IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I »4i m 112.5 - m 12.2 2.0 1.8 1 1.25 1.4 1.6 "^ 6" - ► Photographic Sciences Corporation 4- «■ n V \\^^ 73 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY MS80 (716) 872-4503 o^ ^^«- % V" On*. ^, fi i/.A c 4> CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions i. o largS^J^, tlMlVMMWk i^^^i -J — tt: l^nKHoto^ fl^% ^lll»fcllll»*p**^ , - ^ .4*^w*-flMftfe: -^Hi*^ • S' \ A \ W*¥^-: -^ iB'lbtMMW Sftf ^ I " ' "" " -f . nlMCin- Sermons and Sayin&s. BY THE REV. SAM P. JONES, Of the North Georgia Conference. J-'/J^ST SERIES. rDITEI> DT W. M. LEFTWICH, D.D. "And he gave some Evangelists." (St. Paul.) ^^^^ TORONTO: William Buicr.s, 78 anp 80 Kixn Stref.t, East. C. W COViKS, MONTREAL, nVF.. S. 1- . MLESTIS, HALIFAX, N. 8. Lilirarian of ('"iigrtss, ut Wnfliiimton. LIBRARY [£'rs cov-v i^V I/: EDITOR'S NOTE. TiiKSE Sermons — except two — were preached in the great gospel tent in Nasliville, Tenn., between May 10th and 30th, 1885. In giving them to the public, two facts should be stated: 1. The publication of this volume of Mr. Jones's "Sermons and Sajdngs" was made necessary Jjy tlie liaste with which the imperfect reports of his sermons, as printed in the daily papers, were gathere)ly Ghost seemed at times to take ^wssession of both, and come down through them in mighty baptism upon penitents and congre- gations while she prayed in public. His mother was a woman of superior intelligence and piety, but she died when he was only eight years old. She left upon his young heart and life the tender minis- tries of motherly gentleness and love which are forever associated in his mind with the angels of God. His "precious mother," as he always calls her, is a ministering angel to him. His father. Captain John J. Jones, was a lawyer of note in (ieorgia, distinguished foi his intelligence, integrity, probity, social (pialities, and consistent piety. He prepared his son for the legal profession, which he en- tered in early manhood with the fairest prospects and promises of success. liut his exu'>erant social temperament soon led him into social excesses, and on and on into the vortex of dissipation. Whis- ky-drinking, profanity, and their kindred evils, swept him down into the deepest depths, and made him so reckless that all cfloi'ts ff)r his reformation onlv maddened him, tmtil his father, ballled and morti* (5) 6 BiooiiAi'iiicAL Sketch. fu'd, Kiivt' up all liopc, anil thi'ii laid down to die. Wlillo on liiH (lvath-l>c(l li'iH father hoIzimI every ojtporlnnity to talk witli him. An death approaehed the Hon grew more and more herlous, until tl.i^ ('I<»Ninj^ N-ent — Hoti'iuiu))hant over death that heaven and earth were brought together — when the prodigal hoy fell down at the death-hed and cried out for nierey, saying: "I'll (juit; I'll (piit! '(lod, ho nieiciful to me, a sinner I'" liitterly did ho weep, repent, and pray. The Had occasion v/as sanetilied to his salvation. The death of the father was life to tiie son. "That which thou h-iwest is not jpiiekened except it die." Death for life and life from death. lie was at once called of God to preach the gospel, and he waited not to confer with flesh and Wood, hut at once applied for '.icense to preach, and for a every part of the country, from Washington to San Francisco, and from the Lakes to the Gulf. Wherever ho goes the churches are stirred and (piiekened into u better and higher life, and sinners are awakened and converted to Christ by hundreds and thousands. All classes, from the highest to the lowest, from the most learned and cultivated to the most igno' rant and the roughest, are alike movetl to repentance and a better life by him, or rather by the Holy Sjnrit through him. His jKJwer over men an men is marvelous, and his power over vast assemblies is phenomenal. He is "the master of assemblies." He despises the mere arts of oratory, as he does all shams, but he possesses the elo- (pience of earnestness and action, the fire and glow of passion, the surprises of thought, the wit, humor, ridicule, irony, sarcasm, in- vective, i)athos, sympathy, love, humanity, and faith, which, ox- l)ressed in the language of the shop and fiehl, and illustrateil by the common facts of life and the happiest allegories, make him the most sensational preacher now in the American pulpit. But he is njore than sensational: he is indued wiln power from on high, and com- missioned to carry the gosjjel to the common people, who always Jiear him gladly. The wonderful work which God wrouglit through Mr. Jones in Nashville, Tenn., is appropriately commemorated by this volume of Bcrmons. W. M. L. PREFATORY mm. PASTORAL LETTER. Knoxville, Tenx., April 15, 1885. We, the pastors of Protestant churches, and ministerH of tlie gos- pel of the grace of God in Jesus Clirist, in the city of Knoxvillc, to the pastors and churches in Nashville, and to the brethren in Christ Jesus everywhere to whom these presents may come, send greeting. Be it known unto you, brethren and fathers, that by the space of twelve days we have had in our midst, and preacliing to us and to our people, the Kev. Samuel P. Jones, an accredited minister of the gospel in the North Georgia 0)nfcrence of the Mctliodist Episcopal Cliurch, South, laboring as an evangelist, and tliat we have had full opportunity to learn the tendency of his teaching and the character of his work. By reason of evil reports some of us at the first were prejudiced against him, but having attended upon his ministrations four times a day for eleven consecutive days, hearing his discourses, in which he has handled all the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, we have found no fault in him. Wliile simply as a matter of taste we could have wished some things had been couched in different phraseology and some matters illustrated by less humorous incidents, nevertheless we indorse the soundness of the doctrine he inculcated in general. We bear our cheerful testimony to his zeal for the truth, to his jealousy for the honor of the holy religion, to his efforts to glorify God, and his earnest love for the souls of men; and we testify that while among us his preaching lias been evangelical and scriptural, and wonderfully blessed to the edification of saints and the convic- tion of sinners. His labors here have resulted in awakening pro- fessed Cliristians to a greater earnestness, fidelity, and zeal in the serv- ice of God, in public and in private, and in tlie establishment of many family altars where they had never been erected before, and in convincing sinners of their lost condition and leading tlicm to flee for refuge to the liope set before us in the gospel, and hundrcls liave given good evidence of having passed from deatli unto life. He lias preaclied the word, has been instant in season and out of season; lias reprovetl, rebuked, exhorted, with all long-suffering; he has shown God's pec (8) PnEFAToiiY Notes. 9 1, 1885. the go*' xvillc, to in Christ greeting. space of 13 and to Ler of the Episcopal ! had full character )rejudiced bur times which he we have we could raseology ertheless oneral. h, to Ilia glorify tify that [criptural, convic- ting pro- i tlie scrv- lliraent of Ire, and in Ito flee for lave given 1 preached Ircproved, lod's pec pie their transgressions, and the liouse of Jacob tlieir sins. He han testified in favor of righteousness, and against all unrighteousnesjs. His denunciation of tiie righteous judgment of Gcxl on every form of vice and iniquity has been bold and fearless, but always coupled with coinpiLssion and earnest love for the souls of men, and strong desire to lead them to tiie cross of Christ for salvation. We therefore commend him to vou, brethren, as a brother dearly beloved by us in Christ, and as a workman that needeth not to bo ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And we pray that the blessing of God and our Father may be upon all his work and labor of love, and that when he shall come to you, it may be in demonstra- tion of the Spirit and of power; and that his mission to you may be even more blessed of God to the upbuilding of his kingdom and the salvation of men than it Avas to us. We herald him as an earnest, honest, devout, and consecrated servant of our common Lord and Mas- ter, willing to s[)cnd and be spent 'n building up the (."hurch of tiio living God, and pointing perishing men to the cross of Clirist. .Tames Pauk, Pastor of First Presbyterian Churcji. L. L. IT. Caui.ock, Pastor of Church Street M. E. Church, South R. J. Cooke, Pastor of First ^T. E. Churcli. Jj. II. Parsons, Presbyterian Minister. J. V. F. Tuck, Presbyterian Minister. AV. IT. Bates, Minister M. E. Church, Soutli. II. J. Cooley, Local Preacher M. E. Church. IT. P. "Waugii, Lenoir Street M. I']. Church, South. E. A. Taylor, I'astor of First Baptist Church. W. A. Harrison, Pastor of Tliird Prcsbytoriai? Church. W. H. Baugii, Pastor of Cumberland Prcsbvterian Church. W IL Bays, Pastor of Broad Street ]M. E. Church, South. Williasi Aiken, Presbyterian Minister. D. Dyfri Davies, Fasten- of Welsh Congregational Church, C. B. Sparrow, Presiding Elder U. E. Church, R. N. Price, Editor Ilolslon MdhodUt. From Rev. Jerry Withcrsi>oon, D.D., Pastor First Prpshytcrinn Clir.roli. Nashville, Tenn., .June 1{\ 188-5. In the Rev. Sam P. Jones I recognized, the first time it was my privilege to hear him, a man of wondcrfid power. Ordiniirily, as a minister of the gospel myself, I sit in the puli)it behind a l)rotlu'r minister, and hear him i)reach to the people, often losing sight nf the fact that he speaks to me as well as to them; but in every sermon . 1 :ii ! 10 Prefatory Notes. of Brother Jones I felt that he was preaching to me. Ilis prcnchtnii was food to my sonl. It sliowcd me my Heliciencies; it comforted me; it stirred my soul; it moved me to a higher |)lane of (wnseera- tioii, and sent me forth into my fiehl of work better fitted, as I trus^t, ilian ever before for the riervice of the Master. The man and his power liave afTorded me a theme for study. ''What mcaneth this?" I have often inquired. The real secret is: (tod has clothed him with power. From the stand-point of a IWs- bi/leriun I would say that the man and his work arc ordained. His earnestness is red-hot. He is a muster of human nature. lie spoke in parables, as it were. His hold on the multitude is phenomenal. If oratory consists in convincing and persuading people, making them remember his words and think his thoughts," then Sam Jones is an orator of the highest order. His work in Nashville, so far as I have been able to judge, exhibits every feature of i)ermanence. It shows itself among my people in greater spiritual power, deeper love for the ordinances of God's house, and in increased attendance upon the ministrations of the sanctuary. His work in Nashville will serve to mark a new era in the spiritual history of this city. Jerry Witiiebspoon. From Rev. C. H. Strickland, D.D., Pastor First Baptist Church. Nasiiviixe, Tenx., May 30, 1885. The man excites my admiration and wonder. He loves men, and abhors sin. His work is marvelous, surpassing any thing of the kind 1 have yet Avitnessed. lie certainly has power with God and >vith men. I love the man, and thank God for the vast amount of good he has accomplished in this city. C. H. Strickland. From Rev. M. B. DeWitt, D.D., Pastor p:dsjonpl(l Cumb. Pres. Church. Nasuvit.le, Tenn., Juno 27, 1885. Dear Dr. Leflwick : In Avriting about Kev. Sam Jones in person, I !im sure that prudence will dictate a careful regard for truth and the fact that he is a living man, and will read whatever is said in this connection. He has a p'.irpose, grand, high, commanding. His whole nature is given to (iod's cause. He displays little fear of men, whetber as dignitaries of the Church, expounders of theological opinions, rep- resentatives of society, or examples of corrupt lives in any form tif vice. He calls sins by Saxon names, with emphasis laid on the right place. I think I never knew a preacher before who could so use wit, humor, sarcasnj, and denunciation as to make them most effectively contribute to Jiis aim at the sinful hearts of men. His decision of Prefatohy Notes. U character is most pronounced. He i)lants liis font ni)on a proixjsilion, or course of things, ami there lie holds it, rock-Iiivc. In Iiis work at Nashville, nmny points may be emphasized, but I will lay stress on this point: He has greater j«iwcr over men, grown men, San any man I ever saw, I am sure. He led more Christian men to a truer, higher plane of godly living, and more ungodly men to a Ciiristian life, than any otiier preaciicr of whom I have known under similiir con- ditions. My general estimate of his work is that it is genuine, and tlierefore durable, as it certainly is most [uitent in swaying tiie hearts of thousands. M. B. DeWitt. Fiom Rev. J. H. MoNeilly, D.D., Pantor Moore MpmormI Presbyterian Church. Nasiivillp:, Tknn., June 2, 1885. Jlev. Dr. Lrjtwich: After hearing the Kev. 8am P. Jones for three weeks, my impressions of him are very distinct. They are my ma- ture convictions. He is one of the most consecrated men I ever saw. His love for souls is a consuming jjassion. He has a marvelous gift in niaking the way of life plain. He preaches to the conscience with wonderful power. He is perfectly fearless. His originality and hu- mor are great helps to the im])ression he makes. May Ciod long use him as an honored instrument indued with a double portion of his St)irit! Fraternally yours, James H. McNeilly. From EUUm- R. Lin Cave, Pastor Church Street Christian Church. He has rare powers of thought, expression, and action. He is original in his methods, and being obliged to none, has the greater attractiveness and innucnce, as he is thus a constant study and always fresh, if not always new. He has superior natural gifts, unusual skill in the use of them, and is a marvelous success in his field of la- bor. I am sure he is a good man, full of love for God and mankind, severely in earnest, and having the courage of his convictieds to be heard to be pntperly appreciated. R. LiN CAVa 12 PREFATORY Notes. V'.i. From Rev. J. P. Sprowls, D.D., Pnstor First Ciunb. Pres. Church. Nashville, Tenn., June 26, 1885. As a preacher Brother Jones is entirely original. If you judge him by the rules found in works of honiiletics, you become confused at once, lie is a standard unto himself. In conftidering hirn as a preacher, you must forget everybody and every thing but the man before you. Duri Jig the three weeks and better I sat under his preach- ing, he grew in my estimation wonderfully. lie is^he best "gospel digger" I ever listened to — best to wake up a slumbering Church, and to arouse an indifibrent world. lie is terribly in earnest. He believes in and uses home thrusts. This always means conver- sions and more consecrated Christian living. He is thoroughly honest, not using " aught of pious fraud," or artifice of any kind to gain a present end. Dr. James Alexander once said: "The people must be made to feel that the heart of the preacher is with them." Brother Jones un- derstands human nature. He gets rigiit close by you in illustration, in appeal, in ridicule, and even in seeming levity. He means ni^; he is vvj friend. His strong points as a preacher certainly are: Taking God's word, pure and simple, as his standard; plainness, ear- nestness, directness, and fervency in the application of it. This, ac- companied by a sterling common sense and a personal magnetism, makes his appeals almost irresistible. It is too soon to speak of the durability of his work in our city. But the foundation built is so strong that I am almost sure as to the permanency of the building. The work wrought is a great and a j^lorious one. May God give us wisdom as cultivatoi*s! J. P. Sprowls. From Rev. G. A. Trcnholm, Pastor First Presbyterian Church, Edgefield. Edgefield, Texn., June 18, 1885. Bcv. W. M. Lcjlwich, D.D. — Dear Brother: 1 respond to your re- quest with pleasure. AVhcn we hear Brother Jones preach we cease to inquire, "Where is the secret of his power?" His thrilling pres- entation of the gospel, his fearless denunciation of popular sins, his tincere sympathy with his fellow-men, his thorough consecration to the great work, his confessed dependence on God for all results — what other conditions need any one furnish of power with God and men? For myself, I can say that I have never had my whole soul so completely brcnght into subjection to the truth as by the preach- ing of Brother Jones. Fraternally yours, G. A. Tresuolm. mmmi and m\mi SERMON I. Grace axd Salvation. "For the jfnu'oof (Jod that l)rinf?eth salvation hath appeared to all nuMi, tcacliiii.ij ns that, denying ungodliness and \v( rid ly lusts, wo shoidd live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that biej^sed hope, anj the glorious appearing of the great Ciod and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he luiglit redeem us from all ini(iuity, and purify unto himself a i)eouliar people, zealous of good works." (Titus ii. 11-14.) ^yii WANT to say to Christian people, God is answer- J [ ing your prayers. I have heard many things to- * day that encourage me. These are index-fingers pointing to answered prayers. Tliank God, he is a j)rayer-hearing and ii prayer-answering God! Many things I have heard to-day give ovideucB of genuine Holy Ghost work in this city. I have no c )niidence in the work of any man — I have no confidence in the permanency of the work of any man; but I believe tiiere is truth in God, and virtue in the blood of Christ, and power in tlie Holy Ghost. If these divine agen- cies will work with us, there will bo a work done in Nashville that will outlive the stars. To God be all the glory, because all the power, all the grace, and all the dominion are his. Let the cross come out in all its b(jldness to redeem men. It is to the cross I in- vite you. It is in the shadow of the cross that we expect hope and life and salvation. u Sermons and Sayings. We invite your prnyerf ul attention to the four verses l)eginning witli tiie eleventh verse of tlie second chapter of Paul to Titus. Of course we have not tlie time to discuss all of the four verses, but we will read and discuss them as far as we may. " For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath ai)peared to all men." This term " grace " is peculiarly a gospel term — a New Testament term. It covers all the blessings of Hie past, all the enjoyments of the present, all the hopes of the future. AVe are not only redeemed by gract^ but we are born by grace, and we live by grace, and we are saved by grace. We know not how to estimate the value of this grace of God. We generally esti- mate the value of an object by what it will bring in market, or by what we i)aid for it. We are not re- deemed by corruptible things, such as silver and gold, but by the precious blood of tlie Son of God. Into the blood of the Son of God pleading and bleeding in the garden of Gethsemane the recording angel dipped his pen and wrote: "Peace on earth, good-will toward men." It is through the blood of the everlasting cov- enant that this grace flows to the earth. The Holy Ghost awaited in heaven tlie coming of the Victim of this sacrifice. When the Son's feet touched the streets of gold, the Holy Ghost flew right through the win- dow and came to earth to sprinkle the world with his blood that was to cleanse the nations. Mr. Ingersoll says the reason he does not like this religion is because it is a bloody religion. I like it because it is a bloody religion; for without the shed ding of blood there is no remission of sins. It is the cross that brought me to rei)entance, that makes me feel that I want to be bettor, that surrounds me with Sermons and Sayings. lb gospel influences, that brings salvation in all its full- ness unto all men. Tliank God for the expression "unto all men!" Thank God, I can lay my eyes on his word and my hand on my heart and say, I believe that Jesus Christ died for me; not only for me, but for my wife, for each one of my children, and for you and your wives and your children! He has not only provided salvation for all mankind, but for each in- dividual; and if you should fail to get to heaven, there will be a crown in glory that no head will ever wear — a palm of victory in heaven no hand will ever wave; if you fail to make the port of glory, there will be a harp in heaven untouched by angel hands. Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. We look for the redemption of the world through Jesus Christ. The world can never be redeemed by a gospel that excludes a single human being. If you search this universe and find one human being not redeemed, I believe Jesus Christ would come to earth again, and would be nailed to the cross, and suffer and die for that one immortal soul. I am very glad the pulpits of the earth are coming together on this point. Thank God, I have seen some advancement in my day, and I hope yet to see the day when every pulpit will jump squarely ujjon the " whosoever will! " Nothing less than this can express the great gushing heart of God to the race. We are all created on a common platform; we are all redeemed on a common j)lat- form. AVhen God gave one a chance he threw the gates open to all. Thanks be unto God for a gospel that saves me, and is sufficient in its breadth and depth for a world of sinners! This grace that bring- 16 Sermons and SAYwaa. eth salvation hath appeared to all men. The object of this grace, primarily, is to teach. Christ was a Di- vine Teacher, a Divine Philosopher, and a Divine Saviour. This grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men — not saving us merely, but making us worth saving. There are old money-lenders in this city who if they were to get to heaven would not be there three weeks before they would want to set up a sort of corner-lot business. Men must be taught some things before they can be saved in the gospel sense. Jesus Christ told his disciples to " go forth, teaching all nations." The difficulty to-day in China is because the people are not taught. We narrow the discussion down so that we may first be practical and then be script- ural. The great trouble is not that the truth is not preached. You never heard a sermon in your life that had not in it truth enough to save a thousand souls like yours. Every man's heart is so filled up with error that he has no room for the truth. It is a phil- osophic truth that no two substances can occupy the same space at the same time. It is because there is not room for them. If God will empty your heads and hearts of all the error you have packed away in them, I will preach enough truth to save you all to-night. We say every man is full of his own opinions. " My opinion is so and so. It is no harm to dance. It is no harm to play cards. I can live just as good out of the Church as in it. There is no harm in a dram." You compromising old hypocrite you! When bar- rooms are set up on every corner, an old hypocrite will wipe his mouth and say there is no harm in a dram. It takes all the ministers and praying motli- ers, and the best influences of God and angels, to keep Sekmons and Sayinqs. 17 you up out of a drunkard's grave; and yet you will ^wipe your mouth and drink on! There is no harm in this i>r that. Look me in the face as an honest man; let us meet these facts as we tind them. That old Col- onel will sit out there on tire street and pronounce his opinion, so and so. Younj^ men will say, '* It is my o[)in- ion." They got that from the old Colonel, and he got it fresh from hell. They all say, " My opinion." Very few men think. One or two great minds do the think- ing for Europe. One or two great minds do the think- ing for America. Nashville has very few thinking men in it, but every thing in town is chock full of opinions. We get incased in these opinions, and we fire absolutely invulnerable to God's own truth and power. A man incased in his own opinions is beyond the reach of the power of God. See the old farmer in the house smoking quietly: a storm gathers, and a cloud loaded with electricity is overhead; the light- ning strikes the rod on the chimney and throws itself into the earth, and the farmer sits and smokes as if nothing had happened. The gospel of Christ flashes above the heads of the multitude and descends with sin-killing power, and strikes this outside incasement of every man's own opinions, and runs oflf into the earth. The man Walks out and says, " The preacher has his opinion, and I have mine." No man that walks this ectvth has a right to an opinion on a moral question when God speaks. On geological, astronomical, and doctrinal questions, it is your right to hold opinions. Do not misunderstand me. I say on moral questions upon which God has spoken. The only way to tell whether a thing is straight or crooked is to apply the straight-edge, and not stand like a fool guessing at it. fS^ 18 Sermons and Sayings. J fli I! jii God tells me what is right and what is wrong in thifl book. When God Rpoaks out let all the world stand* still and listen. Trace the opinion to its origin; take the back-track on all opinions, and you will tree them every one in hell. They are going back to liell, and ^v'ill take you with them. " It is my opinion, bo and 8o." Shut your mouth, you blabbing fool! The less sfmse a fellow has, and the less he thinks, the more opinions he has. You must live soberly, righteously, godly, in this world. The Bible was not given to teach me the way the heavens go, but to teach me the way to go to heaven. Mr. So and So is a mighty smart man, and he does not agree with the preachers. Yes; there are plenty of brains in hell. You understand that, do n't you? I despise to see a man who knows more tlmn everybody else in the community, and who does not know enough to behave himself. Some men have not got sense enough to be decent. God have mercy on men who have not got sense enough to be faithful to the vows made to their wives! I say to you all to- night that some of the most cultured men are the most corrupt men. What is culture worth if it is but the whitewash on a rascal? I would rather be in heaven learning my A, B, C's than sitting in hell read- ing Greek. I would rather my boy would have hardly sense enough to run a straight furrow in my field than to be as some of the sensible men of Nashville to-night. Keep my boy poor and honest, and let him die a fool. If you are doing wrong, quit it. About twelve years ago the grace of God came gushing into my heart, and I knew that I was a sinner and ought to quit sinning. That lesson has lingered with me from that hour to this. The poorest, weakest man in Sermons and Sayinos. 19 tliis city mjiy decido to-iiiglit, niul God will holp him to the point where he will never need help. The devil tempted me sometiraeB till my knees got weak. But God's grace is suHicient to make you quit doing wrong and go to doing right, in the name of Christ. That is ni}' religion. What is the difference between what I was fifteen yoars ago and what I am to-night? I have never be- lieved any thing since tliattime tliat I did not believe before. I believed before, but did not do. I have now been a believer and a doer for twelve years. That is the difference between a Christian and a sinner. It is faith in Christ; it is following, loving, revering him. I have never been converted, if a man must believe some- thing afterward that he didn't believe before. It is not believing so much as it is doing. *' Show mo your faith," said James, "without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works." Now you are get- ting down to facts. I believed and did not; now I be- lieve and do. The teaching is that you must quit doing wrong. I do not see how some of you get along with yourselves. You must reach the point when you will say, " I Avill quit it; " for you can never get religion till you do that. Religion is quitting the wrong and de- termining on a better life. I expect if some of us good brethren had been sitting in that sacred company and heard the words, " Come and follow me," wo would liave called Matthew to one side, and said, " Hold on, we aie not converted yet!" The best evidence that a man has got religion is that he has quit doing wrong and is doing right. Birds do not sing sweeter nor trees look prettier. I saw that in a book once, and I don't go much on it since. I am running on this. 20 Sehmoxs and Sayinqs. tlmt I hnvo quit my meanneHH. I })eliove in n religion tlmt reforms ft man from liend to foot, through juid through. God never regenerates a man until he re- forms himself. There is notliing in grace that will make you a sober man with a quart of whisky in your stomach. There is nothing in tlie grace of God tliat can keep a man clean while he is leading a licen- tious life. You must place yourself so that God can get an under-hold of you. You all knew what that meant wheii you were boys at school. When I was a boy I could throw another very quickly if he would give rae the under-hoki At first I abandoned the sins I could get along best without ; but linally, when I found that T was making no progress, I lumped my sins in one pile, stacked them on the old bridge, and stuck a torch to the bridge. I am now for heaven or nothing. Quit your meanness, and tell God you mean it, if you wish to be saved. You need not be skipping around the Lord with the devil's old musket on your shoulder. Conversion means to quit tlie wrong and begin the right. Conversion that does not mean that I have quit all that is wrong, and mean to hold to it, does not mean conver^iion. It is like one neigh- bor going to the house of another and saying: "Give me a thousand dollars; I have lived here ten years, and have not burned your house, nor crippled your children." Don't imagine that because you have burned up no meeting-house and killed no preachers you will get in at the fool's door. You will never get in on that line. You must not only quit doing wrong, but you must begin to do right. You must be good every day in the week, and good all the time. Skrmons and Sayings. n I don't understand these men who are pious Sunday morning at the eleven o'clock senice, and go home and put on their every-day clothes and their meanness — pious in Nashville, but the devil's own dog in New York City. I will be the Lord's everywhere; I will not be cast down nor lifted up. Heaven is on a dead level with a good man. " I am having my ups and downs," said the old man. Yes; you will be down in hell some day. Never quarrel with God, nor with your condition in life. Job was one of this sort. Cranmer and Kidley were burned in the reign of Mary in England. When the clothes were Imrned from his llesh, when his arm Avas on fire and in a blaze, old Cranmer looked over to llidley, and said: "lie of good cheer; we are lighting a tire thai; will burn round the world." We need a revival of downright honesty in the Church of God. There are many men in the Church boarding with their wives. We must meet the fact that wo have got no character as a Church. Go to one of these stores and try to run your Methodism on tiiem. The store-keeper will say: "Come in and look at my books, and you will not blame me for not tak- ing on more." We think it is no harm to swindle a brother in the Church. An honest man is the noblest work of God. The old Church has gravitated down- ward until the world backs water on Iier. Sir, you can't ditch her off. Go after an old sinner, and he will say: "Jones, pay me what you owe me, and I will join." I thank God that a {)oor man can be an honest man! The devil bankrupted me. I got religion and went to preaching, and was several hundred dollars in debt. One said: "I have confidence in Sam; he is a 22 Sermons and Sayings. IN :;ii!; good, clever fellow; but I would like him better if he would pay his debts." But I went on until I paid the last dollar of it. If you want to pay your debts, peo- ple know it. God pity the man that is boarding witli liis wife in a fifty-thousand-dollar mansion, and is cheating the widow and orphan! I want to see the day when you can sell the shirt off of a man's back. A Plardshell asked credit of a merchant. He said he could not credit him ; but when he learned that he was a Hardshell, he called him back and said to him, "I will sell you all you want on credit." Righteously I will do right. We want honest men in the Church, that will do what tliey say they will do. There is many a good man who cannot pay his debts. There are men in this city struggling against difficulties that would break an angel's heart. But the grace of God that bringeth salvation will be sufficie -it to save you if you will " deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appear- ing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and i)urify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." If God will give us such a measure of his Holy Spirit that the Church will be purified and sanctified until we will be a pe- culiar people, zeulous of good works, then the grace of God that bringeth salvation will appear unto every sinner in Nashville, and save him from all ungodli- ness and worldly lusts, so that henceforth he will live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. r i: Sermons and Sayings. 23 etter if he I paid the [lebts, peo- rcUng with on, unci is to see the lan's back. He said he liat he was to him, "I ;hteonsly I le Church, There is ts. There iilties that ice of God jare you if ;s, and live ent world; us appear- iis Christ; ednem us a peculiar ill give us le Church I be a pe- the grace into every 1 ungodlU 1 he will is present SAYINGS. I can't bribe God's grand jury, nor defy the Court that tries me at the last day. I PHOTOGRAPH your ugliness, and you sit there apd laugh at it. You ought to be ashamed. "I HAVE doubts," says one. Well, you just quit your meanness, and you will quit doubting. If a man hasn't enough religion to pray in his fam- ily, he has n't enough to take him to heaven. If you are ready to say to-night, " I 've done, I 've quit," then you are right where God can put his hand on you and save you. What is culture worth if it is but the whitewash of a rascal ? I would rather be in heaven learning my A, ^, C's than in hell reading Greek. Everybody ought to keep good company. There is not an angel in heaven that would not be corrupted by the company that some of you keep. If you will let me, I will cut the last ligament that binds you to a life of sin, and let you swim out into tae bottomless, boundless ocean of God's saving love. One sin is enough to cut the soul adrift from God. I 've seen men who were not afraid to die; but I never saw a man who was not afraid of the judgment-bar of God. If r-"^ ml ' ! I * I i i SERMON II. Let Your Light So SiinyE Before Me^. " Let your liglit so shine before men, that tliey may sec your gocxi works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." (Matt, v. 16,) fE invite your prayerful attention to the sixteenth verse of the fifth chapter of St. Matthew: "Let your light so shine before men, that they may Bee your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." We will read two or three of the preceding verses: "Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men." Ah, my brethren in Christ, how I have seen that picture until my blood ran cold, and until I felt like I wanted to die on my knees ! The Church of God Al- mighty trodden under the foot of this world! Instead of being like an arm bringing the world to God, the world has got us under foot, trampling us down, and we dare not say a word. God help us not to get in any such fix again! "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick." "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." This service shall be held especially in the interest of professed Christians. Generally these services are directed to all i)ros(Mit, I know God expects ua mem- (21) Sehmoxs and Sayixqs. 25 e interest l)ers of the Church to live right, and lie has got a right to expect it of us; and yet we members of the Church have as much right to do wrong as anybody in the world. There is not a man in Tennessee who lias got any more riglit to g»^t drunk and curse and steal than I have. All tin; difference between a mem- ber of the Church and a non-professor is, one haa made a profession and taken the oath of allegiance to God, the other has not; but the latter is just as much bound by every moral obligation and principle to serve God and do right. Will you give him your })rayers? It would be better if you had not come to-day if you do not intend to give him your prayers. Going to church is like going shopping: you generally get what you go for — no more and no less. A ^voman will go into a store with a hundred thousand dollars' worth of goods all around her, buy a paper of pins and walk out; that is all she came for. I have seen the store- house of God's grace packed from cellar to ceiling, and I liave seen men go in and gather u}) an expres- sion of the preacher and go homo. He is a little fel- low! If I was your wife, I would get you a little tin horse with wheels and let you drag it through the house! Let us take a broader view of tliese things; and I pray that all the citizens of this State who came here to-day may carry a blessing home to their families and their towns. I want to see blessings carried out until Tennessee — north, south, east, and west -shall bo surrendered to God; and I thank God that the fire is catching all ever the State. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good -works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Brethren, amid the roar and rush of 26 Sermons and Sayings. this nineteenth century, we hear very little of the voice of God. The roar of commerce, the click of the telegraph, and the whistle of the engine, have well- nigli drowned out the voice of God. But, amid all these rough trials and present transactions, it is well enough to put our hand up to our ear now and then and look up and hear what God has to say. Let us listen to that still small voice that never misled a man n step, and never deceived a man's soul; let us listen to that voice which, if you hear it aright, will make you wise unto salvation. "Let your light so shine." Such a string of mono- syllabic utterances — a string of pearls! "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father wdiich is in heaven." AVhat a string of pearls this sentence is! There are only four words in the sentence of more than one syllable. What a preacher Christ was! I have often thought: If I ever get to heaven, I will hunt up some sensible man who heard this sermon, and get him to tell me the manner of its delivery and the effect upon the multitude. How the face of Christ did glov/ and glisten and glimmer under the pressure and power of the truth of the words he was delivering! We little preachers think that we are doing first-rate if we take a text and announce about three propositions and discuss them for an hour. But do you know that Christ in this sermon announced and discussed one hundred and twenty different propositions in the com- pass of half an hour? No man ever talked like Christ or thought like Christ. I sometimes think that if he had had a company of angels listening to him it would have been a grander sermon still. If he had had Sermons and Sayings. 27 congregation of his peers, O what a sermon! But he came down, and down as close to ns as he could get. He took our own wordt^, and those are but a few of the words uttered by him on this cxjcasion. "Let your light so shine before men." These are monosyllabic utterances, ])ut there is ranch meaning in each one. These words fairly bend and break un- der the force and power of their meaning. "Let your light." What is light? We can only see it as human eyes can see it. Its essence is love to God; its j)rinciple is faith iu God, and its develoj)- ment is obedience to God. These three — faith, love, and obedience — are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. I believe in God. Sinners don't read my Bible, but they read me. You read your Bible, and sinners read you as a professor of Christianity. And, brethren, they watch you and your life, and they thus see whether that Bible is true or not. And I will say this much, some of them do n't believe a word of it, because vou tell them you believe the Bible and live as you do. Brethj-en, you tell me a man is anxious to go to Chat- tanooga, and he will let five thousand trains run out toward Cliattanooga and never get aboard one of them! Tell me such nonsense as that! The infidelity that is hurting the Church in this nineteenth century is not theoretical infidelity; the infidelity that is demoraliz- ing the Church and the world is practical infidelity: the fellow that believes the Bible and won't do one thing. Now you have got a fool and a rascal mixed in one compcmnd. It is tlie most awful compound that Christ ever tackled. lie believes in praycr-meet- iiigs, but he has not ])een to one this year; he believes 28 Sermons and Sayino8. f'i! hi J. I!!! ! iiii in tlie missioiifiry cause, hut he gets out with the least he can give; lie believes in family prayer, but you can't prove it by his wife and chiklren. He goes on the principle that he tliat believeth not shall be damned, and he believes in every thing. If your sort was put on the market and everybody felt toward you as I do, you would not bring much -3 on would not. Faith. I believe. How do you know? AVatch me. Watch my life. You ask me if I believe in family prayer — I refer you to my wife and children; you ask me if I believe in paying my preacher, and I refer you to my elder, or steward. If a man asks me if I believe in prayer-meetings, I refer him to my pastor. Let those who are witnesses answer for me. Faith. I believe, and to demonstrate that I believe I am obeying. That is it. And all we want in this universe is a Church that believes the word in the sense that they will do like their Bible says. You don't ask whether a tliini^ is right or wrong; you ask, Does everybody do it? Your husband and everybody else does that; and if everybody does that, it is just as good a reason as you want for doing any thing. If everybody dances, your chiklren will dance too. Your children can't get into society unless they dance, be- cause everybody dances. Y"ou can't be sociable unless you have wine on your dinner-table; everybody Ims wine. There is many a woman in this country who is responsible for a great many things she does not think of. I want to see the day in this country when no de- cent woman will put any thing on her table that will make a fool of her husband. The biggest fool woman in Tennessee is the woman who will go to the closet and get the demijohn and bring it out and fix up a drink Sermons and Sayings. for her liiisbaiid. Yon have not sense enough to keep out of the fire; your phice is in the lunatic nsyhira. I believe in sobriety. How do you know that? Be- cause there is not a thing in my liome tliat will make a person drunk. That is good ground.. If there is any thing in the world you fellows in these towns around here need preaching on it is on the liquor question. You have got enough liquor within a hun- dred miles of here to damn the whole earth if you poured it down men's throats. This liquor trafhc has come down to where it is a question of blood and death and hell. These women 'are getting tired of seeing their husbands go down to drunkards' graves; these mothers are tired of seeing tlieir son§ go drunk to hell. "Let your light so shine." I believe in sobriety, because I touch not, taste not, handle not the unclean thing. I don't care what a man says he believes with his lips; I want to know with a vengeance what ho says w^itli his life and actions. The only difference ])etween two men is the difference in the way they live. The difference between the best man in Ten- nessee and the biggest scoundrel in Tennessee is the difference in the way they live. This is practically true. I believe with all my heart, and in demonstra- tion of this I will do the very thing that God says do, and I am leaving off the very thing that God says not do. Love is its essence. Brethren, a man is never free until love abounds in his heart toward God and man. The freest man in Tennessee is the man who loves God most and loves his neighbor as himself. There is no law in heaven or earth that fetters or proscribes h II "I I:: l! ' Mi '' ^ i=l; '■>, I 80 Sermons and Sayings. character like that. The Legislature of Georgia meeta about twice every year, and I am there, generally pass- ing throug]), when they are in session; but I never have been before tlieni asking them to pass a law to make my wife good to my children. Why? Because my wife loves my cliildreii witii all her heart, and we don't need any law to make her kind to them. She does too much for them. You will not harm anybody you love. It is the devil in you that makes legisla- tures and sheritl's necessary. If everybody on earth loved God supremely and his neighbor as himself, then we would have a heaven on earth, and we would need no more restraints on earth than they need in heaven. Love. Love everybody. AVe need brotiierly love. AVe members of the Church — Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians — O what a grand sight to see every Christian man love every other Christian man! But it is a sad thing to see members of the Church geit'ng into each other's way, and talking ab(3ut each '"/cher, and cheating each other, and drinking with one an- other. They are not the Lord's lambs you see at that; they are the devil's goats. Love sets a man free. The bE;st way in the world to kill a fellov/ is to love him to death; then you don't have to bury him. Alexander the Great conquered this world; so did Xapoleon. P Because art, and we liem. She m anybody kes legisla- ly on earth imself , then would need I in heaven, therly love. ;3, Baptists, [) see every man! But irch gett'iig each '-/cher, k'itli ui^e an- isee ill that; II free. The ) love liim to Aleiandei d Napoleon. ered wretch; ed wretch on lid, while on Great, and founded our have melted ;dom on love, him." Jesas Christ said: "Do good to them that despitefuUy use you, and pray for them that persecute you." I used to think when a man mistreated me, AVhy do n't the Lord let me jump on him and beat him? The reason is the Lord do n't want to protect that rascal ; he wants to protect me. When Jesus Christ wanted to conquer his enemies he died for them; and he has well-nigh conquered them. Love begets sympathy. And O if we had a little more of the milk of human kindness in this world, what a world we would have! I like to see a fellow bent on doing what the Lord tells him to do. This is the only test that lasts. It is the linal test of your love to God. Christ says: " He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. Light is love and obedience mingled with life. Faith works by love, i)urilies the heart, and overcomes the world. Have you got that? Then you have got light. Light is a strange sometliing. What is light? It is a very active principle. A few hours ago this world was covered with darkness. I see the oxen asleep over there. I see the birds perched in quiet on the limb of that tree, and I see humanity stretched in slumber. Look at this world! It is true it is asleep. God wants to wake up this world. Does he go down to that field and hit that old ox on the horns? Does ho shake that limb to wake up that bird? Does he come to my house and knock in order to wake me up? No; he just lets the sun joeep over the eastern hills, and the old ox wakes up, and the birds commence sing- ing, and humaiiity wakes up to another dny. Lot the ii'i;r m Seiimonk and Sayings. m li , I 1 i i 1 j 1 ! i 1 t 1 \- w 1 ( 1 r f ■ I darkness come, inactivity is here; let light come nil is activity. iSine o'clock, g(^rinnn cliih; nine o'clock, progross- ive eucher chib. The Cliurch is abed and asleep be- fnro that time, and you can just german on. It there is a thing in this world that I have a contempt t'nr and can't express it, it is the german. I suppose some of you people through the country do n't have germnns. It is about all ^Nashville can do to rig out enough spiderlegs for a german. I reckon Nashville can ship you a few wli^n you want them. To see any average little town try to put on airs! If I were you, sister, I would call it a ball; and a ball-room is so in- decent that I would not let my cook go into one of them. This is enough to hurt your feelings, ain't it? Your feelings! The less sense a girl has the more feeling she lias. The checks and balances must operate. What you lack in sense you make up in feeling. I wish some of you ball-room girls could hear the boys talk after the thing is over. What wo Avant in this country is a Church so alive to God and with so much light that these deeds of darkness will not be allowed in our borders. Did you ever hear of a ball in the day-time V Did you ever hear of a lot of men getting together and having a man's german? There ain't a boy in this town who would cross the street to hag another boy. As sure as you are born, these things are based upon the consciousness of sex. My fellow-citizens, it is not the liars and the thieves and cut-throats that are hurting your Church; it is the tide of worldliness that is sweeping over your Churches and towns that is damning your homes. Let your light so shine upon your Church! If there are any ! r Sermons and Sayings. it come nil :, progrcss- [ nsloe]) bo- ll. It* there )iitoinj)t for I Kupposo don't Imvo ) to rig out 11 Nnslivillo To see ai)y I were you, jm is so iii- iiito one of gs, ain't itV s the more mces must nake up in girls could What we to God and irkness will ver hear of 3ar of a lot I's gerraanV 3s the street born, these >f sex. My thieves and it is tlie tide r Churches . Let your ere are any NaBlivillo people hero this evening, I am not sjienking to them. I am speaking to the visitors. Children of the day, and children of the liglit! Light is an active principle, and will put us to work. The Church is the light of the world. You wntch the lamp-lighters on the street. They walk to that lamp and light it, and then walk to another and liglit it, and so on until each successive burner is lighted; and so light jumps to light and ray to ray, and now the whole town is filled with light. So the Church is the light of the world by catching fire and jumping from heart to heart. "Let your light so shine! " I can see frequently in the utterances of Christ where ho seemed to be utter- ly lost for a word. There was no word that would do. He searched human language in vain for an adjectivo or descrii)tive that would do. And he just said "so." " Let your light so shine! " Once he wanted to tell the world how God loved it, and he said, " God .so loved the world." Que time I was in a country church at night. It was the darkest night I ever saw. It was perfectly black. Directly a man walked out with one of these reflecting lanterns; and when he turned the reflector in front everybody in front could see like daylight, and to everybody behind it was as dark as pitch; and when he turned it behind, everybody be- hind could see and those in front were in the dark. When he turned his light in front, he let his light so shine that those in front could see; and when he turned it behind him, he let his light so shine that those behind could see. God says, " Let your light so shine that every one may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." / 'Ill 84 Skumons and Sayinqs. ! n M I "No man lighteth ft ciindle nnd puttetli it untlor a bushel." I have goiu^ into communities and found n light with ft bushel over it; nnd I wouhl walk uj) to the bushel and kick it oft*, and tiien the owner would get mad and say I put the light out. You turn n bushel ov(T a light and it will go out. Some of you have turned the bushel of neglect down over your Bpiritual light, and it has gone out. Some of you have turned the bushel of indift'erence down over your light, and it has gone out. There are some places where Christian light will not burn. My father once had two Irishmen digging a well, and they dug about five days; and then Miey were paid some money, and they went oft' and got on n spree, and they spreed about ft week. AVhen they came back ready for work they uncovered the well and asked for a candle. "Well," my rao:lier thought, "Pat and Mike ain't sober yet." But they got the candle, and tied a rope around it and let it down in the well, and when it got near the bottom it flickered and went out; and Pat said, " We can't go down there — there is death down there." And they went away and got some dry brush and built a fire in the well ; and then they let the can- dle down again, and it burned all right. Then Mike said, " Pat, you can get your spade and go down — there is no danger." Before you go down into some places, my dear friends, you put your light — that is, your God, your preacher, and your Bible — down and see how 1 hey look. Now, the next time you start to a bar-room you push your preacher in there, and see how he looks. The ntsxt time you start to a ball-room you ^jut your Bi- ble» your preacher, and God in. God expects every man to be as good as he wants his ])reacher to be. ii ii t( :■! Sekmons and Sayinoa. 