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 SERMONS OF 
 REV. R.G. PEARSON 
 
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 flTHE GREAT EVANGELIST 
 
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 ■ Rev. R.G.PEARSON, 
 
 
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 DELIVERED IN CENTENARY M. E. CHURCH, 
 
 WINSTON, N. C. 
 
 1§| During one of the Greatest Religious Revivals in the History of North 
 
 Carolina. 
 
 
 September 16 to October 4, 188S. 
 
 REPORTED AND COMPILED BY 
 
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 GORMAN 
 
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 ' 1888. 
 
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 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 
 f-i 
 
 In response to numerous requests from those who heard the sermons 
 of Mr. Pearson, and desire to preserve them in a compact form, a 
 limited edition of this pamphlet has been published. 
 
 It contains all the sermons reported by me for the Twin City Daily, 
 with additions to several of them, and those to Business Men and the 
 Young Men, which have not been printed in any form heretofore. 
 
 The reader will understand that these are not verbatim reports, but 
 faithful, extended outlines, and are essentially correct in every par- 
 ticular. 
 
 MAXWELL GORMAN. 
 
 Winston, N. C, October, iSSS. 
 
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THE GREAT EVANGELIST, 
 
 His Arrival in Winston — A Sketch of his Life, and 
 an Outline of his Opening Sermons. 
 
 Rev. R. G. Pearson arrived in Winston Saturday, Sept. 15th, 1SS8, 
 and on Sunday night, Sept. 1 6th, began a series of meetings in that 
 handsome and commodious House of God, the Centenary Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, which continued with daily increasing interest for 
 nearly three weeks. 
 
 Many souls were converted, and thousands of professing Christians 
 had their faith materially strengthened by the burning words of this 
 admirable man of God. 
 
 Mr. Pearson was born in Starkville, Mississippi, and is therefore a 
 Southern man by birth, and one in principle. He received a full col- 
 legiate education at the Cooper Institute, of Mississippi, and from there 
 he went to the Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, where 
 he graduated in the theological department in 1S76. He then returned 
 to Mississippi, and as his first pastorate took charge of the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church at Tupelo, in that State. He retained the pastor- 
 ate of this Church for two years, and during that time erected a hand- 
 some Church edifice, and added many to his congregation. 
 
 He was then called as pastor to the Cumberland Presbyterian 
 Church at Columbia, Tenn., and during a period of two years that he 
 remained there he held a number of revivals, at which many were 
 converted. 
 
 Pie was called to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Nashville, 
 Tennessee, as assistant pastor to the Rev. A. J. Baird, with the under- 
 standing that one-half of his time should be devoted to evangelistic 
 work. After one year of harmonious and satisfactory service in this 
 capacity, Mr. Pearson decided to devote himself to evangelistic work 
 entirely, and for the past six years has devoted himself constantly to 
 that work. At first his meetings were "denominational," but his labors 
 were so blessed that he received repeated invitations from churches of 
 all denominations to hold "union" meetings, which induced him to 
 
2 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 conduct "non-denominational" meetings. During the time he has 
 been engaged in this 'work he has labored in the following States: — 
 Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, Texas, 
 Mississippi and Alabama, and in the Cities of Nashville, Evansville, St. 
 Louis, Dallas, Memphis and Vicksburg. 
 
 In 1S78 Mr. Pearson married Miss Bowen of Oxford, Mississippi, 
 who was then a teacher in the Union Female College, from which 
 institution she had previously graduated. • Since her marriage she has 
 been a faithful and efficient helpmeet to Mr. Pearson, aiding him in his 
 great work in a quiet, womanly, but effective manner that has gained 
 her the love and admiration of all who know her. 
 
 His manner of preaching is entirely free from all the claptrap and 
 trickery frequently resorted to by evangelists. He preaches the gospel 
 in a plain but forcible and eloquent style, as all who have attended his 
 meetings can testify, and he seems to imbue his hearers with a portion 
 of his own great earnestness in the work he is doing. 
 
 Three years since he was offered the pastorate of Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church of Louisville, Kentucky, but being deeply im- 
 pressed with the conviction that he was called of God to do the work 
 of an evangelist, he declined the offer. 
 
 While he is a Cumberland Presbyterian himself, and believes in 
 maintaining Church organization, he feels that his work is that of a 
 "general evangelist," and he wishes those who may be converted 
 through his instrumentality to join any Church that their consciences 
 dictate. 
 
 During the past twelve months Mr. Pearson has held meetings at 
 Statesville, Salisbury, Raleigh, Newbern, Wilmington and Asheville, 
 all of which have resulted in great good. 
 
 The noted evangelist (who, by the way, is now a North Carolinian, 
 being a citizen of Asheville) is a slender, delicate-looking man, with an 
 effeminate voice, and appears to be about thirty-seven years of age. 
 There is nothing about his appearance to indicate power or strength, 
 but intellectually he possesses both of these in an eminent degree, as 
 an audience soon perceives. 
 
HIS FIRST SERMON'S. 
 
 HIS FIRST SERMONS. 
 
 Over two thousand people were packed into the Church and Sunday 
 School annex when Mr. Pearson arose to preach his first sermon. 
 
 He took his text from Gallations, 6th chap, and 7th verse: "Be not 
 deceived ; God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man sovveth that shall 
 he also reap." 
 
 He divided his subject into four divisions, and by illustrations and 
 terse language expounded the great truths of His word in a most 
 effective way. Mr. Pearson is not a great orator, but he has the knack of 
 seizing right hold of an audience and commanding its earnest attention 
 from the moment he begins to talk until the last syllable is uttered. 
 He proved by scriptural quotations, and by modern illustrations, that 
 like begets like; that "whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also 
 reap." 
 
 Mr. Pearson preached on Monday night, Sept. 17th, to another 
 immense congregation of people. His subject was " Faith and Works," 
 which he divided into three propositions: How is a man justified in 
 the sight of God? How is a man justified in the sight of men? The 
 relation between faith and works. 
 
 Mr. Pearson held that a man is justified in the sight of God by faith, 
 and by faith alone; that he must have a full and abiding faith in God, 
 through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and that a mere assent to 
 the correctness of the scriptures is not belief. 
 
 Man is justified in the sight of men by his works. An alleged 
 Christian maybe a member of the Church; he may say that he believes 
 it is wrong to cheat his neighbor, to play cards for money, to drink 
 whiskey, &c, but if he believes this, and then goes to work and cheats 
 his neighbor, plays cards for money, and drinks whiskey, he is not a 
 child of God. He must practice what he believes. "By their works 
 shall ye know them." 
 
 Faith and works go hand in hand. A man who has the right kind 
 of faith will do good works; and the man who, in his daily lite, "goes 
 about doing good," is apt to have more or less faith in him. 
 
 Mr. Pearson handled his subject in a masterly manner, and at the 
 conclusion of the services many accepted the invitation to pass into the 
 enquiry room. 
 
 & £ 5fc :£ :£ * ^ + 3< 
 
 Up to this time it had not occurred to me to attempt any extended 
 
4 AN OUTLINE OF Hid SERMON'S. 
 
 reports in our daily paper, the space at our command being limited; 
 but the interest so increased that I concluded to devote more space to 
 our notices of these meetings. However, I took no notes until the 
 following Monday night, and the first four sermons, of which a synop- 
 sis is given, are briefed entirely from memory, and of course are not 
 perfect. The remaining ones are reported from abbreviated long-hand 
 notes, and are essentially correct in every particular. 
 
 i 
 
 THERE MUST BE BLOOD. 
 
 Rev. R. G. Pearson preached again Wednesday night, Sept. 19th, to 
 a congregation of about two thousand people. He took his text from 
 the 1 2th chapter of Exodus: "And when I see the blood I will pass 
 over you." As usual, Mr. Pearson secured the earnest attention of 
 his audience from the beginning and held it throughout the evening. 
 
 There were three facts that he wanted to impress upon his hearers : 
 There must be blood; it must be shed blood ; it must be applied blood. 
 Here it was the blood of the paschal lamb, his shed blood, that was to 
 be applied to the door-post. Just why it should be applied to the door 
 post, instead of on the wall, or on the roof, is none of our business. 
 God said apply it to the door post, and that is sufficient. 
 
 "There is one thing, and one thing only, that will cleanse the soul 
 from sin, and that is the atoning blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 "A man who has lived in sin may reform, he may turn over a new 
 leaf, and lead in the future a strictly moral and upright life. But that 
 does not wipe out the transgressions of the past. 
 
 " Here is a man, his name is Smith. He has been buying goods for 
 ten years from Jones, the grocery merchant, and he has been behind 
 in his accounts all along. Well, he reforms, and resolves to pay his 
 debts more punctually in the future. He goes to Jones and says : 
 'Jones, Eve been trading with you a long time, and I know I am in 
 debt to you; but, Jones, Eve resolved to hereafter pay cash for what I 
 get.' What will Jones say ? He will say something like this: 'Well, 
 Smith, I am glad to hear it, and I hope you'll stick to it; but, Smith, 
 how about the money you already owe me? How about the groceries 
 you ate up ten years ago, Smith ?' 
 
THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 5 
 
 " If Smith is a truly reformed man he will wipe out that debt as soon 
 as he is able to do so. 
 
 " And every reformed sinner has a debt to wipe out, and there is 
 only one way to wipe it out. 
 
 "You may be earnest and sincere about your intentions for the 
 future; you may join a Church and be baptized, either by sprinkling or 
 pouring or Immersion; you may go up to the altar and partake of the 
 sacrament — but that of itself is not going to carry you to heaven. 
 
 " ' Ye must be born again.' You must truly and earnestly repent of 
 your past transgressions. There is not enough water in the Atlantic 
 ocean to wash away your sins. It must be blood! It must be shed 
 blood ; it must be applied blood — the atoning blood of our Lord and 
 Savior, Jesus Christ! 
 
 " Christ's blood was shed for you. Have you applied it? Where 
 did you apply it. Ah, dying men, some of you have that blood under 
 your feet to-night, and you are stamping upon it!" 
 
 Mr. Pearson preached one hour, and then the usual enquiry meeting 
 was held. A great many remained to talk with Mr. Pearson and the 
 pastors present, and a number of conversions are reported, while there 
 is hardly a Christian who has heard this wonderfully gifted man whose 
 Christian faith has not been materially strengthened. This was only 
 his fourth sermon, but he had already made an impress upon these 
 towns and this people such as no minister who has preceded him ever 
 succeeded in doing. 
 
 WHAT IS YOUR SOUL WORTH, DYING MAN? 
 
 Rev. R. G. Pearson preached again on the night of Sept. 20th, to an 
 immense congregation of people. His subject was, " What shall it 
 profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul." 
 
 As is his habit, Mr. Pearson divided his subject under different 
 heads, and then dissected it in a clear and masterly manner. His 
 power of analysis is his strongest point. 
 
 " What is your soul worth ? A man comes to you and asks : What 
 will you take for one of your eyes? Will you sell it? No, it is not 
 in the market. What will you take for your right arm? Why, you 
 will not sell it at any price. 
 
6 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 " Well, if your poor mortal body, which in a few years will be eaten 
 by the worms and return to its native dust — if this mortal part of you 
 is so valuable how much more priceless ought your immortal soul to 
 be. It is indeed valuable. It is worth the blood of Jesus Christ, who 
 so freely shed it for your soul's salvation. It is worth the life of Christ 
 who died to save you/ 
 
 " And yet there are men within the sound of my voice who are bart- 
 ering away their souls to the devil in yonder grog shop, in that gamb- 
 ling hell, and in all these dens of iniquity ! Selling your immortal soul 
 to the devil for a mess of pottage, when you will not barter your right 
 arm at any price. 
 
 " Can you lose your soul ? You can ! Skeptics say differently. 
 But we are not here to discuss the views of skeptics. God says you 
 can lose it, and what God says is so ! The Bible does not lie. Indeed 
 your soul is already lost, unless you repent and are forgiven. Man is 
 born with the elements of sin in him. That is why it is so hard to do 
 right in all respects. 
 
 "Ye are condemned already. You may have been a very moral man 
 all your life. You may never have done anything very wrong, and yet 
 if you are living to-night without having accepted Jesus as your 
 Savior, without a true and abiding belief in the Bible, you are travel- 
 ing the road that leads to hell, and nowhere else. 
 
 " You haven't got to do anything to get into hell. You are con- 
 demned already, and you will get there without any additional efforts 
 on your part, unless you accept the teachings of the Bible and accept 
 Christ as your Savior. 
 
 "The only difference between you and the man who died in his sins 
 is this: Both of you are condemned. Judgment has been executed on 
 the dead man, and he is beyond redemption, while you stand a chance 
 of being pardoned. And it all rests with you. 
 
 " How can we lose our soul? Well, in an infinite variety of ways, 
 and one of the most common is by neglect. 
 
 " My friends, Winston is one of the most moral, temperate communi- 
 ties I ever visited. But let me say to you : The business men of this 
 town are going to hell wrapped in the shroud of their business ! They 
 are thinking more about their business than they are thinking about 
 their souls. God grant that they may give more serious thought to 
 their eternal welfare ! 
 
 "What is it that is lost?" Under this head Mr. Pearson depicted 
 the delights of heaven and the torments of the damned. 
 
 I 
 
AN OUTLINE OF HIS SERMONS. 7 
 
 "Suppose you die an unforgiven sinner, and you look up out of hell 
 and are given a view of heaven. And there in that Elysium you see 
 your sainted mother — she who taught you how to pray, ' Now I lay me 
 down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep' — and then the vision 
 vanishes and you are condemned to the torments of hell forever and 
 forever, world without end. Never to see that mother's face again, 
 never to hear her voice throughout all the ages of eternity. Oh, dying 
 man, are you going to stand condemned to such a fate as that by your 
 own obstinate, sinful refusal to ask God's forgiveness?" 
 
 Mr. Pearson concluded his sermon by asking and answering the 
 question: " Can souls be saved here to-night?" 
 
 " Now is the accepted time. Seek Him while He maybe found; 
 call ye upon Him while He is near." 
 
 THIS MAN RECEIVETH SINNERS. 
 
 Another immense throng of people greeted the appearance of Rev. 
 R. G. Pearson at Centenary M. E. Church Friday night, Sept. 21st. 
 His text was taken from Luke 15th chapter and 2ndvarse: "This 
 man receiveth sinners." 
 
 Mr. Pearson divided his subject under three heads, and then pro- 
 ceeded to analyze it in his usual clear and forcible manner. 
 
 "What kind of sinners will Christ not receive ? The unwilling. 
 Christ will not receive any man who comes to Him unwillingly. Nor 
 will He receive an unbeliever. You must accept Christ as your 
 Savior, and implicitly believe in the teachings of the Bible. And you 
 must be willing to foasake all your sins. You cannot renounce a por- 
 tion of them and retain one or more of your pet sins. Those pet sins 
 are the very ones you will be required to give up, and unless you 
 make up your mind to that effect it is useless to ask forgiveness of God. 
 
 "Unbelief is at the bottom of all sin. What is murder? Oh, you 
 say, that is a terrible crime. What is seduction ; what is theft ; what is 
 arson ? Oh, you say, those are terrible sins. Well, my friends, un- 
 belief is a greater sin than either, and is at the bottom of them all. 
 
 " There is a tree out there. A man comes along with an axe and 
 cuts it down. After a while little branches will spring up around the 
 remaining stump of the tree, until the stump is hidden from view. 
 You see those branches, they are conspicuous, but you do not see the 
 
8 AN OUTLINE OF HIS SERMONS. 
 
 old stump. How came those branches there ? Because down under 
 that stump is a root that still lives, and these little trees or branches 
 are the upshoots of it, the outcroppings of that stump's life. 
 
 " Those branches represent the sins I have named, and the other 
 minor sins, and that old stump and its living root represent the unbe- 
 lief that has taken hold of a man's soul and causes him to commit the 
 crimes represented by the offshoots. 
 
 "Unbelief is giving the lie to God. What greater insult could be 
 offered Him? 
 
 " What kind of sinners does Christ receive ? The truly penitent. 
 You have sinned. Go to God and acknowledge it. Tell Him that you 
 truly and earnestly repent. Throw yourself on His mercy. Don't go 
 to arguing with God about ' your rights ;' don't imitate the Pharisee 
 and thank God that you are not like other men. But pray the prayer 
 of the Publican, ' God be merciful to me, a sinner? Then make up 
 your mind to renounce all y owe sins. 
 
 "If you will do this, God will bless you. My word for it, God's 
 word for it, He will save you this night if you come to Him with your 
 heart filled with emotions like these. 
 
 " How does Christ receive sinners ? Through faith, and through 
 faith alone. Here is a man ; he tumbles over a precipice, and when 
 about half way down he catches onto a grape vine and arrests his 
 descent. There he hangs, suspended in mid air. He cannot go up 
 again, and his grip on the grape vine is not going to last long. 
 
 "Along comes the angel, Gabriel. Says Gabriel: ' Do you believe 
 I am Gabriel ?' ' Yes.' ' Do you believe I can save you now?' ' Yes.' 
 'Well, turn loose that grape vine!' 
 
 " Now if that man really believes in Gabriel, he will turn loose that 
 grape vine ; and if he doesn't turn it loose, it is a self-evident fact that 
 he does not believe what he says. 
 
 "The trouble with many of you to-night is, you are afraid to let go 
 of that grape vine. ' Well, you've got to do it, If you want to be saved." 
 
 Mr. Pearson drew a remarkably clear and beautiful picture of true 
 penitence. He also took occasion to compliment the choir and the 
 congregation. He said that, in all his experience, he had never seen 
 a people who were more prompt in coming to church o?i time, and in 
 preserving order and decorum after they got there. 
 
 No preaching Saturday, that being the evangelist's day of rest. 
 
AN OUTLINE OF HfS SERMONS. 
 
