The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1882-05-03

AHuStaattoh Soutu thc tiutu, lilab luis Hle
! is only a sojourn, have, than in the event
which as with common sorrow we mourn
to-day9 Last Thur9day afternoon we
met upon thoroughfare of yonder great
city. The genial manner, the boyish
warmth of greeting as of old. l said,
" Doctor. are you well2 = "T have a
little cold, he replied, Then followed a
brief conversation about old friends, and
then the CHEEKY farewell, unconsciously
as such things so often are, for life. Thus,
like ships upon the ocean, meeting with
their momentary " All hail u we immor-
tai pilgrims meet, then go apart for all
time. Thus the words of our Lord, uttered
nineteen centuries ago, are strangely true
again and again. '.Then shall two be in
the field, the one shall be taken and tho
other left. = Citizenship Dear friend
thou hast it somewhere. Thou hast
gained it already. But this is soiourn
whose tenure's close has no foreranner OF
warning. Sojourn like that of the mill
tary officer at his home, subject to per-
emptory marching orders at any moment.
At tho threshold Of professional maturity,
position and usefulness, the incidental
sojourn ends, because the all important
citizenship must begin.
Notice secondly, The Scriptures reeeal
The truth that OUR CITIZENSHIP is IN
HEAVEN. By His aid who hath brought
life and Immortality to light, our vision is
projected into the darkness which lies in
the foreground of the great unknown be-
You'd the horizon. And there He has re-
vealed the blessed truths of a common
wealth eternal, with King immortal and
invisible, and with spiritual citizens who
are ever being recruited from the DEATH
beds of earth's redeemed. He has TO.
vealed the glorious truth that the
vanishing tent life of the DESERT shall be
changed to the enduring life OF the city of
God, not made with hands. eternal in the
Heavens.
If our citizenship is in Heaven, then it
follows that even upon the earth we have
heavens life, and strength and joy
within us that even now we are come
unto Mt. Zion and unto the city of the
living God, and are already present in
Heaven, to the conception of that Father
to whom things to come are as though
they were. And we are to look at this
existence as the very opposite of the
wording IS view of it. Regarding it, not
as hopeless fragment of a column broken
ruggedly of few feet from the ground,
but as shaft which penetrates beyond
the stars and through the eternity of God
We are not to say lives, as though there
were two, but life, as there is indeed only
one. If this be true, our eternal life has
already begun, even from the hour of re-
demption, and there is truly no dark val
ley Of the shadow of death, where gloom
is deep enough to overwhelm that path OF
the Just, which thriveth more and more
unto the perfect day, even from the hour
of receiving. The, dark river of death is
in all reality crossed when we step across
| the line from condemnation to acceptance
in Christ, the eternal Life Giver. And
death no more breaks the continuity aud
identity of this glorious one life, than the
puny riyer-bed breaks the oneness of the
continent With this conception of the
oneness of the two lives, how infinitely
comfortable may we feel concerning the
departure of our dear ones who sleep in
Christ We can realize that they are not
Dead but gone before, as Longfellow says
of the grave of that peerless artist, Albert
Dnrer, in his sleeping place at Nurem-
burg:
EaiigrarH! is the inscription on the tombstone
where he lies;
Dead he is not, but departed-Ior the artist never
dies"
So upon the tombstone of our Christian
we may truly write that which being true
of this our friend departed, is the
mouiner's prominent consolation, Girls
en- from the sojoarn upon earth to the
citizenship in Heaven +"
In drawing to close, may l but articu-
late the lessons which already are stirring
every mind and imprcssing every heart /?
There is first this lesson THE IMPAIR
TALLY OF DEATH. The feeling is as
natural asi is foundationless, that certain
classes of community have some magical
resisting power against disease and death
But no ! There are no such exemptions
with death. This one, who was accus-
toned to go in and out among other dying
ones, must turn aside to die himself And
these mourning brothers. who are accus-
toned to serve as ministers of consolation
on such occasions as these to Others have
need, and richly deserve, that others
should come in and minister to them to-
day. There is something pathetic in this
truth, that we poor mortals in our turn
have all need of the infinite comforts of
Christ, as bruised reeds, from other hands
Something pathetic in the fact there are
no exemptions in the claims of that
Dread Angel, who soon or late, and soon
at the latest, shall call for us ALL
And this beautiful truth THE ALL
SCFFIcIENcY OF THE GRACE OF JESUS
CHRIST IN ANY EMERGENCY. The torch
which burns dimly and almost unappre-
hended when out in the daylight, flashes
forth in priceless sufiiciency when We are
suddenly ushered into the impenetrable
cavern. The grace of Christ which our
brother carried in his heart, was valued
indeed but in his case as in ours, the
value was the esteem Of speculative conf
dence, rather than of practical expert
snce was the yaluing for what it would
do rather than for what it had done in a
terrific testing hour. But see In an
hour, the awfulest consciousness that ever
comes to a rational mind, was forced upon
him. In the suddenness of an hour he
was turned from the ant icipations of pro-
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