35 We Bny ngnin, this light is not only nn active prin- ciple, it in n developing principle. I went to a circus once. You old Hueak! you go yet. Before 1 w^nt in I looked around, ami I Haw them drawing a big bun- dle of canvas jdong; and they dragged it up to a fur- nace, nnd they ]mt thia piece of canvas over the fur- nace, and by and by it was a well-rounded, symmetric- al balloon; and as soon as it was thoroughly inflated, its tendency was upward. Then a nmn got in the basket, and it carried him upward; and this balloon that it took six men to pull along awhile ago would now carry fifty men up. There are some old wagon- sheets here that it would take six men to drag to prayej-meeting, and to some of them you would have to hitch a locomotive-engine. Bring that same old flabby f( How and get him over the grace-generating power of God Almighty, and let his soul get inflated with divine love — the love of God and man — and that same person that it took six men to g(^t to prayer- meeting now wants to take ten persons up with him to heaven. Brother, quit that old wagon-sheet busi- ness! I have heard it said that a big nose is a good thing — it is a sign of intellectuality; that a big mouth is a sign of character, of great character; a big chin is a good sign — a sign of courage; big ears are a sign of generosity. I expect some of you pastors ought to get some ear fertilizer. There are more little 'possum-eared Church-members over this coun- try than you can count. I want to tell you, brethren, that it takes more money to run one old red-nosed drunkard than it does to run any member of the Church in this city. If it is better to be sober than ■;i il 36 Sermons and Sayings. ipi |i.' !lli iinH! mr m drunk, if it is better to go to heaven than hell, then it is time for us to begin to shut our mouths about what little we pay. Money, money, money! I have spent more money in one night on one drunk — and I say it with shame — than some of you members ever paid in your lives to your Church; and I never grunted the next morning. Tliat is coming down pretty low. Brother Barbee, do you know that you have five hun- dred members in your Church that don't average a cent a year to the Church? What do you say to that? He says, "I ain't a-playing." Developing principle! If there is any thing in this world I admire it is a man with a big soul— a soul big enough for God to come in and live with him, and for the angels to come in and sit down and be at home forever. God give us a soul on fire, and growing and developing in divine light! Brother, is your soul growing every day? Little bits of souls! Develop- ing principle — something that makes me grow up to the standard of a good man in the best and highest sense of the word Light is an active, developing principle. It will put me to work, and put me to growing; and that is what we want. Let your light BO shine that every one will see your good works. A great many people, with wha-t little religion they have, will run out in the corner and sit down and say, "God save me and my wife, and my son John and his wife, us four and no more ! " That is the sort of religion that is cursing the world. The true principle of a good man is, the more he gets the more he wants; and the more ho gets the more he wants others to have. When a man says, "It is all I can do to manage ray own af- fairs; I have no time to talk about anybody else," ho (I in P] ^«*e| SEltMONS AND SaYINOS. 9ri jU, then it is about what have spent and I say it ever paid in grunted the pretty low. five five hun- I't average a I say to that? thing in this d— a soul big , him, and for d be at home [ growing and is your soul Is! Develop- le grow up to t and highest developing id put me to jet your light )od works. A ion they have, and say, " God and his wife, )f religion that of a good man and the more lave. AVhen a ige my own af- ^body else," he is in the biggest, broadest road to hell. That is what is the matter with the foreign missions. You will hoar people say: "Let us Christianize America, and then let us go across the w aters. I do n't believe in sending the gospel to China while we have so many heathen at home." But the Christianity of Jesus Christ makes the heathen Chinee my next-door neigh- bor. A Christianity that sweeps around the world — that is tlie sort of Christianity we want; a Christian- ity that locks its arms around the world. " Let your light so shine that others may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." I want every liberal man in Nashville to let every other liberal man know about his liberality. Chris- tianity will never be what it ought to be as long as Christian institutions go a-begging. Do n't let your treasury bee ^^me depleted any more. Go on, and do something; a^id do n't do it in such a guarded way that nobody can discover what you are doing while you are working for God and truth, but go out in the world, and do the thing that God would have you do. I have talked over an hour. This may be the last time I shall ever look you in the face. Let us go to our towns and homes and go to work for God. Let us begin to let our light snine; and then by and by tlie reward will come, and we will go up higher. 1 [do n't know how many of you from various towns are members of the Church, but I want every one of you to go home and pray for the welfare of every one else; and pray and work for God to bless your town. i r^"— ■ ■^rwffWfla^^BBPWB !' Pi , :ri: ^m ilil Mi ; I I 1 1 ! 1 1 I i f 1 i ! t ! : i I I I i 88 Sermons and Sayings. SAYINGS. Most men when they feel mean feel natural. Society is a heartless old wretch; and if yoii don't get out of it you will go to hell with it. If there is any one thing in tliis world that I have more contempt for than I can express, it is the gei*- man. There are old money-lenders in this city who if they were to get to heaven would not be there three weeks before they would want to set up a brokerage and corner-lot business. I have gone into communities and found the bush- els over the lights, and I would kick them off; and then the owners would get mad, and say I pat out their lights; but when you turn the bushel over a light it will go out — that's it. I WOULD rather associate with a dog than with a profane swearer. This may sound strange; but I know what I am talking about. A man may associate with a dog until he becomes doggish; but a swearer can make him hellish. A man's affinities determine who he is, and what he is. Going to church is like going shopping: you gen- erally get what you go for — no more, no less. A wom- an will go into a store where there is a hundred thou- sand dollars' worth of goods, buy a paper of pins, and walk out. That was all she came for. You get about what you come to church for. SERMON III. Prisoners of Hope. / "Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope." (Zochan:ih jx. 12.) f$bl Y brethren, according to your faith so it will bo ^1 Ij unto you. We invite your attention to the ^ twelfth verse of the ninth chapter of the l)rophecies of Zechariah. Let every utterance be guided by the Divine Spirit. There are five hundred Christian people that I hope will be so busy praying that they will not notice a word I shall say. The all-absorbing theme with God and angels and good men is the salvation of the living, not the salva- tion of men who lived a hundred years ago — they have enjoyed their privileges, they have had their oppor- tunities, they have met their destinies; not the salva- tion of men that shall live a hundred years hence — they have yet to be born, they have yet to enjoy these privileges and opportunities; but the all-absorbing theme that engages the great heart of God and the great heart of the Cliurch in all worlds is the salva- tion of the men and women who live and walk and talk on the face of the earth to-day. Is it not i)assing strange that a subject should so engage the heart of God and angels, and the good of all the earth, and yet that a man with an immortal soul should be disinter- ested on this momentous question? Is not that you, sir? and you, sir? Are there not everywhere disin- terested parties in all the universe of God? We have an exhortation for you. I wish you could lose sight lit \^ - «' I 40 Sermons and Sayings. villi !l !il li'l I !!i I !l w of the fact that there are any men in Nashville except you and the preacher, and that wo are alone witli God. Do you realize that God talks to you — God whispers to you, warns you, exhorts you? Salvation or damna- tion is a personal matter. Nobody will die for you ; nobody will stand in your place at the judgment-bar of God. The question of salvation and damnation is a personal question. God help us to look at this ques- tion as men and women on the way to the judgment- bar of God! There are three classes of prisoners in the moral universe without hope, and there are three classes of prisoners with hope. It is well enough for us some- times to stop long enough to locate ourselves. Where am I? To what point of longitude and latitude have I drifted? A ship at sea must not only know that it is on the way from Liverpool to New York, but must know where it is every moment. That sailor that knows only that he is on his way from Liverpool to New York is lost at sea. We say there are three classes of prisoners without hope. I stick to my Bi- ble. The first class are the angels who kept not their first estate, but sinned against God and were cast down to hell, and are bound in chains of everlasting darkness. AVe are assured that the angels that fell from their high estate have never had a gospel note or a gospel invitation. How fearful to contemplate the fall from such heights down to such depths! I know not how to sympathize with angels. I never saw an angel. They know nothing of wrinkles, and old age, and the grave. There are other angels — the lost souls of men and women who have lived amid just such opportunities as you and 1 have to-night, and Sermons and payings. 41 wlio have died impenitent and gone into eternity im- penitent. It may be good doctrine that "as long as the lamp holds out to burn, the vilest sinner may re- turn," but whatever repenting and believing you and I do we must do it this side of the grave-yard. Wliat- lever may be the space of time between the present Imoment and your dying-pillow, that is all the space jin which you can make your peace with God. Life, with its three-score years and ten, is said to Ibe like a tale that is told; like grass that groweth up jin the morning, and is cut down and withereth. Life is but one step from the cradle to manhood, but )ne step from manhood to old age, and but one step From old age to the grave. The few moments spent in this tent to-night are but a few moments we spend )n our way to the bar of God. The second class are the men and women who have lived amid the gospel privileges of Nashville and imerica. They are numbered by the thousands and the millions — including, it may be, your father, your 5on, your daughter, your next-door neighbor. O have ever shaken the hand of a man on earth who is this loment a prisoner without hope forever? While the jospel of the Son of God peals out in the ears of the lultitude its grace and beauty, those ears will never lear the gospel again. Mother, have you ever p?-ayed [or that boy since the doctors pronounced him dead? Jrother, have you ever prayed for your neighbor since [he black crape was hung on his door-knob? In this ife only we repent. There is no rei)entance beyond he grave. I have preached the gospel in many States, count it the greatest of privileges to preach the gos- )e\ of the Son of God. If God were to call me to Ii lii^p'.'. 42 Sermons and Sayings. China I would go there with as willing a heart as if my wifu) were to call me home. There is one place where I never have preached the gospel — that is out here iu the cemetery. I will never preach the gospel among the tombstones of the city of the dead. There is no hope or device in that city. While we have life there is hope; but when the candle of life is put out avo cease to pray forever. I have preached the gospel to the sons of men, and while many have come to Christ there are those who are this moment out of the range of the gospel of God and beyond his mercy forever. Shall I preach to a man to-night who will realize in eternity that he is a prisoner without hope forever? Tiiere are men who sit within the sound of my voice to-night who if their hearts stop beating while I am preaching will be prisoners without hope forever. Brethren, another class of prisoners without hope are the men and women in Nashville who are just as certain to be damned as they live and walk on the £iice of the earth to-day. You have men in this city who have not heard the gospel in thirty years, who will never hear another gospel -sermon. I once made this proposition: If tliere is a man in this house who feels in his heart that nobody prays for him, I want him to give me his hand, and leave here with the as- surance that o)ie prays for him. It is something to know that some one prays for me. The most lonely feeling that overtakes an immortal spirit on its pil- grimage to eternity is the feeling that nobody prays for him. It is true, O prisoner Avithout hope, that while the ^'ospel appeals to others, and moves others, and saves others, and while others yield, one is taken and another is left. I wonder which man in this tent Sermons and Sayings. 43 ,rt as if my lace where )ut here in pel among )liere is no B life there put out we e gospel to e to Christ I the range •cy forever. 1 realize in pe forever? if my voice while I am 'orever. thout hope are just as alk on the in this city years, who once made louse who im, I want ith the as- mothing to aost lonely on its pil- body prays hope, that >ves others, ue is taken in this tent ko-night is just as certain to be damned as he hears my voice this moment. I received a letter from Knox- ville this evening. The writer says: "I see from the press that you have offered five hundred dollars re- ward for any man who will take an oath before a jus- tice of the peace that he does not want to be saved — does not want to go to heaven. I will take a solemn jath that I do not want to be saved, and do not want to go to heaven." " He not only gives his name, but his address. I said to myself, O mortal man, to Avhat depths we can go! And yet, you are doing that for noth- ing. A man signs his own spiritual death-warrant for live hundred dollars! You sign, seal, and deliver your spiritual and eternal death-warrant for nothing, O for nothing! Tlie wretcli condemned with life to part Still, «till on hope relies, And every pmig that rends the heart Bids expectation rise. Infinite despair, hover over me! I should never ea again if I knew that I had no hope of heaven. There is not a soul in eternity to-night that did not have its Vist chance for immortal life. They looked like you, they believed like you; they abused the last chance, and that means no more chance forever — a prisoner without hope! While the gospel touches others, and moves others, and saves others, you sit as motionless and powerless as the pew in which you rest. Have pity on these old gray-headed sinners who have stood on the beach till the tide runs out to sea that would float them out on the ocean of God's love! If this tide re- cedes it may leave you high and dry forever. Go out with the tide, and be saved forever! If I knew a man * m L W i 'Hi a Sermons and Sayings. in tliis tent by name, and I met him on the street to- morrow, and knew him to be a prisoner without hope, I would draw back my hand and say, "I would as soon shake hands with a corpse as with you! " But there are prisoners trith hope. The first class of these happy creatures saved by the power and grace of Almighty God tliat we mention are the men and women of ca»'th — the faithful men and women — who iiave taken up their cross to follcTNv Christ. There are thousands of them in this city who love God and keep liis commandments. They are prisoners of hope, now hemmed in by the environments of earth, but soon to be God's freemen in heaven, walking the golden streets. I shall live here a prisoner of hope, but at last shall overleap the circle of friends above my dying-couch, and my spirit shall be free and mix with | the freemen of heaven forever! As long as the star of hope shines over my pathway I am ready for every! good work. I love mercy, do justly, and am ready to do any thing God or his Church wants me to doj so long as the star of hope shines over my pathway, I have thought of heaven, and talked of heaven, aiiill laid down at night and dreamed of heaven. WheiiJ shall I behold thy heaven-built walls, O Jerusalem?! when shall I walk within those walls? I shall never dodge a duty or shirk a responsibility. Wher II have made my way to God I shall get a grand oUl heaven, just such as an Infinite God would make foil an immortal si)irit. "Let cares, like a wild delugoj come;" I shall be safe in the haven of rest. Ther( is not a duty that God puts on me that is not a de-j light to me, for they are the means by which I shallj r<;At!h lieavcn at last. That man out there who is not Sermons and Sayings. 46 le street to- tliout hope, I would as >u!" e first class ?,r and grace he men and omen — who rist. There member of any Church is a prisoner, but m^t without liope. His wife does not know how much he is think- ing; she does not know that he has been on his knees this day, saying: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner! " When a poor sinner falls on his knees, and says, " God, be merciful to me, a sinner," there is al- ways some angel near by to gather up the prayer and carry the news, "Behold, heprayeth!" The closest I ever get to God is when I stand by while souls are )ve God and I being born unto God. T can almost see the flashes lers of hope, I and scintillations of the Divine Spirit in the eye of f earth, but | the converted soul. I say I am then closer to God than I ever was in all my life. Thank God, there is a chance for that fellow who is going to take that chance! When Garfield — the noble Garfield — was wounded by the assassin's bullet, and the doctors were probing to find the ball, he said: "Doctor, is there any chance for my life? " The reply was tnat there was a chance. Then said Garfield: "I will take that chance." And he did, and grappled with the monster death for ninety days as scarcely any man ever did. I want to tell you, sinner, there is a chance for you. Will you take that chance until God says, " It is enough, come up higher?" My God, do all things to me, but blot lot out my chance for heaven! There is another class of prisoners of hope: the ig the golden f hope, but Is above my md mix with y as the star idy for every id am ready nts me to do my pathway heaven, aiiil tiven. When Jerusalem I shall never y. Wher a grand old nan who says, " God knows my heart, I wish I were a uld make for )etter man; " the boy who says, " I wish I were a better wild deluge, )oy;" the girl who says, "I wish I were a bettor girl;" rest. There he one who says, "I wish I were a Christian." In the ; is not a de- vickedest day of my life I never forgot my precious which I shall uother. As long as the soul hungers and thirsts for e who is not 8§i better life there is as much cliance for you as for mo. lAt iii 4r) Sermons and Saylngs. My heart runs out in sympathy for somo men under this tent to-night. Poor fellows! I recollect 1 had made my wife a thousand jn'omises, my Saviour a thousand in-omises, ray friends anxious for rae a hun- dred promises; yet, in spite of plighted vows and hon- est promises, I went deeper and deeper. "Wife, for- give me; I will never drink any more! " I came home worse intoxicated than ever before. I meant it— " I won't drink any more to-day;" but with thirst and ap- petite impelling me forward, I was but a lamb in the power of a lion. There is hope at the cross for the weakest man in the world. I sometimes think that in spite of motlier's prayers and father's advice, God al- lowed me to go right into the gates of hell, and puts rae forward now to go down to the depths to pull my felloAv-men back. See that mother: let all the town forsake her boy, and let father drive him from her presence, but pre- cious mother hangs to her prodigal boy, and carries him to the grave, and visits his last resting-place. It was just a little of the nature of God poured into the motlier's heart; that is all. See that drunken man; the white people kick him on the sidewalk; the col- ored people spurn him as they meet him; his wife saw his staggering step, and t(x^k him by the hand and carried him up into the house, and laid him on the bed, and took cold water and bathed his face. Where did the wife get such love for that man? It was a little of the nature of God poured into the heart of that woman. Will you stop to-night, and say, "Take my hand— I am ruined without thy graje and help? " There is a chance for you. O sir, I slibll shout occasionally as long as I see there is a clianct* Sermons and Sayings. 47 men uiulftr oUect 1 had y Saviour a r me a huii- ws and hon- "AVife, for- [ came home leant it—" I lirst and ap- lamb in the 3ross for the think that in vice, God al- ell, and puts IS to pull my ,ake her boy, nee, but pre- and carries g-])laoe. It ired into the runken man; alk; the coi- im; his wife yy the hand laid him on ed his face, at man? It red into the io-night, and ut thy graje O sir, I slu. 11 is a chanci* for me to get to the good world! I am happy, because my name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. AVhat would the i)laudits of the world be to me if 1 am to die and go down to hell forever? I do not ]M.-each a sermon that I do not remember I have a soul to be saved or lost. Clod help me to l)e a good man! If it is to leave wife and loved ones, it is all right; if it is to deny mysf^lf every pleasure of life, it is all right. Thank God, in that world up yonder I shall have rivers of pleasure and flagons of joy for every tear I have shed on earth below! Even to-day do I declare I will render double unto thee. '* AVell," one says, " I would get religion, but I would have to go mourning, and never enjoy life any more." I can tell the truth and say that I have seen more real happi- ness here in Nashville than I saw in twenty-five years of life as a sinner. You can't trade evenly with God. A minister once told me that in one of his revival services there was a yoiing man who came up repeat- kdly, but seemed to be hesitating. He detained him [after service to talk with him. "You seem to want •oligion; what is your difficulty? Why is it you have lot given yourself to God?" "I don't know, only I [im clerking in a grocery house, and in one wing of lie house they keep liquor. Every time I get on my knees that whisky is in the way." "Give up the )lace." "I have thought of that. If I give up my niX)loyment, my mother and sisters will starve." " Go long; quit that job, and do your duty. Trust to God, lid go along." Next morning the young man went o his employers, and told them: "You have always pen kind to me; but I have tried to get religion as our clerk, and I can't do it." Said they: "We hate I" fil' 48 Sermons and Sayings. ill m ill J II 11 IP ii to givft you up; you havo been a good hoy. We can't give up liquor; it is the most lucrative part of our business." " I will take an aftitlavit that I do n't want to go to heaven." That same sjnri*^ ^akes men sell whisky. Avarice has cursed its thoui iS and damned its millions. The boy was converted that night. After breakfast a note came from his old employers, asking him to come back. " Come into the other room with mo," said the liquor-dealer; and behold, the last barrel had been rolled out, and the floor swept! " We want you to go to work; we will give you a hundred dollars a month instead of the fifty wc have been pay- ing you." You say you do n't know whether that is true or not. I will tell something better and broader than that. Preachers used to tell mr that if a young man would forsake ho^^ses and h , friends, and mother and father, to oe the Loi .. 3 disciple, ho would give them a hundred-fold. More than twelvol years ago I pushed all earth aside, and joined th North Georgia Conference. I left my step-mother t follow Christ, and he has given me a hundred moth ers just as good and kind; I left a little home ii Cartersville, Georgia, and I have found a hundre homes; I left a few friends in Cartersville; biddin them good -by, I said: "I am going to serve thi Master." He has multiplied my friends a hundred fold, a thousand-fold here, and a thousand-fold — yea a million-fold — in the life to come. I am more am Jiiore pleased with his service, and more and mor pleased with his companionship and with my lot and more and more hopeful for eternity. I woul( not go back twelve years and take my chances, Were tliis world a golden ball, • And gems were nil the stars of night. Seumons and Sayings. 49 kiijoi without hope, but a prisouor with hope. ^ VVe can | •s^^^y.^ ,^jy frinuls, in the iiamo of Him who would ! part of "^"^Ijiot iiUow sin to Htaiul in judgment, I liave done my I dont wan I j^^^^ ^^ ^,^^,^^ ^^^^ lY^^^^ y^^, yjj^y p^, ^^^^ 1,^ ^ pjjg. .kes men sell r 3 and damned ] that night. I id employers,! SAYINGS. le other room ■ r^^^^ devil is too much of a gentleman to stay where ihold, the las ij^^^ -^ ^^^^ welcome. Why does he stay in your lieart? swep . ^1 ^^Q'|.uijTQ j^ morn lovely than a gentle, patient wom- ^^ ^ luu. God pity the man that has a forky-tongued wife! . , , , .IX j^,l There are two things I hate — a dancing-master and 1 broaderf^ ^^^^^® time-serving preacher. They are both the Jlaughing-stock of the devil. lat if a young friends andl You don't believe wlat you don't see. Did you ^ disciple hef'^'*^^' ^®® your backbone? Some men believe they than twelvo ud joined the jstep-mother to undred moth lave a backbone, when it i.- nothing but a cotton string un up their backs. The Lord does n't shoot cannon-balls at snow-birds; md if he were to let loose such a bolt of lightning at llittle home in ^ou as he did at Saul of Tarsus, he would not leave [nd a hundrec iville; bidding to serve th Ids a hundred iand-fold— yea am more ami tore and mon with my l<'t| Lity. I woul chances, greasy spot of you. 4 l» :ht. 1; i; r ':i; SERMON IV. David's Beligiovs Expkhtrnce. "I love the Lonl, because lie luith heard my voice and niysiipjdi cations," etc. (Psalm cxvi.) ^Ti^^E propose to read perhaps all of the one hun- dred and sixteenth Psalm. This is what we might denominate David's religious experi- ence. I imagine if he had been in a Baptist experi- ence-meeting, or a Methodist love-feast, he would talk just about as he has written in this Psalm. I have always been interested in the experience of any good man or woman, and especially since I professed to have* a religious experience myself. I have always been interested when a good man or woman gets up to talk. TJiey get my ear; they get my heart and soul. If there is any one prayer that I have been praying from the depths of my heart it is this: "Lord, if I am not what I ought to be, show it to me; I do n't want to go | to the judgment and into eternity with a blindfold on my eyes; I want to see things as they are. Let me see not only what I am, but let me see what thou wouldst have me to be. Lord, save my soul at any cost! If it be necessary for me to be sick, and lie' down on a bed of troiible and rack of pain, let it be so. Save my soul at any cost!" Have you ever prayed: that way ? Lord, Lord, I have counted the cost — or, in other words, I have not got time to count the cost;| but I am going to heaven, cost what it will. "We read this Psalm — it is an expression of a tried! Christian man: "I love the Lord, because he hathj Sermons and Sayings. M B and niysiipiili heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear un^^o me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live." David speaks, and he calls upon men, and tells them the reason of his love to God. He announces first, "I do love God." This is a demonstration of the fact that he is acquainted with God. If any man does n't love God, it is because i he does n't know him. To know him is to love him, and to love him is to servo him. And if any man on the I face of the earth does not love God, it is because he has not seen him in all his characteristics. If any man does not love God at all, it is because he has not seen him at all. "Blessed are the pure in heart, foi Itliey shall see God." I have evidence of God's pres- ence all around me; but when I want to see God I will go and talk with him, and put my arm in his, and [walk step by step at his side. Just take the path of Christian duty, and all along the line you will find [God at every step. Now, I love God. Why? Because he has shown himself to be so lovable; "because he hath heard my voice and my supplications;" because I went to him and prayed for things and he gave me the things prayed for. How can I help loving him when he has done so lovingly toward me? David says: "He liath heard my voice and my supplications. ... I jivill call upon him as long as I live." He meant to say: "It is a thing settled in my mind; I will be a )raying man as long as I live." I may quit ten thou- sand things, but I will never quit i^raying. If I live fen, twenty, forty, or nine hundred and sixty-nine ^ears, I will be a praying man still. I have settled le questicm once and forever. As long as I live 1 t!'.' :ii!;, ^: :i; t)2 Sermons and Sayings. will call upon him. Why? Because he has hoard my voice in supplication. Ah me! what a triumph of faith to know that God heurd me when I called upon him. There is not a person here that is not con- scious of the fact that the Lord has answered one l)rayer for him. There is not a person in this tent that has not prayed; there is not a person here but has had answers to his prayers. Now, what do yon say? He has heard mo, and given me the things for which I prayed, and I am encouraged to go to him as long as I live. That is it. It is worth some- thing to a man to know that there is a God, and that God loves him, and that God will hear his prayer, and that God will answer his jjrayer. I have been in tight pinches, and I would have surrendered if it had not been for that. I have heard men say, when any | thing fortunate happened to a person whicli you had been praying for: "Your prayers had nothing to dii| with that; it liappened in the natural order of things." | "Yes," I say; "but the same thing did not happen to that other fellow down there who did not pray for | it." Like a man down in Georgia: he introduced: himself to me on a train. In the course of the con-l versation, turning round, he said: " There is all I have| loft from the cyclone." Says I, "What?" And hoj said, " My wife and children." " What do you mean ? " j T asked. And he said: "I was over in the field wlieiil that cyclone passed over Jones couity. I heard tliosl noise and the commotion; and about a half mile froiii| my Uome I saw a cyclone, and its course was over t(^ward my house. My first impulse was to run liome;| Imt I saw I could not get there in time to do aTiyi thing for my wife and children, so I fell down on myl Sermons and Sayings. 08 knocs and said : * God Almighty, save my wife and chil- dren! let all else go, but save them!'" He said he was thus praying while the thing went jumping and bounding and twisting and roaring along; and he said he saw it coming right over the hill toward his house. As soon as it had passed he said he got up on the hill and looked, and there was not a vestige of his house or kitchen or stable on the place; and he said: "O liord, are my wife and children destroyed?" And ho ran down the path, and here came his wife and I children and a little black child; and when they met [encli other they had a real old Georgia camp-meeting. "You see, she had been out hunting me. I asked her, 'How did you get out of this scrape?' She said, 'I and my little child were in the kitchen — a log-kitchen — and I was cooking, when I heard that tremendous jroar. All at once I and my little child ran right up liii the corner of the kitchen, and the first sweep of the Icyclone took away every particle of the kitchen ex- jcept six or seven logs about that corner; and it :\visted a big oak-tree off at its roots, and laid its lieavy body on the corner, and tied the logs down; md when the last shock had passed, I and my little 'hild were sitting tliere unhurt.' You can't tell mo iod doesn't answer prayer." said he. Some jjeople say that God doesn't get up these cyclones. I don't •are who gets up a thing, if you will just give God lie reins, and let him direct it. The man who owned lie next house was half a mile off, and when he got iome the last vestige of his house was swept away. He took the course of the cycknie, and found ono 'liild, and then a little farther on he found his wife, kvithout a vestige of clothing, literally bruised and TTW I 'ill :l 'i 61 Sermons and Sayings. mangled to death. Passing on, he found another child dead, caught in the limb of a tree; then the fourth child was found; and then the fifth, which was the baby; then he came across his brother-in-law dead. "My God!" said he, "won't I find a single one of my I family alive?" The next day he buried his wife ami | five children all together. It is customary in Geor-| gia to build storm-pits to protect the people from the fury of the storm. I would not give one honest | prayer for all the storm-pits in Georgia. 1 heard of a lady who, when she thought a storm was coming, | started down to the storm-pit, and fell and broke her neck, and they never had any storm. That was tho joke on her. I want to tell you good women I read your requests | this morning. You are on the right line. I want you to pray for your husbands. Let us beseech God until he comes down in answer to our prayers. The devil need not come whining around me, saying my prayer had nothing to do with that. I say it did. God heard and | answered my prayer. David's expression from a Christian heart was this : J "As long as I live I will pray." "Because he hath in-clined his ear unto me, therefore I will call upon him as long as I live." "I love the Lord, because he I hath heard my voice and my supplications." Now he 1 takes up his religious experience in its inception, and here is what he has to say: "The sorrows of deatli compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upoii:| me; I found trouble and sorrow." There is where every man's religious experience really begins — down j in the consciousness, when he cries out, "1 am lost! I; am lost!" A man's religion never goes any deeper; Sermons and Sayings. 58 'ound anothei* tree; then the fth, which was Br-in-law dead, igle one of my d his wife and nary in Geor- 3ople from tlie re one honest a. 1 heard of n was coming, and broke her That was the than his convictions. I don't underrate a Christian experience because some fellow did not get fired like St. Paul. Many a fellow wants to be struck like St. Paul; he wants to be struck down in the road. The only trouble with St. Paul was touching the divinity of Christ. It took the biggest cannon of heaven turned loose on him to convince him. There is many a fellow waiting around here for God to shoot one of those cannon-balls at him. God never wastes can- non-balls on snow-birds. If God were to shoot a ball like that at you he would not leave a greasy spot. You little dunce! I don't underrate a man's relig- ious experience because he can't give place or date. Some of the best men I ever saw could not give the place and time when this miracle of grace occurred; but they could say, "I love God." I don't underrate n man's religious experience because he did not have it like somebody else. But I say this much: I want n fellow to feel awful mean; this is a common feeling, and it is a very natural one. Sister, if you never felt mean, then you never felt natural; and brother, if you never felt mean, then you never came within half a cause he hatli; niile of feeling natural. Like that fellow up at Le!>a- will call upon j j^^^^. j^^ g^id he felt mean, and I told him he felt nat- rd, because he ^ ^J.J^l f^j. ^^q time in his life. The fact is, a man gets 3ns." Now he ; religion a good deal like he gets the measles. Relig- inception, and j^j^ [g catching. A fellow goes and gets tangled up irrows of deatli ||^yi^]^ ^j^^ measles, and in about ten days he says: 'Wife, you can send for the doctor; I feel bad; I Chere is where m,che f^om head to foot." She sends to a doctor, and begins down, \^q comes and examines the case. He asks: "Have ■, "I am lost. I J^'ou been exposed to measles? that is what you have f»t." He gives him a cup of good hot tea, and says, I your requests le. I want you eech God until i The devil need my prayer had ? God heard and ' heart was this : )es any deeper mjwr^ V'U ^llii ff' l! ii. iliiiil: m n !h MM 66 Sermons and Sayings. "You keep on drinking that until you get it broke out on you, and then you will be all right." Now, Bome of you have got tangled up in this meeting, and you never felt so mean in your life. You have caught religion. I will just give you two or three cups of gospel tea, and break it out on you; then keep it br<^kt» out, and you are elected. If you will walk right up and take two or three cups of this sort of tea — "Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you " — take two or three cups of this warm tea, then you shall be saved. Break it out, and keep it broke out. Religion is like measles: if it goes in on you, it will kill you. The trouble with a great many Christians in Nashville is, religion has gone in on them. Keep it broke out on hands, feet, and tongue. Every fellow in this tent who feels mean ; and goes into the atmosphere of that bar-room is| gone. You had better wrap up and keep warm for a; few days. David says: "The pains of hell gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the; name of the Lord." This sort of pain is different; from any other sort of pain. David says: "The sor- rows of death compassed me, and the joains of hell; gat hold upon me; I found trouble and sorrow. Theiil called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I be-j seech thee, deliver my soul!" I like to hear a fellowj calling on God that way. As soon as David got con- viction on him, what did he do? He commenced call- ing on God. Paul says: " The law was our school-master to bring:] U8 to Christ." Li those old days the children did not] g<:» unattended to school, but the school -master weiitl Sermons and Sayings. 57 get it broke right." Now, , meeting, and u have caught three cui)s of | I keep it broke walk right up of tea— "Ask, ad; knock, and or three cups ^red. Break it i like measles: le trouble with s, religion has [>n hands, lieet, ^'ho feels mean it bar-room is ep warm for a. lold upon me;; ed I upon the \ in is different; lys: "The sor- j)ains of hell; sorrow. Tlieni O Lord, I be hear a fellow j David got con-* mmenced call-: 3 aster to bring| ildreii did notj 1- master weiitt m 1 iround to gather them up. The law of God is the lash that whips me. The tendency of the law is to leep behind a fellow, and tan him up. The law of ^Tod will show me how mean I am, but it is ruly the [race of God that can save me from that meanness. never yet saAV a fellow who felt very mean and did not afterward feel good. If you can get a fellow bo say, "I am awfully diseased, and I want you to bring the doctor," you can do almost any thing with him. And then the doctor comes in and pours out 4ome medicine. He does not know what it is, but he jwallows it right down. I like to see a felloAv liko tliat — so low down that he does n't ask any questions. wish all Christian men and women here would go (lonie and begin to read Bunyan's " Pilgrim's Prog- ress," and find out what is lacking with them. "Tlien called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, beseech thee, deliver my soul!" It is not my body; ft is not my worldly interest; it is my soul. The next expression of David's is: "Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful." I have heard this incident: A celebrated revivalist was standing )reacliing, and there was a man standing on the out- skirts of the crowd, and at the close of the sermon he talked up and gave the preacher his hand, and said; 1*1 am what they call an infidel, but I have been list- Jning to your voice in preaching the truth, and I want I) know ^v'hat to do." The preacher said, "Kneel lown;" and he knelt down. "Now say, God be nercifal lo me, a sinner;" and the fellow repeated it. flie proa(;her then asked, "Do you mean what you (aid?" and the fellow answered, "I don't know ■ hetlier I do or not." "Then say it again;" and tht' 6S Sermons and Sayings. i. ■'1 ii y- ■ i i! pMlir 'ill fellow repeated, "God be merciful to me, a sinnei." Then the preacher asked, " Do you mean it?" and tho fellow said, "I meant it. more that time than I did hv- fore." And the third time he repeated after tin preacher: "God be merciful to me, a sinner." "D»i you mean it? " and he answered: "Yes, sir; and God is merciful to me, a sinner." There is many a man in this town who has got religion and doesn't know it, How do you know when you have religion? One mnn said, " When I got religion the trees and birds looke brighter." God have mercy on you, waiting on tliel trees and birds! I believe I would not do that, if if ■were you. Just as, certain as the sun shines on tluf world, there is religious experience. But, thank God it is not confined to trees and birds; it is confined i the one question, "Am I loyal to God? " If you sed: a blessing, it is like a preacher praying for moif grace, and a deeper work of grace. I do n't want aii} more grace. I want to use the grace I have. It k the using that I want. Praying for a deeper work oi| grace! Ask them what they want, and they could n( tell you to save their lives. If one of my childreL| was always saying, " Papa, bless roe, bless me," I woulJ say: "Now you get up here, like a sensible child; What do you want?" "Don't know, sir." "I wili box you if you don't talk sense!" "Deliver my soul." We want a deliverance from the guilt and love of sin. "Graciousis the Lord, am righteous; yea, our God is merciful." As soon as man quits doing wrong toward God he begins to sei| how good God is. I had a friend in Cartersville wh was mad with another member of the Church ; and said: "If you will go and pay that man all that ym ^}l f * Sermons and Sayings. ff9 )we him, 1 venture to say that it will be all right." got the man to pay his debts, and there are no better Erionds in the town than those two men. If you will pay your debts to God, none will be better friends. Now David says: "The Lord preserveth the simple." [e begins to philosophize: "The Lord preserveth simple; I was brought low, and he helped me." pie Lord loves these simple fellows. Some of you )ig-headed fellows down there have found out that lere is no hell; and some of you have gone far ^nough to find out there is no God. If there is a ?eing in this world that God will take care of, it is ^ne of these little fellows who doesn't know much. [t is one of these little fellows who gets down on his tnees. When he gets out of bed he falls down on lis knees, and says: "O Lord, come an*', walk with le; I will get into trouble if you don't come with le." And after his breakfast ho falls on his knees, Ind asks the Lord to go down town with him, because [e is weak and afraid to go by himself. This is the n't of fellow the Lord likes to go with. There is )mething in prayer when a man like Isaac Newton omes down from his observatory and falls upon his [nees and prays to God, and says: "I get closer to rod on my knees than I ever did with that telescope [p there." I like such a fellow as that. When a man Ike Newton was a little child of God, I do n't know ^hat some of these little simple fellows ought to be. I heard of a fellow once: his father gave him a lack boy to wait on him and drive him around. They ^ent to a camp-meeting, and at the first sermon r(>ached the young man was convicted, and th(j ne- !•() was convicted. The young man went into the , 1 60 Sermons and Sayings. iiiii t; r. ;;:i I altar and prayed, but llio negro boy wont into the woods and got ilown on Iuh knees before God, and was converted. The young man went home and was pray- ing about three weeks. And (me (hiy this negro boy Wcis going along by his master's door, and he called him in and said: "Look here, we were both convicted under the same sermon, and you were converted in an hour, and here I have been praying three weeks; tell me how this is. You were the worst negro on this place, while I have been good all my life. How is it that God will bless a mean negro like you in an hour, and won't bless a good fellow like meV" "I will explain to you," said the negro. "As soon as I was convicted, I went out in the woods and knelt down, and the Lord let the light of his Si)irit shine on me, and I found I was clothed in the dirty rags of sin; but I shucked them otY, and now I am clothed in tlio: garments of righteousness. Now, mars, you have got! just one spot on your clothes, and you have been try-^ ing to clean it off; but just shuck them all off." And^ the young man went olY, and fell down on his knees | and prayed to God: "God be merciful to me, a sin- ner." And the negro said: "Look here, you have gotl to shuck oil* those dirty garments of sin, or the LordI \v(m't save you." He was brought low, and saw his:i hope was in God, and not in philosophy or society. In the first place, David says: "Gracious is tho| liord, and righteous;" and in the next place: "I will;| walk before the Lord in the land of the living."- Tliiri; is what I want you to say. David meant to say: "I| will bo a man for God and right." These little fellows v,^ho can't walk nor talk — havel you not seen thorn V These little follows that I was go-j Sekmons and Sayings. CI g to ship off witli a two-coiit postages stamp! ]t rould take two huiidiod tons of soothing-sirup to run lieni. Mrs. AV inslow's SoV0ULD not take the record of some pe()j)le who ear me to-day, and go to the jiTdgment-])ar of God 'ith it, for all the money in the universe; and good- ess knows I am poor enough! Thank God for a bee-line to the good world! Do ou know what a bee-line is? The bee, after going rom flower to flower with its velvet tread, extracting he honey, soars above the tree-tops, and nifikes a bee- ine for its hive. Happy, happy — thrice hai)py — will e bo when, after extracting all the sweets out of this , we can soar above the world, and make a bee- ne for the glory land! The fact is, a man gets religion a good deal like he ets the measles. A fellow gets tangled up with the easles, and in about ten days the doctor comes, gives im a cup of good hot tea, and tells him to keep on king tliat until it breaks out; and then keep it broke ut, and he will be all riglit. So some of you have ot tangled up in this meeting until you feel as bad i a fellow with the measles before they break out. A w hot cups of gospel tea will make religion break ut all over you. Then keep it out, and you are all gilt. But, like the measles, if it goes in on you. \i ill kill you, sure. ife ill i;i ill ,1 ;: SERMON V. What Must I Do To Be Saved? '• Wliat (iiust I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on tlie l.