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Night Sermon at Tabernacle Is Powerful Plea for Good
LVANGELIST PREACHES
ON'F ANF MANWILL
kindgom of Heaven being like a
grain of mustard seed, and the
birds shall build their nests in
the branches.
That prophecy has been ful
filled so today In most of the
churches and you can find any
thing from a hungry bird to a
turkey buzzard.
In a town one time out in Ill
nois something was said in the
sermon that made a young fel
low mad. Hé went our cursing
and damning and said he did not
believe in the Bible or God. That
young fellow was a Mason. So
they had a session called at the
lodge.
The next day a friend of mine
met an officer of the lodge and
said, “I understand you had an
all night session, laboring for ar
erring brother.” s
“That young fellow didn’t be
lieve in. God or Christ or anybody
else. That young fellow was a
Knight Templar., He can come to
a thirty-third degree and be
lieve in God but when a man
wears that white flag and blue
uniform, he has got to believe in
Jesus Christ and the New Testa
ment.”
In a degree of the Masonic
lodge they say these words, “No
infidel can walk here and he can
not get in.”
If there is any bunch on God
Almighty’s dirt that I have a
right to expect co-operation of,
it is the men who wear the Ma
sonic badge. Yank it off or pro
fess vour faith. This young fel
low was a Knight Templar and
they labored all night over his
case. And finally they decided not
to turn him out of the lodge.
Say, there is not a lodge in this
city or in this country that has
not hypocrites in its member
ship. Is that any argument
against a lodge? When any man
uses it as an argument he is a
fool.
And there is rot a church,
either Catholic or Protestant, that
has not hypocrites in its member
ship. Is that any argument
against Christianity or Jesus
Christ? If any man uses it as an
argument, he is a fool, and he is
a jack-ass of a fool if he does.
And so I tell you that I have
a controversy with the church to
day, Catholic and Protestant, and
that controversity is the laxity on
the part of the officials to apply
the principles to men who live in
opposition to their promises and
will not stick up for God’s truth.
You know that many a time
our officials are in such a God
forsaken, backsliding condition
themselves they could not con
sciously apply the discipline to
anybody in the pews that did not
believe in their vows.
I was preaching in a town down
in Missouri some years ago and 1
went out through the audience
and stepped up to a fine sort of a
looking woman and I said—with
all my Chesterfield politeness and
suave mannerism, I bowed low
and I said, “Good evening lady,
are you a Christian?”
She arched her eyebrows and
drew in her diaphragm and said,
“Sir, since when did you become
my Father confessor?”
“I said, “Forget it, if the devil
looks like you, I am quite sur
prised at his success.”
She said, “I pick my company,
sir, and I give you to understand
that T do not choose the church.”
I said, “Lady, I haven't any use
for you and your choice. If you
stay out of the church, I am frank
to tell you that I have no respect
for you and your choice.”
She said, “Sir, I do not go into
a church where there are hypo
crites.”
I said, “Do you know what a
hypocrite is?”
She said, “A hypocrite is a man
or woman who professes anything
that they are not.
I said, "A hypocrite is any man
or woman who does not live up to
their vows and their promises.
The people you are pointing out
and turning your nose up at are
some of your own gang that got
into the church without being
regerterated. I'd stand by my
bunch if I were you. And, fur
thermore, you have taken them
and filled them up with your
damnable rot and you have
wrecked their manhood and wom
anhood and because they want to
be decent in the church; because
they are weakened and undermin
ed and occasionally stumble and
fall, you turn up your nose, your
proboscis.”
I said, “Furthermore, sister, if
we did apply the discipline to
these people and turned them out
why then you would refuse to
come into the church by saying
that that was not Christianlike
to be so cruel. You old scoundrel,
vou wouldn’t come in, anyway.”
That is the trouble with a lot
of you. We are reaching down
into the slime-pits and the cess
pools of iniquity where you have
pushed them and because they are
weak, then you turn your nose up
and sneer. We are trying to help
them. We would rather see them
in heaven than in hell.
Well, a man says, “I don't be
lieve in the Bible.”
I said, “Why not?”
He said, "Because of the in
consistencies.”
Whenever you hear a man be
gin to harp about the inconsisten
cies in the Bible, keep your head.