 BELIEVE ON THE LORD. 
 
 On Sunday night, September 23, (Mr. Pearson did not preach in the 
 morning at any church) another vast throng of people filled the church 
 and annex to hear Mr. Pearson. They began to file into the church 
 doors before 6 o'clock, and by 6:45 o'clock every seat was occupied and 
 many were turned away. The preliminary services did not begin untiL 
 7:30, but the immense congregation patiently waited until that hour. 
 
 At 8 o'clock Mr. Pearson made his appearance, and after a short,, 
 earnest prayer, took his text from Acts, 1 6th chapter and 31st verse r 
 " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 
 
 As will be seen from the text, his subject was Faith. 
 
 " What is faith ? What is the object of faith ? What is the unport- 
 ance of faith ? What is the philosophy of faith ? What is the utility of 
 faith ? 
 
 " Faith is confidence in God. Faith is the means of salvation, and 
 the only means of salvation. Faith is everything with the Christian. 
 You see those posts there which support that gallery. Well, those 
 posts must have a foundation upon which to rest, else they could not 
 support the gallery. God is the Rock of Ages, the foundation upon 
 which rests the posts of our faith, which support our Christian hope. 
 
 "The object of faith is to save sinners, and unless a penitent have 
 faith he cannot find peace. The importance of faith, then, is inestimable 
 to all who would be saved. It is of the utmost importance ; it is of 
 more importance to you than everything else in this world combined. 
 
 " Faith is the connecting link between a sinner and his salvation. 
 Let me give you a practical illustration : You go clown to the depot. 
 There stands an engine and a long line of cars. What is that engine 
 there for ? It is there to take those cars to their destination. Well, 
 how is it going to do it? Why, there is only one way : The engine 
 backs up to those cars and a man couples them together, and off both 
 engine and cars go. Now that engine never could have pulled those 
 cars had there not been a connection between them, could it? Just so 
 with us. Christ, the all-saving locomotive, stands ready to carry us to 
 heaven, if we will only link ourselves to Him, and Faith is the only 
 connecting link. Faith is the most philosophic thing in the world. 
 
 "'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.' 
 
 "What is the utility of faith? Why it is the very foundation of busi- 
 ness in every day life, and I can prove it. I will give you an illustra- 
 
IO THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 tion. I'll take a tobacco example; you go it pretty heavy on tobacco 
 in Winston. Suppose I go to one of your factories and I say to the 
 proprietor : ' I want a certain number of boxes of tobacco.' ' All right, 
 Mr. Pearson,' and he has the order filled. I go down in my pocket and 
 hand him a $500 U. S. treasury note. What is that piece of paper 
 worth? It is worth $500. Why? Because the U. S. government 
 pledges its faith to redeem it on demand. The manufacturer accepts 
 the bill, of course, and is glad to exchange his tobacco for that note. 
 He is so well pleased that he wants to know if he cannot sell me some 
 more tobacco. 
 
 "'Well,' says I, 'yes; you can duplicate the order.' When he has 
 done so I go down in my pocket again and hand him a $500 Confed- 
 erate bill. 
 
 "'Oh/ he says, ' I cannot accept that paper, Mr. Pearson.' I insist 
 on his taking it, but all my arguments will not induce him to accept it. 
 Why ? Because he has no faith in the ability of the defunct Confed- 
 eracy to redeem its promise to pay. 
 
 "Another illustration: Down there is a bank. You are a business 
 man, and every day, or once a week, you take your money to that 
 banker and deposit it with him for safe keeping. Why? Because 
 you have faith in that institution and in that officer of the bank, and 
 for no other reason in the world. If you believed that bank was 
 'shaky' or that that official was dishonest, you would not deposit your 
 money there. 
 
 " Well, if you can trust all your worldly wealth with another man, 
 can you not trust your soul with Christ ? 
 
 "Have faith in God, give your soul into His keeping; ' believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou sluilt be saved !' 
 
 "Faith, in our daily life, goes even farther: It is the basis of the 
 happiness of the home circle. Let a man lose coufidence in his wife ; 
 let him lose faith in her chastity, and there is no power on earth or in 
 heaven that can restore happiness to that home. 
 
 "On the other hand, let a wife have confidence in her husband; let 
 her have implicit faith in him, as her husband, and no man nor any 
 thing can destroy or shake that belief. 
 
 " You may accuse him ; you may prosecute him ; you may persecute 
 him ; you may hang him by the neck until he is dead, and she will 
 clasp his lifeless body in her arms, declaring her belief in him still. 
 
 " Then, have faith in God. Believe what this blessed Book tells you, 
 ' and thou shalt be saved.' 
 
 I 
 
BfAKING EXCUSES I I 
 
 "Talk about a man who relies on his faith 'going- it blind'! Could 
 you devise a more practical way of getting to heaven? Suppose it 
 were made a monetary consideration. Well, Jay Gould, Russell Sage, 
 and the other millionaires might get into heaven on those terms, but 
 what would become of the great mass of the people ? 
 
 Suppose it was made a question of physical strength. What would 
 become of the weak? Suppose it was made an intellectual qualifica- 
 tion. What would become of the great mass of comparatively ignor- 
 ant people ? Under any other condition than by faith, a large portion 
 of the human race could entertain no hope of heaven. But, thank 
 God, by faith every man can be saved, no person, need despair of 
 ultimately reaching Paradise. 
 
 " No, sir ; it is not ' going it blind ' when you rely on faith. I know 
 there is a God ; I know my Redeemer liveth ; I kncnv I have a home in 
 heaven, and I know I will some day be with Jesus and numbered with. 
 His saints above 1" 
 
 MAKING EXCUSES. 
 
 Mr. Pearson preached Monday night, Sept. 24th, from the text : 
 "And they all with one consent began to make excuse." — Luke 14:18. 
 
 " The majority of sinners have some excuse for not being a Christian. 
 Now I propose to take up a few of these and consider them, with a 
 view to showing you how untenable they are, and then leave the 
 responsibility with you. 
 
 "Well, here is a man who says he is not a Christian because he does 
 not believe in the Bible. I am not here to defend God's word or God's 
 gospel — they need no defence, and it doesn't affect the Bible one iota 
 whether you believe it or not; but it affects you, and it affects you very 
 seriously. 
 
 "There is a furnace with a red-hot fire in it. You may pretend to 
 believe that it will not burn. Well, your belief does not affect that 
 fire at all. It will burn all the same, and if you don't believe it, just 
 put your hand in it and see. 
 
 " Disbelief in a thing does not prevent that thing from accomplishing 
 its purpose, and you will be damned despite your alleged disbelief in 
 the Bible. Why don't you believe in the Bible ? Is it because you 
 
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 - •rA^<J-t-*-l*'!^(zc^-±^i *•■ S? cryy vest 
 
 
 5&^*H>»*TJ'?RW- 
 
12 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 have not given it a practical test, or because you do not comprehend 
 it all ? 
 
 "No, sir! You have no such reason. Your real ' reason ' is that 
 you love one or more of your sins better than you love your God. 
 Well, let me tell you that you will be judged by the Bible whether you 
 believe in it or not, and if you continue in your unbelief you will be 
 eternally damned! 
 
 r-N " Well, here is another man, and he says he would be a Christian, 
 
 -i~»^ but he doesn't understand the Bible, he doesn't understand Christianity, 
 
 ^\j^ and to accept what he does not' understand would be stultifying his 
 
 £i intellect. Uo you do that way about everything? You ate your din- 
 
 2 » ner yesterday, didn't you ? What did you eat ? ' Oh,' you say, ' I ate 
 
 C- a variety of things — meats, vegetables, &c.' Very well. Now, do you 
 
 c. know how some of that food makes brains, and some bone, and some 
 
 \ ■ muscle, and some blood? ' No,' you say, 'I do not.' Well, you did 
 
 -£;. not refuse to eat on that account, did you ? You will not refuse to eat 
 
 i- hereafter because you don't understand whether or how this or that 
 
 js^ article of food is going to make brains, or blood, or bone, or muscle, 
 
 JJ"» will you? If you do you will soon starve. 
 
 j\"^_ "There is a lawn out there, and when cattle eat that grass it makes 
 -■$? s£, . . . 
 
 , Vi chair, but vou don't know how it makes hair. And is that any argu- 
 
 --- ,'~- j- ment against eating beefsteak? A sheep eats it and it makes wool. 
 
 '' r- r Is that am - argument against eatin°- mutton ? A goose eats it and it 
 
 makes feathers. Is that any argument against sleeping on a feather 
 
 bed ? Certainly not. 
 
 "Because you do not understand all of the Bible, are you going to 
 
 reject the whole? There are many things in the Bible that I do not 
 
 understand. It is impossible for the finite mind to grasp it all, and 
 
 God did not intend that we should understand it all. But the things 
 
 which are essential to our salvation are as simple as can be, and are as 
 
 |J5 plain as the noon-day sun. 
 
 "" -it? Another man says it is very difficult to be a Christian, and that is 
 
 : \ f why he is not one. Well, do you reject all difficult things? Here is 
 
 7~tV Jones, and he has a large family. It is mighty hard for him to sup- 
 
 £ > port them comfortably, but by industry and perseverance he manages 
 
 ^~--' to do it. He doesn't turn his wife out into the street and send his 
 
 ' ~f*^ children to the poor-house, because it is difficult to make a living for 
 
 " ^-^"them. He surmounts the difficulty and supports his family, even if 
 
 -"""*! r he does have to struggle to do it. But it is not difficult to be a 
 o * * 
 
 Christian, if you go about it right. Where did you get that idea from ? 
 
 J ' My yoke is easyjind my burden is light.' ,- / 
 
 i ■ /v.- ■> ! ( s j! ' ' a/ ' -'- —*>*& k o 
 
MAKING EXCUSES. I 3 
 
 "The trouble is that so many professing Christians try to go to 
 heaven with the Bible under one arm and a barrel of whiskey under 
 the other — with a prayer-book in one hand and a pack of cards in the 
 other hand : the men who drink sacrimental wine on Sunday and 
 whiskey the balance of the week. 
 
 "Well, here is another man and he says: 'I'd be a Christian, but 
 there are so many hypocrites in the church.' Yes, there are hypocrites 
 in the church, and there always will be. Christ said there would 
 always be hypocrites in the church. But are you going to reject 
 Christ and salvation because some professing Christians are hypocrites? 
 You hold my note for $ioo, and I hand you ten $10 bills to cancel 
 that note. One of those $10 bills turns out to be a counterfeit. Would 
 you tear up the other nine because the tenth one was a counterfeit, and 
 declare that you would have nothing to do with money in the future ? 
 Of course not. Well, where is your consistency then ? Because the 
 devil has got some counterfeit Christians in the church are you going 
 to reject Christianity altogether? 
 
 " You don't want to be associated with the hypocrites, eh ? If all 
 the hypocrites and the devil himself join the church I am going to 
 stay there. The hypocrites will go to hell, and I will not. But if you 
 reject Christ you w r ill go to hell too, and be associated with hypocrites 
 through all the ages of eternity. I prefer to be associated with them a 
 little while in this world. This 'excuse' is only a trick the devil is 
 playing on you, and you don't know it. It reminds me of the way 
 they kill wild geese out West. The hunter makes a decoy goose and 
 puts it in the field, and then he digs himself a pit near the decoy goose 
 and gets into it, with a loaded gun. The real geese come flying over, 
 and they see that decoy goose, and it looks like a good place to feed, 
 and the one down there seems to be a real goose, and they alight there 
 too. And then the hunter pulls the trigger and they are dead geese. 
 Just so. While you stand off regarding the decoy-goose church 
 member, this counterfeit Christian, who is generally a prominent Sunday 
 School worker, the devil comes along and gets you — you are his game 
 
 " Here is another man, and he says he'd be a Christian, but there are 
 too many churches, all claiming to be right A specious but fallaci- 
 ous argument. There are a number of churches, and they differ 
 about minor matters, and in their forms of church government. But 
 they all agree upon the governing principle of the church of Christ. 
 They all believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world— 
 
 "~~ ** . ■' ^ ... . — ,_ ■*_, .._. ■ 
 
14 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 Methodists, Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, Moravians, and 
 Catholics. And you must believe in Christ or be .damned. 
 
 " But the unconverted man is not looking for any particular church ; 
 he is seeking salvation. Don't look to any particular church — look to 
 the one great Mediator. 
 
 '" Here is an hotel, five stories high. It catches afire, and a man in 
 :he top stories rushes upon the roof. There are several hook and 
 ladder companies there — some with red, and some with blue, and some 
 with black ladders. .That man wants to get off that roof, and he has 
 got to be in a hurry about it, too. Does he stop to ask which is the 
 best ladder company? No, sir; he don't want to know anything about 
 the company, he wants a ladder, and he doesn't stop to see whether it 
 is a red one, or a blue one, or a black one, either. So with you to- 
 night, You are not after any particular denominaton, it is Christ and 
 Christ's love that you want 
 
 "Well, another man says, 'Well, the Lord knows whether I am 
 going to be saved or not. He knows my destiny, and I have nothing 
 to do with it.' That is a metaphysical question gotten up by the devil- 
 Let me illustrate: Here is a man who has a good farm, a half dozen 
 good mules, plenty of farming implements, and four or five able-bodied 
 sons. He comes to me and asks me to give him some corn. Why 
 haven't you got corn? I ask hirn. ' No,' says he; 'you see the Lord 
 knew just how much corn I was going to raise anyhow, and it was no 
 use for me to bother about it. So I just laid down my plow, turned 
 out the mules, and sent the boys a-fishing. And I didn't raise a bit of 
 com.' Of course he didn't; but if he and his boys and his mules had 
 worked the good farm God gave him during the good seasons God sent 
 he would have had plenty of corn. 
 
 "Yes, God knows whether you are going to be saved or not. But 
 you are a free moral agent. Here are the means of salvation which 
 He offers you, and offers you freely, without money and without price. 
 Now, it is for you to say whether you will be saved or not. 
 
 "Are you afraid of ridicule? Is that fear keeping you away from 
 Christ ? Well, didn't they ridicule Christ? If a man ridicules you for 
 telling the truth, are you going to turn liar on that account ? If one 
 ridicules your honesty will you become a thief for that reason ? 
 
 "Well, here's a man who says that it will interfere with his business 
 to be a true Christian. If your business is in accord with the Ten 
 Commandments, religion is not going to interfere with it. 
 
 "But if you. are selling whiskey; if you are practicing extortion, and 
 
 J > Z) Z~"y* ' *,' ,.'•■■ <-< >_ ' U '' ';• -;- 1 !■■'• --• .:.-^-'-'^"~ 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 j 
 
 i 
 
> v ' i ■ ■ i • ■*■ 
 
 // • • _ \ t nri • f ■> '----<■-• ' • • 
 
 ■' / — ' '.*' •_■■. 
 
 fi ■ ' ' , -MAKING EXCUSES. ' 15 
 
 making the poor pay you an usurious interest; if you are renting your 
 houses out to liquor sellers and prostitutes, then religion rvill interfere 
 with your 'business,' and the sooner it interferes with it the better. 
 ' For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his 
 own soul ?' 
 
 " And, lastly, here comes a man who says, ' Oh, I am going to wait 
 until I am dying; then I'll get religion.' I have no patience and little 
 faith in death-bed repentance. It is an exceedingly hazardous and 
 improbable thing. Medical authority tells us that fully two-thirds of 
 the people who die, die in an unconscious state, and there is only one 
 case of death-bed repentance on record in Biblical history. 
 
 "Oh, be what you are from principle! Don't serve the devil all your 
 life, and on your death-bed ask God to accept your miserable worm- 
 eaten soul when you can serve the devil no longer. I wouldn't dart' 
 to make the offer, for the chances are God would not accept it. 
 
 " Lay your hand on your heart and ask yourself the question : ' Does 
 my 'excuse' satisfy my conscience and my intellect?' If not, stay 
 here to the enquiry meeting to-night. Setde this question to-night for 
 all time. Turn your face heavenward and be eternally saved!" 
 
 COMING TO CHRIST. 
 
 Centenary M. E. Church was filled with people again Tuesday night, 
 September 25th. Mr. Pearson took his text from John 6:37 — "Him 
 that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." 
 
 " What a blessed, tender word. ' Come.' One of the sweetest words 
 in the vocabulary. Come unto Me, all that are heavy laden and I will 
 give thee rest Come, and take of the water of life freely. 
 
 " We must not only want to come. We must not only expect to 
 come. But we must come ! 
 
 " I want to talk to the unsaved to-night, and to the penitent ones 
 especially. And I am going to ask seven questions, and then let the 
 Bible answer them: 
 
 1 . May I come to Jesus ? 
 
 2. Why should I come to Jesus ? 
 
 3. When should I come to Jesus ? 
 
 4. How should I come to Jesus ? 
 
5 
 
 1 6 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 5. Why have I not come to Jesus? 
 
 6. What if I never do come to Jesus ? 
 
 7. What if I do come to Jesus? 
 
 " First, then : May I come to Jesus? May /, a sinner; may I, a liar; 
 may /, a drunkard; may I, a profaner of God's name; may /, steeped 
 in iniquity as lam — may /come to Jesus? Yes, there are none so 
 low and degraded whom Christ will not save, if He is approached in the 
 right way. 
 
 " Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath 
 no money; come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk with- 
 out money and without price." — Isaiah 50:1. 
 
 "Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto 
 me and drink." — John J:^J. 
 
 " And the spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth 
 say, come. And 'let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will 
 let him take the water of life freely." — Revelations 22:17. 
 
 " Here we have God, the Father, saying, Come ! God, the Son, 
 saying, Come! God, the Holy Spirit, saying, Come! ' Ho, every one 
 that thirsteth, come!' 
 
 "Are you a human being? Then God says, come. Are you a 
 man? Christ says, Let every man come. The Holy Spirit says, 
 Whosoever may, let him come. 
 