(»r(l Jesiis Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and tliy house." (Aetn xvi. 30, '.n.'j :HAT must I do to be saved? Infinitely Hio most important question ever x)ropounded is, " What must I do to be saved? " " Believe on the Iiord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." We have read these words from two verses, the thirtieth and thirty -first, of the sixteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. As a minister of the gosi)el of Jesus Christ, I have no right to advise a man to do any thing that h^ might not do and die saved. I might advise a man to keep good company, and I know that is good advice. No man will ever know the value of good company, or the fearful curse of bad company, in this world. Every one ought to keep good company. A man can afford any thing rather than bad associates. There is not an angel in heaven that is i)roof against bad company. AVliat would you think of me if I were to say I would rather associate witli a hog than to associate with a man who drinks whisky? A man might associate with a hog until he became hoggish, but he would never become a drunkard. And just as morals are above manners, so a hog beats a dram-drinker as an associate. I would rather associate with a dog than with a pro- fane swearer. I never heard a dog swear— I mean a four-legged one. A man can associate with a dog ^ Sermons and Sayings. 65 k'lieve on tlie nntil he becomes doggish, but he will never become a swearer. You talk with me and think about it for ton minutes, and though you may hear many things that sound mighty strange, yet I have w^eighed these things in the lightof eternity, and I am right. And I say to advise a man to keep good company is good advice, for all men ought to shun bad company if they would bo good. I can see how a man could go from the ordinance of baptism, administered in the name of the Holy Trin- ity, down to hell at last; and I can see how a man could go from the communion-board to hell. I might advise a man to pray in his family night and morning — and I never will believe any thing else but that a man who has not enough religion to pray in his fam- ily has not enough to save his soul — and yet I see how a man can pray in his family night and morning until he dies, and die unsaved. I might advise a man j to join the Church — and every one in this world ought [to be in the Church. The Church will never be what. jit ought to be until every man in the world is in it. The way it is now, it is like a father saying to his four [boys: "Boys, I am going off now to be gone awhile, nntl I want you to run the farm. Put this field in cot- tiju, this in corn, and that in oats." The old man goes I off and leaves the four boys. Bill and John say: j" We will not go in, for if we once start we shall have to keep at it." The other two boys plow and plant the crops, and about the first of May the grass is jcatcliing them. Bill and John come and sit on the fence and say, "Just look at the grass taking the field!" And the others say: "If j'ou will get down off of the fence we will get you a hoe. AV^e should not have 66 Sermons and Sayings. i II! i been in the grass if it had not been for you. If you had staid with us the grass would not have been there." An old sinner sits out there in the shade with the grass growing up around him, and I say, "It would never have gotten so bad if you had put y^mr licks at it in time." Every man in the world ought to be in the Churcli of God. When I see you men out of the Church I want to save you. To you men who drink, swear, and break the Sabbath let me say: I have a right to- day to get as drunk as any man in Nashville. I have just as much right to steal something to-day as anybody. Who gave you the right to get drunk and swear? Who gave you the right to tell lies? Who gave you the right to profane God's name? I have just as much right as you have to do it. I won't do it; you ought not to do it, and you know it. I say again, I might advise a man to join the Church, and that :s good advice. I wish you would all join, and make better members than we have ever made. Yet I can see how a man can go from the heights of pro- fession down to the depths of damnation. That is possible. I might advise a man to go to work for Chiist, and that is good advice; all of us ought to work for him. On the last day we will say: "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" And he will say to us: "Depart, ye cursed; I never knew you!" There is but one sufficiency, and that is faith in tlio I Lord Jesus Christ. Let us talk about salvation a lit- 1 tie; let us get away fiom what we call tlie sentimen- tality of religion. Religion is not sentiment; neither Sermons and Sayings. 07 is it crying and shouting — not any more than my coal; is Sam Jones. Thank God, I have a coat though; and thank God for sentiment and shouting! Salvation. What is salvation? Every theological ])ook I look into tells me that salvation is deliverance — lirst, from the guilt of sin ; second, from the love of Bin; and third, from the dominion of sin. That is what the books say salvation means; but if I were to answer out of the Word of God, and out of Christian experience, I would say that it is the loving of every tiling that God loves, and the hating of every thing tliat God hates. If you will tell me what you love, I will tell you who you are. A man's likes and dislikes determine his character. The difference between the Lord Jesus Christ and the enemy of souls is in their likes and dislike.'. A man's affinities determine who he is and what he is. I am no metaphysician, but I can see a hole through a ladder if there is any light on the other side. I will tell you there was very lit- tle metaphysics when the jailer stood up there trem- bling and asked, " What must I do to be saved? " And there is not mucli metaphysics in the answer: "Be- lieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." There is not much metaphysics about that. There are many things that religion cannot do for a follow. God never does any thing for a man that he can do for himself. The Lord is too busy for that — to be doing things for men that they can do them- selves. God never quit drinking for any man; that is the man's own lookout. God never quit lying for anybody; that is your own job. God never quit stf^al- ing for anybody; that is your own business to look after. And I say to you to-day, God never prayed in I I:. rl.: 68 Sehmons AM) Sayings. I'M '■ , i': Hii, ftny man's family fi)r him; God never took up any- body's cross for him. There is a great deal of this work of salvation on your own shoulders, and my great desire is to take hold of men and pull them up where God can save them. I say it is a moral impos- sibility for God to take a man to heaven when every step of that man's life is downward and hellward. NoAv, "What must I do to be saved?" This is a very personal matter, and St. Paul, answering that trembling jailer, said to him: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." That meant then more than it does now. That meant that this trembling jailer had to give up his position, and give up every thing, and be an outcast. And I tell you, brethren, that it took grit to stand up, when Paul talked to them, and say, "I believe on the Lord jesus Christ." It meant something in those times to be a Christian. Now it means respectability. To be a Christian now does not mean what it did eighteen hundred years ago — in the s'^nse that Paul said to that disciple, "Give up all if you want to be the Lord's." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." I would put the stress on the "on." St. Paul said "be- lieve," but I would say "believe on." I believe Ben- edict Arnold — what he says about the Revolution ; but I I don't believe on Benedict Arnold — I only believe what he said. I believe George AVashington when he makes a stateme.t; but I not only believe George Washington's statement, but I believe on him, in the sense that I love him, revere him, and follow him. I did believe for twenty-five years, but I just laugheil and cursed and drank, and still had as much faith as the devil. Hoav can 1 help believing on tlie Lord] Sermons and Sayings. 69 Jesus Christ? I believe on him now and for ever- more, never doubting. Yet I was a sinner for twenty- five years; and when I say now that I believe on him, 1 mean that I am imitating him now, and revering liim now. And when Matthew got up from the re- ceipt of custom he took the thing in, and he became a grand disciple. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." You can run Mormonism without Joseph Smith, but you cannot run Christianity without Christ. Christ is nil the world to mc, And his glory I shall see ; And before I 'd leave my Saviour I 'd lay me doAvn and die. There is not a word in the book about getting re- ligion; not a word. Do you read in the book where Matthew got religion? and where Paul got religion? Getting religion may mean a good deal, and it may not mean any thing. Whenever a man stands up and tolls me he has got religion, I have just one question to ask: "Do you mean you have got the Lord Jesus [Christ in your heart?" If Jesus is yours, give him your heart. There is a good deal of foolishness mixed up with religion. Christ said: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." When I was preaching at Mem- pliiy, one Monday morning I received a letter in a fine Ibusiness hand from a gentleman, which started out by iBaying, "Mr. Jones, I am from Kansas City, Mo.," land then said: "I came into this city Saturday even- ing, and as soon as I stepped off on the soil of this city iome strange something took possession of me. I went to my hotel and retired to my room, and all the time I felt that something was lacking. I went to bod ind could not sleep — some strange something pos- /: Sermons and Sayings. '^i sessed me. Next morning I got up with the same feel- ing, and walked out across the street to church and listened to the sermon, and afterward returned to my hotel without the desire to eat, and no relief. That night I was out, again heard the gospel, and when I got homo from church last night I said, ' I must know what this is;' and I knelt down and commenced to pray, and fc^nd out it was the Lord Jesus Christ knocking at tlio door of my heart. And," he said, " the old rusty hinges had been closed so long I could not open tlie door, and I want the Lord to pour his oil on these hinges that I may open the door and take in the Lord Jesus Christ." That night after preach- ing I said, " I got a letter from a gentleman with a heart with rusty hinges;" and he jumped up and said, " I Avill write to Mary this night, and she shall have a letter from her husband showing that Jie has got the Lord Jesus Christ at last." "Behold, I stand at th(3 door and knock." It is the Lord's business to knock and mine to open and let him come in. He knocks, we | open, and he comes in. Two for one. That is the Lord's I plan all the way througli. " Come in, and I will sup with you." When I opened the door and saw this heavenly guest, I was ashamed. Ashamed of what? Ashamed of the home I had to give him. I was ashamed of every thing I had to offer him. But he made himself at home; he was so good and kind — the] best guest I ever had. And after he had been my I guest he said, " I will be the host and you shall bej the guest, and you shall sup with me." He spread I before me a heavenly repast. I rejoice that I liave| an unfailing Saviour that is with me all tlie day long. And, brethren, to get the Lord Jesus Christ in youil Sehmons and Sayings. 71 h(?arts you need only go to the same divine head and heart who wrote this book. He is in my heart, moving (very impulse of my nature and directing every llioii^ht of my life; and hence the apostle said: "Nev- oitht'less I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.'' Anil, brethren, Christianity is not getting religion, ])ut it is getting the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God, it is not faith in a creed. Creed! What is a creed? It is the skin of truth set up and stuffed with sawdust and sand. It would make a good thing for a museum. It' I had a creed I would sell it to a museum. Creed shows itself in the wars of the last few hundred years. It was over creed tliat men fought, and not over Christ. Orthodoxies are what have ruined this world. Lord, Lord, how a man will fight for his doxie, and then turn round, and see his Saviour insulted and never resent that! You must not step on my creed; if you do, you are a goner! I will tell you, old man Calvin manufactured some things that Avould stick and gag, and men could never get them down. Thank (Jod, it is not whosoever believes John Calvin's creed, but whosoever believes on the Lord Jesus Cin-ist. Some time ago a mother said tome: "My daugh- ter is too young to know what she is talking about; she is ten years old, and does not know a thing in the world about the plan of salvation." I said: "You stand there and be the head, and let her be the foot; and don't you think that nobody is saved except those who understand the plan of salvation." AVho is it that understands the plan of salvation? How can I imder- stand how God, tlie Maker of tlie universe, could be carried about in Mary's arms? How can I undei*- 111111^ 72 Sermons and Sayings. staud how Jesus Christ Imd to push a plane at a car- penter's bencih for a living? How can I understand that the everlasting God went down into his grave, and on the morning of the third day, with his own in- herent power, walked forth from the grave? He has either a mighty long head or a mighty short creed who believes only what he understands. Tliat fellow A\ ho believes only what he can understand does n't be- lieve there is a muley- headed cow in the universe. I revere him, but I will not imitate him, for I shall be saved. A great many people think that a man has to go to an altar to bo saved. Confidence in a man is not re- ligion. That altar business started down in Georgia about sixty-nine years ag3. Where did the sinner go before that time? Have they gone to hell because they did not go to the altar? A man who believes only in what he can see does n't believe he has got a backbone. I am not running on understanding. I could not get to my front gate on understanding, but I could get from earth to heaven on believing. I am running on believing now. I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in the sense that I will follow him. I love him. If you will open your heart when he knocks, he will save you. He that worships God let him do it in spirit and in truth. " AVhat must I do to be saved?" Open your heart and let the heavenly guest come in. A stranger knocks at the door; will yoa admit this guest and say, "Abide forever?" Christ always lives where there is room for him. If there is room in your heart for Christ, he lives there; if there is room in a law-office for Christ, ho lives there; if ther is room in your store for Christ, he Sermons and Sayinos. 78 lives there; if there is room on u h:>coiiiotive-engine, ho will be there; if there is room in your hnggaj^je-cur lie will be there. Everywhere there is room for him: lie will come into our homes, and into oar stores, and into our shops, and on our engines, and in our cars — that is, if we will provide room for him. And it is ('lirist, Chrht, Christ; and it is not getting religion. I Now when it comes to the understanding of the thing, i don't understand it; but I know that twelve yenrs higo there was a knock at my heart, and I know I got tiie doors open. It took me a week. How I prized and dug! But my trouble was not getting Christ in, but getting the doors open. As soon as the doors Hew open he came in, and brought salvation with him. I have read a great many theological works that wei'o lis clear as mud, but I did not need much theology to lauderstand that. Now we stop here just long enough to say that faith liias its conditions. I am not discussing its essence, |but its conditions. Sight has its conditions. I put my hand up this vvay before ray eyes; I cannot see that picture to save my life. Why? I am not complying \N ith the conditions of sight. I take my liand down, |{iiid I see the picture plainly. Why? I comply with the conditions of sight. See that apple hanging oi Itliat tree. I say I cannot taste it to save my life, and ^i little ten-year-old boy runs and pulls it off and gives \i to me, and I cannot help tasting it to save my life. |\Mien I comply with the conditions of taste, I can^ Mot help tasting it. When you comply Avitli the condi- lion of faith, you cannot help believing. What is it? 'vei)entance toward God; that is the main part; that s tlie human side; that is the condition —repentance r ll; 74 Sehmonh and Mayings. Pi- ll townrd Gotl. If I repent, I cniinot help believing; and there is uo power on earth or in heaven that can help me believe until 1 repent. My buHiness is to repent, and the believing will look after itself; and then God gives salvation because 1 comply with the conditions. That is the way it runs. Some say, "My trouble is doubt." If you will take hold of your doubt and pull it up by the roots, you will find fi seed at the bottom, and that seed is sin. I never had any doubts in my life. If you will empty your hearts and meet the conditions then the doubts will be gone. Last February a year ago I was walking up the railroad track with my pas- 1 tor, Brother llobbins, of Cartersville, taking a littlo exercise. As we passed up the road the wind came uj) this side of us, then in our faces, and then at our backs. Brother llobbins said, " We are going to liav(j a cyclone about two o'clock." I said, "How do you| know? Have you gotten out your almanac?" He said, " No." I said, " You ought to get out an almanacl if you can tell when things are coming." AVe had not! been home ten minutes before I saw it, like a hundrculj thousand mogul engines, sweeping things into thel air and wiping out plantations and sections of tliej country. I stood and watched it in its course. If fellow lets the conditions meet in him— that is all.j The conditions of a moral cyclone are about to mee in this city, and if you do n't want to be caught in ill you had better get out of town. There is a moral' cy] clone sweeping over your souls that will sweep ouj every thought that God disapproves. Now let condi] tions meet to-day, and to-morrow the cyclone is inevj itable. Religion is just as much a reality with me aj that I have got my hand on this poplar railing. Ilsl Seumons and Sayinoh. 76 ligion is just as much a reality with me as that I have four fingers on each hand. You might persuade mo tlijit ten tiiousand things are not true, but you couhl not persuade mo that some divine power lias not touched my heart and revolutionized me. Like the fellow at the camp-meeting who got up and said, "If you all don't believe I have got religion, you go home and ask my wife; she will tell you." And if there is any woman in the world who believes that her Ims- bfind has religion, that woman is my wife. Repent- jince is the first conscious movement of the soul from sin toward God. Many a fellow is praying for rain with his tub the wrong side up. God cannot fill a tub when it is wrong side up without inverting the law of L,'iavity. God is holding up his clouds for you while you are holding your tubs the wrong side up. Turn tliem up and push them under the eaves if you want j tliom to be filled, for the shower is coming. The hour is nearly up, but I will speak a moment on the last I part of the text. "And thy house." Thank God for the privilege [and assurance that we shall go to heaven! "And thy house." Thank God for the privilege and assurance [that the children can go to heaven! Thank God for jtlie privilege and assurance that servants can go to heaven ! I want my wife to go, I want my children to go, I want my servant-boy to go, I want my cook to m ). Now, brethren, you may all throw away these op- portunities and neglect to get your children to be re- ligious if you want to. Every night and morning I kant every man to have family prayer. There are many children reared in what you call Christian homes kvlio do not know the way to heaven. Poor little f el • 76 Sermons and Savings, ii I'i ii ;:i lows! thoy never went li?ilf a mile tlie right wny in all tlioir liveH. A boy said to liis father, -while lie waa tlying: 'Tather, I am dyiii},' now, and 1 am lost for- ever! When I am dead bury me on the sidewalk down toward the horse-lot, and as you pass three times a day you will say, There lies my poor dead and damned boy who never heard nn^ pray, who never had f^ood advice from me, who never heard of God from me! " That is the saddest thing that a dy- ing child ever said to his father. If my wife ditl not pray for my children night and morning in my ab- sence I should bo very unhappy. I would not trust my children to any woman who would not take them to a closet and kneel down and pray with them. My wife told me of a very aftecting tiling the other morn- ing. She said: "The first time you were away from homo I was so sick I could not got up and pray with the children. I was in a doze under the effects of the medicine, and heard Mary say to the servant, 'Do not bring the breakfast in yet; we are not ready.' She then called her little brothers into the other room and said, 'Father is away from home; God bless sick mamma, and bless papa and help him to do good.' They got off their knees and then went out to breakfast, and not a word was said about it." Thank God, we will have prayers at our home! and some of these days when I leave this old world — sometimes I feel I don't care how soon — I will be happy in the thought. Out at Waco, Texas, after I had worked for eight raonths almost incessantly, I was taken down with mala- rial fever. My nerve forces Avere run down. The devil came into the room and said: "You will die right here; you have not got enough vital force to live." Sermons and Sayings. 77 1 finkl, "Get out of this room!" If I liad to go ovor it all again, I would not strike a lick Iohh. I don't know when I shall get in my work here, but I shall be Jmpi)y in dying; and I shall be liai)i)y ft)rever, if I am faithful. AVhen I get to heaven I don't know what I shall do with myself. It is a great heaven, I know it is. I want to see mother and father; I want to walk and talk with Christ. There are a thousand and t'.Mi tliousand things I want to see. "When I stand under tlie tree of life and see my })recious wife wfdk up un- der that tree, then I shall take her by the hand and say, "Blessed be God, we worked, lived, and labored together on earth, and now we are in heaven!" And after awhile I shall see an archangel wing his way to- ward us, and, brushing little Mary from under his wing, \\o will say, "You have trained her for everlasting life, and here she is." An(1 never resent it! You must not step on my creeO; if you d(», you are a gcmer! H M 'ill ing-head! 5 of youi' ig on tlio sin. e tlirougli ie. There tood treni- )e saved r vitli a man with a bog lot becoiie nners, &•'» a er. kin o£ aio SERMON VI. Mother, Home, Hea vex. (A SiTinon to .Mothers.) "I bcocoli yoii tlicrcforc, hrethren, liy tlie mercies of (loci, lli:i( ye present your bodies ;i livint,' saerltiee, lioly, ueeeptahle unto God, wliic'l) is your reasonable service," etc. (Koin. Aii.) n'Sl%E are going to select a peculiar subject, or text, 1 1^1 for this occasion. If you will open your Bi- * ^ bles when you get home and begin ah the liist verse of the twelfth chaxjter of St. Paul to tlie Ivomans, you will find the text. I do n't know liow far I shall go down in this chai)ter. There are a great many things in it for us; and, as I said, the service to-day is especially in the interest of mothers and for mothers. Mother, home, heaven! You take these three words, and see how closely they are asso- ciated in the minds of all men. Mother! the sweet- est word that belongs to earth. Home! what is home ^vitllout a mother? We stop here long enough to say that Nero's mother was a bloody murderess, and slie gave to this world the most cruel man the world ever saw. He could fiddle and dance over burning Piunie. Lord Byron's mother was a proud, intellect- ual woman; and she gave to this world one of the most ju'ofligate intellectual autocrats the world ever i^hw. John Wesley's mother was a sensible, religious painstaking, good woman; and she gave to this W(U'ld one of the grandest characters we ever had. George Washington's mother was a simple-hearted, strong- minded, pious, good woman; and sln> gave to tiiis^ (70) 1 > 1,,'s f'. n 80 Sermons and Sayings. country a man wliom we honor witli the title of "Fa- ther of liis country." No wonder some one said, "If 1 could mother the world, I could save the world." " Tho liand that rocks the cradle rftles the world." To show you the importance of the training of children, and the importance of a child having a mother to train it: In one of the Eastern cities the good Avomen met and mingled in '^ommon prayer for their households. The meeting was called together by mothers to discuss the interest of children and home; and in that meeting they discussed the ages at which we ought to begin to train children. One mother got up and said, "I com- mence with my children at six years of age." Another said, "I begin with mine at five years of age; I think that is the time to begin." Another said, " We ought to begin when our children are only four years of age." Another said, "I think j^ou should begin atj three." By and by an old gray-headed mother goti up and said: "I will tell you when you ought to l)egin — twenty years before the birth of the child, on its mothei'; and give it a good mother, and then you need not worry about its training." I never have any thing to say about wdien to commence to train the childreji. J want to know when you commenced on the mother of I the child. There is a heap in that. I say to you alll to-day that in the light of the Scri|)tures if you willl give me a good mother, and take all the other meaiisj of grace aAvay from me, I believe I can make my wayj to the good world; but if you give me an irreligious, godless mother, and then throw all the other meaiia of grace around me, my chances for heaven are pre(t\j slim. There is nothing in the economy of grace tlia^ can make up to your cliild tliat whicli it loses in tlic Sermons and Sayings. 81 ur years of Jd begin fit mother got gilt to begin lild, on its .en you need| ve any thing le chiklren. he mother of I ay to you all if you will other means iiake my wa-jj II irreligious, other meani en are pre' i grace tliat loses in tin ol faet that it does not have a good mother. I know I can never recover from the fact that I lost my precious mother when I was a little boy. Twice happy that family and that child whose mother loves God with all li(!r heart, and loves her neighbor as herself. The text we read to-day is this: "I beseech you therefore, l)r('tliren;" and I will change one word there, and say: "I beseecli yt)u therefore, moUicrs, by the mercies of In id, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, lioly, accei)table unto God, which is your reasona])Ie service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that yv) may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and per- iVct will of God. For I say, through the grace given' unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think i)f himself more highly than ho ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faitli." We read these three [verses because the first verso wisely understood will [adjust you rightly toward God. As a mother you uoed that. There are diil'culties in your life and there are problems in your home that can never be iHottled without the wisdom and coiiperation of God. Kvery motlier ought to be on intimate terms witli lod. You need liis counsel to guide you, his wisdom to direct you, his grace to sustain you, and his S})irit to enlighten you. There are problems and qiiestions in your home-lif(i that no one but God can settle wise- ly and C(^rrectly. If you will knovr God personally, md will adjust yourself fully toward God, then all [ill love and grace of Ids heart will be poured int() four heart and life day by day. Happy that motln^r po has settled tlie (luestion between her own soul (i "i'ri ■J .-it; 'I i I ' ' m iHI'^" Hl^ ;, W WM) Blr ; » |if; li |ih 111 ■ '1!P '■■ I '''ll ^ r' ■''Pf ' : I: I I 82 Sermons and Sayings. and God. My FatJior and my God, I am tliine forever! I will be thine always! That self-dedicatory life that gives itself fully to God. God himself asks us the question, if we will freely give ourselves to him. A mother who has given lu^rself to God is in an atti- tude to give her children to him; and you will never give your children to God until you have given your- self to him. We may give ourselves to the Cliurch — that is helpful; we may give ourselves to good asso- ciations—that is helpful; but, sister, there is no Belf- dedication that is worth much to you in this Trorld except that self-dedication that gives your life to God. The first and lowest express^don of love is the lf)ve o[ trust. This we see manifested in the child toward its motlier. There is a sort of love that we call the love of admiration, which atlmires the true, the noble, and the good, and makes us aspire to it. That is a liiglier order of love. Of all love, that is the most sublime which you see illustrated when the bride and brid<'^- groom walk up to the altar. He gives himself to her, and she gives herself to him. There they are; and if they are married according to God's ordinances, he doesr't consult his own wishes — he just wants to knoAv what his wife wants; and she does n't consult iier own wishes — she just wants to know what will please her husband. .Now, sister, when you give yourself to God all you want to know is wliat will please God, what he wants, what he desires; and if 1 know that, the best monents of my life are spent doing his will. TJie best part of a good husband's life is when he is doing something for his wife, and the best part of a good wife's life is when she is doing sometlung for licr hubbantl. Sister, a right adjustment of your soul Sermons and Sayings. 83 toward God is tliat adjustment wliicli puts you on his altar and makes you stay there forever. I believe the greatest moral monstrosity in the universe is an im- pious woman. I can understand how men can be Avicked; I can understand how men can be wicked, and turn their backs on God, and live in sin; but the irrf^'itest moral monstrosity is a woman with the ten- der arms of her children around her, their eyes look- ing up into her eycy with innocence and love, and that mother despising God in her heart. I wish every mother that hears my voice this morning would just say: "On God's altar I put myself to-day, and I put myself there to stay f(n'ever. jSow, Lord, let the fire t'orae and burn up every thing that ought to be burned u[); and if there is any thing left, take it and use it t( > the glory of thy name and the good of my children.'* A\']ien you come to where you woidd rather please God than to please society, you are getting about right. tliat every mother on the face of this earth was a consecrated mother — consecrated to God, to love him with all her heart, and to love her neighbor as herself! And, sister, yoa will never know how God can help a motlier with her cliildren until you realize in your lioart that you are consecrated to God through and tlirougli, all over and forever. ' Bisliop Marvin said hi' had tlie best mother in the world. I believe that Bishop Marvin was the grandest man my eyes over looked upon. He said: "AVlien I was a little boy four years old lying on my mother's lap while she was singing 'Loving Jesus, gentle Lamb! In tliy gracious hands I am: Make me, Saviour, wliat thou art, Live thyself within my heart,' I ■■*■!■.] ^•. (,,« %: kJ^Mi. ^ ^1 [^ ' :■■■''. i* I ^1 81 Sermons and Sayings. nil at once my motlier stopped singing and broke out shouting; and fts" she clapped her hands a tear droi)i)ed from her eye and fell on ray cheek, when a delightful sensation crept over me; and I believe that I was born to Christ at that moment, when just four years of age and on my mother's knee." Thank God for these singing, shouting mothers! There is music in their voices. If you have any objection to them, you are meaner than I was in my worst days. "Be not conformed to this world; but bo ye trans- f(/rmed by tlie renewing of your mind." The worldly element in Nashville has been setting the fashion long enough. Thank God, society is down in ashes one more time this side of hell! and you will never get all tlie ashes off until you come to God. Last week a young lady tried her best to get up a gernian, an^ could find but three girls in town willing to go into it. I think wo are getting along swimmingly. I want to tidk to you a little about your adjustment to this world. This old world only goes to 'aliere it is invited fmd welcomed. Thank God, this old world has never seen the time when it did not take its hat off and make a decent bow to a good woman! An infidel at- tacks every thing in the universe but a good moth- er. Bob Ingersoll can attack his old hypocritical father, the old Presbyterian preacher, and ho can take him out and shoot him in all his hypocrisy and corruption; but Bob has never said a word about his Christian mother. An infidel can get over and around every thing but a good woman. He walks up to a good woman, takes off his hat, makes a decent bow, turns around and goes bnck. That is as far as he can go. I tell you, my brethren, if we just had a SEUMONb AND SxVYINQS. 85 M solid phalanx of good mothers to fight infidelity and the devil, we would put thorn to flight and I'un them out of this country. If there i« any thing I despise it is the ways and doings of so-called society. Of course I do n't believe that God put us in this worhl jiover to speak to anybody. There is what we call so- cial life; but society, as contradistinguished from so- cial life, is a very different thing. A reformed soci- ety woman! You don't believe in that; but I saw one, and if I could tell you what she told me you ■would agree with me that society is a heartless old wretch that is cursing every city in America. I will tell you how we run things. Listen to me. We absolutely train our children so as to harden them against the truth of God, and have them ready for damnation before they are grown. I will tell you how this is done. AVhen the child is eight or ten years old your liusl)and comes home, and you say, '•To-morrow is Mary's birthday, and I am going to give a little party for her." "Obut," the husl)and !;ays, "our children are not old enough." "I know that, husband; but I'll just have a little party, be- cause, you know, everybody has little parties. Thero is no harm in a little party — just a l/tflc one." And tliere are children in this town not ten years old who nhit satisfied if they can't have a little party once a month. What is a little party? It is nothing but a ])ig party with short clothes on. What is a big party? It is nothing in the world but the ante-room to a ball- room. And what is a ball-room? It is the ante-room to a german. And what is a gei-man? It is the ante- room to eternal disgraces And what is eternal dis- grace? It is heil-fire. Now you see how it goes Ol» 1*^ t'i ! i:-l^ ft I' 'n •■Vi J ! ^^T 86 Seilmons and Sayings. this i)atli, before your cliiklren are twenty years old they are absohitoly steeled against tlie Lord, ajid turned toward damnation. I am just going to have u little party, that is all. Whenever you hear that I have had a liftfc i)nrty, you can say that Mr. Jones it^ dead. He died last night. My children do n't \vd\o. any partitas, but they have more fun than any otluu' live children in the State of Georgia. I do feel sick for any poor woman who has to have a little party to keep the children enjoying themselves. Mother, I do n't know whether your children need a little party, but they need a mother mig'ity bad! They do; they do. Look at your children at home. AVliat tlo they care for heaven and everl.'isting life? Before your little girl is ten years old she is banged and primped up like an old maid of sixty. And I love all the old maids. I would not hurt the feelings of one of them for the world. "Whenever you see an old maid it is because some man has not done his duty, or she was too particular. I have seen children ten years old so wrought up with what they wenr and what they are goiuy^ to do that you can absolutely do nothing witli tlieri on a higher plane in life. The little street mon- keys were never })rouder of their red sacks than yt'iu' children are with the toys and linery of this life; and tlie monkey has just about as much religion as your children have. Some of you women look innocent. You look as if all you wanted was a pair of wings to Hy off witlu You had better go home and reform your households before you go to heaven. The lirst question in this world is this question: "AVliat will become of my children?" I notice thirf Bpring that little Anna has on Mary's dresses. Littlo Seumons and Saiings. 87 Mary hns outgrown them. I notice that litth^ Paul lias on JJob's coat. Bob has outgrown it. I say, "AVife, see how these little fellows are growing;" but tlioy are growing a heap fastc^r in my heart. When they are young they step on our toes, and when they are grown up they, step on our hearts. O yt)u moth- ers ought to go in partnership with God in rearing your children! A wise adjustment of my home toward this world! There are some people who will let their children go to i)arties at other folks's houses, and won't let them Jiave one at tJieir own house. That is as mean as dirt. ( )iie worldly woman in a settlement will ruin the whole s(;ttlement. The other children will go h(.)me and say: "Mrs. So and So did so and so, and Mrs. So and So said so and so. Mamma, you must be mighty mean, because you don't do it." You hold your position and influence; and if the devil ever sweeps over your home, let it be after you are gone. A right adjust- ment toward this world! AVe will say, in the next place, that you ought not to go anywhere or do any tiling that you do n't want your children to go or to do now and forever. There are women in one city that I know of who stop on the way home and drink lager- heer with their cliildren. If you ain't a pretty moth- er if you do that, then I don't know what I am talk- int^ a})out. I can in some sort tolerate a man that dissipates, but when a woman sets the example I am sorry for that little orphan she has hold of. T received a letter, which said: "liiother Jones, for iiiercy's sake, please say something about women eat- ing morpliine and opium. This evil is j)owerfully l)revalent in our midst. Don't fail, please." Signed *'V, : % 88 Seumons and Sayings. I "Many ladies and one dru.i,'gist." Tliat druggist know what he was talking about. O to see a mother nlmost imbruted by this fearful drug! My, my! the sadd(>st family in the State of Georgia is the family where morphine has ruined father and motlier and the little children from four years to fourteen. They are abso- lutely stupid with it all the day long. No woman is fit to be a mother who is habitually under the intiu- ence of morphine and opium; and if you carry thai on till you die, and don't go to helJ, then tliere is no hell. Never do any thing or say any thing that you do n't want your children to do and say. Like a moth- er saying, "Mary, what is that I heard you sayV" "I said so and so." "li I ever hear you say tiiat again I will whip you." "Why, mamma, I heard you say it one day!" "I don't care if you did; I am grown, I am grown, daughter." Yes, I hope yoiir daughter will quit that sort of meanness before she is grown. The idea of a woman i)leading that she does tilings that she doesn't want her children to do be- cause she is grown! " Daughter, did you go down and see so and so? " "Yes." "If you ever do it again 1 will whip you." "Why, mamma, you did it!" "Yes, and I want you to understand that your mother is grown." Sister, iiave you not said tliat? You need not look so innocently at me. I am grown! [ reckon you have heard of the good wife. It is an iUustration of a good many others. I said to a fussy mother one day, after she had just f railed a little fel- low out in the yard for fussing, " Did it ever strike*, you where they got tlie idea of fussing from? " And she answered me: "I reckon it is born in them. Do you know where they get it?" And I said, "They get Behmons and Sayinga. 89 it from you mid their futlior." Many a wif(^ teaches her chiklreii to fuHs ])y fussing with the ohl man, and then whips tlieni for it. As tlio mother who fell out with her husband and threw a eiuur at him and missed him, and hit the motto, "God, f)h^ss cmr h(^me!" the ('Iiil(h-en said, " Mamma missed papa's head, l)ut did n't s1m» give the motto a bringerl" Never cpiarrel ])eforo your chihlren; or, in other words, never quarrel at all. nightly adjusted toward this world means this' "As far as this world is coneerned, I tell it to keep its dis- tance. You must not come in on me. I am the (ihild of Clod, and my children are the childnMi of God, and we won't have these things nl)out us." The more you do for God, the more he will liel}) you with your chil- dren. The woman that never hel{)ed the Lord never got much help from the Lord. The best way to help yourself is to help somebody else. You take society about this town. If I had the numey that the Chris- tian wcmien, so called, pay at the theater during the yoai', I could run every charitable institution in this town grandly. That is a fact. You can't walk to ciiurch — it is too far; but you will walk the next night a third farther to the theater, and your liusband does not really want to go. Let us try and reform our- selves on this line. Let us try and live for others and not for ourselves. Take the woman's mission home work in this town. There is not a woman who hears my voice to-day who ought not to contribute a mite to that once a month. If you want to help your cliil- (hon, you helj) the Lord in something, and you will find out that the Lord is helping you sure enough. Take the Methodist women of tliis town: Here is the foroign mission work — the first organized work that i (■ ■:? '% ) ' I* I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) i.O I.I 1.25 (50 "^™ 2.5 2.2 2.0 U IIIIII.6 s>m w ^- v: 7 ;^ r Photographic Scieaices Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 145S0 (716) •73-4S03 ■rui T Ua 9C Skrmonh and Sayings. n woman ever proposed to do for Christ; and this or- ganized work is to go into the heart of China. Hem in Nashville, the head center of the Church of the South, how many members have you? I hope these foreign missionary Societies will have two thousand members before long. Some people say they don't believe in woman's work. There is an old preacher down in Georgia who preaches against woman's work, and that preacher has not had a conversion since tlw war. If you want to follow that old stick you can d(( so. If you will show me a pastor in Nashville that doesn't believe in woman's work I will show you a pas- tor that is of no account. Now, listen to me a moment. When Eve tempted Adam and Adam fell through the temptation, the Lord came up, and Adam and Evd hid; and when the Lord questioned Adam he showed himself a pusillanimous wretch by laying it on his wife. I despise that in Adam. I believe I would just ha\e broken out and said I ate it sure enough. Tho Lord called the woman unto him, and said, "I put en- mity between you and the serpent." And God im- planted in every woman's nature an inveterate hatred of the devil; and your success for both worlds de- pends on how you live out that principle. Die fight- ing him. Fight him anywhere and everywhere, in an organized capacity and single-handed. If your chil- dren have a consecrated mother, the question is pretty well settled with them for this world and the next. A woman is naturally a very sharp trader, and very tew women have any conscience when it comes to q trade. You will sell an old pair of trousers for more than your husband gave for them when new, and then brag about it. You will hire a woman to cook for you Sermons and Sayings. 91 at four dollars a ra6nth, and then brag about how cheap you got her. You will go to the atore and give four dollars a yard for a piece of goods — and the more it costs the better you like it— and then you will go over to Sister Brown, a poor, good woman in your Church, mid give her half a dollar for making it; and if the dev- il does n't get you it is because he ain't got any thing <'i},'ainst Sister Brown. The meanest woman in the world is the woman who will give four dollars a yard for her dress, and then go over to that poor old wom- an who is a member of her Church and Jew her down to the last nickel she can get her to make it for. Of course you don't do it that way in NasJi. Hlo; but those trilling Georgia women! Don't you i^;'! ^nto tlioir bad practices. Very few women have any con- ^-cienco when they come to trjidiug. They think the better trade it is the better it is. I reckcm they learn that from us, brethren. Let us let our children see that in all things we do right. I would rather give two dollars a yard for that dress, and give Sister Ijrown twenty dollars for making it, than give four dollars a yard for the dress and give Sister Brown four dollars and fifty-five cents for making it, and what buttons are left over. Let us quit that. 1 nm just going to show you two pictures, and you can carry them home with you. Some of you have l):()ught them with you. I won't call your name, but you know your number. Here is a mother; there is a little girl. The little girl comes in and says, "Mamma, please give mo some scraps for my doll dress." And the mother says: "I won't do it. You have wasted more scraps than you are worth; and if you bother me any more I will whip you." Littlo 92 Sermons and Sayings. U ■ if Aimie goes out with lier head drooped. In a few minutes she comes back and says, " Please give mo some thread." " There you are again, you little vix- en! I wish you would get your things and go over to Mrs. Brown and see if you can't worry her." And little Annie goes out saying: "I just wish that I was dead, that is all I wish. Mamma has never a kind word for me." The next day she comes back, and says, " Mamma, loan me your thimble, jilease ma'am." " You took my thimble yesterday, and it took me two hours to find it. If I catch you at it again I will make you dance." Little Annie walks out, saying. "I wish mamma was dead. She is just as mean an she can be." Aftor awhile she comes back and says, "Please, mamma, lend me your scissors." "I sha'n't do it. You just want them to slick your eyes out." And little Annie goes away; and by and by she grows u]), and she is the terror of that neighborhood. she is a sight on wheels! Y'^ou go to see her mother, and she does n't know what is the matter with her little Annie —"Lord knows I have done my best." There is but one trouble with Annie. She is just like thut old mother. She is a chip off the old block. Many a woman in this country is rearing her children just that way. A good plan for a young man is to court the whole family, but do n't marry but one. I want to court my mother-in-law and father-in-law and my wife's sister, and find out what sort of people they are. I want to know what sort of a family I am mar- rying into. There is a heap in that. Now for the other jncture. Here is a mother sit- ting by her sewing-machine, and little Mary comes up| and says, "Mamma, please give me some scraps to Sermons and Sayings. dress my doll." And the mother says: "Yes, my dear, ill a moment. I was just sitting here thinking about you; and the one desire of my heart is to see you grow up a Christian girl. Now, you are just six years old. Now, darling, will you listen to mamma read a verse or two before she gives you the scraps?" Mam- iiiii gets down the Bible, and she reads, "liemember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth," and so on. Now she says: "Darling, do you know what that means? That means that you ought to give your young heart to God and bo a Christian all your days." Ill a moment the mother gives her the scraps, and Mary walks out, saying: "I know I have just got the liest mother in the world. She is so good to me." The next day Mary comes in and says, "Lend mo your thimble, mamma; I have lost mine." And the mother says, "Do you remember that verse I read to you'?" "Yes, mamma; and I recollect what you said it meant. You said it meant I ought to begin now to \)o a Christian girl; and, mamma, I got down on my kiu>es and prayed the best I could for God to help mo to be good just like my mamma." The next day little Miiry comes back and says, "Mamma, will you please lend me your scissors?" And mamma says: "Yes, cliild; but I have not prayed with you to-day. Will you go into the closet and pray with mamma? " " Yes, Imainma, I will go with you." Mamma takes little jMarybythe hand and leads her into the closet. I can see the disappointed angels stand around. They wanted to get in to see what God was going to do wiili that mother and little Mary. And by and by the r.iother comes out with a glow of beauty on her cheek and little Mary holding her finger; and as little Mary 94 Sermons and Sayings. i H n kHI UH ^^H m S^l m ijlp K^^H> § m 1 Mj il Hi km vim il: Si walked out, a tear that would not have stained an an- gel's cheek ran down her bright face; and an angel pushed his hand under it and caught the tear, and \nnged his way back to God and called the heavenly iiosts together, and said, " Here is the tear of a sweot little girl whose mother is training her for this bright world of ours." God bless mothers for their good children! Here is Mary now sixteen years old, and everybody says she is the pride of the settlement. She is a blessing to the whole community; and they look on her and say, "How is it she is such a sweet, good girl?" It is because she is just like her good mother. Gr)d give us good mothers, and then wo will have good Annies and Marys. Thank God for a precious mother in heaven to-day! If I ever get to heaven, and the angels congratulate me on gettin<^ there, I will say: "Hunt up my precious mother, who took me by the hand and led me along until I was eight years old, and then took me by the hand and said, 'I can never come back to you; you can come to me.'" I believe that every redeemed spirit in lieaven will have a happy mother to join it there. Now, let all who want to be better stand up. SAYINGS. I CAN understand how men can be wicked; I can understand how a man can turn his back on God and live in sin; but tho greatest moral monstrosity to nie is a mother with the tender arras of her childr«Mi a1>out her neck and their eyes looking up into hers j with innocence and love, and that mother despising) God in her heart. Ser.aions and Sayings. 