of my children I have ound out that my children"— Hear it, parents " — have not a single fault that me or their mother, one, has not got." That is enough to bring parents to their senses. " My children have not a single fault that me or their mother, one, 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 head ward 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 fol- lowing you." Some years ago a father started down to the rear of his plantation to look after the stock, and after he had gone one hundred yards or more, his little 'Willie, seven years old — little Willie 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 fel- low was jumping from one of his father's tracks to the other. Clear and shrill the voice of the little boy rang ou1 on the cold, clear air : FOLLOWING PARENTAL TRACKS. " I am putting my tracks in your tracks." The godles* 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." " I am putting my tracks in your tracks." Oh, my fel- 53* SAM JONES' SERMONS. low-citizens, when you bring this thing down to "when " My children will imitate and follow me," then I say above all things, " May God guide my doubtful footsteps aright. Let me make no mistakes. My children are on my track." When I was preaching in a certain town there was a boy came staggering into the church two or three nights suc- cessively, and laid down in a back pew and went asleep. His father got him home that night and put him to bed. The father of the boy, eight years before, had been con- verted, 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 early, as the boy came down the stairway, his father met him at the foot of the stairs and said : 4< Son, hold on son, I want you to get sober and go with me, and give your heart to God 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 + op, you will break my heart." He looked at hi father with a wild glare, and said : " Father, get out of my way ; I tell you 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 you know the first 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 it out and presented it to my lips." And this good brother told me : " H my boy had shot me through the heart with a minie ball he could not have hurt me like he did." WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETtt. 533 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 anything 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.' After I had drunk the beer I put the glass down and we walked out of the store, and as we walked out of the door the little fellow pulled my finger again and said : i 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 can not recollect what that was you drank just now ; what was it papa?' And he said the little fellow asked the same question again the 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 children. I walk in yonder into your home and into yor~ parlor, and your little Willie runs into the room, and I ha^c viet yon and your wife frequently at church, and littl* 534 SAM JONES' SERMONS. Willie runs in and speaks to me in there, and I look in his face and I see a sweet, beautiful little boj ; and 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 in the face of their little boy, and then 1 say : " My children are no more like me physically than my children will be like me morally." I tell you like be- gets its like, and just as you sow so shall you reap. Sad thought ! Sad thought ! Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to the 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 that are enough to startle every con- science here to-night. Read the histories of these families, of the great-grandfather, of the grandfather, of the father, of the son, of the grandson. There they are, as impene- trable 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 ever was religious. Oh, it is the saddest sight ever looked upon. God has seen this old Mississippi river valley with the blight of yellow fever cursing the whole country and bringing its thousands in 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, parent! WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC 535 and children, founder on the rocks of damnation, and lost forever. It seems that if there is a hell beyond all tolera- tion, for time and eternity, it must be for that man who lets his children go deliberately down to death and hell. Friends, will you hear to-night? Will you heed to- oight ? Do you know that you are sowing seed, and that He that soweth to the 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 everlast- ing. 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 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 to-night that I was the 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 meeting in our town God 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 God 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 turn- 536 SAM JONES' SERMONS. ing it back in all its force and fury, and carrying soul* to salvation instead of sweeping them down to HelL BOWING 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 in peace and in 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 GAUD-PLAYING 8TOBT. Her son entered the house one evening and he said : "Mother, you and sister go and get the cards. I can beat you a game to-night." His mother spoke : " You didn't hear that sermon I did this evening." She said : " 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-night for God to bless the men's meeting, and I shall go upstairs and begin to pray now. It is nearly meeting time." And he said: "Sister, if I get more cards, will you play?" She said: "No, I heard that same sermon, and I am going upstairs to pray. ,) The 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 forever and ever." WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC 537 That boy was soundly converted. Look here, mothers. Let us say to our children, I beg your pardon. I beg God's pardon. Nothing that ever harmed a soul or cursed hu- manity 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 Chris- tian, and on its way to heaven. A RE-UNION OF THE JONESES. Now a word of personal history, and you will pardon me, although I do not know 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: u My dear grandson, you and your wife and your chil- dren come down on the 27th of February to our humble home. Your grandmother and myself will have been mar- ried 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, sons-in-law, 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. Grand- father and grandmother sat in the center of the circle, and 538 SAM JONES' SERMONS. my old grandfather, a saintly old man, said " I want to tell you some history and statistics." He sa i : THE OLD MAN'S STORY. " Way back yonder, in Elbert County, Gt , when a six- teen year old boy, bound out — my father and mother were both dead, and I was bound out to a gentlerrn a until I was twenty -one years old. When I was sixteen years old the Methodists came into that county and preach )d. And they started a meeting, and I went up to the altai and I gave my heart to God and I joined the church." And he said, " shortly after I joined, the} made a class- leader out of me, and then an exhorter, an I then they li- censed me to preach, and for fifty years aboLt I have been a preacher. In the meantime when I was about twenty-one I married this your grandmother and mother and my wife, and the first night we went into our humble home we com- menced 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." And he said: "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," he said, "children, here are statis- tics." THE STATISTICS. " There are fifty-two of us in all, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren." "And," he said, " twenty-two of that number have crossed over and gone to glory." He said, " Sixteen of the twenty-two were infants, and I have God's word for it that they have gone safe. The other six WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC SS9 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 hy his bed and saw him literally shout his way out of this world. "And now," said my grandfather, " there are thirty of us living, and every one of those thirty are 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 others 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 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 yonder, thirty down here — " and," said he, " I do not care much whether I stay down here or go up yonder and stay with them until you come." Well, since then my good old grandmother, she has gone. That grand old man who was bound out in Elbert County. Georgia, 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 Almighty should give me a Laillion of souls as trophies for the cross, when I get to Heaven I will hang them all on my old grand, father's crown and tell God he is worthy them all. Me has 540 SAM jokes' sermons. 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 Co get to heaven all my life ; I can not miss it now. As my old grandfather said, twenty-two are safe over there and the other thirty or the way, and I can not miss that glorious world, I am on my way there to-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 a many a time : " Dear Lord, if I will ever get to heaven — the very thought is charming to me — but if I ever get to heaven, I expect to know my mother there and see my father there 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 the grandest hour that 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 her. " We journeyed hand in hand down yonder and we are here forever." Then the grandest moment shall be when wife and ] shall sit down in shade of the tree of life and an archangel wings his way to us and lights at our side and brushes oui 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 WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH, ETC. 54 1 wing and shall say : " Here she is, another cherub yon trained for joys on high," until at last every sweet child shall n you, and you surrender to that divine person on that a*ee. That is it INFANT SALVATION. Kow, a great many people say that a chfld is too young to understand the Scriptures ; it is too young to join the church. Well, brother, when did you graduate ? That is the ques- tion. That little ten year-old boy of yours understands just about as much of the mysteries of redemption as you do. Aint 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 gentlemen : Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall in no wisa enter the kingdom of heaven. And yonder little child can, blessed be God, take Christ as his Savior or her Savior. ▲ STORY OF JONATHAN EDWARDS, This incident I have heard related of Jonathan Edwardb, perhaps the greatest man that ever preached the gospel in America. He heard of the conversion, say, of little Min- nie 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 rang the front door bell, or knocked at the door, and was admitted by the mother of the child, he gave her his hand Sad said : " I am Dr. Edwards. Is this Mistress Lee ? " And BOW CAM YOU BE SAVED? 555 •he bowed and said : "lam Mrs. Lee." " Well," he said, " I have come to talk with your little 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 parlor looking almost like a little angel, sure enough. And Dr. Edwards took her up on his knee and questioned her and probed and dis- sected 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." BEING THE CHILDREN TO OHEIST. 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 Sunday-school be to teach your children to come to Christ, a divine person. 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 1 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 than I was before I commenced. 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 $56 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 fellow 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 just taking 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 be- lieves 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 believe. I may be happily constituted, but I want to tell you I believed everything in the Bible, and every- thing it said about Christ. And I believed he was the Savior of men. And I believed that twenty-four years ago, when I went within half a mile of eternal perdition. I be- lieve the same thing 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 HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 557 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 on 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. Now, if I put my hands up that way I can not 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 can not see it to save my life. Take them down and I can not 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 can not taste that apple. But a little boy says: "Mister, if you will climb that tree and shake that apple down and bite it you can not help tasting it" Don't 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 salva- tion to save his life, and if he will repent he can't help from believing to save his life, and then he just believes right on. And faith is not an act. Faith is adjusting the soul rightly toward God, and taking what he is willing to give. That's the fact. In other words, faith in the old wash- woman that God would send the rain to do her washing — her faith was to ask God for the rain, and tightep every 55* SAM JONES' SERMONS. hoop on every tub and push them up under the eaves. 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. Believe! How may I believe? That's the question. Now, brethren, I bring this down so every man of you can see 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 want you 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 tried 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 God 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 heart 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 HOW CAN YOU Bl SAVED? 559 day this colored boj came along by his door, and he called him in and said : " Harry, look here. I want to understand how it is. Yon have been the worst boy in this town and you were con- verted 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 youVe got it, but here Fve 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 1 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 myself all in dirty rags, and that moment I went out in the woods and 6hucked 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'r Henry, you've been a good boy all your life, and you've only got a splotch of mud on one of your clothes, and you've been trying to brush it off for about three weeks, but," says he, " if you'll only shuck them off and pray the Lord to clothe you in garments of righteousness, 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 be- fore he was able to say to his driver boy : " Harry, I've got it Fve 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. Ajid God Almighty can take the meanest, most abject, 560 SAM JONES* SERMONS. wicked sinner in this town and in five minntes he oan 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 I've 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 can never be baptized, 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." " That aint the question. Will you let me baptize you in the name of the Trinity ? Will you submit to the ordi- nances 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. Yon won't take my prescription, and I can't cure you." HOW CAN K)U BE SAVED? 56 1 BBOUGHT 10T7ND AT LAST, He said finally : " If yuu think I ought to be baptized and ought to take the sacrament, I'll do it." " Now," he says, " lot me receive you into the church." " Oh, no," he says, " a man ought never to 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 over this mattej." He got down on his knees and prayed devoutly, and when the preacher arose from his knees he 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, taking off your cartridge-box and up with your hands: " Good Lord, I'm a surrendered rebel, right here. I'll die before 111 ever touch that old musket again, and I'll never take up that cartridge-box again. I've fired my last shot oh 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 6af e in his arms before any devil in hell can get to you. Surrender ! submission ! What must I do to be saved? BELIEVE ON HTM. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ Believe on him, not believe him. Simply believe on him. Now, I believe Bancroft when he writes a history of the United States — believe every word he says, but I don't believe on Bancroft 36 $62 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 history of the American revolu- tion — believe 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, u 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 frill be there, too. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. WHAT IT MEANS. And, thank God, 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 ain't 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 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 house. Well, bless you, it looks like if a man gives himself to HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 563 Christ and Christ gives himself to the man, that that ought to be enough. But listen — And thy house. 