 " No matter how fallen you are. No matter how infamous your past 
 life may have been, Christ stands ready to save you. And if you do 
 not get to heaven it will not be because you could not, but because you 
 would not. 
 
 " Second. Why should I come to Jesus ? Why not go to science, or 
 to Mohammed, or to Ingersoll ? Why? What does the Bible say in 
 this connection ? ' I am the way.' ' I am the way, the truth and the 
 life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.' — John 14:6. 
 
 "'No man cometh unto the Father but by Me!' Then you must 
 come to Jesus because you cannot reach God and heaven in any other 
 way. He is the only medium to heaven. Isn't that a good reason 
 why you should come to Christ ? You can't love God, you cannot 
 serve God, except through Christ. And unless you love God and 
 serve Him you cannot be saved. ' Neither is there salvation in any 
 other ; for there is none other name under heaven given among men 
 whereby we must be saved.' — Acts 4: 1 2. 
 
 " Christ is not only the way to God and to salvation, but He is the 
 only way. Through Him alone can you obtain eternal life. There is 
 
COMING TO CHRIST. 1 7 
 
 a Christ for even- sinner out of hell, and there is a hell for every sin- 
 ner out of Christ! 
 
 "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come 
 unto God by hfm, seeing he everliveth to make intercession for them." 
 — Hebrews 7:25. 
 
 " He is not only able to save you, and to save you n<nj t but he is 
 able to save you 'to the uttermost' — to the limits of eternity, if there- 
 be a limit to eternity. He saves us in life and he saves us in death. 
 
 So, here we have, first: The way to God ; second: The only way to- 
 salvation ; and third : The eternal way to salvation. 
 
 " Third. When should I come to Christ? Right now. This night - 
 this hour. ' Behold now is the accepted time ; behold ?iow is the day of 
 salvation.' — II Corinthians 7:12. 
 
 " Exhort one another daily, while it is called to-day, lest any of you 
 be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." — Hebrews 3:13. 
 
 " God's gospel says now ; the devil's says to-morrow, and men are 
 going to hell everyday on this 'to-morrow ' theory of the devil. Do- 
 not put off till to-morrow that which can be done to-day. Let me 
 illustrate: Satan called a solemn conclave of his imps in hell to consider 
 the best means to lure men into his dominion, and he called for su«- 
 gestions. One imp says, 'Tell the people on earth there is no God.' 
 'Sit down,' says Satan, 'you can't convince people of that' 
 
 " Another imp says, 'Tell them the Bible is a lie; that there is no- 
 heaven and no hell.' ' Sit down,' says Satan, ' haven't I been trying to 
 make them believe that all their lives? And aren't there thousands- 
 and millions who had rather die than give up that Book ?' 
 
 "Another imp says, 'Tell them there is a God, there is a heaven, 
 and there is a hell ; but add to it: 'There's time enough, to-morrow 
 will do.' ' That's it !' exclaimed the devil ; ' that will fetch 'em ; that's 
 the sugar-coated pill they will swallow with avidity.' And he has been 
 operating on that line ever since. 
 
 " How many there are who are caught with this bait! There are 
 men in this house to-night who are traveling that identical road to helL 
 
 " At a meeting I held in Missouri, a man who remained to the 
 enquiry meeting was pointed out to me, and I was told that he was 
 touchous on the subject of religion, and that it was best not to approach 
 him. But I did approach him, to no purpose, however. He took no 
 stand with God's people. Shortly after I left there I received a letter 
 stating that that man, while reaching through the delivery window for 
 
1 8 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 his mail at the post-office, dropped dead without a moment's warning. 
 The death angel did not wait till the morrow for him. 
 
 " In Mississippi there was a prominent citizen whose house was 
 headquarters for card playing — society card playing, where the ' pro- 
 gressive euchre ' parties were held. I took that man by the hand, and 
 looking him squarely in the eye, said : ' Won't you settle this question 
 to-night ? Will you not give your heart to God ?' No, he wouldn't 
 do it. Shortly thereafter that man died in the greatest agony, without 
 one ray of hope. He lost his soul by waiting till the morrow ! He 
 took the devil's word for it, instead of God's word for it, and conse- 
 quently he was damned ! 
 
 " Fourth. How am I to come to Christ? ' The kingdom of God is 
 at hand: Repent ye, and believe the gospel.' — Mark 1:15. 
 
 " You come to Jesus, then, by repentance. What is repentance ? 
 Some peopie think crying is repentance, but it is not. Crying is one 
 of the results of repentance, but it is not, per se, repentance. Repent- 
 ance is purely an exercise of the mind. Regeneration involves the 
 heart, repentance the mind. 
 
 "Let me illustrate: Here is a man named Smith who expects to go 
 to Greensboro to-morrow, and take a considerable sum of money with 
 him. The matter leaks out, and some highway robbers hear of it. 
 They meet and lay their plans to rob and murder him. While they 
 are plotting, an honest citizen comes along and overhears them. He 
 goes to Smith and tells him about it. ' Now, Smith,' he says, ' as sure 
 as you attempt to go to Greensboro to-morrow you will be waylaid and 
 robbed.' Well, Smith considers the matter, and he reconsiders the 
 matter, and in view oS the facts before him, he concludes not to go. 
 That is repentance. If he cries because lie is glad he escaped, that is 
 the result of repentance. 
 
 " Well, now. Here is a man who is going to hell. I stand here as 
 God's ambassador and tell him that if he continues in that road he 
 will be eternally damned. He stops and considers. He reconsiders 
 his sinful life, and in view of the facts and lights before him, he calls a 
 halt. He again considers ; he reconsiders, and resolves to seek salva- 
 tion. That's repentance ; if a man does it out of respect and love of 
 God, as well as for fear of Him, that's repentance. It may make you 
 weep, but your weeping is merely a result of your repentance. 
 
 '• Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his 1 
 thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy 
 upon him; and unto our God, for he will abundantly pardon him." — 
 Isaiah 55:7. 
 
 I . 
 
COMIXG TO CHRIST. ig 
 
 " You must not only repent of your sins, but you must forsake sin. 
 
 " He that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and that he is a 
 rewarder of them that diligently seek him." — Hebrews 1 1:6. 
 
 "In coming to God, through Christ, you must believe. So, here we 
 have you coming: first, by repenting; second, by forsaking sin, and 
 third, by believing in God. 
 
 " Fifth. Why have I not come to Jesus? Old man, standing on the 
 verge of the grave, why have you not come to Jesus ? Young man, 
 in the prime of life, why have not you come to Jesus ? 
 
 " Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteous- 
 ness : in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not be- 
 hold the majesty of the Lord." — Isaiah 26:10. 
 
 "You have not come to Christ because you would net learn 
 righteousness. You have learned how to curse, and to play cards, and 
 to lie, and to drink whiskey — you have learned all these sins. That 
 shows you can learn. Now, why haven't you learned to do right? 
 
 " I have called and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and 
 no man regarded." — Proverbs 1:25. 
 
 " Why have you not come? It was not because you couldn't come ; 
 it was because ye would not. 
 
 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest 
 them that are sent unto thee ; how often would I have gathered thy 
 children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, 
 and ye would not!" — Luke 13:24. 
 
 " Sixth. What if I never come to Christ? 
 
 "And ye will not come to me that ye might have life." — John 5:40. 
 
 "Well, if you don't come you will never have eternal life. You will 
 have existence, but not life, and that existence will be passed in hell 
 with all its attending torments. 
 
 " If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." — John S:24_ 
 
 "So if you do not come you will surely die in your sins, and what 
 does that mean ? Eternal damnation ! It is bad enough for a heathen 
 to die in his sins, but it is pitiable indeed to think of a man living in 
 this enlightened age, and enjoying this high grade of civilization, where 
 the gospel is preached so plainly, so simply and so eloquently to all 
 who will listen — it is indeed a sad spectacle to see a man die in his sins. 
 
 '•' Rebellion against high heaven ! Sins of the body, sins of the heart, 
 sins of the conscience, sins of the soul! Sins of commission and omis- 
 sion ! It were better to have a mill-stone tied about your neck and be 
 cast into the sea ! 
 
20 THE CHEAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the 
 righteous into eternal life." — Matthew 25:46. 
 
 "If you never come to Christ you will die in your sins, and if you 
 die in your sins you will go into everlasting punishment. '■ 
 
 "Well, this man says, 'I don't believe in everlasting punishment.' I 
 don't care what you believe. Your belief does not alter the case at all. 
 God says you will go into ' everlasting punishment,' and into everlast- 
 ing puishment you will go, your belief to the contrary, notwithstanding. 
 
 " Here is a man condemned to be hanged. Well, the day and the 
 hour for the execution arrives, and the condemned man says, ' Oh, I 
 don't believe in this hanging business at all.' 'That may be your 
 opinion about it,' says the sheriff, ' but that doesn't affect the case at all, 
 I am going to hang you all the same.' And he swings. 
 
 " What was that poor condemned sinner's opinion worth under such 
 circumstances, and at a time like that? So with you, dying man, to- 
 night. Your scoffing cuts no figure at all. You are going to die just 
 the same, and you are going to hell to be eternally damned unless you 
 come to Christ before you die ! 
 
 " Seventh. What if I do come to Jesus ? 
 
 '" Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." — John 6:37. 
 
 " Here we have the bright side. In no wise will He cast you out, if 
 you come to him. 
 
 " I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved." — 
 John 10:9. 
 
 " Christ says you shall enter in, despite the attemps of hell and the 
 devil to keep you out. There are no ifs and ands about it. You shall 
 pass into what? Hear what the Bible says on this point : 
 
 " To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not 
 away, reserved in heaven for you." — 1st Peter 1:4. 
 
 " An incorruptible and undefiled inheritance ! An inheritance that 
 fadeth not away ! And it is reserved in heaven for you! Think of 
 that — reserved for you! 
 
 " It is ready for you. It is waiting for you to-night! Oh, dying 
 man, will you come? 
 
PREPARE TO MEET TilV COD. 2 1 
 
 PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD. 
 
 On Wednesday night, Sept. 26th, Mr. Pearson took his text from the 
 4th chapter of Amos, 12th verse : " Prepare to meet thy God." 
 
 " I want to talk to you to-night about making preparation to meet 
 God, for meet him you must. And I am going to ask three simple 
 questions and then answer them : — 
 
 1. Why should I prepare to meet God? 
 
 2. How should I prepare to meet God? 
 
 3. When should I prepare to meet God? 
 
 "First, then: Why should I prepare to meet God ? Because it is 
 God you are to meet. You are not to meet the President of the United 
 States, or the Emperor of Germany, or the Queen of England, or the 
 Czar of Russia — you are to meet God. The God who made you ; the 
 God who has preserved and kept you — that God before whose all- 
 penetrating eye the angels and arch-angels tremble. And you had 
 better be prepared to meet Him, therefore make preparation. 
 
 " If you should receive a message from the President to go to 
 Washington to meet him, how elated you would be, and what great 
 preparations you would make for the event ! When President Cleve- 
 land visited several of the Southern States recently, what extensive 
 preparations were made by the municipal authorities and by individu- 
 als in the cities he visited. It was meet and proper that this should be 
 done, and it would have been an insult to him and the dignity of the 
 office he holds if it had not been done. 
 
 "Well, it will be a still greater insult to God if you fail to make pre- 
 paration to meet Him. To neglect this is a hazardous thing to do; to 
 die without having attended to it is ruinous, and it is an insult to God 
 to defei".:T.he matter any longer. 
 
 " Another reason why you should prepare is because you are now 
 unprepared. What is the meaning of preparation ? Preparation means 
 having your name written in the Book of Life. 
 
 "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose 
 face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place 
 for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ; 
 and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is 
 the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which 
 were written in thebooks.according to their works." — Rev. 20:1 1 and 12. 
 
 " Is your name on that Book of Life ? If not you are not prepared 
 
22 THE GREAT EVANGELIST". 
 
 to meet God. Will you go up with your name written in the Book of 
 Life, of will you be Cast into the bottomless lake? 
 
 " You say you are a moral man ; that you don't do anything that is 
 very wrong; but is your name on the Book of Life ? I do not dis- 
 count morality, but is your name there ? You may be as correct a 
 man as was Nicodemus, but unless your name is on that Book of Life 
 you are not prepared to meet your God ! So, the question with you is 
 this : ' Tell me, Lord, is my name on the Book of Life?' 
 
 "Another reason why you should prepare to meet God, is because 
 you must meet Him. 
 
 " For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that 
 every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that 
 he hath clone, whether it be good or bad." — II Corinthians 5:10. 
 
 " You must meet Him. There are no ifs or ands about it. It is in- 
 evitable. You may not be ready, you may not be prepared, but you 
 have got to stand before the judgment seat of God, whether you are 
 ready or not. Prepare, then, to meet thy God. 
 
 "Oh, profane man, quit cursing; quit taking God's name in vain, and 
 prepare to meet Him! Oh, skeptic, throw away your doubts, cast 
 aside the minor things you question, and prepare to meet thy God ! 
 Oh, whiskey-seller ; oh, gambler; oh, God-defying sinner — prepare to 
 meet thy God, for meet Him you must ! 
 
 "Think of the guilt upon your soul now, and suppose you were called 
 into the presence of your God this night. How would you meet Him? 
 I beg and entreat you to prepare, and to prepare now for the all-im- 
 portant event. 
 
 "Another reason why, is because there is nothing so important to 
 you as preparation to meet God, 
 
 " For what is a man profited, if he shali gain the whole world and 
 lose his own soul? Or, what shall a man give in exchange for his 
 soul?" — Matthew 16:26. 
 
 " It is very important that a lawyer should look out for his clients; 
 that a doctor should attend to his patients, a merchant to his business, 
 a farmer to his crops. But it is of much more importance that they 
 make preparation to meet their God. 
 
 " It is a mystery to me, how men who can look so well after their 
 worldly interests do not look after their spiritual interests at all. Don't | 
 be led by the devil, as an ox to the slaughter, any longer. See Mat- I 
 thew 22nd chapter, 10th to 14 verses. 
 
 "You should prepare to meet God because of the momentous results 1 
 of that meeting. 
 
PREPARE TO .MEET THY GOD. 23 
 
 " Second: How shall we prepare to meet God? Let the wicked for- 
 sake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. 
 
 "You are to prepare by forsaking sin. Now, why does He want 
 you to forsake your sins? Is it because He does not want you to have 
 any pleasure? By no means. God loves your soul, and sin damns 
 your soul, and it is for that reason that He wants you to forsake sin 
 Will you do it? 
 
 " If you say you are a child of God and have not forsaken your sins, 
 you don't know what you are talking about. 
 
 " When I was holding a series of meetings in Indiana some time 
 ago, I was the guest of a wealthy merchant who was a " Forty-niner" — 
 one of the men who went to California in '4p during the gold-mines 
 excitement of that period, and he told me a story that will do to il- 
 lustrate: 
 
 "He was on a vessel traveling through the Gull of Mexico, on his 
 way home, and there were a number of miners on board. These mi- 
 ners carried theirgold dust in a belt strapped around thei~ waists. Well, 
 one of them fell overboard. He could swim, and under ordinary cir- 
 cumstances could have keept afloat until a boat was sent to his relief, 
 but on this occasion the heavy belt of gold about his waist caused him 
 to sink and lose his life before help could reach him. And my host 
 related to me the agony depicted on that drowning man's countenance 
 as he sank to rise no more 
 
 " Oh, my friends, some of you are sinking into the bottomless gulf 
 of destruction to-night with the belts of iniquity strapped around your 
 waists ! That belt will cause you to go down under the waters of sin 
 forever unless you take it off. Will you throw it away to-night ? 
 
 1" You must prepare to meet God not only by forsaking sin, but you 
 must truly and earnestly repent of your sins. 
 
 " Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God, if perhaps 
 the thought of thine heart ma)' be forgiven thee." — Acts, 8:22, 
 
 " Do not stand off and talk about the sins of others, and deplore 
 them. But repent of your own sins. 
 
 "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath 
 sent." — John, 6:29. 
 
 " Prepare by believing on the Saviour — believe on Him for your sal- 
 vation. It is not so hard to get a man to believe in Christ, but it is an 
 extremely difficult tiling to make some men believe in a personal Jesus 
 — that Christ loves them individually ; that he died to save them indi- 
 vidually. 
 
2\j THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 "Well Christ does love you, every one of you, individually; and he 
 did die that you might be saved, every one of you, and every one of 
 you, individually. 
 
 " Now, you believe that. Accept him as your Savior, and he will 
 prepare you to meet God in the twinkling of an eye! 
 
 "There is another way you must prepare -to meet God: If you have 
 anything that does not belong to you, you must make restitution. 
 
 " You must be honest, and you must pay your debts, There are 
 too many church members who do not pay their debts! You can't go 
 around hunting up bankrupt laws and statutes of limitation, in order to 
 avoid paying your just debts, and go to heaven. Your heart is not 
 right if you attempt any such dodge. You can't cheat men and go to 
 heaven, and the member of the church who cheats his neighbor, and 
 fails to pay his debts, is living a lie. 
 
 " How despicable! Pretending to be a saint while you have your 
 hands in your pockets making some other man's $20 eagle squall ! 
 It won't do. If you are honest you will not run into debt unless you 
 see your way clear to pay. And if a woman is honest and a Christian 
 she will not go around to the stores and contract debts which her 
 husband is not able to pay, and which may drive him to the gambling 
 dens in a vain endeavor to get the money to pay her debts. 
 
 " If you have got another man's money, or another man's property, 
 make restitution. Let's be honest. - ■;■{-_- - :--■'. ■ •;. - y 
 
 " Forsake your sins; repent of them; believe in Christ, and pay your 
 debts! 
 
 "Third: When should I prepare to meet God? 
 