95 Thank God, society is down in tlie nshes one more tiiuf this side of hell — even Nashville society! And yitu will never get the ashes off until you come to God. Wiion you come to where you Avould rather please (i()(l than to please society, you are getting about light. If I ever get to heaven, and the angels congratulate me on getting there, I will say: "Hunt up my precious mother, who took me by the hand and led nie along until I was eight years old, and then said, *Son, you can come to me, but I cannot come back to you;'" and slie went home to live with the angels forever. Thank God, this old world has never seen the time wlion it did not take its hat off and make a decent bow to a good woman! The infidel can get over and around every thing but a good woman. Ho walks up to a good woman, takes oflf his hat, makes a rospect- I'ul l)ow, turns around and goes back. That is as far as he can go. Just a little party! What is a little party? It is a lii-j; party in short clothes. ^Miat is a big party? It is the ante-room to a ball-room. And what is a ball- room? It is the ante-room to a german. And what is ii german? It is hugging set to music, and the iuit(^-room to eternal disgrace. And what is eternal flis^'race? It is hell-fire— that 's it. Whenever you hear that I have had a little jmrty at my house, you • an just say that Mr. Jones is dead. He died last iiigiit. il i yi I SERMON VII. TiiK FiiviTs OF Tin: SriniT. (A Heririon to Wives.) " IJiit tlu' fruit (if the Spirit is love, joy, peiice, long-siifloriii)?, gen- lliMU'ss, gi)(«ln('ss, laitli," etc. (Gulatians v.) fE will discuss somewhat tlio relations of wife to husband, of the wife to home, and of the * * wife to society. These twain shall be one flesh, and this holy relation is blessed of God. And God blesses this holy relation just in proportion as we sus- tain this relation in a scriptural sense. At this point I throw out this little illustration. A pastor in one of the cities in our Conference told me this. Said lie: "Just after I Avas stationed at this ])lace I married ont^ of my Christian young men to a worldly-n\inded, un- christian L^irl; and a few days after that I married one of my Cliristinn girls to a worldly-minded, wicked man." Sometimes this is a mistake as long as eter- nity. "But," said he, "before six months had passed away the Christian girl had brought her worldly liusband to Christ, and he had joined the Church; and before six months had passed away the gay and giddy girl had taken her husband out of the Church, and he was going arm in arm with her to hell." Therc^ aj'e two things for you to think of. That good girl had her liusband on the way to heaven in less than six months after the time she had married him; that worldly girl had her husband out of the Church, and they were walking together to death and hell. Now, you wives who do not profess to be Christians, look at your husbands from head to foot. (9f5) Seumons and Sayings. 97 IS of wife nd of tlio one flesh, And God as we sus- tliis point r in one oi: Said iie: larried on(^ inded, un- larried one id, wicked iig as eter- lud passed r worldly e Church; le gay and le Church, ." Theri^ good girl less than him; that lurch, and ell. Now, tians, look The verses we select for tiiis discussion are in tlio lit'tli chapter of Galatians: "Now the works of the llt'sh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, forni- cation, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witch- craft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, sedi- tions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, rev- el iiigs, and such like; of the which I tell you be- fore, as I have also told you in time past, that tlioy which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." This is one side of the subject clearly pre- s«Mited. The other side is this: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temj^erance; against such tliore is no law." Now, we have before us to-day the fruits of a worldly life clearly given. "We also have Ix^foro us the fruits of a godly life. I have known n lung time that I must he something in order that 1 may do something. The Scriptures teach me clearly that my life can never be better than my heart. The Scriptures teach me that a bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit; neither can a good tree bring forth bad fruit. It also teaches me that no salt fountain can send forth fresh water; neither can a fresh fount- ain send forth salt water. I want to talk to-day mostly oil ln'itKi, and not so much on doing. The line of de- markation is so clearly drawn that were I to hesitate for a moment as to whether I am a child of God, that very hesitancy would be a sin in the sight of God. Tliere are unmistakable signs, unmistakable evidences, of a Christian's life about which you can't be deceived, and about Avhich you will never deceive anybody else. I can tell you what we want in this world: wives witli pure hearts and pure spirits; and then their lives and Skumonh and Sayinor. characteristics, as they touch nil around them, will be salutary for gre toward |apple-tree (id then it little ap- Ltil by and And as |S drop off, So with are many ^d the ripe ,tals of the the frosts difficulties between the l)lossom ard the ripe apple; yet the tree is valuable only as it overleaps them all and matures tho fruit. Just as the ultimatum of all vegetation is tlie matured fruit, so the ultimatum of Christian life is the maturing of Christian fruitage. "The fruit of tho Spirit is love." Every woman that has ever bud- ded into a Christian's life realized that there was a moment in her experience when she loved everybody on the face of the earth. God is love, and he that lovotli is born of God. Bless your life, down in Geor- gia about twelve years ago I loved everybody one mo- ment, and I have been at it ever since! If you will find me a man on the face of the earth I do n't love, and bring him here to me, I will hug him till he howls. This world is the fruit-bearing world. Up yonder we will eat and rejoice forever over the fruit we have matured here below. Between the bud and the blos- som and the ripe fruit of love there are many difficul- ties. There are the cold winds of neglect, and the biting frosts of temptation; there are a thousand inter- vening difficulties between the blossom and the ripe fruit. Do you know that nine-tenths of our troubles are because we are not developing this fruit of love? I knew two brothers in Georgia who got mad at each other, and they quarreled and quarreled; and I tried to get them to settle it, and then I tried to get them to fight it out. At a big camp-meeting I saw these two brothers out hugging each other, as happy as they could be. I took one of them aside and asked him how he could pray, since he had been mad so long. He said: "If I have acted the rascal I ain't 100 Sermons and SAViNaa. ftcted tho fool. I ain't boon on my knees since I got mad. As soon as I got on my knees to pray I saw how it was, and I made the dilHcuilty all right." How many women in this tent positively refuse to speak to some otiier women in this tent? Mad! I am mndi "Dogs delight to bark and bite; it is their natur<' to." Everybody in this world — male and female — has a lovable side to character and an unlovable side to character. You turn tlie lovable side of your char- acter on everybody else, and everybody will love you. You turn the unlovable side of your character to every one, and they will do the same. I moved into a settlement once, and the man I lived next-door neighbor to was not liked by anybody, and he did not like anybody. I went in there and turned the lovable side of my character to him, and he did tho same to me. I found out tiiat when he came ther(; he had turned the unlovable side of his character to every one, and every one had turned their unlovable side to him. Now, sister, if nobody loves you, it is your own fault; if everybody is mad with you, it is your own fault. People say : "Jones does n't believd in social life." Bless you, I am the most social man you ever saw! I believe in social life. Take McKen- dree Church: there are about a dozen members who have a visiting acquaintance with you. For the rest you care nothing, and they care nothing for yon. When all you members of that Church get to heaven the angels will have to introduce you. "This is Mrs. S(» and So, a member of McKendreo Church." " Why, I am a member of that Church! " "Are you a mem- ber of that Church? I never knew you." You are going to keep the angels mighty busy introducing you SlillMOXH AND SAVINGS. 101 I got I saw How- speak 1 mnil'. natur*' male— »le side Li* char- •ve you. icter to red into 3xt-door he did •lied tlio did tho ne tliei(? racter to inlovable ^ou, it irt foviy it ifi 't believo )cial man McKen- liers -who r the rest for you. to heaven lis is Mrs. " Why, ou a meni- You are lucing you (o each other. Love, love! I wish I couhl seo this port of business done away with, and every woman in town in love with every other woman in town. Some women who hear me now have not got a dozen friends in town to-day. I would hate to live in ii town as l)ig as this" if I could not have ten thousand friends in it. Coui't up your friends, sister, and see how inuny you have, and you may be astonished that you luive so many. Just look at the thing in the right di- rection. I love a woman who can mix with any soci- ety, while her presence purifies all the elements. I love a woman who not only mixes in the best society, l»nt in whose presence the poorest laboring woman focls at home. Thank God, I have got a wife on whom some helpless woman can lean! I want to tell you that big-meeting religion is not the best religion in the world. Once I heard of a woman going to fly to heaven from a big meeting like this; she attempted it, gave a flop, and down she came ; and when she got up all the people were laugh- int,' at her; and she said: "You need not be laugh- Ihl,' at me; I just did not get the right flop." That is where all the trouble was. I will tell you about ii woman whose heart abounded in love, and the right sort of love, and she got the right flop, and went in all right. One morning after breakfast she went into her cook-room and took a waiter from the shelf, find set a nice piece of toast, and a piece of chick- en, and a piece of ham, and a cup of coflfee, and a glass of jelly on the waiter, and started out; she wont down the street, and turned and went into an alloy, and went up to a low hovel and knocked at the door; a faint voice said, " Come in," and she walked into 102 Seumons and Sayings. *1 the room, and when she walked in there lay a poor sick widow, with her unkempt, unwashed, hungry chil- dren around her. And the woman wet the corner of a towel and bathed the fevered face of the woman, and then she sat down and fed the woman and her children; then she inquired for her Bible,*and got up and took down the Testament and read, " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," etc.; and she prayed, " O Lord, I have fed this poor woman and her chil- dren on earthly food, now feed us on spiritual." And I saw from the glow of beauty on her cheeks, and the light of love in her eyes^ that she had been to heaven sure enough, where God and the angels are. Sometimes I go home from meetings hungry. I want something better than the meetings can furnish me. I say, " Wife, I am going up to see that poor old colored woman on the hill — old Aunt Ann." We go up the hill, and go to the old woman's house. She is always glad to see us. We stay there about an hour , with her; then we take down the Bible and read and] sing and pray with her; and as we leave the house] Aunt Ann says: "God, bless Mars Sam! he is always I like an angel when he comes here; and if I ever get to heaven I will tell the angels how good he is to me." When I get to heaven and knock at the door Christ will say, "On what grounds do you let him in ? " 'I was a-hungered, and he fed me ; I was naked, and hj clothed me; I was sick, and he visited me. I Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of theFel my brethren, ye have done it unto me." That is enougkl Love is the great leveler; it knocks down all tliel obstacles. I was preaching in a town in Georpial oncdt ^^^ ^^ discussing brotherly love; and when ll Sermonh and Sayings. 103 {^'ot to that point where brotherly love makes you love Jill alike, they told me this: " When Sister A. gets sick, how good they all are to her. She lives in the finest house in the city, and has the best cook and servants; and when she is sick all the people around are send- ing her good things to eat; they bring it into her room, and the sick woman says, 'Just take it out into the dining-room.' They take it in and set it down on the dinner-table, and the servants eat it up. She hardly ever sees the food. See how the ladies go to see her! By and by the doctor says we must shut off all company. Then they muffle the door-bell, and the servants go in the back way every hour asking how Mrs. A. is." And I said: "Thank God, I think I have been in one community that is good to the sick!" But out in the suburbs, on the hill-side, is poor Sis- ter Snipe. I never heard the doctors say she must not have any more company; I never heard of any serv- ants going down to find out how poor Mrs. Snipe was. No one went there bearing her good things to eat. And when I got through the sermon a poor old soul came and took me by the hand, and said: "You just told them the truth; that is what they do." And I asked, "What is your name?" And she said. "My name is Snipe." And sure enough her name was Snipe, and she lived on the hill-side, and they hi-d been treating her that way. Let me say to you, If you can't help but one family in town, let that be the family which needs the help. I have got a profound contempt for folks who are always helping folks that do n't need any help. Let us take care of old Sister Snipe. I heard that a leading business man in Nashville 104 Sermons and Sayinqs. said the other day that no woman should be paid over fifty cents a day for her work. That man ought to bo in hell, I do n't care who he is. And there is many a poor woman in this town working for less than that. The spirit of love on the part of you women will reg- ulate a great many things in this town. God hasten the time when a woman will get as much for the same work as a man! I understand that in some cities all that a woman gets for making a garment is from fif- teen to seventeen cents. A martyr to her business! There are some of the best women in the world toil- ing sixteen to seventeen hours a day to keej) soul and body together. I met an old colored woman in the road and gave her the last dollar I had in my pocket, and I will never forget the look she gave me; it will bless me in eternity. How do you use your money? If you will help everybody else the Lord will help you. The Lord is not going to help you straighten out your husband unless you are of some account. If the spirit of love can control us, then we are made up for all worlds, for time and eternity. There is not a woman wlio can't break her husband down if she will only try. You begin to argue with him, and he will argue back; and he can beat you, generally. You go demanding something, and he will demand something back. But leave r very thing else and begin crying, and he will say: "iSow you hush crying, and I will do any thing ill the world for you. I can't stand that crying busi- ness." Love! The fruit of the Spirit is love. Joy, joy! I tell you, what we want in this country is joyous Christiiin homes. If there is any thing in this world a man craves it is a joyous, cheerful Sermons and Sayings. 105 lioniG. Wife, just ask yourself, "Wliy is it that my ImsbaiRl does n't want to spend his evenings at home? " Hero is a man whose wife never got after him for not si)ending his evenings at home. I am a sort of tVlldw that wants to bo with his wife. She is the most lovable being in this world to me. A cheerful wife is a blessing to any man. Joyous Christian woman! happy all the time, and throwing sunshine on every thing that comes in con- tact with her. I am sorry for a woman whose hus- band sits up at night and reads trashy novels at liome. Let me tell you that a man is known by the company he keeps, and his books are as much his company as any thing else. You will never get over a bad book. Let us go home and make a big ])on- liro and burn up every thing in the house that is not clean. "Love, joy, and peace." Peace that defies all the powers of earth and conquers all the obstacles in its way. I went into the garden of an old brother and there was a tombstone, and he said, "There is the tombstone of my wife." I walked up and read the inscription: it gave her name, the date of her birth aiul the date of her death, and then just one line, and that line was this: "She made home pleasant." That was the grandest epitaph I ever saw on a wife's tombstone: "She made home pleasant." "Long-suffering." I like the spirit of long-suffer- ing, especially in wives. A wife and a husband ought to make this sort of a contract: that they will never I loth get mad at the same time. If you want to con- ((iicr your husband you let him do his own quarreling, and you just sit right still and keep your mouth shut IOC Sermons and Sayings. lUi "Gentleness." Beecher once had a horse brought to him for a buggy-ride, and he asked, "Is that horse gentle?" And they answered: "Yes, sir; he is not afraid of any thing in the world, and he will work anywhere." And Beecher said: "I wish I had one member in my church like that — not afraid of any thing, and will work anywhere." I saw a great big fine bay horse once that would not work anywhere except to a light, striped buggy. These Sunday morn- ing eleven o'clock Christians are striped buggy fel- lows. Some of you have not been to church only at eleven o'clock Sunday morning for years. That is the dress-parade crowd. These striped buggy fellows! If you were to hitch them up to a prayer-meeting they would run away. If you were to hitch one of them up to family prayers he would kick the buggy all to pieces. It is a mighty hard matter to get any other woman in the church to be of any account when the preacher's wife is of no account. A liberal, cheerful, working woman is worth her weight in diamonds to any community. The spirit of gentleness and the spirit of temper- ance. Be not only temperate in regard to liquor, but be a total prohibitionist on that subject. Be temper- ate in your life. Many a woman has involved her husband in disgrace and ruin because she lived be- yond his Tiieans. I know men in this world whoso noses have b^^^a to the grind-stone for years. They have gone I , I their means. Let us live within our means. The wife ought to talk wi\,n her husband about his means. Temperance — especially in whisky. You go home to-day, and if there is any thing in the house to drink break the demijohn on the bricks in Sermons and Sayings. 107 ought horse is not [ work id one )£ any iat big ywherc f morn- only at at is the fellows! ing they of them gy all t() .ny other vhen the cheerful, nonds to the back yard. Your children are watching you. You are sowing seed. If there is a human being on the face of the earth that I hate with an inveterate liutred it is a f'rench dancing-master. I would put my children in the coils of the worms of tue Nile before I would put them in his hands. There is not a bar-room on the face of the earth that is doing as much harm as a dancing- master. If there is one in this town you can tell him so. I would not wipe my feet on the rotten rascal! Some of you have got low enough down to send your children to a negro dancing-master. God pity you, if you ever went to such a depth as that! I will never deliberately turn my children over to any man and pay him by the month to train them up for damna- tion. I tell you, my sister, keep your children out of these things. Let us keep this evil influence away from our homes. Lord God of heaven and earth, help us to help our children to heaven by all that is temperate and good! I have talked over an hour, and I expect I have talked longer than I ought to. I have covered as much ground as I could. I want to tell you here to- day that my heart is in all these things. Before I sit down I want to say just one word about card-playing. While I was preaching in Chattanooga a son went in and asked his mother to play a game of cards with him, but his mother said: "Son, I heard Brother Jones's lecture to-day, and they are going to have a meeting to-night, and I am going upstairs to pray." He wanted his sister to play, but she had been con- verted and would not play. And the brother turned right around and went down the street to the mass. i. i t 108 Seiimons and Sayings. meotiiig, and went home that night n converted boy. (fod pity the woman who has got time to sit down and play cards! Card-playing is a lazy woman's work. I never in my life saw a lazy woman of any account. Let us go home and Ijurn up our cards, and never send a gambler out on the world. God bless you all to- day, and ultimately save you! SAYINGS. Dignity is the starch of the shroud. The more dignity a fellow has the nearer dead he is. I expect to be as dignified as any of you when I get into my coffin. I can't defy the great God who will try me at the last day, any mere than I could rush up into the face of the great God who in the beginning held a flam- ing mass of eternity in his red right-hand, while every spark that flew from it made a world. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. A GOOD plan for a young man proposing to marry is to court the whole family, but not to marry but ono. I wrjnt to court my mother-in-law, and father-in-law, nnd my wife's sister, and find out what sort of people they are. I want to know what sort of a family I am marrying into. There is a heap in that. A rREACHER said to Jones: "At least a hundred p(.'ople in the audience look like they are anxious to seek Christ. AVhy don't you call them up?" "1 never kill hogs till I get the water hot." "But sup- pose you get the water too hot?" "Then it will sot the hair, and we will just sharpen the knife and shave it off." 4. 'X, thin <'t!)()u li'ujie iiave ^ JJian J <('i\ ai ii\e V*' tJi(> j)j e at the the face I a flaiii- iile every he same SERMON VIII The Prodigal Son, (To Men Only.) " J'^itlier, I liavp sinned aj2;ainst licaven, and in tiiy siglit, and ui I no more wortliy to be called thy son." (Luke xv. 21.) 1^ NEVER understood the full force of the liymii, ■^ [i "All hail the power of Jesus' name," until I saw • its association with a wonderful gathering in L(l(Miton, Putnam county, Georgia. I had been ])i"aching there for several days; hundreds had been couverted to God. I believe every adult in tlie town, oxcopt twenty-seven, had been converted and joined tlie Church. All the bar-keepers had been converted, and had surrendered their business, except one, and lu' went to the county commissioners and proposed to cancel his license if they would give him back the money he had paid for it. He said: "Give me tlie money I paid you, and to-morrow morning at two o'clock my whisky will bo loaded and shipped out of this town." And the citizens met on the greensward al)()ut the court-house to free their town from whisky. Ti)e first song was, "All hail the power of Jesus' iifime." It has done more for temperance than all the It'gislative enactments and all the movements that have ever been inaugurated. I would to God that every man here to-night would call him his Lord and Mas- ter, and live his friend and die his companion, and liN with him in heaven. He is the best friend a mor- tal man ever had. Let us stand up and sing, "All hail the ])()wer of Jesus' name." (1091 110 Sermons and Sayings. There are more good women to the square foot in this town than in any place I have seen, but 1 want ev- ery woman in Nashville to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and then your town will be well-nigh redeemed. I praise God for a good wife and for a good mother. I would see every woman in Nashville fall in love with the Lord Jesus Christ and love him forever. Come out to the six o'clock £ ervice. Strike a fellow before he is full of beef and the devil, and you can do something with him. Some fellows are nearly hopeless after ten o'clock in the morning. Now, brethren, I hope every man present who be- lieves that God hears and answers prayer will lift his heart in prayer that God may bless every man and boy in this company to-night. Will you pray, brethren? Pray to God to baptize his word with power. I want to get very close to many hearts to- night. At Cowan, just this side of the Cumberland Mountain, I walked out on the engine, and the en- gineer came over on the side of the engine with me. He said he had been attending these services, "and when you told about Virginia, and about the death of several children, especially when you told about Vir- ginia, you came mighty close to me then. I want to be a good man, and want you to pray for me. I have lost children, but I want to be a good father to my children that still live, and to be good to the best wife a man ever had." God help me to get mighty close to you to-night! I would compass you with as warm a heart as ever beat in mortal man. The best preach- ing that a man ever heard is the preaching that makes you forget that there is any other man on earth but tl\e preacher and yourself. Lord Jesus Christ, come H' Sermons and Sayings. Ill rho bc- nll lift ry man u pray, rfl with arts to- berland the eii- ith me. very close to these men to-night; touch them, and may these wearied arms be stretched out, and these dying bodies be raised up! Lord Jesus Christ, come to-night and stand right by the side of every one of us! "And he said, A certain man had two sons; and the jounger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living." That boy made a mistake there as long as eternity — "Make me as one of thy hired servants." If his father had hired him he would liiive been stealing something before Saturday night. Tliat boy made a mistake there. "And he arose, and came to his father, and said, I am no more worthy to be called thy son." But the father, thank God, st()])ued him before he got to that servant business. " Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it. And they began to be merry." You recognize this immediately as the parable of the Prodigal Son. This one para- ble stamps its author as a divine teacher. I like Shakespeare; I love to read Shakespeare. It is a thing of delight to see how Shakespeare can flash the light of his genius into every corner and crevice of human nature. Shakespeare can take a man by the hand and show him every step down to hell, but he can't lead him back again. That is one reason why I do n't like Thackeray. He can show human nature in all its ugliness, and when he gets through he walks off and leaves you looking at it. I don't like that. Christ was divine. He could take a man and follow him into every downward movement — down, down — that would go into the very gates of hell, and take him by the hand and lead him back and up, and set him down .1- 112 Sehmons and Sayings. in hoaveu and pliico a crown on liis head. I liko that. TJiank God for this parable! I never preached from a paraWo in my life. Tliese jmrables are perfect in themselves, and I shall simply make a running com- ment on the parable, and shall try to modernize it not that some (me may say Jones coupled things witli tlmt parable that do n't belong to it. I am not preacli- ing to you gentlemen of the cloth; I am after thes<' boys down here. If you will all pray we shall get hold of some of these boys to-night. I will adapt this par- able to the present day, so that we may better get hold of it. The Lord Jesus Clirist is perfectly willing that wo take his truth and throv/ all the light that modern phraseology and modern things can throw upon it. AVe have to do with one of these two sons. *' Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me." Wo know it is a fact that at that time the elder boy inher- ited the estate, and the younger son had no claims on the father; but this younger son said, "Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And [immedi- ately] he divided unto them his living." I have heard preachers say mighty bad things about this boy; sny that he was one of the wickedest, most prodigal and outrageous boys that was ever reared in that settle- ment. If the boy was « rascal the old man was a fool to start with; for I tell you that the boy, if he liad no legal claims on the father, and that father had known the boy was wicked and prodigal, he never would have turned that property over to him without advice and warning. The very face of the i)arable teaches that th3 boy was worthy of his father's confidence, and worthy of the things he bestowed upon him. I havo heard preachers say that human beings are corrupt Sermons and Sayings. 113 ^ that. L from ect in 5 com- ze it »3 with r then*' ;et \\o\^^ liis par- get liohl ing that modern on it. " Fjitlier, le." Wo |oy iuher- •lainis that, and stuck to it, how many heart-aches he would have avoided! how many days of weariness he would have shunned! Preparations are made the next morn- ing to move, and oft' he drives. At sundown he camps again, and the same scone is reiieatod. 1 see him he down to sleep again. "I am two days' journey from home." I liave wished many a time tliat that boy had said, "I will go back in the morning before tiui provis- ions I have brought from home are gone." If ho hud, that boy would have been away from father and mother and homestead just three nights. Saturday night lio pitches his tent to remain until Monday. The Sab- bath sun i)eeped up over the eastern hills and batlie'l the camp in a sea of light. "This is the first Salt- bath I have been away from home, the home of in} early days, the home of my boyhood." He had alli day Sunday to think, and that is a good while. He had twelve bright hours, with the light of the suii| pouring down on him. Memories of days rushed upon him, and he had twelve hours of darkness iii| which to think. Some of you have done a sight thinking in the last twenty-four hours, may be. Ifl that boy had gotten the consent of his heart to givfil the order next morning, "Right about, and drive baekj home" the next Sunday would have found him mil Seumons and Sayings. 115 )ck, Um \e lookrt ,vurm t>f t 1 evt'i' j/o bark lecl t*> ^l'> ho wo\iUl -ixt luoni- hecftinp^ ?>o him \i»^ it boy ^»i^^^ :ho provis- [If liG bail, ,ud inotluT y nigbt III' Tho Sul)- ind \)atb»''l first Hal>- iine of my le bad all I vvbile. He of the sun I lys rushed larkness 'w\ ! a sight oti uay be. if| 3art to givfl I drive backl lid him m tltT the rtK)f of tlie oUl hoiiiestejul; back to stay for- ever. If he had done that, that boy wouUl have sliunned ten thousand heart-aches; he would have ^'one around ten thousand bankruptcies of conacieuco, and saved himself from shame and misery and ruin. i>ut on and on he drives. I imagine, at the end of the second week, as he is going along, he enters some excellent territory. Here is every thing that heart could wish. " I believe 1 will buy a plantation and set- tle light here. But if I settle here and start in life it will not be more than two weeks before the old man iiiul the old woman will be down here suggesting tilings to me. I am going away off yonder and build H palatial residence and stock my farm and have ev- ery thing in apple-jne order, and go back home and show them what I have done." That boy is honest ill that thing. He finally got into another magnifi- cent settlement. "I believe I will buy and settle right here. Here is the post-oflice, though, and I won't ber hero a month until I get a long letter from father giv- ing me directions about things. I see a plantation here that suits me. The owner is a sort of old fogy. If I could only get possession of the lot, I could buy (nit the old man lock, stock, and barrel, and let him live with me." And now we see him driving off. He is going in style, too, I imagine. The people would meet by the road-side and say: " Did you see that mag- uilicent pageant, and that magnificent young fellow, iu all the pomposity of his life? I met him in the road, and he didn't speak to me at all." The hotel- keeper where he stopped overnight said: "I saw he was a nice young man, and I told him I wouldn't charge him a cent. He gave me to understand that if..'' M m - ^M mmmmm m i I' i m UG Seiimons and Sayings. lie was no pauper. He pulled out a great roll of money and settled up with me. I am afraid I hurt his feelings." I can see a streak of human nature a Imndred feet thick right along in there. Night after night as he goes along he settles his bill. He is lih- eral — prodigal, not liberal. On he goes, and on. He moves off farther and farther from home; at every turn of the wheel, at every step, he was farther from home. That was the saddest picture in connection with this young man. If he needed money, he could sell a servant for several thousand dollars; he could sell camels and sheep. At last he got into a far-off country. When he got there the first thing he did he bought a tract of four thousand acres, built a magnificent residence, and rolled in luxury and wealth — like some of you are roll- ing in luxury and wealth to-night. You know how it is. I would not go and stay all night wiiero some of you are spiritually to-night for all the coined gold of the uni- verse. I might die; and if I did, I would be an eternal bankrupt. He "wasted his substance with riotous living." Go back and find where we are. Human nature bubbles up all along. There is that man sitting out there. You know your number; I will not call your name. Thero you sit. Twenty-five or thirty years ?go you stepped across the line of accountability. God turned over io you the gracious impressions of your youthful days, the Sabbath-school lessons, the sympathy of angels,- the prayers of the Church, and all the spiritual Ini- itago of the immortal soul. God turned it all over to you. Y'ou are going to strike out on your own lioolv. Now you started out in a straight course; you moved off in style; you only drank at the most elegant bars Sermons and Sayings. 117 in the city; you only kept company witii gilded sin and Hinuers. The first thing you knew you forgot vour Sabbath-school lessons. Y(H1 threw them aside and went on a little farther, and you threw away your Bible; and some men here have thrown away the 13i- l)lis given them by their mothers. By and by }ou forgot the little Now I lay nie clown to sleep, I pray thee, Lord, my soul to keej), that your mother taught you. By and by you scat- tei(>d to the winds the recollections of your poor mother. By and by every sermon was cast behind you that impressed you in your yoiithful days. Men jirc here to-night who have wasted their all, spiritually J noaking, in riotous living. O me, how a fellow does ijiovo olY! I can tell where a follow is by the way his head is. Says a lady: "I am going to bring my hus- band out to-day. I want you to be particular how you talk. The last time he a\ ent to church the preacher said something he didn't like, and he hasn't been back since." Yes, your feelings are easy to hurt. I can set the dogs after you and tree you in a hog-pen GV(U'v time. I know where vou started, sir. Your feelings! your feelings! Hurt your feelings! Who are you, anyhow? God help me to hurt your feelings Fo that you will quit your meanness! That is all the liarm I wish you. AVhen I first commenced pre;ich- ing [ was so afraid I would hurt somebody's f(?eling3 that I did n't know what to do. I am afraid now 1 "wor-'l hurt your feelings. I have just changed round, iou know your numl)er; you can keep that in youi mind as I go along. Y'ou know who I am talking to. " I don't want everybody in the church to know that 1 ma «np ii Mm VJ^i 118 Sermons and SAViNGa. Ii am going to a hog-pen. I am a gentleman, sir; I want you to understand tliat. If I ever get my feelings hurt once I am ruined." God pity the poor fellow who has his feelings stuck out like the porcupine's quills! Preacher of righteousness, tell me the truth, and save me if you can! That is what we want. 1 do n't know how one of your sort will take care of his feelings when he gets into hell-fire forever. You will get your feelings hurt good down there. When he spent all in riot(nis living he joined him- self to a citizen of that country, and he was pat to tending hogs; and that is the worst business you can put a Jew at — tangling him up with a hog, either be- fore or after death. He put him into the field to feed swine. O what a disreputable job that was for a gen- tleman and a Jew — to feed swine! And listen: " He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat." He fed the hogs on husks, and ate husks himself. It is a principle in the eci;nomy of God that just Avhat you feed other peoph? on the devil makes you feed on, and out of the very same spoon. Nine bar-keepers out of every ten d'u) drunk. That is, just what you feed other people on the devil makes you eat. That is a joke, ain't it? You gamble and win other people's money, and tins first thing y(m know some other scoundrel has gani- blevl with you and won every dollar back. You live a licentious life, and directly all of its dreadful inllu- ences will react upon you as a man, and leave you as loathsome as the woman you lie down with. There | is one text I have tried to get my mind on so as to | preach from it: "With what measure yo meet it shall i be measured to you again." O sir, there is not a Seumons and Sayings. 119 Led bini- B put to you can itlier be- d to f-eed 'or a geii- tlimg in the word of God that is stronger than that. There is not a thing in the universe that touches all along the line of life as that does. If you measure out whisky and make drunkards out of other men's ])()}s, it will make drunkards out of your boys. There ai'(! bar-keepers who are making drunkards out of tlioir neighbors' boys, and their boys will die drunk- aiils. What a thought! There are men who are sell- ing liquor and killing themselves with it, and their boys are killing themselves with it. God pity the mail that is killing his neighbor, and standing by and soeiiig his own boy swallow the same lire of damiia- tion! He would fain have fed on the husks that the swine (lid eat. We people of the Church ought to think along on this line. Did you think it possible that any of your members are renting out houses for bar-rooms and for assignation-houses? Do you reckon your boys are up there to-night? Do you know that gam- bling-houses rented by that elder are the places where that elder's boy goes to lAiiy cards? I would run from that thing as I would from a pestilence. I saw a house in this town, the lower room of which was iTutod for a bar-room, and the upper room is a gam- bling-hell, and may be a house of assignation; and it l)olongs to one of the leading Christian men of Ten- nessee. There is mud enough here to muddy your Hfo for years to come. A preacher came up to me and said, " I have got members of my church who rent bar-rooms." You have just found that out, have you? 1 found that out before I came here. There is a lit- tle okl one-horso fellow out in some of these towns, and he is trying to shell me out about what I know of ! f i 1 120 SKitMONa AND Sayings. Nashville. He says I was never here in my life. You all made a powerful ado about the time I was hero be- fore, and said I was shooting in the air. I was shoot- ing level, and showing up something when I was here before. Let us mark this exi)reasio)i : "Ho joined himself to a citizen of that country." And he i)ut him to the most disreputable work a Jew was ever engaged in. There is a lesson in morals for you. You will see it illus- trated all over this city. "xVnd wLen he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land. . . . H(> joined himself to a citizen (^f that country." I feel kindly toward you; I feel profoundly interested in you. AYhat vestige have you left of the noble im- pulses of your i)recious mother? How can a wicked man let memory take hold of a good mother, and t^o on in his career of sin? Some of you have buried mother, father, wife, and children, and to-night you stand out there like the old blasted oak, with every limb decayed, and the old, ruined trunk ready to top- ple over and be buried forever. God help us to-night I You have disposed of your spiritual heritage; your mother's precious influence is gone. You have sjjent all in riotous living, and have not a vestige of your spiritual life left. In our own State one of the pre- siding elders of our Conference said that he was pass- ing near a cross-roads grocery when a man stepped out and took his hand, and said to him: "Brother," ycm don't know me; but we graduated in the same class, we joined the Church at the same time, and now it is twenty years since I saw you." The jjoor fellow was in shabby clothing, and, with trembling limbs, he said: " I have had a fearful experience Sermons and Sayings. 121 J walked into that grocery just now to take a drink. 1 was so nervous I could not pour out the liquor. Tlie bar -keeper tilled my glass. J tried to get it to my lips with both my hands, and before I could i;f't it to my lips I felt my mother's hand come down on my head; and she said, 'Now I lay me down to sleep.' I drop})ed the glass from my hand and walked out of the grocery just as you came ftl(»ng." "Well, sir, God bless you, your precious old mother is following you to the very gates of hell, and laid her hand on your head. AVill you stop?" He went on with his drinking, and was carried out of that grocery a corpse. That old mother followed that way- ward son to the very edge of hell. Some of us have mothers who have been in the good world many years. My mother was taken away twenty years ago; but slie is as much my mother to-night as she ever was. She is waiting and watching for my coming. Friends, you that have mothers in heaven, and you that still have good mothers on earth, let us go back. "And he wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land." AVhcn a fellow gets out of every thing, he experiences famine. You take that fellow that is morally bank- rupt forever, and he is as helpless as if he were dead. Poor fellow! All is si)ent in riotous living. He says: " I never needed friends as bad as I need friends now ; I never needed help as I need help now; I never needed sympathy as I need sympathy now; I never needed divine influences as I need them now. H(»ro I am eating the very husks of sin, shut out from every ^'ood influence in the world." O what a picture! Poor fellow ! There you are. How many men have taken the* ^lil ,: Xi 122 Sehmons and Sayings. Sf ['■;l 1^(1 jl II I lii , lust step that it is essential for nny man to take in order to be damned forever! How many men~liow many liundreds of men — who hear my voice to-night have taken the hist step to be an eternal bankrupt! Yoii need not swear another oatl], or drink another drop, or play another card, or do another licentious act; you are steeped in guilt from head to foot, and on your way tc) hell. You need no more momentum. Witli your present momentum you Avill roll into ruin for- ever ! When he had wasted all in riotous living, "there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to 1)0 in want." How many men who hear my voice to- night really want sympathy ? " Nobody to sy mpathiz*^ with me." A poor fellow came to me one night and said: " I don't b(?lieve that among the fourteen hundred million people of the earth there is one who sympa- thizes with me." I said: "Get down on your knees; here is one that gives you his sympathy." He not only found the sympathy of a man, but of the great heart of Christ. I am after these poor fellows who think nobody sympathizes with them. If you will take tlio right stej), there are ten thousand hearts that are in sympathy with you. When he had realized his con- dition — we will take the words as we find them hero - " When he came to himself." I have thought about that expression many a time. What was the matter, with that boy that he wanted to leave home? Was not every desire ministered unto? What got into that lx:>y's head that he wanted to go away from liomo? " When he came to himself." AVhat was the mattd" with that fellow? Was he crazy? Was he wild'^ The book says, "When he came to himself." Lot Sermons and Sayings. 123 nr^ announce the fact as deep as the ocean of God's truth: Every sinner in tliis land is mad — is crazy. Tell me I woukl have done as I did for twenty-five years if I had not been crazy! When I opened my eyes and saw where I was, O I tell you I made tracks; and if I can get your eyes open to-night, you will emigrate too! You will get away from there. O for power from on high, that men may realize what they are and where they are this night! "When he came to himself." I never knew what I was until the light Hashed on me, and I was at my father's death-bed. I saw myself in all my eternal ruin, all my downward tendencies; and all at once I slapped on every brake on every wheel, and stopped forever. You won't go any farther if we can get you to come to yourself; we will wake you up for good. "And when he came to himself." Let us stop fibout ii minute. "Who am I? What am I? Wliat am I doing? Where am I going? I am behind the counter ol a bar. I have sold many a drink." Yes; and you have got to meet this when there is no counter between YOU and the judgment; no demijohns, and no ten- cent pieces scattered around. Y'ou are just on a level with that house. Her house is on the way to death, going down to hell with the wicked of earth. "AVliero am I? I am wdiere ten months' drinking will i)ut n)o in my grave. 1 am just ten months from a drunk- ard's death, a drunkard's grave, and a drunkard's hell." AVliat a thought! Where are we, brethren in the Church of God? Let us come to ourselves to- iii^ht, and each of us ask, "What is my life before God and man? AVhat is my influence before the town?" We will never bring the young people of -p - tT ■ft; 124 Sermons and Sayings. this city to Christ until we can get you old men to quit leading them to death and hell. Brethren, let us wake up to the fact that we are pilgrims in this world. For one, I lay aside every weight. I lay them all aside. If my money is in the way, I lay it aside; if my shoes, off with them; if my hat, off witli that. If I have to run into heaven shoeless, hatless, coatless, I am going there! That is the grace that will win. Brethren, let us stand up in our manhood to-night. Let us say: " Lot others do as they will, we will hold up the banner of the cross; we will live and die for Christ, and be an example to all young men." If you are a member of the Church of Christ, and have been selling whisky, say, by the grace of God, you have sold your List drop. God will have the an- gels staying all night witli you if you say that. They will fan you to sleep with the movement of their wdngs. Say, "I have quit." That is what is wanteil, brethren. A whole lot of you fellows in Nashville are going to quit a whole lot of things, but you are the slowest crowd I ever saw. It is a good thing tJio Lord is long-suffering, or he would cut you off before Sunday night. Vie had a common knocking bar- keeper who had no sense. He Avas converted, and went home and knocked the heads out of all of his barreL-j of whisky. He waked up next morning and said: *' Well, now, I owe six hundred dollars for that whis- ky." He put on his thinking-cap, and that fall he knocked for admission into our Conference. He was put on a five-hundred-dollar circuit. It took that fel- low four years to pay that whisky bill. His wife went in rags, and I have seen that fellow when I was ashamed of him; but now he is pastor of one of the Sermons and Sayings. 