The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-09-08

trammeled glee, and the greatest resil-
fence of soul are inside the Christian com
and not outside of it. have
tried both styles of companionship-the
compa nionship of the world and the COM
panionship of Christ, and know by ex-
perience. have been now so long in the
sunshiny experience and society Of
Christian people that when l am COM
PEELED to to go for q little while amid in.
tense worldly society feel depressed. 1t
is like going out of June garden into an
ice. house. Men never know fully how to
laugh until they become Christians. The
worlds laughter has jerk OF dissatisfac.
ton at the end, but when man is conse.
Grated to God, and he is all right for the
world to come, then when he laughs, body,
mind and soul crackle. Let group of
ministers of the Gospel. gathered from all
denominations of Christians, be together
in a dining hall, or in a social circle, and
you know they are proverbially jocund.
o ye unconverted people! l know not
how you can stand it down in that
moping, bilious, saturnine, worldly assoc
citation. Come up into the sunlight of
Christian society-those people for whom
all things are working right now, and
will work right forever. tell you that
the sweetest japonicas grow in the Lords
garden; that the largest grapes are from
the vineyards of Canaan; that the most
sparkling floods break forth from the
Rock of Ages. Do not too much pity this
Ruth of my text; for she is going to be.
come joint owner of the great harvest
fields of Boaz.
5. Once more: If we want to become
Christians, we must, like Ruth in the text,
choose the Christians death and burial.
She exclaimed:
Where thou diest, will die, and there will
be buried
think we all, when leaving this world,
would like to be surrounded by Christian
influences. You would not like to have
your dying pillow surrounded by carica-
turists, and punsters, and wine. bibbers.
come with his London pictorials, and
Christopher North with his loose fun, and
Tom Hood with his rbyming jokes, when
you are dying? No! no! nor Let me
have Christian nurse in my last sickness.
Let me have Christian physician to adj
minister the medicines. Let it be Chris.
tian wife, or parent, Or child, that watches
the going out of the tides of my mortal
existence. Let Christian men come in the
room and read of the illuminated valley,
and the extinguishment of grief, and
drown the hoarse blasts of death with the
strains of "Mount Pisgah" and "Saint
Martin"
In our last moment we will all be chill
dren. Said DR.. Guthrie, the famous Scotch
clergyman, when dying:
"Sng me BARNS hymn"
Yes, we will all be children then. In
that hour the world will stand COMPOUNDED
around us. Our friends may cry over us;
tears will not help us. They may look
sad; what we want is radiation in the last
moment, thinking it will help them to die.
In our last moments we want that bread
which came down from heaven. Who will
give it to us? Oh, we want Christian peo-
pie in the room, so that il our hope begins
to struggle they may say:
Courage, brother! All is we'll! Cour.
agew
In that expiring moment want to hear
the old songs that we used to sing in
church and prayer-meeting. In that last
moment want to hear the voice of some
Christian friend pleading that the sins
| and shortcomings Of my life may be for
given and the doors of Heaven may be
| opened before my entranced spirit.
Come Sing to me OF Heaven
When Pm about to die;
Sing songs of holy ecstasy,
To watt my soul on high
| Yes: Christian people on either side tn,
bed, and Christian people at the foot Of thu
bed, and Christian people to close my
eyes, and Christian people to carry mi
out, and Christian people to look afte
those whom leave behind, and Christian
people TO remember me little while afte
am gone.
be buried.
Sometimes an epitaph covers up NOR,
than it expresses. Walking through Green
wood cemetery have sometimes seen al
inscription which impressed me how hare
the sculptor and friends were trying I,
make out good story in stone. saw
from the inscription that the man or WON
an buried there had died without hope
The inscription told me the man was
member of Congress, or bank president
or some prominent citizen, but said moth
ing about his souls destiny. The bod
is nothing. The soul! The soul! An
here by this inscription l see that thi
man was born in 1890 and died in 1875
Seventy five years on earth, and n
Christian hope! Oh, if in all the GENE
teries of your city the graves of those VIII
have gone out of this world unprepare
should sigh on the wind, who would hav
the nerve to drive through such place
If all those who have gone out of thi
world unprepared could come back TO .da
and float through this air, telling the stor
of their discontinue, this audience woul
fall fiat on its face, asking to be rescue
from the avalanche of horror.
My hearers, do you wonder that th
Ruth of my text made the Christian
choice and closed it with the ancient forl
,, of imprecation upon her own soul, If sh
ever forsook Naomi.
The Lord do so to me, and more also
aught but death part thee and me.
! They were living together. Come h
jackals, come the bandits, roll on Dea
sea! My hearers, would you not like to
with your Christian friends forever: Hay
there not gone out persons from yol
household whom you would like to spen
eternity with. They were mild, and 10,