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A Bible-Woman's Story, Ed. by E. Nightingale
A BibleWoman's Story Ed by E Nightingale Author:Collier Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE DUTY AND PRIVILEGE OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto ... more »salvation."—Romans x. 10. '' Shall I, for fear of feeble man, The Spirit's course in me restrain ? Or, undismayed, in deed and word Be a true witness for my Lord ? " I Thought I would keep my religion a secret, and had resolved not to join any Church; but my soul was much blessed by a sermon which I heard preached by the Eev. James Caughey. He gave several illustrations, which clearly showed the duty of Church fellowship. He said, he observed one day a row of trees growing very stately and luxuriantly; the reason was, that they were growing in company, and sheltered each other from wind and storm. Walking on a little further, he saw several other trees, of the same kind: but these were very crooked and bare, because they were growing separately, and exposed to every rough blast that assailed them. And, again, he said, " Suppose a man should say, ' I will cross the Atlantic, but I will go alone;' I know where he would go—to the bottom of thesea. But if another should say, ' I will cross the Atlantic, but I must have a full ship's company and a pilot on board ;' that man may reasonably hope to reach the desired haven." Mr. Caughey urged the duty of Church membership; and after recommending several denominations he concluded with a general invitation to come on board the "Wesleyan ship, as she was bound for the port of glory. I was impressed under that sermon that it was my duty and privilege to join the Church. I told the Lord, that if He would permit me to see the light of another day, I would become a member of His Church. Next morning I received a letter saying I must go to Worcester that day, if I wished to see...« less