The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1877-07-06
SERMON.

hY IRyINe A. sEARLEs.

l. The FIRST lesson that presents itsel
| is that ii the hour of our death we may
WELD greater influence than in all the
former years of our life.l While Ehsh;
was in good health he exerted no inhu
enca over the king of Israel, but wlet
the prophe, is taken sick, and the lines.
threatens to be fatal, then the king be
gins TO realize what the mau Of God is
worth. Now, Elisha was fallen sick
of his sickness whereof he died, and
Joash, the king of Israel came down
unto him and wept over his face aud
said, o, my Father my Father the
chariot Of Israel and the horsemen
thereof As much as to say, You
are worth more to the kinkdom than all
our standing army-the chariots and
the horsemen. Thus it is that many
an individual is not appreciate until he
is dead, or about to die. For forty
years the children Of Israel complained
against Moses He was the worse kind
OF leader. How they grumbled But
when Moses leaves them to climb Mount
Pisgah's Heights and lie down and die,
the children Of Israel begin to appreci.
ate the worth of their great law giver
and weep because of his departure.
Many parents, on their death. bed, ex.
ert more powerful influence over their
children than they could WELD when in
health. The children will now promise
to do better, if they ever will.
During the last few weeks of Horace
Greeley's life nothing was too mean for
the people to say about him. Mast
made pictures OF him that would kill
most any one. An editor sits IN his
sauctum inditing an article headed
- Imperfections OF old Greeley" Slime
is thrown out as fast as the pencil! eau
trace the lines OF abuse. As the article
Is bali finished, an associated press tele
gram, :" Horace Greeley died to day is
handed the newspaper man. The half
written editorial on the +" Impertections
of old Greeley" is thrown into the waste
basket, aud a new article is commenced
entitled, Death of Honorable Horace
Greeley, the great editor and philan
thropist Death changes the bitterness
into sweet, the abuse into eulogy.
Many a man can not appreciate his
wife while she is living. He will make
her life miserable, and then when she
dies, feeling that he ought to make some
restitution be places a hundred dollar
tombstone over her grave. Post norton
examination is frequently good thing,
but post mortem love is of little worth.
> | learn from this incident that it
is not the publicity of life that determ.
ines its Importance or usefulness. Ii is
that about forty-hvc years of
Elishas life is unrecorded Of how
many Bible characters it is said " They
lived SO many years and they died. =
That is their brief obituary. The editor
Of the Christian Standard has made
the rule that obituary notices must be
limited to eighty words. He proceeds /
on the principle that in eighty words all
can be said OF any ordinary person that
would be of interest save to few Of the
and personal friends. The
editor is correct in this. \ ou may live
to good old age and then i'll eighty
words can be made US long a record OF
your life as the general public care
about reading.
This unrecorde1 work is the most
difficult to perform. For the soldier to
scale the ramparts aud, amid cheer
upon cheer from his comrades, plant the
flag in the very face of death, requires
courage. But | have heard old soldiers
say that the work they most dreaded
was to be placed on picket duty when
n the enemy's country. To stand alone
away out in the woods. far from camp,
o be shot down like dog, and realize
hat no record of this would be made
ave, Z" one of the pickets was killed last
light, this required nerve. In the
,attle of life but very few of US carry
he flag amid the cheers of the multi.
ude we live alone, our life unnoticed,
,ur death unrecorded.
3. Again we learn from this subject
hat but little stress is to be laid on ,
eath. bed utterances And Elisha
lied and they buried him." What his !
asst words were is not told us. We
reasure up the last utterances of our
oved ones this is natural and perfectly !
roper. But from the silence of the
crptures regarding the " last words
the best Bible characters, | 90 not
eleve that we can make these final
tterances a test OF our acceptance with
iod. | have in my library u book CON /
aiming the last words of seventy.two t
ersons. Here are the dying utterances G
{ two christians: Martin Luther said, c
God is tue Lord by whom we escape b
cath" John Wesley said, "The best 0
+ all is, God is with US. Farewell t
arewell - In contrast with these we T
ave given the dying utterances of two b
.fdels. Voltaire said to his physician, b
l shall 90 to hell and you shall 90 II
ith me-" Lord Byron said, Come, r
,me, no weakness let's be a man to d