If you ever have to take his note,
have somebody go the security for
him. g
\WWhenever I bring up the mem
ory of an evil deed before some
man he instantly begins to find
fault with the Bible, begins to
harp about the hypocrites, begins
to growl about my vocabulary and
mannerisms, says that I am crude
and that I astonish and alarm and
shock. Oh, God—it would take
more than that to shock a lot of
hese guys! s
g Youggo to a man and talk busi
ness, he will talk sense. Talk pol
itice with him and he will talk
sense. Go to a woman and talk
business, she will talk sense. Talk
society with her and she will talk
sense. But talk religion and they
will talk nonsense.
Like an old woman out in Ar
kansas. She used to chew and
cuss and booze fight. One time
THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN i A Clean Newspaper for Southern Homes eo o WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1917.
she ripped out an oath and her
grandson said, “Granny, Granny,
please don’t swear.”
She said, “Mind your own busi
ness, you little simpleton.”
He said, “Granny, you have got
to die some day.”
She said, “Well, you little fool,
I ain’t dead yet.”
When he cornered her on her
whisky drinking and profanity,
she made that nosensical reply.
If you had walked up and asked
her how to boil a head of cab
bage or roast a possum, she would
have made a sensible reply.
“If any man will do his will
he shall know.” And, therefore,
our character is in our will. What
we will we are. You will to be a
drunkard or you will to be a
Christian. You will to be a pros
titute. Every man that walks the
streets of heaven, he willed he
would and that is why he i§ there.
Every man that is in hell, he
willed, and that is why he is
there,
A fellow came up to me one
time and asked me —-and I seldom
preach a meeting that some mutt
does not ask me this same ques
tion—*“l want to ask you a ques
tion.”
I sald, “Sail in.”
He said, “Where did Cain get
his wife?”
I said, “He got her from his
father-in-law.”
“Well,” he said, “the Bible says
he got her in the land of Nod,”
and when an infldel starts in to
Gguote Seripture he is all in.
The Bible says nothing of the
kind. The Bible says that Cain
knew his wife in the land of Nod
and she conceived and bore a
child. Tt always looks sort of sus
picious to me to see a man so
much interested in some other fel
low’s wife. I don't think it is
Cain’s wife that bothers some of
you old lobsters half as much as
it is the wife of your neighbor.
Adam and Eve had other chil
dren beside Cain and Abel, no
matter whether the first pair
came by generation, creation or
evolution or by accident. They
were produced by a protoplasm.
You are trying to pin your hope
of heaven on where Cain got his
wife. That cuts no ice with me
at all. Why do you ask that silly,
ridiculous question? Is it because
you are trying to take a side
against the Bible—discredit the
Bible? lls it because you are try
ing to find some excuse that will
Justify you in being a devil and
rejecting Jesus Christ and living
in sin?
When the papers and the peo
ple on the other side of the politi
cal faith could find no fault in
Benjamin Harrison, one of the
highest types of American rhan
hood that has ever sat in the
White House—none of them had
anything on Benjamin Harrison—
so then they begun to sneer about
his grandfather’s hat, and Benja
min Harrison had more gray mat
ter in his brain than the whole
dirty bunch put together; they
tried to make people believe that
Benjamin Harrison was not fit to
sit in the White House.
So, therefore, listen! Darwin,
the infidel, quotes Matthew, who
in turn quotes Euhler, the infi
del, in which he says that popu
lation will double in 25 vears. If
you studied your Scriptural
chronology carefully, vou will find
that when Cain went out to court
his wife he was a lusty youth 128
years old.
Josephus says that “Not” means
“vagabond” and ‘“vagabondage’
means the ground that God had
cursed, and ‘the curse of God on
the ground today is because a
man sinned, and that is why we
have briers and thorns and this
tles and deserts. The curse of God
is the effect of man’s sin on the
ground.
When Adam and Eve ate the for
bidden fruit God drove them from
the Garden of Eden and said, “The
ground is cursed because of your
sin.”
We say that Cain was 128 years
of age when he met her and
courted her. Now, then, o!d Euh
ler, the statistician, says that
population will double in twenty
five years. Allowing that there
were geven pairs on earth at the
end of the first twelve years, and
that the population will double
in twenty-five years under favor
able circumetances, and Cain was
128 years old when he knew his
wife in the land of Nod, that
would have made the population
of the world then 11.970. Allow
ing that half were female, which
proportion holds good in every
lJand on the globe, that would
have made 5,985 buxom damsels
from whom old Cain could have
selected a wife, good enough to
satisfy the most fastidious de
votee with matrimonial Inclina
tions buzzing in his belfry. Yet
a lot of fellowe are going to hell
tonight because they, wonder
where Cain got his wife!
