So fearfully did his voice, and look, and manner express apprehension, as
if something were about to fall upon the congregation, that there was a
sudden startled cry of terror. There were cries of "Lord! Lord! have
mercy!" Smothered shrieks and sobs filled the air; pale faces stared at
each other like spectres. People fell upon their knees, and cried out
that they felt the power of the Lord. "My soul sinks in deep waters,
Selah;" cried the preacher, "but they are the waters of grace and faith,
and I am convicted of all my sins." Then pausing a moment, while the vast
crowd swayed and shook with the tumult of emotion, with his arms
outspread, the veins on his forehead swollen, and the light flashing in
his eyes, he raised his arms and eyes to heaven, and said, with
inexpressible sweetness, in tones which seemed to trickle with balm into
the very soul, as soft spring rains ooze into the ground, "Yea, it is at
hand, but so art thou! Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly; and when youth,
and hope, and love have become dead weights and burdens in these young
hearts, teach them how to feel the peace that passeth understanding. Draw
them to thee, for they, wearily labor: they are heavily laden, gracious
Father! Oh, give them rest!"
"Come!" he exclaimed, "freely come! It is the eternal spring of living
water. It is your life, and it flows for you. Come! come! it is the good
shepherd who calls his flock to wander by the still waters and in the
green pastures. Will you abide outside? Then, woe! woe! when the night
cometh, and the shepherd folds his flock, and you are not there. Will
you seek Philosophy, and confide in that? It is a ravening wolf, and ere
morning you are consumed. Will you lean on human pride--on your own
sufficiency? It is a broken reed, and your fall will be forever fatal.
Will you say there is no God?"--his voice sank into a low, menacing
whisper--"will you say there is no God?" He raised his hands warningly,
and shook them over the congregation while he lowered his voice. "Hush!
hush! lest he hear--lest he mark--lest the great Jehovah"--his voice
swelling suddenly into loud, piercing tones--"Maker of heaven and earth,
Judge of the quick and the dead, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End, the eternal Godhead from everlasting to everlasting, should
know that you, pitiable, crawling worm--that you, corrupt in nature and
conceived in sin! child of wrath and of the devil! say that there is no
God! Woe, woe! for the Judge cometh! Woe, woe! for the gnashing of teeth
and the outer darkness! Woe, woe! for those who crucified him, and
buffeted him, and pierced him with thorns! Woe, woe! for the Lord our
God is a just God, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. But oh! when
the day of mercy is past! Oh! for the hour--sinner, sinner, beware!
beware!--when that anger rises like an ingulfing fiery sea, and sweeps
thee away forever!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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