Why Halt Ye?

You will find my text in the 18th chapter I. Kings 21: “And Elijah came unto all the people and said, how long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” He asked them a question that they were not willing to answer. I venture to say if I should put that question to each one of you here to-night, a good many, if not half of this congregation would refuse to answer. I heard of a gentleman here last night, who said he would like to ask me some questions. If that man is here to-night I would like to ask him a question. & How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him; if Baal, follow him?” It is a fair, square, practical thing, isn’t it? If these things are true that are written here in this book, the quicker we find them out and believe them the better. It is certain we cannot serve God and Baal. That is out of the question. Another thing is certain, and that is we serve the one or the other. No man stands on neutral ground in this matter. “He that is not for me,” says Christ, u is against me.” A great many men take the ground that they are not on either side. That is out of the question. Some take the ground that they are on both sides. That is out of the question. If there is any one character above another that we detest

—now, I am not talking about sinners; we love sinners,

—if there is any one character that we detest above another it is the man who tries to be on both sides, who agrees exactly with the last man he meets. If yen

make a statement, “Yes, those are my views exactly; 1 agree with you, sir.” A man comes along with just the opposite view — “Those are my views, exactly; yes.”

There is not a person in this house to-night but has a perfect dread of such people. You detest a character of that kind. During our war there were, in the border States, some of those people. They kept two flags. When the southern army came along they would run out the Confederate flag; then when the Northern army came along and they thought they were going to be in town some time, they would pull in the Southern flag and run out the Union flag, the star spangled banner. Do you know that those people suffered more than any other people. The Southern army would strip them of every thing they had, and if they hid any thing from the Southern army and accumulated anything, when the Union army came along it would strip them of every thing. Both armies detested them. We like to have men one thing or the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot have two masters in this matter. “He that is not for me is against me.”

Now, the question is to-night, whose side are you on? I read of a king in ancient time who married a heathen wife. He wanted to please his wife, and so he put up two altars. One altar was to a heathen god, and on the other he tried to serve Jehovah. Do you think he did it? There is not a child in this audience but that knows very well he could not do it.

Now I would like to press the question home upon you, who is your God to-night? If I understand it correctly, the God of our soul is the one that we think the most of. Is it the god of pleasure? Is it the god of fashion? Is it the god of the world? Or is it the God of the bible — the God of Elijah? Now, it is Baal or

278 WHY HALT YHf

Jehovah. Which is it? I know men will try to dodge the question and say it is not either. But that is impossible. Christ has settled that question forever. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Mark Antony, the great Roman general, yoked up two lions and used to drive them through the streets of Rome. But there are two lions we read of in this book that cannot be yoked together. They never go together. The lion of the tribe of Judah and the lion of hell will never be yoked together. You cannot serve the two. You cannot put them together. It is one or the other, and it is for you to settle which. God gives us that privilege. That is just where free agency comes in. You can have Baal or you can have the God of the bible. I believe to-night there is not perhaps one in this audience but that means to decide some time; but it is so hard to get them to the point of decision. It is so hard to get them across that line. They halt one day too long.

When there is a great question before us, we have really no peace until the question is settled. If we are unsettled on any very important subject, there is no real rest to our minds. There cannot be. Here is the great question of questions. I will venture to say that there is not any one in this church who will not admit that. We know very well that our life is too short. It is but a vapor; it is soon gone. If these things are true they are eternally true. They not only concern us in time, but they concern us in eternity. In a few days or months or years you and I will be gone. Life is ebbing fast away. The sands of time are running out. If the God of Elijah is true, then we certainly ought to know it, and follow him.

Now, the men that have left the deepest foot-prints epon the shores of time have been men of decision,

Leave out the religious question. If they have been great rulers, they have been men of decision. Do you know why so many of our generals failed in the late war? They could not decide. They lacked decision of character, and at the very time they ought to have decided and pushed on to victory, they deferred and lost the victory.