The inconsistency is not in the
Bible, but in vour rotten life.
I preached in a town one time
in JTowa and I said toa barkeeper,
“What are you in this dirty busi
nesg for?”
He was' a pretty good fellow
and he said, “Well, Bill, I couldn't
be in the business if it wasn’t for
church members voting for me.”
If, there is anything that makes
me feel like a woman that swal
jows a fly—she feels like expec
torating—it is to have some pea
nut-brained wise guy, some old
whisky-snaked rummy telling me
“that if it wasn’t for the votes
of people who stand on the
church records—." T tell you T
would rather bhe a devil in hell
than indorse anything like that.
The Bible says, “Woe unto him
that putteth a bottle to his
neighbors’ lips.”
Somebody says, “The Bible said
that? Huh! Perhaps you can
tell me why God made a woman
out of the rib of Adam. Why
didn’t he make her out of the
dust of the earth like he did
man
Now whnat are you going to say
to a fool like that? In the first
place, T wasn't there. In the sec
ond place. T have never asked
God. and in the third place it is
none of my business. You might
as well ask me why, when a wo
man has a loaf of bread and she
wants to make a sandwich, why
she doesn't make another loaf.
Why, it is easier to cut it off
from the loaf already made.
So therz are people who lose
sight of all these beautiful truths
which, if put into practice, would
change this old sinful world into
a paradise of blessing.
Like an old woman I once heard
of, she was going to visit her
granddaughter and she had never
been on the rallroad train be
fore, s 0 she bought her ticket and
got on, and when the train start
ed she grabbed the seat in front
of her and they had gone about
five miles when there was a
wreck and the conductor picked
the splinters out of her system,
and _he said, “Auntie, are you
hurt®”
She said, “Lord, God Almighty,
1 thought you went that way all
the time.”
She came to the house and they
asked her if she enjoyed the trip.
She said, “1 never saw anything
but threeé hay stacks and they
were going the other way.”
Like a woman who was moving
into a new house, and as the
mirror was golng in she heard
the glass rattle and she said,
‘“Hold on, boys; be careful. Don't
break that glass. If you do you
will spoil my luck for seven
years,"”
The drayman looked at her
pityingly and said, “Boys, smash
it quick. Anything to change her
huek.”
That is the way I feel about
this eity, if good preaching would
have saved your town you would
have been in heaven long ago.
You need something else. Here
are people who journey all
through the Word of God from
Genesis to Revelations and they
can see nothing but a great big
hay stack going the other way.
- Where did Cain get his wife?
They lose sight of these beautiful
.truths which would make capital
and labor shake hands, and it
would transform this whisky
soaked, Sabbath-hating world in
to a paradise of blessing and
peace, and the lamb and the lion
would lie down together and the
lJamb would not be inside the lion
either; if we would only live for
Jesus Christ.
« 1 stepped up to a fellow one
night in Chicago, and I said to
him—if I named him a lot of you
lawyers would know him-—he has
been dead for many years. He
was a good friend of mine. One of
the most corking lawyers. He
came into a meeting one night in
Farwell Hall and my friend, Dr.
Berry, was speaking, and after
he got through I said, ‘“Well,
wasn’t that a good address?”
He said, “It was very pretty:
it wag fine word painting, but I
don’'t believe it.”
I said. “"Why?” and ke said,
“You show me one {instance
where the laws of Nature have
ever been abrogated above the
laws of Creation.”
I said. “Give me something
easy. Sit down. Strauss, the
German infidel, said, ‘An excep
tionai experience,’ meaning Jesus,
‘proves that only by the concur
rence of sexes are heings form
ed,, and yet, my friends, beings
have been and are being virgin
ally produced from both the lower
and higher ' orders of Nature.
Don’t you know that every drone
in a hive of bees is virginally
produced by a virgin queen?
And if you will study ysur En
cvelopedia Britannica you will
find that Huxley, in his last ar
ticle on “Biology’ says, Through
out almost all series of living Be
ings, nonsexual generation pre
vailed.”
This does not prove that Jesus
was conceived by any means, or
born of the Virgin Mary. But
if T find these exceptions existing
in the lower orders of Nature, is
it unreasonable to suppose that if
God can and does abrogate the
laws down there, He could not
abrogate the law of Nature in
this one and highest of all be
ings, Man, and give us a Savior
conceived by the Holy Ghost?
That is a doctrine, sir, sweet,
beautiful, scientific and scriptur
ally true, and if you reject Jesus
Christ because yvou don’t believe
he was conceived by the Holy
Ghost and born of the Virgin
Mary, you are a fool—a fool.”
