The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-10-25

dark cloud of the present.
Let me place before you another
known truth the contemplation Of
which is appropriate at this hour, VIZ:
That to the child Of God is bestowed
the privilege Of an eternal home in
heaven. NE k3oa0 that when this frail
tabernacle falls, we have a heavenly
and eternal house.
For this joyous assurance we are in
debted to the Gospel of Christ. Through
it life and Immortality are brought to
light. The ancient men who stood on
the summit of philosophic insight, fail
ed to discover anything satisfactory
concerning q future state. Although
they yearned for Immortality, and felt
some faint impressions Of it on their
minds, yet all was vagueness and UNI
certainty; as Seneca said, "The hope Of
the future is that which our wise m en-
do promise, but they do not promise"
or as Socrates spake, when his last hour
was at hand, Il hope to go hence to
good men, but Of that I am not very
confident; nor doth it become any wise
man to be positive that so it win be"
II was reserved for the Gospel of Jesus,
by its complete revelation, to unfold
this master purpose Of the Eternal
Mind, and to show US an existence
worthy of our highest appreciation and
Of our most cordial endeayor-a exist
ence where there,is knowledge without
the shadow Of an error, friendship that
never unclasp3 its hand or relaxes from
its embrace, holiness without d spot to
suny its Unriyaled beauty, and where
the especial presence of God makes its
| possessor happy every moment and
happy for ever. Of this there need be
10 doubt OF uncertainty. We bnoU
that we have q building Of God. We
point not to the loose and sandy foun>
dations Of fancy, prosentment or tradi-
ton, but to the words Of Him whose
declarations are stamped with truth
immutable-to the words Of Him who
exhibited his power over death by sum
moning its prey and calling them forth
to life, who himself passed through
| the grave, irradiatod its darkness, de-
molished the icy throne ON which the
liking Of terrors" sat in palenes8, and
opened a pathway through it for all
who should believe in Him. ''This,"
says the apostle John, when summing
up the mighty benedictions which he
uttered, and condensing them in one
"Thi8 is tn promise which He hath
! promised us, even eternal life.
| Over the graves of our loved ones,
amid rustling grass, and faded flower,
and withered hopes, is heard this divine
assurance. You, dear friends, are sus~
tanned and comforted by it to-day. Of
the present and the future life Of that
bright, promising boy, whose clayey
tabernacle has 50 suddenly fallen, you
have no mi8giyings. He was the child
Of many prayers; and by the hand Of
parental faith Seth was dedicated to
God. From the first dawn of awaken
| ing and developing intelligence he was
gently drawn by the Holy Spirit to the
life Of faith and love; and amid the
plays of childhood, OF the social endear-
ments of'& beloved home, or the valued
pursuits of education, he was an earn
est young disciple of Jesus.
One great glory Of the Christian re-
ligion is its special adaptednes8 to our
childhood. 4 child has no place in anvil
other religion. The heather seemed to
know nothing about children in 5heirI
mythologies. Their gods do not seem
to have been born as children norI
endowed with the attributes of chill
dren, nor clothed with the sympathies
Of children, nor capable of throwingi
themselves into the socialities of chill
dren. But Christianity has the Holy
Child Jesus" ct the foundation Of ita
faith, and boasts it's noblest workman
ship wrought in the spirit Of child.
While other forms Of religion keep back
their sacred books from the hands Of
their little ones, Christianity brings
it's scriptures to the young, and says to-
them, "they are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ Jesus and although the child
cannot master their mysteries, he can