Some one asked Alexander how he conquered the world, and he said he conquered it by not delaying. If this question is going to be conquered we cannot delay. Many a man has come up to the line, and he has halted and wavered and delayed it until one day too late. He did not decide.

You have a good deal more admiration for a man of decision than for a man that is vacillating. That is what we like about Daniel so much, What makes his character so beautiful? It shines out upon the page of history to-night brighter than it did when he lived. He has been gone twenty-five hundred years, and yet his fragrance is throughout the whole world. When he went down to Babylon, before he was twenty years old, he purposed in his heart whom he would serve, Those Chaldeans soon found out whose side he was on. He was a man of decision. It was that that made him so mighty and such a wonderful man. Many a young man comes up to Cleveland from a country home, who has a vacillating character, and he has not decision enough to do the right thing — to act up to his conscience. He is convinced in his mind he ought to do it, but he vacillates, and he halts, and he is influenced by the world around him, and he does not decide to do the right thing at the right time, Decision of character is what made Joseph so wonderful. It was that very thing that made Paul such a mighty man. When God called him he decided. He did not confer with flesh and blood. He did not stop to reason* God called him. That was enough. He decided. He leaped into the race-course and leaped over the highway, right on up to glory — never stopped. Cold churches and false brethren, perils in the wilderness, chains, persecutions, stripes never stopped him. He was a man of decision. Oh, I would to God we had a thousand such men in this country to-day! That is what we want

Look at that vacillating Balaam. In profession he would be a servant of the Most High God; but in practice he bowed down to Baal, because he wanted the applause of the world. Look at Agrippa — almost persuaded; but he lacked moral courage to be altogether persuaded, such as Paul. Felix got so far as to tremble; but he said, “Go thy way for this time.” He was not willing to decide then. And how many men since Felix have said, “Go thy way lor this time; I will decide this question some other time*

Three years and a half before this thing occurred on Mount Carmel, Ahab, one day, was startled by a strangeappearing man. I don’t know how he got by the guard at the door, into the presence of Ahab, but all at once Elijah stood there right before him, and the first thing he said was, “As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain until it comes by my word,” and then fled. I suppose Ahab thought he was some lunatic If they had insane asylums in those days, he would probably have thought he had just come out of some asylum. He was strangely dressed. His garment was made of the 6kin of a camel. He had a leathern girdle around his loins. He might have had a staff in his hand. And away the man went. I will venture to say Ahab didn’t believe a word he said; but the next morning there was no dew. They didn’t have any beautiful fogs coming up, such as you and I see down in the valley of the Connecticut River Valley, moistening every thing. There was no fog, and there was no rain.

They looked. There was not a cloud as large as a man’s hand to be seen for months. By-and-by the springs dried up, and the little brooks that came rippling down the mountain side, were all dry. At last there was s wail heard in the land, A famine was coming on. Now this king inquired, “Where is this man that came into my presence, and said there would be neither dew nor rain. We must find that man, Why, he has the keys of heaven.” Search is made from one end of the land to the other, and they can’t find him. Ahab then goes to the nations all around, and takes an oath from them that they have not this man hid away. A whole year passed and not a drop of dew; every thing is as dry as Gideon’s fleece.

The second year comes and no rain. The people begin to move off. Many of them move off into other lands, and there is great suffering from one end of the country to the other.