“If a 2 man will do His will he
will know of the teaching.” The
trouble is you won't do it.
Suppose you start vour boy to
school and instead of beginning
with the A B C of knowledge he
gets away over here in the fern
production from which we get all
our fossils and he looks at it and
he says: “I don't know anything
about it.” Certainly he will never
know until he has learned about
the A B C knowledge, and when
you get up to that you will be
sufficiently developed to compre
hend it.
There is an A B C in knowledge
and also in religion. You have to
start at the beginning if you are
going to do God's will. You have
to start and learn to walk. If
you say, “T will wait until I walk,”
then yvou will never walk. Begin
with the feet you have and learn
to use them.
A man heard of the beauties
of a certain river and he said, “T
am going to see for myself.” He
secured a naphtha launch and he
salled all the day and all the
night and in the morning he met a
voyvager and he hailed him and
said, “I have heard of the sights
dotting here and there, hu%} have
sailed all day and all night and I
have seen nothing.”
The voyvager sail, “Sail on.”
He sailed all the day and night.
He met another vovager and said,
“l have heard of the beauties of
this river and I have heard of
where the water leaps ont of the
crevices and the river is kiessed by
the sun, but T have sailed two
days and nights and there i{s the
muddy, sluggish water.
The voyager said, “Sail on.”
He sailed all the day and then
he met the water rushing over
the Government dams, clear and
blue; he sailed on and reached the
foot of St. Anthony, where the
water roars and tumbles and his
clothing was wet from the mois
ture.
He gazed upon it and said, “Half
has never been told. I have geen
for myself.”
That is the position the multi
tudes of fellows are in tonight.
Here you are down in the muddy
waters of profanity, you lie and
steal or vou &re a prostitute, you
are a fajiure and you play trick
ery in business, then wonder why
you see no beauty in religion,
nothing in Jesus Christ, nothing
in the church of God Almighty.
Say. “As a man you don’t hit me
there, Bill.”
Oh, the trouble is, vou are not
high enough iip. That is the
trouble with you.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM
BILLY’S SERMON
g l HAVE now, and | hope and pray
; | shall always have, sympathy
! with any man or woman that has
difficulties spiritual, intellectual or
moral.
IF you want religion, do it. It
% won't be long until you have
! it
W E have a lot of people trying
prove the inspiration of
g Christianity by chewing the rag.
‘ AS long as God’s cause is going
; along you will find men that
g will counterfeit it.
$ ke
% W HENEVER you hear a man
begin to harp about the in
gconliltencios in the. Bible, keep
your head. If you ever have to
ét-ke his note, have gsomebody go
! the security for him.
Did you ever go home and did
you ever call your wife and chil
dren in, and did you ever sit down
and read the Word of God, and
did you ever say, “Now, get down
on your knees an say, ‘I am seek
ing the way of life, light and sal
vation, God." "’
Did you ever do that and then
get up and live the way you had
prayed? -
I challenge you old infiedels, no
man ever did it and doubted Jesus
Christ or found the Bible false,
No man ever did it and said,
“There is nothing in religion.”
Somebody says that God's na
ture and the Bible is God's will.
That is very true, but nature is
Goa’'s will in force. That is equal
ly true.
Years ago I was up in the min
ing region in Minnesota, way up
in the Carnegie interests, and I
met a man up there named Cap
tain Penduley; he was Carnegie’s
representative up there, and he
took me down into the iron mines
1,200 feet. We went and roamed
through those labyrinths for an
hour and then when we came
back upon the elevator I said to
him, “Captain Penduley, you have
been nighty good and kind, but I
want to know if you are a Chris
tian 7"
He looked at me and said, “Wil
liam. I worship nature, that is my
God, that is all I need. It telis me
of love.”
I said. “Hold on. You sit on
your veranda at home and you see
the sun as it comes tripping over
the banks of the horizon, and the
mistletoe hangs in clusters from
the pranches of the trees and the
babbling brook sings on its way
to the sea, and you sit there and
watch all that. And vou listen to
the chiming of the distant village
bells that toll the weary world to
sleep. You sit upon your veranda
and see the swallow circling
around the eaves and gathering
around the barn. You hear the
whippoorwill as he sings his song
way down in Sleepy Hollow. You
listen to the village bells. and
then—you see the sky become
blackness, and the wind sweeps
the mistletoe from the trees; it
uproots the gigantic oak trees that
have defied storms for centuries,
and it takes the barn in its awful
power and tears it to shreds and
scatters it like toothpicks through
the darkening woods. It unroofs
the house over yonder. You hear
the shrieks of the dying and the
wounded. Where is vour God of
smiling sunshine and babbling
brooks and singing birds?