 "Now is the time. Seek the Lord while He may be found, call ye 
 upon him while He is near. The time to prepare to meet God is the 
 time God appointed for you to make preparation, and that is now. 
 Don't put it off another day. Don't live on in your sins until you 
 pass the bounds of God's mercy. 
 
 "The prudent man forseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the 
 simple pass on and are punished." — Proverbs, \y,2. 
 
 "The time to prepare is while the evil to which you are exposed 
 may be averted. You are exposed to evil now, and notu is the time to 
 avert it. . VT f '-- ' ','_- 
 
 ■-"Behold, I come quickly; and my record is with me to give every 
 man according.as his work shall be. — Rev. 21:12. . 
 
 "Now is the time for us to secure rewards. Jesus will give us the 
 reward of pardon. Dear dying man, will you accept this pardon to- 
 night and thus Prepare to Meet thy God ?" _ 
 
THE BRAZEX SERPENT. 2%, 
 
 THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 
 
 Another packed house greeted Mr. Pearson at Centenary M. E.. 
 church on Thursday night, September 27th. He took his text from 
 John 3:14 and 15 : "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
 ness, even so must the son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth. 
 in him should not perish but have eternal life." 
 
 Mr. Pearson said he wanted to talk about the Brazen Serpent, arid- 
 there were three facts that he desired to state : 
 
 1. The Israelites were bitten by the snakes that were sent to afflict 
 them. 
 
 2. The brazen serpent, lifted up' on a pole, was the remedy. 
 
 3. A look at the brazen serpent, on the part of those who had been' 
 bitten by the snakes, was the condition of the cure. 
 
 And here are the three parallel facts : 
 
 1 . We, as individuals, have been bitten by the devil. 
 
 2. Jesus Christ is God's remedy. 
 
 3. Faith is the condition of the cure for our sin T bitten" soufs. 
 
 First, then : The Israelites were bitten — see Numbers, 21:6. There 
 is no way of repudiating that fact— -they were bitten. 
 
 Now, the parallel fact is that we have been bitten by the devil. That 
 fact is too apparent to deny. We are sin-smitten ; we are diseased with 
 innate moral depravity. See Genesis, 3:13. 
 
 "And the Lord said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast 
 done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled and I did eat." 
 
 Was the venom of the old serpent confined to the first one bitten ? 
 Or was it handed down from generation to generation ? 
 
 "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, 
 and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil 
 continually." — Genesis 6:5. 
 
 The venom of the devil was not confined to the first, one, and human ■ 
 depravity is the prevailing characteristic of man to-day. 
 
 "All we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to 
 his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." — 
 Isaiah, 53:6. --:"*'■; 
 
 "From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no sound- 
 ness in it ; but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores ; they have 
 not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment." — 
 Isaiah. 1:6. 
 
3.6 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." — 
 Jeremiah, 17:9. -.- "...■; 
 
 Some say these quotations are from the Old Testament; that they 
 are ante-diluvian. This is very true. But the Old Testament is as 
 much a part of the Bible as the new. Well, what does the New Tes- 
 tament say? - ■'• i \£--£i*p; -^ 
 • " For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
 fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things 
 which defile a man." — Matthew, 15:19 and 20. See also, Galatians, 
 5:19 to 21 inclusive. 
 
 - ''They which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 
 So, you must accept the doctrine of human depravity. You must 
 
 believe that the. old serpent is in us ; that we are devil bitten, and mor- 
 'ally depraved. " - : :.'■ ~ :.'^~l^^-~- : . 
 
 No better evidence of this fact is needed than the news columns of 
 the daily newspapers. 
 
 Second Fact. — The brazen serpent was God's remedy for the cure 
 of those that were bitten by the serpents. See Numbers, 21:8. 
 
 There is no escape from this conclusion unless you deny God's 
 word — that brazen serpent was the remedy. Just that, and nothing 
 else — of itself and by itself, and all they had to do was to accept the 
 remedy. ^r^jAM^i : .:"- 
 
 They didn't have to go to work and manufacture a remedy— all they 
 had to do was to accept the remedy that God had made for them. 
 
 - Now, the parallel fact is that Jesus Christ himself, without any hu- 
 man supplements, is God's remedy for cur diseased souls. ' \ ;• 
 
 Some man says, " Is that a fact ? Is that all ?" Read John 3:14 to 
 It?; Acts, 3:12; I Cor., 3:11 ; Isaiah, -53:5, and judge for yourself. 
 ■- Yes, that is so, and the trouble with a great many is that they want 
 to add something to it — they want to add an oversufFiciency to God's 
 sufficiency. ■.-'.'- ,.-. 
 
 Have faith. Christ is the only remedy — not theology, but Jesus. 
 
 Moses said to the sick man : " Look on the brazen serpent and live." 
 And if he didn't look he died. Now, Christ is God's remedy for we 
 sin-stricken mortals. Have faith, look to Jesus Christ and have etern- 
 al life. If you don't do it you will be lost, "-'-t.' •■■ '.^'A ---"k&teS 
 '■•■ Here is a man with a pot on the fire making a poultice. Moses tells 
 him to let the poultice alone and look on the brazen serpent. He 
 could be cured without the poultice, and if he could not be cured with- 
 out it he could not be cured with it wS-fj$te£ ■ 
 
THE BRAZEN SERPENT. 2$ 
 
 And so there are people who are not willing to be saved by grace; 
 not willing or contented to be saved simply by Faith- -they want to go 
 into the poultice business; they want to add something to God's rem- 
 edy, the only remedy. See John, 1:12 and 13. 
 
 Third Fact. — A look — not a feeling — a look upon that brazen ser- 
 pent was the condition of the cure. See Numbers, 21:9. 
 
 They had been bitten; there was the brazen serpent, and I'll they 
 had to do was to look at it. 
 
 There was an Israelite who was so sick he could not move. He did 
 not have to move. All he had to do was to raise his eyes and look 
 upon the brazen serpent, and he was cured. 
 
 There was another who would not look until something was ex- 
 plained to him. He may have asked Moses why God made snakes-. 
 Well, that was none of his business. The fact was that the snakes 
 were made and they had bitten him, and he was going to die if he did 
 not accept the remedy. 
 
 There was an old ■ sinner, and he was in a tent, when Moses came 
 along. Big crowd around him. An old lady, his wife, went to Moses 
 and asked him to go in and see him, and added : "But be careful ; he 
 is very peculiar? Well, he had been bitten by the snakes, and the on- 
 ly thing peculiar about him was that he was going to die and go to 
 hell if he does not accept the remedy. 
 
 There was another one, who was silting down looking at his foot 
 Moses came along and said, "What are you looking at your foot for?" 
 And the sick man said, "Oh, Moses ; I've been bitten by the snakes. 
 Look at that foot ; see how swollen it is and it is getting worse every 
 minute." "Well, quit looking at your foot," Moses replied, "and look 
 at the brazen serpent, if you want to be cured." 
 
 That is the trouble with many men to-day. Instead of looking at 
 the Cross, they sit gazing into their own vile hearts. Look to Christ 
 and be healed. 
 
 There was a young Israelite who had been bitten and he had fallen 
 with his face in the opposite direction from where the brazen snake 
 was. He was too weak to move, and he didn't want to move any- 
 way. He did not believe the brazen serpent had anything to do with 
 his malady. His father and mother were with him. They lifted him 
 up and put his face in line with the brazen serpent on the pole, and 
 all he had to do was to look. But he shut his eyes and would not see 
 even then. ".- '-■_ , - '. !-■ 
 
 Oh how many of you are there here to night who have been brought 
 
2S THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 up by pious parents in the fear and admonition of the Lord ; how many- 
 faces have been turned by a loving mother's hands directly in line with 
 "the Cross of Christ and been told to look to Jesus, only to shut 
 your eyes and reject a Saviour's love ! None are so blind as those 
 who will not see. 
 
 Well, here was another one, and he was very sick. Moses came 
 -along at, say IO o'clock, and he wanted to know why he hadn't looked 
 at the brazen serpent " Well, Moses," he said, " I am going to look — 
 I am going to look at 12 o'clock." Moses came back at 12 o'clock 
 ^nd he hadn't looked, and he said he was going to look at 2 o'clock- 
 But he hadn't looked at 2 o'clock and he put it off until 4 and then 
 until 6 o'clock. Finally it got so late he couldn't see the brazen ser- 
 pent, and Moses came back after dark and found that he was dead. 
 
 And men are doing the same thing to-day. You keep waiting, put- 
 ting off, postponing, deferring and the poison of sin is coursing through 
 your veins and impregnating your system all the time, and finally you 
 become so steeped in sin that you cannot comply with the condition of | 
 cure and you die a lost man! 
 
 Here was another man and he was very sick indeed. And he said, 
 "Moses, if I look will I be cured now, right now?" Moses told htm ;. 
 yes. And with a trembling eye he fixed the gaze of Faith on the 
 serpent and he was" a well man. He arose, took up his bed, and^. 
 walked ! And as he thanked Moses, he said, " I didn't know I could": 
 be -cured so quickly." .-->.■.:. . . : . ..-._- 
 
 Now, the parallel fact is, that Faith — not comprehension or under- 
 standing—but Faith, of itself, is the condition of salvation. All who 
 comply with that condition and look to Christ will be saved; those 
 who do not will be lost. . „: ■■■ 
 
 .;. That's all. Simply believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and accept 
 Christ as your saviour and thou shalt be saved. See the following 
 references: Galatians, 3:26; John, 5:24; John, 6:47; Acts, 13:38 and 
 20; Romans, 4:4; Romans, 5:1. :_- 
 
 Here is a man with a sin-sick soul ; here is Christ on the cross — 
 look, dying man and be cured. You must look, and that is the one 
 condition. ^'-^J-/' : - .;'Mi>-*-'.': ?■&,■-<: •■ ■■■■-- '.-■-.;• '0%h 
 
 '"Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of God; the one who 
 loved and died for you, and, thus believing, commit your soul into his 
 ..keeping.] .-, .---..-- ; ; ; - ; _- /; - - ------ i'-^^;it..: ":.:..";": ;.■";:" 
 
 •4'-' Well, some man asks me what did God make snakes for, anyway? 
 
 £35ja -'*rT7\...:--.;.. ; 
 
WHA1 SHALL I DO WITH JESUS? 29 
 
 That is none of our business and we should not argue about it. The 
 fact is God did make snakes, and they bit the children of Israel. 
 
 But remember this: No man died because he had been bitten by 
 snakes. That isn't what killed them. They died because they would 
 not look on the brazen serpent. They died because they zaould not ac- 
 cept the remedy which God offered them ! 
 
 So with you. Some of you are great sinners and you have been 
 sinning a long time. But you are not dying a spiritual death on that 
 account. 
 
 Remember this : You are dying, and will be damned, because yen mill 
 not accept God's remedy and be cured of your sins ! That is what is 
 killing you to night 
 
 Will you look upon the Cross of Christ, and be saved now? He 
 that heareth My word and believeth on him that sent me shall have 
 eternal life. 
 
 God grant that you may resolve to do that to-night. 
 
 The usual inquiry meeting was then held. Hundreds of people re- 
 mained and about twenty found peace before they left the church, 
 making in the neighborhood of one hundred conversions since the se- 
 ries of meetings began. 
 
 But Mr. Peason's work must not be judged solely by the number of 
 new professions. Perhaps the greatest good that he accomplished 
 was the fact that hundreds of professing Christians and members of 
 the church, who had back-slidden or grown cold in their faith, were 
 brought again to the feet of Jesus, and had their faith renewed and 
 strengthened by the prop of a new determination to more faithfully 
 serve their God in the future. 
 
 WHAT SHALL I 1)0 WITH JESUS? 
 
 On Friday night, September 28th, Mr. Pearson took his text from 
 Matthew, 27:22 : " "What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called 
 Christ?" 
 
 He explained the customs of the Jews, the cry for the crucifixion of 
 Christ, Pontius Pilate's hesitation and indecision about pronouncing 
 
 ■. \ 
 
30 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 judgment upon Him, his final official determination and the motives 
 which led him to put Jesus to death on the cross. Pilate had to make 
 some decision. ■ So with all of us; we must decide — not officially, but 
 individually, what we will do with Christ — Jesus, our saviour ; Jesus, 
 our commander; Jesus, our all in all. What will /do with Jesus? 
 
 So, I want to talk to you to-night about disposing of Jesus, and there 
 are three facts that cannot be ignored : 
 
 1. You must do something. 
 
 2. You have done something. 
 
 3. What you finally do will decide your eternal destiny. 
 
 First, then; You must do something with Jesus. You can't ignore 
 this matter. You can't turn away from it and say you will not do 
 anything with Him. You are a free moral agent, and you must make 
 a decision. God has presented you with a ruler and a king, and you 
 must decide whether you will accept him or not. 
 
 Pontius Pilate represented every unsaved man, and he did not want 
 to face the issue. Why ? 
 
 "Well he had been wronging the people and defying the govern- 
 ment, and he did not want Caesar to learn of his misdoings, but he 
 knew the Jews would report him to Caesar if he did not convict Christ. 
 
 On the other hand, he felt in his heart that Jesus ought not to be 
 put to death, and he said that he found no fault in Him. .He did not 
 want to convict an innocent man. ^:'- v; " 
 
 Here was wealth, position, power, and luxury on one hand, and con- 
 science and better nature on the other. - 1[ 
 
 So with many of you to-night. You have been sinning mightily. 
 You have been wronging your fellow man. Here are your associates 
 in wrong doing ; it's hard to pull out of the old rut, and you don't 
 want to dig up the dark record of the past. 
 
 - On the other hand, down in your heart of hearts you are convinced 
 that Jesus is the Christ, but you don't want to reflect. Like some pro- 
 fessed infidels, you are convicted in your own mind, but to all outward 
 appearances you are an infidel. .., . . 
 
 There was an infidel in Texas who walked up and down the room 
 all night, exclaiming, " I am a skeptic ; I am an infidel, but I am going 
 to hell all the same !." 
 
 And it is so. You may bean unbeliever; you, may be a skeptic; 
 you may be an infidel, but let me .tell you that you are merely play- 
 ing a bluff, and you are going straight to hell despite your unbelief 
 and in spite of your skepticism. : - . - 
 
 /VA:-, ' ■■■-■ ■- ■■■■■■:■■ ' .— -.-'' - 
 
 -■■■.■'. J ' ■ , '- . 
 
 <m 
 
 • ■ 
 
WHAT SHALL I DO WITH JESUS? 3 1 
 
 Oh, resolve this night to cut loose from all this and accept Christ as 
 your saviour. Decide this night what you will do with Jesus. 
 
 Pilate tried to shirk the issue by sendin j Christ to Herod and throw- 
 ing the responsibility on him. But Herod said, " No, sir. You are 
 the proper person to decide this question, officially, and you must face 
 the issue." 
 
 So with the sinner. You may try to get out of it by palming it off 
 on some preacher, but that won't do. You may say that this preacher 
 is too plain, or that preacher preaches too long; or you may find faun 
 with some evangelist, who hits you between the eyes, and say he is too 
 pointed. But you can't throw off your defects on the preacher. The 
 question with you is not how you like the preacher, but what are you 
 going to do with Jesus? It is the preacher's place to please God, let 
 men think what they may. 
 
 Pontius Pilate thought he'd call a mass meeting and when the rabble 
 cried, "Crucify him!" he thought he would get out of it in that way. 
 
 And so there are men who talk about inconsistent church members — 
 the church members who get drunk, and don't pay their debts, &c. It 
 is too true that there are such people in the church of Christ, but that 
 is none of your business just now. 
 
 God is not going to ask you what you think of the church members. 
 He is going to say: "What did you do with my Son?" The Bible 
 says every man must give an account of himself. But you press the 
 question of personal salvation on some men, and how they will ask 
 side questions ! 
 
 I had a man to ask me once, when 1 approached him about his own 
 salvation, what would become of the heathen ? What has that got to 
 do with you ? I am not preaching to the heathen — exactly ; 1 am 
 preaching to you I God will give the heathen justice in some Vv ay. 
 But what is to become of you ? That is the question iox yen: to decide. 
 
 You have got to decide it some time. Why not to nigh' ? 
 
 2. Now," as to the second fact: You have already done something 
 with Jesus, and you have done one of four things. You have either 
 compromised, defered, rejected, or accepted. 
 
 Have you tried to compromise this question by saying: "Well, I 
 am not exactly ready to join the church, but I help support the church 
 and I send money to the heathen." Well, you can't compromise the 
 matter in any such way. You can't buy off Jesus Christ. You can't 
 serve two masters; you can't serve both God and mammon. There is 
 no compromise between heaven and hell ; there is no compromise be- 
 
3^ 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 tween salvation and perdition. You will either go straight to heaven or 
 directly to hell. So lay aside all idea of a compromise, and decide to 
 do one of the two things. What is your decision ? 
 
 Have you been deferring this matter? Well, don't defer it any 
 longer. Deferring it doesn't settle it. How long have you been serv- 
 ing the devil ? Forty years or longer, some of you, and you are be- 
 coming more and more involved every day. 
 
 Let me illustrate : Here are two men, and one owes the other $10,- 
 ooo, at 10 per cent, interest Well, the time to pay that note arrives, 
 and the debtor can't meet the payment without taking so much money 
 out of his business that it would ruin him. What does he do? He 
 asks for an extension of time, and the creditor says : " Well, if you give 
 me a new note, agree to an increased rate of interest, and give me a 
 mortgage on that farm out there, I will do it." The debtor agrees. 
 When the new note becomes due, he can't conveniently meet it, and 
 he gives another note, with a still greater rate of interest, and a mort- 
 gage on another farm, and so on. Will he ever settle the debt in that 
 way ? Most assuredly not. On the contrary, he is getting deeper in 
 debt, more and more involved, every day. 
 
