The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-05-27

How many old people are there in your
house' One, two or monet How many in a
vast assemblage like this' Only here and
there a gray head, like the patches
of snow here and there in the fields on a late
April day. The fact is that the tides of tine
years are so strong that men go down under
them before they get to be sixty, before they
| get to be fifty, before they get to be forty,
before they get to be thirty; and if you, my
| young brother, resolve now that you will
spend the morning OF your days in devouring
the prey, the probability is that you Will
never divide the spoil in the evening hour.
! H who postpones until old age the religion
of Jesus Christ, postpones it forever. Where
are the men who, thirty years ago, resolved
to become Christians in old age, putting
| 1t OFF certain number Of years.
railroad @ collision or the steamboat
explosion or the slip on the ice or the falling
| ladder or the sudden cold put an end to their
| opportunities. They have never had an op-
! portunity since and never will have an OPP
| portunity again. They locked the door of
Heaven against their souls and they threw
away the keys; and if they could now break
| jail and come up shrieking to this audience,
l donot think they would take two minutes to
| persuade us all to repentance They chased the
world and they died in the chase. The wounded
| tiger turned on them. They failed to take the
| game that they pursued. Mounted on swift
!
fell on them and crushed them. Proposing to
barter their soul for the world they lost both
aud got neither.
While this is an encouragement to old peo-
pie who are yet unpardoned, it Is no encour.
agement to the young who are putting of
tie day of grace, This doctrine that the old
may be repentaut Is to be taken cautiously.
It is medicine that kills or cures. Ths same
medicine given to different patients in ons
case saves life and in the other destroys it.
This posSibility of repentan @ at the close OF
life may cure the old man while it kills the
young. BE cautious in taking it,
Again, my subject is descriptive of those
Who come to q sudden aud radical change.
You have noticed how short a time 1t Is from
morning to night in winter-eight or ten
| hours You know that a winter day has q
very brief life. The heart of the longest day
beats twenty-four times and then it is dead,
How quick the transition in the character OF
these Benjamiuites! '1n the morning they
shall deyour the prey, and at night they
shall divide the sfol" Is it possible
that there shall be such trans.
formation in any Of our characters
Yes. a man may be at seven o'clock II the
morning an all-devouring worldling, and at
seven o'clock at night he may be a peaceful
dis.ributive Christian. Conversion is in
st ntaneoIs. A man passes into the klnSdom
OF God quicker than down the sky runs tho
zig-zag lightning A man may be anxious
about his soll for great many years; that
does nos Il a 70 him a Christian. A man may
pray n great while; that does not make hlln a
CariStian. a man may resolve on the retof-
nation of his character and have that re o.
luion going on great while; that docs not
maze him Christian But the very instant
when he hlgs his soul on the mercy OF
Jesus Christ that instant is lustrat!on,
emancipation, resurrection. up TO that
point he is going in the wrong direction;
after that point he is going in the right dl.
re ,tion. Before that moment he IS CHILD
sin; after that nom ent he is a child OF God
Before that moment, hellward, after that
moment heavenward. Before that moment,
devouring the prey; after that moment, di-
viding the spoil. Five minutes is as good
as FIVE years, My hearer, you know very
well that the best things you have done you
have done in flash. You made up your
mimi in an instant to buy or to sell
or to invest or to stop or to start.
If you had missed that ono chance you
would have MISE it forever. Now just a.
preaipitate and quick and spontaneous will
be the ransom of your soul. This morning
you are making a calculation. You are on
the tranz of some financial or social game.
With your pen or pencil you are pursuing it.
This very morning you are devouring the
prey: but tonight you will be in a different
mo3d. You find that all heaven is offered you.
You wonder how you can get 1t for yourself
and family You wonder what resources II
will give you now and hereafter. ou are
divi ling peace and comfort and satisfaction
and Christian reward i'll your soul. You are
dividing the spoil
On a Sabbath night at the close of the SER
vice, said to some persons: when did you
first become serious about your soulF' and
they told me: Tonight And said tc
Cod" and they said; Tonight" And
said to still others ''When did you resolve
to serve the Lord all the days of your life
and they said: "To-night." | saw by theil
appare! that when the grace of God struck
them they were devouring the prey; but
saw also in the flood of joyful tears, and IL
the kindlng raptures on their brow, and il
III 9ir eyhilarant and transporting utterance:
that they were dividing the spoil AT nigh
, with one touch Of ele ,trcity all these lights
blaze Oh would to God that the darkne
of your souls might be broken up, and thai
by one quick, overwhelming, instantaneous
flash of illumination you might be brought
into the light and the liberty of the sons oi
God!
You see that religion is a different thing
from what some of you people suppose
You thought it was deca dence; you though
religion was emaciaton; you thought 1t wa
hia hway robbery; thatitstruck one down auC
l lett him half dead; that it plucked out th'
eyes; that it plucked out the plumes of tn
f soul; that it broke the wing and crushed tn
beak as it came cawing with its black talon
, through the air No that is not religion. Wha
, is religion' 1t is dividing the s1oil. tits tax
+ ing defenseless soul and panoplying it fo
a eternal conquest. 1t is the distribution o
prizes by the Kings hand; every media
, stamped witha a coronation. 1t is an exhi,-
= aration an expansion. 1t is imparadsaUion
1t is enthronement. Religion makes a ma,
' master of earth, and death, and hell. l
+ goes forth to gather the medals of victory
e won by Prince Emmanuel, and the diadem
/ Of heaven and the glories of realms terres
: trial and celestial, and then, afte
f ranging all word, for everything that Is
A resplendent, it divides the spoil. What wa:
' it that James Tnrner, the famous Englsi
/; evangelist, was doing when in his dying
: moment he said: "Christ is all! Christ i
o all" Why, he was entering into light; HI
\ was dividing the spoil What was the ageC
/ Christian Quakeress doing when at eighty
: years of age she arose in the meeting on
\ day and said: The time of my departur
| is come. Nv grave clothes are falling off.
' She was dividing the spoil.
: ''She longed with wings to fly away,
e And mix with that eternal day.
What is Daniel now doing, the lion tanner
and Elijah, who was drawn by the flaming
courserss and Paul, the rafting of who's
chains ma ie kings quakel and all the othe
/, victims of flood and fire and wreck and gull
lotine? Where are they! Dividing the spoi
. "Ten thousand times ten thousand,
In sparkling raiment bright,
The armies of the ransomed saints
3 Throng up the sleeps of light
, "'Tis finished, all is finished,
+ Their fight with death and sin,
Lit high your golden gates
? And let the victors in"
/ Oh, what grand thing it is to be a Chris
h tian! We begin on earth to divide the spoil
D bnt the distribution will not be completed t
t all eternity. There is poverty-struck soul
: there is business-despoiled soul, there IS
} sin-struck soul, there is a bereaved soul
L why do you not come and get the spoil
Of Christian character, the comfort, tn
t JOY, the peace, the salvation that
: am seut to offer you in my Mas
ters names, Though your knees knocl
l together in weakness, though your han'
: trtmoIe in fear, though your eyes rain tear
5 of uncomfortable weeping-come and get tn
spoils. Rest for all the weary. Pardon TO
all the guilty. Harbor for all the bestormed
Life for all the dead / verify believe tha
there are some who have come in here out