The third year comes and there is neither dew nor rain. A half year more passes and at last Ahab says to Obadiah, “We must go and find something to keep our beasts alive; they are dying.” It had reached the palace now. The king began to suffer. And he says to Obadiah, “You go that way and I will go this, and we will see if we can’t find grass for our beasts.” They started. I don’t know how far Obadiah had got from the palace — not a great ways — when whom should he meet but Elijah. The voice of God had come to Elijah up there in the other country, and told him to go and meet Ahab. What must have been that prophet’s feelings as he passed over the line and passed into his own native country. Desolation was on all sides. There were the bones of animals bleaching on the mountain side; the streams all dried up; the earth all dried and cracked open. As he passed through every little village he could see funeral processions bearing away their dead. Many had died while he had been gone. There was ruin and desolation from one end of the land to the other. He passed through the land a stranger. They did not know that he was the man that held the keys, the man they had been looking for so long. He comes up, and what must have been Obadiah’s feelings when he saw him. He sees Elijah turn around the corner and he comes down the highway, and he cries out, “My Lord Elijah, art thou here? Is it possible you have come? Art thou here?” He says, “lam. Go and tell your master that I am here.” Then he says, “What have I done that you want to bring ruin upon me? Have you not heard while you have been gone how I have taken care of the Lord’s prophets — how I have hid them by fifties in caves to keep them so Jezebel would not murder them.” “Yes, I heard all about it,” says Elijah. “Go and tell the king I am here.” Obadiah says, “If * I go and tell the king thou-art here, as soon as I am gone from thee the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he shall slay me.” Elijah says: “As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will stand before Ahab to-day.” It is not very often subjects send for a kingf you know. But Obadiah went, and he says to Ahab, “We have found Elijah.” “What do you say? That prophet, that Tishbite? Have you found him?” “Yes.” “Where is he?” He is down the road.” “Why didn’t you bring him?” “Why, he wouldn’t come. He told me to come and bring you.” “Well, I will go and see him; I would like to see him.” And he comes towards Elijah full of rage, nothing but malice in his heart, and he walks up to the prophet “Art thou the man that has been troubling Israel?” “No,” says he. M I am not; you are the man, * Ahab was not used to having people talk in that way to hins. 44 1 am not the man; you are the man; it is you and your house; It is you and your iniquity; it is you and your sm; you have brought this ruin upon the country; I warned you. “Now,” says he, “let us have this thing tested, and let us find out who is the God of Israel. You summon Israel up on to Mount Carmel, and we will go up there and we will have the thing tested; we will find out who is the true God.” And Ahab obeys him as if Elijah was king. Israel is summoned upon Mount Carmel. Wl.ut must have been the feelings of Ahab’s messengers as they went from village to village, from town to town, to tell the people to come up on Mount Carmel? When men’s pockets are touched they are always excited, and now it is going to touch their pockets. If they can get rain they will not lose their land, and they can live. The whole country is excited and stirred. Talk about people not being excited 1 I will venture to say that country was as much excited as this country has ever been. Excitements are

not bad sometimes. I have known men to get terribly excited if corn went up five cents or cotton ten cents; but if people would get worked up about their soul’s salvation, “Oh, that is false excitement. That is wild-fire. You must be careful, now.” I will venture to say that country was stirred from end to end when they heard Elijah had got back.

And on the day appointed you can see the crowd moving up towards Mount Carmel. They come from every town and village. The chief men of the nation are all there. Their leading men, their magistrates and their elders move up towards Mount Carmel, and at last you c&n see those eight hundred and fifty prophets, four hundred prophets of the grove and four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal. They move in solid column ujp thai mountain side with their long flowing robes. It must have made a great impression on the people — eight hundred and fifty of them moving up toward Mount Carmel. Not only that, but with that company of priests comes Ahab with his escort and his chariots. The influence of the whole rpi family was on the side of Baal. The whole nation, to t’he outward eye, had gone over to the service of Baal. They had backslidden and left the God of the Bible. They had left the God of Israel. They had left the God of the ir fathers.

That is just what this nation is doing now. Many are going over to Baal. Many are now beginning to tear that book to pieces, and they are doubting whether God is true or not. They are in the balances, halting and wavering between two opinions. At last you can hear the people wondering if Elijah would be there. Where is he? They don’t care so much about these prophets of Baal. They had seen them for these three years and a half. They had got quite well acquainted with them. But where is the prophet that had been holding the keys so long, and been keeping back the rain and the dew — this man that had such mighty power with God? Where is he? At last Elijah makes his appearance alone. He has no Ahab. He has no royal court around him. He wears no flowing robe. He has on the same eld coat made of camel’s skin; a leather girdle around his loins, and his staff in his hand. He moves up that mountain like a giant Every eye is upon him. Talk about sensation! I venture to say there was a sensation when Elijah appeared. There was not any man asleep then. There was not a man asleep on Mount Carmel when he appeared. They were looking right at him. He came to the people, and he said, “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow hi m.” And the people answered him

