The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-12-18

You can not love your child too much.
God did mot take your child because yon
loved il too much. think this il the res.
son Why God 30 often takes the first born.
Il is TO transfer your affections to Heaven
and make that place the more grand and
blessed; at the beginning Of your life make
Heaven blessed, so that you keep thinking
Of that place and so be elevated and lifted
on toward it. think that is the reason.
Perhaps I am wrong. am sure the other
reason is wrong, that so many people gre
when they say it Il because you love your
child too much.
Now, suppose the first trial comes and
you have no God. What shens Have Jou
ever tried to see one go through berctve-
ment without any God! have witnessed
that sad spectacle. But we want grace,
we want divine grace, when bereavement
comes into the house, which erst was full
OF sunny locks and greetings at the door,
and kisses flung by little hands from the
window as you went down the front steps,
and the doves in the nest cry because the
hawk swoops, and the heart stops. Oh, to
put away garments that never will be
worn again, to gather up from the floor
toys that never again will strew the carpet,
and to go with a sense of suffocation through
the desolated household that once rang
with childish merriment! On, my God!
who can stand that without thy grace to
help, without thy grace to smooth, with
out thy grace to comfort. Oh, you will
want Christ in your first trouble, and so
beg Of you this morning to take him as
yours.
You say you are strong and well. So am
/. You say that life is buoyant and beau
full. So it is to me. But sickness will come
to you and it will come to me. We shall
be told we can not go out, the door will be
closed against the world, there will be two
watches, and some will order silence on
the stairs, saying, "Hush, hush" and in
your dream you will hear the dash Of
water, which you will take to be the beat
ing Of the wave of the Jordan against your
pillow. and you will hear q sound at the
gate which you will take to be the paving
of the pale horse. Oh! then you and will
want a physician; we will want Christ
to come in aad put his arms around US
and say: Fear not; all is well, all is
WELL"
But there is ore more pass of great i'm
portance, OF which l must speak-ore tre-
mendous crisis, when we will want God.
say that not more to you than do to my
self. We will want God in that crisis.
And that pass is the last hour.
suppose we all would like to expire at
home. We want our friends in the room,
some to recite the promise, some to sing,
one to hold the hand. We want to look up
in faces that have been familiar to US a
good while and we will have messa ses to
give. If we are parents, we viii want to
tell our children how they ought to act
when We are gone, what principles they
ought to adopt, how near they ought to
live to God.
And if we have aged parents living, we
will want to tell our children how they
ought to act toward the old people-how
they ought to care for them after we
are gone. I think when we leave
this world we will all have
message 70 give to somebody. When tina.
hour comes we will want Christ, we will
want divine friend to stand by us, and to
say that all shall he well in the future.
''When thou passess through the waters
will be with thee, and through the rivers
they shall not overflow thee" But you
know very well that if We go out of this
world, my brother, without Christ, we take
o leap into the dark.
Who would want to go out of the world
like that when he can go in triumph indie
scribable: like Paul, saying: ~ have
fought the good fight, l have finished my
course, I have kept the faith; henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown OF right
which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, will give me-" Or tina. other battle |
grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be
unto God who giveth ME the victory through |
my Lord Jesus Christi
Well, there are a good many men in this |
house who say: "What you have declared |
this morning is the truth, but am so far |
gone in sin that there is no hope for me-"
Oh, my brothers. there you make great |
mistake. l stand here this morning to de- |
clare there is hope for any man who wants |
to come to God. "Let the wicked forsake |
his way, and the unrishteous man his !
thought, and let him return unto the Lord, |
who will have mercy, and unto our God, |
who will abundantly pardon" Come this !
''Oh," you say. ''if you knew |
my history you wouldn't invite me-" do |
not care what your history is; como to God |
to-day. "Whosoever WILL" That word |
'whosoever" covers all cases OF wander |
ings of iniquity. "Whosoever will, let |
him come"
'But," says some one in the house, 81 |
have started in the line Of iniquisy and I |
am going on; I will risk the future; I
haven't much faith in Christianity; 1 am
going have an easy time in this world,
get all out Of it / can. go into all kinds of
sin, taking the risk for the future" Oh,
will you not he diverted from that course:
VIII you not now realize the fact that you
want God: Oh, how much you need him!
1t may take great struggle to bring you
back, but come back you may and you
will, this morning soma of you will. May
God by his holy spirit move upon your
heart,
/ have sometimes heard people say it is
rs easy for them to become Christians rs
to turn their hands. Oh, what misrepre-
that is! 1t takes the blood. 1t is
the mightiest struggle in all the world
when a man who has been doing wrong
tries to do right. It is a mightier struggle
than would ask any man to go into I'M
less he lays hold of the strong arm of God,
who will help him and who will deliver
him.
Some years ago there was an excursion
steamer some miles above Niagara Falls.
There were many on the excursion, many
passengers, and the boat fioated on down
toward the rapids; but the Captain ex-
pected to return in time to avoid all danger,
and they were laughing on the deck, when