“No, you can not read from
rocks and stars that God is love.
1 can study astronomy, but it
won't tell me of the Star of Beth
lehem that rose 1,900 years ago
over the Christ for my salvation.
I can study geology, but it will
not tell me of the Rock of Ages.
I can study mineralogy. but it
won’t tell me of the pearl of
greatest price.
“I can study biology, but it
won't tell me of Jesus Christ.”
Some people pay no heed to the
Bible. They will gulp down the
novels as thev are taken from the
press each day. Some of you have
not looked into the Bible for
months and years. Don’'t blame
God, then, if you wake up in the
mouth of hell. But you will go
home tonight, disrobe, jump into
bed and reach up and grab a novel
and begin to read:
‘“He reinea his panting steed
and smote his breast with three
rapid smotes. Upon the vine
clad veranda stood the silly, friz
zle-headed Reta, her eyes red v.:ith
weeping, because our rich,
haughty daddy would not have
our poor hero for a son-in-law.
They jumped on the horse and
away they go for the distant city”
—and then you skip three or four
pages and road the closing scene
—*twenty-five vears later, same
old horse, same old bridle and
hero, same old shero, a little dis
figured but still in the ring. Our
hero has gone West and he has
put it over on a lot of suckers,
sold mining stock and came back
with diamonds on his vest. The
old man is hobbling out with the
burden of 80 vears on his shoul
ders and an old maid daughter on
his hands. ;
She looks and save, “Pa, it is
he.”
“Reginald,” she screams.
‘“‘Reta,” he shrieks. He leaps from
his panting horse and with arms
outstretched they rush together
like two freight trains. The old
man hobbles out upon his crutch
es and he says, “The Lord bless
you, my children,” and the whip
poor-will joins in his lonesome
song by the brook.
Then you blow out the light and
have four or five nightmares, one
after the other.
A fellow says to me, “Bill, here
is this immortality business. This
soul busincss worrics me. lere
is my dog, my horse, my cat, my
cow! You say they have no
soul?”
“Yes, 1 say they have no soul.”
“You say 1 have?”
“Yes.”
“What makes the difference?”
I will first call your attention
to a picture of that creative morn,
in ornate language, by Dr. Mun
sey, a preacher of other days. He
said when the fiat had gone forth
then God said, “Let us make
man,” he imgaines the quadrupled
mamalia, each species in turn,
walking by and saying, ‘“Make
him like unto one of us.”
WHENEVER 1 bring up the |
memory of an evil deed be- ¢
fore some man, he immediately |
begins to find fault with the Bible. !
EVERY man that walks the !
streets of heaven willed that !
he would, and that is why he is |
there. 0
IF you studied your scriptural E
chronology carefully you would %
find that when Cain went out to
court hig wife he was a hulky%
youth, 128 years old. ?
THE trouble with a lot of you is ;
that you are reaching down ¢
into the slime pits and cesspools z
of iniquity where you have pushed §
men and women, and because they |
are weak you turn your nose up {
with a sneer. d
God sald, “No.” Then the fishes
of the sea swam by and each
trecies made theiwr appeal. “Make
nivm like unto us.” The Lord said
No.”
The birds of the air flew by,
and dipping upon their pinions,
sang their sweetest songs and
said, “Make him like unto one of
us'' G sid. “No. Lt us
make man in our image.”
Where did He get the plural?
1 beieve when He created man,
He gave him a body like unto the
glorious body of our Savior. He
gave him a mind to dominate
brute creation. He breathed into
man the breath of life, and man
became a living soul.
If a man had been making this
Bible he would have had God
chasing around with an elephant
or a hippopotamus.
Only in man did God breathe
the treath of life. Man became a
living soul, he was created in the
image of God Almighty, in this
old universe,
Now, Dr, J. B. Murphy, of Chi
cago, one of my neighbors, after
describing his successes as an
anatomist and the grafting of the
bones on lower animals on hu
man beings while they were found
successful, it was found later on
that the chemicals of the human
body dissolved the bones of the
lower animals and we found the
bones of the lower animals could
not be grafted while those of the
human being can. You take a
bone from any human being and
it will graft perfectly on the
human, the bodily functions will
do this, but bones of animals will
not do that and the bhone grafted
though unlike it forms a bone
that will grow and become like
the bone whose place it took.
