Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-12-08

But can give you recipe for running
your children Angrily contend in tbs
household that your church is right and the
church of your companion is wrong. Bring
sneer and caricature to emphasize your
| opinions and your children will make up
their minds that religion is a sham, and they
will have mons of it. Iu the northeast storm
II domestic controversy, the lose Of Sharon
nd the lily of the valley will not grow
| eight about apostolic succession, fight about
lection and free agency, fight about bap-
ISM, fight about the bishopric. fight abnui
| Gown and surplice. and the religious pros
,ects Of yonr children will be left dead on
no field. You will be as unfortunate as
Charles, Duke of Burgundy. who in battle
!pst diamond the value of nation, for 10
sour fight you will lose the jewel of saliva
ion for your entire household. This is no.
| thing against the advocacy Of your own re
iigious theories. Use all forcible argument,
'ring all telling illustration, array all dem
'nstrative facts, but let there be no acerbi-
| y, no stinging retOrt, no mean ninsinuation,
40 superciliousness, as though all others
we're wrong and you infallibly right.
Take hint from astronomy. The Ptole-
maic system made the earth the centre OF
he solar system, and everything was
5hought to turn ronnd the earth. Put the
Coperuican system came, and made the sun
che centre around which the planets revolv-
I'D. The bigot makes his little belief the
centre of everything, but the large-seuled
Christian makes the Sun Of. Righteousness
he centre, and all denominations, without
tuy clashiug, and each in it's 9wnlight, aud
10 its own sphere. revolving around it. Over
f<,vr h <,fh Co., =
Abbey, is the passage of Scripture: "Thy
commandments are exceeding broad" Let
40 man crawd ms on to q path like the
bridge Al Sirat, which the Mohammedan
thinks leads from this world over the abyss
If hell into paradise. The breadth of the
bridge is less than the web of a starved spi-
der or the edge of a sword or razor, of the
edges of which many fall. No; while the
way is not wide enough to take with us any
Of our sins, it is wide enough for all Chris
tian believers to pass without peril into ev-
erlasting safety.
But do net any of you depend upon what
you call a sound creed forsalyation. A man
may own all the Statutes of the State of
New York, and yet not be lawyer, aud a
mau may own all the best medical treatises
and not be physician; and man may own
all the best works on painting and architec-
ture, and not be either painter or architect,
snd q man may own all the sound creeds in
the world, and yet uot be Christian. Not
what you have in your head and on your
tongue, but in your heart and in your life,
will decide everything.
In olden times in England, before the
modern street lamps we're invented, every
householder was expected to have lantern
suspended in front of his house, and the
cry of the watchmen in London as they
vent along at eventide was: "Hang out
your lamps" Instead of disputing in your
home about the different kinds of lantern,
watchmau on the walls of Ziou 1 cry: Let
your light 80 shine before men that they,
seeing your good works, may glorify your
Father which is in heaven" Hang out
your lights! You may have a thousand
ideas about religion, and yet not the great
idea of psrdoning mercy. 1t is not the
number of your ideas, but the greatness of
them. A mouse hath ten offspring in her
nest, while th- lioness hath one in her lair,
All ideas about forms, and ceremonies, and
church government put together are not
worth the one idea of getting to heaven
yourself and taking your family with you
But do not reject Christianity, as many do,
because there are 30 many sects. Standing
L
of the window, and saw three clocks, as near
as can remember, one on the Parliament
House. another on St. Margaret's chapel,
another Gu Westminster Abbey, aud they
were all different. One said 12 o'clock at
noon, another said five minutes before 70.
another said five minutes after 10, l might
as we'll have concluded that there ls no such
thing AS time, because the three timepiecss
were different; as for you to conclude that
there is no such thing as pure Christianity
because the churches differ in their state
ment of it. 1t is about 12 o'clock noon, of
the glorious Gospel dispensation, although
the church clocks somewhat differ, and un-
der the present light you have no excuse for
negleotng your duty because you do not like
this or dOnOt like that. How shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvaton?"
But let US all rejoice that although part
of our family may worship on earth in one
church, and part in another church, or,
bowed at the same altars, it must be in a
compromise of preferences we are, if re-
deemed, on the way to perfect church,
where oil our preferences will be fully graft
fed. Great cathedral of eternity, with
arches of amethysts. and pillars of sapphires
and floors of emerald, and windows aglow
with the sunrise of heaven! What wide
alsles. spacious enough to allow em pires to
enter! What amphithsatres of piled-up
splendor, gallery above gallery, priaces and
princesses, kings and queens bending over
them! What stupendous towers, with
chimes angel hoisted and angel rung What
myrlads of worshippers, white-robsd and
coroneted! What an officiator at the altar
even ''the g.eat High Priest of our profess
sion n What walls, hung with the cap
tured shields ard flags, by the church mill
tant passed up to the church triumphant
What doxolegies of all nations! Coronet to
coronet, cymbal to cymbal, harp to harp
organ to organl Pull out the tremulant
stop to recall the sufferipgs past! Pull out
the trumpet stop to celebrate the victory.
when shall these eyes thy heaven. built walls
And pearly gates behold?
Thy bul warks with walton strong,
And streets OF shining gold"