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, " Children, we're all going to Heaven together, or we'll all go to Hell together. We're not going to split up the family in eternity." And, brother and sister, if you love your children in this 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 side by 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. Now, I haven't time to argue this last point. Let me give you a simple illustration, as told by one of the presid- ing elders of our conference. He said he was holding a quarterly conference down in Georgia — in Middle Georgia — and he said at a love feast, or before preaching on Sun- day morning — a Methodist love feast is like a Baptist ex- perience 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 another thanked God 504 SAM JONES' SERMONS. for good parents, and directly a pale, light-eyed young man, about twenty -two years old— he was then a licentiate Meth- odist 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 raised by a pious mother and a good father, but it was to the con- trary. 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 ad- joining county to a camp-meeting. I happened to go by myself, and went down there to have fun, as I usually did. \ 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 I went immediately to the altar and knelt down and commenced praying, " God be merci- ful to me, a sinner," and after awhile they dismissed ths congregation 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 until an hour ago that there was a God in heaven, and I never expect to leave my knees at this altar till I 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 I slapped my hands together and I 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 HOW CAN YOU BE SAVED? 565 Bleep it was ; and when I woke tip 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. (k After breakfast I got on my horse and started home md this impression came upon me : " Your father 11 never speak to you again. Your mother '11 disown you and your brothers 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 knelt 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 went to work. About eight or ten days after I came back from camp-meeting my older brother and I were out cutting rail timber, and about nine o'clock we sat down on a log, and directly I turned to my brother — I hadn't opened my mouth before to any one — and said: "Brother Torn? do you know I was converted last week down at that camp- meeting." And such a look as fell on his face, and the great big tears were running 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, 4 Brother Henry, do you reckon God would do for me, what he has done for you ? ' "'Why, yes, Brother Tom. There is a camp-meeting begins 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.' 566 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 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 op 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 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, Henry, you come 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 all 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 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 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 follow Christ." Now while we sing this precious song, won't you come, sister, brother, young man, young lady, and In t us decile this matter to-night ? THE CONFERENCE WITH THE ANGEL RAPHAEL. ANSWERING OBJECTIONS* }fl ANSWERING OBJECTIONS TOA RELIG- IOUS LIFE. We take up these words of David the Psalmist to-night: And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee. — Psalms, xxxix, 7. I would get very close to every person in this congrega- tion to-night. I would talk face to face with you, and ] would have my heart pulsate against your heart. I know that Christ is all the world to me, and I believe his glory I 6hall see, and I'd rather lie down and die than leave my Savior. 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 it good for one of us is good for all of us. Anything that will help me will help you. Anything that will make me a better 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 chD- dren good and cheerful and sweet, will make your children good and cheerful and sweet. Oh, precious Savior ! show us that thy grace 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 carry on a conversation. Now, as I talk, you answer me IJ% SAM JONES' SERMONS. immediately. Yon think answers as I talk to questions 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 ears and our tongues to glorify God to-night and to get better. WAITING TO CONSIDER. What wait I for? My hope is in God. v Well, now friends, I will come down on your side of the question, and will talk on that side awhile. 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 impor- tance. I want time to consider this great question. All in- telligent action is based upon wise, careful, intelligent thought, and I want time to consider this great question. Don't 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 to 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 ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 573 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, in the twinkling of an eye. I never saw a moment in my life that you would bring my mind with all its powers to bear upon those questions for fifteen seconds, for ten seconds, for five seconds. I could decide it Really friend, yon 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 ; it is wrong to do wrong, and I ought not to do it ; I'd rather go to Heaven than go to 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 father, out of the church, forty years ago you set- tled the question that right is right and ought to do it, that wrong is wrong and ought not to do it. " I'd rather be good than be bad." Then, my friend, what wait you for ? You certainly don't want time to consider this ques- tion. WANT TO DO IT DELIBERATELY. " Oh, when I make up my mind about this I want it done deliberately, carefully, prayerfully." And that man who has not made up his mind, but said: " I want to do this thing deliberately ; I don't want any excitement about it." I no- tice this much. Whenever any worldly influence wants to carry its point they get up an excitement. Why, I can take Gilmore's Band and get a bigger stir in this town than all 574 8AM JONES' SERMONS. 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 can not stir people to deeper enthusiasm than Gilmore's Band can do. These, with a few instruments as they blow their breath into them, and the tinkling cymbals arouse people and enthuse people more than any gospel sermon in truth and power 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 lor 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 have to be saved at all, we must be saved in spite of ourselves. " I am waiting for time to consider this thing, and as soon 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 that heaven and earth are waiting for, is for you to act on your ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 575 decision. Yon already decided it is right to do right, and wrong to do wrong ; and the decision does not amount to that (flllipping), until the man says : " I will act on my decision." I might decide to go home, but I'd die right hare 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 don't consider a question 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 can't help a man to be good until the man decides and starts out on his decision. My theology is this — I haven't got much, but I have got enough, thank God, to keep me straight if I keep up with it, and that is this: BAM JONES' THEOLOGY. God Almighty can not make any man a good man, and the devil can not 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 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 l?6 SAM JONES' SEWONS. farm, employs hands, furnishes the house and says, " Son now, sir, there is the plantation and if is stocked, and there are your hands, now go ahead to farm it." The boy spend- ing every 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 — aint he? How will a man make a farmer out of his boy by buying some land and buying some stock and the boy won't go to it, and the boy won't look at it, and the boy 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 am going to make a lawyer out of you. I have built that office and have stocked 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 hasn't looked in a law book. He is making a lawyer out of his boy 1 And if a father can not make a lawyer out of his boy until he has decided 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 can not make a man good until he has decided to be good, how can he help him ? Now, I won't say how much God has to do in helping you to decide it, but it is a common sense declaration that God helps no man to be good, until he de- cides to be good. COMMON-SENSE RELIGION. And I tell you another thing : Whenever a man chooses to be good — God throws the deciding point on a man's will; ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 57 whosoever will ; you choose this day and say, " I will choose to be good" — then yon can command the resources of God's omnipotence and love ; bnt until you decide to be good, God himself can not 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 when you mix them it is the best compound you ever looked at — common sense and religion mixed up in equal parts — -and then you have a man who 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 omnipotence to help you, and decides the question. And until you decide it there lb no use discussing the question at all. WAITING FOR BETTER TERMS. And then man says, " Well, really I am not waiting for time to decide this. There is no use discussing that, I am waiting for better terms. I will tell you, the terms, the conditions of salvation are pretty tough where a man has to give up everything." Well, a man has to give up mighty little, and he gets a great deal — 1 tell you that much. And here is one thing about religion. A man waiting for terms 1 I am so glad the terms are just what they are — I am. I am very glad the good Lord will never take any man into his kingdom until that man decides to " cease to do evil and learn to do well." Suppose the Lord hadn't said to me when I was seek- ing 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." 37 578 SAM JONES' SERMONS. SOMETHING TC BE GLAD OF. I am so glad that God Almighty don't take a man into the kingdom until the man has quit everything that could disgrace him in time, or harm him in time, or damn him in eternity. 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 sacrifices. Blessed Christ ! Blessed Savior I I have never made a sacrifice to Thee, and to-day I stand here with the consciousness, and utter it, there is not a 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 privilege of singing it ; 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 dia- monds, and me going around here and saying : " I had to give away a whole lot of dirt to get a pocket full of dia- monds." Isn't that a nice thing to give up ! Talk about sacrifice I Well, I gave up dancing, God being my judge, I gave it up ; I gave up dram-drinking, I gave up profan- ity, I gave up everything 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 on, and then as I walked on through the lurid flames of damnation with some poor lost fellow like myself) he and I locked arms, and said : " Well. I could get to ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 579 heaven, but I tell you I could not give up dancing, and I am here in hell forever, but I tell you I danced with more pretty girls here and I drank more champagne here, and I had more fun than any fellow you ever saw in your life here. Clear the pit." A SUGGESTION. And I tell you if some of you aint going to do some- thing better than you are doing, that's where you are going, and you might just as well cut your patching on that line and just enjoy this world all you can, that's my can- did 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. 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 phys- ical agriculture ; but, Lord bless you, when it comes to re- ligion, no no-fence law for me. I want God Almighty to make the kingdom of heaven with a ten rail fence, stake and rider, all round. 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 standard one half inch. I would not. I have to deny my- self and struggle to the tm of yonder hill, but, blessed be $8® SAM JONES* SERMONS. 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" — and 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 going to be badly disappointed if it aint 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 take you most any way. And that is consistent to-day with the attitude of this world. Sorter like the woman praying for a husband and the owl shouting back, or whis- pering and hooting back, and she thought it was the Lord asking her " Who ? " And she said, " Just anybody, Lord ! Anybody." (Laughter.) And there is many a church now standing out with its arms stretched out, saying, " Give us anybody ; give us anybody I " (Laughter.) THE LORD HELP US ! Lord help us preachers who claim to be religions and ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 58 1 proclaim the gospel of Christ God help us to protect the kingdom 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 I am a Christian, I will be one all over. If I am a Presbyterian, I will be one all over — I will be loyal to my Church as angels are to God. I will be what I profess to be and what my religion demands I should be. That's it A DOOBWAY FOE SIMPLE S0UX8. " I am waiting for better terms." 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 on. 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 round to that side door and let you in there. (Laughter.) 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 FOE THE CHUEOH TO GET EIGHT. Another one says: "I am not waiting for time to con- sider 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 (laughter), when you get right down to him. I tell him, "You will be w 582 SAM JONES' SERMONS. hell a million years before the church will be right. " And it will be a great consolation to him after being a million years in hell to know that the church has got right at last, won't it? (Laughter.) Waiting for the church to get right! 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 always picked out some little, old, lame, wrinkled case that was not much. (Laughter.) 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 aud 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 ju^t the same length as this fellow in the church." Let us ask you, "Why didn't you get a first class Christian, and measure with him?" You take a first-class Christian and lay him down there, and then you, brother, you lie down beside him and see how you look. You would look like a rat terrier lying by an el e phant. (Laughter.) 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 you 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 yon ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 5 $3 ■hould put a few of your sort off on us and then make it a reason that you won't come up and live right? Lord have mercy on us. That is the schedule we are running. There is not a low-down member of the church we don't 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 improve them. WAITING FOE 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 I am waiting for. I am waiting for feeling. 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 on a road with his back against a tree one cold, frosty morning, and with his ax resting against his knee. I walked np to him and said : "Friend, good morning." " Good morning," he returned. " What are you going to do ? " I asked. He said : "lam 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 you begin to sweat ? * "Yes." u Why don*t you get up and go to cutting and you wiH begin to sweat ? " " No," he said, " I am not going to cut a lick until I be- gin to sweat." What are you going to do with a case like that I NOT HTPOCEISY. I am waiting for feeling and people think, " Well, I do • 584 SAM JONES ' SERMONS. thing that I do not feel like doing. I am a hypocrite." That is the way they talk. Look here, doctor, when yon 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 summons 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 duty. Were you a hypocrite ? Sister, when you get up in the morning yon 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 about your duties at home. Were you a hypocrite when you got up and went to work when you did not feel like it ? » Look here, why can not we have just as much sense in religious matters as in all other matters ? That is the way to talk. WANTED FEELING. A fellow running on feeling reminds me ot 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 ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 585 is on the Louisville and Nashville cars. It is an L. and N. conductor. 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." (Laughter.) WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH HIMl What are you going to do with a man like that that aint got any sense ? (Laughter.) 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 turn to the fellow in the next seat and ask him lots of questions and he would have to be tied before he got there, and the passengers would all go into the next car. (Laughter.) "I don't know whether I feel right about the matter or 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." (Laughter.) 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. 586 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 to some of you, but whenever people see themselves they laugh at themselves. When you hold up a mirror before them they quickly form an estimate of themselves which makes them laugh at them- selves. That is a mystery to me. Feeling! Do you wait for a feeling? Look here, friends. What do you mean when you say "feeling"? "I want feeling." 