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MEMOIRS AND LESSONS OT LITE
No. 1. The Spirit’s Last Call.
URING my evangelistic work, a
few years ago, I was called to hold
a meeting with a large and some
what wealthy country church. The
members were widely scattered,
and we had our two meetings
daily at 11 and 2:30, taking dinner
on the ground.
One day during recess, I was
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called to where a group of men were standing,
and introduced to an old gentleman, the elder
brother of one of the deacons of the church.
“Is it Brother ?” I asked, putting emphasis
on “Brother.” “I do not know,” he answered,
“but I reckon I am about as good as the rest
of them.”
“Doctor,” said the deacon, “my brother is
One of the best men in all this country. He
never wronged a man out of a penny. He is
one of the most moral, upright and charitable
tnen I know. All he needs is to be baptized
and join the church; and that is what we are
persuading him to do, and we want you to
help us.”
“Well, deacon,” I replied, “that depends on
whether he is a fit subject for church member
ship; whether he has been converted and is a
saved man.” Then turning to the elder brother
I said: “Let me ask you, my dear friend, are
you conscious of your own unworthiness, trust
ing in Christ as an all-sufficient Savior?”
“Well,” he replied, “I am trying to do the
best I can. What my brother tells you is true.
No man can say that I ever cheated him out of
a penny, and I know church members who do
many things that I would scorn to do.”
“I have no doubt of that,” I replied, “but
as they and you are alike responsible only to
God, what they do cuts no figure in the matter
of your salvation. That matter is between you
and Christ; and as your eternal destiny in the
world to come, infinite bliss or infinite despair,
is the issue at stake, will you kindly bear
with me, if I press the question, and ask again,
Have you ever been made to feel your need of
a Savior, and have you given yourself to Christ
in a covenant of life-long service, trusting in
Him and Him alone for salvation?”
“Well, as to that,” he replied, “I used often
to feel that I ought to be a Christian, but that
was a good while ago, and I have come to reck
on that I stand about as good a chance as the
rest of them.”
With a heart full of sadness I turned to the
deacon and said, you could not do your brother
a greater wrong than to persuade him to join
the church in his present Spiritual condition.
Being baptized and joining the church can nev
er take the place of Christ’s cleansing blood,
and the Spirit’s regenerating grace in the sal
vation of a sinner. For him to join the church
Is there such a thing as “Regulation of Sa
loons” which can do more than “minimize” the
harm being done by the traffic?
Doubtless those who say that the only so
lution of the saloon problem is through proper
regulation, are often sincere in their advocacy
of the “license and proper regulation” —of the
unregulable!
Some of you have heard of the experiment
of the old farmer who undertook to play yoke
fellow to a young bull,—with proper regula
tion !
Placing one end of the yoke over the ani
mal’s neck, he stuck his head through the other
The start was admirable, but the beast’s
sprinting quality proved to be superior to that
of the old man (regulation not working as ex
pected), and he began to call lustily, “Stop
KTLGULA TION OF SALOONS
The Golden Age for February 23, 1911.
as he now is would only give the Devil still
greater advantage, in his fight for your broth
er’s soul.”
Then turning to the old man, I said: “Let
me, my dear friend, as one who loves your soul,
entreat you to come to Christ at once. When
you felt those convictions of which you speak,
was the time you should have settled the mat
ter and given yourself to Him. Then He waited
to save you. Then the Holy Spirit waited to
create you anew in Christ Jesus. But it is not
/fc. 1
REV. H. P. FITCH.
too late even yet. Today may be to you the
day of salvation, if you will. You may not
feel as deeply your need of Christ as in days
past, but if you will sincerely surrender every
other hope and plea, and trust Christ and Him
alone, He is pledged to save you even today.
Let me plead with you to accept the salvation
He offers you. Take Him at His word. Trust
Him. Give yourself to Him, and by all that
He has done and suffered, that you might be
saved, you can have the positive assurance that
He will save you.
