The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-10-19

L Will fatigue your patience with only
one other thought: Their works do
follow them" A young girl, of some
eighteen summers, lay wasting away with
fatal consumption. Only one cloud threw
its chill upon her young spirit. 1t was the
shrinking back from death into the life
Joyous and bright, which was closing be-
hind her. 1t was the struggle of her
Christian faith to part in her youth with
this beautiful world. In response to her
fathers wish l wrote letter containing
this thought: Had it pleased God to
spare you through long life on earth it
would have been filled with many duties
and tolls which you would have offered
in sacrifice upon Gods altar as acts of
holy worship. What is the difference,
If, instead of these fragmentary sacrifices,
you carry up your whole young, fresh
life In your hands and lay it before the
throne as your completed devotion?"
The suggestion recurs upon me at this
moment in its application to this our
common grief. Ali the tolls, and labors,
and watchings, and cares, and sorrows,
and sacrifices of this dear servant of the
Lord are now gathered in his hand to be
presented as a finished offering to the
Saviour whom he loved. 1t is grand
privilege to live life of full consecra-
ton to the service of our Master and it
Is crowned with great blessedness when
at death it RECEIVERS its reward in the
full benediction, "Well done, good and
faithful servant enter thou into the 10y
of thy Lord"
In these sore bereavements nature
must have her pangs, and we cannot but
break our hearts over the graves which
hide these precious forms from our sight,
but think of his blessed communion
which he now enjoys with the saints in
glory. Have you never tried to imagine
the first half hour in heaven? When the
first burst of surprise is over and we are
led up through the hierarchy of the
skies, through the ranks of angels and of
seraphim, and join the mighty company
of the redeemed as they gather in that
inner circle around the throne of the
Lamb? To-day our brother talks face
to face with all the worthless of the old
covenant and of the new-with those
with whom he worshiped, and with
whom, perhaps, he may have struggled
here on earth-with Wesley, and White
field, and Luther, and Calvin, and Knox
with Peter and with Paul, with James
and John, and with the blessed Master
himself, who presents him without stain
before the Eternal Father. A commun-
ion, too, not partial and imperfect as
here on earth, where we are hindered by
the shame Of our own imperfections, by
the conventionalisms of earth, and by
that inability Of speech to render human
thought and human emotion to those who
stands beyond the limits of our own per-
sonality, but a communion in which mind
speaks directly to mind, and thought re-
spends instantly to thought, and heart to
heart. A blessed communion of wor-
ship in which myriads Of voices swell the
eternal anthem, but every note gives the
record Of the experience here below.
Each saint sweeps his fingers across the
chords of his own harp and utters in
song what he himself learned on earth OF
the riches Of divine grace, his own strug-
giles with indwelling sin, his own con-
tlcts with outward temptations, his own
victory and triumph over evil, his own
sense of the sactifying power of the Holy
Ghost. AS the separate notes combine in
the general harmony Of music, so these
diversified histories are joined in har-