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 God ought to go from 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 in 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, I'll go in a minute, but I aint got a bit of feeling." (Laugh- ter.) Such people are insincere in this. They don't mean what they say, and when they are shaken from head to foot with what they call emotional sincerity they say that aint what they want. Brethren, hear me to-night if you mean "serious thought about my soul's eternal interest." Every man ought to have it. And it should be the last night every one of you didn't have it. Serious thought. Well, now, that is enough. WAITING FOR FITNESS. Another one says: ' ' No, I am not waiting for feeling. I ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. $%J have done found it. I'll tell you what I am waiting for. I aint fit to be religious. I aint fit to be a Christian. And they make that a reason why they don't come to Christ. If I was fit I would not come ! Brethren do you know that my 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 religious 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 eame into the world to save sinners. When it comes to pleading want of fitness, the most in- telligent 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 starved to death. A friend walks up to him and takes him by the hand and leads him up in five steps to a heavily loaded table, 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" "No." "Why!" " Because my hands aint fit." "Here is a soap, water and toweL Wash your hands.* "No." "Why!" " Because they aint fit to be washed." And there he stands, starving to death, with plenty withia his reach, because his hands aint fit to eat and because his hands aint fit to be washed. 5S8 SAM JONE^ Slil M JNS. I go and tell yonder man to give himself to the OhurHi of God. He says : " I aint fit." ' "Why?" " I aint fitten to get fit," (laughter) 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 y%tj thing. " I am not fit to come to God." " Well, go and get fit" " No," he says, " I ain't fit to get fit." There he stands and dies. It is a sad thing. KNOWS HE ISN'T FIT. Another one says : " Well, I know I'm 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 obdurate 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, 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 buys a ticket to GotTs table is the fact that you are hungry. The only thing that commends you to the outgushing waters of life is the fr- % t that you are thirsty. Don't you see ? All the fitness he requireth Is to feel our need of him. ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 589 WANTS TO GO CLEAE THEOUGH. Another man says : " Well, a man ought not to talk abont tring fit, for the Lord knows we're all unfit, and that's the reason we are where we are to-day ; but I tell you what I'm waiting for. I'm waiting till I get enough religion to take me through before I make any start at all. Because, I tell you, I've seen the beginning and ending of so many good, religious lives, I'm afraid to start on ajsmall capital." I've been there many a time in my thoughts. Oh, how it did trouble me to think I had joined the church, and might run well for a while like some of them, and then quit. That bothered me a great deal. There's a stumbling block to a great many minds there. But let's see how it looks. " I'm going to wait till I get religion enough to run me through before I start." I illustrate it this way : THE ILLU8TEATI0N. 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 before our train left on the State Road I walked out round the engine. I wanted to look at the magnificent engine that was going to pull us to our destination. I walked round the 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 seventy or eighty 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 eighty pounds. That won't do." 590 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 arid pulled his throttle open, and the engine began to move out and out. And when we got out six miles, nearly to the Chattahoochee river, 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 than 180 pounds. And I said: "Well, that engineer never asked the fireman did he have steam enough to run to the river, that seven miles; nor whether he had enough to run him to Carterville, about fifty miles ; nor whether he had enough to run him into Chattanooga, 14:0 miles; but he says: ' Have you 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 Chattanooga, 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 ten thousand pieces. He couldn't have helped it. ENOUGH TO STAKT 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 ten thousand pieces — you couldn't hold it. And all a man wanta in this universe is to get enough to start with. ANSWERING OBJECTIONS, JOJ Well, what's enongh to start with ? Wrong is wrong and TO quit it. Right is right and Fm 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 ru* ten miles toward the celestial city before you'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 start." Now, brother, hear me to-night. Every man of i has grace enough to make a start. And it seems to m sometimes, brother, that when I started I had none at a and you had to take a crowbar and punch my engine alon to get a start at all. Oh, all I had in the universe wa* " Fm lost ! I'm ruined ! And I've promised my dying father I'll quit my ways and go to him in Heaven." That'i all I had. Well, we have already taken up nearly an hour of tb time with the first part of the text. Now, brother, is right to wait for time to consider this question ? Is it righ for us to wait for better terms ? Is it right for us to war for the churches to get right? Is it right for us to wait fo feeling ? Is it right for us to wait till we are fit ? Is il 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 oui brother's earnest talk. I have a note for a person prob ably in this house, it is supposed — Mr. Buckingham. He i& wanted immediately at the door. His father is dead! And this is a sort of solemn comment on this earnest appeal you to make this start now, and not to put it oft" $$2 SAM JONES* SERMONS. A gentleman sitting in the northwest corner of the trail sept of the church arose hurriedly and, with one or two friends, left the church in response to the sad announce- ment made by Dr. Brookes. As soon as the momentary ex- citement subsided Brother Jones said: MAKE UP TOUB MIND AND Don't WAIT. Oh, this latter clause of this text comes in now with a great deal of force. What wait I for? My hope is in God. Now, brothers, let's pay special attention to this point 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 make unto themselves wings and fly away from me and then my hope is gone forever. Suppose my 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 if gone forever. ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 593 Suppose my hope was in my children ! The time might come when I would kiss the cold lips of the last child I have 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 and gone. 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 forever. 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 not i* neighbors. It is not in the church. It is not in preachers. It is not in angels. But my hope is in God, who is my trust and my portion for- ever. Brother, do yon 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, FU 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 FU never go down until God goes down. Blessed be hi$ 3« 594 9AM JONES' SERMONS. holy name. The man who pute 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. IS TRUSTING IN GOD. But they say : " Why, aint you afraid to start ? You're mighty weak." " Yes," I say, " I'm mighty weak, but my hope is in God." They say : " Look a-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." " Yes, but you are going to be beset by trials and tempta- tions and snares." "Well, I know that ; but my hope is in God." "Yes, but you're weak as a bruised reed." "Well, I know that, but my God is strong as omnipo- tence, and he's my friend." 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 honor, but it is al so a post of safety. Brother, think about this to-night and let's 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 STORY. Ok, poor humanitv, so afraid it can't hold out WeH, ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 595 brother, I reckon I have been as afraid along there as any- body, but I tell you when I see the gospel and the way 1 conceive the gospel to be to-night, it is nothing more nor less than a succession of wagon shops on 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 3ross. I don't think it would have rolled ten feet further until it would have gone all to pieces forever. 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, and then I hitched up my resolutions to it and drove off, and I said : " Thank God for rolling-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 mis-drive, somehow or other, and struck a stump and smashed one wheel all to pieces. And I said: " Well, just look at that. Aint 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 this shop in the in- terest 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 especially 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" SAM JONES' SERMONS. ▲ BROKEN AXLE. Well, I drove off. I said: "Now, 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 : " Bring that axle up here. I'm running this shop in the interest of parties broken down in the direction you are going." I took my axle up and got it fixed, and I said : " What do you 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 I'm doing from this time on. I'll look now how I'm 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 : " I'll give up and quit. There aint 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 it up again when I looked ap and there was another shop, and the man said; ANSWERING OBJECTIONS. 597 " Bring that tongue up here." He waved his hand to me and said : " I'm running this shop in the interest of men that break tongues off wagons in the direction you are going." A GRAND SUMMARY. And, brother, I want to say this to you : There hasn't been a day since I started that I haven't been in the shop to repair. And I can say this much : Sometimes I have driv- en 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 ? " 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," 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 4e $9$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 ? Fm sorry there has been anything like levity; I don't be- lieve 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 TO just put my hands in his to-night." Won't you say that ? God help you all to say that to-night I THE HEAVENLY CHOIR COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 599 " COME YE WEARY AND HEAYY LADEN." I trust yon will all enter into a common spirit of prayer and pray for me and pray for the word that it may have free course and run and be glorified to-night. We invite your attention to the twenty-second verse of the fifty-fifth Psalm: Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he will sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. A DECIDED CURIOSITY. I 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 burden 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, and then to know what to do with them in the next. I grant you there are a great many imaginary troubles in this world. We are always looking for something we'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 better do to-night — because it has much to do with the text and with the discussion - we ought to classify our troubles. The imaginary we'll call the one class, and the real we'll call the other class. 600 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 — outlast any other sort, and frequently last till we are heartily tired of them. Now, what do I mean by home-made trouble, borrowed trouble, imaginary trouble ? I can illustrate it faster than I can present it in any other way. Well, say. Here is a good mother, kind-hearted woman, to say nothing of her strong mind. Her little children, from sixteen and fourteen years old down, they come and say : " Mamma, let's hitch up old John and drive over to Mrs. Brown's this evemng, or up to Mrs. Brown's, or let us drive out riding." f And kind-hearted mother she says: "Well, children all right." She knows old John is perfectly safe. He is a noted animal. Every man in the community knows old John. And, oh, what a valuable animal he is, because of being so trustworthy. 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 really when the children come around him on the lot and grass and play around him, as he puts his foot down he seems to shake it and see really whether any of the little fellows' fingers or feet are under his hoof. Really old John has learned to love the children, and he seems to think as much of them as mother does of them. THEY HITOH UP. And this is the horse they hitch up. And nothing is thought until the elock strikes four — that is the hour they COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. $QI promised to be back — and the clock strikes four, and mother looks up and she says : " The children haven't come back, and they promised to be back at four o'clock. They have never deceived me be- fore in their life. I am satisfied something has happened.' Now, 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 woman at her loom ? I can just remember having seen an old woman, a good wom- an, sitting with both feet working the pedal and both hands throwing the broach, or the shuttle, and the spool of broach in her mouth — hands and 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, every- thing at work together, conjuring up trouble. KNOWS SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED. And this good wife, she thinks, u Well, now, I know something has happened." The minute finger points at fifteen minutes over time. " I know something has hap- pened. And the fact of the business is, I recollect now, I had a presentiment the other day (laughter) that that horse was going to run away and kill every child I had. (Laugh- ter.) 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 fear, ful fright and I said right then I never would let those children ride 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 satisfied they are for a judg- ment on me." (Laughter.) Well, about this time the old gentleman walks in, and he 602 SAM JONES' SERMONS. sees the situation. " Wife, what in the world is the matter ! n "Well" she says, "I gave the children permission to drive old John off this afternoon, and they promised to be back at four o'clock, and it's past four o'clock and they haven't come and 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 every day." (Laughter.) 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." (Laughter.) " Why, wife, you're always having something." (Laugh- ter.) " Hush ! those children will be here directly." (Laugh- ter.) 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 aint 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. (Laughter.) 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-meet- ing trot, you know (great laughter) and stops right in front of the gate, and the children light out with a laugh of mer- riment ; mother looks on the picture and she goes back in her room and sits down and buries her face in her hands &nd she says, " What a goose I have been." (Laughter.) gome ye weary and heavy laden. 60j that's just it. And I say so, too. (Laughter.) That is exactly my judgment on that question. And of all the geese the world ever saw, the featherless goose is the most ridiculous. (Laughter.) 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 looking out the door, and as soon as I pronounced the benediction 6he hurried to her buggy and drove off at break- neck speed, and I learned afterward 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 the 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 directly she drove up to the house and unlocked the door and went in, and there was a dead pile of ashes in her fireplace, and she looked at it and she said : " Law, me, what a goose I have been ! " (Laughter.) Well, I say so, too. That is just exactly my judgment of that question. AND THE MEN, TOO. 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 1 how we men borrow trouble! And all the trouble we have, brother. 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 start- ed out to work out his problem. Did you know that a bed 604 SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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, the fact of the matter is, David said, l I have been young, and now am old, and I have never seen the right- eous forsaken or his seed begging bread.' But this some- thing don't happen ; he'll see it this time. I can say that much. 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 I 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 and 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 a person die in a poor-house when you are going to die rich. You need not go to him about these things. And I speak about this to you all that we each may classify his trouble. If a man is young and strong and vigorous, what does he need to borrow trouble about 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 did. I never want to. I never want to take any more trouble to bed with me than I can kick off in one lick, and off al- together. (Laughter.) 