not a word. “Now,” says he, “let us have the thing decided to-day. Let the prophets of Baal build an altar right here, and then let them put a sacrifice on that altar and let them call upon their God, or Gods, and if their God answers by fire and consumes the sacrifice, then that settles the question* If their God don’t and my God does, let Him be the God. The God that answers prayer. In other words, let Him be God. The God that answers by fire let Him be God.” And the people said, u That is well said. That is very well put You could not do any better than that.” And there were the priests. I don’t think they thought it was going to be put in that way, or else you would not have caught them there. But the people said: “It is well said.” They built an altar, slew an animal, and put it on the altar; and about nine o’clock in the morning they began to cry to Baal to come and consume the sacrifice. And if the Lord had not withheld Satan, I don’t know but they would have got a spark out of hell to kindle a fire and burn it up. But the Lord did withhold Satan. They did not have that power. And they cried, “O, Baal! O, Baal!” and they cried for three hours. You could hear their cry, probably, clear off to the sea* It was a very earnest meeting. People say it does not make any difference what a man believes if he is only sincere. They say you can believe in Baal as well as the God of the Bible, if you are only in earnest I never read of more sincere men in my life than those eight hundred and fifty men. They got so sincere that before noon they jumped on the altar and took knives and cut themselves until the blood just covered them from head to foot, and they cried at the top of their voices. About noon Elijah says, “Cry louder! Your god must be on a journey somewhere, or he has gone to deep! Cry louder!” Elijah might have said, u If your

god answers prayer, why didn’t you call for rain while I was gone? If your god now will come and give you fire; I should have thought you would have called for water while I have been away. If your god answers prayer, why didn’t you cry for rain? Why didn’t you call for Baal to help you?” They prayed on till three o’clock in the afternoon — six long hours. I will venture to say they got so hoarse they could hardly speak to be heard. They halloed and yelled and cried to Baal, and no answer came*

At three o’clock, the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah says, u Now, I will build my altar.” He would have nothing to do with Baal’s altar. We just want to let Baal’s altar alone. Keep away from it I He built an altar of his own. There is separation for you, on Mount Carmel. Elijah took stones and built his altar. He took twelve stones to represent the twelve tribes. He put on the wood and got every thing ready. He slew the beast and put it on the altar.

Now, he is not going to have those men say that he had some fire concealed there. Says he, “Go and bring me four barrels of water.” He dug a trench all around that altar. Says he, “Pour the water on.” They did that u Bring on four barrels more,” and they put on eight barrels. It ran all around the trench. “Bring on four more,” and they put on twelve barrels of water, until the trench was fulL Every thing was all dripping with water. There is his dripping sacrifice.

About three o’clock in the afternoon, the time of the evening service, Elijah drew near to the altar. Every eye is on him. There stand the elders of Israel. They are looking at him. Great things are at stake this afternoon. And now he does not call upon Baal, but he begins his prayer, “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Igrael, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word, Hear me O, Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their hearts back again.” He did not get any further than that; just commenced his prayer; had not prayed a minute, when lo! Look yonder! See! Fire coming down; it leaps on the altar, it burns up the sacrifice, it burns up the wood, burns up the stones, burns up the dust, licks up the water, and the people fall on their faces and cry, “The Lord, he is God. The God that answers prayer, he is God.” My friends, Baal never answered a prayer yet You that are serving Baal never got one answer to prayer. The God of your mother, the God of that Bible — He answers prayer. Then Elijah prayed again, and he prayed that there might be rain; and he sent his servant to see if there was any sign of rain. And the servant came back and said “There is no sign.” He bowed his head on Carmel and prayed again, and sent his servant, and he came back and said, “There is no sign.” He sent him seven times. When he came back the seventh time, he said he saw a little cloud about as big as a man’s hand coming out ol the sea. And Elijah said, “Ahab, make haste and get home. You will get wet if you don’t There is rain coming.” He had got the heavens opened. What brought that cloud out of the sea? What brought the rain down? Elijah’s prayer. Elijah was a man of like passions with you and me. My friends what is a God good for that don’t answer prayer? If you have a God that don’t hear your cry when you have a son that has gone astray, what is that God good for? Baal don5t answer prayer. Why not turn back to the God of the Bible? Why not turn back to the God of Elijah?