125 en to 11, let 11 this I lay lay it 1' ^vitU atless, tluit iulio».)il vill, wo ive aiitl ; men." ist, and oi God, the an- . They )£ their wanted, ashvillu you are ling tliG \l before ng bar- ,nd Aveiit barrels |nd said: liat whis- fall he ' He ^va3 that fel- ls wife en I was liio of the finest churches in California. "Where is Brother Christian?" "At Sacramento; pastor of the leading c'liurcli in that city." I tell you, you don't know «\hiit you will find at the bottom of a whisky-barrel if you will go there right. My Lord, if I could just wake this old Cumberland River stink with whisky fur fifty miles for three weeks, I would shout all the way home! When he had spent all in riotous living, he came to himself. "I am not right; I see I am not right." And, brethren, any man who realizes that he is not right has come to himself. " When he came to him- self," the first thing that impressed him was this: "Tli(>re is enough and to spare, and I am perishing; 1 will arise and go to my father." " But you have no sli()i>s, no hat." "I will go bareheaded, shoeless, and in my shirt-sleeves." "You have no money." "I will beg my way." Here is a boy that means some- thing. When he starts back he is quite a different fellow from what he was coming. AVhen he came, he fared like a prince; now he pulls up a pile of leaves !ind lies down in it. He learned that from the hogs. He passes the cabin of an old negro, and says: "Un- cle, I wish you would give me a pone of bread; I ha\e no money, but my father lias plenty, and if you ever l)fiS3 my father's house, why, he will never forget you for your kindness to me." "Did you see that fellow go up the road? I looked at the features of his face; he reminded me of that fellow who went down in such stylo. Yes, I thought he was the same; he looked like a fellow who had been on a big spree." If a boy should drive along in a cart and would let him ride, ho would be the gladdest fellow you ever saw. Car- ill ,.t$ :i: t •:• 132 Sermons and Sayings. ! "I am waiting for God's good time to save sinners." I want to say a tiling or two to you men about waiting. I said to a man in Knoxville who was a moral, upright fellow — you have not many of that kind in Nashville ■ — " Brother, do you know you are the hardest case in Knoxville? " " Why, no, sir," he said; "I am not tJie hardest case." "Well, we got the hardest case in the city — a gambler — and we have not got you yet." AVe have got some of the hardest cases in Nashville up to this time. Did you know that you are a harder case? AVe have them, and we have not got you. Waiting God's good time! Let me say to you to-night, with my Bible in my hand, and with love toward you in my heart, that time has come at last in all its fullness and power. Says one: "I am not waiting for God's time, I am waiting for better terms." Let me tell you about that terms business. Down in Georgia in some of our counties they have a stock law. No fences at all down there. All the county is thrown into one field. I want no fences in farming and politics, but in religion I want the devil's goats fenced out. I will not let the fences down for you, but I will help you over them There are plenty of people that want to go to heaven on their own schedule. They want to drink a little, lie a little, and gamble occasionally. Everybody in this country has an old aching tooth, and the first dentist that won't hurt them they are going to have to pull it oat. I have been hunting a j^ainless dentist for a long time, but they do n't live in this country. They might fill you with laughing-gas and pull your head off. A 1 great many people object to pointed preaching be- cause it pains them, they say. This suggests the| story of the old lady whose daughter's tooth achod Seiimons and Sayings. 133 inners." waiting. , upriglit ^asliville it case ill a not the ise in the et." We ille up to :der case? Waiting jght, Avitli you in my illness and Jod's time, you about ome o£ oiu* at all down field. I in religion 9 not let the fg over them 3 to lieaven a little, lie ,ody in this Lrst dentist e to pull it it for a long 'hey might ead off. A ^.aching he- Liggests the ,oth aohod. She sent for a dentist. He came, and pulled out a pair of big old-fashioned forceps. The old lady screamed out, "Don't put them things in my daugh- ter's mouth; pull it with your fingers!" That would be mighty nice, if it could be done. God bless you all! if you will let me get the old gospel forceps hold of these teeth, I will bring them out; but I cannot pull them with my fingers. I want that understood. Brethren, some of you have been trying the finger business. But hear me, hear me! Better terms, bet- ter terms! Do you know the terms on which God will take hold of you and carry you through this world and safely up to heaven? You just lay down those things that are hurting you and take up those other things that will help you, and you will have his help in time and in eternity. Why will a man ask any bet- ter terms than that he quit those things that damage him on earth and in heaven? I am so glad that God would not let me go on and drink. I would have been in a drunkard's grave years ago; I would have been ruined if he had. You brought it in with you. Yes, init you did not get in. Many a fellow is out in the {,'oat-yard, and thinks he is in the house. It is dis- gusting to have an elder rear back on his dignity and defend his drinking. You old demijohn, you! All you lack of being a demijohn is a few willows. He is an elder r.nd deacon too. His wife has to run her arm into the handle of a demijohn when she goes to church. How many demijohns have you. Brother Witherspoon? How n:any have yuu. Brother Strick- land? Hear me to-night! never, never do I want God j to lower the standard. I am so glad that he holds up the standard; that we must live righteous and godly 8,t J 34 Sermons and Sayings. p- I in lives in this world. Bless God, when I have climbed the steepest hills what a viev/ I have! I would not have the standard lowered for my wife and for niy children. I have faltered many a time, and said I could not pull another foot. The Lord came down and backed my shoulders and said, "Go on." AVljen I shall stand on the mount of God forever I will say, "Thank God this old heaven is as high as it is!" There is no sickness, sorrow, pain, disease, or death in heaven. We won't let the standard down, but wc will go up to it. There is sometliing very precious about the cross. When a man gets squarely under it, deny- ing himself and bearing his burdens, and falls under the load, God will pull him up on the cross and make it tote him. No, sir; we won't let down the standard. Blessed be God, we will keep it up! Here is light and love and purity and salvation to make you fit and meet for God's use in heaven and the companionship of an- gels by and by. I never want to see the day in the history of the cross when a man can be saved on any lower plane than that he quits his meanness and goes to doing right. "I am not waiting for any better terms," says tlie sinner; "I know that right is right and wrong is wrong. I am waiting for the Church to get right." You will be in hell a million years before that hap- pens. Mark what I tell you. Ijook here, a man is in mighty poor business bagging around at these mem- bers of the Church. They are good-hearted fellows.! They go off into devilment, but if you check them up they will come back. There are many members on the road to-night — coming back. They did not kii( w how low down thev were. There are hundreds of fi Sermons and Sayings. 135 climTDed ould not , for my d said I me down " Wben [ will say, IS it isl , or death n, but Ave ious about r it, deny- alls under and make ) standard. s light and it and meet ship of an- day in the ,ved on any ;s and goes says the wrong is get right." that hap- aman isiu these mom- 1 bed fellows, ckthemnp Biiembers on d not kncvj undredH oi lli('s;> men — Methodists, Baptists, and Presl)yterian9 — ill all the cliurches in this town. You will never see them doing as they have been doing. You try next year to run a bar-room, and want these men to hel[) you, and you will get a fuss on your hands. Wo are going to do better, and we call on men and angels to witness what we say. We preachers are going to do better, and I am so glad that the best of us can do l)etter. The good Avomen are going to be better; and God helj) the motheirs to be all that mothers ought to be, and the wives to be all that wives ought to be! You men of Nashville are going to have better wives» I want every wife who will say, " My husband shall have a more consecrated wife," to stand up. I want every mother who says, " God helping me, I will be a better mother," to stand up. You who are as good as you are going to be, keep your seats. Will you mem- bers of the Church, both male and female, who will say, "God helping me, I am going to do better," stand up? You old sinners are going to feel mighty lone- some about this time. You are kind-hearted men, but the devil has had you off juggling with you. Let us quit him now. I tell you what tickles me: to see an old sinner come in and pull out an old lame, dwarfed member of the Church, 'and lay him down and measure by him. "Look here, boys; I am as long and broad and good as this member of the Churoli!" I would die, if I was a decent man, to lay myself down by the side of such a man. Why don't you go and pick out one of these grand old Christians? You would lot)k like a rat-terrier lying by the side of an (dcjdiant. You quit measuring by tliese dwarfs. ^^ e got them from you, and you can have them back '.'Yf-'j m 4i i-; 136 Sermons and Sayings. Waiting for the Church to get riglit! Let the Church do and be as it will, I am going to so live that my lifo will be consecrated to God. Do n't stay out because of the hypocrites; but come in, and help crowd tlioin out. A fellow says he can't live with these tritliiig Church-members. Is it not better to come in and Vwo with them and go to heaven than to go to hell living without them? That is a heap worse, ain't it? Wait- ing for the Church to get right! In all my experience, I never saw churches respond as readily as they do here. They are about as near right as you will evor see them. "I am waiting for feeling," says some fellow. You look at me. You are an honest, sensible citizen of this town. What are your feelings? What do you mean by feeling? Do you mean serious thought? If you do n't mean that, you do n't mean any thing. If serious thought is not feeling, there is no serious thought in repentance. If serious thought is not re- pentance, there is no feeling in religion. I recollect once I went down into the congregation and said to an old sinner, " Come up, and give your heart to God.'" He said: "Mr. Jones, I have not got a bit of feeling.' And he could hardly stand on his feet, he had so much, When a man sees he o^Tght to do right and quit the wrong, that is the only feeling there is on the subject. Do you think that you ought to be a Christian, and ought to start to-night? If you do, you have got feel- ing enough to sweep you right under the cross, if you will start now. Another fellow says: "I am not waiting for feeling; I am waiting until I am nt." Yes, you take the most intelligent lawyer out of Christ in this town and tlie Seumons and Savings. 137 »l^ o Church my Ufo )ecausB cl thoui tritiin and live il living > Wait- jerience, they (I will ever )W. You ntizen o! it do you ught? H thing. If lo serious , is not re- l recollect said to an to God.'" \i feeling.' Id so much. Ld quit the iie subject. Lstian, autl ■e got feel- 'oss, i£ yoM lov feeling; iQ the most n\ andtlie most ignorant darky, and say to tlie darky: "Tom, do you belong to the Church?" "No, sah; 'cause I ain't litteii." Then you meet the lawyer and ask the same question, and he will reply: "Why, I am not fit, sir, to l)e a member of the Church." Is it not astonisli- iiig that they meet on precisely the same ground? "I am waiting till I am fit." I tell you, brethren, when you analyze that thing in the light of the gospel, it is tlie most ridiculous position a man can put himself in. Here is a fellow starving to death; there is a richly-loaded table. "Are you hungry?" "Yes, I am just as hungry as I can be; but I can't go; my hands ain't fitten." "Here are soap and water and towels." He says, "I ain't fitten to wash." Come up and join the Church. Don't hang back because "I am not fitten." Come up here and get fitten. He says, "I ain't fitten to get fitten." What are you go- ing to do witli that sort of man ? Let me tell you, my congregation, that the very fact that you don't feel fit is the very thing that commends you to God. Jesus Christ came into the world to save good people? no; but to save sinners. If you are a sinner you are a man; now, understand that. I have had such a sense of unworthiness from the day I started until this hour. It grows with me. I never have felt worthy of membership in the Church of Jesus Christ. 1 started well; but I am climbing still. I am ascend- ing all the time. If you wait till you are worthy to join the Church, you will wait until millions of years shall have rolled away. " I know Christ died to save me, but I am waiting to try myself awhile." I have seen many a fellow como up and resolve to be a good man. "I ain't goin^j ^iSl Km, k.ii'J 138 'Sekmons and Sayings. H 'i I to do any thing, but I am going to try myself." The dovil does n't want any better joke on a feUow than to got him out trying liimsplf. A great big lump of drunk trying to walk a straight line! AVatch him! " I will walk her. I want to see if I can liold out.' That is just like a fellow saying, "I am going to sit out under this tree to see if I can't go to town sittin-,' here." Trying himself! I tell you, I like to see a man just walk up and get his ticket, jump on the train and move off. That's the sort! The difficulty with some of us is, we bu}' our tickets to way-stations and never get through. Coming through from Atlanta I noticed when the conductor came around and took the tickets he gave checks, and put marks on the checks. These were white checks. He gave some red checks. I noticed that these red-checked fellows came through to Chattanooga, and the other fellows got off at tlio different way-i)laces. Many a fellow buys his ticket to conviction; he will land off right there. Anotlitn* fellow will buy his ticket up to the penitent's altar; another will go as far as Church-membership, and lio will get off there; another fellow will buy to obedi- ence; and another up to family prayer, or the station just this side of that. Hundreds of them have not gone up that high yet, but buy to the little station just this side of family i^rayer. They will be put off at that little flag-station in a swamp, and no hotel for a man to stop at, and the whole region infested witli mosquitoes. All of j^ou who have gone that far know that thnt family-prnyer town is a delightful place. I am glad I have got my wife and children off at thnt town. Let us get a limited ticket clear through to the next world, have our baggage checked througli. Sermons and Savings. lO nO and into heaven we will ride. Do n't trouble yourself about the destination. Stick to the train, and you will land in heaven. Don't act like the fellow that said: " I want to go to Chattanooga, but I am afraid I can't get through." "This is the train; we are go- ing that way now." "I wouldn't miss it for all the world," said the fellow as the train pulled out. " Keep your seat," said the conductor, " and we '11 take you to Chattanooga." About Stevenson he said: "I am so much afraid we won't get to Ciiattanooga." "Keep your seat," repeated the conductor. At Bridgeport he said: "I am troubled a good deal about getting to Ciiattanooga." "Keep your seat! " As the signal blew for Chattanooga he said: "I am afraid I will miss it." " Keep your seat! " As the train rolled under the lit- tle car-shed, again he expressed his fear of missing Chattanooga. "Keep your seat a few moments more." That old Church-member says: " I have so many dark days. I do want to get to heaven." Keep your seat; this train goes through. If you want to get to the good world, get on God's old excursion-train, and you will run in under the old car-shed of heaven. Some ot you will have children there to take hold of your hand and welcome you to the city of God. AVe will get there, thank God! Sister, keep your seat; it will go through. Brother, keep your head in at the win- d(^w; the train is in safe hands. I have quit troubling myself; I have turned it all over to God. "I am waiting for faith." Yes; you have been waiting forty years for faith. How much have you saved up? Like the fellow who had ten bushels of wheat, and was waiting till more grew before he Would sow what he had! Sow it, and you will havr hi i; i? I, ' 14C Sermons and Sayings. fi ■t , 14 if: a hundred-fold. By keeping it, you will not get any more, but the rats will eat up what you have. "I want to be a blacksmith as soon us I get muscle." Why do n't you go at it? There he stands until at last he has not muscle enough to lift the hammer. He is getting it with a vengeance. How did you g(»t faith ? by using what you had? I tell you what ticklos me — to hear a fellow down praying for faith. "Lord, give me faith." The next time you get any in that way, bring it over and let me see it. That ain't script- ural, that talk you are doing now. Christ rebukod those who jirayed for faith. The trouble with you is not that you need more faith, but you use the faith you have, and then you will get more. I would Rs soon pray for sweet potatoes as for faith. Let me tell you, my congregation, there is not a man in this tent who has not got faith enough ultimately to save his soul if he wdll use what he has; and the way to get more is to use what you have. I do n't know how this idea fits theology. Does it suit theology? Yon, my brethren, may take care of theology, and I will take care of these sinners and the Bible. Do n't yon let theology get hurt! If you do, we are all gone! Lord, Lord, help mQ to use the faith I have, and then I know that it Avill increase. Have you got faith enough to believe that there is a better life? I tell you that is just about enough to start with. You be- lieve you are wrong, and you believe you ought to get right. It will not be a week until you believe some oth- er things that are mighty grand. "I am not waiting for faith," says another; "that ain't my trouble; nor waiting for salvation, nor better terms, for I know I hav9 enough to start with." What then? waiting tor Sermons and Sayings. 141 iiscle." mtil at Linmor. , ticklos " Lord, in that t Bcript- rebukod rith you use tlio I would Let me n in tliiH y to save e way to now how ? You, u\ I will lo n't you |all gonel and then got faith |e? I tell You be- jght to get • some oth- ,t waiting >uble; nor I know I aiting tor the Church to got right? '*No; I believe nay Church- member is better than I am." If a fellow can get a good look at himself it will cure him of his conceit, and he can be a first-class member. I have taken in a few of your sort. They are of no more account tlian the others. It will be about all you can do to koop uj) with the rear rank. Now, mark what I tell you: this is the human side in all its fullness. Now, let us look at the other side a moment. " My hope is in Clod." Now you have struck the key-note on which wo believe for eternal life. My hope is not in my friends, for the day may come when my friends will turn their backs upon me; nor in riches, for riches may take to themselves wings and fly away. My hope is not in my pastor; the day may come when he will spurn me from his presence. My hope is not in tlie Church; for the time might come when she would turn me out. My hope is not in my father and moth- er; if it was, my hope would be gone, for. father and mother are both gone from me forever. My hope is not in my wife, with all her fondness and love for me; and the day will come — but may I never live to see it! —when she shall be buried under the sod for all time, I am so glad it does n't say, " Our hope is in our chil- dren;" for we might bury them forever. My hope, my friends, is not in riches, pastor, friends, father and mother, children, Church; but my hope is in God. AVill you start to-night? You may say, "I am mighty weak." I know it; but your hope is in God. *'Yes; but I am a poor sinner." My hope is in God; it is not in myself. I know I am a sinner. Yes; but you are very, very weak; you are as frail as a bruised reed. Yes; but my hope is in God. Y'^ou have got If m ft,, ■;'. ^ M3 Skiimons and Sayings. an fti)i)etito that will crush you in n week. My hope is in God, and lie is stronj^'c^' than appotito. The man is just as strong as the thing ho commits liimself to, and no stronger. If you connnit yourself to a littlo box in tlio Atlantic, you and tlio box will go down to- gether. If you get on a grand ocean-steamer, then all the comfort and strength and safety of the steamer are yours. If I commit myself to myself. Hum I am no stronger than this arm of flesh. If I commit my- self to God, I will never go down; I will stay up as long as God stays up. I put my hand in the hand of God, and commit it all to him to-night. Won't you do it? Let me tell you, God will hear a man pray from any point, and answer him. A child will put its hand on the place where it hurts, and cry. If you want to get to heaven, put your hand on that desire and pray. If you want to bo saved from sin, put your hand on that desire and pray God, and ho will save you. II! you are ready to say, ''O God, I want to bo a good man!" lay your hand on that desire, and God will hear you. Yes; have hope in God, and all the trials, temptations, dark days, heavy hearts, and all that sort of thing, will disappear. I have not a word to s.-y in palliation. This journey we are on ends well. 1 n(5ver think much about the road, but much about where I am going. Those people whose friends moved out West went to the post-office daily looking for let- ters. They wanted to hear about Texas. The letters Baid that Texas had the most fertle soil and the most magnificent climate you ever saw. They spoke in such glowing terms of that great Western country. Kvery letter had a postscript: "There are grave-yards and coffins and nick-beds and death out here." And Sehmonh and Sayings. 143 • liopQ muu elf to, I littlB iwn tt)- r, thou teamor u I Jiiu iiit luy- y up iM le hand on't you •ay from its liaiul want to nd pray, hand on you. It B a good od will le trials, that sort d to s:.y well. 1 oh about Is moved g for let- 16 letters the most |spoke in country. ,ve-yards le." ' And tlioii I said: "The Bible tells mo of a country where tlicre is no more sickness, sorrow, i)ain, or death for- over a*''^ ever." 1 want to get to tlujt country where 1 slinl over see my wife's cheek pale any more; I want to see eternal liealth on the face of my wife and cliildren. I have made a start on tii'it journey, and am gc)ing on. God help you men to-night! (iod he][) i)i(» to-night! Whatever other men nniy do, I start to- iii^'lit. The train is here; the bell is ringing to start; I st(^p aboard, and move out for the good world to- iii^'lit. AVill you go? There are live hundred per- sons here to-night whom I want to see on these front jKnvs. Some of you are already on them. It is a (juarter ^ast eight o'clock. We have plenty of time hero t( 'ht. I want to see every man who has no roligiou . -re to-night; I want to take your hand, ji nd help you to start to heaven. SAYINGS. Many a man imagines that he has got religion, when it 's only liver-complaint. It is awful for a Jew tc be tangled up with a hog, either before or after death. Awful! I WANT no fences in farming and politics, but in re- lii^'ion I want the devil's gofits fenced (mt. I will not lot the fences down for you, but I will help you over tlioni. You, my brethren, may tako care of theology, and I ^\ill take care of these sinners. Don't you let tlieol- o^'v get hurt! If you do, we aie all gone! Lord, Lord, help me tt) save these sinners! I; I hi. i ii i 1- ;;,;"■ I w 144 Sermons and Sayings. God bores through the top of a man's head to his heart, and then on down to his pocket. He has never got down to your pocket yet! The devil does n't want any better joke on a fellow .than to get him out trying himself. A great big lump of drunken humanity trying to walk a straight lino! Trying himself! I tell you, I like to see a man just walk up, get his ticket, jump on the train, and move off. That 's the sort. It tickles me to see an old sinner come in and pull out an old lame and dwarfed member of the Church, lay him down and measure by him, and say: "Look here, boys, I am as long, as broad, and as good as this mombe-" of the Church!" Why don't you go and j)ick out one of those grand old Christians? Bi^ cause you would look like a rat-terrier lying by au elophant SERMON X. Righteousness axd Life — Sm and Death. "As riglitcousness tendeth to life, so lio tluit pursuetli evil pur* Riii'th it to liis own deatli." (Prov. xi. 19.) ASK my brethren in the ministry to pray for me as they would have me pray for them. O what a responsibility! How my soul shudders! I ask every Christian man and woman here to pray for (lod's power to rest upon me. Almighty God of heaven and earth, make bare thy mighty arm here to- night, that every soul may be touched and every con- science aroused! Let every breath be a prayer, and God will come down into our midst and own and bless his word. We have selected for the text to-night the nine- teenth verse of the eleventh chapter of the book of Proverbs: "As righteousness tendeth to life, so he that pursuetli evil pursuetli it to his own death." AVbon a good man dies he not only goes to heaven by the approval of God and angels — he is not only drawn tliither by the natural force of spiritual gravity — but V hen a good man die s he goes to heaven by the com- mon consent of every other man in tlie world. AVlien a bad man dies he not only gravitates hellward by tJie natural force of spiritual gravity, not only does he go there by the approval of God and angels, but he goes to hell by the common consent of every intelligent man in the world. Did you ever attend the funeral of a good man? and have you heard the minister of 10 (145) J 1 {I -if 'I I <• iU i ( ri 146 Sermons and Sayings. God say this: "The spirit of our brother has Q.jtit home to live with God?" Have you heard the com- ments of saints and sinners alike? They will all say the preacher told the truth — that the good man has gone to God. Have you listened to the comments on the street-corners, to the comments even of the doul)t- ful characters on the sidewalk: "This man's body is here, but his spirit has gone home to God." Have yon heard the words of the Church-member as you left the church: "That man is now in heaven." We all feel it — we all know it! We say that when a bad man dies he goes to hell by the common consent of every man in the universe; when a good man dies he goes to heaven as naturally as this book would drop to the floor if I should turn it loose. When a bad man dies he goes to hell just as certainly as the book woukl drop if I should turn it loose. Hell is the center of gravity for wickedness; heaven is the center of gravity for righteousness. This is the lineage of salvation, and the lineage of damnation. Who are these that go to heaven? "These are they that have come up through much tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' "The wicked shall be driven away into everlasting punishment." "As righteousness tendeth to life, so ho that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death." "The path of the just shineth more and more unto the p<>rfect day." "Having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come." The jjathway of the just is like the pathway of the sun, higher and brighter as it rises until it shall reach the zenith on the shoul- ders of God. The wicked and deceitful man shali'not live out half his days. Sin kills body and soul i'oi Sermons and Sayings. 147 le coin- all say laii has ents oil »doul)t- body is Have as you 1." We :^n a bail iiiseiit oi L dies lie aid drop bad man ok wouUl center o£ i gravity alvation, lese that come up leir robes Lamb." erlastiiig ,o life, so . death."' unto the that no^v ay of the both worlds. AVlien I look at the pale wreck of a man, I say: "My Lojd, sin has ruined that man!" When 1 see a poor degraded woman, I know that sin has ruined that woman. Whether the Bible is true or not, we know that sin will ruin men. I was once summoned two miles from my home. The wife and six children niot me at the door with tears running from their eyes. I asked, " What is doing this?" The wife took me by the hand and led me into the house, and there was a poor, drunken, besotted husband lying on the bed. I said: "My God, sin is ruining this family!" Sin will ruin men. I just point you to those cases who de- bauch themselves day and night in the city of Nash- ville to prove that sin ruins individuals, cities, States, and worlds. O sin, how thou hast ruined our lives! "As righteousness tendeth to life." As "godliness is Ijrofitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come," so also is righteousness. " He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death." Sin is a common disease, afflicting humanity. I am no theologian — never studied theology. I am not boasting of the fact, but I state it as a tact: I despise theology and botany, but I do love religion and flow- ers. There is many a fellow that has studied theol- ogy until he knows theology, but he does n't know any thing else in the universe. Ho is fit for heaven, but nut fit for earth. I am no theologian; I cannot be tried by theological rules, but you may try me by this book. It is not necessary to swallow John Calvin's creed to be saved; it is faith in Christ, and not in the creed, that saves the soul. I think I know something about what sin is. I knoA? i-1 M ,:}' 148 Sermons and Sayings. t In practically what sin is, and what it will do for a fel- low, too. I have been there. Now, when we talk of evil there is a great deal said about depravity. It is H theological term. Some of us say we believe in to- tal depravity, and some in partial depravity. You know you have downright damnation in you, and that ought to satisfy the most greedy on that subject. We do not pretend to say whether it is this, or that, or the other; if we followed the bent of our own nature it is downward and hellward every time. Sin is a disease as well as the transgression of the law of God. Sen- ator Hill, of Georgia, had some trouble on the side of his tongue. It was caused by a fractured tooth, the papers said. The next I saw was that Senator Hill was under the knife of a surgeon in Philadelphia. They took out one-third of his tongue, and cut out all the glands of one side of his face. AVlien the opera- tion was over young Ben Hill asked the surgeons, "Is there any chance for ray father?" They replied: "If wo have extracted the last particle of the virus of tlio cancer, he will get well ; and if not, he will die." The next thing I heard he had gone to the springs some- Avhere in the West. A few days later I walked down to the depot in my town; the passenger-train rolled up and stopped, and I saw what looked like the out- lines of Senator Hill's face. He pushed his bony hand out of the window of the car, and I said: "Is this all that is left of Senator Hill, the grandest man ■ that Georgia ever produced?" Shortly after that the Atlanta Constitufion said: "The largest procession ever seen in Georgia carried Senator Hill to the cem- etery yesterday." Now, I say to my congregation, just as certainly as cancer killed Senator Hill's body, Sermons and Sayings. 149 just so certainly the virus of sin -will kill your soul. It is not a question of outward forms of Church-mem- bership, or how you have been baptized — it is as deep as the virus of cancer. Eliminate it from your moral nature. Let Church-members step into the back- ground a little, and let us all look the facts in tlie face. My God, is there yet a moral cancer that will damn me at last? Thank God, eighteen hundred years ago this old world began to sing: There is a fountain fillerl with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel's veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains. Yes, wash all my sins away. Thank God, there is hope for the race; there is hope in the universal re- demption of the race! Have you been washed and cleansed in the blood of the Lamb? If there is one fact in my own experience that stands out more prom- inently than any other fact, it is that I rushed up to the cross and realized how sweetly and grandly God can save the sinner, O thank God for the hope of the race that is found at the fountain that was oj)ened up for sin and uncleanness! That cross erected on Cal- vary will save millions of the race. AVe will be jjractical at the expense of every thing except truth; and we say, first, "He that pursuetli evil pursueth it to the death of his conscience." The poet was nearly right when he said: "What conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do, This teach me more than hell to shun, That more than heaven j)ursue. 1 am ready to say here in my place to-night that thf "^m ( r iil '^*r ■It 150 Sermons and Sayings. most fearful sin a man ever can commit is to sin de. liberately against his own conscience. Every willful sin of my life is a stab at my conscience, and we stab, and stab, and stab, until conscience expires and is dead forever. Personal conscience is dead, municipal conscience is dead, national conscience is dead. One out of a hundred stops and asks, "Is that right? is that wrong?" Ninety-nine in a hundred ask: "is there money in that? is there pow^er in that? Can I find in that something that w411 lift me in the eyes of the world?" Conscience says, "Is that right? is that wrong?" Policy says, "Is that popular? will that pay?" Now we won't go away from liome to discuss the matter. AYhen I am in Nashville I talk to Nashville, and let everybody else alone. I will never be as mean to you as you have been to mo. You waited till I left town and then shelled me out. I do n't know what has become of all of those corre- 8p'^)ndents that filled the daily papers. Why don't tliey sail in now? And if any correspondent sails in let him sail in over his own name. If I can get him up here and shake him you will see him hit the ground running. You can't shake a )iom de phanr much, though. I throw down the gauntlet and tell you to pitch in; and when you say I am a coward you lie from head to heel! "He that pursueth evil pur- sueth it to his own death"— to the death of his con- science. The conscience of Nashville has been sinned to death. That is what is the matter. I will illus- trate what I mean: I -was running a revival-meeting in a town, and every drunkard was converted. If there is a class of men on the earth that I sympathize with it is the drunkards. My God, how near I came Sermons and Sa\ings. 151 to being swept down to liell by liquor! Here stands n man that will die by you, and will pray with you until you die. God save the poor drunkard! If your wife weeps over you as my wife's heart bled for me, if your home is as desolate as my home was desolate, lot me tell you there is hope and recovery at the cross of Christ. Do not be doubtful; do not hesitate. I say the conscience of Nashville is dead. When I held tliis meeting where those poor drunkards were con- verted, I said, " We are going to help these people all the way to God." One night after the meeting the council met in that town. At that meeting a bar- keeper walked in and said, "I will give you two hun- dred dollars if you will let me sell whisky." That mayor and council received his money and went home and went to bed and slept like seven hogs, and got up next morning and ate breakfast like seven more hogs. Once I could sin with a vengeance, but God bless you I could not sleep at night. I will never sell wliisky; I will steal first. If I ever want to sell it I am going to that town and get license from those old members of the Church, and I will tell ray wife to put my li- cense in the coffin when I die. I will pull out my li- cense and tell the Lord, " Here 's my license, signed by Methodist stewards and Baptist deacons;" and (5od Almighty will put us all in hell together. '*I signed that as mayor!" Yes, wlien yon sink down into hell tell them, "Here goes a mayor!" I reckon it will be a good deal of consolation to an old hypo- crite to know that he is there as a mayor; to an old pretender that he is there as a meml)er of the coun- cil. If you countenance these things and put your tist to those documents, you will be damned for it an 1 !<■ 1 152 Sehmons and Sayings. II ; It ■ < •iJ certain as God reigns in lieaven, unless you repent. We Christians vote to license liquor-soiling, and make the liquor-dealers pay us enough money to pay our taxes, and then stand around on the street and abuso them for selling it. I am tired of hearing liquor- dealers abused. You curse these bar-keepers. You had b(Stter curse these Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists in Nashville. If these men would quit drink- ing they would close half the drinking-places in thirty days. They would put whisky out of Nashville in twelve months from to-day. If you will arouse the conscience of the people of this town they will not debauch their boys nor tluur fellow-citizens for the pitiful sum paid for licons(\ Quit talking against these bar-keepers. God holds the Christian voters of Nashville accountable for tiii^i curse. If a bar-keeper were to go to you and say, " I will give you five hundred dollars to make your boy ii drunkard," you would spurn him from your presenct ; and yet for the sum of two hundred dollars you will give him the privilege of making your neighbor's boy a drunkard. You will not escape. Some of your own will go in that way. May God come down upon Nasli- ville and tear the grave-clothes off of this body of tieath! I don't believe in mixing politics and relig- ion, but I believe in mixing religion in with my pol- itics. It helps it as much as sugar does coffee. When- ever you hear of a fellow who does not believe in mix- iiig it, it is because he has none to mix. If you will put the executive authority and the police in a line with the pulpits, you will succeed. Louisville has crushed out every gambling-hell, and says no man shall gamble there; but we hope to hear that she has Seumons and Sayings. 153 also banished that which makes gamblers — whisky. We of Georgia, in less than three years from to-day, mean to put this accursed stuff out of our borders forever. In a majority of the counties in our State there are no liquor-sellers, and we have given orders to those in the remaining counties to emigrate. We ilon't want Teimessee to run liquor over the borders. Your representative men fail to take hold of this mat- ter in earnest. I pray God Almighty that he and the good women of Tennessee will put this curse out for- ever. For every bar-room in your city you can put down a dozen broken-hearted wives and mothers. Tramp, tramp, tramp! the boys are marching sixty thousand strong a year into drunkards' graves, and into a drunkard's hell; and we Christians are stand- ing around abusing bar-keopers. Wake up the con- science of this city, and you are going to see better times. Already God has answered the prayers of these good women. "God shield and protect my ciiihl!" is the prayer of every good woman. To a l)ar-keeper in Huntsville, Alabama, I said: "I will steal before I will sell whisky." He got mad. "Now, sir," I said, "there is that woman living on the hill. You made her husband a drunkard, and he died a drunkard's death and went to a drunkard's hell. One of her boys is now in prison, and the other is gone she knows not where. To ruin that family as you have done, or to break in and steal their money, which is worse?" "I don't want to discuss the subject," he said. I have had a great deal to do with whisky- sellers, and a bigger-hearted set of fellows never lived. Thei-e are whisky men to whom I would go for a favor rather than to many members of the Church. A fel . h f-% Id: Ui 154 Sermons and Sayings. low can "Brother" me around till he thinks 1 belong to him. You noble men in a thousand respects, let mo say to you that the business you are in will cui*st» you when you are dead and gone. There is n(>t a whisky man in this town thnt I would not dogond. Some of you have done me favors that I can never forget. Your only hope in time and in eternity is to renounce your traffic and come to God and live. Lock up your doors, and say, " I am done forever! " I will take you arm in nrm, and we will march to the good world together. I have had many a bar-kee[)er say to me: "I knew it was wrong from the day 1 start- ed till the day I quit. The only way I could keep at it was to keep drunk all the time to keep my conscience quiet." You may keep statistics on it, and you will find that the Lord makes you open your mouth and pours down your own throat just what you feed otluM' people on. "He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death." How sin kills and dries up the sen- sibilities of a man ! A man Avho could once have been of some account becomes a seared, parched carcass. He says, "I have got no feeling." Sin naturally de- stroys the sensibilities of a man, and leaves him as hard as the nether millstone. The natural tendency of sin is to take every brake off a man's moral nature, and turn him loose down-grade. The train pulled through the tunnel thirteen miles from the bridge below in the valley. The engineer- started her down the grade. In a few rounds of the wheels she was running a mile a minute, and thus whirled on until within one mile of the bridge. He turned the lever of his air-brakes; they would not work. He caught his whistle -lever and pulled it. Sermons and Sayings. 155 Thore they were, thundering along nt seventy miles Hii hour. The brakeineii could not get out to those l)i!iko8 to Kfive their lives. The motion of the tniiu would throw them to the ground in a minute. The wJiole train plunged into the bridge — the mail-car, the l)!igi,'Hge-car, the Huioking-car, the passenger-cars — but tilt' sleeper swung too far out and struck the bridge, ami fell with a fntnl crash into the river below. They could not stoj), that was all. I frequently ride on the eiif^'ine when traveling in Georgia, and when I came to your city the other day I was sitting on a magnifi- cpnt Rogers engine. I saw "Slow" on the bridge down there. The engineer turned on his air-brakes, (iiul the train was under control. The next power to that throttle — the power to start— is that other power, the i)ower to stop. That is the next grandest power. Tlie natural tendency of sin is to take off the brakes fiiid tarn the sinner loo$;e on the down-grade to hell. 0)1 he rolls aud on he rolls, faster and faster, like poor Bob Hictoy, in Rome, until mad with delirium tremens it ii^ok four friends to hold him on his bed. Ho said, "O doctors, is [here any chance to save my life?" T) ey said: " .Nc, Bob. If you drink, you will (lie; if ym don't drin^i, you will die." With wife and phildrou hanging roand his neck, liis soul plunged into Loll. How long may we go on sinning? How lone will God forbear? Where does hope end. and where begin Tlie conrin«js of desi)air? There are men in this tent to-night who are just as certain to die drunk as that I am preaching here to Ijou. God pity the poor man who will die of licen- i! \'- f 1 15G Sermons and Sayinos. r , \. ti 1:^ tioiisness! You leave Christ and the life beyond to which you cm never return. God hjivo mo from tin; plmntuHm tlmt turns me down the fejirful grade with- out a brake on my mond nature! There are men in tliiw city who have sinned against God until tlu ir minds will not take hold on his truth. Their minds will no more take hold of gospel truth than tlu'v could make a world. O God, have meicy on men wlio have sinned until they cannot grasp the sacred truth! "He that pursueth evil pursueth it to his own death," to tlie death of his soul. I can certainly understand you when you say that a man's conscience is dead - his sensibilities are gone forever; that he has sinned away his ijower to grasp the sacred truth, and thiit every brake is gone from a man's moral nature; but when you bring me to face the death of the soul you make me trend)le from head to foot. The death oi the soul! AV^liat does it menn? Eternal death. Just put these two words before you — eternal death. Deatli eternal! "He that pursueth evil pursueth it to tii(3 death of his soul." What a thought! I shudder. AVliat is death to the body? I walk up to that dying friend's bed. I look down upon him. I see he is passing away in the agony of death. I look at the twitching and jerking of the muscles. I turn away in horror from the picture. Tliere is the glare on the eyes, jerking of the muscles, heaving of the bosom. This is only temporal death. What is eternal deatii? It is to die forever. Thank God, tliere is no death to a good man! "Ho that liveth and believeth on me shall never die." Heumonr and Sayinqs. 157 SAYINGS. T DESPISE theology ami botany, but I lovo religion luid llowers. ]\loiiE i)ec)i)lo will be damned on account of their money than for any thing (dse. The natural th)u • not only as got tlio proacli ii! r to bisli- igels. H'^ tand, ^vith ) and syiu- ivery cusp, il in coiifi- ;e in a doc- )osition le- 3 difference ike coming u; all other here I am; I want to |s hands, he niored citi- d who has ever, is no filly sinned ,t as much liner. Ood the fence, lere in hno |e to a niaii ^rouglit f iice ess that "I [ight of hu- inanity; I am wearing these clothes, and humanity looks down on me." There is sometliing in that that may make you drop your head for a moment; but drop it just for a moment to hoar the voice of God say to you that he loves the poor prisoner as much as he does the Governor of Tennessee. You go outside of that wall, and the sun shines outside just like it does inside. So the great heart of God loves a man on the inside of these walls just like he does on the outside of these walls. God knows the life and nature of the sin of every one here. I feel great sympathy for you all. It is no good in me that ever kept me out of such a i)lacc as this; but it was a fort miate circumstance, and the grace of God coming through a good mother; that's al)..ut all that kept me out of a place like this. My heart goes out in sym- pathy for you. "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy- laden." You know the person to whom you are in- vited is the Lord Jesus Christ. Humanity is divided into two classes. The first is the class that is labor- ing to keep the law. They won't tell lies; they won't swindle anybody; they won't curse; tliey won't break the Sabbath; they are laboring to keep the law. I see your mistake; you come to me. The other class are the heavy-laden. Every man in this world is ei+^hor laboring and living upright and honest and respecta- ble, or he is heavy-laden with dilliculty. You don't know what to do. Now, the Christian man who has gone to Christ has solved all his problems and difh- culties. Are you laboring to be a good man? Are ytiu laboring to reform your life? If you are, take Cin'j.it into partners.hip with you. I have never known 11 ' ..'SI i "4i m ^M In i^ H ■M 1 P Hi HI IIP ^^n I m 162 Sermons and SAYiNCfS. a failure where Christ was in the firm. I have never known a success where Christ was not in. You need his great heart to comfort you; you need his great love to help yon. You will fail if you do not tako him in. Some of you have began to reform your lives, and have made the sacred vow to Christ that if you ever get out of here again you will never get this State into trouble. Some of you ha\o made that resolution, and you are going to stick to it. If you want to make your word good, come to Christ. Take him in as a partner, and in every transaction of your life you let the Lord Jesus Christ scrutinize that transaction; and if he does n't api)rove of it, you let it alone. Do you know that every man in this prison made the mistake of his life by not listening to this book? Do you know that this book never made a convict, or put a man in a cell. You follow this book, and if you ever get into trouble I will go into the i)enitentiary for you. There are heaps of fellows who thought they knew more than this book; but they generally p)i fooled and got into trouble in the end. They say there is no trouble in whisky; yet the Lord says, "Look not upoii the wine when it is red"^ — much less drink it — "for at last it biteth like a serpent and stingetli like an adder." When the poor fellow is in delirium tremens he then realizes that God told the truth wIumi Jie said, "It biteth like a serpent and t ngeth like an adder." "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy- laden, and I will give you rest." Some of you feel called upon before God and man. You are a })oi)V sinner. There are one hundred here to-day avIio Avonld be willing to stand up and sny, "I am a poor sinner 1. 1 Sekmons and Sayings. 163 re never ou neeil is great Qot tako 3111" lives, it if yim iliis State ^solution, b to make Q in as a Ee you let ition; ami Do you le mistake Do you t, or put a f you ever ntiary for ,uglit they erally goi They say ays, "Look less drink id stingeth n deliviuia trutli Avhen eth like an before God." You are the especial ones. Christ in- vites and names you first. " I know," says he, " every trouble that presses on your heart; now come to me. I know how to relieve you and how to bless you; come unto me, and I will give you rest." When I was a ei liner a few years ago, and was doing all the harm and wrong I could, I woke up, and my whole being was a raging stream; and I was so restless that I fell (l(jwn on my knees and said, " God be merciful to me, a sinner;" and when God came to me, and the Lord Jesus told me, "I have given you rest," then I thought to myself, "Is this rest? " I never knew what I want- ed, and God named it for me, and it is rest. The word "tired." If I wanted to understand what that word meant I would not go to a dictionary, but would go to the poor fellow who had been carrying mortar up those flights of stairs to the top of that building. All day long he walks up and down those stairs, and about night I see his knees are tremulous and weak; they will hardly hold him up. Wheii that fellow quits at sundown, I will ask him what is "tired." He knows all about it. If anybody knows what un- rest is, it is a poor sinner. The devil has got no mer- cy on a sinner. The devil will put his chains around our limbs and trot us Avithout stopping. That is his style, and there is many a man in here to-day who has got tired of that sort of business. The difference be- tween the devil and the penitentiary is that the peni- tentiary works you hard and boards you , but the devil puts you to the meanest, dirtiest jobs in the world and makes you board yourself. Is n't it strange that anybody in the world will serve the devil, or do any tiling f»)r him? O to serve the devil I must demor- • ■■'■■■.<\ iM 164 Sermons and Sayings. alize my moral nature; I must break my wife's heart and ruin my cliiklren! I want to tell you this: There may be some of yon in here who are innocent. There could hardly be so many punished without some being innocent. I do n't know how many there are of that sort. I do n't know whether tliere is one; but I will say this to you: All the trouble you ever got into was when you turned your back on Christ and turned your face on the devil, and did sometliing tliat the devil wanted you to do and that Christ did not want you to do. This world lias got to come to this fact: that the best thing a man can do is to do right, and that wrong is the worst thing a man can do. If you do right, it is a personal benefit; if you do wrong, you can never get over it. We see this when a man comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus tells him there are some things he must not do and there are some things he must do. Now, for instance, I will illustrate that. You see that old ox? He goes where he pleases, drinks when he pleases, eats when he pleases, roams where he pleases. I will go up and put a yoke on him, and then he eats and drinks Avlien his master allows him, and he works at just what his master puts him. And the Lord Je- sus Christ calls on us, and he says: "A^''hen I say eat, you eat; when I say drink, you drink; when I say you lie down and sleep, you lie down and sleep. ' Take my yoke upon you, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.' " There is a good deal of difference between rest and resting. You see a fellow that has been resting all day, and you ask him: "What are you doing? " Ami he says, "I am resting." As soon as he gets rested lie wants to get up and be doing sometliing. A state Sermons and Sayings. 