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 GOME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. bO$ the devil bids some Christians " good-by " he will turn around and say : " He has gone to glory, but I had enough fun out of him before he left, and yon can take him along.'' (Laughter.) I am not going to be joked that way. I am not going to be kicked around that way. I have the prom- ise of God's word if I trust in him and do good I shall over- whelm the land and thoroughly I shall be fed, and as long as the lambs and the orphans are fed I know God will take care of the man that trusts him. And it is right enough to be true. 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 walk- ing 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 walk- ing. Finally he got up and dressed himself, and went up stairs and knocked at the door, and the man opened the door, and he said : " Friend, what in the world is the mat- ter with you ? I can not go to sleep with you walking the aoor." " Why," he said, "I owe $10,000 and it is due to- morrow, and I have done my best and I can not pay it." " Do you say you have done your best and you can not pay it? " "Yes." "Why, my friend, if you have, go to bed and go to rest and let the other fellow do the walking ; he is the fellow that has got to do the walking now." (Laugh- ter.) Well, I will worry over most anything, but let the other fellow do the walking after nine o'clock. I will go to sleep and let the other fellow do the walking. (Laugh- ter.) BROTHER JONES' TOUGH TIMES. Trouble ! Borrowed trouble home-made trouble, and all 606 8AM JONBS' SERMONS. that sort of thing. As I have saidy I have been worried. I might have 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 wife that evening, and I went out to cut stove wood to get supper, and there was not a thing in the closet, there was not a thing in the pantry, and she said, " I tell you it is aH out." "Well," said I, "I done my best, and I preached and worked and prayed, and tried to do my whole duty, and," said I, " wife, we'll just stick it out right here, and," said I, " if we starve to death we'll make it out like we died of typhoid fever." (Laughter.) Well, sir, that night, before supper, there was a wagon drove into my yard, and when it unloaded its good things into my house I had more to eat at one time than I ever had before or since. (Laughter.) don't worey uselessly. No trouble about those things. Trust to God and do right, and don't bother about anything you can not 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. Well, the reason I talk this way is not to tickle your humor at all — we have got over beyond that in this meet- ing — but to show you this much, you must contradistinguish you must separate, you must classify. Now, 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 aint going to head old John, when he aint running away. And you need not ask the Lord to put out the tire in your house when it is not on fire. He is too COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 607 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, and bring your common hard sense to bear on these things and sweep them out of your way, just as you would with cobwebs. REAL TR0UBLE8. 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 can not bear, and that you can not bear. There are burdens to-day pressing upon millions 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 1 And I will say another thing : There is a point beyond which you can not go with your load. I have 6aid it a thousand times ; and said it because I felt it. I believe if it was not for the cross of Jesus Christ the great heart of this world would break. We can not carry them. A POINTED ILLUSTRATION. Brethren ! what are my real burthens and what are your real burthens? There are the burthens of anxiety that press sorely upon many a heart My Brother Blackwell, the pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian church, stood in St John's this morning and 608 SAM JONES* SERMONS. told us how his godly falher in the pulpit stood with his eye fixed on him and preached earnestly, and in the exhorta- tion he said: "Come t' -night," and he was watching his godless boy, and as the Either looked at him and said "come to-night," the pressure upon his heart was so great that he trembled a moment sri'lthen fell prostrate in the pulpit and died. Oh, how th?i boy saw the pressure upon his father's heart! The father carried it until he threw it down in death. And, thank God, he never carried it beyond death. I havo rren a great many things in this world, young as [ am. VISITING THE ASYLUM. I visited the Insane Asylum of Georgia when I was preaching at Milledgeville. I went over and went through the different wards with the keeper of the asylum, and as we walked 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 Hooked back and mentally said: "Mother! 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. You go yonder to that hotel to-morrow morning, any morning, some morning, and there is a poor suicide. Tha pistol is laying at his side. The derringer ball entered his temple. He is there covered with his own blood. And as COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 609 I look at the poor corpse, baptized in its own blood, I look down and say: "Oh, man, man, what did this? 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 moth- er! She was sitting in company with a dozen other ladies in a parlor, and the conversation turned on trouble. One related her trouble, and another hers, and another hers, un- til at last every one had spoken except a pale, sad-faced lady, and they turned to her and they said : " You have not told us your ^trouble." " Oh," she said, " ladies, I have been list- ening to your troubles, but I have thought your troubles are merely bubbles on life's current. They are Like the snowflake on the river, A moment white, then melts forever. SHE HAD REAL TROUBLE. "But," she said, " I have had trouble." She said, " 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." " And," she said, " we lived there happily and peacefully for a number of years, and God had 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 waked my husband up immediately, and the water was 18 inches deep in my room. He rushed for the children and saw they were all safe ; and," she said, " he got myself and the ehil- dren out of the house on to a little knoll right by, and," she said, " we stood there only a moment and we saw the water coming higher and higher" — it was one of those water- spouts above that caused this unheard of rapid rise m the 19 6 10 SAM JONES' SERMONS. river — " and," she said, " husband stood there a moment and he said : " ' Wife, I will take you and the babes to the hill- side there and get you and the children to 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, one of those fearful spouts came sweeping down and carried my husband and swept him out, and," she said, " I never saw his face since. But," she said, " that was not trouble. I stood there under the pale light of the moon and saw the turbid waters rise to my child next to the baby, and the troubled waters rose a moment and 6wept him out of sight. and I never saw him since. I stood there until the waters rose above the head of the next and carried 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, and I never 6een my husband or one of those children since ; but," she said, " that was not trouble. I thought it was," 6he said. " That left me with the precious little babe in my arms — all I had left And," she said, " 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. I sent him off to college." Would anybody think from that remark, and the repeat- ing of that remark, that I didn't believe in colleges and education ? Yes, 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 Cg than to have him COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 6 1 1 sit down in Hell and read Greek forever. All nnsanctified knowledge is degrading ! degrading ! Just let us take tnat thought — and that is my sentiment exactly on that line. I am willing to be taken for an igno- ramus, 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 anything that will make anybody think I am a rascaL BBOTHEB JONES' LEARNING. I was tickled with a kind, clever boy in this city. He was sitting down and talking to me kindly, and said he : " Mr. Jones, how far did you go in your education ? (Laughter.) Did you go far?" (Laughter.) "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 you don't know much, and," he says, " I've been out several times and I think they're mistaken." (Laughter.) I say you can afford to be taken for a poor, ignorant fel- low, but God keep you and me from being anything that will put us in the other list. I reckon we'll have little else to do in Heaven but learn forever. If I can keep from sin 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 aid his ways. Oh, how wicked he was. And," 6he said, " I did my best and lavished every kindness and all the generosity of my wealth upon that boy and he went from bad to worse and from bad to worse, until at last, at last," she 6l2 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 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," she says, "oh, here's trouble! 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. ANOTHEB DOOTOE CAT.T.ED OUT. Brother Brookes — I am very sorry to be called on to interrupt our brother again, but some one at the door wants to see Dr. Scott immediately. Probably it is a case of sickness, 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 1 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 I Hurry 1 No 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 I Send for the Great Physician." May be wrong with the COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEK. 6lJ child; then tell him about it. May be wrong with the house ; tell your Great Physician about it. Oh, friends 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 thousand kind 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 1 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 off of him 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. And no man can ever stand upright before God until this burden shall roll off of him. Oh, how it presses us down ! I have hung my head many a time when there was not a man within a mile of me could have told what I was hanging it about Oh, eon. ecious guilt! The guilty flee when no man pursueth. 614 BAH JONES' SSRMOMS. The burden of guilt! Guilty before God! Guilty before man ! Oh, the guilt I carry in my bosom ! How many can say that to-night? The burden of my guilt! THE BURDEN OF GRIEF. Then there's the burden of grief. Every black veil in this congregation to-night carries upon its very texture a history, a history, a history ! Oh, the bereavements, and 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 I with a sweet little cherub just nine- teen 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 to town and bought some nice little presents for that sweet little 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. 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 and I would wake up and say, " I know she's better." A BAD 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 haart sunk I went into the room, the parlor, and there COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADE*. $P$ was something so unusual to be seen in a parlor. I walked up with my wife clinging to my arm, and I turned back the beautiful 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 cheer. less! How dark! How dark ! 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 children. I committed it to him forever, and I say this much : My other sweet children have a much better fatker 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 — Tm. going to try to venture — I'm going to try to keep my children in the path that they may meet that sweet one up yonder. THE BURDEN OF ANXIETY. Oh, the burden of grief. Where is the heart in this house that has never been pressed down in its pilgrimage to the grave ? This is a world of burdens. And then there ia the burden of anxiety. I have seen wives that were literally crushed with burdens of anxiety. At Iuka, Miss., I recollect there was a wife came to the altar, and she knelt down, and she prayed, and she prayed, and by and by when the others had walked away, 1 said to her: " Now, 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 years ; and," she said, " I'm going to stay right here until my husband gives his heart to God." 6l6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. Well, I had met her husband, the coldest-blooded infidel I ever looked in the face in my life. " Well," said I, " sister, if I was yon I would talk and pray with my husband at home." " No," she says, " I have done my best, and right here I'm going to stay on my knees until my husband gives his heart to God." I walked back in the congregation, walked up to that man and gave him my hand. Said I : " Sir, there are no weapons that were ever manufactured in the United States, 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 don't want to be a hypocrite." Said I : " My friend, how can you break your wif e'« heart?" THE RESULT. I went back to her and said, " Your husband won't tjome." " 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 looks at him and she says: " Have you surrendered your heart to God, sir ? " " No," he says. * Well, I'll never get off from here until you do." We knelt and prayed again, and directly that husband got Ap, and he says : COMB YE WEARY AMD HEAVY LADEN. 6l/ u Wife, get np now." She says : " Have you surrendered to God, sir, and will you seek him until you. find him ? " He looked down at her and he said : " Yes." " Well," she said, " husband, you never deceived me in my life. You never told me a falsehood in my life, 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 ! 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, sorely upon you I WHAT TO DO WITH OUE BUBDEN8. Well, now, the great question is another matter. We won't discuss the burdens any longer. There are thousands that press upon our heart. Now, the part of a philosopher is this, to know what to do with our burdens. What will we do with them? What can I do? It is not wise to sit down and count them to see how many I have, or how crushing they are, or to think about other people's burdens. But what will I do with them ? The answer comes thus : Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee. He will aever 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 is a Newfoundland dog, swimming out yonder in that lake at will. His master stands on the bank and call© him, but he won't come. He beckons and the dog won't come. He rebukes, and he won't come. And then the master stoops and picks u^ a little stick and pitches 4ll SAM JONES* SERMONS. it into the lake near the dog, and the dog swims to it and catches it in his month, and swims to his master and puts it down at his feet. That was the only way his master oonld 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 : " Now, 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 the life is to bring me back to God. It is a message from God to bring it to him. " Bring it to me." Oh, many are the hearts in this house that are over- loaded! Overloaded! You see that little frail vessel yonder as she is pitching and tossing on the rolling ocean^ and 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, everything." And about that time the Great Eastern, the grandest ves- sel that ever swam the Atlantic Ocean, came 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 frail little vessel and crew, and he 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." And the crew go to work with block and tackle and they COME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN* 619 lift 1 t their cargo until they have lightened their ship so it caL go on its way rejoicing, and it doesn't sink the Great Eastern the hundredth part of an inch. She scarcely knows that she has taken on any more burden. AND HEBE 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 he 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 rolli Across my peaceful breast. I have found my heavenly home. The burden has been taken off me." And the little boat strikes a bee-line for the 6hore of everlasting deliverance. YOU CAN DEPEND ON CHEIST. Brethren, I want to say this : Whenever you get in trouble, you can go to Christ, and trust in Christ, when you get in trouble. I have found that out. Blessed Jesus 1 When thy disciples were going along smoothly sailing on the lake, thou went up there in earnest prayer not noticing anything, but one of those fear- ful little squalls came down on that lake and pitched these disciples with their little ship hither and thither, and was about to engulf them. But Jesus looked down on that lit- 620 SAM JONES' SERMONS. tie lake, and lie 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, 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 going to them, boat or no boat." Down he moved right to the wa- ter and ran out and stopped the boat, and immediately it ran to shore. 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 your burden on the Lord and he shall sustain thee. He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. UNLOAD THE HEARTS YOU BURDENED. Brother 1 Brother ! Young man 1 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 1 The most touching incident in my ministry ia 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 ! " And then directly here comes up another little girl, and says : " Mr. Jones, the Lord has blessed me, but I am so anxious about papa." Oh, brother ! brother ! Let's you and I in God 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 fti COM YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. 