The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-05-07
Christian Experience.


According to my observation, Chris
tian experience takes form very much
broken up, and without any particular
logical connection. When man breaches
or lectures, many people that hear him
say, Well, now, II could only think in
the way that he talks; if could take
what he says home with me, and think it
out at my leisure, what comfort it would
be to me but never can do it. And,
somehow, when read the Bible it does
not seem as it does when he reads it. And
when | try to bring to mind his instruc-
tions cannot do it." say to such per-
sons, " How do you feel ?" "Oh," they
say, Il can hardly tell but once in
while l have moments of illumination.
Sometimes they come to me in my work,
and sometimes in my distress and then
they come but just for a moment" I
think that in ordinary Christian ex-
perience one gets conception of the rest
that remains for the people of God in
fragments and by glimpses. 1t is sug.
gested to person by the mood that he
is in, oftentimes. Frequently it comes to
those that are sick and distressed. A
sense of the blessedness of freedom from
the torments of life comes sweetly over
them. Then they try to tell it to some
body else; and no sooner do they under
take to put it into language than it is
gone from them. Some of our best things
are like dreams. Have you never written
poetry at night in your sleep and were
you able to repeat it in the morning
How the glory departs from our highest
experiences the moment we try to tell
them to somebody elsel How they spoil
in being changed into language A
mother sits rocking her child; as she
does 80 tears fall from her eyes; and if
you ask her what she is crying about she
says, II was thinking Of the way in
which l love my child, and of the way in
which Jesus must love me if he loves his
children" There comes up in the flow
Of her hearts affection thought of what
Gods love must be as Father. She is
filled with sense of the gloriousness of
divine paternal love. But if she should
attempt to carry her feelings to the min
lister or any one else, and express them in
words, she would utterly fail. So one
gets his conception of this rest in one
way, and another in another way. God
interprets himself to one man in his
business, to another in the nursery, and
to another on the sick-bed. Each gains
his idea of the future state by picking it
up in fragments, here little and there a
little. And this premonition, this fore.
token, of the rest that remains for the
people of God, thus acquired, amounts to
a great deal. Souls have been entering
that rest since the days of Eden. From
ho hon Of tha L. !.
OF heaven has been suffering violence, and
the violent have taken it by force. In
every age the population of the other
world has increased with astonishing
rapidity. We know not how many
there are there. But notwithstanding
that, and although the nations of the
globe are sending myrisds thither
every year, and vast caravans of dusky
spirits are flying upward continually, and
multitudes innumerable are taking the
places prepared for them from the founda-
ton of the world, there is no danger
that there will not be room for you. You
need not be in hurry. Sometimes here
it is necessary to make haste in order to
secure seats in the cars or in the stage;
but do not be afraid lest you may not
have a place in Gods kim dom above
The sexton has room enough. The hotels
are never full. There is always cham
Der in the heavenly mansion. Your
Fathers house is ample for the accommo.
dation of all his children. Your rest
your reward, remains there; and if YOU
should not 60 for forty or for eighty years
It would still remain. In heaven there is
= peace that nothing can disturb, and
where the soul can rest from pleasure,
from the ills of society, from revolutions,
from the torments of temptation, from
sin, from sense of guilt under sin, from
all things that make life turbulent and
distressing. Conflicts and wars, like
great waves of the sea, may roll over the
earth with thunderous footsteps and yet
there shall be no conflict and no war that
ever can disturb that rest which remain
eth for the people of God. 1t is higher
than the highest reach of internal or
mortal disturbance. 1t is higher than
chance. 1t is higher than time, with its
powers. 1t is as high as the tranquil
eternity of God, who sits King and Po-
tentate in everlasting dominion, and ap-
portions to all his people victory over
their troubles, and brings them, with his
own right hand, where tears shall be
wiped away, where SORROWS shall be known
no more, where yokes shall be carried and
burdens shall be borne no more, where
mistakes shall be made and misunder-
standings shall exist no more, where shall
be calm, pure, peaceful, joyous, high,
beatifc rest forever and forever. To that
rest we are going, by various paths: some
through crooked ones, and some through
straight; some through much tribulation,
and all through some; some with many sor-
rows, and some with but few; some with
bitter disappointments and upturnings of
hopes, and some with these things in
less degree; and all as pilgrims and
strangers passing through an enemys
country, but going to home prepared
and guarded and preserved by the right
hand Of Omnipotence, where an eternal
welcome and an eternal peace awaits US.
Henry Ward Beecher, IN the Christian
Union.
Modern Revivalism.