The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-07-22


phire plant of the text its commercial value |
In the time Of King Solomon-a type OF my |
Lord Jesus, who beauties and adorns and ,
coors everything He touches | have no
faith in that man conversion whose religion
does not color his whole life. 1t was INTENDED
so to do. If man has the grace of God in his
heart it ought to show it elf in the life There |
ought TO be this ''cluster Of CAM hire" in the
ledger, in the roll of government securities,
in the medical prescription, in the law book.
A religion is of no value to a merchant unless /.
1t keeps him from putting false labels on his
goods; or to the plasterer, unless it keeps him
from putting up ceiling which he knows
unless 1t keeps him from lashing his horses to
eight miles an hour when the Thermometer is
at ninety; or to the farmer, unless it keeps
him from putting the only SCUM pippins on
the top of the barrel; or to the shoemaker,
unless 1t keeps him from substituting brown
paper for gooi leather In tle soles. In Other
words. the religion of Christ is good tor
The grace of God never affe,ts us by
Piecemeal. If the heart is changed, the head
is changed, and the liver is changed, and the
spleen is changed and the hands are changed
and the feet are changed, and the store il
changed, and the house is changed, and every.
thing over which man has any influence
cones 20 coair>lete sd raaical chadre. The
re'igiCn of the Lord Jesus Chr st is not pJ,
of hyacinths, to be set in a parlor bay win.
dow for passersby to look at and to be ex.
amined by ourselves only when we have
comoanv, but it is to he perfume filling
all the room of the heart as "a cluster oi
campfire from the vineyards of Engedis
The trouble is men do not taEe their religion
with them. The merchant leaves it outsi %
the counter, lest it disturb the goods. The
housekeeper will not let her reli.ion trail its
robes in The kitchen on washing ;.ay. The
philosopher will not let his religion come in
amid the batteries, lest it get galvanic
shock. But tell you unless your religion
goes with you everywhere, it goes nowhere.
That religion was intended to color all the
heart and the life.
But, mark you, it was a bright color. For
the most part it was an orange dye made OF
this campfire plant, one of the most brilliant
of all the colors: and so the religion of Jesus
Christ casts no blackness or gloom upon the
soul. 1t brightens up life; it brightens up
everything. there is no more religion in
funeral tina n there is in a wedding; no more
religion in tears than in smiles David was
no Better when he said he cried out of the
depths Of hell than he was when he said
that his mouth was filed with laughter
and his tongue with singing. The best men
that have ever known have laughed the
loudest. Religion was intended to brighten
up all our character. Take out the sprig of
c"rress frea your coat ard put in e cluster
of cauIphire from the Vineyards Of EngedL"
Religions ways are ways pleasantness, and
all her paths are peace" have found it so.
There are hundreds in this house who have
found it so.
remark again, that the campfire plantof
the text was symbol of Jesus Oh ist be-
cause it is mighty restorative. You know
that there is nothing that starts respiration
as soon in one who has tainted as camphor, as
We haveit. Put upon sponge or handker-
chief, the effects are almost immediate.
Well, this campfire plant of the text, though
somewhat different from that which we
have, was pungent aromatic, and in that
respect it becomes a type of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the mightiest Of re-
F6ire' : pant lnbbS5 tne" "sidea r56fh, after
the doctors have held their consultation
and said there was no hope and nothing more
could be done, and the soul frightened up
under the spiritual restorative. There Is no
fever, 10 meras nus, no neuralgia, no con-
sumption, no disease of the body that the
grace of God will not help. | wish that over
every be of pain and through every hospital
of distress we might swing this ''cluster OF
campfire from the vineyards of Engedi."
Christ's hand is the softest pillow, Christs
pardon Is the strongest stimulus Christs
comfort is the mightiest anodyne, Chrlst,s
salvation is the grandest restorative. 1t
makes man mightier than his physical dis
! tress.
Art thou wearyl Art thou languid! Art
thou sore distressed!
"Come with me-" saith One-"and coming,
te at rest"
If ask Him to receive me, will he say me
nay!
Not till earth and not till heaven pass away.
Finding, following, keeping, struggling, is
He s re to bless!
Saints, apostles, prophets martyrs, answer
yes!
Nero tarred and put pitch upon the Chris
| tians of his day, and then set them on fire,
that they might illuminate the night round
about the palace, but, while they We're burn
| ing, and the crowd beneath were jeering,
louder than all the noise went up the song of
praise and triumph fio II the dying martyrs
John Bradford came out in presence of the
| instrument Of torture that was to put him to
death and said: Il am Christian now; |
have never been before" And so again and
again the lion OF Judah's tribe has torn to
pieces the wild beasts OF martyrdom.
| This gra is also restorative for the back
slider Who do you mean by that! you say.
| mean YOU who used to frequent the house
| of God, but seldom go there now; you WHO
once used to pray, but never pray now; you
! who once sat at the holy communion, but
| take not the Lords cup now; l mean you
who once reioiced in Christian society, but
now sit among offers. Backsliderl Oh,
what sugge tive word Backslider From
what have you slid backs You have slid
| back from your father faith, from your early
good habits. You have been sliding back from
Christ, from the cross--sliding back from
| Heaven. When a man begins to slide he
| knows not where he will go. You have been
sliding back toward darkness You have been
sliding back toward an unblessed grave,
toward precipice, the first ten million miles
/, of which downward are only small rart Of
H., lv,lu Won xyo narhanS y
f~.eas IN the country; you bse> made ship
-.-r in the town. It way be that tie
club blasted you; it may be that fashionable
so iety destroyed you; it may be the kind
OF wife whom you married. You have no
more hope for Heaven now than if
you had lived in Central Asia and never
heard of Christ and the judgment Oh,
where is that Bible you used to read' Where
is that room where you used to pray! What
have you done with that Jesus whose voice
you once teard. Oh. murdered hours! Oh.
massacred privileges! oh, dead opportunl-
ties! Wake up now and shrek in that man
ear until he shall rouse himself from the hor
rible somnambulism, wal lng, as he does ias'
as eep, within an inch of hell. Ch that h'
| might cry out now: "Golden Sabtaths
come back! Communion seasons, come back
| Wooings of the Holy Ghost, come back!
But they will not cume. Gone, gone, gone
Sorrow will come, but not they. oh, thai
YOU might save the lew remaining Year, 81
your life and cons crate them to Christi
have seen sad sights-l have heard sac
sounds; bit l tell you the ghastlest thre
outside the gates of The damned is a back
slider's deathbed Do you net feel like hav
ing applied to your soul this divine rest )r
ative! Do you not feel lise crying out witt
David: "Resiore unto me the joys of th,
salvationf' For great sin, great paI don; fo
deep wounds, omnipotent surgery; for d a
cars, divine aurist; fer blind eyes, 1
heavenly oculist; for the dead in sin, tn
upheaval Of great resurrection.
But in the heavenly world we shall feel th
chief restorative power of religion. This is
planet of weeping we are living on. We ente
upon nfe win a cry and leave 1t with ioni
sigh Ii could gather up the griefs of this au
dience and put them in one sentence and the
utter it, it would make everything betweel
here and the throne of God shudd + and howl
The earth is gashed deep with graves. As a
the close of the war, sometimes we saw
regiment of one hundred and fifty men, th
fragments of tn, thousand N en- that wen
out, so, as | stand before you, cannot bt
realize the fact that you are the fragment
representing hundreds of regiments of joyfr
associations that have b-en broken up fol
ever Oh, this il world of so.rowl Bu
. blessed be God there will be no sorrow i
! ho,vcp Tho uudartaker will have TO hay