631 the cross, and since that time, oh, how glorious and joyous her life has been in that respect! Brother, let's you and I meet wife at the cross to-night ! Le^'s yon and I, young man, meet precious, good mother at the cross ! Oh, boys, look at mamma's gray hairs 1 Look at tnose wrinkles in mother's face 1 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. 1 got a letter from my mother. It was a sweet, good letter, but," he said, " it wasn't mother's words that troubled me so. It was not how she wrote. It was not what she said, but," he said, " It was the tremulous hand on the paper." He says, u Mother has nearly done writing to her boy. And Mr. Jones, that letter has touched me, and before God I want to bb a joy to my mother the balance of her life." Boys, let's think about precious mother ! Husbands, let's think about wife ! Neighbor, let's think about neighbor ! Let's go to T&ork 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 put 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 account, 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 622 SAM JONES' SERMONS. cany without us putting on any more. Oh, brother, letfi 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 happy, and I reckon I had the darkest, most des- olate one once that ever good wife lived in. Oh, how darkl how dark! DAVID HAD BEEN THERE. David knew what he was talking about. Listen: Give ear to my prayer, God, and hide not thyself from my suppli- cation. 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 FOE 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 ; all the pressure of my ministry upon me ; the care of my family and ten thousand burdens that mothers and wives have put upon my heart," and I have almost literally stood in many a wife's tracks with burdens on my soul for this one and for that one and for the other one, and I have carried these burdens until I have felt in my heart, Oh, 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 forget I had children, or forget that I was called to preach, GOME YE WEARY AND HEAVY LADEN. %2% that I might forget everything in the universe and jnst have one week's happy rest. I have felt like I could come back to this world a new man ; that I would be new all over. Ok, that I had wings like a dove, that I might fly away and be at rest. I have carried burdens. I have carried them, but blessed be God! I have learned this blessed text now: Oast your burdens on the Lord, and he will sustain you. CAREY 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 put our burdens at Christ's feet! 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 say : " Blessed Christ! there they are. I can carry them no further for- ever." Thank God ! It won't he 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. For God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. GOD SHALL WIPE AWAY THEIR TEARS. I have thought of that expression. And God shaD wipe away all tears from their eyes. 624 SAU JONES* SERMONS. I have thought about that expression very much like this: I am sitting here in the family room with mother, and directly here comes little 6-year old Annie crying like her little heart would break, the tears just raining from her lit- tle face. And the mother said : " What is it, darling, don't cry." But she says : " Mamma, I can't help it." And while the tears are raining down, mamma takes the little girl and says : " There's a sweet darliDg ; don't cry." But she says : " Mamma, I can't help it." And she ia throwing tears from one and the other, and mother reaches out her gentle hand and catches her little girl's arm and pulls her up against her knee, and mother 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 Hie child's eyes. And then I have thought as we pass into the gates of everlasting deliverance, the blessed Christ will run his gen- tle fingers over these eyes that have been drowned with tears a thousand times, and my tears are gone forever. That's God ! No tears there ! No sadness there I N© sickness there ! No pain there, forever ! Oh, brother, let us start to that good world to-night Tigris, at the Foot of Paradise. RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 62$ RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. Now, let us be prayerful to-night, and let us look with a present faith for the blessing of God upon us. Oh, for a present, expectant faith, one that looks now for the coming of the things we desire. We select as the text the three last verses of the 11th chapter of St Matthew— 28th, 29th and 30th : Come unto me ail ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give yon rest. Take my yoke upon yon and learn of me, 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. SOMETHING TO BE GLAD OF. I am glad the first verse of this text as given is peculiar- ly the language of the New Testament Scriptures to the children of men. In the Old Testament it was, " Go and do this and live," and " Go and 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 yon rest. Come unto me ! Christ was not only a divine Savior and a divine philosopher, but he was pre-eminently a di- vine physician. Come unto me. Oh, for a world to listen to the Savior, to the philoso- pher, to the physician. Come unto me. Not " Go to this one," not " Make your appeals to angels or to men," but " to me," " to me." 40 636 8AM JONES' SERMONS. TRUST TO CHBI8T. No man need fear to intrust himself in the hands of Christ because there may be mistakes and difficulties in his case that can not be overcome. The great question with physicians in this world is understanding the disease — "diagnosing" the case as they say. Any physician knows what the remedy is if he just knows what the trouble is, what the sickness 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 sensitive to medicine, to treatment, than that of a grown person, and why do you have your greatest trouble in the cases of children ? " He said : " Because the difficulty with children is in the diagnosis. They can't talk with you and tell you where their trouble is, where their pain is, and my trouble with children has grown out of the fact — the difficulty in the diagnosis — finding out what the trouble is. Now," said he, "after that question is settled I never have any trouble. Every physician knows the remedy for certain diseases, but the determining of the nature of the disease is the trouble." I have watched my family physician — noble, true man he is I I have watched his face, the movement of his hand, and I never felt safe concerning my child until I saw a look of confidence on the face of my physician, and my question with him was 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 b* efficacious if the doctor has the disease in hand — if he knows what the trouble is. RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 62} THE GREAT PHYSICIAN. Now, brethren, to-night we'll hear the voice of th« Great Physician who never misdiagnosed a single case; never made a mistake in a single case, but sudden, eternal healing always comes on your putting yourself in hia 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 of human nature; my difficulties are different from other men ; my obstacles are different ; 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 ; you should not wonder if this one and that one should be saved in this meeting, but "mine is a very peculiar case ; my temptations are peculiar and I have such a peculiar disposition," and all that sort of thing. A COMMON PECULIARITY. Look here, brother ! Yon would be astonished, in the firpt place, to know how many thousand people have broken down right where you have broken down ; you would be astonished to know how many people 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 yon from under the treatment of the Great Physician, but yon rush to him with the consciousness, " He understands ma. It is very painful to me, anyway, anyhow, to deal with a person that I think misunderstands me. w 62$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. I al way 8 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 character, he had studied my characteristics, and I couJd always put my- self in the hands of my father with such confidence 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 under, stood 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, what a precious thought it is to have a friend that understands me. Oh, how many people in this world mis- understand us and misconstrue us, and misjudge usl Oh, what a blessing it is to have a friend that always under- stands us, and nothing makes him misunderstand 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 ii broken down, brother. He saw you when you broke down, and he has been watching you in your despair for years. He knows which one of the 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 supply 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 RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 629 the expression of confidence, and I say, "Well, thank God the physician has him in hand now and understands his case, and there's going to be a healing now — there's going to be a healing." CHRIST KNOWS. Oh, could all the world look to him in confidence. That is what we mean by faith. Trust ! That is just exactly what we mean. To put yourself in the hands of the Great Physician, with the understanding that he knows me better than I know myself. Really, I think my trouble may be one thing, but he knows. ;He knows what troubles me, and he can put his hand upon the diseased part, and alwayg 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 suffered in common with me and knows not exactly how to treat me. There is a preacher 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 can not put himself in sym- pathy with this poor fellow. But, brother, Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, but without sin, and he knows just exactly how to sympathize with the drunkard just as much as any poor drunkard who was 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 hua- 63O SAM JONES' SERMONS. dred things. And, oh, what a sad thing it is when husband and wife misunderstand each other. And you just notice, 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 is ready to step in and fix the matter up and talk around. Well, thank God, there is no misunderstanding in my family; but if there is a thousand "Mr. Knowing-so- and-so " and " Mrs. Knowing-so-and-so " comes nosing around my home they will get kicked out. (Laughter.) I don't want to have my family matters interfered with. There's a heap of that going on in this world — a great deal of it. (Laughter.) It is unfortunate to have family mis- understandings, but it is criminal for you to let anybody else come poking their nose around your home affairs. (Applause.) And I use that expression because it is forcible — it is forcible. AN ESSAY ON "TANGENTS." Now, there are 500 persons here in this house think? '* Wonder why Jones runs off at that tangent to-night " (laughter); 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." (Laughter.) 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 put that down — there's one fellow here that does. (Laughter.) Come unto me ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He speaks with confidence. He speaks with infinite con- fidence. " 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, RELIGIOUS RAILROADING* 63 1 ligaments and fibres of the soul, and I can detect any dis- eased part in the twinkling of an eye." THE WAT. Come tmto 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 on 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 difficulties, a high way and a holy way, if you ever heard of a better way, then I blame you that you have not gone to that way. Hear ! Christ said — I am the way. " The way I " 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 fre- quently spoken of as a pilgrimage, and our traveling from this world to a better. Brother, we are 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 thorough- fare to a better world." WHAT THE WAT IS FOB. Let us see about this way. I go down here to the Wa- bash Railroad. There is a way. There is a highway. 1 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 these for? I never saw any- thing 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 6j3 SAM JONES* SERMONS. 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 mag- nificent Rogers engine, and I look at that magnificently constructed engine, and I step down and examine the engine. I measure the bulk of the wheels and the flanges on the wheels ; I examine that engine through and through, and I say: "I believe that is suited for this way," and I roll that up on the steel rails, and I put the steam on until the gauge indicates that that engine is carry- ing 150 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 found out what this way is for now. This way was built for that engine, and that engine was built for this way." Don't you see I OFF THB 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 on the ground. A locomotive engine on the track is the grandest thing my eyes ever 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 RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 633 freighted tons. What a magnificent thing — how omnipo- tent it is on the track ! But off the track she Lb as helpless as a rock. She can't 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?" 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 can not walk on this way." And then I will say : " Take this ox off. Get me a horse 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 cer- tain. It don't suit him." MADE FOR MA*. Then I go out and meet an immortal man, an immortal being, and I measure the distance 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 moving 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 the good world. But the soul won't run on any other way but on that. Did you ever try that? Let us try the dirt road of profanity now, and just ran 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 634 SAM JONES* SERMONS. didn't move out of it, it would get ten feet above me. And there you are. ANOTHER DEBT ROAD. You get the profane and the licentious, the Sabbath breaker, mired up in sin and shame on the dirt road to hell ; and you get him here on this highway to glory, and you see him moving off to the world of bliss with a momentum that gladdens the heart of angels, and I tell you, brother, wheu he blows his whistle for the gates to 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. (Laughter.) I like a railway — a high- way that runs from earth to heaven. THE EPISCOPALIAN RAILROAD. 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 anywhere much. (Laughter.) 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 Reso- lution. That is a right nice little town — a great many live there ; and you can get off just this side of Repentance ; and you have got to walk across there a piece, it don't connect with the main line. (Laughter.) Brother, when I start for glory I want to get on God Almighty's grand old trunk line and check my baggage clear through on a limited ticket and run through to glory, and I'll entrust my soul to no railroad moral scheme that don't take me through to glory direct RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 635 THE DIYTNE TRUNK LINE. And Fll tell you where I got on it I got on at Convic- tion. That is where God's road starts from ; and I tell yon 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 magnificent 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, you 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 sa^e us from those little branch railway lines that start mighty near nowhere, and I am certain go nowhere. CHRIST THE WAY. Now, some people will say : Now, that is a sharp rebuke he has made at a certain church. Now, I never call any names. (Laughter.) Every fellow knows his number, though. (Laughter.) He knows it. 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. Christ said to his disciples on one occasion when they had been without food for two days, and when they said, "Mas- ter, shall we tell them to go away and provide food?" Jesus said, " They need not depart" Blessed be God. A man 6$6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. need not go away from Christ for anything, bnt we can get everything we want for time and eternity right from Christ OHBIST UNDERSTANDS YOU. Gome onto 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 re- covered from a spell of sickness that has been reduced to so much poverty 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 conducive to health afterward, and I can recom- mend 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 yo* rest TWO CLASSES OUT OF CHRIST. That takes in all 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 Savior, and those that are trying to keep the commandments of God and do everything right They 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, 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 to me, and I will give you rest. Do not put new wine into old bottles ; if you do they will break. Do not put new packs into old cloth, or they will rend immediately. RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 6tf Come onto me all ye that labor, and I will give you rett. 