105 d£ you r be s'o [ don't t know 3u: All ed yoni- vil, and do and .rid lias man can thing a . benefit; AVe see ist. The he must o. Now, see that when he pleases, n he eats lie worlds Lord Je- I say eat, jl say you |« Take my Lr souls.'" rest anil •esting all ? " And its rested A state oE restlessness is a state of activity. When a sinner chines to Christ lie is tired. Christ sits him down and allows him to rest. Now, he is rested, and he wants to do something. Now, "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls." Here is a little stream of water Howing along smoothly, and that little stream in its frolics and courses says: "I am tired; I want rest." Man throws up a dam, and he sees the placid waters of the little stream pile on the dam, and there they are resting like a little child on its mother's arm. And it rests and rests, and again it begins to get dissatisfied and unhealthy; then the little creek says: "Now that I have got rest, I want to be turned loose and get rest." AVe see it turned loose, and it runs down and turns a mill-wheel, and then runs down and turns a factory-wheel ; farther down it runs a machine-shop. And so that little stream is finding rest in its usefulness as it goes to its destination. Let us pile up our lives around the cross of our blessed Saviour, and stay there until we are perfectly rested in Christ; and when the rest comes lie says to us, " Come out and bless the nations." Go to work on that plan every one of you, and help your neighbor. The sweetest rest a man ever had is the rest he finds in activity. I believe serving God is the only thing a man never gets tired of doing. Lots of the merchants say, "I am going to quit the mercan- tile business; it is too hard." Lawyers say, "I am going to quit the legal profession; I am worked to death." And doctors say, "I am going to drop out of the business, because it is too hard." I want to tell you that no lawyer or merchant in the world is any : (i I J()6 Seiimonh and Sayings. I , bubior than I am; but I am going on iintil God calls me up higher. I would not swap places with Presi- dent Cleveland — not tluit I would have the choice of swapping, but, thank God, my job lasts through eter- nity, and his only four years. " Take my yoke upon you." All the trouble I ever got into was when I slipped that yoke and said, ''I will do as I please;" and all the trouble I ever had was when I did what I pleased and as I pleased. And that is the reason you are here to-day. If you had listened to Christ you would have been in a bet- ter place. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." He has no great desire to make his subjects bow down in submission. But he says: "Come to me, children of men; 'I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.'" There is quite a diffei- ence between given and found rest. I go out on the hills of Colorado and see scattered over those hills quartz full of gold. Sometimes there is a piece of gold in a quartz-rock worth twenty-five dollars. That gold came to you. But if you will take a spade or shovel and sink a shaft, you will find a vein of rich gold that is worth millions. Now, when I get my pick and go down and find a ton of gold, that is fouml gold. That on top is given; that at the bottom is found. If you will come to Him, he has enough to make you a hapjiy man. God put enough on top, but he says, "Go down." And the way up is down; "he that liumbleth himself shall be exalted." There is one good thing about Christianity: Christ not only knows all about me and heals me, but he tells me how to stay healed. He tells me how to do as a Seumons AM) Sayings. 107 )i\ calls 1 Presi- lioice o£ gli etei-- le I ever said, "I ever had pleased. , I£ y^>^i in a bet- ine." He ,v down in hildren oi \ ye sliall ,e a diftei- jiit on the lose hdls I piece of ars. That spade ov 111 of ri^^'h et my piek is found bottom i^ enough tt) ■3n toi), but :lo\vn; "he. ity: Christ Inithe tellB to do as a fatlior and husband. My wife has a heap better lius- l)aiul since I obeyed Christ. He tells ine how to act as a neighbor. He tells me how to obey my State and county, and I am a heap better citizen than I would have been had it not been for my association with Christ. l\Iy wife loves me, my neighbors respect me, and my State is proud to claim me as one of her sons. When 1 turn my hack on Christ I get into trouble. I want ti) toll you one secret* in my life: I have never yet un- dertaken a thing without Christ's help, and without risking his help, but that I failed in it. I never asked him to help me in a single thing that he did nothelp me through. Now, do n't forget that. Religion is a good thing for a fellow down here in Tennessee. 1 am not a citizen; but if I was, I would want to be a religious man. Religion is a good thing down in (leorgia and Tennessee. There is nothing better in heaven than religion. When you have got religion, you have got the best thing in heaven or earth. Re- ligion in this world is inlaid with pearl and gold. We receive ft beautiful gift. AVe may lay it on the table ill tlie parlor as the gift of a friend, and there it stays oil tho table, and we show it to our friends. One day some (me handles it, and a hidden spring is touched, and the lid ilies open, and there is the richest jewel iusitle. Religion is a beautiful casket, and we show it to our friends; but when a Christian man touches the secret spring of his religion, heaven and everlast- ing life open out to him. Let us give our hearts to God, and accept religion, and when we die this will be as a spring-board on which we can leap right into the Some of you people may prison. If you should die in this prison 1' 1 ■> !.i| :>; § glories of the world al)ove 168 Sermons and Savings. M i some morniug about four o'clock, and die a Christian, and die in the sight of lieaven, and wake u[) in a new world, and throw your eyes around over tlie jasptu* walls and pearly gates and golden streets, don't you reckon you would be happy? I want to tell you this incident from the penitentiary in Indiana: Sev about it. If he takes twenty drinks a day he will siivj he takes only ten; if ten, only one. It will make truthful man lie. Have you ever got to where youJ wif«^ didn't believt^ y<>u? The gullibility of a gool wife is astonishing. When I told my wife about ij nftcr r quit, she was astonished at the whisky I.hnl drnnk. W1j<^mi a man commences confessing he liaj (juit then. Gel a gaiiil)]er converted, for instance, iidJ in every meeting wlioii lie gets up he will say, "1 ^vsi snielj Com (iVo ill m Sermons and Sayings. 175 bliematiciu blie bei^in- 1 the time ma is V. rit- to the last He never ,er, the tirst iiiting every t is the first le last thing vd that God My hopo i^ a mail every t expression. until he ha> get relii^iou L' him Ba> lit' evor saw, but }, repents, iiinl liquor ta.t.'N hes a nvy little Bob came in ahead of all tlie other children. He is tlie littlest fellow for his age you e^-er saw in ymir life. He is not like his father. I kissed him. ''Ijm!)," ])is mother asked, "wliat sort of meeting did I -J Vs,: 178 Sermons and Sayings. you have?" "We had a good meeting. Mr. Smith asked us all up to the altar." "Did you go, Bol)?" "Yes. Mr. Smith said if I would come up and ask the Lord, he would forgive mo." "Did ho forgive you, Bob?" "Yes, sir; and made me feel good." "But suppose you get bad again, what th(^n?" "I expect I will wait till Mr. Smith comes round again, and ask the Lord to forgive me again." If I go up and confess my sins, God will forgive me. If any man sin again, we have an Advocate with the Fatlicr. I wish I had known as much when I was twenty-livo years old. I would just have got down and confessed, and then went on and confessed again. That same little fellow, at Bush Arbor, came out on the pori'li about sundown, and said, "Papa, I am going to got i\ blessing to-night." " Who blesses folks. Bob ? " " The good Lord blesses them.'' " How does he bless them ? " "They go up and promise to do better, and the Lord blesses them." At night, when the preacher said, "I am going to invite all you that want pardon to come up here and kneel down," Bob was sitting by his mother, and said: "Don't hold me, please ma'am; I want to go there and get a blessing." Soon he was kneeling at the altar, praying the Lord to give him that blessing. I lost sight of him in the crowd wlieu the meeting closed, but he ran out and caught me by the hand. "Did you get a blessing?" "Yes, sir, I got it." One Sunday morning the pastor of tho church read out seventy-six names. Bob was sit- ting back there wdth his mother', and directly he broke out crying as if his heart would break. "What is the matter. Bob?" "Mr. Bobbin never read out my name at all." His mother gave his name to the ri :«i m Sermons and Sayings. 179 r. Smith and iisk » forgive ^1 good." n?" "I id again, i I go up . If aiiv le Fatlier. ^venty-iivo confessod, [hat saini> the poi\'li ig to got a t)?" "The isstliem?" 1 the Lord er said, "1 on to corai3 ng by his ma'ani; 1 )on he was give him ■owd wheu .ght me by Yes, sir, I ;or of the ,b was sit- airectly ho ik. "AVhat read out [inie to the ,() })i('ucher, and when he read out " Robert W. Jones," the httle fellow'B face brightened up and he M'as satisfied. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." I will take this broad promise and invite a world upon it. Here is a promise broad enough for every sinner in this tent to-night. I tell the sinner sometimes that this is illustrated by the >vay tlie}^ arrange the driidcing-pools on the stock- farms out AVcst. They put a board wall around the l)()ol, and when the cattlo are driven up there is no water in sight — not a sinc,le drop in the trough; but an old thirsty ox goes up on tlio platform, and forces the water up into the trc vigh by his own weight, and ho drinks and slakes his t'urst. Mr. Tyndall climbed uj) on some theological pl'.tform and looked in, and Haid, "There is not a drop of water in that trough." I tell my friends that it is f, oiling up on that platform. If you do, you will force tlu> water of salvation up to (juench the thirst of your dj'ing soul, and you will go home saved. If we can get you up — and we can if you will take God at his word — if you will confess your sins, God is faithful and just to fcrgive, but he lias said something better than thvit. I thought par- don was grand and glorious, but he has said: "1 will separate your sins from you an Xar as the east is from the west. I will blot them out, and remember them no more forever." You say, " If I get to heaven I can never hold my head up, I have done so many moan things." I thought so too till I ran across that blessed old Psalm, " I will blot out your sins and re- member them no more forever." I never saw it illus- trated better than when I was preaching at Fifth and "Walnut, in Louisville. One of the best men I ever 180 kSeHMONS ANT) SAVTNOfl. i H worlvPtl with was Rev. J. C. Morris. Ho said in meet, ing that lie had ])oen n mean sinner ])et'()re conversiDn, and his aged motlier afterward said to him: "Jimmy, what makes you say you have been mean? You havc^ l)(5en good all your life." That was a little of t]i(^ Spirit of God in that old mother's heart. We shall walk the golden streets just as if we had never done any thing wrong in the world. " AVlio will lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" It is his hand that justifies. "If we confess our sins, lie is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." I will tell you how it is. If a sinner is condemned to be hanged the next Friday and breaks out with small- pox, he is in a bad lix. If he doesn't die with small- pox, he Avill be hanged. There is that impending sen- tence hanging over the sinner; and in addition to tiiat, there is a moral corruption that would ruin him if there were no God or devil or hell. There is not much use looking after his small-pox until we get ;i pardon for him. If I can wring that from the Gov- ernor, then I want the best doctor in the country to go to work on him. I know we are corrupt by nature. The first thing we want is pardon. God says he will not only pardon us but cleanse us from all unright- ecuisness. Thank God for tJiat! Is there any thing that a man has done that the gospel of the Son ol: God won't remedy? But that i)ooi' fellow says, "If I wash up I am afraid I won't hold out, humanity is BO weak." Poor humanity! The gospel is nothing more nor less than a line of wagon-shops on the way to heaven to mend your vehicle and start you on the road again. I rolled my old broken-down humanity under •^i SEPiMON.S AND SAVINGS. 18J riminv, of tlx' le slmll Br clone lay miy lis hainl faithCnl UH from bhsinall- ;h Binall- ling soil- 1 to that, u bim il^ is not |we get a lie Gov- luntry to nature. Is be will unrigbt- |ny tbiug Son ot ays, "li lanity is notbing .e way to tberoad ;y under tlio wngon-sbop of tbe cioss. In a few minutes it was lixeci from tongue to coujjling-polo. I avjis fixed up for time and eternity, and I started; ])ut, sir, I didn't get a niik» until d'/\vn came a wheel. I said: "1 uill give it up; I am gone." I looked up tbe road- side, and th(^ wagon-make'r said, "Just bring that ungon here, and I will fix it U])." "How much do I owe you? " I said when tbe rei)airs were made. " Noth- ing; only promise to stop at tbe next shop if you break down." 1 didn't go two miles till smash came down one of tbe axles. I said: "1 am breaking down every mile. I miglit as well cpiit." "Bring that axle up lu're; I am fixing axles. I charge you nothing; only he sure and slop at tbe next shop if you break again." "1 have been too careless;" init soon 1 made a quick turn, and pop went tbe tongue; and I was about to j^ive it up forever, Avben another wagon-maker said, "iJring it up bere; I am working in tbe interest of wag(ms going in tbe right directi(ui." I don't believe I have got tbe lincbj)in of the old wagon I started with, it has l/ioken down so many times; but if the 8li(i])s bold out, I am going through. I was talking with an old soldier who bad l)een traveling all bis life. 1 said, "Crotber, do tbe shops bold out?" He an- swered: "They do. It is not half a year since I was in a shop myseir." Thank God, no man ever broke down out of sight of a shop! Let us make a start. Tbe question is not, "Have I got religi(m enougb to take me to beaven?" but tbe question is, "Have I got emmgb to start?" Eight is y'rj}d, and I am going to do it; wrcmg is wrong, and 1 am going to quit it. Once while admiring tbe loco- motive that Avas to drav.' our train frcmi Atlanta t(» Il 182 Sehmoxs and Sayings. , . Clmttaiiooga, I heard the onginoor ask liiH fireman, "Have we steam enough to start with?" The reply was, "Yes, sir." On looking at the steam-gauge, I observed thfit the register was but sixty i)ounds, and that the eapacity of the boiler was one hundred and for- ty. I wond(!red why so liglit a pressure was deemed suf- ficient; but the train had not run to the Chattahooelic .Uiver, less thnn seven miles, ])efore I saw the engiin^ l)h)wing ofi' steam; it already had too much. And so it was at intervals all along the route. I found that the locomotive generated steam faster when runnin<^' than when stationary. Mark you, that engineer did wot ask, "Have we steam enough to run to tlii^ river, or to Chattanooga?" Init, "Have we steam enough to t- eauso his nature is love. TiiEiiE is but one road. Heaven is at one end and hell at the other end. The road to hell is th^r:.^^^- IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) fe / 1.0 I.I !;^iM iiM " m 2.2 i^ t^ 2.0 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ 6" - » V] <^/ A o^. c*^ /a y >^ # Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 y^'' SERMON XIII. • What Shall Tin: Harvest Be? (A Sermon to Men.) "Be not deceived; (Jod is not mocked: for whatsoever a uinn Boweth, that shall he also reajt." (Gal. vi. 7.) *HI8 service, ns niinouiK'od before, is held witJi special reference to commercial travelers or drummers, as we commonly call them. I will give them their proportion of this service. There are here many drummers, and more who are not drum- mers. We will give to you drummers in proportion to your numbers — no more, no less. There is no lifr that has the wear and tear of the drummer's life. No nobler, bigger hearted set of men ever lived and walked i ad traveled on the face of the earth tli.ui these men called drummers. I have been intimately associated with the drummers. I meet them at tlio hotels, on the streets, and on th(^ trains, and a bigger- Bouled set of men I have never met; and harder cases than some of them I have never met. Now, that is about your proportion of the service; but we will j^'o along as men. Now, I want to say to you as men, husbands, sous, fathers, no matter what your calliiij,' may be, I will reach your case either as a husband, as a father, or as a son ; for wo all occupy one of these three relations. Now, we take the text, "Be not de- ceived." We say in the first place that there are three absolute inlpossil)ilities in this I'fe. There may be a thousand, but we know of three absolute imi)08- sibilities. In the tirst i)lac(^ it is absolutely impossi- (1S4) Sekmons and Savings. 185 \)\v for a man continuously nnd successfully to prac- tice a fraud upon his immortality. If you are a good man, you know it; if you are not a good man, you know it. I care not how much you may bring to bear tlio flattery of your friends and your self-pride, if you RIO not a good man God breaks the silence of eternity Hilt I brings you face to face with the fact of what you aiv, who you are, nnd whither you are going. (Jod will not let a man lie down and sleep his way to hell. 1 iiiiow there are times when we are easy. There aro limes of great quietude of soul, when men do not think, or reason, or obey, but move along indifl'erent- ly. If you are not all right in your relations to God and eternity, he wikes yo'i up now and then, and shows yuu the fact— thank (kKi t^ui ": is true! -that no man can successfully and persistcn\,Iy practice a fraud on his own immortality. We say, in the next place, that no man can success- fully and continuously practice a fraud upon his neigh- Ixti". If you are not a good man, your neighl)or knows it. Why, sir, if you should dress up in disguise to- iiiorroAV night, and go over and spend an hour with your neighbor, and get him to talk about you, you would hang your head after the first fifteen minutes; and you would walk off and say, " I had no idea any- Intdy in the world thought thus of me." A good man is lilie a city set on a hill. You cannot hide him. You can see him for miles in the distanc<\ There are men «nd( r this tent who if they knew that I know as much as I do about them would not bo here to-night. You Would never look me in the face any more. Do you know that there are some men listening to my voice to-night who think they are all right, while there are \m i8n Sehmons and Sayinos. tliousfinds of men who know they are unfaithful to their wives? who know tluit it was your buggy tliat drove up there every time you went? You think no- body knew it. You built that ])ouse for somebody. You think it is all managed by your agent, and that nobody knows that woman doesn't pay any rent. They know that you are the fellow paying the r- "body. lI thiit rent. 3 rout. 56 tlmt i-tliat ink no- treet in 1 think, L to iind r. Yo^i )ol, you. ou think luse you it as l)ig sry tinit' low thert' jk and H AV them, toiiished Some of not say iver talk may he. d as thiii 'ad of all he world." utely iu> God Al- you throiigli and through— where you go; how much it costs. God's own oye rests upon you every moment of your life. Hear me, my fellow-countrymen, tt)- uight! You are not practicing a fraud on yourselves nor on your neighbor; for your neighbor knows you as you are. I won't call your name, but you know vour number. When a fellow's number is called, ho will answer every time away down in his soul. If thoro is any thing I love it is a transparent man, who is pure from head to foot, with nothing to conceal. A man ought to live so as to maintain his own self- respect before the world. He ought to live so as to maintain the respect and confidence of the God who luado him and the God who will finally judge him. H(^ll) us, O God, to conform our lives to these eter- nal truths! "Be not deceived." You know your number, and God knows you; for God is not mocked. That is a wonderfully strong exx)ression. The literal translation of that verse is about this: You need not be turning up your nose at God and playing pranks on him; he knows you from head to foot. There is many a fellow playing pranks on his neighbor, his wife, and his mother; but God says: "You need not try to play pranks on me. I have numbered every hail- on your head." "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for what- soever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Now, you face one of the most fearful passages in the Word of God. You know that this is a passage that all men are agreed upon. Jew and Gentile, atheist and belier tr, infidel and Christian, all center here, and stand on this platform: "Whatsoever a man soweth, tlint shall lie also renj)." This text would be just as true if you 188 Sermons and Sayings. liful fiiuiiil it in Hume's "History of Engluiul." This is as true now ns when God said it. It is tru«^ wliotli- er there is any God or not, or wlu'ther there is a heaven or not, or wliether there is a hell or not. Whether any thinj^ else is true in the moral universe, it is true that what a man sows that he shall also renji. I have read about that worm that never dies- about the lires that are never quenched; hut this most fear- ful of the jMjj^es puts me to forging out the chains that shall bind me forever- pats me to incubating the egg that shall hatch the worm that shall giuiw me forever and evt^r. This is true in the physical world around us. If I go into my Held and ])laiit grain, from the day the grain drops from my IimikI until I gather it into my crib I do not expect any thiii},' Imt grain. If I sow wheat, I do not expect any thiii<,' Inii wheat; if I go into my garden and sow a row of lettu(re, I expect lettuce. AVhatever I sow I n aj). Then I nt)tice, in examining the i)hysical world, ik t only that every thing ]>iodaces its like, l>ut I want ytm to notice the multiplying nature of seed. A [)reacher of our Conference — a man whose word 1 wouhl take as soon as I would my i)recious mother's -said he saw a seed of oats come up in his garden. He removed the weeds, worked around the seed, and let it mature. He at last pulled up the single stalk of oatn and counted the seeds. Eight thousand seven hun- dred grains of oats had come from a single grain. If you should take the.se grains and sow them, you would get fifty bushels. Take these fifty bushels and sow them, and the next year you will have two thou- sand bushels. Sow them, and next year you will have niultiplicd your stock prodigiously. By and by we Sfumons and Sayings. 180 ," This > whotli- ?re is II or not. uiivorse, 3--Jv]u)Ut lost fojir- e chnins .cubntiug all tiiiuw physical lid ])l!Uit my li'iinl any tbiii^ ajiy tiling' a row of I reap. ^•orld, n< t it I want seeil. A le word 1 motlK'i'"'^ s garden. sd, and It't ilk of oat^ ^A-en liun- r\e grain. fliem, yi'U .sliels aiul wo tlldU- will have lid by ^ve could, by contiiiuing this process, have this world »i Imndred feet deep in oats, and all from one little irrnin. Away back yonder in the garden of Eden— Ailfim dropped one little sin in that garden; and the world is full of sin and full of woe, all fnmi one lit- tle sin dropped in the garden of Eden. O the mul- tiplying nature of seed! Now, we want t<:> say that pvery man in this universe is a seed-sower. AVe are going along through this moral world with a basket 4 moral seed. At every step we scatter the seed to the right and to the left - not on these m«iuntains and ill those valleys, but in human hearts; and they will nil come uj) and produce just like the seed we sow. When a seed falls from your hand, it is gone forever. Tlioi«^ is a story of a Catholic woman who went to a [iriost to confess which well illustrates this ])owej' of rt'production in moral seed. In her C(mfe*lic returned, saying, "I have done my penance." I 'Now, before I absolve you," said the i)riest, "I want y.m to go and gather up all those seeds and bring tlu'iii l)ack to me." Never, never can you undo the iiii^ciiief you have done in that statement. Once the '('(1 falls from your hand, it is gone forever. You llioar men talk and say, " I have no influence." Well, lyou are a dog if you have net. A man without influ-- jence is a moral mcmstrosity and a blank in the uni- verse of God. Find me a man in this town without ^ntlnonce. Yes, if I were to say to you to-morrow, 'Vo'i have no influence in this town," you would 190 Sermons and Sayings. feol like knocking me down; Imt you will lie alxmt it yoiirHelf. "I have no influence; I am not influciuini^' anybody." Every htej) of your life you are sowiii},' seed on your way, and they come up and grow up just like the seed you sow. This in the world for sowinjr; yonder is the world for reaping. O my God, what i harvest awaits some men who hear my voice to-night I Sonv^ of you men who hoar my voice have sowtcl enough need of evil to damn the world, if it jiist has time enough to propngate itself. A man siws on, and the harvcist is pnKluced and reprodiu'cd. I say to you all lo-night, you have got men out in your cemetery whoiie sowing curses this city, and will curse it as long as it is a city. They are buriinl, the flesh has perished from their bones, Imt green ilclds are growing to a harvest of damnation all around uh. They soAved the seed; we reai) the harvest. Sow wnisky, reap drunkards. Do you dispute that? Do you deny that projx)sition ? The premise is souml, and the logic is as clear as the mind of God. Sow whisky, reaj) drunkards! How many men in Nash- ville have crossed the line forever? They will dif drnnk as certain as God reigns in heaven. They will never stop. Have you ever taken the statistics and counted the men who have crossed the line over which not one in five thousand ever comes back? TIk^ are the harvest of the bar-rooms as much as the grotn oats are the harvest of that field you sowed months agf>. Sow whisky, reap drunkards. Then I will say one crop of drunkards is l)ut the seed of another crop. The saddest spectacle of earth is to see a drunk- en father avIio has debauched his body with drink Every child born to sncli a man is a half drunkard! Sermons and Sayings. 191 from tlio first breath it draws. If your wifo was not a sober woman, whfit would become of your progeny? If she was a drunkard, your children would bo full- fledged drunkards the day tliey are born. Tiiere was a young man at Dr. Haygood's school wlio became very dissipated in his habits. His father was wealthy, and after many efforts to reform the boy lu' wrote Dr. Haygotjd, saying: **I am out of pati(Mu;e with that boy; he may go to the dogs." Said Dr. Haygood: "Come here; I want to talk to you about tliis boy." Dr. Haygotxl asked him: "Were you not a moderate whisky-drinker at the time of this boy's birth?" He had to acknowledge he was. "Was not your father also a hard drinker, and did not your wife's father die a drunkard?" "Yes, it is true." Just count up the pedigree, and see that he was the result of many generations of drunkards. Here are facts; you can't dodge tliem. You drunkards will bring on a crop of drunkards that wuU curse Nash- ville by and by. Fill a town with bar-rooms to prop- agate a lot of drunkards who become fathers of drunk- ards, and thus the world goes on to death and hell! T() the father who drinks let me say, Eternal issues are in every cup you turn up to your lips. How a man can get his consent to drink and see at home a poor little innocent child brought into the world halt a drunkard, is a profound mystery to me. Pi^or wretch, poor man! Sow whisky, reap drunkards! Now, my brethren, on this whisky line I am not fighting men; J am fighting whisky. There is where my fight is. Snme of the biggest men in Nashville are selling thousands of gallons of whisky every week. My fight is with that stuflf you arc dealing in. It damuH 192 Seiimons and Sayings. Otxory i\n\\<^ it touches. It in ciirsiuf? my race. There is (Mion.L^fi wliisky in Nashville to debauch your cliil- (Ireii for years aiul years. Hear, you fathers, a nio- meiit yi)u tlriiikiii«^ fatliers: A brother said to iiif that he wns down town tlie other day and wnlkrd into one of these groceries. They are a peculiar kind of groc(»ry: they have the provisions in front and a bar-room in the rear Methodist groceries, Presbyte- rian groceries. You can go in to get a pound of soda and get a drink without suspicion. Said the propri- ett>r, "Come in and take a glass of lager-beer."" i^c walked back, and when the lager-beer was drawn lio turned it up to his lips. He then noticed for the fiist time his little Willie, five years old, pulling his fui^'or and saying, "Papn, what is that you are drinkin*^'?" As he walked out of the grocery, h(i said: "My little lK)y i)ulled my linger again and said, 'Tell me, i)n\m, what was that you were drinking?' On the street he asked me again, * What was that you drank down there?'" He said: "I w(mld give almost any thing in the world if T could call that back. I am afraid tliat (3ne thing will make a drunkard of my poor little boy.' AVhere I was preaching once a young man about twenty years old, who was a hard drinker, came to tlio services, and continued to come. The third night lie turned over and went to sleep. His father got him liomi! and put him to bed, and watched him next morning, and when lie got up said to him: "O my son, do not go back to town! Give your heart to God, like your father did." "Get out of my way; don't stop me here," said the son. "Your poor mother's heart is bleeding at every pore. Stop drinking, and give your heart to God," said the father. "Do you know, Seumon's and Sayings. 193 fnthor, wlio gave mo tlio first drink ? You wore the first l)tijig tlint ever pressed drink to my lips." Tlie father, who is now a steward in tlio Methodist Church, said: " I just turned my poor boy hwso. Ho is drunker to- day than he was yesterday." O mo! what must that father feel? " Whatsoever a man sowoth, that shall he nlrofanity, reaj) profanity. Some of y»)U nin going around telling that I said the other ni<,'lit that a man who swore would steal; hut I saiil Ik; wouldn't steal, and I told you why he would nt. I am not slandering you, you cursing feilows, hut defending you -I only told you why you would nt steal. "Thou shalt not steal." "Thou si. alt not swear." There is money in one and none in the other, I start around stealing 'vnd here are sheriffs and chain- gangs and court-houses. I say they won't steal tiny won't. I will die by ytm You take a cursing man and let him have a chance and he will go two miles and steal a bee-gum, go a \nile fartlKU- and steal a sheep, and stay with the lowest-down pe()i)le on the road all night. In the war Ave tried you. If there is a fellow here who didn't steal any thing in the war let liira stand up. If a man will steal in the war wliy not steal at home? Why, he runs up on a sheriff' nnd a chain-gang at home. The fellow who will break one commandment will break them all if yoii turn him loose. Sow profanity, reap profanity. WJiat a harvest of profanity curses this city day by day! The saddest sight in the world is to see little bits of boys going on the streets cursing. Some time ago a Wv)man came up on a train accom- panied by her little grandson, and there were two men on the train uttering oaths. She heard the s weal- ing, and saw the little fellow's attention was drawn to it. She put her fingers in her little grandson's eais. ''Hold on, grandma; I can't stand that any longer''" SnilMONS AM) S.\YIN(1S. 195 on** M repio- iblo! ,-oii aid • iii^lit ,)Ulllll't. \VH, l>ut ould lit •lilt ni't le other, il cliain- [il tln-y ing mall ,vo mill's . steal a e on the there is the war war why rilT ami II break oil turn What by day! bits of II accoiu- rere two le sweat - • tlrawn to Ln's ears, (longer' '" S!ie wn.s forced to ai)[)eMl to tlieni: "Gentlemen, do st»»i) that Hwearinj^. In (iod's name, do not swear an^ iii(»re so tliat niy litth; {jjrandson can hear it!" Sow |iri»fanity, reap profanity. In a certain town in (leor ^'i I tiiere was a fatiier, the most profane man the world ever saw — I am touchin«^ on you drummers ri^ht along licre — nearly every other word was an oath. He was )i merchant, and was standing out on the sidewalk witli a gentleman when his little boy was tripped by a passer-by and came near falling. The boy turned round to the nmn who tripi)e(l him and swore with the volubility of a sailor. The father and the other gen- tleman listened to it. "Hear me," said the father: " L will never swear another oath while I live." lie- fore that boy was four years old there was the harvest of hell. God pity the brute the human l)rute — that will swear before his child! I don't believe there is II li(»g, a regular old piney-woods razor-back hog down in Georgia, low enough to degrade its yimng in such a tl'spicablo way as that. You ought to have been in hell, sir, before you had a child born to you! Sow pri ifanity, reap i)rofanity. Now, we are going on logic. You can't dodge it to save your life. Sow cards, reap gamblers. Do you know that nine gamblers in every ten were reared in Christian families? There is not a more polite, well-bred set of men in Nashville than the gamblers. Now, listen to me, brother: You sow cards in your family, and you will reap gamblers. Some of you old Bap- tists, Methodists, and Presbyterians have had cards in your families, and you think your boy is the best fel- low in town. The police raided him last night, and he was around asking the reporters to keep his name m i i :m PVP* ■IHi J0« 8e1:M0XS as I) iiWl^yiA. out of the prv[)or3. Ciod help us to stop rearing ganiblerri in Christian families! You go and get tluit deck of cards that is in your house and burn it up. No harm in cards! You train that boy if you play. J3y and by he will have to put up a little to make it interesting, and then because he wants to win some- thing; and on and on he goes, taught by Christian father and mother to pluy. He plays on and on, till finally he loses his last dollar. He watches which room the winner goes to, slips into the room, draws a dagger from his belt, walks forward in the pale glait^ of the moon, and drives it into the bosom of his vic- tim! That boy was reared in a Christian home. Kk father taught him luiw to draw that dagger to tako that man's life. Progressive eucher! That is the spiderlog ganio. There is n(jt a spiderleg in this town who doesn't play progressive eucher; and he thinks it is a charming game! If there were no harm in playing cards in this universe, I have a contempt ior a man who has got tirae to do it. Y^ou old cymling-headed goose, yon juiver read five hundred i)ages of a solid book in your life, and here you are playing cards, and your old mother has to give you money -to get shaved! A bar- l>er in this town said: "I am so glad Mr. Jones hit tJie ^piderlegs. I want them to come up and pay me; and all of them owe me." I can't describe the spider- li^gs, but every day or two I meet one, md could show liim to you. He looks as if he had been melted ami poured into his breeches. He thinks progressive eu- ehei is a magnificent game. And tlie german, sir; he is a sight on a german! I would as soon see a shag- gy ricotch tenier with his paws around my daugli- 1 1 Sermons and Sayings. 19-? ter as to see ;i spiclerleg with her. I have soiiio choice fis to who shall hug my daughter, and you, sir, sliall not have that privilege. Now, boys, don't get mad, or somebody will call you u spiderleg. If I were you I would rather a prea(;her would skin me than to call mo a spiderleg. If you sow cards, you reap gamblers. This is just as legitimate a result. It is just as natural as that Irish potatoes will produce Irish potatoes. If I sow whisky, I will reap drunkards; if I sow cards, I will reap gamblers; if I sow profanity, I will reap jirofanity; if I sow germans, I will reap si)iderlegs. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Sow your cards, you will reap your gamblers. Never have it said, my brethren, after this hour, that aj)y Christian family turned out a gambler from his home. The twenty-two-year-old son of a mother in Chatta- nooga came in after supper and said: "Mamma, get the cards, you and sister, and let us take a game." "Son," said she, "I heard a sermon to-day that set- tled me on this subject. Mr. Jones asked us mothers to pray for you poor boys who waste your time on cards." "Sister, won't you take a game with me?" 'No, brother; I heard that sermon too, and I am done Corever." That mother sent her boy to the meeting, find God sent him back to virtue. I like that. All you that sow billiards will reap pools. Show me a man that is a frequenter of billiard-rooms, and I hold him up between me and that gas-light and read one word written all over him — lutilnrc. I never in my life saw a first-class billiard-i)layer who was worth the powder and lead it would take to kill liim. Now, what do you say? You are not half a mile from a gambling-hell when you stop at a billiard-saloon. 1 198 Sehmons and Sayings. never .was mean and low down enough, morally, to play billiards. Some of these so-called Christi.ui households have got billiard- tables in them. AVlit^i- ever I can't run my home Vvithout cards and billiaiiU tables, I want to see all my family buried. You men come out of there, or in less than ten years from to- day you will be ruined. AVhere are those boys who stood around those tables ten years ago? Look at sta- tistics, names, and dates, and quit forever. Will you? There is another thing Tennessee is a sight on, and that is horse- racing. There is many a fellow in this country riding a blooded horse to hell. May be you think that beats walking. Now, my fellow- citizens, let me say right at this point that I believe 1 love a noble horse better than I do any thing else, un- less it is a noble woman. There is nothing grander than a grand horse. I don't care if he can run it in a minute, I don't want to go to horse-races. It is be- cause you fellows have taken the noblest animal and disgraced him by pool-selling. Give us fast horsos, and let us drive them, but keep away those fellow.-, who want to pull out their i)ocket-books and bet some- thing. You are wrong side up; you need inverting. To bet on a thing is the best idea you have. If you will get out of that spring, I would like to take a drink; but I do n't like it with such a hog as you wallowing in it. A fellow is not obliged to eat the hog because he doesn't like the water. He that sows betting on horse-i'aces reai)s gambling. What we see around u-- to-night is the legitimate fruit of the sowing of tho last forty years in this city. 1 have already tfdked about an hour, or a littl' more. I want you to hear me through. Now, t want Sermons and Savings. 199 illy, to iristi;iii AVIUMI- )ilUaril- OU llU'll rom to- )ys \vhi( k fit stii- ill you? ight on, a fellow il. May r fell(tw- Delievc 1 else, un- graiiiler •un it ill Itislu'. mal and fellow:, ot soiue- iverting. If you a drink; owing ill cause lie Itting on oiiiitl us g of tlio yon, my fellow-citizons, to-night, to go aAvay from lior? uitli sonietliing to think over, and something that will lie as a sj)ring-board to you tt) leap up into ,* higher and hotter lift on fatl over you lers, give rae your ear a mo- iiiont: AVhat a grand sight it is to see a husband take tl ife take the oldest le wite by tlK? hand, and tlie wite take tlie oldest cliild, and the oldest the next, and so on, and march on to the good world; hut O how sad to see the same procession approach the river of death, and all leap in and lloat ufl' to death and hell! There are men licre to-night who, every step they take, are leading tilt ir wives and children down to hell with them, ih'ie is a i)ictare: A father going down through the SHOW to feed his hogs, his little Willie called to him, ''May 1 go with you, papa?" Directly the father turned around and saw the little fellow coming. Fi- nally, "Papa," he says, "I am putting my tracks in yciuu tracks;" and the little boy's voice rang out re- vcrberatingly, "My tracks in your tracks;" Kiid the i';itl\er said, "Yes, that is true in more senses than opG." The boy puts his tracks in the father's tracks, wliother they are going to heaven or hell. Which \\n\' are you leading your children? What shall the Imrvest bo? ,t % a littl.' . 1 waul 200 Sermons and Sayings. SAYINGS. You dance and drink with this world, and you will go to hell with this world. That mother sent her boy to the meeting, and God Bent him back to virtue and honor. Rfd liquor and Christianity won't stay in the sanio hide. As one comes in, the other goes out. If such a crowd as this v/ere to attend prayer-meet- ing, you would scare your pastor out of his wits. If any man does n't like what I say, let him come to me after the meeting and say so, and I Avill — forgivo him. Sow whisky, reap drunkards. Fill a town with bar- rooms, make a generation of drunkards who becoiiio fathers of drunkards, whose children are born drunk- ards, and thus the world is swept on and down to hell. It takes grace, grit, and greenbacks to run a meet- ing. God will furnish the grace, but it is our busi- ness to furnish the grit and the greenbrcks. I can furnish the grit, you the greenbacks. I like a division of labor. It is absolutely impossible for a man to practice successfully a fraud upon his immortality. If you are a good man, you know it; if you are a bad man, you know it. God breaks the silence of eternity to bring you face to face with what you are, who you are 11 nd whither you are going. !!!i t. • ^ I SERMON XIV. Tuiix Yi:. "Turn yc, turn vc from vonr evil wavs: for wliv will vo dio, hiiusc of Israel?"' (Kzekiol xxxiii. 11,) *tf J)RETHREN, there is a good deal at stake to- t v\ night. If ever I craved the prayers of Cliris tiaii people and tlie help of the Divine Spirit, i is now and here. Help mo by your prayers to-nigiit. Let every man take lu^ed how he hears. It is tiio timo ii;>\v for concentration. We must focalize on hdui ■- thing. We must decide something; and in order that \v(> do tliat, I am going to take a very short text; and 1 shall discuss it as tersely as I possibly cnn. I will tiike one word, and that word is turn. We gi^t that word from this text: " Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" We iind that word again in the connection, "If he turn not, he will whet his sword." This expression, ''(lod will whet his sword" — there is a world in this figura- tive expression of David, " God will whet his sword." A sword is a weapon that we use in a hand-to-hand c>)mbat. If there is much distance between the coni- batunts, the sword is useless. It is when men rush i'i,.!,lit up and fight hand to hand and face to face that u sword is used. " If he turn not, he will whet his aword." The thought underlying that expression is ahoat this: Every moment of your life, every sin of ymu' life, every day of your life, every utterance of \ great heart goes out as the benefactor of the race; Imt I also know that (Jod is terribly and inilexil)ly ju^t, and tJie sinner shall not go unpunished. Every (lo\vii-| ward step is testimony to the fact that sin carries with it its own punishment, and punishment will last is l(>ng as sin will last. The man who sinned twenty y(\ars ago— are you delivered from it to-night? Aiv you relieved of the guilt caused by an act done twenty yc^ars ago? In one short hour we will commit a deeil that shall haunt us to our graves, and go into etiTiiity with us. Repent, turn away from sin. We wish tn follow this line. Things will clear up as we go aloiii.'. We will sacrifice every thing to clearness exce])t truth I want to turn this word over and over, and bathe i. in a sea of light. A man must turn away from sin in Sehmuns AM) Savings. 2ua vrf 'orii sill 111 J hiiJiiHOss-like wny ns you turiiotl awny from your fruiit ^r<'ito to-ni«^ht to coiiio hero. You must turn jmv fioiu your sin. It is no sham rej)entance — no Lock turning away from your sin- it must be an act- ual, l)nsiness-like turnin<^ away from sin. Hore is a Etrcli.int who has lost in business year after year. finally, when lie takes stock, he says, "One more vear will bankrupt me." He sells out his stock, buys a farm, find goes to work on it. Just as natiU'ally and I really, and just in that business sense, the sinner takes ;i(i(k, and says: "Look here, sin is ruining me. I liiave l»t'en following this thing ton, twenty, thirty years, I ami I am getting bankrupt. One more year may liaiikrupt me. I will close out this business, lock, Ist'tek, and barrel." And now, as a profane swearer [voii must quit swearing as truly and really as any I mail ever quit merchandising and went to farming. You have got to quit gnmbling as much as you left yiur home to come to this tent. You have got to quit voiir licentiousness, and get away from it as complete- ly as my hand is away when I take it off of this post. You must say in a business-like way, "I turji away from these things." " If there is any thing, Mr. Jones, that is cursing humanity in the world, it is the gam- bliiiLj-liells," said a man to me the other day. He said* 'I know what I am talking about. I have come to talk ti) you on this subject. I km^w with all the fear- ful realizations that any man ever had what gam- Iiliii^ will do for a man. My own brother led a gam- bler's life, and he went on and on in this life until he ended his career by jump>ing into the Mississippi rdvcr. He is in eternity — a gambler and a suicide. I have gambled night after night and week after week h H 204 Sermons and Sayings. 1 liavG soen my wife in tears, ami my cliildrcii crviiisl f')r bread. I know what I am talking about. I huYtJ boon to tlie very oclgo of eternal despair. I luivel come to God. I have turned my back f(jrever on tliisl sin, and God owns me as his child, and has f < >r<^'ivt.ii| my sin, and jn'omises to help me to a better lift.' How did he turn? lie gave it up forever. "Well.! says a man, "I gamble, I drink, I swear, I do tlii>,j that, and the other; I can't give it uj)." I ku,.w how hard it is to quit drinking. I know what I am talking; about. I know tlutt it costs something to give up the many great sins tiiat a man is guilty of. With nil tli-- earnestness of my soul I tell yt)U any thing is l);'ttt'r| than being damned. A fellow says: "There is no use in my trying to do right; I have such a violent teiu- j)er." I would rather have a l)ad temper in lipfivtiij than a bad temper in hell. I tell you, brethren of tlio] ministry, whnt is cursing many a man who hears my voice to-night. He is compromising with the devil. Ho will let you be a right good fellow if you will givo him halter enough. Says one: "There is one thing I am settled on — I will never curse any more." Ymi black-mouthed l)lasi)liemer, you ought never to li;ivo sworn an oath! You go up to the bar of God and say: "In the year 1885 I quit cursing; now let mo in."' You deserve no credit for that. "I am settled on it that I will never sell another drink of whisky." There are people in this city and in hell who will never get over it. There are men in this town who say, " If I knew what to do wuth my whisky, I would give it up and give myself to God." Let me tell you my sentiments to the bottom of my heart: I Avould rather be in heaven with the consciousness that I Sermons and Sayiijos. 205 Lnirod five thoiisniul ilollars' Avorth of wliisky in tlio Cuiulx'il'^iit^ Kivor tlifiii to be in lu^ll witli the whirfky- tiaiTt'ls sittiiij^ JiroiiiKl me. There are men in this tiuvii nitli five thousiiml clollars' Avorth of wliisky, and 111) nut know what to do with it. You can j^o and Liupty it into the Ciimberhmd Kiver, and then l)e worth lioiiiv than I will ever be worth in thiw worhh Turn liflicinid fire of damnation loose in the river! That |i,;i^'()(»d idea. Another fellow will say, "I am goin^ t,i quit drinking." Yes; you ought to have a thousand hiislios for the way you have treated your wife and oliiKh'en! Now you are going to sober up and walk iutolioaven, just because you made your wife niiserable fir ton years. Y^m are a sight, ain't you'? " T am all ri^lit; I have done stoi)ped drinking." Thank God, \\h\\ are going to quit forever! Y'ou eannot claim any tiling from God simply on the score that you have quit I thinking. Some of the meanest ohl sinners in this town never touched a drop in their lives. " I am never j,'tiiiig to dance any more; I have given up (hmcing." }\o\s; if you had not been light in the ui)per story, you iiovcr would have danced at all. Now, because you have at'tod silly and quit, you think you ought to get into lioaven. "I have played my last game of cards." (tod pity you that you ever got low down enough to play fit all! You can't claim any thing because you have quit one or two little things. Sin is a disease just as truly as small-pox is a disease. Wlien a fellow curs(^s, it lias broken out on his tongue. Take some salve? and cure it on his tongue, and it will break out sonio- whore else. It will break out on his hand, and he will steal something. When a fellow says, ''I Iiave quit drinking," the first thing you know he is gambling. a %d 20G Shiimons and Sayixga. Sin is n disease. It is but the outwanl eruption frono a torril)l(i inward disease. Wo do n't want any salve to sjiread on a fellow, but wo want a blood remedy to spread on him to make a innv man of him through and through -not salves and ointments, but a grand old God-given constitution. Some of you have run down your constitutions, and have been living on the by-laws about twenty-five years. Many {in old sinner lias got no constitution. The devil nndermined the whole thing. He has a few by-laws he and the devil passed at a meeting once, and he is running on them, llepenting of my sins means I turn my back fictually and really on these things because they are wrong, and I seek a better and higher life. A man must not only turn from the thing that is wrong, but it must bo a hearty turning away from that sin. I am hardly metaphysician enough to go into definitions along liere; but I can say this: Tlie heart is the seat of the affections. When wo say a hearty turning away from sin, wo mean we turn from the wrt>ng to- ward the right with all the heart. It is the blowing out of the candles t)f sin in the soul, and leaving it dark till God comes. " My heart is sick about this mat- tor. I feel bad over it. I hate the wrong. I W(juld love the right." I love to see a man put his soid into the desire to be saved, fjut himself into the desire to be saved— a hearty. turning away fnmi sin. It is my h( ad and heart and soul. I turn all these away from sin and toward the right. Let the wicked man for- sake his sin and come t) God, and he will abundantly pardon. It must not only be an actual, businoLS-like turning away from sin, but it must be an imm^juiate turning aAvay from sin. Every fellow here has s'"ctled Seumons and Sayinoh. 