 So with you, my friends. You may go on and on, deferring this 
 question until you become spiritually bankrupt. March up like a man 
 and settle this matter to-night 
 
 Have you rejected Christ ? If you have not attempted to compro- 
 mise, have not deferred — have you rejected Jesus as your saviour ? 
 You can settle the matter in that way. Oh, yes; i eject Christ, and that 
 will settle it ! .. - -•: "-^ 
 
 Pilate settled it that way and had Christ crucified. There may be 
 some here to-night who are inclined to settle it that way. Pilate de- 
 cided that Christ had no wealth, no influence such as the Jews pos- 
 sessed, and he couldn't afford to acquit him, though really convinced 
 of His innocence. He reasoned that it would hurt him in the estima- 
 tion of those wealthy and influential Jews if he did not put him to 
 death. Well, how did it turn out ? 
 
 Soon after the crucifixion of Christ, the misdoings of Pilate, which 
 he was so anxious to keep hidden, were reported to Caesar. Pilate was 
 deposed from power and banished from his country. And there, an 
 exile in a strange land, forsaken by God and man, he died a miserable 
 death by his own hand.'.. He committed suicide. He not only lost 
 money, influence, power, and life itself; but he lost his soul ! What is 
 a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? Now, 
 
i 
 
 WHAT SHALL I DO WITH JESUS? 33* 
 
 what will become of you if you die rejecting Christ? You will lose- 
 your soul and be damned for all time to come! Are you willing to- 
 reject Christ on those conditions ? 
 
 Well, have you settled it by accepting" Christ as your Saviour ? You 
 can settle it in that way and that is the best way to settle it. Accept 
 Jesus as the Christ, as your Saviour — as Sau] of Tarsus accepted Him 
 
 Here was a young man of note, of good family, a scholar, a lawyer 
 by profession, with bright prospects before him. No roan had brighter 
 worldiy prospects. What did he do ? 
 
 He accepted Jesus, and by doing so he lost a good deal. He lost' 
 money, he lost social standing, he lost friends. But he had a friend in 
 Jesus, (" Oh, what a friend we have in Jesus ! ") and his losses related- 
 only to this world. 
 
 'How did HE die f '■ ".-" 
 
 What a comparison was his death to that of Pontius Pilate I 
 
 There, in the presence of Nero ; there with his head on the block,, 
 ready to be beheaded — did he say he was sorry because he had ac- 
 cepted Jesus ? Nay, verily ! 
 
 No ! He fought the good fight, he had kept the faith, he had fin- 
 ished his course, and thenceforth there was a crown for him in heaven- 
 where he went to appear before the all-righteous Judge. And he died 
 with the dying declaration: "1 am conscious of a glorious Triumph hi 
 heaven ! " 
 
 He lost the sordid gold of the earth — now he has the treasures 
 which he laid up in heaven ! He has an inheritance with God — an in- 
 heritance which is incorruptible, undefiled and which fadeth not away I 
 
 He lost friends in this world — now he is the frie?id of Jesus ! 
 
 He lost social standing in this world — now he belongs to the aris- 
 tocracy of the skies ! 
 
 He lost society caste in this world — now he stands numbered with 
 the nobility of glory ! 
 
 Will you go to heaven like Saul of Tarsus, or will you go to hell as 
 did Pontius Pilate ? Dear dying man, that is the question for you to 
 decide this night. . '■;;..• 
 
 'V 3: What you finally do will decide your eternal destiny. Now, what 
 will you do with Jesus? 
 
 .".Suppose you reject him. See Matthew, 25th chapter, and read it, 
 "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the 
 devil and his angels." 
 
 The disposition you make of Christ will determine the disposition 
 
 
34 
 
 THE GREAT 'EVANGELIST. 
 
 ^v 
 
 He will make of you. Dispose of him by accepting him, and He will 
 take you to his bosom. Reject him, and He will spurn you as unfit 
 for the universe of God aod only fit for hell. ; :•."." : ' ;i 
 
 Who is Jesus ? 
 - He is the One who loves you better than your own mother does; 
 He who was spit upon and despitefully used for your sake; He who 
 •died on the cross to save you ! . ..~-iy.-\ ■':'.- s , *i-S:£5i':;i>1 "^ '~f:L IstStS 
 
 . i. Jesus, the bread of life! Jesus, the water of life! Jesus, the only 
 One whose blood can cleanse your soul from sin ! He who can take 
 your soul to God ! He, who will come again by and by ! Blessed 
 Jesus ! ! He, who will sit on the Great White Throne to judge us all- 
 say, what are you going to do with Jesus?. L\. ',£&. ". •- - '■--■'' '[■•';. 
 
 ■.' - If you are ashamed of Jesus here He will be ashamed of you when 
 we all stand around the Great White Throne. What are you going to 
 do with Jusus ? ../- -. ;-.- -;.'.■■:}■_ ::;•.••■-, :":';. j . '-' . -.: .--";:. ■."";•'■,' 
 
 jfofj Well, .my, friends, I'll tell you what / am going to do with Him.' Tr 
 have -accepted Jesus as- my Saviour, my commander, myall in all. 
 And His commands are the principles which regulate my life until the 
 
 ■_ end. ■'. ---<■-_- ■•;•- •'■ ■ - ■' >-.->, ( - ■ - - fSg>|5£<$pS 
 
 ..'. And Ilwantto say here in this year of our Lord, 1888, in this good 
 old State of North Carolina, in this city of Winston, and on this 28th 
 day of September— I am not ashamed to call Him my Commander, my 
 Saviour, my Master ! 
 
 ... Let the wife of my bosom forsake me;. let the only brother 1 have 
 in the world renounce me, let mankind turn their backs upon me — I 
 am going to continue to stick to Jesus ! : liSSrcS?* 
 
 My God ! . My Hope ! ! My Eternal Refuge ! ! ! : % . . 
 
 " VAnd when you hear that Pearson is dead, you may know that he 
 died with both arms around the Cross, clinging to Christ ! Blessed 
 Jesus? ,:-yx- ' ■ mIf 'i'hiii ; - 'V^'''^'-" ■ ' J ''■--■ .-*»"?? ■■■4tf ; "'-- 
 
 The closing words of this sermon were of a most affecting nature, 
 
 and the tears trickled down the cheeks of hundreds of his hearers as 
 
 they coursed rapidly from the eyes of him who uttered them„ : - At the 
 
 .after-meeting at least 700 people remained and there were 27 new 
 
 . converts. --.-■ "~. ■ ' •;7. ': ' , 'Vl- "-"•- " ,■ 
 
 Wi& 
 
 ; ^M- 
 
 ' ESS - ■'• -"- ;-v 
 
 
 '■'■■■■.-■■.'.■."■■*- ■; 
 
■ THE- HOLY SPIRIT. ' $£ 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT. 
 
 Centenary church was filled with people Sunday night, September 
 30th, before 7 o'clock, and hundreds of people were turned away before 
 the preliminary services began, at 7:15 o'clock. 
 
 Mr. Pearson took his text from John, 14:26: "But the comforter,- 
 which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he 
 shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance,, 
 whatsoever I have said unto you." 
 
 You ask me if I understand what the Holy Trinity is, and I tell you 
 no; I do not understand it at all. Have I examined it? I don't ex- 
 amine it. What do I do with it, then? Well, I believe in it. I accept 
 it, without understanding it, as a truth revealed in God's blessed word- 
 In the Trinity we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
 and I want to talk to you to-night about the Holy Spirit — vital and 
 important subject ; the subject about which there is so much specula- 
 tion, and concerning 1 which so many mythical ideas are advanced. 
 And why? Because people do not study the bearing of God's word 
 
 ■ on this great question as they ought. 
 
 Now there are five questions to be asked and answered : 
 -. ; 1. Is the Holy Ghost a personality ? 
 . . 2. What is the relation of the Holy Ghost to the written Word of God ? 
 
 3. What is the relation of the Holy Spirit to unsaved sinners ? 
 : ■ 4. What is the relation of the Holy Ghost to the regenerated child 
 of God? .:, . . :■''{■'■'. •". 
 
 5.' What are some of the emblems of the Holy Spirit ? 
 y . First, then : Is the Holy Ghost a personality? •' -V ' --- 
 
 ■ ; This is a vital question, and we want to gel: down with both- feet; to 
 an understanding of what God's word says about it ' '■ n - : - 
 
 In Matthew, iSth chapter and 19th verse, we have these -wc»rds: 
 •" Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
 '.. :So, in baptism we have the doctrine of the Trinity. The personality 
 of the Father and the Son will not be questioned ; and any argument, 
 any philosophy, any theory which will' show that the Holy Ghost is 
 not" a personality, will also show, with a little substitution, that God 
 the Father is not a personality — and we must stand or fall on the per- 
 sonality of the Father. 
 
 
3<5 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 The same argument that will prove that the Holy Ghost is not a 
 personality, will also prove that Jesus Christ is not a personality. And 
 when you destroy the personality of your Saviour, the whole structure 
 -of religion falls to the ground. So we must either accept the doctrine 
 of the personality of the Holy Ghost, or fall back on bald, blank 
 ■atheism. How vital, then, is the question of the personality of the 
 Holy Ghost! 
 
 THE UNPARDONABLE SIN. 
 
 Do you know what "the unpardonable sin" is? Well.it is bias, 
 phemy against the Holy Ghost. Here it is, as plain as daylight, in 
 Matthew, 12:21 and 22 :—" Wherefore, I say unto you: All manner of 
 sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy 
 -against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whoso- 
 ever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; 
 . but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be for- 
 given him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." 
 
 Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is the unpardonable sin — the sin 
 for which God offers no forgiveness, in this world nor any other. '„,'■ r ; 
 .:'■ Well, you can't blaspheme an attribute; you can only blaspherre a 
 personality. Therefore, when this sin of blasphemy against the Holy 
 Ghost is held up as the unpardonable sin, there could be no stronger 
 argument of the personality of the Holy Ghost So, any argument 
 against this personality is based on implication, and not on the Scrip- 
 tures. ; ' '; - . V [: ;£m >-}s\ ' ■'; 
 
 What is this unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost ? 
 
 ■ ■■'. We are told that Christ cast out devils and performed miracles 
 through the power of the Holy Ghost The Jews said He did these 
 things through the power of the devil. Therefore, Jesus charged 
 them with blasphemy against the Holy Ghost — the unpardonable sin — 
 by attributing the Words of the Holy Ghost to the devil. 
 ■■ ■/;■>: Does any one commit that sin to-day? you ask. Well, if you 
 1 attribute any of the works of the Holy Spirit to the devil, you most 
 assuredly do. And I'll tell you of a sin which, if not the unpardona- 
 ble one, borders close upon it: .-;..,-* -V 
 ■'-..• Here is a work of grace going on in this church and in this com- 
 .: inunity. There is no undue excitement ; there is no attempt to get up 
 •excitement I don't believe in too much excitement in this matter, 
 
 ; and I don't preach on that line. ;- . v .' 
 
 '■'..,' Here are strong men who have been, and are being brought to God, 
 
 1 
 1 
 
I 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRITT. 37 
 
 through their Saviour Jesust Christ What is this deep repentence 
 and regeneration ? 
 
 It is the work ot the Holy Ghost ! 
 
 Now, you make light of it and say it is all bosh, and that v. ill be a 
 near approach to, if it is not, blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. You 
 ridicule it, if you do not exactly attribute it to the devil. 
 
 Say what you please against me, and about these other preachers 
 here, if you want to, and God may forgive you. But don't speak 
 lightly of sacred things. I warn you, don't ridicule or attribute to the 
 devil the workings of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of this people. 
 Don't you do it ! 
 
 2. What is the relation of the Holy Ghost to the written word of 
 God? 
 
 In II Timothy, 3:16 we have these words: "All scripture is given 
 by inspiration of God." Again, in II Peter, 1:21 — "For the prophecy 
 came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God 
 spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 The scriptures were written under the guidance, direction and tute- 
 lage of God by these men of God through the Holy Ghost. All this 
 blessed Book contains was given us by the inspiration of God — and 
 a-l-l means all ! 
 
 Well, now, some man out there says there are some things in the 
 Bible he does not believe. You don't ? "No," says he. "For instance, 
 there's that story about the whale swallowing Jonah — I don't believe 
 thaC You don't ! Why ? 
 
 Is there anything unreasonable about it — anything about it that bears 
 the stamp of falsity ? Is it contrary to common sense ? Certainly not 
 
 Now,let's look at it a little : Do you believe in a God at all ? " Oil, 
 yes." Do you believe that he created all things ? " Yes." Do you 
 believe God could make a whale? '' Yes." 
 
 Well, if He can make a whale at all, couldn't he have made one big 
 enough to swallow Jonah or any other man? Certainly. Then the 
 only question about this thing is whether God can make a whale. You 
 say he can. Well, that settles it. You assume the whale was of a given 
 size. That is the trouble. But this whale was a fish made to order, 
 so to speak, and he swallowed Jonah. There is no absurdity about 
 it at all. . % % - ' , 
 
 If you will read the 12th chapter of Matthew you will see that God 
 has set his Divine seal upon the truthfulness of this "story.'' 
 
 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's f>elry, 
 
 
;s 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 
 I 
 I 
 
 so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart o' 
 the earth." 
 
 There is a good deal of history and geography in the Bible. Take 
 the drunkenness of Noah as an example.. That was not inspired drunk- 
 enness, but an inspired record of that drunkenness.. Hence the absurd- 
 ity of the remarks of some* men concerning'" the appearance of the words 
 "adultery,;' "drunkenness," "lying,"" Sec. 1 ,. in the Bible. ':^V/: J; - 
 
 God is the author, and the Holy Ghost the recorder of the Bible. 
 
 You go up here'to'your court house, and look at the docket of your 
 Superior Court. There you will find a. record of the cases to be tried — 
 murder, arson, theft, adultery, &c. Now, would you hold the Judge, 
 or the Solicitor, or the Clerk responsible for the commission of those 
 crimes? Certainly not. The Court is only responsible for the docket's 
 being a correct record. So with the Holy Ghost and the Bible. 
 
 When you say this Bible is not true, you give the Holy Ghost the 
 : lie. And when you do that God will shut you up in hell, and keep 
 you there. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to teach us God's word. 
 See John 14:26. "■■r.,-'\ ■- ~ /-'- ~ . . 
 
 3. What is the relation of the Holy Spirit to unsaved sinners? See 
 John 16:8: "And when he is come (that is, the Holy Ghost) he will 
 reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." 
 
 "Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always 
 resist the Holy Ghost As your fathers did so do ye." 
 
 Here is a fond mother who has been pleading for years with her 
 wayward son, but unmindful of her entreaties and her prayers, he con- 
 tinues on his downward course until she gives him up in despair. 
 Why? Because he opposes; because he continues to oppose her; 
 because he rejects her advice. So it is with the Holy Spirit. He 
 opposes you on your downward course. \ He does not want to see you 
 goto hell. But you refuse to heed his advice, dictated by your 
 conscience. " " -- ' ;:; " :V '"., '• ";■■';"• 
 
 ' -'." 'Well, the Spirit will not always strive with man (see Genesis 6:3), 
 \.and I warn you to be careful how you refuse his advice. Oh, when 
 ••A*" '.the Spirit of God is striving with you,' I -implore you not to refuse to 
 'accept his teachings !' For if you continue to oppose and resist him, 
 and continue to reject the religion of Jesus Christ, He will forsake you. 
 . - And then you are lost — eternally lost! „■ ■■-, • ,, ...,,* ■" \ 
 Jv^v'God the Father, andGod the Son/have done their part— now, don't 
 A^ drive the Holy Spirit from you! " There are only three persons in the 
 '''f': godhead — the Father, Son,. and Holy Ghost — and if you resist the 
 
 ■ .■■'■'■' ' - .'' ■"• ' '' '-. . '"41 
 
THE HOLY SPIRIT. 39 
 
 workings of the Holy Spirit you will lose your only helper, and you 
 will surely be lost. 
 
 I know of a case which actually happened in Kentucky: 1 here was 
 a man who went to church, and the Holy Spirit began to strive with 
 him. He could have no peace. His conscience told him to ask God's 
 forgiveness and become a Christian, and he resisted the promptings of 
 his heart. One day he was so much distressed that he saddled his 
 horse and rode down the road, and the Spirit was striving within him 
 still. He resisted, and finally, raising himself up in the stirrups, he ■ 
 exclaimed: "I won't do it!" And God's Spirit left him then and there 
 forever and forever. And he said he had hardly uttered the words 
 before he became sensible of that fact. And to-day he feels that he is 
 past redemption, beyond all hope of forgiveness. He has never had a 
 serious thought on the subject of his soul's salvation since. 
 
 Here is another case: At an enquiry meeting I was holding, Mrs. 
 Pearson approached a young lady in the audience, and she asked her 
 if she did not want to be a Christian. "No," she said She believed 
 in God, she believed the Bible, and all that, she said; but still she had 
 no desire to become a Christian. Well, Mrs. Pearson asked her why; 
 if she had always had such a feeling as that. "Oh, no!" she exclaimed, 
 "There ivas a time when 1 felt that I ought to accept Jesus asm)' 
 saviour; there was a time when 1 thought ] ought to become a child 
 of God. But I resisted that feeling until I made up my mind that I 
 wouldn't do it. "And," she added plaintively, "I have had no feeling 
 on the subject since. My heart is as cold as that stone." 
 
 Oh, my friends, the Spirit of God will not always strive with man, 
 and I beg you, I implore you in God's name — don't resist the Spirit if 
 it is striving with you to-night. 
 