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 fellows 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 to the Governor 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 will never kill another. I am done now. You can trust me for that." But the Gov- ernor 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 going to kill another." Now, brother, suppose you keep all the commandments from this time till you die, what are going to do about those you have broken ? Brother, you will find out sooner or later. You will find that you can not 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 to me all ye that labor. The fellow laboring to keep the commandments and to keep away from Christ reminds me of a man that is standing beside the roadside and let 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 re- plies : " Well, I like a good, honest way of getting any &£$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. where. I can walk. I did not want to crowd the train, for I saw there were a good many passengers on it I prefer walking." " Have you got money to pay your way ? " 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 thai % (Laughter.) THE FOOLISH ONES. And here is a fellow who is trying to keep decent. He is brushing his clothes so much that he is brushing them away instead of shucking them off and clothing himself in the garments of righteousness and mixing with the heav- enly throng. Let us run to Christ and give ourselves to God. It is our body, and not our clothes, that needs cleans- ing. A good many people believe that they can develop into Christians; they run on the developing process. They gay : " I am budding now, and by and by I will blossom. I am getting along fine. I have done quit cursing." Yes, you ought to have one hundred lashes for the curs- ing you have already done. Another says, " I have done quit drinking," but how about the drinking he has done in the past? Now he is going to bud and develop into a Christian, and be religious. What would you think of an old washerwoman who would put a pile of clothing on her head and say, "Boss, I am going to develop your clothes." (Laughter.) You would say: "You old dunce, I want those clothes cleaned. I do not want any developing about t\> wn." don't want developing. Sinner, yon don't want any developing ; RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 639 enough I (Laughter.) You want cleansing. It is like old members of the church going to the altar and praying for more religion when they have get enough to damn them — enough to let them stay from prayer-meeting, to neglect family prayers, to go to theaters and to play cards. Broth- ers, do you want any more of that sort ? Lord ! If you get it you are gone. You are mighty near gone anyhow. (Laughter.) I'll tell you, you do not want more religion. You want a pure religion, 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 6ort to save a poor fellow like you and I, because there is not much of us when you boil the thing down right (Laughter.) How easy it is for a man to be declined when he gets on avoirdupois scales. He looks at the beam and sees that he weighs 200 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 200 pounds I Don't you see 1 GOD GOES BY WEIGHT. And that is God's plan. He goes by weight He don't go by measure over much. He goes by weight. Brethren, above all things, let us be weighed in righteousness. Hec- ollect, God can weigh cities and weigh towns, and weigh families and weigh individuals, and recollect the " Mene, mene, tekel." u You are weighed and you are found want- •mg." Come unto me all ye that labor. You that are trying to be decent without the Savior. You who are trying to represent morality. Let me saj to you that except your righteousness exceeds the righteous- 64O SAM JONES' SERMONS. ness of the most moral man the world ever saw ye can not 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, decent, 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 OTHEB SORT. Then the other invitation is to — All that are heavy laden. That takes in all those poor fellows that have tried to be moral and upright and who feel " I am guilty before God and man. I have broken the law in a thousand places. 1 have sinned against God 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, you come to God, all you nice sinners, you must come, and all you guilty sinners you come, too." That is it. 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 rest. I would not give one night at the cross for all the European trips ever taken from this city. Rest! Rest 1 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. I had been preaching there to a great multitude of people four times a day. I preached at 6 o'clock in the morning, 10 o'clock, 8 o'clock in the afternoon and 7 o'clock in the evening right RELIGIOUS RAILROADING, 64 1 straight along. Wife was there with me a few days, and one night we started to church and I told wife: "I can not 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 then I worked among that great audience until 11 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 pillow, and I slept soundly all night, and I awoke in the morning 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 on 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. THE DIVINE DIAGNOSIS. Gome 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 41 6+2 SAM JONES* SERMONS. old tired nature has been beaten and driven and tossed bj ten thousand storms and temptations ! Blessed Master, I am so glad you did to me like the little Lake Gennesaret when it was lashed and tossed into fury by the winds. When the storm was most furious and the disciples were afraid they approached 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 he walked up to the prow of the little boat and pulled the little angry lake on his knee and dangled it to sleep, like a mother would dangle its infant child to sleep. 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 dangles 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 BEST AJSTD FOUNT) REST. I will give you rest. That's it. Rest, Lord. That is what we seek and that is what we want and just what the Lord will give for whatever 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 souls. I like the found rest a little better than I do the giveD rest. Let us take the found rest A man sits down and he says : " I'm so tired." And I say: " What are you do ingl " 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 •one thing else ? There's the difference between rest and RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 643 resting. Did yon ever know it? In the first instance, 1 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. Giving and going — what's giving and what's going? 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 300 feet deep, and dig and delve until I strike the rich vein of pure gold 300 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, "take 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 you 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, and goes when he pleases, just like you do I (Laughter.) You don't work in the vineyard ! You do just as you 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 going to let the church lord it over me. I'm going to be a free man," Yes, and 644 8AM JONES* SERMONS. your freedom has made your nose as red as fire ! That's freedom, ain't it? That's fun! Your freedom is abso- lutely damning you ! Your freedom is putting you when decent people know you they won't associate with you. That's an ideal freedom, ain't it ? Call that freedom ? " Oh, I go where I please 1 " (Laughter.) See, that wild ox just goes where he pleases ! 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 ; he 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, I'm 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 people 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 fourteen years of work for Christ seems to me at times like fourteen 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 down in the glory of a new peace and joy and wondered if Heaven itself had anything better than this. My yoke if easy and my burden light. RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 645 If you suffer with me, you shall reign with me. Bear the joke and wear the crown ! 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. Yon all try to put a yoke on some of your members ; you'd better have your stock tied before you undertake it I (Laughter.) 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 ! (Laughter.) I reckon you would cut a shine. (Laughter.) They're what you call " unbroke " fellows ; never yoked any before. (Laughter.) 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 you would run away and tear the whole thing to pieces before bed-time. (Laughter.) You won't 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 emblem of our faithful service in the cause of Christ — the yoke ! Must Jesus bear the cross alone, And all the world go free ? No ! There's a cross for every one, And there's a cross for me. BRAKING 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 6tream 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 down yonder, and on it rolls, and on it rolls, and by and by the little creek says, " I'm so tired I I have been rolling and running and jumping ever since I was born into 646 SAM JONES ' SERMON* 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 water, so calm, so placid I It is resting so sweetly I It 6tays 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 is full of corruption. And then that creek says : " I am 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 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 in inactivity. Brother, the first thing Christ ever did for the soul was to put his arm 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 is light. Blessed God, 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, because I love and serve thee, my chil- dren love and serve me. Blessed Christ, thou didst pick me up from the lowest depths, and wherever I am in the strata of this universe ; to-day, if I am anything above a poor, wrecked and ruined life, I owe it all to thee • RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 647 and thou shalt have the praise of my lips and the praise of my heart in time, and I have felt a thousand times like the good old woman out at the camp-meeting. She says : " Good Lord, if you'll just save me in Heaven, you shall never hear th e last of it. I'll praise you till all eternity rolls away." (Laughter.) 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 religion. If I was rich I'd want religion. If I was peor I'd want religion. If I was living I'd want religion. If I was dying 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 ige or condition in life, in heaven, or earth, or hell, where I would not crave this priceless blessing of peace and par- don through Jesus Christ. THE PRECIOUS CASKET. "Will you seek it to-night ? Will you seek it to-night I Religion really is like a beautiful little casket given to a friend, richly inlaid with pearl and diamonds. And the friend takes it because of its beauty and its elegance, and places it on the center-table in the parlor. It is the gift of a friend, and oh, how beautiful it is, and how it is prized for its beauty ! But one day the friend was looking at it and the owner touched a secret spring and the beautiful casket flew wide open, and its richest treasure was within. Brother, religion is beautiful, a beautiful gift from Gk>d, that adorns the outward man and makes the world look on a man with love and respect and approve him for what he is. But in death a Christian touches a secret spring, and heaven, with all of its beauties and glories, opens up to V is vision and charms his life and soul through all eternity- 648 8am jones' sermon*. to-night! God help us to seek this peace that comes through Jestu Christ, and whatever else we do, or don't do, God help ns to put our case into the hands of faith to-night, to-night, to-night, to-night ! Oh, 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 ? " " Oh, yes," he said, " 1 am interested. I want to bt 1 Christian." 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 I 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 1 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 OF GRACE. We have only two more services in this series of meet- ings. And how swiftly these hours are passing away I And I am looking in the face of men to-night who feel in their hearts, " I ought to give myself to God," whom I RELIGIOUS RAILROADING. 649 ma j never meet again, may be, until we meet in another world. Yon 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. I have prayed and wept, too. I have preached and talked, although with less effect, it seems to me, than I have ever talked any- where — 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 going to stand, and we will pronounce the benediction, and then we will sing, and if anybody has got more important business elsewhere, or wants to go, you go. But, will yon stay to-night, just a few minutes, friends? God help you to stay and give yourself over to Christ ! Now we will receive the bene- diction! 6$0 SAM JONES' SERMOML CHRISTIAN FAITH IS SHOWN BY A CHRISTIAN LIFE. We invite jour attention to the 17th verse of the 7th chapter of the gospel of St. John : If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. We 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 thai 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 1 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 lawyers of 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! (Laughter.) A great many think, "Well, 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 because he doubts, but he 4oubts because he sin* The Vision of the Cross. CHRISTIAN FAITH. 65 1 I believe the quickest, clearest, grandest conversion God had under his own immediate ministry was the case of Nathaniel. When Nathaniel came up into the presence of Christ, he dropped his finger on him and said : Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. And the doors of Nathaniels heart flew wide open and he said " My Lord and my God." The quickest, clearest, grandest conversion of his ministry was the case of Na- thaniel. He was without guile, and a heart without guile always opens itself when Christ is near about DOUBT THE CHILD OF 8ECT. We sin, and doubt because we sin. I said once before you never had a sin in your life but what, if you would take hold ©f 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 yon will quit doubting just as natural as possible. Now, 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 hypocrisy 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 un- reliability saves him from the charge of hypocrisy. Nobody believes 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 hypocrite. His failure to make the impression saves him from the charge of being a hypocrite. 65 2 SAM JONES* SERMONS. DEFINING HYPOCRISY. Do yon know what a hypocrite is? A hypocrite is a man that don't do right, but wants to make people believe he is doing right, and who don't want to do right. It takes all these elements to make a hypocrite. Now how many hypocrites do you know in the churches of this town that do not do right, who want to make people believe they do right, and who don't want to 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 good 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 ? " And they said, " You are an impostor, and you are a blasphemer, and you are the son of — a harlot." And Jesus looked over to Peter, who was standing there, and said, " Peter, whom say ye 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 God 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 yon. I will say that, and if I were you I would keep it to myself. Yo» CHRISTIAN FAITH. 653 just size yourself up as a great big sinner if yon have great big donbts. One is the result of the other. u My Lord and my 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. Now, I grant you that in all the ages of the world the great discoverers of this world have met with doubts and opposition, and frequently with doom. You may take Gal- ileo, who asserted the discovery of Copernicus that this world rotated on its axis. He was arraigned, tried and convicted 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 schoolboy in this town will tell you that the world rotates on its axis and rolls round the sun in its yearly rev- olution. I believe every being in the universe has accepted the theory that the world moves round the sun except Jasper, the preacher, at Richmond. I heard the other day he was dead. I would hate to have such a case to funer- alize. (Laughter.) I would 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 oppo- sition 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 HERETIC*. When Harvey discovered that the blood circulated from 654 9A* JONES' SERMONS. 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 tried Harvey and convicted him as the greatest heretic this world ever saw. Yet now we honor him as one of earth'6 greatest discoverers ; and to-day when the physician walks into your sick room and lays his finger on your pulse, he determines the nature of the dis- ease by the accelerated action of the pulse, which is the in- dicator of the arterial circulation. No one doubts now that the blood circulates. When Watt discovered that steam — a bland vapor — had a power almost omnipotent, the world laughed him to scorn, and arraigned him, tried him, and convicted him as the greatest heretic the world ever saw. And when Stephen- son 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 mov- ing over this country a mile a minute, pulling their freighted tons over it? All opposition to this grand discoverer has died out with the past. When Morse discovered that a man might chain electric- ity to a wire, an 1 that one man might sit in one city and talk to a person in another city in private conversation, the world pricked its ears up and said, "We have a sure-enough humbug now, and we will condemn him without trial. It's the most astounding humbug the world ever saw ; there is no truth in it." Who doubts now that I can go into a tele- graph office in this town and talk for an hour to a friend in Liverpool, England ? And I say to-night of these grand CHRISTIAN FAITH. 