Let my hearers hearken 7. But, enough for the present. to my text: "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word." (1 Kings xviii. 21.) Having stated the historical connection of the text in previous discourses, I hasten to lay down the following proposition: THAT IT IS UNREASONABLE, UNCOMFORTABLE, AND DANGEROUS TO HALT BETWEEN TWO OPINIONS IN MATTERS OF RELIGION-IN THE CONCERNS OF THE SOUL AND ETERNITY. It is so especially, 1st. To a backslider. 2d. To an unconverted church-member, who has been halting, limping so long between the church and the world, that the disorder has become chronic, and who, to the present day, has has no cure for his wavering inconstancy—this spiritual palsy! 3d. To the skeptic, who has long been wavering between Christianity and blank infidelity. 4th. To the deceptive sinner, who is not what he appears to be, indifferent to the whole matter; awakened he is, though he tries to conceal it, and, by his high head in prayer time and careless air, would make believe he has no concern about the matter. Were he to sicken unto death in our midst, or meet with an accident going home, it would be otherwise with him; or, were he honestly now to express the feelings of his heart, his bearing would, perhaps, be of a different character! 5th. To the penitent sinner. To each one of these I proceed to say, and to prove, that to halt thus between two opinions is unreasonable and uncomfortable and exceedingly dangerous.* * Mr. Caughey has not furnished us with more than this outline of his The reader must accept it as a fragment.-ED. sermon. "Led by the magnet o'er the tides, The bird to unseen shores: With wings that o'er the waves expand, FTEN have I repeated these lines, and kindred ones in the same piece, when walking the ship's deck by night and by day, far out at sea, watching the magnet the while, and the ship's course, and the liberality of the breeze. Knowing our point of compass toward our port of destination, the fact of the vessel so steering, wind and steam, sails and machinery all working together harmoniously to further the object, was charming. To captain, mates, sailors, steersman, and passengers, that point of compass to which it was desired the vessel should sail was the prevailing idea: blow high or low the winds, whether steering through light or through darkness, or whether through stress of weather keeping her away a point or two, the true point was always the one object of interest to return to which, with a favoring breeze, all sail set, the delight of all on board! Well, what the magnet is to the helmsman, a text of Scrip ture is to me, frequently, when delivering an exhortation or preaching a sermon. Fixing upon a point of destination, my text, like the compass, indicates it; by that I steer, though, through stress of weather, I may have to bear away a point or two, or sometimes change course entirely, for the purpose of picking up a poor sinner floating upon some raft of skepticism, or hope, or despair, or one like to perish in some foundering bark that had never been built of Gospel timber; or to deliver a broadside against the squadron under satanic command-bringing them to-board them, man them, and dispatch the prizes, under the banner of Immanuel, for the port of glory!—or bear away on another point, signalizing one bearing our own flag, and yet another showing different, but true Christian colors!-oh! fine employment this!—and on another tack, intercept a backslider who has lowered Christ's flag to Satan-assist him to hoist and unfurl his colors again!— and soon after, speak a poor fellow who has lost his spiritual reckoning, and, after putting him in possession of his true latitude and longitude, we bear away again upon the point indicated in our magnet-glowing, may be, with those sentiments we have often hummed on deck, accompanied by the solemn bass of the rolling sea: "Yet not alone, for day and night Escort us o'er the deep; And round our solitary flight The stars their vigils keep; Above, beneath, are circling skies, "Yet not alone, for round us glow The vital light and air; And something that in whispers low Tells to man's spirit there Along our waste and dreary road, A present, all-pervading God!" Oh! but in many such deviations from my main point and wanderings away from my text, many a poor sinner has been rescued from something infinitely worse than a watery grave! And sorely have I been criticised for such "eccentricities," as they are called. But all that sort of thing is of little consequence, if souls are saved. A ship's movements at sea may appear very eccentric, when viewed from the deck of a distant vessel, if her commander's motives are not understood, and the telescope is good for nothing, or the focal arrangement is mismanaged! The captain, more intent upon saving life in jeopardy, than gaining credit for good seamanship, or making a quick voyage, cares but little for such criticisms; neither do I, with all due respect. The truth is, brethren-and I need hardly tell you what I am persuaded you already know and believe-that my great object is to do good-immediate good, without any ambition to shine as an acute sermonizer. I never have had much reputation for that, and so have been happily relieved from anxiety to sustain pulpit character in that regard, such as is often displayed in an ingenious method of elucidating some proposition or other, or more commonly in the firstly, secondly, and thirdly order. Not that I always discard these; but dearer to my heart it is to see a first, a second, the third, or the thirtieth sinner converted during a service, than to know some credit has been won by a strict adherence to system. If in straying somewhat out of the way, some poor sinner is arrested and brought into the way, it concerns me little that "good judges of preaching" have been disappointed, if the expectations of Christ and his angels are realized. I can bear to know that certain persons here below are displeased, if fully persuaded there has been joy in heaven over one repentant sinner. (Luke xv. 7.) Hearken! Gal. vi. 14: "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." And this is my magnet. Not in a material cross of gold, or silver, or brass, or iron, or wood, or paper, such as the Roman Catholic glories in, did Paul glory, but in the doctrines of the cross! Paul had much in which he might have gloried; in his origin, "a Hebrew of the Hebrews," and "of the tribe of Benjamin," the most beloved son of the patriarch Jacob; in moral character, "as touching the law blameless;" in his learning also, and zeal, and sufferings for the cause of Christ. But in none of these would he glory. In the cross of Christ he did glory, that is, in the grand doctrine of Christ crucified for the sins of the whole world, and the great salvation flowing therefrom-justification by faith, holiness, and eternal life! Let "A sincere inquirer after truth" hearken. If my silence has given boldness to one of your old friends, he quite mistakes the cause. Had there been anything worth replying to, he might have heard from me. This may shock his vanity; but if he reserved a copy, he might, by reading it over, be of my opinion: 'Huge reams of folly-shreds of wit His opposition, and that of others, do not surprise me. |