 4. What is the relation of the Holy Spirit to the believer — -to the 
 regenerated child of God? 
 
 The relation is precisely the same as the relation of the Ho!)' Ghosttb 
 the humanity of Christ. See Luke 1:35; John 1:13; Matthew 3:16; 
 Acts 1:5; Matthew 3:16; Romans 8:14— "For as many as are led by 
 the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." And let me say right 
 here, that the Holy Spirit does not lead any one to the hop, or the 
 "german," or-the card party, or the dram shop. See, also, John 1:33; 
 John 14:16; Luke 4:14; Acts 1:8. 
 
 Hence Christ is the son of God, and so are his believing children 
 his children. Live in spirit and pray in spirit. 
 
 5. What are some of the emblems of the Holy Spirit ? 
 
40 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 Out there at your graded school they teach the children by what is 
 called "object lessons." It is difficult for us to grasp the idea of the 
 Holy Spirit, and so God has given us object lessons that we may learn 
 *he more readily. .. ■ 
 
 See John, 3:8. Here we have the Spirit in the emblem of the wind. 
 I don't understand, I cannot explain what the wind is. Nor can I see 
 it. But I can feel it, and I know when the wind blows. ;■- ^.":;\:%; 
 ■ ■.'■ Just so with the Holy Spirit. I can't see, nor understand, nor 
 explain it. But I know I do feel its influence. One is as incompre- 
 hensible as the other. Say what you please, though, when I feel the 
 current on my cheek and see the boughs, of a tree bend to and fro, I 
 know the wind blows ; and when I feel the influence of the Holy 
 Ghost I know the Spirit of God is striving within me. .:"; i t ^ .. i'L 
 
 In John, y.38 we have the Holy Spirit in the emblem of water. 
 Water ! That which we cannot live without; without which our per- 
 sons cannot be made clean. And so the Spirit washes us with the 
 waters of regeneration which flow from the throne of God. 
 
 I don't know how water slakes my thirst, but I know it deos slake 
 it. So with the Holy Spirit. I don't know the process by which the 
 Spirit satisfies our thirst for righteousness, but I know that result is 
 accomplished. : f 5..: k - ■- -- • ~H& '■■-■{■■, 
 
 ;•• In Luke, 4:18 we have the Holy Spirit in the emblem of oil. Oil 
 that makes the troubled water calm ; oil that lights us out of dark- 
 ness — from the Chaos of infidelity into the bright light of Christianity ; 
 from death unto life ! 
 
 In Acts, 2:3 we have the Holy Spirit in the emblem of fire. The fire 
 which makes everything hot like itself. Fire which is elevating — the 
 flames and sparks fly upward ; the fire which purifies things. So with 
 the Holy Ghost, making us clean, and free from iniquity, so that when 
 these sparks of clay are elevated to heaven we may be purified in His 
 
 sight V ' : ' .'",'' '-- : ''-'*■: -'J'- ' -- r ': ':"■"'-''- -V •'.""'' 
 
 And here in John,. 1:32 we have the Holy Spirit in the emblem of 
 the dove— not an eagle, not a buzzard, not a bird of prey. But the 
 harmless, gentle dove. Significant emblem!, The timid dove ! ...The 
 bird so easily frightened away !' -'• ,' - . - ,-' ■ ,. ■ < v :;•..■ . y 
 
 '/' Like a dove, God's Holy Spirit would move us tenderly to Christ 
 Like the dove the Holy Spirit is timid, and if you oppose and resist 
 this gentle Spirit He will wing his way .from, you forever and, like:. the 
 city of Jerusalem, you will be left in utter desolation. jf?J§ '-- '"''■ -T 
 
 If there is one in this house to-night with whom the Holy Spirit is 
 
 . : - ,..j.k\; ,:>' ■.-■•-! *.--.* v> r '-. ■ 
 
THE GLORIES OF EARTH AND HEAVEN COMPARED. 4|. 
 
 striving, let mebeg of you, not to resist, but stay to the enquiry meet- 
 ing and make your peace with God this night ! Don't oppose him; 
 don't reject him-~Oh, dying man, don't let the Spirit strive with you 
 in vain, until He gives you up and forsakes you, and leaves you for- 
 ever. If He does you are lost forever and forever ! 
 
 There were a number of conversions at the enquiry meeting. 
 
 THE GLORIES OF EARTH AND HEAVEN COMPARED. 
 
 Another great crowd of people assembled in Centenary M. E. church 
 Monday night, October 1st, to hear the great evangelist. The gas 
 machine which supplies light for the church got out of order arid would 
 not work, but the congregation remained until lamps were secured 
 Mr. Peason remarked on the interest in the meetings thus manifested 
 and thanked God that it was so. 
 
 He read the 5th chapter of 2nd' Kings, and preached about the cure 
 of Naaman, the commander of the Syrian hosts, who was a leper. 
 
 I am going to preach you an 'expository sermon to-night-- a lesson, 
 a practical and important lesson, for every careless and unconcerned 
 man of the world, and for every child of God, and for every penitent 
 sinner seeking salvation ! '■'' 
 
 Naaman was a big man in his country. He was commander of the 
 army of Syria — a great general, a nobleman, a statesman, a man of 
 great earthly power. But he was a leper / ■'■■ > >. 
 
 I am going to show you that this world, with all its honors and 
 emoluments, is nothing when compared to Eternity. Some men say 
 that religion may do for the weak men and women, v.'ho have nothing 
 else in particular to do ; but we business men, we statesmen, we great 
 politicians, must attend to our business and to the affairs of State. 
 These things arc of mote importance than religion to us. 1 want to 
 explode this common theory to-night 
 
 And Mr. Pearson proceeded to do this in his own reasoning, argu- 
 mentative and masterly way. He showed how all Naaman's wealth, 
 influence and power could not cure him of the disease which com- 
 pelled him to be ostracised and shut out from association among his 
 fellow men; how the lowly servant maid was the means of influencing 
 Naaman to seek a cure through God, the only physician who could 
 
■42 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 Ileal him. He dwelt on Naaman's hesitation and dqubts; how he 
 wanted to know why washing himself in the rivers Abana or Pharpar, 
 clear and sparkling streams, would not cure him as well as dipping 
 seven times in the muddy Jordan; how he wanted to ' dictate to God 
 the terms of his cure; how he wanted to buy the remedy and couldn't, 
 and on what terms he was finally healed ; and how Gchazi was smitten 
 with leprosy for abusing his master's name to Naaman. 
 
 Now, let us take up and consider some of the big things of this 
 world. Take the Presidency of the United States — the highest and 
 greatest and most honorable office to which man can attain, the acme of 
 human ambition. ■■ • --- 
 
 Suppose a man is elected to that exalted office, as some man will be 
 in about six weeks hence, and he makes a wise ruler, his administra- 
 tion becomes a brilliant one, he gains a world-wide reputation as a 
 remarkably great man, and he dies, as die he must. What then ? 
 
 I go to Washington and see a great funeral cortege moving down 
 Pennsylvania avenue; there is pomp and pageantry and brilliant mili- 
 tary display, and an immense multitude watch as the procession goes 
 by. I enquire of some spectator what it all means and he says, " Why, 
 this is the funeral of the greatest President that ever lived" And I 
 say, hold on there until I tack this card on his coffin : " Buf he was 
 not a Christian!" 
 
 What did his brilliant career amount to ; what does all this pomp 
 and display amount to, after all? He did not serve his Maker; he died 
 without making his peace with God, and he went to hell just as the 
 humblest unsaved citizen of the country he governed would go. What 
 is the Presidency without God? I would rather live in a log cabin 
 with the bare necessaries of life, feeling secure in the love of Jesus, 
 than be President of the greatest country in the world and live and die 
 without God in the most magnificent palace the hands of men could 
 erect. 
 
 Well, this man says he does not want to be President. He merely 
 wants to be a successful politician and a statesman. All right. John 
 Randolph, the Bald Eagle of Congress, was a successful politician and 
 a great statesman. He is said to have been the most sarcastic man in 
 Congressional life, and sarcasm is always an evidence of intellect 
 - -.Just before John Randolph died he wrote " Remorse ! " three times 
 ; on a card, stuck the card in his vest pocket and died. I will not say 
 that John Randolph died an unsaved sinner, but on the supposition 
 that he did, I look at his big funeral and say, "What's this?" 
 
THE GLORIES OF EARTH AND HEAVES COMPARED. 43 
 
 Why, says one, this is the funeral of the great John Randolph, of 
 Roanoke, the Bald Eagle of Congress, one of the greatest men our 
 country has produced. Hold on, I say, until I nail this to his coffin : 
 " But he was lost!" What did his popularity, his statesmanship, his 
 sarcasm amount to, if he died an unsaved sinner? 
 
 Well, here is another man, and he says he only wants to be a great 
 orator. All right. Take Gambetta, of France, a man who could sway 
 multitudes with his eloquent tongue, as the wind bends the reed. 
 When Gambetta died he exclaimed, "I am lost!" Well, I see the 
 great display at his funeral, and they tell me they are burying the most . 
 eloquent man of his day, the modern Demosthenes. And I tack on 
 his coffin the fatal words: "But he was lost!" What did his eloquence 
 and what does his fame amount to? What will his silver-tongued 
 oratory amount to in the great day of judgment? Nothing! i\bso- 
 lutely nothing. 
 
 Here is another man, and he says he doesn't want to be president, 
 nor a statesman, nor an orator. He wants to be a successful merchant 
 and business man. All right. A. T. Stewart, of New York, was a 
 successful merchant and business man, and he died. They all die; 
 don't you forget that — they all die, and you are going to die some 
 time. Stewart was a man who had reached the pinnacle of mercantile 
 success. Suppose I see his funeral moving along Broadway and Fifth 
 avenue, and they tell me that they are burying the merchant prince of 
 New York and the United States. Well, I say hold on until I tack 
 this card to his coffin: "But he was lost!" What did his earthly suc- 
 cess amount to? Nothing! 
 
 Well, some man in Winston says, I only want to be the biggest and 
 most successful tobacco manufacturer in North Carolina. Well, you 
 become that, and one day I happen in Winston and see a great crowd 
 of carriages following a hearse, and I ask what that means. 1 hey tell 
 me that is the funeral of our largest and most successful tobacco 
 manufacturer, and 1 say, Was he a Christian? "No." Well, hold on 
 until I tack this card to his coffin: "But he was lost. 1 '' What did his 
 success amount to? "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole 
 world and lose his own soul ?" 
 
 I had rather be a twig or a twist of the tobacco which that man 
 made than to be the corpse of the unsaved sinner in that hearse- 
 But it is useless to argue the question any further on this line All 
 can see that the glories of earth are but a bubble when compared with 
 the Glories of Eternity, and I will close this feature with the case of 
 
44 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 "Lazarus. Read the 16th chapter of Luke, beginning at the 19th verse. 
 Here was a beggar, an outcast full of sores, which the dogs licked. 
 He was as low down in the social scale as men generally get to be 
 But he was a child of Gqd. : ; ' ■ " • 
 
 Suppose I come along and see, an old mule pulling a dilapidated cart 
 with a pine box in it, and an old darkey acting as master .of ceremonies, 
 taking the body of Lazarus to the Potter's Field to put it in a hole in 
 the ground. . And I ask what that means. I am told that it is the 
 •corpse' of a beggar, a pauper, who ■ had no home and no friends — a 
 poor, poverty-stricken wretch. And I say, Hold on until I tack this 
 .card to the box: "But he was a Christian!" And he was carried by 
 ■the angels 'into Abraham's bosom! 
 
 ' What is all your earthly wealth' and splendor, compared to the sal- 
 vation of Christ, which of itself makes us spiritual millionaries and joint 
 heirs with God? 
 
 Some Christians seem to think that they have no influence, and 
 can do nothing toward bringing others to Jesus. But there are none 
 ; so obscure that he cannot do sometJdng for his Maker. 
 
 Take this little servant maid as an example: Who would have 
 thought that she would be the means of bringing the great Assyrian 
 to his God, by simply saying that He could cure the leprosy. ; a-' 
 ' Because you cannot write a book, or preach a sermon, is no reason 
 why you should not speak a word tor Jesus in season, and when the 
 opportunity presents itseff. ;.-:'. 
 
 It is not the big sermons, and long-winded dissertations that convert 
 souls to God. It is the timely word more often. - -. '•■ ..■■".. 
 
 In a certain town in the United States there was a pastor, an educated 
 man, and a fine speaker, who had; amor g his usual congregatfon an 
 infidel. He had been preaching at that infidel for some time, but to no 
 effect. 'Finally he concluded to write a big sermon, and he delivered 
 it in great oratorical style, and a few days after he heard that the infidel 
 was converted sure enough. So he went to see the man, and he asked 
 him what particular part of his sermon had the desired effect on him. 
 The new convert astonished him by replying that no part of his im- 
 mense effort had any effect on him at all. And then he told him what 
 did bring about his conversion : As he was going down the church 
 steps an old lady fell, and would have been badly hurt had he not 
 caught her. She looked up into the infidel's face, and, thanking him, 
 said, "Mister, do you love Jesus?" . ." 7 
 
 That was all. But those words, "Do I love Jesus?" rang in that 
 
 1 
 
 ■ •*- 
 
& 
 
 ■ LAYING UV RICHES. ■ /K 
 
 man's ears day and night, until he finally was convinced that he did 
 love Jesus, and said so. 
 
 Oh, my friends, do you love Jesus? If you do, drop a word here 
 and there for him and the great cause of religion. All can do some- 
 thing, -v, Cf 
 
 We are taught in this lesson that God will permit no man to dictate 
 to him the terms of salvation. No matter how high and influential, 
 and powerful and rich you are, you have got to accept this religion on 
 God's terms — the very same terms which are offered the lowliest in 
 life — by grace., 
 
 I had a man to say to me once that he would give rue his check for 
 gio.ooo if I would make him feel as happy as I appeared to be. But 
 you can't buy the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 
 Oh, dying man, accept God's terms and be happy! Don't try to 
 dictate to him, but accept God's plan in God's way, and go to heaven. 
 
 LAYING UP RICHES. 
 
 i 
 
 - ; i ■ r . i 
 
 me. Pearson's sermon to 'the. business men. 
 
 On Tuesday morning October 2d, Mr. Pearson preached especially 
 to the business men of Winston-Salem. The capacious church build- 
 ing was crowded to its utmost capacity by both old and young men, 
 representing the various occupations in life. Many merchants and 
 other business men closed their establishments during the service, in 
 order that both themselves and their employees could attend. 
 
 Mr. Pearson took his text irom the 6th chapter of Matthew, ir> ?■) 
 verses : 
 
 " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and 
 rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal But lay 
 up for yourselves treasures in heaven where' neither moth nor rust 
 doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steaL For 
 where your treasure is there will your heart be also." 
 
 I want to call your special attention to the 1 9th verse, wherein it is 
 said, "Lay not up treasures for yourselves" Sec, and there are sev- 
 eral observations which I desire to make at the outset 
 
J.6 THE GREAT EVANGELIST, 
 
 a 
 
 ' There is a common idea prevalent among some people that it is 
 sinful to be rich. This is a very erroneous idea. Some of the best 
 men I ever knew were rich men. Abraham was a wealthy man, and 
 yet he was the father of faith. 
 
 Some men think there is a good deal of virtue in being poor. But 
 there is not. Some of the worst-men I ever knew were poor men. 
 
 While wealth has its snares, poverty also has its peculiar temptations. 
 It is not riches or poverty that we should seek, but the wherewith to 
 be content. 
 
 And there is an idea that business must be divorced from religion. 
 It is a great mistake for a child of God, especially, to entertain such 
 an idea as this. The idea that a man cannot be both a successful bus- 
 iness man and a consistent Christian is a very erroneous and dangerous 
 one. Combine business and religion. Don't go to either extreme, or 
 you will have one or the other of these examples : 
 
 Here is a man who is all business with no religion. He may gain 
 the world, but he will lose his soul. 
 
 Here is another man who is all religion and no business, and he will 
 land in the poor-house. Don't take either extreme, but combine your 
 business and your religion. 
 
 If you are a business man, be one. Be a diligent business man, but 
 be fervent in spirit also. That is the Bible idea of a business man. Be 
 straightforward in your business and in your religion. 
 
 Take the case of John Wannamaker, of Philadelphia. He is a model 
 business man, and yet he is one of the most earnest, consecrated Chris- 
 tian men in the United States. Instead of divorcing your business 
 from your religion you want to bring them together. 
 
 You cannot properly conduct a business unless a Christian spirit 
 actuates you, and we cannot successfully conduct spiritual matters 
 without money. 
 
 '"Are you a successful businessman? If so, how did you become 
 so ? God gave you the talent. 
 
 Are you a successful preacher? God gave you that talent, and he 
 will hold us responsible for the way in which we exercise our talents. 
 
 It takes money to build churches and to carry on any kind of gos- 
 pel work. ' ' ' •- • ■-^■•^'■■'■■'■'- ■■'■ /■.'- 
 
 Some people have an idea that it does not require money to run the 
 church. I once heard of an old lady who was very proud of the fact 
 that she had been a Christian for 15 years and it had cost her only 
 15 cents! v ^' ''■: ' " ' 
 
LAYING UP RICHES. 4/ 
 
 The preachers preach the gospel, and you business men support the 
 pastors and send money to the heathen. 
 
 God will bless you for that. The men who furnish the money will 
 get their part of the reward for the good the pastor and the missionary 
 do with it. 
 
 People are not required to starve in order to get to heaven 
 
 At a camp meeting I was holding once, some of my friends took up 
 a collection, without my solicitation, for my benefit. One old fellow 
 met me and said : " Pearson, I didn't know you preached for money." I 
 told him I did not, but that I could not eat souls, and if I could it 
 would take a dozen of such as his to make a meal. 
 
 Let us bring our hearts, our money, and our religion and consecrate 
 all to God. 
 
 Now, I propose to show you how you can lay up treasures in heaven 
 and make money too. 
 