655 discoverers who have proclaimed these discoveries to the world, that in this day the world builds monuments to them and honors them ! THE GRANDEST DISCOVERT OF ALL. But the grandest discoverer in this world's history was he who 1,800 years ago discovered the balm of Gilead and poured his own precious blood out to redeem this world, and that precious blood has been washing its millions for 1,800 years, and yet, to-day, after all the triumphs 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 reckon we would have been fighting Galileo to-day if he had abused dram-drinking, cursing and making money. I expect 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. (Laughter.) 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 OF CHRISTIANITY. Thank God, 1,800 years ago, before I ever saw the light of this world, that precious blood was shed to redeem me, and thank God, 1,800 years after it was poured out my poor heart was washed in the blood Jesus Christ had poured out to save sinners. Now, brother, I 6ay this, and I talk with the Bible open before me, and with intelligent men and women before me. Listen. The science of Christ crucified, the religion of Christianity, may be tested just SAM JONES' SERMONS. like anything else. A great many say it is a sentiment foi old women and children. I recollect in the town where I lived that there was a poor fellow whom they called half- witted. All the sense he had in the world was religious sense, and 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 ; and I told the 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 to find 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 religioE of Jesus Christ as the plaything of an idiot, or as a senti- ment for a poor old woman in her dotage to hug to her heart, that there is something in it to engage the grandest minds and keep busy the biggest hearts this world ever saw. Let us stop to think before we deride the science that has blood- washed the world already 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 PHT8ICAL DEMONSTRATION. Now we stop for a moment. The science of mathematics for instance, is a true 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." 1 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 : " Yon are a sensible man, and I will take yon CHRISTIAN FAITH, 0|f ever here to these Alps," those grand mountains piled np 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 m 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," says these Governments, " If you fail to do it we have lost millions." The engineers say they will not fail, and they bring their instruments to bear on that old mountain and mark ont 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. One day the workmen on France's side sat down to dinner. The workmen on Switzerland's side rose from their midday meal and commenced work first. The French workmen suddenly hear the rumblings of the pick on the other side land they jump up and take up their tool 8 and commence work again on the partition of earth, and in fifteen 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 pre- cisely 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 be- lieve in Jesus Christ." u Well, what makes you believe in Jesus Christ t * 42 6$$ SAM JONES' SERMONS. w Because he pardoned my sins." " 0h> well, there may bo a sentiment abont 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 God 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 dem- onstration 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." VEST 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 fel- low. Science demonstrates that there are curative proper. ties in dry earth, but wet it, and the curative power is destroyed. To rub inert wet dirt on a man's eyes and tell him to go and wash his eyes in that pool — why, he has washed all over in that pool many a time — there is nothing in it." " Well," the poor, blind fellow says, " Don't you go on speculating. 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 in the darkness until he struck the edge of the pool and then he stooped and pulled the water up to his eyes and washed the clay from his eyes and then wrung the CHRISTIAN FAITH. 659 water out of his eyes, and when he looked up he saw rocks, and rivers and mountains that his eyes never looked on be- fore. The scientific gentlemen pressed around him, and said, " Look here, old fellow, we want to make something out of this case. We admit 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 can not tell you anything about that, but I know, * Whereas I was blind, now I see.' " And, brothers, there is demonstration for you. ANOTHER DEMONSTRATION. " I like that. But can't you demonstrate it some other way?" "Bring me up ten lepers this way " — and this old world had done its best on lepers in all of its ages, and admitted having 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 at the poor lepers, and said : " Go and show yourself to the priest." The poor skeptics yonder say : " Mister, the priests won't let those lepers come around; they will hold up their hands, and tell them to keep off be- fore 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 going to try this thing; we're going to the priest." Off they start, and before they get one hundred yards from the Son of God, one said : " The scales are falling from my body," and another said : " Such is the case with me," and one said: "1 am sound from head to foot," and 660 8AM JONES' SERMONS. another said, "I am," and one ran back to praise God for the healing of the whole. WHAT THE TROUBLE IS. Do yon 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. Til 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 yon." " 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 pry his eyes open, and he says, " I don't want to see. It'll cost me something to see that light." ( Laughter.) 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 — 340 miles. "Oh, well," he says, "yon can't fool me.* CHRISTIAN FAITH. 66 1 "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. (Laughter.) I don't believe it.> The train don't move at all." Now, you ain't got time to fool away with that fellow al all — have you. ( Laughter.) 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 practi- cably on his lips, "I don't believe a word of it." Now, brother, you may test this thing. And when an infidel sits down and proposes to argue with me, I don't argue with him. I just ask him three questions, and when he 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 1 Have you ever tried him?" "No." "Well, will you try him? n "No." " Well, will you acknowledge yon are a fool! n ( Laugh- ter.) "No." "Now, you see, we can't argue this thing any further. ( Laughter.) That just settles the matter right there." " I have never tried him, I am never going to try him, «nd I ain't a fool" SAM JONES' SERMONS* Now, when a man denies everything that yon want to assert, then there is no ground there for an argument at all, and I just bid him good-bye, 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 probing 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, u And if you don't find it true, I will acknowledge myself an impostor and blasphemer in the sight of God 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. VHiat did Peter say to him that day he had 3,000 con- verts under one sermon ? He said : " Repent, ye, there- fore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. Repent 1 repent ! repent I " HAED8HELL VS. ARMENIAN. Now* brother, repentance is your part; salvation horn sin is God's part with the world ; and you need never ex- pect God to do his part until you have done your part I heard of an old Hardshell once — he was not a convert- CHRISTIAN FAITH. 663 ed Hardshell; he was an unconverted Hardshell — and that's the worst shape I found the devil in yet. He was an unconverted Hardshell (laughter), and he would say, " What is to be is to be, you know," and he says, " If you seek religion you can't 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. (Laughter.) And this is the way the world goes with him." (Laughter.) But when you strike an Armenian sinner, a sinner who says, " 1 must do something; 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 Hard- shell after I get it. (Laughter.) Now, that is how I fix the thing. But, God Almighty! deliver me from Hard- shellism before I get it. I am gone, certain. If I get to be a Hardshell before I get to be a Christian I am gone sure. (Laughter.) BRINGING THE HARDSHELL TO TEEMS. Now, 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 small still voice for sixty years." " Have you heard it ? " " Eo." " Well you're getting pretty deaf, and if you couldn't hear it when your ears were good, how do you expect to hear it now ? " He told the old Hard- shell : " You come down to the meeting and seek God and 664 SAM JONES' SERMONS. yon will find him ; " and to his astonishment the old Hard- shell was down at the altar and on his knees and praying that night. And next morning at the service, before the service was concluded, the Hardshell was converted to God, and he stood up and slapped his hands together, and he said: " Brethren, I tell you that Methodism has done more for me in twelve hours than Ilardshellism did for me in sixty years." lie 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." (Laughter.) That's my doc- trine. But don't you try that thing on you until you get religion. (Laughter.) 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 of your sins and be turned around. TURNING ABOUND. Be turned around ! I have said before — I repeat it to every man here to-night — there is but one road in the mora universe of God, and that one road goes to both worlds. I can take that street out there in front of this church and 1 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 be- tween 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 all going this way ; and it is not which road you are in, but which direction you are going. Don't you see ? (Laughter.) I used to think that a fellow had to go a week's journey, CHRISTIAN FAITH. 665 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, hut I found at last I had been in the road to hell all my life, aiid 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 I AN APT ILLUSTRATION. Old John Knight, of our Conference — Bishop (turning to Bishop Granberry, who was on the platform), you knew him — a saintly old man he was — was sitting back in the church one night listening to George Smith preach, and George was preaching of repentance, and he was agoing it, and he was speaking of evangelical repentance and legal repentance, splitting hairs a mile long and quartering them (laughter), showing which was legal repentance and which was evangelical repentance, and old Uncle John Knight sat back there listening to old Uncle George until he was tired, and old Uncle John stood up and said : " George, won't you stop a minute and let me tell them what repentance is ? " And George said, " Yes, Uncle John. I always like to hear you talk." And Uncle John started up the aisle this way, and he said, " I am 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 going to heaven ; I am going to heaven." (Laughter.) " Now," said he, " George, tell 'em to turn around (laughter) ; that means repentance ; that means con- version ; and don't stand there splitting hairs on evangelical and legal repentance. (Laughter.) WHAT CONVERSION MEANS. 9od have mercy upon us and show us that the will of Grod 666 SAM JONES* SERMONS. is that we be converted. And converted means nothing more than turn around. " Verto " 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 put that 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 right about. 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 on 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 500 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 refreshness upon your sosd. That is it TAKE A STAND FOB THE EIGHT. Now, I turn to another point here. The greatest man that Christ ever touched his heart almost was St. Paul. I say here : When he fell down before God and the voice said: "Why persecu test thou me?" and he said: "What wilt thou have me to do?" And the Lord said to him: " Rise, 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 afterward in this CHRISTIAN FAITH. 66f shape: "I f ought 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, 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. OHBISTIAN OWNERS OF UQUOE STORES. A fellow says : " I go in a bar-room because I got busi- ness in there." But what business a Christian has got in there — that's the mystery to me. " Well, I go in there to collect my rents." (Laughter.) Yes, yes ; and I'll risk the bar-keeper's chances of heaven before I'll risk yours, you old hypocrite, you I You under- stand that ? The bar-keepers and whisky men are not the meanest men in this town. But if you can find me a mem- ber of the church that runs a house and rents a place of business for 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. Now (turning to the ministers on the platform), say "Amen." (Laughter.) (To the re- porters) 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. (Great laughter.) A NICE LITTLE STOBT ABOUT THE DEVIL. I say, let a man stay on God's territory if he is a Ohm- 668 SAM JONES* SERMONS. tian, and let him stand there with his weapons drawn, and let him fight for the right. That's it. I 6aw 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 minutes 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 ? w 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 I You made a mistake this time 1 " , "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." (Great laughter.) FIGHTING FOE A CROWN. Well, now, you can't afford to run over on the devil's side. (Laughter.) Anyhow you'd better mind how yon die over there. (Sensation.) I want to get back before I die. St. Paul 6aid: I have fought a good fight. CHRISTIAN FAITH. 669 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, al- most 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 up 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. There also sat a man a little distance from the door, at a table- side, with a book and his inkliorn before him, to take the name of him that should enter 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 counte- nance come up to the p man that sat there to write, saying; " Set down my name, sir." And when he had done this he saw the man draw hi* 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 put, he cut his way through them all, and pressed forward 67O SAM JONES' SERMONS. into the palace, at which there wag 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 yon, brother. After yon have fought the good fight, and steel has clanged against steel, and you have warded off blow after blow, and dealt stroke after stroke upon 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 1 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. (Applause.) TAKE A STAND FOR GOD. Take a stand for God and the right! That's it What is the will of God concerning me? Peter said, "Repent and be converted." God 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, " I 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 4 stand for the right. Are you willing to do that? There's something very practical about that, brother. Listen ! If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the doctruaa. CHRISTIAN PAITH. Of 1 That is, know it for himself. And then I would hare 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 tell you 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 have ever had was when I had refused to do something God told me to do, or else I will- ingly lent myself to evil influences. 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. Said he : "I went home last evening with a promise made to a gentleman at the church, 'I will pray to-night before I go to bed.' " He wouldn't come here to this altar night before last, but he made that friend promise to pray for him. He s*nd : "I went home, and the impression upon my mind was : a Well, there's a crisis upon you, sir. It's now or never, »*ay be with you,' " and he said : " I knelt down and said : * O God, the crisis is upon me! Show me hope in thy word.' n And he opened his Bible and his eyes fell on this ; I eried onto the Lord and he heard me. SAM JONES' SERMONS. 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 FOB ACTION. Time for action now. Now or never. You have thought enough. You have looked enough ! You have listened enough ! You have heard enough ! 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 6in ? How many more pre- cious opportunities would you lose for doing good? How many ? How long halt ye betwixt two opinions ? 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 30uthern 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 foi 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 CHRISTIAN FAITH. ©73 weeks ; yon 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 four- teen years ago last August some divine power called me up from my grave of shame and guilt and made me a new crea- ture, and 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 altogether. 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 alto- gether." Won't you 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 presence 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 yon 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." 