Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-12-15

@ oIoo'Su way 1ou think 1t Will never do vou
| any hdrm. but L am watching that word
| and see 1t beginning to curve. ana If cnrves
around ana IL is aiming at your heart You
had better dodge it. You cannot dodge il. II
rolls INTO your bosom, and after it rolls in =
word of an old book which saws: ssWith vhat
measure ye mete it shall be measured to Won
| again." ~
You maltreat an aged parent. You be.
| grudge hlm the room in your house. You arc
impatient of his whimsicalities and garrulitv
Ii makes you mad to hear him tell the same
| story twice. You give him food he cannot
mastlcate. You wish he was away. You
wonder If he is going to live forever. He will
| be gone very soon. His steps are shorter and
| shorter. He is going to stop. But God has
| an account to settle with YOU on that subject
| After awhile your eye will be dim and your
| gait will halt and the sound of the grinding
| VIII be low, and you VIII tell the same story
| twice and your children will wonder If Won
are going to live forever and wonder if YOU
VIII never be taken away. They called you
rather" once; now they call you the 'sold
man." II you live a few years longer they
VIII call you the ''Old chap" What
| are those rough words with
which your children are accosting
| your They are the echo Of the very words
| you used in the ear of your old father forty
| years ago. What is that which you are irving
TO chew, but find 1t unmasticable, and your
jaws ache and you surrender the attempt?
Perhaps 1t may be the gristle which you gave
to your father for his breakfast forty wears
ago? gentleman passing along the street
by the hair of the head. The gentleman, out
ragged at this brutal conduct. was about to
punish the offender, when the old man arose
and said "Don't hurt him; it's all right:
forty years ago this morning 1 dragged out
my father by the hair of his head" 1t is a
circle. My father lived into the eighties, and
he had a very wide experience, and he said
that maltreatment of parents was ALWAYS
adjourned to the next world, but maltreat-
ment of parents is punished in this world.
The circle turns quickly, very quickly. Oh,
What a stupendous thought that the good
and the evil we start come back to us! Do
you know that the judgment day will be only
the points at which the circles Jon, the good
and the bad we have done coming back to us
with welcome of delight or curse of condem-
nation?
Oh, would like to see Paul, the invalid
missionary, at the moment when his infiu-
ence comes to full orb-his influence rolling
on through Antioch, through Cyprus, through
Lystra, through COrinth, through Athens
through Asia, through Europe, through
America, through the first century, through
five centuries, through twenty centuries,
through all the succeeding centuries, through
earth, through heaven. and at last, the wave
ofinhuence having made full circuit, strikes his
great soul! Oh, theG would like to see him
No one can tell the wide sweep of the circle
of his influence, save the One who is seated
on the circle OF the earth. l should not want
to see the countenance of Voltaire when
his influence comes to full orb. When
eighty-three years of age his influence did not
cease. The most brilliant man of his century
he had used all his faculties for assaulting
Christianity; his bad influence widening
through France, widening out through Ger
many, widening through all Europe, widen
ing through America, widening through the
one hundred ana six years that have gone by
since he died, widening through earth, widen
ing thr rOugh hell; until at last the accu-
mulated influence of his bad life in fiery surge
of omnipotent wrath viii beat against his
-
enough to make the black hair of eternal
darkness turn white with the horror. No one
can tell how that b bad mans influence girdled
the earth save the One VINO is seated on the
circle of the earth-the Lord, God Almighty.
swell, now," say some people, this in
some respects is very glad theory and IN
others very sad one; we would like to have
all the good we have ever done come back to
us, but the thought that all the sins we have
ever committed will come back to us, fills us
with alright. ''My brother have to tell you
God can break that circle and will do so at
your call. | can bring twenty passages Of
sake fOrgives a man, the sins of his past life
never come back. The wheel may roll ON and
roll on, but you take your position behind the
cross and the wheel strikes the cross and is
shattered forever. The sins fly off from the
circle into the perpendicular, falling at right
angles with complete oblivion. Forgiven!
Forgiven! The meanest thing man can do
is, after some difficulty has been settled, to
bring it up again, and God will not be so mean
as that. Gods memory is mighty enough to
hold all the events of the ages ibut there is
one thing that is sure to slip His memory, one
thing He is sure to forget, and that is par
dOned transgresson. How do [ know it? /
will prove it. ''Their sins and their iniquities
Will | remember no MORE" Come into that
state now, my dear brother, my dear sister.
blessed is the one whose transgressions are
forgiven
But do not make the mistake of thinking
that this doctrine of the circle stops with this
r6lI on rnrh hno W., ,s,-I,E
quote in opposition to me what st. John says
about the city of Heaven. He says it "lieth
four square" That does seem to initiate
against this idea; but. you know, there is
many square house that has family circle
facing each other, and in circle moving, and
can prove that this is so in regard to heaven.
st. John says: II heard the voice of
many angels round about the
throne and the beasts and the elders"
And again he says: 81 saw round about the
throne four and twenty seats" And again he
says: There was rainbow round about the
throne" The two former instances circle
the last either a circle or a semi-clrcle. The
seats facing each other, the angels facing each
other, the men facing each other. Heaven an
ampitheatre of glory. Circumference of
patriarch and prophet and apostle. Circum-
ference of Scotch cOvenanters and Theban
legion and Albigenses. Circumference of the
good of all ages. Periphery of splendor un-
imagined and indescribable. circle A
circle
But every circumference must have cen
tre, and what is the centre of this heavenly
circumference Christ. His all the glory.
HIS all the praise. His all the crowns. All
Heaven wreathed into a garland round about
Him. Take off the imperial sandal from HIS
foot and behold the scar of the spike. Lift
the cOronet of dominion from His brow ard
see where was the laceration of the briars.
Come closer, all Heaven! Narrow the circle
around His great heart. o Christ, the
Saviour! o Christ, the mani o Christ, the
God! Keep Thy throne forever sealed on the
circle of the earth, seated on the circle of
the Heaven.
ION Christ, the solid rock l stand;