But I can imagine some of you say, “If I had lived in the days of Elijah, and had witnessed that scene, I would have believed.” Well, seven or eight hundred years after that, on another mountain, not far from Mount Carmel, a scene took place a good deal more wonderful than that which occurred on Mount Carmel. You and I live this side of Calvary. Those men did not have the light we have. I tell you the scene that took place at Mount Calvary is a thousand times more wonderful than the scene that took place at Mount Carmel. Look at the Son of God, going up that mountain hearing His own cross; nailed to that cross to put away your sins and mine. When He perished on that cross His humanity died. This earth shook. There was a terrible earthquake, and the rocks were rent, and the very dead came up out of their graves and went back to Jerusalem and mfct their friends. Jerusalem was filled with men that came up out of their graves with Him as trophies of His resurrection, as witnesses of the victory that He had won. Yes, not only the resurrection, but our Lord and Master has £one up on high, He has led captivity captive, He is at the right hand of God to-night, and He hears prayer. Wl*at more proof do we want? O, let this question be decided to-night. Let the God of your mother and the God of your father be your God. Let the God of Elijah be your God. Let us decide that we will follow him and that we will not follow Baal. Let the decision be rendered right here to-night. Look at that poor, vacillating Pilate that we were reading about to-night. He was convinced in judgment that Christ was true. His own treacherous heart told him that Jesus Christ was true. His own conscience told him that Christ was true, but he lacked moral courage to take his stand and decide for Jesus Christ, He perished for the want of decision. I believe hundreds and thousands are going down to eternal death just for the want of decision. They lack moral courage to decide this question. My friends, let it be decided right here to-night. Let k be decided now. Let us say, “to-night and this hour I will settle this question. If the God of Elijah is ready and willing to receive me I will come to him.” He is, my friends. He has forever settled that question by giving Christ to die for us. Christ never would have come into this world and perished on the cross if he had not been willing to save perishing sinners. And now what you want is to let Him save you. Let Him save you here to-night. “Him that cometh unto me,” He says, “I will in no wise cast out.” He will not cast you out; but He will receive you this very night if you will come.

Now, let me say, if that Bible is not true the quicker you and I find it out the better. If there is no God to condemn sin let us find it out. If there is no God to lift us up or cast us down let us find it out. Let us decide this question one way or the other, God or Baal. Let us not vacillate between two opinions. If Christianity is a myth and a farce, as some people tell us, let us take our Bibles and burn them. I tell you it is a farce to go on spending money for churches if this Bible is not true. Look at the money spent in building this church. Look at the money spent in publishing the bible and sending it to the nations of the earth. If it is not true let us come out like men and fight it. I have a great deal more respect for those atheists who come out and fight the bible and churches than I have for those people who pretend to be on both sides, who pretend to be friends of Christianity, and are all the time stabbing it in the dark. Let us be one thing or the other. I am in hopes of living to see the day that we are going to have Christians and infidels out and out. Let the line be drawn. He that is for God let him take his stand. He that is against God let him take his stand. Let us know who they are. Let us have the line drawn. Let us not profess to be what we are not. If the bible is not true let us take it into the street and make a bonfire and burn it. If Christianity is not true, if it is a myth and a farce, let us bury it, and get upon the tomb and say, “there is no Christianity; theie is no heaven; there is no hell, there is no hereafter, it is all a fiction, it is all a delusion.” If it is so, let us take our stand and let us build a monument to Voltaire and Paine. Let us honor those men that have been fighting that book if it is a lie. But, if it is true, let us take our stand by it. Let us come out likt men and decide this question. Let us decide it at once You can decide it to-night if you will; and the quickei it is decided the better. You know if Satan can get you to put this thing off until to-morrow that is all he wants.