 Read the following quotations which bear on this great subject : 
 Luke, 12:19-21; Matthew, 19:22; Matthew, 13:22; Matthew, 19:23; 
 Timothy, 6:9 and 10; James, 1:11; Ecclesiastes, 5:10; Proverbs, 11:4; 
 James, 5:1, 2 and 3 ; Timothy, 6:11. 
 
 "And I will say to my soul, Soul thou hast much goods laid up for 
 many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said 
 unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee, then 
 whose shall these things be which thou hast provided? So is he that 
 layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God' : — Luke, 
 $2:19-21. 
 
 What is the danger taught, in this lesson ? That a man in laying up 
 riches is likely to forget God. 
 
 Here was a man, presumably a farmer, who was not a bad man at 
 heart. But, mark you, all his time was spend in laying up riches for 
 himself. 
 
 How did he lose his soul ? Not by getting rich, but because he 
 forgot God — in his forgetfulness of God he lost his soul. 
 
 Some of you are rich and some of you are trying to get rich. That 
 is all right. But be careful not to let the accumulation of riches make 
 you forget God. Has it not had that effect already, to some extent, 
 on some of you ? Have any of you forgotten your obligations to God ? 
 Well, let me tell you that some day while you are forgetting God, He 
 will say : "Thou iool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 
 
 You will not be turned into hell because you got rich, but because 
 you forgot God. 
 
4 s 
 
 THB-GKEAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 "But wheti the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrow- 
 ful, for he had great possessions." — Matthew, 19:22. 
 
 Here was a young man — a moral, sober young man. Perhaps his 
 onry fault was the fact that his mind was wholly wrapped up in his 
 riches and in the accumulation of wealth. And he went away sorrow- 
 ful. Why ? Becauce his money caused him to reject Christ. 
 
 The young men who have all the money they want are the hardest 
 to convert. The pastors of New York will tell you that it is the rich 
 who are the hardest to make Christians of. Why ? Because they 
 have all in this world they desire. Talk to those people about self- 
 denial ! It is a gospel they do not understand. 
 
 And then we see poor people with the appetite for riches, and if they 
 had them they would gratify themselves in the same way some of the 
 
 rich do. 
 
 It is no harm to get rich honestly, if you do not allow your riches 
 
 to come between you and Christ. 
 
 This laying up of riches for one's self is calculated to choke the 
 scriptures. See Matthew 13:22. The cares of the world, and the 
 deceitfulnessof riches are calculated to choke God's word in our hearts. 
 
 I have in my mind's eye now a man, an exemplary Christian gentle- 
 man, who embarked in a splendid business, and he finally became so 
 engrossed in his business that he couldn't go to church, and he drifted 
 away from God and from God's people. 
 
 I talked with him, and he told me that he was losing spiritual 
 growth — not because he was successful and rich, but because he allowed 
 his riches to choke the word of God in his heart. 
 
 God says, keep the Sabbath day holy. By riding out to your farm 
 on Sunday, and giving instructions to the hands about the work for 
 the following week; by going to the post office and opening your 
 business letters on Sunday, and spending the balance of the day think- 
 ing how you will answer them— by such things as these you are 
 breaking the Sabbath day and choking G8d's word. 
 
 And you are choking God's word by self-indulgence who have big 
 hot dinners on Sunday, while the poor cook is deprived of the privilege 
 of hearing the gospel preached. ' 
 
 lam a regular blue-stocking Presbyterian in my views on these 
 subjects. • ; ....... . -/-_-.--«> 
 
 There are business men who make it convenient, when they go to 
 
 New York to purchase goods, to put in Sunday on the road traveling. 
 No thoroughly good Christian business man will do it. 
 
 1 
 
LAYING UP RICHES. try 
 
 And there is this Sunday visiting business. Young men take Sun- 
 day afternoons to visit their sweethearts. A daughter of mine should 
 not receive her gendemen friends on Sunday if she never got married 
 
 Riches have their temptations, and that is why, in Matthew 19:23,. 
 we are told that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 Are you going to lay up riches? Then let your outflow increase in 
 proportion to your income. You cannot grow rich and shut up your 
 heart and refuse to help the poor and God's work, and be a Christian. 
 
 You ought to give at least one-tenth of your income to God's work. 
 And you ought to do it because it will keep your soul open, and tie- 
 cause a man who honors God in this way can grow rich and maintain 
 his Christian integrity. 
 
 I keep a bank that I call God's bank, and once a year 1 take out the 
 money and send it to help build some church, to buy tracts and liter- 
 ature, to support some missionary, or to educate some young man for 
 the ministry. After a trial, I find that I can live better and happier on 
 the nine-tenths than I could on the ten-tenths, and I would not be 
 deprived of this privilege of giving for anything. 
 
 I would as soon think of putting my hand into a man's pocket and 
 taking his money without his knowledge or consent as to receive $100 
 and not give $\o of it to God. 
 
 If the church members of this country would give only a small por- 
 tion of their. incomes to the support of the gospel, there would be no 
 church mortgages on record. Oh, how it would lubricate the machin- 
 ery of religion! 
 
 Mr. Pearson here took occasion to severely denounce church fairs 
 and festivals. He doesn't believe in such schemes and has no use for 
 them. 
 
 Another trouble about riches is that they "drown men in destruction 
 and perdition." See I. Timothy; 6:9 and IO. 
 
 "But they that will be rich, fall into temptation, and f- snare, and 
 into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction 
 and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which 
 while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced 
 themselves through with many sorrows." 
 
 The man who will make money, any how; honestly if he can, but 
 means to get! rich any way, had better look out, for by loving riches 
 better than he loves his God, he will pierce his heart with sorrow and 
 drown his soul in perdition. 
 
3° 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 At this juncture Mr. Pearson remarked on the practice of betting 
 and condemned it in strong language. 
 
 It is much better to be satisfied with getting an honest living in an 
 honest way. There may not be so much money in it, but there is a 
 great deal more heaven. 
 
 The riches of this earth fade away. See James 1:11. 
 
 Yes, you may lay up riches here, but they will fade away. I know 
 many men who were once wealthy and who are now poor. Are you 
 going to lose your soul for something that will fade away? 
 . And, then, riches satisfieth not. In Ecclesiastes 5:10, we have these 
 words : " He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he 
 that loveth abundance with increase; this is also vanity." 
 
 Riches cannot satisfy your spiritual wants, and not always your 
 temporal desires. I heard of a lady who paid $7,000 a year for a fancy 
 cook, and she was such a dyspeptic that she could only eat hoe-cake 
 and drink milk! 
 
 Vanderbilt once said he would give anything if he could eat and 
 relish a "square meal," and enjoy a good night's rest. Why the poor- 
 est of us have that! 
 
 Riches profit not in the day of wrath. See Proverbs 11:4. 
 
 Riches will not profit you in the day of wrath, but that day of wrath 
 is coming! Suppose you hoard up riches and meet God on the day 
 of wrath, what will it have profited you if you have gained the whole 
 world and lost your own soul? 
 
 Earthly riches rust and canker and eat your flesh. See James 5:1, 2 
 and 3. 
 
 If you have riches and do not use them properly they will rise up 
 against you in the day of judgment. 
 
 Mr. Pearson here took occasion to censure the rich for paying poor 
 people less than their services were worth. He denounced the rich 
 lady of fashion who "jews" the poor mantua-rrakers down to the last 
 cent, and who pays her domestic help barely pauper wages, and de- 
 clared that her money would canker and rise up against her in the 
 day of judgment • • •.-' 
 
 May God help us to do as we would be done by! 
 
 I 
 
 .--. .:. '"..* 
 
 < . . _.. .,', ..*. r -- ■'■-. . . l 
 
 
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 5 I 
 
 THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. ' 
 
 Centenary M. E. church was fillled again on Tuesday night, October 
 2d, to hear the Great Reasoner preach on the Second Coming of Christ- 
 Mr. Pearson took his text from John, 14:1-3 — "Let not your heart 
 be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's- 
 house are many mansions ; if it were not so I would have told you. 1 
 go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for 
 you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am 
 there ye may be also." 
 
 These are the words of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ — words 
 of consolation spoken to the children of God. 
 
 Jesus Christ was in the world once. He suffered for our sins, was 
 crucified dead and buried, and arose from the dead for our justification 
 and ascended unto heaven. Now, this same Jesus will return again. 
 And it is remarkable how these two facts are linked together in the 
 sacrament of the Lord's supper. 
 
 So, I want to talk to you to-night about the second coming of Christ 
 There is a great deal of myth and fanaticism and controversy about 
 this subject in the minds of a great many people. 
 
 Some people think that it merely implies the triumphant death of 
 the Christian ; others, that the universal spreading of the gospel and 
 the triumph of the church means the second coming of Christ ; others 
 think that it refers to the millennium and thai that, per se, means the 
 second coming of Christ. 
 
 So far as fanaticism is concerned, there are cranks on both sides, and 
 the same is true of nearly all the doctrines taught in God's word. 
 
 But I don't care anything about these controversies. AH I want to 
 know is what the Bibles says on the subject. Let us keep clear of all 
 theories and notions, and, taking the word of God, see what it teaches 
 Lay aside dogmas and take God's word for it, 
 
 This is a practical sermon that I am going to preach to you to-night, 
 for God has signally honored this doctrine in the conviction and con- 
 version of men and by reclaiming backsliders. And ] am going to ask 
 three questions : 
 
 1. How is He coming the second time ? 
 
 2 Wlien is He coming ? 
 
 3. WJiy is He coming ? 
 
 First, then : How is He coming ? 
 
'52 
 
 "THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 •» 
 
 In 1st Thessaionians and 1 6th verse we have these words : "For ' 
 
 "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout," &c. 
 
 Now, I make the point that He is coming personally. What does 
 "himself" mean? Does it mean the death of the Christian, or the 
 conversion of the world ? No ; it means Jesus Christ himself, and 
 that is the way he is coming — personally. Did He not come that way, 
 in the first place, and toil and suffer and die as a personality? The 
 Lord himself will descend from heaven. The same person is going to 
 walk this earth again. 
 
 Listen to these words from Acts i:io and u: "And while they 
 looked steadily toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood 
 by them in white apparel : which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why 
 stand ye gazing up into heaven ? This same Jesus which is taken up 
 from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen 
 him go into heaven." ■ > 
 
 So, I make the point that He is coming bodily. He will come in 
 the same manner He went to heaven, and He went to heaven bodily. 
 He went with his crucified and resurrected body. And his second com- 
 ing doesn't mean the millennium, or the death of the Christian, or the 
 spread of the gospel and the triumph of the church. 
 
 And he will come visibly. 
 
 " Beloved, he cometh with the clouds ; and every eye shall see him, 
 and they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall 
 wail because of him." — Revelations, v.j. 
 
 " Every eye shall see him." 
 
 Well, some man says, How about the dead ? What did Job say ? 
 Job knew that he would see him again, and he said he would be res- 
 surrected and behold him. 
 
 Oh, that / could have seen him at Galilee and at the transfiguration ! 
 I did not see him then, but I will see him. I will see him, not crowned 
 with thorns, derided and spit upon, but I will see him as he appears in 
 a cloud of glory ! He who loves me and died for my justification— 
 oh,:I shall see him ! 
 
 And you who profane and blaspheme his holy name — you shall see 
 him, too. And you will call on the rocks and mountains to fall on 
 you and hide you from his penetrating, all-seeing eye! When the 
 great day of wrath comes, who will be able to stand ? 
 
 He will come suddenly. "For as the lightning, that lighteneth out 
 of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven, 
 so shall also the Son of man be in his day." — Luke, 17:24. 
 
THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST. 53 
 
 He will come as suddenly as the lightning, and you had better be 
 getting ready to meet him. You don't know how soon you may die 
 and meet him, nor how soon He will return to earth and meet you. 
 
 He will come unexpectedly. 
 
 "Therefore, be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not 
 the Son of man cometh." — Matthew, 24:44 
 
 By coming suddenly and unexpectedly He found half the Foolish 
 Virgins asleep. So with you, when He comes the second time He will 
 find half of the church members asleep, I am afraid. 
 
 Those of you who are ready and waiting and watching for him— • 
 those who have their lamps trimmed and burning, will be taken with 
 him to rest, and you slack and slothful church members had better 
 look out 
 
 God means something when He says "watch." God means some- 
 thing when He says, Keep yourself unspotted from the world. 
 
 Simeon was watching, and whether Christ appears again this cen- 
 tury, or next, or next, there will be somebody watching then. There- 
 fore, be ready and watch — watch because the Scriptures commands 
 you to watch. 
 
 Now, as to the second question : When is he coming ? 
 
 If you mean by "when" the exact time, 1 answer that no man know- 
 eth — not even the angels in heaven. 
 
 Some crank says He cannot come before the millennium. Well, if 
 you can't say when He will come, you cannot tell when He will not come. 
 
 The very fact that He set no lime, and instructed us to watch for bis 
 coming, implies that He may come at any time. My opinion, based 
 on the scriptures, is that He will come before the millennium. 
 
 Read the 30th verse of the 12th chapter of Matthew. Now, when 
 will be harvest time? It will be when Christ comes, whether it be at 
 the end of the century or at the end of the world If the "wheat" and 
 the "tares" are to be separated when He comes, it pressages that He 
 will come before the millennium. 
 
 The 20th chapter of Revelations tells us that the devil is to be caught 
 and bound and cast into a pit for a thousand years, and at the end of 
 that period he is to be turned loose again. 
 
 Well, if you are to have a thousand years of the millennium while 
 the devil is shut up, and can't have any after he is turned loose again, 
 how are you going to have any millennium before Christ comes and 
 binds the devil and shuts him up? 
 
54 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 Read the nth chapter of Isaiah. "And he shall smite the earth 
 with the rod of his mouth." 
 
 Christ will come to introduce the millenium, instead of the millen- 
 ium coming to introduce Christ. '- " - 
 
 We saw a while ago in Revelations 1:7, that there would be wailing. 
 If there is to be a millenium of a thousand years before Christ gets 
 here, what are the nations to wail about? 
 
 Oh, should He come to-night, would I wail to see my Jesus? Him 
 whom I love better than my own life? No. I would shout, "Glory 
 hallelujah!" Why? Because all my suffering would be over; because 
 I would meet my sainted dead; because I would be with Christ world 
 without end! Those who are lost will do the wailing. 
 
 Because this world will not be saved by preaching is no argument 
 for saying the gospel is a failure. I have preached with all my 
 strength, but I have not converted all to whom I have preached. I 
 am preaching to some to-night who will not come to Christ and be 
 saved. The gospel is preached as a witness that God loves you, and 
 to prove that you can be saved if you will. 
 
 Third question: Why is He coming again? What for? 
 
 He is coming to bind the devil, to purge the church, to revolution- 
 ize the world, to make all things new. He is coming to gather his 
 people to himself. And our sainted dead — He will gather them to 
 himself, also. God will bring the spirits of the just man, purified and 
 made perfect, and the graves will be opened, and the dead will arise. 
 No wonder Paul called it, "Blessed hope." We will be changed in 
 the twinkling of an eye. And this old earth is to be set afire, and it 
 will melt with fervent heat. But He will gather his living and dead 
 saints to himself before He sets this world on fire. If it had not been 
 for the good men and women here, this earth might have been set on 
 fire long ago. 
 
 Would you perish in that way? If not, trim your lamps and keep 
 them burning — be ready and watch for the Second Coming of Christ. 
 
 You have the Bible, read it; you have the gospel preached to you, 
 heed it. For Christ is coming to punish those who have knowledge 
 of him and will not seek salvation. f( v! . 
 
 "And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus 
 shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels — in flaming fire 
 taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the 
 gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlast- 
 ing destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of 
 his power." — II Thessalonians 1:7 to 9. 
 
SERMON TO THE YOUNG MEN. 55 
 
 Punished with everlasting destruction ! 
 
 Yes, blessed Jesus is coming again, bodily and in person — Christ 
 who loved you so well that he let men scourge him, and spit upon 
 him, and crucify him, that you might have Eternal Life! 
 
 He has sent men to preach the gospel to you, and you reject i ; . and 
 live on in your sins. What then? He is coming to punish with 
 everlasting destruction those who know not God and obey not the 
 gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Will you be numbered with that 
 class? 
 
 Oh, dying man, will you obey that gospel to-night, and seek him 
 while He may be found. Will you call upon him while He is near? 
 
 God grant that you may; and when He comes, may we all pass in 
 together to the Marriage Supper! 
 
 SERMON TO THE YOUNG MEN. 
 
 On Wednesday night, October 3d, Mr. Pearson preached especially 
 to the young men. He said he wanted to hold out to the young men 
 for imitation some noble Christian character, and he had selected 
 Daniel as that character. 
 
 My heart goes out especially to the young men, and I want to call 
 your attention to the remarkable character of one of the grandest men. 
 that ever lived — a model statesman, a model politician, a model busi- 
 ness man, and, withal, a model Christian of unflinching and uncom- 
 promising integrity and fidelity. 
 
 Go to God's word and examine into the life of one of the noblest, 
 grandest men that ever lived — Daniel. Re^d the first chapter of 
 Daniel, first to ninth verses. 
 
 In the first place, Daniel was a Scriptural young man. He knew 
 and believed and obeyed the Scriptures, and he modeled his character 
 after the teachings of this Blessed Word. 
 
 Now, Nebuchadnezzar, in selecting Daniel as one of those to be 
 taught statecraft, that he might become a politician and a statesman, 
 required that he should study so and so and eat such and such things. 
 
 Daniel decided that he would not defile himself by eating the food 
 thus prepared for him. God had told him that he, a jew, must not 
 
56 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 eat certain kinds of meat, and the question with Daniel was, "Shall I 
 obey the king of Babylon or the King of Heaven ? I have got to dis- 
 obey one or the other. Now, which one ? That is the issue." 
 
 And Daniel determined to obey the King of Heaven and to do what 
 the Scriptures taught him to do. . -. 
 
