The Brookhaven leader., 1886-07-15

and saidi 81 am Q 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 grace Is also q restorative for the
backslider. Who do you mean by that!
you say. / mean you who used to fire.
quent the house Of God, but seldom 20
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; mean you who once re-
joiced in Christian society, but now sit
amid scofrers. Backslider! Oh, what
suggestive word Backslider! From what
have you slid back? You have slid
back from your fathers 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 viii 60. You have
been sliding back toward darkness. You
have been sliding back toward an I'M
blessed grave, toward precipice, the first
10, 0OO, 900 miles of which downward are
only small part Of the eternal pl unge.
You were, perhaps, professors IN the
country; you have made shipwreck in the
town. 1t may be that the club blasted
you; it may he that fashionable society
destroyed you: il may be the kind OF wife
whom you married. You have no more
hope for heaven now than if you had lived
in Central A STA and never heard of Christ
and the Judgment. Oh, where is that
Bible YOU use to ready Where is that
room where you used to prayf What
have you done with that Jesus whose
voice you once heard? Oh, MUIR
dered hoursl Oh. massacred privilegesl
Oh, dead opportunities! Wake up now
and shriek in that mans ear until he shall
rouse himself from the horrible somnam-
bulism, walking, as he does, fast asleep,
within an inch of hell. Oh, that he might
cry out now: Golden Sabhaths, come
back! Communion seasons. come back!
Wooings of the Holy Ghost. come back"
But they will not come. Gone! gone!
gOnel Sorrow viii come, but not they.
oh, that you might save the few remain
ing years OF your life and cOnsecrate them
TO Christ | nave seen sad - -hts, | have
heard sad sounds; but, ] tell you, the
ghastlest thing outside the gates of the
damned IS n hackslider's death bed Do
you not feel like having applied to your
soul this divine preroGatiye? Do you
not feel like crying out with David: RE-
store unto me the JOYS Of Thy saivation?"
For great sin, great pardon. For deep
wounds. omnpotent surgery. For deaf
ears, a divine aurist. For blind eyes a
heavenly oru!ist. For the dead in sim the
upheaval Of great resurrection.
But in the heavenly world we shall fael
the chief restorative power Of religion.
This is a planet Of weeping we are living
on. We enter upon life with a cry and
leave it with a long sigh. If | could gath
er up the griefs Of this audience and put
them in one sentence. and then utter it, it
would make every thing hetw cen here and
the throne of God shudder and
howl. The earth is gashed deep
with graves. AS at the close of the
war, sometimes we saw a regiment Of one
hundred and fifty men, the fragment of
the thousand men that went out; so, as |
stand before you can not but realize the
fact that you are the fragments represent
ing hundreds of regiments of joyful asso.
Citations that have been broken up forever.
o, this is a world Of sorrow But, blessed
be God, there will be no sorro " in Heaven!
The undertaken will have to have some
other business there. In the summer time
our cities have bills of mortality which are
Notwithstanding in New York thou
sand deaths in a week, sometimes it has
been two thousand in London; but
in that great heavenly city there
will be not single case of sick
ness or death; not one black dress Of
mourning, but plenty of white robes Of
joy; Misunderstanding of welcome, but none
of separation. Why, if one trouble should
attempt to enter Heaven, the shining po-
lice Of the city would put it under ever.
lasting arrest. If all the sorrows of life,
mailed and swOrded under Apollyon,
should attempt to force that gate one
company from the tower would strike them
back bowling to the pit Room in Heaven
for all the raptures that ever knocked at
the gate, but no room for the smallest
annoyance, though slight as a summer in
sect. Doxology, but no dirge; banquet
ing, but no funeral baked meats"
No darkness at all; no grief at all; no
sickness at all; no death a all. A soul
waking up in that place will say: "Can it
be that l AM here? Will my head never
ache again? Shall never stumble over a
grave again? Will | never say good-by
TO loved ones again? Can it be possible
that the stream is past; that the bank is
gained; that the glory is begun; Show
me Jesus that may kiss his feet" When
the clock of Christian suffering has run
down, it will never be wound up again.
Amid the vineyards of the heavenly En-
gedi; that will be restoration without any
relapse; that will be day without any sue
ceeding night; that will be "the sainvs
everlasting rest"