The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1879-11-14

leaving US. And, alas, out Of the Last II
months voice has CON up continually
laden with weeping and lamentations.
Rachael weeping for her children and
will not be comforted because they are
not. Twenty-seveu precious ones, nearly
all out of the Sabbath school, from
diphtheris alone, besides seven others OF
varied ages and disease, make up the
neurology of this congregation for little
more than q single year. might tell
over all these precious names to-day, and
break forth into fresh sorrow with the
desolated ones who weep before me. But
their names are craven on Jesus hands.
They are the children of this church In
heaven, and the light Of the Lamb
shines forever upon their glorifed faces
a. they sweetly haunt the pleased places
prepared for Us too In the Fathers house
on high.
The whole number of funerals In the
ten years I cannot give, but you will
remember that We laid the second body
in the new cemetery, whose bosom now
swells with many rounded graves.
And il all this for naught3 Does not
the tenderness of Gods hand in sffliction
have mightier forward impulse than all
Omnipotence beside?
Mrs. Browning, with sweet words, apes.
trophises Adam and Eve, and promises
that their graves shall lie smooth as
Eden's sward,"
"And one step past their graves new Eden gate
Shall open on hinge Of harmony
And let them through to mercy"
30 these years apostrophize US. Point.
ing to our graves, they say, God would
not we should linger there in grief more
than the women by that other sepulchre,
since they are not there more than was
He, but have "risen and "gone before
u.s." and that " one step past our graves "
the "hinge of harmony" trembles in
Gods touch to swing back the gate of
spiritual overcoming for this chastened
church, and "let US through" TO peace,
not only, but the kingdom" it Is His
good pleasure to give US.
And, from among the graves our
sanctifer speaks, / will not leave you
comfortless." "Turn you to the strong.
hold ,ye prisoners of hope, and even to-day
do I declare that / will render double
unto YOU"
1t was looking back upon their graves
Israel came truly to the time of entrance
to the land of promiss. 1t was just be-
fore the unseen grave of His own trans
lation was 10 be the last before the PEG.
pie should step over into possession that
" Moses the man of God, wrote in the
Goth Psalm, Make US glad according to
the days wherein Thou hast sffiicted US,
and the years wherein we have seen
evil. Let Thy work appear unto Thy
and Thy glory unto their chill.
dren. And let the beauty of the Lord
our God be upon US; and establish Thou
the work of our hands upon US; yea, the
work of our hands establish Thou 1t.
Walking among our graves, have we
not come to the entering in OF posses
sion?
O that Caleb and Joshua were here
to-day, to pierce the mists that overcast
our immediate future, and spy out It's
wealth and accessibility, and hold up
its fruits before our eyes!
They would tell of giant sins, and the
Jordan of separation rolling between.
But they would point to the ark OF God,
and the moving pillar of his presence,
and the parting food, and ssy that just
beyond the Captain of the Lords host
awaits us before Him. The giants
would vanish. Every home would then
have a family altar, and the children
taught of God. Every root of bitterness
would be dragged out to the light and
consigned to the burniDgs of repentance
and reconsecration. Business principles
would be 30 modified and sanctified that
the world should see Christ in every
transaction, and any brother might lead
a meeting here with none TO resent his
unfitness for the ministration. ALI Sab
bath dissertation and walking with the
world would be renounced out of the
church. Every neglected duty would
be joyfully taken up, each soul gladly
asking, "Lord, what wilt thou have
me to dow Every one would give pre-
cisely as God prospered him. Each
would do exactly what he told God he
would. Not q single soul would leave
his work to somebody else. The prayer.
meeting would be larger than any now
known anywhere. Every member,
small and great, out of weeping
over his own business, would re.
turn with rejoicing, laden with
sheaves of redemption abundantly.
The word of God would build up the
saints, and minister Christ's power to
become sons of God to nultitudes.
This church would crowd out its walls
into a vaster tabernacle, whose courts
would be thropged always with happy
people whose God is the Lord.
Thus would they come back from their
search and tell US, "We came into the
land whittier ye sent US, and surely 1t
foweth with milk and honey, and this is
the fruit of it."
o, if Israel, by the outstretched arm
of God, burst the house of bondage, and
dried up the sea with the soles of
their feet, and looked on awful
Sinai, and composed the great and
terrible wilderness, were they not " we'll
able to overcome" when the walls of
possession, Drumming over with the fruits
of the good land, were ready TO fall
down before the shout of their advance,
10 might we 90 forward cat once"
We are swell able to overcome" The
Lord our God Is with US; the shout OF
King il among u.s."
Composing the walls of obstacle and
sin, with the march of penitence and
obedience, and faith, they should fall
down fat, and every one 60 up straight
before him to overcoming.
o my beloved people, We stand to-day
at the turning point where Israel turned
back from entering in, and every one,
save Caleb and Joshua, persisted in the
wilderness.
But seel The waters of this Jordan
are opening at our feet. The ark OF
God stands already between the widen
ing walls of entrance. Our past casts US
of, in the name OF God. We must 60
up cat once" to possession.
In the name of the Lord We are "well
able"
And If Caleb and Joshua not only,
but every one In all the tribes, takes up
upon his shoulder to-day stone OF over
coming, we shall set up at the Gilgsl OF
Judgement in promise, the memorial
altar of possession forever.
Two Valuable Inventions.
The following new inventions by resi-
l. tod NJ