I believe more men are lost in this country by delaying than from any other one thing. They mean to h** Christians some time. They mean to settle this qtiestiou some time; but they say;’ M Not to-night. Not to-day. To-morrow.” To-morrow! To-morrow! To-morrow! Satan knows very well that to-morrow never comes, and if this questson is ever going to be decided, we have got to decide it in the light we have now. Behold, now is the accepted time, and now, right here to-night, this 7th day of November, 1879, is the day of salvation witn you.

I remember one night in Chicago — I had been preaching upon the life of Jesus Christ for five Sunday nights in a large hall that had been built down in the heart of the city; I had taken Him from his cradle and had gone right along toward the grave with him; and the fifth Sunday night I had got Christ into the hands of Filate, and I gave that audience one week to decide what they would do with Him. I have made some mistakes in my life. I consider that one of the greatest. I would just as soon to-night give that right hand as to stand up here and say to you what I said to that audience. I said, “Now, we want you to take this question home with you. We want to have you decide what you will do with God’s Son.” I gave them Pilate’s question, “What then shall I do with Jesus, which is called Christ?” Pilate had Him on his hands, and he had to decide the question. The world has God’s Son on its hands, and you have got to decide what you will do with him. You have either got to say, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” or receive him — one thing or the other. I said to this audience, “Now, I want you to decide it in the course of the week, and next Sunday night I want to have you come and let us know what you will do with God’s Son.” I closed that meeting, and while I was closing it a bell began to strike within half a block. When I heard that church-bell to-night I wondered if it was a fire-bell. The great city bell tolled out, you might say, the death knell of Chicago that night. It sounded out a general alarm. I paid no attention to it. That is quite common in Chicago. And while I was giving those people a week to decide that question, Chicago was burning up; and before twelve o’clock that hall was in ashes; before two o’clock the church where I worshiped was in ashes; before three o’clock the house that I lived in was in ashes; and inside of forty-eight hours from that time a hundred thousand people were burned out of house and home. It was estimated that a thousand people burned alive that night; and right around that hall a good many perished. One man crawled into a great water-pipe for refuge and roasted alive. I don’t know but that very man heard me that night when I gave that audience a week to decide that question. I never have met them since, probably never will on the shores of time. And do you know the last hymn that Mr. Sankey sung that night was M To-day the Savior calls; For refuge fly. The storm of vengeance falls And death is nigh.”

It was almost prophetic. His never was heard in that hall again. We never met on that platform since. You say, “I have time enough to decide this.” We separate now. This is the last time, perhaps, my voice will ever be heard in this church. Just before we close, take a look round. See how that choir looks. Take a look at these ministers sitting on this platform. See how this audience looks. We break up in a few minutes, and we shall never meet again this side of eternity. Shall we meet there at the right hand of God? That is the question. You can decide it to-night. You can set your faces like a flint toward heaven. You can settle this question, if you will. But if not, if you reject the Son of God, and go down to the dark caverns of eternal death, I believe you will remembei this night You will remember how this audience looked. You will remember these ministers on this platform praying for you. Their hearts have been going up to God while I have been preaching. I have heard their sighs. You are here among friends; a praying circle, perhaps, all around you; their silent prayers going up to God that you may decide this question. Dear friends, I want to leave it with you. What will you do with Jesus? Will you accept him, or reject him? Will you say with the Jews, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” or will you say, “Come into this heart to-night and dwell with me?” Come, young man, what will you do with this question to-night? How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him. Let the decision be made to-night. Let the news go up on high that you will take Jesus Christ as your Savior.