Human must grow like human.
If man evolved from a monkey
he would have enough of the
monkey element for a bone to
grow on him. So I don’t believe
in your theory of evolution.
A man said, “Look here, we
read of will, judgment, reason,
memory, imagination, faculties of
the soul. You say my dog has
no soul?”
e
“My dog has a mind.”
“Has a body” “Yesn”
“Well, sir, if he has all these
they are faculties of the soul,
he has them in a limited degree,
and I have them in a higher de
gree, what is the difference?”
A horse has memory. You can
go out into the country and buv
a horse and bring him to town.
Drive him down town and home,
down town and home, down town
and home, and then down town
and let him loose and he will go
home. That is more than some
folks could do. Oh! yes, he has
a memory. The cat has a mem
ory, ves, the cat came back. The
hog has will-power. Any man
that can grab a hog and not lose
his religion will stand without
hitching.
Here is an elephant and he lives
to be 500 years old. He has a
memory, he has intelligence, gure.
In a Zoological Garden an ele
phant had become afflicted with
cateracts. They sent for a fa
mous zoologist and he said: “We
will have to put him to sleep,” and
they chained him and put him
down and operated on him and
the doctor said: “We will have to
repeat putting the medicine in
once a week.” And every time
that elephant saw that doctor
coming he would lie down and
stretch his head up. Why? He
had a memory.
A fellow said: “If*judgment and
wlll nower are the faculties of the
mind and I have them in their
highest development, why isg it
that I have a sovl and the dog
has not?”
Here, listen to me! Will-pow
er, judgment, memory, imagina
tion, are the faculties of the
mind. Seeing, hearing, smelling,
tasting, touching are the prime
faculties of the body. But my
soul, your soul has three prime
faculties that are neither mind
or body faculties. Faith, moral
and conscicnce faculties.
Then says the infidel, “My dog
has faith.” Yes, he has faith in
somebody that he has seen but
has no faith in somebody he as
never seen and you can not lodge
one thought in the brain of that
dog about somebody or some
place that he has never seen,
An elephant has the highest
intelligence, but you can’t teach
him about somebody he has never
seen but you let him see them
and he wlill never forget, That
becomes a faculty of the mind
but not of the sonl.
A man says: “If I could only
believe, T would be a Christian.”
A fellow down South was sit
ting on a log with his cap over his
eves, and mittens on, and an
overcoat, and a fellow says to
him, “Why don't you get busy?”
“Why.” he says. “I am walting to
get up a sweat.” But let him lay
hold of an axe and begin to ex
ercise and the sweat will come.
The muscular system of your
body develops by exercise, and
the muscular system of yvour soul
develops by prayver, and doing
the things that God tells you to
do to develop your spiritual na
ture, the same as you must do
the things God tells us for the
physical nature. If you sit and
wait you will wither and die. Tt
is the process of nature.
1 can strap this hand to my side
and by the time these meetings
close I'will not be able to lift my
hand to comb my hair., Why?
Because I have lost the use of it
through disuse. There was a
time I could use it and wouldn’t
use it. Now when I can use it
I can’t use it because I wouldn’t
use it when I could use it,
Take my ecye, for instance., 1
can shut that eye and bandage
it and keep it shut for three
weeks; that eye would grow
weaker through disuse and the
other would grow stronger
through use and when I remove
that bandage I can't see your face
when I leave you. That is the
principle of religion.
The man in the cave used to
cover his eves, having no use for
eyes in the dark subterranean
caves, and he became blind. If
vou don’t use what God is giving
you to use, God will take it away
from you. All through life you
will see it.
Now you eat what I tell you to
eat and let alone what I tell you
to let alone; but if you want to
know if what I say is true, you
will have to will to do what I
tell you to do.
Now then, all foods must con
tain three things, or none of
three ' things; carbonates, ni
trates and phosphates. Carbon
ates and niirates for heat and fat
and phosphates for brain and
nerve. If we ate nothing but
foods that contained all carbon
ate products we would all dle,
Butter, and cocoa, and chocolate
are foods that contaln all of these
three qualities to build you up.
There is more nourishment in
milk than an one diet in the
world, known to the human race.
1 our stomach was large enough
we could all live on milk, Now,
if you want to know if what 1
say is true, will to do what I tell
you to do.
