St. Landry democrat., 1885-09-19

reavement, and He says: 81 took your
lost darling. come now to make up for
| his absence. wanted him at the gate
when you came through. The days of
| your separation will only add to the joys
| of reunion. Peace. Il am the resurrec-
| ton and the life. He that believeth in Me,
/ though he were dead, yet shall he live
| Just as sometimes child is so sick that
it can not lie any longer in the cradle, and
the mother has to take it up, so sometimes
the Lords children are so troubled that
| they can not lie easy anywhere but in
| Gods laps while He bends over them and
/ sings this sweet song: "As one whom his
mother comforteth, so will comfort you"
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for re.
pose,
Twill not, will not, desert to his foes;
| That soul, though all hell should endeayol
| to shake,
| I'll never, no never, no never, forsake.''
/ Again, remark that we are lost tc
| Heaven, and Christ comes to take US
there. can not imagine anything more
distressful than, without having musical
taste,to sit and listen to an oratorio fortwc
hours and half. Though it be the best
of oratorios, if man have no musical taste
| it is distress to him, while it is joy tc
others. And I can not imagine any thing
more distressfu1 for man who hash love
for pictures than to be shut up in the
| Luxembourg gallery in Paris. Yes, can
/ think of one thing worse than that and
| that will be for man to enter Heaven
without any taste for it. I sometimes
/ hear people talk as though all man had
| to do was just to leave this world and go
| into Heaven and sit down to its enjoy-
ments. If man can not stand Christian
society here for one day, how would he
| stand million ages of it? see an unre
| generate soul entering Heaven. It enters
| Heaven, looks around, and sees God there,
and angels there, and hears the cry:
''Holy, holy;" and the unregenerate soul
says: "This is no place for me-" and he
flies to the battlements, and he cries:
81 can stand it here no longer" and he
/ leaps off into outer darkness. In other
words, the worst hell for man would be
! Heaven, if he has no qualifications, no
| preparations, for it. But Christ comes to
| take the discord out of our soul and string
it with Heavenly attuning. He comes
| to take out that from US which makes us
unlike Heaven, and substitute that which
assimilates us. Ten thousand times the
| gate of Heaven has swung back and forth,
| but it never swings back and forth save
as Christ opens it, and you will go in
| thl ough Him or not at all. Christ wants
! you there. How do [ know it? Suppose
man lost diamond, and he looked for il
/ eight or ten days, would you not conclude
| from the fact that he looked for it so long
/ that he wanted the diamond? And when
/ find Christ seeking for your soul, seek
/ ing for it ever since it has been soul,
seeking for it by day and by night, seek
| ing for it through heat and through cold,
seeking for it with tears in His eyes and
blood upon His brow and scourges on His
| back and world of agony in His heart, l
know that it is because He wants to find
! you. Oh, He has prepared a glorious
Heaven for you'll 1t is all ready. Not
merely throne, but steps by which to
mount it, Nor only harp, but song to
| play on it: not only a banner procession,
but victory which it is to celebrate
| God wants no vacant chairs at that
| banquet. He does not want those who
stand around Him in glory to wonder why
you have not been solicited. He does not
want the book of life TO thunder shut till
your name is in it. What do / breathe?
1t is the fragrance of Him whose gar
ments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and
cassia, out of the ivory palaces. What
do hear? 1t is the footstep of Him who
comes with worn sandal in the journey
from Bethlehem to Nazareth, and from
Nazareth TO Jerusalem, and from Jeru-
salem TO Golgotha, and from Golgotha to
SrlF and frlo of
which is lost Oh, iostle Him not from
thy doorstep. Do not drive this Christ
away, as though He were an unworthy
beggar soliciting your aims. Hear His
voice. Trust His sacrifices. Respond to
His love. Take His Heaven. Do you not
know, O man! 0 woman that you are the
lost one spoken of in my text? The Son
of Man is come to seek and to save that
which was lost" You may hide away
from Him, but there are seine things
which will find you, whether Christ by
His grace finds you or not Trouble will
find you. Temptation will find you.
Sickness will find you. Death will find
you. Judgment will find you. Eternity
will find you.
Soon you will be gone from all these
scenes, and if a thousand men should come
out with lanterns, and torches, and st.
Bernard dogs used to hunting up missing
travellers, and search for your soul you
could not be found by them. The grave
will have your body. Your heirs viii have
your estate. Eternity will have your soul.
IR the flash of a second your last oppor-
tunity for Heaven may go out. Postpone
this question of the soul and you are post
poning getting into the last life boat that
shall put out from the wreck for the beach
ere the hulk lurch over and go down. God
forbid that any of you should at the last
have the dismay of the woman of whom