899
THE KING’S BUSINESS
thing that demands your faith. As a mes senger of heaven, I demand that faith; if you do not choose to give it, on your own head be the doom, if there be such, if there be not, you are prepared to risk it. But I have done my duty; I have told you the tru th ; that is enough, and there I leave it. Oh, Christian, instead of disputing, let me tell thee how to prove your religion. Live it out! Live it out! Give the external as well as the internal evidence; give the external evi dence of your own life. You are sick; there is your neighbor who laughs at relig ion; let him come into your house. When he was sick, he said, “Oh, send for the doc tor” ; and there he was fretting, and fum ing, and whining, and making all manner of noises. When you are sick, send for him tell him that you are resigned to the Lord’s will; that you will kiss the chastening rod; that you .will take the cup, and drink it, because your Father gives it. You do not need to make a boast of this, or it will lose all its power; but do it because you cannot help it. Your neighbor will say, “There is something in that.” And when you come to the borders of the grave '¿—he was there once, and you heard how he shrieked, and how frightened he was—give him your hand, and say to him, “Ah, I have a Christ that will do to die by; I have a religion that will make me sing in the night.” Let me hear how you can sing, “Victory, victory, victory!” through Him that loved you. I tell you, we may preach fifty thousand sermons to prove the gospel, but we shall not prove it half so well as you will through singing in the night. Keep a cheerful frame; keep.a happy heart; keep a contented spirit; keep your eye up, arid your heart aloft, and you prove Christian ity better than all the Butlers, and all the wise men that ever lived. Give them the analogy of a holy life, and then you will prove religion to them; give them the evi dence of internal piety, developed exter nally, and you will give the best possible proof of Christianity.
“Oh, full of all subtelty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of the righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord.” That is about the politeness such men ought to have who deny God’s truth. We start with this assumption: we will prove that the Bible is God’s word, but we are not going to prove God’s word. If you do not like to believe it, we will shake hands, and bid you go’od-by; we will not argue .with you. The gospel has gained little by discussion. INFIDELITY FOLLY The greatest piece of folly on earth has been to send a man rotind the country, to follow another up who has been lecturing on infidelity just to make himself notorious. Why, let them lecture on; this is a free country; why should ' we. follow .them about? The truth will win the day. Chris tianity need not wish for controversy; it is strong enough for it, if it wishes it; but that is nat God’s way. God’s direction is, “Preach, teach, dog matize.” Do not stand disputing; claim a divine mission; tell men that God says it, and there leave it. Say to'them, “He that believeth shall be saved, and he that believ- eth not shall be damned” ; and when you have done that, you have done enough. For what reason should our missionaries stand disputing with Brahmins? Why should they be wasting their time by attempting to refute first this dogma, and then another, of heathenism? Why not just go and say, “The God whom ye ignorantly worship, I declare unto you; believe me, and you will be saved; believe me not, and the Bible says you are lost.” And then, having thus asserted God’s word, say, “I leave it, I declare it unto you; it is a thing for you to believe, not a thing for you to reason about.” A RELIGION OF FAITH Religion is not a thing merely for your intellect; a thing to prove your own talent upon, by making a syllogism on it; it is a
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