 He was told that if he did not obey the king of Babylon he would be 
 beheaded, that he would be executed on the block, and I can imagine 
 Daniel saying: "Very well ; let them kill me if they will. I will lose 
 my head sooner than disobey my God !" 
 
 That is the sort of stuff to make young men of. That is the sort of 
 stuff of which heroes are made. 
 
 Are any of you young men going to be statesmen? Are you going 
 to do anything to elevate your race? Is the world going to be any 
 better for you having lived in it ? If so you've got to take your stand 
 on God's word, let fashion and style say what they may. Plant both 
 feet firmly on the teachings of the Bible and say, " Here I stand or 
 fall ! " Will you do it ? 
 
 One of the saddest sights to me is to see so many young men who 
 do not read, study or believe very much of the Bible. 
 
 God says the Scriptures will make you wise in matters of salvation. 
 What if you are wise in everything else, and lose your soul? 
 
 In the 119th Psalm and 9th verse we have these words: "Where- 
 with shall a young man cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto 
 according to thy word." 
 
 If any of you profane God's name (and I am afraid some of you do — 
 most senseless and despicable practice!), remember that the Scriptures 
 say you shall not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain. 
 
 These same Scriptures tell you that no drunkard, no covetous man, 
 no whoremonger shall enter the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 If you obey God's word you will be cleansed from all such sins. 
 Oh, be like Daniel— be a Scriptural young man ! 
 
 Be careful in your selection of associates. Do as Daniel did, and 
 select christian young men, who love God, and have some backbone, 
 as your companions. Daniel owed much to his associations. There 
 is nothing more important in your career, pertaining to your welfare in 
 this world and the next, as the character of the young men whom you 
 choose as your daily associates. " Birds of a feather flock tegether." 
 Show me the associates of a man, arid I will tell you the character of 
 that man. ■■::■';-- ;;"_■ • :- [• u • ■ ■-;- ■■... i-o '; . : J r- ,, 
 
 Don't associate with young men who speak sneeringly of pure wo- 
 
SERMON TO THE YOUNG MEN. 57 
 
 men, or those who make fun of religion and speak lightly of the Bible. 
 Daniel did not associate with that class of young men. 
 
 And when you select a companion for life, get a pure, good, christian 
 woman, rather than a fashionable "society" one, if you value your 
 future happiness. 
 
 Read the 3d chapter of Daniel. Merc was Daniel refusing to wor- 
 ship the golden image. He would bend the knee to none but God, 
 and all the persuasion of others could not induce him to go through 
 even the form of worshipping the golden image. 
 
 Daniel was a man of prayer. See Daniel 6:10. He was not afraid 
 to pray, and although he knew the edict of the king was signed, order- 
 ing all to worship only the golden image, he went to an open window, 
 his accustomed place in his room, and with his face toward Jerusalem, 
 continued to pray to his God. He knew he would be cast into the 
 lion's den if he was discovered, and yet he made no effort to conceal 
 the act. He wouldn't even close the blinds. 
 
 He was discovered, the fact was reported to the king, and Daniel was: 
 cast into the lion's den. Daniel was praying when they took him, and 
 I can imagine him praying as he laid his head on the shaggy mane of 
 the lion and slept as peacefully as a child! 
 
 Daniel knew that his God could protect him, and his faith was so 
 strong that he was satisfied that He would shield him fnc'r.'i harm. 
 And because of this the king acknowledged Daniel's God as the only 
 true God. That is the kind of praying young men we need to-day. 
 Don't be ashamed to pray, and don't be afraid of ridicule. 
 
 There was a Christian young man attending a certain college, and he 
 had a room to himself, until a new student, a godless young fellow, 
 arrived one day. The two got along all right during the day, arid 
 when the time to retire arrived the Christian young man, as was his 
 custom, kneeled by the bedside and began to pray, whereupon the new 
 student stepped up and stuck a pin into him. The young man delib- 
 erately arose, seized a chair and knocked his tormentor in the head 
 with it. Then, without examining to see how badly the young mar. 
 was hurt, he again kneeled and finished his prayer. 
 • His new room-mate had more respect for him after that, and he was 
 not troubled with pins again. 
 
 Don't be afraid or ashamed to pray. And if you are on your knees 
 praying and some one comes into the room, you stay where you are 
 until you finish your prayer. Don't jump up and blush and look like 
 a man who has been caught stealing, or doing some other disgraceful act, 
 
38 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 Some men think they have not time to pray. That is a great mis- 
 "take. Daniel had more business than Cleveland and all his cabinet to 
 perform, and he found time to pray three times a day. And here is 
 some ioxi2 corner-grocery merchant saying, he "hasn't time" to pray. 
 That won't do. 
 
 Daniel passed safely through this ordeal because he believed in God. 
 There is an ordeal which you will have to- pass through, and if you 
 want to go through it successfully you must have faith. Don't rely so 
 much on your brains or your shrewdness. Rely on God, through our 
 Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
 
 If you have faith, and put your trust in Him, you will come out 
 more than conqueror, Daniel measured arms with a king, and came 
 out successful. 
 
 Are you going to be a power in the land, and take hold of poor, 
 fallen, sin-cursed humanity and lift it up? Then be like Daniel — a 
 man of taith. Don't live to be a mere bubble on earth. Be a power 
 for good-! ■- " 
 
 Daniel was taught of God. Had he not been he could not have 
 read the hand-writing on the wall. . -::.-- , 
 
 Read this Bible: it will teach you the way to heaven! 
 
 And Daniel was honored of God. How many are there here to- 
 night who would have turned to God as Daniel did when ordered to 
 worship the golden image? 
 
 Where are the worldly young men who obeyed that order and turned 
 their backs on the only living and true God? They are covered with 
 the dust of time, while the life of Daniel shines with historic splendor. 
 
 Young man, God has a work for you to do. Will you go and per- 
 form your duty? . ■-:.;■• 
 
 It is esteemed a great honor to have a niche in the capitol at Wash- 
 ington, and in Westminster Abbey. But that is not my idea of glory. 
 Oh, it is the height of my ambition, and it should be the height of your 
 ambition, to find and fill, at the end of our earthly labors, the niche in 
 the Temple of that city not made with hands, eternal in the heavens! 
 
 If you have not yet confessed Christ, do it this night Enlist your- 
 self on God's side. Emulate the example of Daniel and stand by his 
 side in the great Day of Judgment! •.;.: :. . . : ::r 
 
 
 i- . ' ' ■ - .■- fei 
 
 , l* .; i.li :..'-• ' li 
 
 A'Sji . 
 
 ' . ■ 
 
 '-" J.' 
 
 ...~'fj 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 59. 
 
 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 
 
 THE FAREWELL SERMON OF MR. PEARSOX. 
 
 Mr. Peason preached his farewell sermon Thursday morning, Octo- 
 ber 4th. It was especially adapted to the new converts. 
 
 He took his text from Hebrews, 12:2: " Looking unto Jesus the 
 author and finisher of our faith ; who, for the joy that was set before 
 him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the 
 right hand of the throne of God." 
 
 I want to talk especially to the young converts to-day. You have a 
 joy set before you, and to realize that joy you want to lay aside the 
 sins that possess you, and you must not get out of patienee or be dis- 
 couraged if the devil sometimes gets the better of you.. 
 
 Now, what is the best thing to do to accomplish this object ? Look 
 to Jesus. 
 
 What has been your besetting sin ? Drunkenness ? Desecration of 
 the Sabbath day? Neglect of God's word? Then, in order to lay it 
 aside you must look to Jesus. 
 
 Now, there was the case of Peter. He was all right as long as he 
 kept his eye on Jesus, but as soon as he took his eye off of Jesus and 
 began to look at the boat and the waves he began to sink then and 
 there. And that will be the case with you if you look around and 
 meditate on the temptations that will beset you, instead of keeping 
 your mental eye on Jesus. 
 
 When we look to Jesus, what are we looking for ? What is it that 
 is to be obtained ? What is He to us — what is Jesus to the young 
 convert ? In the first place, He is our Redeemer. 
 
 " Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law."— Galatia is, 3:13. 
 
 Here Fie is held up as our Redeemer. Let us look at him in that 
 light. He will redeem the penitent from the eternal consequences of 
 sin, and from the power of the devil. 
 
 There is a mortgage on your soul. You are morally bankrupt, and 
 you have no resources to lift that mortgage. Your only salvation is 
 through the grace of God, and Jesus Christ is the only one through 
 whose instrumentality the mortgage can be lifted. Neither you nor I 
 can lift it — it must lifted by the atoning blood of our Saviour. 
 
 "Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give 
 
«o 
 
 "THE GREAT EVANGELIST, 
 
 an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is m 
 you, with meekness and fear." — I Peter, 3:15. 
 
 Christ is the only one in the Universe of God that can satisfy divine 
 justice. The conclusion, then, is irresistable that you must accept 
 Jesus Christ as your Saviour, or die in your sins a moral bankrupt. 
 See Romans, 16:26 and 27. 
 
 Let me give you an illustration : Here is a young lady, a marriage- 
 ble young lady. She is heavily in debt, and can't pay the mortgage 
 that is held on her property, and yet it is evident that if she does not 
 lift the mortgage she will be a bankrupt. A marriageable man comes 
 along and he marries this young lady, and he pays off the mortgage 
 held by a third person. 
 
 The mortgagor is thus satisfied, the mortgagee is satisfied, equity is 
 satisfied, and the debt is paid to the satisfaction of all concerned, and 
 ;yet the young lady did not pay the debt. The young man was her 
 redeemer in that momentary crisis, and she accepted him as such. 
 
 Now here you are, a miserable sinner. You have violated God's 
 law, and there is a mortgage on your soul. Christ comes along and 
 pays it off That satisfies God, but Christ is not satisfied unless you 
 accept him as your Saviour. When that is done, God, justice, equity, 
 and Christ are all satisfied and the debt is paid. 
 
 On the other hand, if you reject Christ as your Saviour you will be 
 cast into hell, there to stay until the last farthing is wiped out — and 
 that will be for all eternity. 
 
 Do you accept Jesus os your Redeemer this morning? 
 
 Read about Abraham, the Father of Faith. Do you know the secret 
 of Abraham's faithfulness ? It was this : Abraham had his eye fixed 
 continually on God. 
 
 Don't look at your surroundings so much — look to Jesus. 
 
 And there was Moses. What was the secret of Moses' meekness ? 
 Read the 7th chapter of Hebrews. 
 
 The faith of Moses was so great that he could look beyond the skies. 
 See Ihim on Mount Sinai. See him in the Promised Land — he got 
 there after death, thank God. Think of Moses at the Transfiguration, 
 and imagine how happy he was when he realized the delights for which 
 he had rejected earthly honors. 
 
 The reason the world is so attractive to you is because you are look- 
 ing at the world entirely. You don't see anything better. If you 
 would look to Jesus the one object of your life would be to glorify God. 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 6 1 
 
 The very best, and the only, preventive against sin in this world, and 
 against the allurements of the devil, is "Looking to Jesus." 
 
 Your besetting sin would not be half so attractive if you did not 
 look at the world so much. Look to Jesus when in trouble for help ; 
 and when you are prosperous and happy, look to Jesus still, and thank 
 God for his goodness to you. 
 
 Talk about sorrow and suffering. You don't know what sorrow and 
 suffering is. Think of Job, who lost health, property, children, all he 
 had in the world, and, to cap the climax, whose wife told him to "curse 
 God and die." Think of the faith of Job under circumstances like 
 those. 
 
 What else is Jesus to us? He is our Leader. See Isaiah, 55:4: 
 " Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and 
 commander to the people." 
 
 He has given him for a Leader to the people. Here is a question 
 for you young converts. You are starting out on a new life and you 
 want a leader. The vital thing for you to do at the outset, is to accept 
 Christ as that leader. 
 
 Resolve in the beginning that whatsoever the world may do or say, 
 you will accept Jesus as your leader; that you will follow him in your 
 daily lives, and that whenever and wherever you see the banner of 
 Christ raised, either in or out of the church, you will rally around that 
 banner and stand by your leader. 
 
 Whenever temptation besets you, look to Jesus, your leader, and fol- 
 low him, and then you will not drink whisky, or play cards, or go to 
 the circus ts hear the clown ridicule the Bible, or talk about or take 
 advantage of your neighbor, or desecrate tne Sabbath clay, or profane 
 God's holy name. 
 
 Look for the footprints of Jesus, and follow in them! 
 
 You will find them in your poverty-— Christ was so poor that he had 
 not where to lay his head. You will find them all along the Path of 
 Rectitude ! You will find them all along life, even to the grave. Yon 
 find the footprints of Jesus in the grave. 
 
 And when you reach the heavenly shore beyond the tomb— you 
 will find the footprints of Jesus there ! 
 
 Follow him while you live, look to Jesus when you die, and when 
 you reach the Eternal City on the other shore, the very first thing your 
 eyes will fall upon- will be the Footprints of Jesus! 
 
 He is the Leader. Follow him, let the consequences be what they 
 may, and He will shield you from harm. 
 
62 
 
 THE GREAT EVANGELIST. 
 
 Jesus is also our Commander. 
 
 Have you been a soldier? If you have you know that a soldier's 
 first duty is to obey orders — obedience. 
 
 Then obey your Commander. Deny yourself, take up your cross, 
 and follow Jesus, your Commander, who is your only Commander. 
 
 Don't go by what people say. Don't go by what your pastor says, 
 even, if his views conflict with the teachings of the Bible. Jesus Christ 
 is your only Commander, and no mere man has a right to dictate to 
 you on spiritual subjects. No man has a right to say that it is ?iecessary 
 that you should be baptized in a particular way. Men may differ in 
 their opinions on this and other subjects, but none have a right to dic- 
 tate or command you in this or on any other subject. Read the Bible 
 and Look to Jesus, your only Commander.' 
 
 Then Jesus is also our Friend. "There is a friend that sticketh 
 closer than a brother." — -Prov. 18:24. - •' " ' ' 
 
 A Friend that sticketh closer than a brother! Yes, Jesus is the best, 
 the truest Friend you have. He is a Friend in need, a Friend indeed — 
 in prosperity and adversity; when the world applauds and when it 
 hisses; in your trials and sorrows, Jesus is your Friend. He is an 
 earnest, warm, true, unswerving Friend. The friendship of man, even 
 the love of your wife and your mother, is as nothing when compared 
 to the friendship of Jesus. \ 
 
 Christ is our Advocate. It is He who will advocate our cause at 
 heaven's high court. Go into our earthly courts. The prisoner does 
 not plead his own case. He employs an advocate, a lawyer. So, 
 Christ will be the Christian's attorney in that court of last resort, and 
 the devil will be the opposing counsel. And when satan prefers charges 
 against you, Christ will be there to defend his children, his friends. 
 The devil will be able to make a pretty good case against the majority 
 of us, and he is a cunning old devil, and he knows how to argue his 
 side of the question. He will prefer some mighty serious charges 
 against you. 
 
 If you have been converted to God, and accepted Jesus as your 
 Savior, Christ will be there to defend you, and to defend you success- 
 fully. Jesus will admit the charges of satan, and say that it is true that 
 you were once a sinner, but He will make the point that He liquidated 
 the debt on the cross, and if you are his friend He will say, " Charge it 
 to me." " Get thee hence, satan," Christ will say. " If you have any- 
 thing against my friend, my child, prefer your charges against Me!" 
 " I met you in Winston, and I measured arms with you there !" 
 
LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 63 
 
 Christ is our Elder Brother. What a distinction to be a brother of 
 Jesus Christ! Talk about the "first families" of Virginia and the 
 "aristocracy" of Europe, and about "blue blood" — I tell you there is 
 a blood I appreciate more than I do "blue blood." I don't know 
 whether I have any blue blood in my veins or not, and 1 don't ot re- 
 But I do know that I am akin to Jesus! 
 
 • I don't know anything about the aristocracy of Europe; but, thank 
 God, I belong to the Aristocracy of the Skies. I am the child of a 
 King! 
 
 Christ is also our Judge. In Acts 17:31, we have Jesus represented 
 as our Judge. Does it not make you tremble — ye who have not con- 
 fessed him; ye who have trampled on his laws? He will judge you 
 honestly and truly. 
 
 I Oh, how I look forward to that great day, and rejoice that Jesu,s 
 will be my judge! This same Jesus who is my redeemer, my leader, 
 my commander, my advocate, my friend, my elder brother — this same 
 Jesus will be my Judge! 
 
 Christ is our All, and in All. See Collossians 3:1 1. 
 
 There is a great deal of talk about getting to heaven. Some people 
 seem to think that if they can get into heaven that is all they want — 
 that that is all in alL Well, it depends altogether on circumstances 
 whether I want to go to heaven or not 
 
 I I don't want to go to heaven if Jesus is not there. My purpose is 
 not so much to get into heaven as it is to be with Christ. 
 
 There was an instance which occurred in this State that I will 
 relate: A man and his wife had a beautiful little girl. The mother was 
 taken sick and died, and after the funeral the little child was carried 
 back home. She ran into her late mother's apartments and cried, 
 "'Mamma!" No answer. She ran into the parlor, the dining-room, and 
 into every room in the house calling, "Mamma!" And finally r>ome one 
 told her that her mamma was gone and would not come back again, 
 and the poor little thing cried : " If my mamma is not here / don'l 
 want to stay here!" 
 
 And that is the way I feel about my Jesus. Ii I should go to heaven 
 and find that my Saviour was not there I would not want to stay there. 
 
 The first thing that! shall do when I walk up the streets of the New 
 Jerusalem will be to ask, Where is my Jesus ? Where is my Re- 
 deemer ? Where is my Leader ? Where is my Friend ? Where is 
 my Judge? Where is my Advocate ? Where is my Elder Brother? 
 
 He is my all in all ! 
 
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UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
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