207 it that he is uot going to ilio without roligi(»n. If there is a man lieie who has dcliborati^iy made up liia mind to brave tho terrors of damnation, I want him to stand up. Is there one canilichite for liell here to- night? Now, my fellow-citi/iOns, tiiere is a point right liere. No man is satisfied with Jiimself Avho is not a (Christian. Every ftillow has made up his mind tiiat h«3 is going to l)e religious. Men are religious just as they are honest. "I know I owe you that lifty- dollar note, but I ain't going to pay it now. I say I owe it, and will pay yow, therefore I am honest. I am going to be religious; therefore I am religious because I am going to be." It is strange how the devil can blindfold and bamboozle a man right along. I believe in this thing Brother Witlierspoon spoke of — the last chance. The saddest time in tlui his- tory of the soul is when the Lord Jesus (.^hrist has l)assed tliat way for the last time. I want to get you, my fellow-citizens, to say this to-night: that as you liave lived to the present time, and are meeting these l)resent opp(n'tunities and privileges, you will not let the time slip by. If you say to-morrow — Pharaoh said it, and the last we heard of him he was at tiie l)ottom of the Red Sea. When I stood at my father's l)edside twelve years ago and more, and with his bony hand in mine, and looking him in the face, said, "I will turn away from sin," I believe that if I liad not turned away I should have slighted my last chance, and been in hell this moment. I am just as fully persuaded in ray own mind that some men who liear my voice to-night have their last chance. I said in Knoxville: "I am profoundly impressed that tliero is a man in this congregation who will soon render an i iv^ 208 Seumonh and Sayings. account to Crod for tlio way in which ho lioars this Kcrnion." That night a man W(»nt to the altar, and was cojivert(>d and made a hMi)|)y man livin{^ or dy- ing. Last Thurs(hiy evL-nin;;, ahoiit throi* weoivs after 1 left tlie city, this man chipped hih* 1 nnds t«)- getlier and Haid, "It is the trutli, but tiiank Clod I am off for a b(;tter world thaji tliis! " 1 frequently g(?t letters after I am gtuie, saying: '* Do you recolh>ct Mr. Ho and So in whom we were so much interested? He died yesterday." God prepare the num who is to die first, and may he be the man who will first give himself to God to-night! Oidy two or three more steps and you are in the grave, and you jriay take one of them before I am through preaching to-night. Every one of us can turn to-night, but I woukl not go any man's security that he can turn to- morrow. I know what you think: "I am mit ready yet." The devil goes on perfectly satisfied with a man who says, "I think by Sunday I will come in." In fact, there is but one kind that engages his majesty's attention, and that is the fellow who cries out, "Now, now I give myself to God!" "I am not ready yet!" For what? There is many a fellow trying to wasli liimself up so that he can come in respectably. That is something like the porter in the sleeping-car dust- ing a fellow ofT ten miles before he is at his journey's end. When he gets there he will be dustier than ever. The hardest thing for a man to do is to give himself to God just as he is. I cannot do myself any good. Tiiere is many a fellow out with a whitewash-brush at work trying to get himself cleaned up respectably so he can come in. He said all the time he was alx)ut as good as anybody in the Church. AVhen you get Sermons and Sayings. 209 m: liini up he says, " I am not lit." Tho devil makes liiin jump on tlio other siilo of tlio fence. O how many just such cases tluMo are under this tent to- nif^ht! The reason you have not come in is l)ecaus(i y»)U tiiouglit you were not all right. You are the very fellow tho Lord is looking for. You are the one. Many a fellow in this country is sitting at the table, and his wife says, "Help yourself, husband." "No," he says, "I am waiting till my ai)petito is appeased." He is sitting there waiting for his appttite to get ap- pejised before he eats! If his wife should summon a jury to try him, thay woultl say his mind is giving way. He comes to the table and won't eat. He is waiting for his hunger to depart. Just so you say, "I want to get all right so I can go to God all right." You will be waiting a million years, (rod alone can make the sinner right. No sinner ever made himself right. I wis^ I could have every man say this: "Live or die, survive or perish, I start to-night!" Come up and take these seats and say: "Other men may make i)romise6, but I close this bargain to-night; and live or die, I will serve my God alone." Y'ou haven't any time to lose. Theie are men who hear my voice this moment who if they put in their best licks till they (lie will just barely make it. How many more days do you want to spend in rebelli(m against GodV I liave been thinking of that little boy who ran to the train. Just as he reached the platform the train moved off and left him. He stood there panting and watching the train, now in the distance. A man said to him, "You didn't run fast enough." "No," said the boy, "I ran with all my might, but I didn't make it because I did n't start soon enough." Many a man 14 f h. 210 Sermons and Sayings. will rush up and find the (/ates closed, ind say, like the boy, "I didn't start soon enough." I often think of the girl wIkj heard the preacher say, "This maybe your last ch;mce." As she took her young man's arm —not he took her arm. That arm- clutch! I wish I had about five minutes on that arm- clutch. It doesn't argue that a girl is not virtuous if you see her with a boy's arm clutclied in hers; but I tell you one thing, lie ain't. One or the other lacks virtue — may be both. "He that thinketh on these things hath already become unclean in his heart." I would lock my daughter up in the cellar and keep her there six months if I ever could see a spiderleg a-hokl of her arm. The girl is perhaps virtuous, but she has a mighty low-down, groveling sense of propriety; and the bov— I wouldn't trust him as far as I coukl throw this tent. Remember that, young lady, the next time he grabs you. I was told the otlur day by a friend that he saw two men walking on the street, and meeting a girl one of them grabljed her arm and walked off with her. He said the other fel- low, who was some distance behind, looked like me. Seeing me, as he thought, the arm-clutcher released the girl and disappeared around a corner. Young lady, listen! I love your character, and your virtue, and your high reputation; but, in the name of God, make these boys keep their hands to themselves! Say to them, "You must never lay your hand on my i^er- son." This is business, young ladies. AVell, she took his arm, and they walked off. She asked him, "What made the preacher say the last time— the last time?" The young man said, "I don't know." "Well, it darted through my soul like a dart from llie eternal Sermons and Sayings. 211 wcrlcl." AVhen she walked up on the steps at her home, she said: "That rings through my soul — the last time! I would give the world if the preacher had ot said it." She was taken sick. Her father called a physician ; but at one o'clock the next day she breathed her last, saying, " The last time! " God pity the young man who throws away his last chance for heaven! Your only safety is in an immediate turning away from sin. Thank God, there is a minute in every man's life — and with hundreds of men that minute is right now — when a man can surrender to God and quit his sin! It must be not only an immediate but a thorough turning away from sin. It is giving up all sin. I scattered mine along for about a week, until at last I said I would end the whole matter; and I walked to the back of the wagon and dumped out corn, sack, and all, and drove off for heaven and eter- nal life. One sin in a man's life, like a leak in a ship, will sink him before he reaches the other shore. It is the giving up of every sin, and forever. I am so glad the Lord said, "Down with all your sins!" I do n't know a sin of my past life that would not have ruined me if God had let me keej) it; but he said, " Throw them all overboard." In the last place, it is an eternal giving up of sin. An old man of sixty years said: "I wouldn't mind being religious for ten years, if that will take me to heaven." I said to him: "You may be in hell before Christmas, and here you are quibbling with God! " I am willing to live religious not only ten years, if that will take me to heaven; but I am in for the war. I will go through, God helping me, for this life. It is com- ing away from and giving up all that is wrong. It ia •' -'ii 212 Sekmoxr and Sayings. walking right up mid sticking to the good, and the true, and the nol^k . It is an eternal sfickabiUfj/, if I may use that word. I tell you, I could have had a hundred fights after joining the Church if I had not got religion. " Sam, I am so glad that you have joined the Church. I hoi)e you v/ill stick. I hope you will stick." They ran that thing on me until I would not meet a fellow. I will stick — stick to it to the end. I don't reckon there ever was a man who started to heaven with as little " stickabilitv " as I had. I am a li\ing demonstration that any man who wants to stick can stick. The Bible says, " Cleave to that which is good." We get that idea at the cabinet-maker's shop. Two blocks of wood are glued together. You cannot split them where they are glued. You may break off pieces, but they stick at the point where the glue is. The devil may come in with his chisel and mallet and chip off every thing, but I Avill stick well at the point where I am glued. If there is an inch or half an inch of me left, it will stick there until the world burns up. I hope you will stick! I hope every man of you will take his position in this meeting for God, and will stick until God says: "It is enough; come up higher." I will tell you the way to stick, if you want to know: You just take hold with a grip that means, "I am here to stay." Do not take your hands ofT to receive what the devil offers you. The devil is on both sides of you with all sorts of things to tempt you. It is always in turning aside to receive some- thing that the devil wants to give you that you lose your grip. We have it in a word: Quit it in an actual, business-like way. Walk off from it. In the next place, it is a hearty giving up~an im- Sermons and Sayings. 213 inj- mediate giving up, and now and forever. It is a thor- ough giving up. There is not a sin in life that I have not turned loose. I will turn them loose forever, and sit here till God comes. Now, a word as to the neces- sity, and I will quit. A man has got to f^ive up or do worse — one or the other. A man said to me once: " Why, sir, if I give up now, I will lose every thing I have." I will tell you: this thing was illustrated once by a man who came to service and was power- fully convicted. His wife tried to get him up to tlie altar, but she could not. When they got home she asked him, "Why did you not go up?" "I wanted to go there, wife, but I can't get religion in the business I am in." He was a bar-keeper. "It is giving up too much; I can't afford it." "Husband," said she, "how much money do you clear a year with your bar?" "Two thousand dollars." "How long do you think you will live to run that bar? " "I ought to live about twenty years." "How much is two thousand dollars a year for twenty years? " "Forty thousand dollars," said he. "Now, if a man Mere to walk in the door right now and say, 'I will give you forty thousand dollars for your hope of going to heaven,' what would you say to him? " "Ao/ By the grace of God, I will close in the morning. I will give myself to God right now." I know what it is to be converted lielow the level, in the mud. The devil had bankrupted me un- til I was ruined for all worlds. I not only had no mon- ey to give up, but T had no money witli which to pay my debts. I started out on that line. I went imnKvii- ately to preaching. I went down to tlie North (xeor- gia Conference, and my gnmt thought was, " Will the Bishop take me in? " I was glad v»lien they read oul h: 214 Sermons and Sayings. my name. The Bisliop said to me: "Jones, do you know how much that circuit paid hist year? It paid only sixty-five dolhirs." I never thought about tlie pay. I jhst thought in my heart of God, and I only wanted a place to go to work. I worked around tli(^r(,' awhile. I rented a house, and gave my note for one. hundred and twenty dollars. 1 preached a few rounds, and an old steward said: "I like you, Jones. You are a clevei youjig man; but you will starve here." 1 said, *'If I can't do any better, I will board with the scholars this year." I worked the best I could until the first of April, when things got very squally and very shaky, and every thing gave out all at once. Wife said that she had i)ut the last bite (m the tal)lo. I said: "AVife, I have done my level best. Let us tough it out; and if we stnrve to death, let us make out that we died of typhoid fever." That evening X was out cutting stove-wood. I do n't know why, for we had nothing to ccjok. In a little while up drove a wag- »»ii, and when it left I had more rations in my house than I ever had before or have had since. AVlien a l)oor fellow gav(3 himself to (iod and was thrown out of a job, a Christian man camef(U'ward, and said, "I will pay his rent for a year." God will help you in every way, if you will give yourself to him. No man has a darker past or a brighter twelve years to look back upon than I have. I am only sorry for the meanness I did before that. I am sorry that there are so many of you clever men holding back. Hundreds of these clever men have not been converted; but when you go to them they say, " To-morrow; next week." Let every man that is not a Christian start to-night for glory and for God. Won't vou? 11 t ci 1.1 1)4 si| si Sermons and Sayings. 215 A word about the means of this turning. The only means you need are already.supplied to you. Given the Spirit to move you, grace to sustain you, and you can start out with the consciousness that you can go through with this tide. A Georgia preacher re- lated this incident to me: "I was brought up near the beach of the ocean. We lived up on the hill-side in sight of the beach. One morning I saw a grand old ship that had been swept up on the beach by the storm in the night. After breakfast I went and looked all through and over that old ship. I have been on that ship often. I have sat and watched the high tide — the spring-tide- -gc in and surround the slnp and rise higher and higher. 'O do, poor old ship, go out to sea!' I have said; and I would look out again, and see that the tide had gone out and left the old ship high and dry. I have seen the tide flow out and come in and in until the old ship would quiver and tremble as if about to iloat away. 'Do goto sea,' said I to the old ship,' or you will crumble to j)ieces;' but the tide would go out and leave the ship still aground. Final- ly one morning, sure enough that old ship had crum- bled into ten thousand pieces, and was swept off for- ever." Your Avife has stood by and seen the high tide come in often, and the preacher said, "Old ship, go out to sea!" To-night it is up and around you, and you quiver and tremble under the pressure of the tide of love that sweeps around you. If you do not go out, you will be stranded forever on the beacli of eter- nal despair. God help us to turn loose, and go out with this tide and enter the haven of eternal rest! Will you consent to-night to give your heart to God and start" Now, I want every man under tliis teni 216 Sermons and Sayings. who has made up his mind to repent — I want you to start to-night. Let us gather by '^hese benches and say: "I want to repent; I do repent. I want to give} myself to God to-night." You that say " I never in- tend to repent" are not asked to stay to this after- service. Let us make friends with God and heaven. Tliauk God, you may, you can, yoa will! SAYINGS. It is not asking much of you to ask you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I believed on him for twenty-five years; but I did not believe on him as much Lz the devil did. He believed and trembled; I believed and went on drinking. Conscience! Thank God for every cultivated, en- lightened conscience on the face of the earth! But the saddest sight in this world is an outraged con- science that has been debauched by sin until it is dead, and seared as with a hot iron. There is many a fellow out with a whitewash-brush hard at work trying to clean himself up so that ho can come in respectably. He said all the time that h( was about as good as anybody in the Church; but when he got waked up he began to apply the white- wash. Fifty years ago men preached the book — they did not defend the book; they preached Christ — they did not defend Christ; they preached heaven and hell— the one topless, the other bottomless. Not the effeminate Christianity of the present driy — that God will not take the righteous to heaven nor send the wicked to hell. Sermons and Sayings. 217 When your little cup is full, you can just back out. That arm-clutch! I wish I had about live minutes ou that arm-clutch. It doesn't argue that a girl is not virtuous if you see her with a boy's arm clutched in hers; but what of the boy? One or the other jacks virtue — may be both. The girl may be virtuous, l)ut she has a very low-down, groveling sense of pro- priety. "He that thinketh ou these things hatii already become unclean in his heart." Young lady, listen! I love your character and your virtue, and want you to be as pure as the driven snow; but you must make these boys keep their hands to themselves. Hands oflf, gentlemen! SERMON XV. / Thought ox Mr K^ir.v. " I th()iif,fht on my wiiys, and turned my ft-t-t unto tliy tostinionicx. I made liaslo, and delayed nut to keep thy commandmentM. (IValiii exix. ryj, GO.) ' 'liflE invite your attention to tlie fifty-ninth and t f sixtietli verses of the one liundred and nin(s teenth Psalm: "I tlioiight on r.iy ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments." Tiio most interesting study in the world is the process by which the soul reaches God. Christianity may have its conditions, its terms of discipleship, but, bretli- ren, sometimes we bring the means of grace just on the outside of the bar. The grand old gospel shi}) you must bring her right into the harl)()r, and thr()\v out your gang-plaidv and let men walk aboard. That is it. The process by which the soul reaches God, the most interesting, and withal the most difficult t(> explain, because we go out of the temporal and into the spiritual. There are about three steps nobody can go with you. It is only about three steps. It is only about a moment that the soul seems to be alone. Neither wife, nor man, nor angel can go with you; and yet about three steps bring you into company with angels and God, a hapi)y man. David was one of the wisest teachers in spiritual things who ever lived, except Christ. David had studied himself until Ik^ knew himself; he had studied tliis world until he un- Sermons and Sayings. 010 Art A. ■ ' (lerstood it; he liad studied (xod. The preaclier who knows most of (lod niul humanity is tlie preacher who stands most successfully between Gud and man, and will niost successfully bring the two together. David liad a deep, thorough insight into human nature. Now he stands between (lod and man, and tells us how he reaches God. He says: "I thought on my wnys." There is no such thing as improvement in life without it is ])ased on intelligent, honest thought. A man who does not think is a man whom yon never know how to locate. He is with the current, and changes with it. A thoughtless man is in a sense a very innocent man. A man who thinks is a religious man of the liighest type, if he thinks rightly. A man wIkj thinks wrongly is a very dangerous charac- ter in any community. " I thought on my ways." There is something prac- tical about this. I thought about how I live. You know a man is nothing but a bundle of ways. You often hear it said, "I like So and So, but I don't like his ways." This is the most nonsensical expression you can use. That fellow is nothing but a bundle of ways. " I thought on my ways." I do n't say I thought on the world's ways, or on the ways of the Church, or on my children's ways, but on my ways. If you ever think practically and to your Ix^netit, you will think about your own ways. It is very easy to pick a tlaw in Brother A. and Brother B. in the Church and in the town. It is mighty easy to see the flaws and foibles of others; but you have an interesting study when you ])egin to look at yourself. You hear that' "I thought on my ways." "There is a way which 220 Sermons and Sayings. Reenieth right unto n man, but the end thereof are tlie ways of death." There never was a man who pra(!- ticc'd one sin and let all the others alone. Sin j^oes in schools like tish, and it is ast(mishing how tlu'sy multi- ply on your hands. A man commences by drinkinij, then he swears, and finally consorts witli company that disgraces him. He l^reaks out in a little pim[)lt; at first, and now he is broken out all over with the dis- ease. About eighteen hundred years ago there was u voice heard, which said, " I am the way." I will say another thing: There is a high way and a holy way, and the man who misses that way is in the ways of death. I go there to that railroad track; I look at the steel rails and at the ties. I never saw a railroad be- fore in my life. 1 do n't know what it is. I Avonder what this thing is for; I am going to try it. I go and get my wheelbarrow and roll it along about ten ste],).s, and it convinces me that this track was not made for a wheelbarrow. That won't do; I will try something else. I am going to find out what it is laid down lierfi for. I get a wagon, and I do n't drive five steps till 1 see this was not made for a wagon. I wonder what it was made for. I poke around till I strike the round- house where the locomotive-engines are. I look at these iron monsters, and I say, " I never saw any thing like these;" and I measure the fiange on the wheel, its proportion and distances. I say, "I believe I will take this out on that track; I believe it will fit it." I roll that engine out, and I say, "That engine was made for that track, and that track was made for the en- gine." The steam-gauge dances at one hundred and sixty pounds to the square inch. The engineer pulls the throttle, and now we are g Ix; on tho road to lieaven. Just s, everyl)(»dy would soon Id was in tho wr( as soon as he saw- lie ong road ho would take tho h'.wk track; lor the way to the right ro;id is to turn round and go the other way. Every step you go in the wrong di- rection just multiplies the stops that would take you haok in tho right direction. "1 thought on iny ways" as a profane swearer. 1 iiiu disgusted with it, and I will quit. "I thought on my ways" as a Sahbath-hreakor, and I Avill quit; 1 will go back. "I thought on my ways" as a gambler. Now, I am not mad at gamblers. There is not (me in this town with whom I would not divide my last crust, if he would come to-night and give me his liand, and say he would quit. There is not a noblor sot of men living than tlie gandjlers. Some people look on gam- blers as below their notice, and these same people will be found bucking at a bucket-shop. That gambler is a gentleman by the side of you, sir. I think the most decent way in the workl to gamble is with tho old greasy dock. Now that wo have come back to that, let mo sfiy a heap of Tennessee people are going to jiel] by betting on horse-racing. The highest idea many of you have of a horse is that ho is somethinf^ to be' I i 1 1 1 224 Sermons and Sayings. on. That sliows that the horse is of a higher breed of animals tlian you are. If one fellow owned you both, J would give a heap more for the horse than for you. I will say this much: I have the profoundest coii- temj)! for a fellow who can't see a horse but that lie Maiits to run his hand in his pocket and bet somo- thing on it. It would take two or three hundred bot- tles of disinfectants to deodorize a horse-race so that decent peopie coald enjoy it. The devil has taken al)out the best things we have in this world and ruined them. A fiddle is the grandest thing I have ever listened to in my life; but the devil has a mortgage on it. I am willing to go into a war of conquest until we get that back. I never hear one that it does not make mo feel like ^ift'nifi sand. Let us get these things out of the hands of the devil. "I thought on my ways." AVhatever there was wrong in my life, I studied it out, saw that it was wrong. " I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy cominandmentfj." How long ought a man to think on the subject? As soon as you see that swearing, drinking, gambling, and betting are wrong, you have thought enough. It is time to emigrate, to get away from there. As soon as you see that you liiive drifted off into an unhealthful latitude, all you iK.ed is to go up to a higher plane. I turned my feet unto the testimonies of God; I came on the higher way, the right way, and walked there, and rejoict^ in the fact that there was a way that led to a bet- ter and a higher life. That is it. O me! I have mired down ten thousand times, and my friends have pulled me out. How many roads have I mired down in since Sermons and Sayings. 225 1 got back on the way^ that GoJ made for my soal, iiud made my soul for it! Tliere is no such thing as mired down without a check up and a switch off of tliis way. Whenever you mire down, you are off tlie track. "I thought on my ways" enough to see that they were not right; then I turned my feet to the tes- timonies of God. Let me tell you about this book. A man never got into trouble by following this book. As I said out here in the penitentiary of your State while talking to the convicts, "Every one of you con- victs made the mistake of not following this book." Every man who rejoices in freedom to-night rejoices in the doctrines and teachings of this blessed book. 1 care not what State or government it is, no legisla- ture has ever passed a good law that is contrary to tlie tc^achings of the wor-' of God. xVgainst the teachings t)t' the word of God there is no law. There is nothina in the Bible to put a fellow in jail, if he will follow it. This is the high way and the holy way. It will lead me successfully through life, and lead me to God in the end. David said: "I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments." I love t ) see a fellow in a hurry sometimes. There is one thing I have against the Church in this century, and that is, the devil can run a mile while we are pulling on our boots. We are too slow : we go into our church- es and start up, "Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound!" and by 'the time we get started tlie devil is !!t the next station. We want more "git up and git." 1 have known preachers who seemed only fit to marry the living and bury the dead. There are some preach- t rs wlio never get riglit up on a sinner till he is dy- 220 Sekmons and Sayings. lug. They cfitch liim then, though. AVe want preach- ers who have "git up and git" about them. If a sinner outruns me, it is because lie got up first. If he will give me an even start, I will run him a gcKvl race. If there is any thing in that old proverl), "A lean dog for a long race," I will give him a long race! *'I made haste." The trouble with us is, we are giv- ing too much time to considering, and noi; enough to preaching. " We spend our years as a tale that is told. They are like grass whicli groweth up. In the morning it fiourisheth and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth." All depends on my making that train. Fifteen minutes more and it will move out. Thou I am left, and all is undone. Get out of my way ! do n't stop me to give me money, or to shake hands with me. Death won't wait for any of us. An eminent man in London was dying. All the time he had to prepar«- for eternity he had spent in accumulating money. H(^ amassed hundreds of thousands of pounds, and at last he was taken suddenly ill. He sent for his phy- sician. When he had examined him, ho said: "You have meningitis; you will be dead in two hours." Ho looked into the doctor's face and said: "Doctor, if you will keep me alive till twelve o'clock to-morrt)w, I will allow you one hundred thousand pounds." Tiu^ doctor replied: "I have assistance to give, but I havi; no time to sell. Time belongs to God." Sure enougli, in two hours the poor fellow went into eternity unpre- pared. The experience is just ahead wlien you would give all in the world for one hour more under this gospel tent. God wants you to l)e on the high way. He says your time is short. Nine-tenths of the days of some of you are behind you. Ninety-nine huu Sermons and Sayings. 227 (Irodtlis of the days of some of you are behind you 11' iw, and He says to-night, *' Make haste ; " but you pit here under this tent and wait, and say, "To-nv,i-- row night." No; to-night! to-night! "I am going to 1 1' 'religious after awhile." But now, as the oppor- tunity offers, when the grand old ship throws out her gang-plank, let us rush in upon her. She will only stand there a minute or two. She moves out of the liarbor presently, and will leave you stranded forever! Will you permit that? My forty minutes are out, f see, and I will say only a word or two more by way of exhortation. "I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments." AMiat do the commandments of God teach you and nie? Listen: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord." "God commandeth all men every- wiiere to repent." What is repentance? It is quit- ting my devilment. The best repentance you can do is to quit your meanness. If my boy does any devil- ment, the best repentance he can do is to quit. My hoy has gone away and got drunk. What sort of re- pentance do I want? I want quitting repentance. You need not blul)ber around me, and get drunk again to-morrow. You need not say a word, Fon, Just say you will quit. That is my sort of repentance. That is what V e call evangelical repentance. You will have to explain legal repentance. This evangelical repent- ance — that is the sort these sinners want. They do n't want legal repentance. They are like the Irishman who said about justice: "Faith, that is just what I don't want." Evangelical repentance is quitting. I am done. I wini't do it any more. That is the best 228 Sermons and Sayings. proof in the world that a fellow is sorry for his mean, ness — that he quits. "Goil coinmaiideth all mf!n." The first commandment of God to man is this: "Crod commandeth all men everywhere to repent." llepent, therefore, sinner, to-night. Be converted. I am go. ing to throw all my sins down in one bundle, and walk off from them. It is faith; it is that condition of re- ceptivity which admits the Lord; it is opening tlio door and letting God in.. Faith is not an act; it is ii condition as it touches your case; it is taking what God promises to give you. I think tliat is the best tiling' you can do. Brother Holcombe, in Louisville, gets all those little boot-blacks and wharf-rats — gathers tlieia all into his Sunday-school. He got them all up oiio Sunday, and wanted to explain faith to thorn. He made Will and Henry and Tom and John — little fol- lows about six or seven years old — stand up. "Now," said he, "I will explain faith to you." He took a piece of money out of his pocket, and said, "John, you may have that." John just stood there and grinned. " Henry, you may have this piece of money." Henry stood there and never moved a muscle, but grinned. " Willie, you may have that." AVillie grinned like the others, and made no attempt to take it. " Tom, you may have that." Tom grabbed it, and thrust it down in his pocket. The other three boys cried be- cause they didn't get it. AVill you do that to-night? You will go away rejoicing in the possession of it. ** [ stretched out my hands," God says, " loaded with blessings." Yes, Lord, I will take it. What does lie offer? Pardon and everlasting life. I will take it to- night. Now, a word illustrative of what God's giaco can do, not only for one soul, but for a w^liole fain- Sermons and Sayings. 229 ily. n some men \vli(y are here will get religion, their wliole families will come in. We need that sort. I never think of heaven except in connection with the i)recious fact that wife and mother and all the children will be there. A presiding elder in our State tnld me that he was holding a quarterly-meeting and liiul love-feast Sunday morning. One preacher got lip and told how he was nursed in the lap of religion, cradled in piety, and reared in the love of God I3y and by, a young man who had just been licensed to preach got up and said' "I am sorry I have not the experiences of those who have spoken. I will tell you what Christianity did for me. My father was an infidel, my mother an atheist, and nine brothers and sisters were infidels and atheists. Two years ?.go I went down to a camp-meeting; I happened to go by myself, merely to have fun. I was standing up against a i)o.st, when all at once the preacher's words bogan to l)urn their way into my heart, and I found myself transfixed to that post. When the man of God quit preaching he invited penitents to come forward, and tlio first thing I knew I was on my knees, bagging far morcy. They encouraged me and helped me. When they dismissed the services, and all were going to the t(Mit, they said, ' We will sing and i)ray with you out there.' When I looked up I said, 'I did n't know till an hour ago that there was a God in heaven and a foarful ruin for sinners in the world to come. I will never leave this spot until I make my peace with God, nnd make him promise me forgiveness, and walk out a child of God and an heir of eternal life. Tlie sun- light was i)ouring into my face when I waked up. I turned my eyes inward, and the fact Hashed on mo' 230 Sekmons and Sayings. 'Your father will despise yon, your mother will lanph at you, and your brothers and sisters will drive y»u from home.' * I am going to stick to God and religion,' I said, *if all the earth forsakes me; 1 am going to stand firm.' Just before I got home I went into tlic woods at the road-side and knelt down and prayed God to help me. 'I know I am going into a den of wolves. Lord, help me to be faithful. I got on my horse, rode to the house, put up my horse, went in to supper, and nobody spoke a word to me. I was lui})- py, but si)oke not a word. About a week after that ray oldest brother and myself were sitting out on a h)g talking— we had been splitting rails; we wore tired, and we sat down to rest. I said to him: ' Brother Tom, do you know I got religion down at that canii)- meeting?' I looked at him, and the great big tears were running down his face. He said: "We have all noticed a change in you. Mother says you look ami talk just like an angel. You don't swear, and you don't drink, nor do any thing wrong. Do you reckon that preacher will do the same for me?' 'I will go with you to the meeting, and God will bless you.' My brother Tom got gloriously converted. I said to Tom: ' Brother, we are going to put the candles on the can- dlestick now, and light up that old infidel home of ours. Let us be faithful.' After supper we were sit- ting talkiTig, and just about bed-time I said: 'Mother, do you care if brother Tom and I read a chapter and pray here to-night?' I watched my mother's li}) quiver as she said: 'No, Henry; you look like an angel, and your brother comes here and looks ja^t like an angel too. You can do just what you want to do here.' My mother was sobbing, and tliere was sis- Seumons and Sayings. 231 Lome or tor <'i'ying over tli^re, nTnl before Tom got oif of his kiii^t's (rod Imd converted my brother, sister, and iiiotlier. We just prayed on until erery member of our family was converted; and there is my old father, tlio last one to come in, now a child of God— all chil- (Iroii of God, and on their way to heaven." God give us religion that catches all over the house, and starts us on our way to God! Brethren, let us go to God to- night, and not stop until all our families are saved. SAYINGS. I USED to dance; but when I wanted a wife, I went to the prayer-meeting; and I beat your sort, too. AVhile we are singing "Hark! from the tombs a (loloful sound!" the devil is at the next station. We ouglit to "git up and git." . One thing I have against the Church in this day: Wo are too slow. The devil can run a mile while we are pulling on our boots. As I look you in the face to-night, I tell you that if you will say "I am done, I will quit," and mean it with all your heart, God will put his hand on you and save you. I AM requested to "Please say something about l)0()|)le pretending to be Christians and are not" AVt41, that is out of my line. (That one thing had been the burden of his preaching for twenty days.) Some preachers never run up on a sinner until he ii^ on his death-bed. About all they are fit for is to marry the living and bury the dead. They sometimes catch up with the poor sinner just before the last breath leaves him. Poor fellows! 232 Sermons and Sayings. I SOMETIMES go to a placo and find the preaelier in the shafts pulling the whole load, with his tongue lolling out, and the whole church up in the wagon, some dancing, some drinking, some ganiblinj,', some swearing, some going to the theater, some fussing, Bome praying, some weeping, some shouting, some tattling, some scolding, and all at times taking h whack at the poor little half -dead preacher, pulling for dear life. Sometimes they take him out and i'ocd him on rye-straw and corn-shucks. That is a sorry sight! I never want to leave that -place until tho whole thing is reversed — the church in the shafts and the preacher on the box holding the ribbons am] cracking his whip. Now you are getting down to business. I like that. SERMON XVI., Tm: !)()(' Th'iXH Dkmosstrathi). ■'Hiiny man will do his will, he shall know of the dortriiie. Hli;>lli('r it lie of ( Jod, or whether I si)eak of myself." (.John vii. 17.) If llECEIVED fi telegraiL' from Fort Worth, Texas, 'j[ signed by all the pastors of that city, aiiiiouiiciiiy a great Avork of grace. More than live hiuulrt'd souls have been b^rn to God. They rejoice with yon, ;i!i(l ask an interest in your [)rayers, and they are j)ray- iiig for you. This is certainly a year of groat grac(i. I believe that more people will be born to (lod in 1885 than in any other year of this world's history. This is the year of grace and the year of jubilee. We invite your attention to-night, i)rayerfully, to the seventeenth verso of the seventh clnipter of the (rospel by St. John: "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or vdiether I speak of myself." At the time Jesus ut- tered these words — for they are his words— he was surrounded by the sharp, calculating Pharisee, the keen, shrewd Sadducee, and the cunning, wide-awake lawyers, who were probing, dissecting, and weighing every utterance of his lips. They not only weighed his words, but they looked at his perstm. Two men iiiay see very different things when they are looking ill the same direction. There are twenty men t-tand- ing all around Christ. He turns to nineteen of them iiiul says to them: "Whom say ye that I amV" The ulneteen men speak up and say: "Thou art the son of 234 Seumons and Sayings. a harlot, and an impostor." He turns to Siuion Petor: " Whom say you that I am?" I wisJi I could ])"j,ve seen Simon Peter when liis eye Hashed with light as he said: "Tliou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." He had gotten into the secret. We say (Jlirist threw the gauntlet down hero at every mans feet, and delied the logic of earth and hell to the test. And this is the last test and the only test: "If any man will do the will of God, he shall know of the d\)c- trine" for himself. Now look here, I am glad that Ghristianity is a science that may be tested just as any otlier science is tested. I thank God that it wiii stiind the test just as any other science. The only difference there is between the science of Christianity and any other science is, that I learn all the others with my head, and this science of Christ crucitjej I learn with my heart. We take the science of matlic- matics; and, brethren, right here let me suggest that while we all may differ as to the rules by which we reach the answer, yet the answer is one and the same The rules are various by which we work out any jjioh- lem in mathematics, but about all I want a man to ad- mit is that twice two are four. Let me chain liiiii there and he will do, if he will only stick to the fact that twice two are four. Then every thing in math- ematics must be worked out by that rule; but if lu; says twice two are four and a half, I won't Avastu my time with him. If a man will admit that Jesus died to save sinners, I will chain him there and let liim graze all around tliat peg. I don't care what he believes; I don't care whether he believes in s])riiik- Jing or immersion; I don't care whether he belie\(^s in final perseverance or not — whether in total or par- Seumonh and Savings. • 23: tial depravity. Let us chain this old world to tiiat stiikc, that Jesus died to save siiiners, and 1 don't lait-' Avliat you do. Every evangelical Church in this wiirld is chained to tliat btfike. I used to think a man c'(»uUl not get religion unhiss he believed every thing ill the Bible. I made a mistake there. There is a ^['i'id deal in this world written and said on hetero- doxy and orthodoxy. I thank God it is not written in Clod's book that everybody who believes every word in the Bible shall bo saved. A fellow once went to a preacher down in Georgia and said: "I don't believe tlu^ Old Testament is inspired, but I believe that the New Testament is inspired. Can I get religion with- out the Old Testament?" "Yes." "Show me the l)l;u'0." "Any man who builds on this foundation," etc., "he shall be saved." "Turn me a leaf down tliore." He took the Bible, went home, got on his knees, prayed and repented, and God forgave him. Tlu^n he said: "I believe the Old Testament too, now. 1 just believe it all." I like that. A fellow says 1 don't believe so and so. I do n't care if you don't. (iod doesn't care any more what you have in your head than he cares what kind of boots you have on your feet. No wonder you don't believe some things. If you will just walk right up and surrender your luN'irt to God, and give yourself to God, he will comb the kinks out of your head mighty fast. I am filled uith contempt to hear one of these little cymling- lieaded infidels say, "I never can be saved, because I can't believe so and so." I am sorry for him. He lias shut himself out of the j)alo of God's mercy be- tause his little cymling-head has got something in it that is not right. God says, " Give me thine heart" 2'Mj Seiimuns and SAVINOa. If you will givo your lipurt to (lod, Jic will K^ok after t!i() rest. Down at J limtsvillo, Ala., one of the loidiii^' citizens took nie out to one wide uiul siiid: "J -nt to be Ji Cliristiun, J. want to love Cfod and do rij, Dut 1 ean't believe in the divinity of Christ to save my iiri'."' "Shut your mouth!" 1 said; "don't come to me with talk like that. Do just as Christ told you to do, and if you don't make th(i landing I will swim out to ymi and drown with you. You come to meeting to-ni^iit, and be the lirst one \i[) there when I call for sinnciri to come forward." "If I jijin the Church, Mr. Jtnios, I can't believe." "Sliut your mouth! I am prescrih- ing for you, and if you will take my remeily 1 will warrant the cure." He walked up and joii-cl the Church that night. I said: "Well, you ha^ iiud th*^ Church; you must take up fam'ly prsiyer, .. : if I call on you to pray in church you get down and do your level best. I will get you out if you keep your mouth shut." I led him out sure enough. That night he took uj) family prayer, and started right. 1 went back to Huntsvillo- afterward, and asked, "How is Brother Ford getting onV" "He is the best we have." "How is he on the divinity?" "O ho lias quit all that long ago." If you will give God yoiu' heart, he will take care of your head. I do n't know whether I am orthodox or not, but you all can attend to tlie orthodoxy after I am gone. It will do you good to see these preachers with mud on their horns in their pulpits next Sunday. They will show you wliut orthodoxy is, and will clean you up, too. I say, my bvetliren, if you want religion, go heart foremost to- ward God. That is it. "I want to be a good niau; 1 want to serve God; I want to shun hell." That is i| 'iil lit Sermons and Sayino>«. 231 your heart talking mnv. Just let your henrt move out toward God, and tlio more your Iiead ^ot.s rii^lit [ho more you will ^'et straight all over, and you will not oidy believe the New Imt the Old Testament too. Tlio Hcieiice of Christ erueitied is preeminently a lif'iu't science. It has to do with my heart and my lil'o. Any man who will do the will of (lod shall kiu)W of the doctrine. If you will work the ju-ob- loins out under the Divine Spirit, the results will be riij;lit. Two and two are four. That is a five-year- old Hchool-bov l)usiness. Here is a test of mathe- iii.itics: I go to the Alps, those grand old mountains dividing France and Switzerland. They want to tun- nel those mountains for a railroad to connect thes(? countries. How shall we met-t, working from both sides? Mathematics speaks ip, and says: "I will show you how you can meet eacii other in the heart of that mountain." There are millions at stake. Mill- ions will be lost if any mistake is made. The engi- neers bring their instruments to bear on that monnt- iiiu and tell the workmen where to go to work on this side and then on the other side. I do wonder if the science of mathematics is correct? Men of earth, t;nze on this scene! On the side of France the work- men one day heard the click of the i)icks of the other Workmen. They worked with a will, and at last the '^\i\\\ of partition fell down, and mathematics had struck it to the fraction of an inch. That is a living doiuonstration that mathematics is true. You can test religion as you test mathematics. It never misses ill a single case. Get me the knottiest case you can liud. Here is a man who was born blind. He never saw a wink. I lead him into the presence of Christ. 238 Sermons and Sayings. He says: "Master, that I may receive my siglit,' Never had a man been restored to sight tliat was })()rn blind. Jesus spat on the ground and made a remedy, rubbed it on his eyes, and tohl him to go and wash in the pool near by. Tiie scientist would say: ' There is some curative jjower in the dry dirt, but he has taken all the curative pro})erties out of it by moistening it.' The blind fellow says, "I will try him." He went to the pool, and stooped down and bathed his eyes in th(^ water; and he looked up and saw rocks and rivcis and mountains that his eyes never looked on before. The priests said: "Give God the glory, for this man has a devil." The man said: "One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see." That was a true, test. I would like to see it tried in one more instnncp. Bring a leper — ten bad cases of it. "Master, that wo may bo made whole." Jesus said: "Go and show yourselves to the priests." The let)er had to lift \\[) his hands and say, "Unclean!" if anybody approachot] him. The lepers said, "We are going to put it to tho test;" and off they went. The scales dro})ped from their bodies, and all of them rejoiced that their ih sh was as sound as an infant's. One rsturned to praiso tiie Lord for the healing of all the l?pers. If a man says to me, "I don't believe in Christian- ity," I have just one question to aek him: "Did you ever jmt it to the test? " "No." "lou are a fool, tiien; and I won't bother with you." As much as there is at stake in this question, he tells me, "I don't believe in it;" and yet he says, "I never tested it! " He is a liard case, sure enough. This passenger-train runs to Chattanooga in live hours and forty-five miniito.s "I don't believe it." "The way to test it is to rowe Sermons and Sayings. 