We believe in the light of evi
dence. I can go down to the
courthouse and convict anyone of
you on a charge or I can set you
free. For 1900 years the light of
evidence has flashed about Jesus
Christ until He stands out the
grandest individual.
So, man is the only being on
earth to whom we can teach
something about God. Man can
tell. I can teacii you something
about a place you have never
seen or about a being you have
never seen, God and Heaven.
Man is the only being that has
a soul and therefore he is the
only one to whom you can teach
anything about something he has
never seen,
Moral faculties—did you ever
see a dog that had morals? No.
Cow? No. Cat? No, Horse?
No. Why? They have no soul.
Cat, dog, cow, horse, hog, they
do not know right from wrong.
They have no moral conception.
Why? They have no soul.
You know right from wrong,
therefore you are capable of be
ing taught for you have got an
immortal soul and it is that thing
that knows right from wrong and
that God Almighty wants to save.
If yéu ever had been born in
Chicago over in little Hell, you
would have heard nothing but
vile words and you would not
have as high moral ideals as you
have now. You can educate
vourself that that is right when it
is wrong.
So therefore, the conscience of
man, memory, imagination, will
power, they are all facultles of
the mind. Seeing, hearing, smell
ing and tasting and touching are
faculties of the body, but the soul
has three faculties which neither
the mind cr body control. First,
mind; second, faith; and third,
conscience.
A fellow says to me, “TI will fol
low my conscience.” You are like
the farmer that follows the hind
wheel when he comse itne town.
It is the first thing that comes
into town and the last thing that
goes out of town.
A fellow said to me, “Didn't
your God make conscience as a
guide?”
“Maybe He did.”
When he created Adam and
Eve he gave them a conscience.
But Adam and Eve ate the for
bidden fruit and sin came to the
world through disobhedience,
Their conscience and faith and
moral facultles went down in the
fall.
Anl therefore God Almighty
Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox
and all the other delightful critters of Joel
Chandler Harmns' Uncle Remus stories
come to your home every day in
The Georgian.
There’s an Uncle Remus
story every day in The
Atlanta Georgian
Read them to the kiddies—one on the
magazine page every day.
not yield yourself to Jesus.
Over in Assyria they dug up an
stepped in and inspired men and
women with the Holy Ghost to
write His Word and there is the
only infallimle rule of faith and
prayer for any being on earth,
God's Word.
Your conscience is a good guide,
if it has been regenerated, but if
it has not it will take you to hell.
There are men and women fol
lowing their conscience and they
are 8o close to hell that they can
look into the pit now., Let me
illustrate,
I jump on a horse outside of the
Tabernacle and I ask someons,
“How far is it to such a place?”
“Sixteen miles.”
I drive the spur into the horse
and I ride and ride and ride and
an hour goes and the steed is cov
ered with foam and I stop and
say, “How far to ————7"
“Thirty-two miles.”
“Why, they told me it was six
teen miles.”
“Yes, but you have ridden six
teen miles in the wrong direc
tion.”
I had followed my conacience,
I thought I was going the right
way but that did not cut any ice.
Follow your conscience and It
will take you nearer to hell and
further away from Heaven.
Out in India at the time of the
plague, an Indian mother would
take her baby out to the chop
ping block in front of the {dol
and pick up a hatchet and chop
off its fingers. If that does not
stop the plague she will carry it
back and chop off the hands. If
that does not stop the plague she
wil carry her bleeding and moan
ing child back and chop off the
arms and if that does not stop
it she will carry the chold to the
sacred Ganges and toss it into the
mouth of the crocodiles and she
will stand as It crushes her baby
into a pulp and she will look upon
the blood-flecked foam, then she
will turn around and humming a
weird Oriental alr, she will go
back to her bungalow, her econ
science bearing record that she
did a good religious act.
She was taught that that was
right; she followed her conscience
when she did it. You were taught
that was wrong and you followed
your conscience when you did not
do it. So consclence is not a
gulde at all. The Word of God is
the guide for anybody in this
whole universe.
Here is my body. Fourteen ele
ments, seventeen different com
binations. Yes. My eyes close and
they say I am dead. They put
me in a coffin, lower me into a
grave, fill up the grave, wherein
the process of slow decay takes
place, and in fifteen to twenty
vears I will go back again into
the dust of the earth. Or they
can shove me into a crematory,
where I will be reduced to ashes.
