Northern Ohio journal. [volume] (Painesville, Ohio) 1872-1896, 1873-07-12
RELIGIOUS NEWS.

The jOyOuS tabretS play.
Awake. We feeble souls arise,
The Master calls away.
There is no real dawn before Christ
s seen. There may be starlight, moon
light, twilight-but there is no day till |
ie shines upon the soul.
If sensibility be our only happiness,
we ought to envy the brutes; for in
stinct is a surer, shorter, safer guide to
such happiness than reason. Seneca
asks: sWho would so unman himself,
could he have all the pleasures in the
world for the asking, as to accept them
and desert his soul, and become per-
petual slave to his senses?"
The only way to meet affiiction is to
pass through it solemnly, slowly, with
and faith, as the Israelites
passed through the sea. Then its very
waves of mercy will divide, and become
to VS. a wall on the right side and On the
left, until the gulf narrows and mar
rows before our eyes, and we land safe
on the opposite shore.
A Baptist minister in California, it is
said, testified thus on an important
question: 81 came here with the old
opinion that plenty of wine would pro-.
mote the temperance cause. When i
see whole families, father and mother,
boys and girls, made drunkards by the
convinced tdat wine-making is a curse.
California is becoming state of drunk
ards
What an awful thing it is to die rich.
Imagine the Master auditing the ac-.
count, of-a-servant who has left behind
a million. If that poor wretch who had
bnt one talent was cast into outer dark
ness because he laid it up. instead of
using it in his Masters service, what
will be the doom of those who with
their half millions and millions (while
giving, it may be, few thousands for
decency's sake have, year after year,
boarded up countless treasures which
they could never use? Think of the
poor saints pinched with cold and hum
ger, Think of the Redeemer's cause
languishing for the want of that filthy
lucre which they hold with close7iisted
selfishness!
That which is most pure in man is
most divine: ''Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see Cod" That
which is most tender in God is most hui
man; "Iike as father pitieth his
children, so the lord pithieth them that
fear Him. These two rays of light
meetin Christ. Do they neutralize each
other as light beams sometimes do ?Does
the Divine weaken the human the pure
diminish the tender? The reverse. II
is sin that hardens and dehumanizes us.
| So, then, with what confidence we may
cast ourselves on sinless Savior, 'holy
end yet harmless"
Gentleness loves society. 1t is love
holding intercourse with those around
| it. 1t is that cordiality of aspect, and
that soul of speech which assures us
that kind and earnest hearts may still
be met with here below. 1t is that
quiet influence which, like the scented
| flame of an alabaster lamp, fills many 8
home with light, and warmth, and fra
GRANGE altogether. 1t is the carpet, soft
and deep, which, whilst it diffuseso 8
look of ample comfort, deadens many {
creaking sound. 1t is the curtain which
from many a beloved form; wards off al
once the summers glow and winter:
wind. 1t is the pillow on which sicl
ness lays its head and forgets half it:
misery, and to which death comes in {
balmier dream. 1t is considerateness
| 1t is tenderness offeeling. 1t is warmth
of affection. 1t Is promptitude of sym
pathy. 1t is love in all its depths, ani
all its delicacy. 1t is everything in.
cluded in that matchless grace-the
gentleness of Christ.
We ought to have been the salt of th'
earth-but there has been little SAVIOR o
Christ about US. We ought to have
been the light of the world-but We
have most of us been little glimmerins
sparks that could scarcely be seen. w,
ought to have been n peculiar people
but the difference between us and thu
world has been faint and small. w,
ought to have looked on the world as al
inn, and we have settled down in it as i
it were our home-it ought to have beeI
counted our school or training for eter
nifty, but we have been at ease in it as i
it we're our continueing city, or trifi
away time in it, as if we were meant t.
play and not to learn. We ought to hav
been careful for nothing, and we hav
been troubled about many things-w
have allowed the affairs of this life t
have been combered with much serving
However early in the morning yo1
seek the gate of access, says the Rev
DR.. Hamilton of London, you find it al
ready open, and however deep the mid
night moment when you find yourself il
the sudden arms of death, the winge
prayer can bring an instant Savior; an
this wherever you are. 1t needs nc
that You ascend some special Pisgah o
Moriah. 1t needs not that you shoul
enter some awful shrine, or pull OFF you
shoes on some holy ground. Could
memento be reared on every spot fror
which an acceptable prayer has passe
away, and on which prompt answe
has come down, we should find Jehova
shammah 'the Lord has been here" in
scribed on many cottage hearth, an
many dungeon floor. We should fin
it not only in Jerusalem's proud ten
Eple and David's cedar galleries, but i
the fisherman's cottage by the brink {
Gennesaret, and in the upper Shambe
where Pentec0st began. And whetht
it be the field where Isaac went down
mediate, or the rocky knoll wher
Israel wrestled, or the den wher
Daniel gazed on the hungry lions, an
the lions gazed wn him, or the hill-sid
where the Man Of Sorrow prayed a
night, we should still discern the lat
der's feet let down from heaven-th
t landing place of mercies, because th
e starting place of prayer.
l A lady once asked Il deaf and dun
= wirl, by writing on slate, "Whatr
f prayer?" Now this little girl ha
meyer said :. nraVpr for She pOuld N,