239 lit;- (hIv, ill in re is ,iikt'u 240 Sermons and Sayings. heaven. It is the will of God that I repent; that I quit the wrong, and that I turn toward the right. That is it. Let me tell you how to get religion. This case illustrates it. A man who lived down in Middle Geor- gia a number of years ago — a very intelligent man, young and married — went to church one day. His wife didn't go with him. When he came home his wife said, "What sort of meeting had you to-day?"' "A jiretty good meeting. I joined the Church to- day." "Have you got religion?" "No." "What did you do that for, if you haven't got religion?" "The preacher said if I would do before I got relig- ion like I would do after I got religion, I would get religion," " Well," said she, " if that does n't head nu'I You joined the Church, and haven't got religion I' That night just before they retired, he said to his wife: " Wife, get down that old Bible; I am going to pray at home." "Are you going to pray when you have nt got religion? " " Yes; the i)reacher said, ' If you will do before you get religion what you would do after you get religion, you will get religion.' " In the morn- ing he said, "Get that Bible, wife; I am going to pray again." "What do you pray for without religion?' " The preacher said if I would do before I got religion what I would do after I got religion, I would get relig- ion." Wednesday night he went to prayer-meeting in the country, and they called on him to pray. He got down and did his best; and his wife said, when L;^ told her he had prayed at the meeting: "You ju'ay in public, sir, and got no religion! What did ycu F the best farmers in Central Georgia. I asked him if lie was a member of the Church. He said he was not. "I want you to join to-morrow; I am scarce of members over in this settlement." "I can't join the Church," he said; "I have said I would never join the ("hurch till I got religion." "AVould you know relig- ion if you should see it in the road'?" "Well, Mr. Jones, I swear and drink sometimes." "That is the reason I want you to join. You have sense and honor, and if you join you will quit all that." His wife came out regularly to meeting, read her Bible, was a charitable, good woman, but she said, "I will uever join the Chur^-h till I get religion." I had a hard time with this man, his wife, and children; l)ut tliey joined. I went back there on the fifth Sunday in July. On Saturday night my wife and cliildrou wore at his house. He and I walked through the Held to church. " How is old AVatts ? " " Old Watts i^ doing his whole duty. He could n't be religious if li<' didn't." He said: "I have been in the Church three months, and I haven't got any more religion 242 Sermons and Sayings. than that old horse that is pulling the women to church. I am tired of it." "I am going to call on you to pray to-night," I said; "you are getting along very well." "If you want me to pray, and call on me, I will do my best. I am going to teach a class in the Sunday-school t(w." He then suddemy ex- claimed: "Glory to God, I've got it now! I've got it now!" Now, there it is, my brethren; and whenovi r a man walks up before God, and says, "I have quit drinking and cursing, I have settled that account, I am ready to do any thing and every thing" — if yon will say that, you will get it. Any man who will do the will of God shall know of the doctrine. Said a good citizen of 'this town: "I want to do better and be better, but I ain't ready to commit niy- self." I do n't care how bad you want to go to Cliat- tanooga, tlie thing that keeps you from 'going is not getting on the train, and that one thing will keo]) yon from Chattanooga forever. And the very thing that keeps a man from committing himself to Clod is the thing that will keep liim out of heaven fit last. Brethren, let me tell you this: A man who stands here at this tent to-night and says: "This is tiio darkest night the world ever saw; but I want tn go to the Maxwell Plouse, and I can see only owe light or gas-jet burning. That light doesn't go all tlie way. I will get in the dark and fall, and inut myself. I can't go; I am afraid to go." I say: "(In along, brother; the light lasts all the way. Just about tlie time the light from this gas-jet gives out the o+'ier one sets in; but you can't see more than one jot at a time." It is daylight all the way to heaven. Jt is ten thousand times iiarder to get a mnn to take the Sermons and Sayings. 243 first step than to get him to take all succeeding steps. Any man who will do the will cf GqfX shall know of the doctrine. Quit doing wrong; go to doing right. Trust in Him who died to sfive and redeem sinners. Just run on till you get out of breath and fall down exliausted. O my brethren, if we could just realize tn-night that God is our Father! If one of my boys, at twenty- five years of age, were to wander off into evory sin in the world, what do you think I would want my boy to do? Just come home. You have boon away off yonder, and have done a thousand things wrong — jiist come back, and take my advice and obey mo. I wish we could banish all mystery from relig- ion to-night, and realize that God is the father and mother of every one of us, and welcomes us back, and each sinner would say, " I come back to-night." I wish we could say this. I want to say in conclusion: If you will come to God and do right, you will die happy and go home to heaven. There are many men here to-night who lack one step of coming into the kingdom. *' I con- secrate my life to Christ. I make him my Saviour, and will do his will from this time on and forever." Will you believe to-night? AVill you confess to- night? Lord Jesus, take us to-night into thine own arms, and show us how graciously thou canst forgive! I want every man in this tent to-night who feels like lio wants to take every essential stop that will bring him to God — who wants to take just the steps that will bring him to God — to rise up, find we will pray for him. All over and all around they stand! Don't be afraid or ashamed. You are away from God; •uul want to take the right steps tliat will bring 2il Sermons and Sayings. you to Liin. The thing that keeps you from stand- ing up is the thing that will keep you from heaven at last. SAYINGS. You may not like my grammar. I am trying to get my style and grammar clown to your level. God pity the doctor who will prescribe liquor for a man! I might prescribe it for a poor dying woman, but I wouldn't give it to man until he was dead. If you will do Ijefore you get religion what you know you would do after you got religion, you will bo sure to get it. It will break out all over you, from head to foot, like the measles. I don't know whether I am orthodox or not; but you preachers can attend to the orthodoxy after I am gone. You will see these j)reachers in their pul[)its next Sunday with mud on their horns. They Avill show you what orthodoxy is, and clean you up toc. I AM filled with contemjjt when I hear one of tln^so little c}'mling-heade,d infidels say, " I can't be saved, because I can't believe in. Christ." I am sorry for him. He has shut himself out of the pale of God's mercy because his little cymling-head has some kinks in it. God says, ''Give me thine heart." If you will sur- render your heart to God, he will soon comb the kinks out of your head. SERMON XVII. God's Calls and Man's Calamities. "Because I liave callcil, ami ye refused; I have stretched out tn^ liiind, and no man regarded; hut ye have set at naught all my coun- sel, and would none of my reproof : Talso will laugh at your oalamitj*; I will mock when your fear conieth." (Proverhs i. 24-'2G.) 7Tr*HEI{E are many requests here for prayer fcr '\y\j loved ones. God knows their names, and who * they are. Let us pray God to bless these loved (»ii(^s. 1 received a protest to the programme I sug- gested concerning the whisky in Nashville. I said I wished it all could be emptied into the Cumberland. Tills friend protests. She wants it emptied into the lake of fire and brimstone. She doesn't want the (Himberland contaminated with it. I always said I be- lieve whisky is a good tiling in its [)lace. I believe its place is in hell. If I were there, I would get drunk tvery day; but I will never do it on top of gnmnd. Brethren, let us bo prayerful to-night, and exi)ect gieat results. We generally get all we believe for. 'According to your faith, so be it unto 30U." Let us have j)resent faith, expecting present conviction, pres- ent conversion. Let us have faith that God will open the windows of heaven now. We have selected as the text: "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my liand> and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all my counsel, and would ucme of my reproof: I also will lauuh at vour calamitv; I will mock when vour feai 246 Seumons and Sayings. Cometh." I have read three verses of tlie first cliap- t(»r of Proverbs. There are a thousand expressions ill this book tliat convince mo beyond all question that the Lord God loves men, and is anxious and df- sirous that all men sliould be saved. Tlie calls oF God to man are as numerous as the stars of heaven. A man who will sit down and read this book carefully and prayerfully must come to one conclusion — tlnit God not only wills the salvation of all men, but ilnit he has i)rovided salvation for all men. He is s[)r('a(l- ing a knowledge of this fact among all the chihlicu of men. It is enough to bring me t;) my feet when 1 know who the author is, because it is the great (rod who made this world, who numbers the hairs of eviny head, who watches every step of our life, and aim- lyzes every motive of our being -he who shall forever judge us. He spenks out this way: "I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out 1113^ hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught all lay c )uusel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh." " You shall seek me, and shall not find nie.' " You shall die in your sins." Shall wo not be moved? That is the most awful utterance of the lips of Chri.st. And now for a few minutes to-night we have to do with this text. I declare that a man who can sit un- moved under such influence as God has brought to bear on this congregation for the last few weeks may consider himself invulnerable forever and ever. It is about time some of you were deciding some (lues- tions. I want to look you in the face to-night anil Bay, "God himself stands powerless in your preseneo until he can get you to decide some questions." L'n- Sermons and Sayings. 241 f til you conclude to be good, he is as po^verless to save you as I am. I speak it reverently. If you want to make a farmer out of your ])oy, and you can't get him to decide that he will be a farmer, you might buy all tlio land and mules iu Tennessee for him and not make him a farmer. Until you get his consent to go to farming, all you do for him will result in failure. Vou cannot make a lawyer out of your boy if he is lying about these groceries, and giving iiis time to young ladies. It is useless to buy books for him and ^'('t an office for him if he won't go into the office nor read the books. You can never make a lawyer out of him on that line. God cannot help a man to be a good man until he decides to be good. The omnipo- tent God stands powerless in your presence ur!;il you ilticide some things. He says: " Choose whom you will serve. If God, serve him; if Baal, serve him." I will t(41 you what an efl'ectual call is. It is that which gets you up on your feet, and gets you to moving. That is the only effectual call I know any thing about. I like a plain, old-fashioned gospel that says, "You are a sinner, and if you do n't repent you will be damned." You can't bring on the millennium with any other kind of gospel except that. Every call that (iodever made is effectual. It is God's business to eall, and it is yours to make it effectual. My fellow- L'itizens, I 'bring the truth home to your consciences to-night. If you are ever- good, you have got to de- cide to be so, and with your present liglits too. Go.l will never put any more [)ressure on the means of grace; he wall never biing any more to bear from heaven. You have to decide with ju'esent influence and grace, or leave it undecided, winch is to die for- 218 Seumons and Sayings. ever. I heard of nii old fellow who was unconvertoj. I met him during the meeting. I said to him: "You are gray-headed; you will be dead directly." Said lie: I have been listening for that Htill small voice for sixty years." "Have you heard it?" "No." "You will never hear it. Come up to our meeting, like ;i white man, or you will be damned before you know it." He came that night, fell down on his knees and prayed, and got religion. Methodism had done more for him in one hour than Hardshellism had done in Bixty years. You may announce an excursion-train to New Y'^ork City at fifty cents for the round trip, and that fellow who decides to go with a half-dollar in his pocket is the one who is effectually called. Every felloAv who gets aboard is effectually called sure enough, and you fellows who do not get fiboard are not; that is all, and that settles it. There are many ways by which lueu are called to a better life. Put that Bible in evoiy man's house, and if there were no other means of grace in the universe but th.'it book, every man who dies impenitent dies with light and knowledge forced upon him, and dies without excuse. Do you know how many times God calls a man to repentance and a better life in that book? If you were to read and ponde?' only one call a day, it would take you one year to get through that book. These calls mean, " Come up higher." That is the plain English of every call in this book. A call from the wrong, and a call to the right. This blessed book is full of calls to tlio children of men. If that were the only call we had, we all ought to be good. But God sends his Divino Spirit into this Avorld, and this Divine Sinrit poiseji SfiUMOKi^ AND SlYINGfl. 240 liinisolf over tlio paj^os of thin book, ninl l>atli;'rt ovory iitterauco, of the l)ook in ft sea of liglit, ami shows you that thoso are (lod'H wonlrf. His power and j^raee and great loving heart are in every one of these words, and he calls to ns by his Spirit. Every desire to go iiigher, every impulse to rise to a better lif(\ every in- ihienee that leads from the wi'ong and toward th(^ right, is put in motion l)v the Third Person of the Trinitv, and is under his direct inlluence. IJy his Si)irit ho calls us to a bettfU' life. He calls, and calls, and calls. His Divine Spiiit l)roods over this world (hiy and night — Sundfiy, Mcniday, anel Thursday; in January and in August; all the time (rod's Si)irit is calling for all men to come to a higlier and better lif(\ You liave heard those calls, (lod not only calls us by that l>iH)k and by his Divine S[)irit, but he calls us by his ministry. Tlu'so consecrated men, who are up H])eak- ing, and crying aloud, and sparing not, are calling nu>n to a better life. There have been enough sermons preached in Nashville to save every n)an, woman, and child in this town a thousand time:; over. Every gos- l)el sermon is a call to a better life. Y»ni never lieaj'd a s<>rnn)n preached by a white man or a bhick man that didn't liave enough truth in it to save your soul. AVe liave st)me very hypercritical persons in thia c nintry -born critics. One of these fellows said of me: '' Listen! he uses two negatives in the same sentence." (lod deliver me from these spelling-book critics; these little fellows!'^' I won't mind being swallowed by a *Tlii.s is ;i iittim; place for the statement that Mr. .fones's (iisre- gunl (f grammatical rules in liis pulpit deliverauces is always ol>- vlously stu-.sl„„l„tts ns, „„,1 wo .l„„-t k„,„v- a„y tl,i„,. a «m It A „,a,, will r.,„ „„t t„ eatcl, the trai,, to Imtomooga. U |,c,. ],„ goes t,. the ollice to l.nv his '<'l;<'t, J,.st as the tmiu is »tarti„g, he says: '• [ wtv., eo„,e dow,. l.e,e, and it is esse„tial that I go; M,t I have left ,ny p„eket-l,ook at l.o.uo." He goes h-M-k homo a.i„I says to his «i£.: "I |,ave „'t got s,„so '■""<;gh to be a l,„si„ess man at all." He walks down ' , ", f,'"'f'. ""'' ''""■"" """ "' '"" '""'"ten "««•■ ten " eloek that t,-a,„ fell Ihrongh »„ „,„.„ t.M.ss, and kill,.! lorty passengers; and he says, "Tliank (tod, I left ,„y pocket hook! • God's providenee shiel.ls „s that way vory often, when wo know nothing a!„,„t it. No poor .h-,.„ka,vl ever died in Nashville who was not a call to every other man in Nashville. No poor ga,„l,ler was "ver rnined whose corpse did not look back on all ..the, ganiblers as a warning and a call to a better lite. jNo fashionable woman ever died in this fash i-mable city, enan,ored of fashion an.l the world whose pa e face as she lay i„ her colKn, did not say! Oon t do as I did." No old sinner over died Ih.nt the very „tmos,,hero of the tomb did not speak oat to every other sinner, "Do n't die as 1 have died " J3reth,e„, we have it on soriptnral authority that f n the spirits down in the lost worl.l are nnx- 1 ^ tliat no one of „s shall go there. When Dives v9 tor a ,Irop of water, .shut up in infinite despair 1 «ttys: "If there is no help for ,ne, send Lazar,,.' 252 Sermons and Sayings. back, that iiiy brothers itiay not come here also." Tlio very lost spirits nre beckoning back, and saying, ''Do not come here!" When God came into your house, and took thnt babe of yours and carried it to lieaveu, he haid, while looking down on the grave, "It cant come back to you, but you can go to it." "Yes, go to this lovely child." "What does God take our chil- dren for?" asked a lady of me to-dny. God can m.ui- age you better with your chiklren in heaven than lu; could manage you if they were on earth with you. Sometimes the cords that bind us are cut, or nearly snapped, then God binds you with another ligament that you can't break. Every case of sickness and affliction is another means to bring you to a better life. When God came to my home it was the darkest hour llirougli whicli my home ever passed. My wife was on a visit to my sister in Alabama. I received a telegram which said, "Come; little Paul is very ill."' I Avas looking for wife home that very day. I lia 1 just gotten toys for the sweet children. I answered the summons, and as I slept a little on the train I would wake up now and then feeling that in a ftnv hours I should see the sweet child better. When I walked up tiie way to the house of my sister, wife fell into my arms helpless in her great grief. I went into tlie house, and there was little Paul's waxen fig- uie smooth and wliite, as if chiseled out of marble. As 1 looked on that face, O how sad it was to me! but I am a T)etter father and a better husl)and because I have a babe in heaven. Bickerstetli says a babe in Iieaven is n babe forever. God took my father, and thfit broke my lieart. I had a broken and contrite lieart. Sermons and Sayings. 253 Look at tlie i)rovi(lencB of this tent. You ^vill tell me God didn't put up this tent. If he ever had a hand in any thing in the universe, he put up tliis tent. 1 believe he put it up through you. God's arms are spread out toward us to-niglit. , God means tliat heaven and everlasting life will be yours if you want It. I3o you believe it? AYhy, sir, God is in this movement. God has saved thousands throuHi this movement. I thorouglily believe it. ^s^oyy, mIh you ho saved ? or will you walk out from under this coL- orated place and go down to liell at last? This tent is a providence calling men to a l)otter life. Many are bearing and heeding this call, thank God, and thev are going to be saved by this cnll. Help us, O God to rush into thy arms and be saved! ^^nv we want to say, These calls! How God call« y.'U to a better life! Are you a merchant? Do you S.11 goods by the yard? Every time you measu4 a pioce of cloth for a customer God measures T,iT with his measuring-stick against you, or for you, in the eternal world. Are you a book-keeper? AVhenever you MTite a line on that book God says, "I am keej)in- iHH.ks against you." Are you a lawyer? Have you an auvooQte up there, even Jesus Christ the righteous ^ Are you a school-teacher? Jesus says: -Come and loarn of me. I will teach you things that Socrates mn-er dreamed of, and Plato never thought of " Are you a groceryman? Every time you throw any thing into Uie scales, God says: "Mene, Mene,Tekel, Llpliai^ Bin. God says of every tree that gladdens your eye wiin Its verdant beauty, -I have been sowing the Bred of love in your heart." Are you a blacksmitli^ (rod says: "I have been pounding on your heart fo, 254 Sermons and Sayings. forty years, and your heart has been as nnyielding to the power of truth as your anvil to the blows of your hammer. Every season God says to you: "This is spring; then i^ujnmer, and then autumn. Tlie har- vest is past, the summer is ended, and you are iint saved." In ten thousand ways God talks to mer let that l.,; d " he la-ew la,„ off forever. "O Jerusalem, how oftout: J^ ] W gathered thy children together, as „ hen do "I Ik "i T"', '"""■ '"■• ""'e«. ana ye .onld not! " 1 also wUl laugh at your calamity; I will ,„„ck when your fear co„,.th." Lord, save us from such a feartu cur.se as hat! Ifow, do as you please. I „„, exhauste I have done my best. I am going to ask every n,an here to-mght who doesn't want to die in his sins, l,„t wants to be saved, to stand up an.l say: "I wa„t to bo ^aved; God knows it, God knows it." Will you stan.l up and say "P.-ay for me?" .Stand up, any of yo„ Let us all stand up. Now, friends back there, if you want to be saved hold up your hands. SAYINGS. The test of the fisherman is the length of his string Custom is the law of fools, and is ruining this country. It is no use for a man to get religion if lie does n't quit lying. Find a man who is first-class at some one thin- and he is pretty good at everv thino- °' If any of you don't like the way these services are going, there are three doors; you can just rack out. I HATE known women too poor to own a pair of slioes, but I never knew one too poor to own a looking. ghiss. SERMON XVIII. C HA liAC TE li BUILDI N G . (A SeriTion to tlio Logi«li\tnrt'.) "A'kl to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowlcdifc; and to kuowl- edge, teiiiperauce; and to ton)[)erant'C, j)atiencc; and to patioucc", . 1 just told him to coino and walk about with iiio awhile and let 'h Ir.ok into the matter, and ho woulil n't }^o. Hence llie retail dealers are the gentle- men, and tlu! l(\i,'islators who sit here and h^galize it Hre the blackguards and vagabonds. But (4od will put the bar-ket'per and the legislator in hell together. Whisky is whisky, and i£ a thousand gallons are wrong, a droj) is wrong; and it won't bo ten years henco when the State of (ieorgia will be a lu'ohibition State. I may not be preaching about the things that intei'est you all, but you chose the preacher, and I have the right to choose the subject. No, my friends, this is a IE maji who doubts is like an engine without ste;mi or wheels; the maii who believes is like an engine with both. The dovii is just about satisfied Avith a Christian who will do things in New York that he would not do at home. AVtiile in Nashville I lot down my bucket so deep that it stirred the mud. It was my bucket, b'jt Nash- ville's mud. I have known preachers who looked as sad and sol- emn as ii their Fatiier in heaven was dead, and had n"t left them a cent. A TiiAiN that makes no noise, raises no dust, kiUs no stock, and disturbs nobody, will never draw any freigJit, or carry any passengers, or go anywhere. The matter of Church doctrine is an accident. If my mother and Brother Witherspoon's had swa})pecl babies, he would have been a Methodist preacher. IHIS lur- [ am team with istiau lot (\o -> deep ul t^('i- lli;\d ii"t it, kilU iNV any re. ut. H -api^'^^ Ler. SERMON XIX. For Him on Against Ujm -The Best Wine at the Last. "But iiioii liast kept llie sjood wine until now," (Jolin ii. 10.) "Ill' (hat is not wiih me is a,i!:junst nic; and he that gathereth not with r.ie seattcreth abroad." (Matt. xii. oO.) \ p' you will look in the second chapter and tenth verse of the Gospel by St. John, you will find these words: "But thou hast kept the good wine until ii()»v." I would have a better text if I wore to select this one: "The wages of sin is deatli, but the j^ift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." But I take the first because it is illustrative of some- thing I would show you to-night. I feel to-night, my l)rotlirGn, that I must preach to you just as if I had sat down on a log out in the w^oods to talk to one man. Lot us reason together about the momentous ques- tion that brings this great congregation together night after niglit and day after day. There are two (lut'stions whicli inevitably come up between the em- ployer and the employe, between the servant and his master, between the hireling and the man who em- ploys him. There can bo no such thing as a contract Inr labor without the asking and the answering of those two questions. If you seek to employ a man for a day, for an hour, for a year, the first question will be, ''AVhat kind of woi-k do you want me to do?" and the uoxt question inevitably, and just as legitimately, will bo, " What will you pay me for it ? " Now, we say these 2G8 Sermons and Sayings. qiiostions lio at the very basis of all contracts Cor la- bor — "What kind o£ work?" and "What will you pay me for it?" We boast of the fact that we live in thti freest government the world ever saw — a government which guarantees to every man his life, his liberty, and his property. But there is a very important sense in which wo are all laborers, and have our masters — an important sense in which pay-day is coming. The lir.-t thing necessary is to ask, "Whose servant am IV The Lord Jesus Christ said: "To whom ye yield your- selves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of o])edieiire unto righteousness." He said again on this point: " No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the oiio, and despise the other." It would be a good thing for you club memljers of the Church to listen along hen'. I never could understand how a man could be a loyal Union soldier, lighting in the rankoof the Union Army, when he has a powder-factory down here in the Con- federacy, manufacturing powder for the rebels. Y( u will get mo into mysteries, may be. I do n't like tliat. "Are you never going to let up on that club?" 2S'o, God bless you; 1 am like the old preacher who preached on repentance once; next time he preacliod on r(>j)ent'tnce, and again on repentance. One of tlie old stewards took him out and asked him: "Is that tlio only sermon you have? you have preached that the tldrd time." The preacher asked him, "Have all the peoi^le repented?" "No; but they want sometliiiig besides ])ie to eat." "I cannot find any better text iiS long as they are not all converted." Thank God, one memlxa' of the club is moving! He said: "I will ^dve Sedmons and Sayings. 2fiO one ftonsana .lollars U^ZTp^ying for tl.at building for thelouLg Men's Cl,risti«„ Association, and dis^ solve the club. He is getting better T 1- , mnrt. ,>f f-i,„ 1 " "eitei. J. know sonift nore of them who are packing np to emigrate. c;„d I'le^s you, ■ g,tr' If I s,,™ui do nothing else lee .the c ubs, I will have .lone a great work iu Nash- ..t »o,k «ztli sinners in tliis meeting. M'here is he 5 >o man can serve t«-o masters; for eitlier he will hate t .e one and love the other; or else he will hold to e ■ue, and < espise the other." Now, I speak it o. ^ I a 1: I have uo objection to any man joining tl e •1. b If he IS not a member of any Christian Clmrch W .t IS my brethren in ChrLst Jesus that 1 am aite .' I hat IS my doctrine. I have not sai"' , Go on shelling tliem, an.l I think I can get out " I am ju.st saying this for his benefit, and he is gettin'.. ■And If we can pull one out every service, we ar^ gi-tting along swimmingly. Hear hear: ".\o man can sei-ve two masters; for ^'tlier he will hate the one, an,l lov the otlie,:- or Wse he will hol,l to the one, and despise the other" ihat IS It. He drew the line a little closer than that M, he that gathereth not witli me s.-attereth abroad." l..t me tell you, there is no mi.hlle grouial here. Ev. 270 Sermons and Sayings. cry man, woman, and child is either squari^ly out on Gotl'ri side, or he is on the ether side. I Avish wo, could get Christian peojjle to see that, St. Paul said, "I liave fought a good light." He Inid come over on the right side. I want a fellow clenr over from tin' dead-line, so tiiat when he falls he will fall riulit. Every day God wliispers in my ears: "If you fight, 1 will help you; and if you conquer, I Avill crown yon." You have lots of men in Nashville who are neither good nor bad. You ask them if they are bad. "Xo, sir." Good? "No, sir." They are goody-gt)ody fel- lows; they are not worth ten cents a dozen in any market in heaven, earth, or hell — neither cm the Lord's side nor the devil's side. They are like those prolii- bitionists we have down in Georgia. I have been amo]ig them up io my chin. I have struck fellows square out in favor of prohibition, and others stpiare out against it; l)ut these fellows have friends on l)(»th sides. They are the fellows I told you about wIumi I was here before. They have a little cotton string, wit!i a rib or two tied to it, and call that a backbone. No, sir; when I was on the devil's side, I was on his sidi; all over; and nov/ when I tell my God that I am on his side, and on the side of his Church, with my name put down, then I say to you every passion of my sou!, every faculty of my mind, every muscle of my body, has b:^en on God's side from that time to this. None of your little tweedledum-tweedledeo business about iiie, (iive God soldiers who nre always ready for tlu^ li.u'iit, and alwnys on the good side. There is no neutral ground her,\ " ^Iv. So and So is not a Ciiurch-nnMii- ber, and he is a good man." Show me one good man who does n't be'.t>ug to the CMiui'ch. T have been htint- Sermons and Sayings. 271 (ut on 1 said, y'or on lu tiio Tiu;ht. iglit, I I yon." iioithor "No, Ay i'-l- in any iLortVs ) prohi- ro 1)0011 felloNvs 5 squaro on 1)1 'til v>liou 1 lu^. ^vitli io. No, Ins sido am oil ky iiaiiio [ly soul, |y body, [^ono of Init luo. lo iiK^>^' Inoutval i-in»Mii- IkI man h limit- ing for liiin for twelve years. I asked a ^'entleninn on the train, "How are you getting on religiously'?" He said he didn't belong to any Church; that a man can be as good out of the Church as he can iu it. I said to him, "Just name me one good m?in out of tlie Church. I' He thouglit awhile, and then said, 'M/r/ w'!" Said I: "Have you got so h)w down an opin- ion of the Church as to think that such a fellow as you are is as good as any member in the Church?" I toll yon, brethren, the very essence of moral hero- ism, and the very essence of loyalty, is to take sides. Joshua drew the line, and said: "All of you who are on (rod's side, come over here." AVhicli side are you onV You are on neither side. "I am not a Christian, ancl 1 am not a sinner." You are a moral monsti'osity; tliat is what you are. If tliis town is cursed by any class it is cursed ])y these men avIio are neitlier good nor bad. Old Goody-goody! You ought to hear liis wife talk about him: "I just tell you, JJrother Jones, he is the best man you ever saw." It seems like slici has gone into partnership with tlie devil, to get Inn- Jiusbuid to hell systematically. You need not come around me bragging about the old carcass; you won't make any thing off of me. I say, my brethren, let every man of us to-night define our position. 'aVo are with the Lord or against liim. Tliere is no sucli thing as neutral ground. I wish every clever man in Nashville could see it. Tliere are hundreds of men HI this town just as kind-hearted as they can be who won't take a stand. There are men who hear my voice this moment whom I would want for my execut(n-s if I were to die in Nashville. I believe you are lion- "Hi, uivright, and nol)lo. I wisli th^se men would takp 272 Sermons and Sayings. a stand for God. AVliy don't you? You seem to het selling out to the devil for nothing and boarding your- selves. That is cheap. You noble men of Nashville, whose honor is as sacred as the character of your wives, bless you, do n't dilly-dally with your conscience. Let us be true, and say: "I will come out and servo my God. I will take a stand, and do it in the pres- ence of God and men and angels." Let us be men; and if we take a stand, let us die there. To me the saddest picture in life is that man sitting out there, who was once a member of the Church, who joined the hosts of God twenty years ago, deserted the ranks, went over to the devil, and is now working tooth and toe-nail for hell. What would you think of a Con- federate soldier during the late war who, after having fought one month, two years, three years, took off the gray and went over to the enemy and donned the l)lue? There is a man who once stood in the ranks of God, and now he has deserted the ranks of God, and is in the devil's ranks belching death into the ranks of God. Come back, brother, and God will take you like a fresh recruit, and make you into a true soldier of the cross. Five hundred persons who hear my voice are out now. You are on the side of the Lord God of hosts, or against him. Those who are on the Lord's side keep his com- mandments. That is the test. If you don't, you are nut a servant of the Lord. If a man is not a servant ol the Lord, he is a servant of the devil. AYill you go to your spiritual master, the devil, and ask him what kind of work he wants you to do? The kind «iE work he wants you to do is to swear, drink, gamble, de- bauch your body in wickedness, and make your wife. y«M mother and ch,M 273 « godless famil ^' ^ ''a^e n hard * i^ ' ^ '"""'d I-e saved "i;'^' "'"' "^^ J'ope at aT ', 5r"''"^^' ""<' '"-nigh "° tr"'«^' "Where! l''r'"'t'notJ,er '» ae devil II ■' '^ '^« '^''o BO d r/"'"'*''''>« boy «rs hear ''/■'""'''' "•> earth, /I ," T"' ""'' ''^4 "»es4 to "';■"'■« '«^rs from tt " '"^™''"'- «'J'epay9 k" ?'««'«■« Jove 1 1^" y"""- »'''■" *^'«" you '^e/ "f ''"^'' to 'ive or. e ''"• ■**"'"" 274 Sermons and Sayings. is it that the devil has a servtint in Nasliville fco- night? I take this text because it if. illustrative of God's economy and the devil's economy in dealing -with souls. It is the devil's economy to give the best wine lirrt. (rod's plan is to give the worst first, and it gets better and better through jill eternity. The devil gets a poor sinner just on the ju-inciple that the i)o;)r ohl drunk- ard, with his digestive organs burned out, takes one nK)re drink to brace hhn up. The devil gives the best first, and entra[)s us that way. Let me illustrate: When I crossed the line of accountability in my youtli the devil took me by the hand and led me up into a large, capacious palace, adorned with all the pictureij of earth; and I looked at the elegant furniture and l)eautiful carpets, and I said, "What do you say?" "If you will be my servant, I 'vill give you all this.'' I looked again, and I thought, "Sure enough, there is something here I like — a chair of ease, an offer of con- tentment; here is every thing I want." And I took pos- session. I walked out and came back, when my chair of ease was gone forever. I returned another day, and my sofa of contentment was gone, and I never felt so well content afterward. Another day, as before, I came back, and my table of pleasure was gone, and I never had half as much pleasure as I had before. The l)eautiful pictures were gone, another piece of furni- ture was gone, one piece of furniture after another was gone, and one day the carpets had been taken up and removed. What a poor, bare floor it w^as! I came back one day, and two of the windows were removed. It was not as light as it was before. One of the doorr? was taken down. I had not as many ways of ingress Sermons and Sayings. 275 and egress as before. Another window was gone on the next visit, and the last day I was in that pahice the last Avindow was removed, the last door was re- moved; hnt when I came out to see my ffitlier die I never went back again. The last window, was gone, and tlie last door was removed, and a visitor told me tliat the walls of the capacious palace were coming together; and one night after midnight the walls, he said, came together with a crash, and he admitted that the wages of sin is death. AVlmt a picture! I know it is true. O what a i)icturo of my own life in its wasteful, prodigal days! My friends, look at this ])ictare. Listen how the pleasures of sin beguile us. liurns had the right to speak, and I know he was right when he said: rieasures are like poppies spread — AVe seize tlie lldwer, the bloom is she. IMAGE EVArUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) m y. €p- v.. fA 1.0 I.I ;- Ilia '':, 13 2 IM 20 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 < o" — ► V] <^ /a M v> > ,> >^ # ?^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY 14SB0 (716) 872-4503 V ,v '^•\ ^ \\ ^d up here to-night. SAYINGS. It takes less sense to criticise than for any thing else. There are a great many critics in the lunatic asylum. What we need in Nashville, and everywhere else, is a living, walking, consistent, earnest Christianity that can be known and read of all men. I CAN somehow stand it to be swall(jwed by a whale, bat to bo nibbled to death by minnows is awful ; and now that the torraj)ins begin to bite, it is time to wiiul up the line and quit. I WOULD not go back twelve years and take my chances, Were this world a golden ball, And j;eins were all llio stars of ni^lii. 280 Sermons and Sayings. The devil gives the best wine at tlie first; God gives the best wine at the last. If I throw a stone into a crowd of dogs, and one runs yelping, yon know that is the one that is hit. When you hear one of these fellows on the street yelping at me, you may know he is the dog that is hit. I SAW that the Lord was holding the devil out hero by the tail and letting him kick himself to deatli, and I believed it would be just this way in Nashville be- fore I kissed my wife good-by, and I am happy over it. These little fellows that I was going to ship off with a two-cent i^ostage-stamp: It would take two hundred tons of soothing-sirup to run them. They are all babies, and they outcry creation if you do n't give them something to soothe them. You have lots of men in Nashville who are neither good nor bad. Ask them if they are good. "No, sir." "Bad?" "No, sir." They are these goody- goody fellows. They are not worth ten cents a dozen in any market in heaven, earth, or hell. Like some so-called prohibitionists I have met with down in Georgia, who have friends on both sides of the question, there are wishy-washy fellows in the Church who have a cotton string run up their backs with a few ribs tied to it, and they call it backbone. I have been among them up to my chin. PROHIBITION. ^.v Address Before the Georgia State Temper^ A NCE Cox VENT ION. jmR. JONES dplivered this address before the ^1 "I State Temperance Convention of Georgia at its session in Atlanta, June 10, 1885. AVe give the report — with some minor omissions — as it appeared in The Constitution of that city: I believe liquor is a good thing in its place, and I believe its place is in hell. If I were in hell i might drink it; but, so help me God, I will never drink it again on this earth. The main trouble is with these little politicians. They say it won't do to bring this question of prohibition into politics; they say it will hurt their party. If your party has to ride into power on a whisky-barrel, then I say it ought to be hurt. I am a Democrat. I was born a Democrat; but if you make Democracy mean opposition tt) sumpt- uary laws and friendship to liquor, then I am any thing but a Democrat. Alter all, thig thing of poli- tics is just a question of the "ins" and "outs." If the Radicals get in four years from now, they will adopt the good old Democratic cry, "Turn the rascals out! " Some fellows say, "Do n't mix politics with re- ligion." AVlien you hear a fellow talk that way, you may know he hasn't any religion to mix. I would mix religion with politics, but not politics with relig- ion. A little religion will help politics; it will make it clean and decent. AVe want truth, justice, and tem [■IS]) 282 Sermons and Sayings. perniice mixed with politics in this State. I spoke to tlie Legislature of Teiiiiossee on this subject the other day. They are talking a])out a constitutional amend- ment on the liquor question up there. We want this question cleared up beyond the reach of these little cross-roads jud«?es, who hop up every now and then and say something is unconstitutional. We want to do away with such judges, and put decent men of brains and character in their places. You can't re- form a State with a swill-tub for Governor, and a lot of old mash-tubs sitting on the bench. You can't re- form a State until you send good men to the Legisla- ture. Some men come to every Legislature that meets in Georgia who ain't fit to go to the chain-gang. An old skunk of a thing stnggering around on both sides of the street at once is a beautiful Representative ! There is not a purer, nobler man in Georgia than your Governor. There are no better men in Georgia than your Supreme Court Judges. I told them in Tennessee the other day that you had for a Chief- justice in Georgia a man who would sit up all night talking to penitents at the altar. Georgia is all right at the top and at the bottom. AVe want to get her all right in the middle; and if you refuse to help sup- press the infamous wrong that is being done by whisky, you are rotten yourselves. Some of you here don't know me. I speak plainly. I use words you can understand. Now, you can take the Latin word "de- cayed," and it won't phase a fellow. If you take the good old Anglo-Saxon word "rotten," you can cut his head off. You see, I choose my words. Of course there are always some little spelling-book critics sitting around who will go back on a fellow's grammar. I Sehmons and Sayings. 283 filiould n't rnincl beina swftllowed by a wliale, but I slioulcl Imte to be nibblod to doatli by raiiiuows. You have a hundred counties in Georgia where tlio liquor traftic is crippled. In eiglity counties there is l)rohibition. I say, Look out for your (b-ug-stores ; h)ok out for your little cymling-headed doctors. Some of tnem fill their saddle-bags witii liquor, and become travehng bar-rooms. God pity the doctor who will prescribe liquor for a man! I might prescribe it for a poor dying woman, Init I wouldn't give it to a man until he was dead. AVhisky is not good for one thing in this world for which there is not something else that IS better. If the time ever comes when they say tome, "You '11 die if you do n't drink whisky," I will say, "Get my shroud ready!" I mean to die sober. If a fellow gets so low that nothing but liquor will 8a ve him, I am ready to preach his funeral; and I have a text that I '11 make him hop on. I rejoice to-night that in more than two-thirds of the counties of this State whisky can't be sold at all. I am glad the Legislature is going to give us a gen- eral local option law. If we do n't turn whisky out of every county in this State at the first election, we will try it again. I had a great trial not long ago. I have been a poor man all my life; and when "friends in Nashville tendered me a house and offered to stand by me and back me up, it was a great temptation; but I looked down here and saw my old mother, Georgia. I never loved her so in all my life before. I said "Brethren, no. I can't take it. Not that I love you less, but 1 love Georgia more." AVlien I die I want to die in Georgia; and before I die I want to see every inch of her soil rid of the curse of whisky. I am no! 284 Sermons and Sayings. mad with the men who sell whisky; I am not mad with the men who make it. I am mad with whisky. I am mad witii demijohns. I am glad they have n't got legs. Those that have wickerwork around them have n't got legs, but there are plenty of old red-nosed demijohns walking around Atlanta. Ain't you sorry for a poor woman who has to put her tender arm into the handle of an old demijohn every time she goes to church? I put it this way: The liquor traffic ought to be made so odious that nobody but an infernal scoundrel will sell it, and nobody but an infernal fool will drink it. Sejiarate these liquor-dealers from their liquor, and they will be all right. The church that will harbor a man who rents a house to sell liquor in is a hateful hypocrite. Some of these churches in Atlanta are doing just that thing. If there is in this vast audience one man or woman who never had a rel- ative or loved one hurt or ruined by whisky, I want him or her to staled up right now. You have all had a brother, or a son, or a father, or a son-in-law ruined by whisky. My goodness, these sons-in-law! I'd rather have a boa-constrictor around my neck than to have a drunken son-in-law. The devil can't do any worse than that. Some of you old hypocrites who are dilly-dallying with tlic whisky question are going to get caught just that way. The devil is going to slip lip on you with a drunken son-in-law; and I'll bet he will make you a prohil)itionist with a vengeance. I look around your city and see the bar-rooms as thick as the stars in the heavens. Each one of the three hundred ])ars in Atlanta represents at least ten confirmeil drunkards. Three thousand men in At- lanta across the line and gone t«« "ml re„r yt to have a fuss mTiT, r^" ^"" "" "'' ««" dreads „ („,,, b„t ,,eles"- '^' '■°"' ''''^ «»"'' ;'«lt« on the earth. The cl " , T "7 *'""« *''«t one day „nd fonght ali day Lf •^>'""' ^«'>' out the enemy, when lie looked^ ^'j ^^ ™^ <"-o«-diug t" a" the noble causes on thile f^'f ^"^ '"'""-^te game. One enthusiastic br!. ' *" "*" ^''o ar« "> t '- State can carr^prohlt'"''" •'" ^'""' -»'"y you have n't got one in ™ur co^n/ '" ^*°^8'«- « about high license for whislw T^i ""^'■' ™«- Talk license for small-pox I 2' '» "^ "~" ^ave high Pnee. If y„„ f^,^" I Jon t want ]iq„or at afj pnde and your count^/s hop/ wiiP "''° "« ^ou^ siasm, your brains, and v„„ m!' ^'™ ><*" «n'hu. day will soon com; when " TT ""° ""'^ <»"««. tJ.e ;hen he leaves her sfde ,„ ffi^m ''^" '^"^ ^- '-y he is safe. I „,a„t ^^ '» ™ «oM.ng and know that go to the polls and work^ L ^?f- '^"P'^ "^ ^"anta *t« blighting curse ^it ]£ t" ''"'^"^'"«- "-^ "«ed from your fair city 'JSO Sermons and Sayings. JONES. Editorial in Nasliville Daily Union, May 24, 1885. The character and true inwardness of the great preacher are coming now to be well understood. His stny in Nashville and the character of his audiences, l)roaching from two to three sermons a day for two weeks, would necessarily make up a imblic judgment. It is, then, the truth to say that the first sermons left the community divided as to the man. J3ut upon his return, and after he commenced preaching, the public mind rapidly settled down, and now there is scarcely any difference of opinion. His first sermons, without knowing the man, seemed to lack reverence. They were novel, and the humor- ous illustrations were not appreciated. Some of his sayings, to a stranger, were harsh and uncompromis- ingly severe. Upon the whole, the community did not know what to make of him. But two weeks of steady preaching to immense audiences, including the most cultured i^eople in the city, leaves not a doubt as to his true Christian character, as well as to his preach- ing qualities. Two weeks' study of his sermons and their effect leads us to say of him that he is preaching on a new line; his doctrines are not strange; he is not like John the Baptist, telling the people of a coming Christ or a new religion; he is preacliing an old doctrine, he is teaching an established religion, but still it is new preaching. The pulpit is much given to preaching against sin, but the new preacher preaches against the men who commit sin. He tells them plainly what they are doing, and he makes their offenses hideous; Si:iiMoxs AM) Sayings. 287 still tliesft men, with their vices ofteh known, ding io him and follow him up, and become attached to him. The power of the man is most conclnsively shown in makin},' friends and followers of those to whom he speaks most plainly and sometimes severely. AVhat Dickens was to the world Jones is to relij^ion — a delineator of character. He has stmlied human life in all its phases. He knows men as if by intui- tion. All his pictures are life-like. In his wonderful composition may bo found the jjjreatest reverence, the deepest piety, dauntless courage, unecjualed humor, and withal he is a thorough student of human nat- ure. No man, not even Talmage, has entered the pul- pit with such versatile talent. The mysteries of the doctrine of the atonement, or of total dei)ravity, do not give him tlie least trouble; he always talks about something he knows about and understands. His pictures of the good man, the good woman, the happy home, the road to heaven, lead men instinctively along. If an illustration with fun in it is the best, he gives it; but it is accepted as all rijjjht, because it was the illustration, and not the fun, he was after. AVo pre- dict for this great preacher a bigger and broader field in the future. Nashville is a city made up of culti- vated people in a great measure, and almost without exception they have, after a full hearing, pronounced in his favor — in his favor upon his work — for no man has made such an impression on this community. THE GOSPEL TENT AftrU tlie jjri'nl revivals condiictod l>y Mr. Jones in >rftii|)IiiH and Jiii'ksun, 'IV'ini., iiiid Iliiiit.svilU', Ala., ho was iiidiunl to visit Nasii- villc ami |>ivach a iVw si-rnions preparatory to a union service of all the ehnrehes. Those sermons ujade "no small stir" in this eity, and provoked iniieh eriti<'isni. JIc was plain, iH>intt'(l, and fearless in his assanlt npon the |)optdar viees of men, and spared none, in the Clun'eh or out; and withal he was hnmoroiis, ronj^h, and even riv ministers, and through the daily papers, and l»y anonymous circu- lars, Iho latter of which were so scurrilous and lihelous that they (•ailed f«)r the atlentiti^ net 16 00 Idam Clarke's Commentar^f. Latest edition. Edited by Thomley Smith. . 6 vols., cloth 20 00 6 vols., sheep .2^00 vols., half morocco 80 UO Adam Clarke's Commaitary. Edited by Dr. Cany. Cloth, pervol too fto., 4a, ko», 4a All the latest English and American editions of standard and other books kept in stock or got to order promptly. SondayHMhool library and Priie Books in great variety. ■ M 78 4 80 Knio Strkbt East, Tobomio. a W. OOATES, MoHT&EAU f) P. IIUESTIS, Hauvaz, IX A "m^i r«*-" li^HHiii^^iiiiHi iitt