The lighter gases go up into
the air. They are redistilled and
God sends them back In the rain
and dew. There they are in
God's great big jars on the
shelves of His laboratory, waliting
for the day to come when by the
law of chemical affinity I will
build a body for men to live in,
and when you sit out there and
look at me and I look at you, we
are simply looking at the houses
you and I live in,
‘When God tells you to do some
thing you are moved. When God
fays you have lived here long
enough you move over there, then
you are put into the grave. They
won't put you in the grave. They
will put the old shell that you
used to live in. That is the thing
that God wantg to save, and at
last, when you stand on that nar
row neck of land and the waves
of eternity are washing the stains
from about you and beneath your
feet and you stand alone with
vour memory and conscience and
1t will say, “Remember, you
heard.” And you will say, “God,
1 have forgotten it.”
Lord Bacon says, “The human
and Intelligent never forget.”
At some time in your life
everything you have ever known
will pass in front of your mind
like a panorama, and at last,
when you stand and God turns
the secret spring, your memory
will do its work. You will again
see my face ancd hear my voice.
You will again have it all brought
back to wvou; the opportunities
you had and rejected and would
inscription and they read the hiss
tory of Babylon and Assyrial
Every day you live and every act
you perform and every deed sis
being written down in the sofg
clay of your memory, and when
Ged touches the secret srring
your memory will do its work.
You will recall all the sermons
you heard. God pity you. I can't
do anything for you. Why
should 1?
[ read the other day of a man
who had vast estates and he
saved, and after nearly 60 years
of work and toil he was going to
sunny Italy, there to build an old
vine-clad castle, and there spend
the last years of his life in com
fort; and he sold ¢ll his estates:
and bought a pearl of fabulous &
price. To guard against anything 2
happening to it he had a rose
wood jeweled case made, inside °
of which he placed his pearl; »
and he locked that case with 8,
gold lock and a gold key.
Still dissatisfled with the pro- '
vision for its safety, he had a .
stronger box made, inside of '
which he placed rne former, and ,
he locked that with a silver lock °
and a silver key.
Still dissatisfled with that, ne
had another made, and he placed
the case inside of this box and
locked that with an iron lock and
iron key. And to pass away the
time of the wearisome journey he
walked on the deck of the ship,
and, seeing a boy selling apples
from a basket, he berrowed one—
two—three, up to nine, and these
he tossed into the air, and be
cause of his skill, the passengers
applauded him. He, flattered by
their words, returned the apples
to the boy. Bowing low, he said, ‘
“Thank you.”
This to the ladies: “If you witi
wait a few minutes I truly will
show you my skill. Thi: is no
test.”
He hurried into the cabin, and
put the iron key in the iron
lock—the silver key in the silver
lock—ths golden key in the gold
en lock—and, reaching into the
rosewood casket, he took the
pearl from its velvety nest. Hs
pressed it to his lips, He said:
“Captain, thie pearl represents
the toll, the sweat and hardships
and the savings of a lifetime, and
I am going to exchange it for a
castle and a life of ease and for
the turquoise skies of Italy.”
The captaln said, “Don’t loss
n" :
“Ha, ha, ha,” replied he. “You
don’t need to have any fear.”
Returning to the d he
passed it to the ladles.
were charmed by its beauty.
They handed it back to him, and
he stepped to the gunwale of the
ship. Leaning far over, he tossed
it into the air. Watching it, he
caught it as it descended, saying,
“There it is.'
Leaning farther over still, he
tossed it agaln and caught it
again.
A lady screamed, and, seizing
an apple from the little boy, said,
“Here, take this; and if there is
any further evidence of your skill
needed, use the apple! Give me
the pearl!™
He laughed her to scorn, and
said, “My eyes are as keen as an
eagle’'s, my nerves are as true as
the compass’' magnetic needle.”
Leaning far over, he threw it
high into the air, watching it as
it descended—when suddenly the
ship gave a 'arch! Down into
the fathomiess depths went his
peari! The ship sped on. He
smote himself upon his breast,
crying:
“Fool, fool that I am’' to risk
my all, with nothing for pay but
the plaudits of a passing crowd.”
And in that respect the lives of
some people are like him. You
give up your lives for the ap
plause of the people, for the priv
ilege of sitting with your feet un
der their table, for the privilege
of having them call you a “dead
ame sport!”
5 Some day you will toss it for
the last time. You will toss it
too far. Some day that old frafl
bark will give a lurch, and down
into the fathomless depths of hell
you will go, and you will be lost
forever, because you wouldn't do
God’'s will.
Jesus, we pray now that Thou
wilt bless this great throng., T
am too tired to say more,
Amen.
11