throne, chorus of ages, chorus of worlds, and there be but one song
sung, and but one name spoken, and but one throne honored--that of
Jesus only.

THE RANSOMLESS.

"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great
ransom can not deliver thee."--JOB xxxvi: 18.

Trouble makes some men mad. It was so with Job. He had lost his
property, he had lost his physical health, he had lost his dear
children, and the losses had led to exasperation instead of any
spiritual profit. I suppose that he was in the condition that many are
now in who sit before me. There are those here whose fortunes have
begun to flap their wings, as though to fly away. There is a hollow
cough in some of your dwellings. There is a subtraction of comfort and
happiness, and you feel disgusted with the world, and impatient with
many events that are transpiring in your history, and you are in the
condition in which Job was when the words of my text accosted him:
"Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke and then a ransom can
not deliver thee."

I propose to show you that sometimes God suddenly removes from us our
gospel opportunities, and that, when He has done so, our case is
ransomless. "Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a
great ransom can not deliver thee."

I. Sometimes the stroke comes in the removal of the intellect.

"Oh," says some man, "as long as I keep my mind I can afford to
adjourn religion." But suppose you do not keep it? A fever, the
hurling of a missile, the falling of a brick from a scaffolding, the
accidental discharge of a gun--and your mind is gone. If you have ever
been in an anatomical room, and have examined the human brain, you
know what a delicate organ it is. And can it be possible that our
eternity is dependent upon the healthy action of that which can be so
easily destroyed?

"Oh," says some one, "you don't know how strong a mind I have." I
reply: Losses, accident, bereavement, and sickness may shipwreck the
best physical or mental condition. There are those who have been ten
years in lunatic asylums who had as good a mind as you. While they had
their minds they neglected God, and when their intellect went, with it
went their last opportunity for heaven. Now they are not responsible
for what they do, or for what they say; but in the last day they will
be held responsible for what they did when they were mentally well;
and if, on that day, a soul should say: "Oh, God, I was