The Sheepfold and the Common, Or, Within and Without Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1858 Excerpt: ... AN ESCAPE FROM A FALSE REFUGE. Mm; x surveying my congregation one Sabbath evening, 11 1 noticed (in interesting stranger in the front gallery, II' v whose manner indicated that he had never been in the "chapel before. I had selected for my text Isa. Ivii. 1S: "I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners.' As he sat just opposite the pulpit my eye caught his, when delivering the following introductory remarks: --"No one can read the Bible with serious attention, without feeling that he is brought into contact with God. While intently fixed on the subject which engages his attention, he feels isolated from others--existing apart from others, yet existing in immediate connection with God and the eternal world. The same novel effect is sometimes produced, and often to a greater degree, when a congregation is attentively listening to the ministrations of the pulpit. People are drawn together into a place of worship: the reading, the singing, and the prayer are gone through; and then the preaching commences. The preacher is known, but he is soon lost sight of; his subject absorbs attention, excites emotion; impression succeeds impression; and though, in some instances, there may be a momentary degree of' astonishment awakened as to the source from whence the preacher has obtained his knowledge of individual character, yet that astonishment soon subsides, and nothing is left to engross the attention of the hearer, but an overwhelming sense of his own guilt, misery, and danger, which is now discovered, and felt, For The First Time. Yes, many a person has entered this chapel to scorn, who has left it to breathe the prayer of the publican--' God be merciful to me a sinner.' Yes, m...