That afternoon he came with a number of
young people to the front seat, for the prayers
of Christians, and I felt hopeful that he would
be “a brand plucked from the fire;” but, alas!
the Savior knows how it saddens my heart to
write it—the Devil’s hold on him was too firm,
and the next morning he took his horse and
buggy and drove thirty or forty miles to get
away from the meeting. And a few months later
I was told that he had died without leaving
any evidence of a Spiritual change. And the
us! Gol-darn it, stop us! We’re running away!
That is the way it may be expected to ope
rate when a municipal government sticks its
head through the yoke of saloon-regulation,
and proposes to give them a good race—for
the money there is in it.
The race is pulled off all right, but the other
fellow has the bull’s end of the yoke, and Mr.
City Government will ultimately yell, “Stop
us! We’re running away!”
The Superintendent of the Anti-Saloon
League, of Los Angeles, Cal. (who is in a pos
ition to know whereof he speaks) says, regard
ing the “proper regulation of the saloon”:
“It will produce an increase in liquor drink
ing, and all the vices connected with the sa
loon.
“An increase in liquor adulteration.
H. P. PITCH.
pity of it all is, I much fear that some preacher,
with only a toe string for a spinal column,
preached him right up to the highest seat in
the Heavenly Kingdom, and held him up to all
the young men as an illustrious example for
them to emulate. The readers of The Golden
Age have heard many such funeral sermons, no
doubt, and the language is familiar. “This
friend,” said the preacher, “never joined any
church, and never made any profession of re
ligion ; but he was such a good husband and
father, so kind, so moral and upright, so char
itable to the poor, such a good, honest citizen
in every way, that I have no doubt that he is
now at rest.” All this is right and proper, so
far as it refers to his earthly citizenship but,
oh! how different when it is presented as a
ground of salvation! O that ministers would
have the courage of their convictions, and cease
to thus play into the hands of the Devil, in his
Satanic efforts to drag men and women down
to hell.
Would to God, also, that I could write oi
this as an isolated, rather than a representative
case. But, alas! it is not such. Every godly
minister, especially every evangelist whose
soul’s deep longing is to save lost men and
women, instead of to count numbers, will bear
testimony to the many similar cases all over
our land. Like dead trees they stand in God’s
spiritual forest. So often convicted by the
Spirit of God, and so often resisting His gra
cious influence, that they have become compar
atively immune to His divine impressions.
If this shall come under the eye of such an
one for whose soul Satan is struggling, let me
entreat you to no longer permit him to allure
you by his cunning flattery. He allures only
that he may lead you down to eternal darkness
and despair. Your honesty, moral uprightness,
kindness of disposition, your charity, and all
else good that can be said about you, God
knows better than your neighbors do, and He
gives you due credit, but none nor all of these
combined can you plead as a ground of salva
tion. Like letters of living light on the scroll
of God’s immutable decree, stand the soul
searching words: “Ye must be born again.”
You may have so often grieved the Holy Spirit
by refusing to yield to His divine convincing,
that you no longer feel His gracious influences,
as in past days. Do not let that deter you.
Resolve at once to give up every other hope
and plea, and trusting alone in His saving
powers, give yourself to Jesus, in a covenant
of life-long service. Though long slighted, He
waits to save you now. His cleansing blood
stands for God’s only plan of salvation. If sav
ed at all, the song of your soul must and will
be “a sinner saved by grace.” God help you
to come to Jesus and be saved now, ere the
shadows fall, and the dark night of death over
take you.
gy H. S. JENISON
“An increase in lawlessness.
“An enlargement of the saloon zone and in
crease in the number of saloons.
“An increase in ‘blind tigers.’
“An increase in the power of the saloon to
resist efforts to remove it.”
The testimony of the prominent liquor men
throughout the country is to the effect that
“a high license, with regulation,” is the way to
make the sale of intoxicants appear indispen
sible, and more difficult to be attacked by any
legislative enactment.
By no process of reasoning can we reach the
conclusion that it is right for any set of men,
“under proper regulation,” to engage in a bus
iness that fills our jails, destroys the peace
of families, and debases the manhood of every
one who comes in contact with it.
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