The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-01-13

meetings, by communion IaDlebi ny Udp"
tismal fonts, by hallelujahs. They have
stood on Sinia and heard it thunder;
they have stood on Psgah and looked
over into the promised land; they have
stood on Calvary nd seen the God Man.
They can, like the Apostle Paul, write
on their heaviest trouble Light" The
darkest night their soul is irradiated, as
was the night over Bethlehem, by the
faces of those who have come to pro-
claim glory and good cheer. They are
only waiting for the gate to open and
the chains to fall off and the glory to
begin.
| remark again. There are many
would there were more-Who are meas
uring life by the amount of good they
can do. John Bradford said he counted
that day nothing, in which he had not,
by pen or tongue, done some good II a
man begin right, | can not tell how very
many tears he wipe away, how many
burdens he may lift, how many orphans
he may comfort, how many outCasts he
may reclaim. There have been and are
men who have and are devOting all their
talents and abilities to the service of
Christ. They endured all the hardshipe
and deprivaions OF life, and at last drop
ped into martyrs graves. They meas
ured their lives by their good works.
They felt in the thrill of every nerve, in
the motion of every muscle, in every
beat of their hearts, the magnificent and
grand truth, mo man liveth for him
self" They went through cold and heat
foot blisered, cheek amitten, back
scourgei, tempest lashed, to do their
whole duty. That is the way they meas
ured life-by the amount of good they
could do. Do you want to know how
old Luther was, how old Richard Baxter
was, how old Philip Doddridge was?
Why, you can calculate the length of
their lives by any human arithmetic
Add to their lives ten thousand times
ten thousand years, and you have not
expressed it-What they have lived or
will live. They live through others
lives. Oh, what a stan dard to measure
mans life by. There are those here
who think they have only lived thirty
years. They will have lived thousand
they have lived a thousand years
There are those who think they are so
years CID; they have not even entered
upon their infancy, for they must be all
babes in Christ to begin at all.
Now, | do not know what your advan-
tages or disadvantages are; | know not
what your tact or talent ia; l know not
what may be the fascination of your
manners or their responsiveness; but this
| do know, There is foryou my hearer,
a field to culture, harvest to reap, a
tear to wipe away, a soul to save" If
you you have wealth, dedicate il to God;
j you have eloquenCe, use it as Paul and
WllberforCe used theirs; ifyOu have edu,
cation, put it into the poor box of the
worlds suffering. But if you have none
of these, you have at least a smile wi b
which you can encourage the disheart-
ened; voice with which you may call
the wanderer back to God. "0h, that is
a very sanCtimoniOus view of life" you
say. 1t is not. Contrast the death of
the righteous with that of the wicked.
Quinn, the actor, in his last moments,
said II hope this tragic scene will soon
be over, and hope to keep my dignity
to the last" MaIhesherbes said in his
last moments to the Confassor Hold
your tongurl Your miserable sty le puts
me out of ConCeit Of heaven" Godfrey
kueller spent his last hours on earth in
drawing a diagram of bis own monu.
menJ. Compare the silly and sad depar
ture Of such men with the death of Ed.
ward Pdyson, as he said in his last mo.
ment, The bref zes of heaven fan me.
float in sea of glory" Or with Paul,
the Apostle, who said, 81 am now ready
to be offered up, and the time of my de,
parture is at hand. | have fought the
good fight, / have kept the aith, hence.
forth there is a crown of righteousness
laid up for me, which tie Lord, the
righteous Judge, will give me-" Oh, my
friends, this world is a false god; it will
consume you in the blaze with which it
accepts your sacrifice, while The right.
eous shall be held in everlasting re.
membranCe; and, when the thrones have
fallen, and monuments have CTumbled,
and the world has perished, they shall
banquet with the conquerors of earth
and the hierarchs of heaven.
This is a good time to begin a new
style of measurement, How old art thou2
You see the Christian way of measuring
life, and the worldly way. l leave it to
you to say which is the wisest, the best
way. The wheel of time has turned
very quick, and hurried us on. The old
year has gone, the new year has come.
For what you and have been launched
upon it, God only knows. Some years
ago a minister of Christ was preaching
in New England, and it was New Years
day. He took for his text, This year
thou shalt die" Before the year passed
away he died, and then his people look
ed back to the first Sabbath of the year
and thought of the text, and the solem-
nifty of the sermon, and how appropriate
and true. To which of us comes that
voice this evening" To some Of us. Is
It II Is it youP We shall not all see
1881 through. And does there come a
voice. Aye-I know not but II comes
through the air, and says to some one
"This year thou shalt die"
Now let me ask you all: Have You
made any preparation for it? You have
MAUI pAOpAlhllOh AO4 lAuuOj NY uChI BIB
ter and brother; have you made any
preparation for eternity? Do you won
der that, when that man on the Hudson
river, in indignation, tore up the tract
that was handed him, and just one sim
gle word lighted On his coat sleeve, (the
rest of the tract he pitched into the riv-
er, that one word aroused his soulP 1t
was that one word, so broad, so high, so
deep, the greatest of all words Eterni.
tyl A dying woman in h last moments
said: Call It back" They said, "What
do you want2,' "Time," she said: "Call
it backp 0, It cannot be called back.
We might lose our fortunes and call
them back; we might lose our health
and perhaps recover it; we might lose
our good name and get that back, but
time gone is gone forever.
Some Of you, during the past year,
made preparation for eternity, and ii
makes no difference, really, as to the
matter Of safety, whether you, 60 now, or
90 some other year; whether this year or
the next year. Both your feet on the
Rock of Ages, the waves may dash upon
you. You can say, "God is our refuge
a. Il a. N ,..s,, 1 II. 4!