43 SAM JONES' SERMONS THE JUDGMENT DAY. We invite jour attention to the 14th verse of the 31st ehapter of the book of Job. I see how uncomfortable you are, and we will discuss the text hurriedly and have service over as soon as possible. This sea of Christian faces and earnest hearts is enough to repay any man for thirty days of earnest labor. This is a sight you may never see again in this world, and, oh, may God sanctify these services to the good of every one present ! May every soul in this great packed house to-night say "I want to give myself to God ; I want to live right and get peace." A FEW WORD8 OF THANKS. There are one or two things I want to say to you before we proceed to the text. There are many things at this hour to gladden my heart and I feel grateful to God for the co-operation and prayers of the hundreds of Christian people and of all those faithful ministers that have stood by my side. I thank God for the hundreds and thousands of Christian people in this city who testify that they start oiu from these services with renewed strength and and with their religious life quickened, with then brightened, with their faith stronger. I thank God for all this. Then we are grateful to God for the hundreds, I know not how many hundreds, that have given themselves to God and to a better life. I have seen as many as fifty at a service profess faith and love in Jesus Christ. I have seen at other services forty, and I have seen at some thirty, prov- ing this evidence of a desire to begin to do the right. Ihis much I can say : we are satisfied that hundreds have de- The Golden Ladder ; THE JUDGMENT DAT. 6/5 cided and made choice of Christ as their personal Savior and are seeking Heaven as their final home. DISCOUBAGING FEATURES. There are some features of these meetings that when we look at them we are discouraged and heartsick. While we glorify God that hundreds have been quickened unto a new life, and that thousands and hundreds have been brought to Christ, yet it makes our hearts sad when we see thou- sands that are out of Christ, and I never can rejoice with my whole heart over those that have found Christ, when 1 am sad over the thousands that are still lost. May Christ go out afttr the lost sheep of this city, and hunt them precious Savior, till you have found them all, and lay them on thy own loving shoulder and bring them all back to the fold. ("Amen!") I leave here with a sad heart. I go away from many new-made friends ; I go away with a consciousness that many names and faces are written on my heart You may read them there in Heaven, I trust. A SAD SUMMONS. I leave your city to go to the bed-side of one of the sweetest, best sisters a boy ever had, or maybe to her fu- neral; I know not. I have been very sad all day, and yet re- joicing. I think this has been the sweetest religious day I almost ever spent in my life. The Lord came upon us at Centenary and his blessings came like the falling snow, and we scarcely knew that grace was falling until we were cov- ered up all over with the snows of divine grace which had fallen. Let us look for such a service to-night. I shall carry you away in my heart and in my memory, and I shall pray for you, and the greatest favor I can ask of yon is to 6f6 SAM JONES* SERMONS. pray to God that I may be a faithful preacher, a good man, a gentle, loving father and a husband in the highest sense of the word. God bless you all. THE TEXT. And now the text — the 14th verse of the 31st chapter of Jie book of Job : What then shall I do when God riseth up to judgment ? And when he yisiteth with punishment, what shall I answer him ? Now, all gospel-taught men believe that there is a great day in the future of this world's history when God will ex* amine every spiritual fig tree to see if there be figs thereon. We all believe that there is to be a great day in the future when God will call upon every man for usury upon the talent intrusted to his care. In other words, we all believe who lean upon that book that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in right- eousness. It is spoken of in the scripture as the day of the final restitution of all things. It is spoken of in the scripture as the great day of God's wrath, when the question of all shall be, " Who will be able to stand ? " Will you, will you, will you, will I, will you, will you, will you, be able to stand in that great day ? WHO SHALL STAND ON THAT DAT. To stand then means to stand forever. Oh, the great day of his wrath, the judgment day, the great day in the future when God shall summons men and angels alike to the great white throne, and when every man shall give ac- count of himself unto God ! Now, some think that judgment is past, and some think that judgment is going on now, but I believe the scripture when it says — God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world i* rifhtounrrn— ■ THE JUDGMENT DAY. 6jJ It is spoken of in the scriptures as a " day." I don't think we are by any means to understand that God will judge this world in a period of twenty-four hours. THE TERM " DAT." This term " day " is used indiscriminately in scripture. For instance, it is written our Savior said — Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Not any particular twenty-four hours of his life, but the whole thirty-three years of his existence on earth was com- prehended in that term, " day." Again, our Savior said to the Jews : Oh, that thou hadst known in this, thy day, the things that belonged to thy peace. Here he referred to no particular twenty-four hours he spent in Jerusalem, or upon the bosom of the lake of Gen- nesaret, or on the hills of Jerusalem, but the whole three years of his ministry was embraced in this term, "day." And now God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in right- eousness. A FINAL JUDGMENT. And I dare assert this fact : The issues of that day are eternal. When once God says : " Depart ye cursed into everlasting flames," there will be no after-jurisdiction ; there will be no revisionary control. When God says, " Depart," the sentence is written, and shall sparkle forever upon the tablets of eternity. And the issues being eternal, and there being no after-jurisdiction or revisionary control, no higher court to which we can appeal, we say God will not hurry matters on that occasion. God will give every soul ample time and opportunity to bring out all the " pros " and " cons" on that occasion. And of this much I rest assured, that up there it will not be like it is in our courts here We grew 678 SAM JONES' SERMONS. tired of long trials here ; we grow tired and hungry and homesick, but up yonder we will be spiritual beings, we'll know nothing of hunger or weariness, and I believe that an aggregated world can stand before God's great white throne a thousand years and listen to the issues being sifted between God and each human soul. God will give every man justice, no matter what time may be necessary to hear all of his ease. God will never say to you with final emphasis, " Depart ye accursed," as long as there is hope of your ac- quittal. AN ETERNAL EXPLANATION. I may say, again, that I am glad there is such a day in the great future, and I am glad there is such a day ap- pointed. Without such a day as that there would be a great many things in eternity that we never could under- stand. I have fondled the thought to my bosom for thirty years that I would meet my precious mother in Heaven, lx.t if I walked the Elysian fields from shore to shore along the banks of the river of life, and I could nowhere find my mother, I would wander through all eternity. " Oh, where is my mother and why is she not here ? " But with a dav like this, when the whole universe shall stand before God, and God shall individualize my mother and she shall press her way out of that multitude and stand alone before God, and all that may be said for and against shall be brought out ; and if, after a fair investigation and just sentence, God shall say to my mother : "Depart ye accursed into everlast- ing flames ! " then I will understand it. Let us not be disturbed and let us think that we never had a more serious discussion before us as a congregation. This little company gathered here to-night will be bat a THE JUDGMENT DAT. 679 drop in the great ocean that shall be gathered yonder before the great white throne ; and when on a day like that after all the issues have been brought out and all the questions solved and justice done and God says to my mother : " De- part ye accursed," I shall say "Amen" to my mother's damnation; I will say: "My mother is condemned, but God is just" Without such a day as this in the great future before us we might meet parties in heaven that would astonish us. We have known many a knotty, gnarly hard-to-be-under- stood Christian in this world, and we have thought: "Well, if this man gets to heaven I would be surprised," and with- out such a day as that if we should meet such a man in heaven we would wonder through all eternity "how could this man have gut there ; " but with a day like that before us, when God shall bring this brother before the great white throne and shall strip him of all his idiosyncrasies and shall show you all the pure gold of hie ^Jharacter and shall say to him: " Come ye blessed," a universe will stand around and say "Amen " to this brother's commendation. WHERE IS THE PREACHER? There are persons in this world that might fail to meet their faithful preacher in heaven. The book says : And many in that day shall say : Lord, Lord ! have I not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? and he shall say to them, depart! I never knew you. And if after roaming through heaven I could never find the faithful preacher that won me to Christ, I should won- der, through all eternity, where was the preacher that was so earnest and brought me to Christ, and I never could understand it without a day like this. But when the whole universe shall appear around the great white throne, and God shall individualize the preacher, and he shall stand 68o SAM JONES' SERMONS. before God alone, and God shall strip him of his hypoi riay or his unfaithfulness, and show you what he was and say to your brother : Depart ye accursed into everlasting flames ! We will all say "Amen " to that preacher's condemnation. THE PREACHER'S IDIOSYNCRASIES. I have thought of this. But for that judgment day I would be very different from what I am. A great many men 6ay : "Well, he has more idiosyncrasies, he has more peculiarities, he has more about him that needs trimming off and needs adjustment than any preacher I ever listened to." Well, you see me in contrast simply with other preachers. I say to you to-night, as God is my judge now and shall be at the final judgment. I say to you to-night here is one man that talks and lives and teaches just as naturally as he ever drew the breath of life. I don't try to cultivate this style or to adjust myself to this or that man's notions. You can't please everybody — you can't. I have heard one person coming out of the church cursing me at every step and another one bragging on me at every step. Well, thank God, I've got half of that crowd on my side, and a man is doing first rate if he can please one half of the community ; I have found that out. I say to you this: I care not for your opinion. If God is with me and God will help me and God will strengthen me, what does your criticism amount to ? Your criticism, just all there is of it, is between here and the graveyard. It don't reach beyond at all, and your com- mendation or your condemnation now is not going to help me at all up yonder or set me back up yonder. I have said to preachers, and I have said to people: "Now, yon want THE JUDGMENT DAT. 61 1 to advise me and yon want to counsel me how to preach ! Now, I have got just one question to ask you : ' Have yon got the job of judging me on the last day ? ' " They say : " No." " "Well," I say, " now you run your machine and I'll run mine. Until you get the job of judging me, I care very little about what you think or what you say ; but if you've got the job of judging me, I'll preach to your opinion, I'll preach to suit you exactly." A FAITHFUL PREACHER'S STANDPOINT. Hear me 1 A faithful preacher is looking to eternity and looking to the judgment bar of God and looking to his own convictions. For I say to you to-night, whatever may be your opinions or your views, I have not preached a sermon in this city that I didn't realize in every utterance of it, " I have got a soul in my own body to be saved or lo6t," and the greatest calamity that can befall me is not to fall under your condemnation or your criticism, but the great- est calamity in time or eternity would be to have God say to me at the final day, " Depart ye cursed into ever- lasting flames." May God help you to hold the preacher np and to stand by the preacher, and let God judge him about the way he does his work (amen), and we would be a great deal better off in the world. RELIGION OR A CONGREGATION. A preacher told me once : " Why," said he, " Jones, ii I were to preach like you do I would lose my religion." " Well," said I, " If I were to preach just like you I would lose my congregation." And I don't know which is the worst, a preacher with- out religion or a preacher without a congregation. If a man don't hard religion he can get it any morning before 66* SAM JONES' SERMONS. breakfast, but getting a congregation is a right big, hard thing, if yon never tried it. And I say each man to his work and to every man hie work. I say to you all in all love and kindness to-night, I have preached the truth just as I believed it with all my heart, and I'm perfectly willing to meet you at the final judgment bar of God about the way I have preached in your city. I know it is the opinion and the view of some people in this city — professed Christians — " If he had come to our city and just attacked sin, why, he would have had a grand success, but he ran off on theaters and dancing and playing cards." And I want to tell you all right here, if there isn't any harm in cards and theaters and dancing, it is a very strange thing to me that you never catch spiritually minded Christians getting tangled up with them. Did you ever notice that ? I want e\erj spiritually minded Chris- tian in this hoi'se that has played a game of cards in ten years to stand Tip. (One man rose.) I want every spiritually minded Christian in this house that attends theaters to stand up. (No one rose.) I want e 1 ery spiritually minded Christian who gives dances at hi* or her house, or attends dances, to Jtand up. (No one rore.) You nee In't be looking around I They won't get up I (Laughtei ) FRIVOLOUS AMUSEMENTS. Oh, n y fellow countrymen, let me say to you, in all love and kindness, to-night, I never struck any surer, more dead- ly blows for this city than I have in denouncing these thing*, which are but the stepping stones to worse and more fearful sins. (Amen.) Beer and whisky and a thou- v a MCNEILL'S POPULAR SERMONS: 373 pages. Delivered in Lon- con and America by the Rev. John McNeill, one of the ablest and most p< pular of living divines, and Inown on both continents as "The SccTch Spurgeon " of Europe, of whom D. L. Moody has said: " He is the greatest preacher in the world." A most clear, vivid, earnest and life-like presentation of Gospel Truth; sincerely and decidedly spiritual. A most edifying, instructive and entertaining volume for young and old. EDISON AND HIS INVENTIONS: 278 pages. Containing full illustrated explanations of the new and wonderful Pho- nograph, Telephone, Electric Light, and all his principal inventions, in Edison's own language, generally, including many incidents, anecdotes and interesting particulars connect- ed with the earlier and later life of the world-renowned inventor, together with a full Electrical Dictionary, explain- ing all of the new electrical terms; making a very entertain- ing and valuable book of the life and works of Edison. Profusely illustrated. GEMS OF TRUTH AND BEAUTY. A choice selection of wise, eloquent extracts from Talmage, Beecher, Moody Spurgeon, Guthrie and Parker, forming a volume that keenly interests. A good gift and center table book 300 pages, Illustrated. Standard Publications, $1.00 each, Cloth-bound. STORIES FOR THE LITTLE ONES AT HOME. 320 pages. " This hand- somely illustrated book has been com- piled and arranged by one who is best able to tell what is good for the instruc- tion and amusement of the children." — - A Mother. Many of the rhymes are original, but a large number are old favorites that will interest the old folk as reminiscences of their childhood days. The illustrations are numerous and designed to arare and interest the little ones at home. They are idols of home and of households; They are Angels of God in disguise. His sunlight still sleeps in their tresses; His glory still gleams in fhcir eyes. GEMS OF POETRY. 407 pages. Finely illustrated. Contains a very choice and varied selection of our most popular, beautiful and time- honored poems, written by the poets of all ages and climes. A magnificent gift book for a friend; a splend'd book for the holidays; ap- propriate for a birthday or wedding present; a fine center-table book, in- teresting to all. WEBSTER'S Unabridged Dictionary REPRINT EDITION. CLOTH, - • HALF MOROCCO, SHEEP, - - - $1.50 - 1.75 - 2.00 Every School Child Should Have One of These Copies. OVER 1300 PAGES. Beautiful Frontis- piece of the Flags of All Nations in Five Colors, Illustrated. THE BEST ON THE HARKET TO-DAY FOR THE HONEY. ADDRESS ALL ORDERS TO Rhodes & McClure Publishing Co., 93 Washington Street, CHICAGO.