The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1859-03-17


the mans figure, the mans errand, and the mans
path. But let few hours elapsc, aud the
spongy turf rises again to its own level or the
sand.slorm buries forever the wanderers trail.
Some footprints we know eau outlive ages,
as the geologist will tell YOU when he has found
on the soft sandstone the indents of animals
which have lived long before the existing eeono
my of our plsnet--indents made by the creep
ing reptile millions of years ago, covered over
and so preserved by the moist earth falling upon
them Just altcr--indents which show to the
anatomist the very form, aud the very habit,
and the very home of the creature But then
know this, that baptism of fire is coming
which will burn out of the crust cf this star all
such remains Of the past. Footprints may have
lived out time, but such footprints will not live
into eternity. But, my hearcr, thy footprints,
the baptism Of fire will not burn out them
No, it will only annebl them, just as the artist
makes permanent and vivid through the fire the
painted landscape on his glass; that record,
that moral fossil--the print upon your heel
will last throughout eternity. You will be able
to tell at once, in looking back upon the vista
OF the past, ana memory will enable you TODD
SO, what have been your movements, what has
been your moral history, what have been the
temptations you have sought, or the places Of
evil which you have frequehted And God will
remind you that He put print into the heel of
your foot, that he might bring you into judg.
mcnt for your movements upon earth
Now, then here is thought upon part OF
our responsibilities which believe we are very
apt to forget We cannot move, my BRETHREN
that is the lesson-we cannot move but we carry
with us our Christian obligations, and our con-
sequent relationship to the day of Judgment
necessarily attending those obligations. Every
single step, or any continued step, which We
have taken any day, or for any series OF days,
has lett behind it an eternal footprint--a foot
print which determines in what direction we
walk, in what character we move footprints
one and all of which are before the eye Of God
footprints on which we shall be able, from
that high bar Of final trial, to look back upon
and trace accurately our past--iootprints which,
like impressions left by the robber on the moist
turf will enable the avenging angel of Divine
Justice to trace out AMI to say what has been
our molal history Then will it be seen, my
hearer, where thou wcntest. how long thou
didst stand, where chou didst fight, the stages
ofthy pilgrimage, now thy march went over the
high hills or among pcasan; valley along the
heavenly Kings high road, or by the by-paths
of the great adversary of mn. believe there
is something very solemn in this thought, es-
pecially solemn in these busting days when
rGen cannot sit STILL in these days OF individual
as well as of general restlessness-Ha has set
print upon the heels Of my feet Wherever
we move we leave behind us our mark, in other
words, wherever we move, personally and rela-
lively, we contract responsibilities.
|. Wherever we move we carry with us our
personal or individual responsibility. In every
change of place and contact with men on the
travel we act as b,ings wio must give an
account to God. Now, call to mind the
obligations which rest upon you. Pass from
those which are natural, which are upon
you by the law Of your being as rational AMI
dependent crea lures, to those which are upon
you as Christian men, You have received
Christ's baptism and therefore, wherever you
20, you to leave the print on the heel of His
creature and His servant; you are to walk wor-
thy OF His vocation, to live by His rule and lis
spirit, to measure all things by the standard OF
that rue to be not timeiSts, or men who eSti
mate things by the measure of time, but eternal
lists, or men who m assure things in the light Of
eternity. You are TO act as seeing Him who il
invisible aud live the life of faith in the Son o
God; to b. always in watchfulnesS for His com
Ing, and in dilligent dutiiulness for His sake
This is our christian calling, brethren. We art
to forget it nowhere we are to move in life
according to it, Our path is never to be beyon,
the lines which it marks out for our way heav
onward.
Perhaps il has ben otherwise with you. TIL,
prints o the heel in your path are to be ira Get
far, far beyond these distinct and declared
boun laries, wnich your coGs ience, yonr p;oles
sion, and your Savior mark out for you as tht
track which you we've to take. 1t may be- tina
you are not like Job. in the context, possessed
by the sins OF your youth. They were many
but in your mature years you have forgotten
them; IN the later cares and temptations of ad
yanced life you rarely, ii ever, call to mind tn
frequency of your youthful iniqaities, their DANCE
and their shame. You have forgotten how yor
rushed into evil, resisted your conscience de
filed your soul, and sartered your body to evil
The sin to which you gave way in more adj
vanced years too-the forbidden passion, tn
secret, but felt SIM, the place in which you ven
tured to what you knew to be in opposition t
Gods will and your christian PROFESSIONAL
these have long since, prchaps, faded from you
memory. Rarely do they fit across your mind
and pain your conscience Those crring foo
prints have been washed out long ago from tn
spot of sin. No one prehaps saw them, or a
least no one could trace them now. But ar
they really gone fore all that? Oh no. Go
put his uns en- print upon the heels of your fee
and that print His eye sees along that sheet
that road at the door of that house. and at tha
spot Of temptation. Ha SEES the print upon tn
heels Of your feet through every stage of you
sinful progress III all its q ring, lasting diItnc
tons. Aud you will be able to see it too whe
it pleases God to point it out to you; AMI befor
your revived memory and your affrighte
conscience there will rise from those footprint
again all your sins in horrid vividness, oil you
past iniquities. You solemnly promised to re
nounce tue world, and yet you have decline
into the ways of worldlness and worldly pleas
ure. You knew you could not be chrislia
there, christln carriage and christian spiri
were lmpossibl tn h're-they would be all out q
place. There coull be no prayer there. Th
thought that eternity was near and that yo
had to live for it; the thought that heavenl
! pleasures are spiritual and that you should b
! cultivating such taste as will be held above
had no place in your heart there. 1t was N
place for an earnest spiritual christian but yo
} went there. Your footprints were upon tn
I threshold and up the stairs but you have forgot
! ten them. Your pride, your vanity, your ga
attire, your self conceit. your worldness, all
fOrgottea. the voice Of revelrY has long sine
! died away; the garanls yon wore have bee