The weekly sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1886-1887, 1886-08-26


out RI; h to Naomi. 1.-The folks YOU as
sociate with, want to associate with.
II ey will come and see me, and will go
ane ste them. want to move in the
highest of all circles, the circle of Gods
elect; and therefore. mother, am 60
Ing back with you to the land Of Judah"
Do you who are seeking after God-and
1 suppose there are many such in this
presence-do you who are seeking after
God prefer Christian society TO worldly
So iety? No" you say prefer the
world 8 mirth, and the worlds laughter,
and the worlds innuendo, and the worlds
paFaphernalia." Well, this is free
country, and you shall, have the right O;
choice; but let me tell you that the
purest mirth, and the most untrammelled
giee, and the greatest reSilieuce Of soul
are inside Christian com panionShip, and
not o,.tside of it. l have tried both
styles of companionship-the compan-
1onsh1p OF the world and tie compan-
lonshlp OF Christ; and I know by expert
ence- I have been now so long in the
sunshiny experience AMI society of Chris
tan people, that when l am compelled
to go for little while amid intense
worldly society l feel depressed. 1t is
like going out of a June garden into an
Ice-house. Men never know fully how
to laugh until they become Christians.
The worlds laughter has jerk OF dis
satisfaction at the end but when a man
Is consecrated to God. and he Is all right
for the world to come. then when ne
laughs, body, mind and soul crackle.
Let group OF minister's or the Gospel
gathered from all denominations O:
Christians, be together in a dining.
or III a social circle. and you Know they
are proverbially Jocund. y yc uncon-
verteu people l know not how you can
stand it down i'll that mopins bilious,
saturnine, worldly association. Come
up into the sunlight OF Christian society
those people Tor whom all things are
working right now, anu 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 murh pity
Thu Ruth of my text; for she is going to
become joint owner of the great harvest
fields of Boaz.
V. 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 dleot will die, and there will l be
buried" 1 think we all, when leaving
this world, would like TO be surrounded
by Christian influences. You would not
like % have your dying pillow Surround
ed by caricaturists and punsters, and
wine-bibbers. How would you like to
have John Leech come with his London
pictorials, and Christopher North with
his loose fun, and Tom Hood with his
rhyming jokes, when you are dying?
No! No! No! Let me have Ihris-
tian nurse in my last sickness. Let me
have Christian physician to administer
the medicines. Let it be a Christian
wife. or parent. or child, that watches
the going out of the ii les 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 I" Mount Pisgah"
and saint Martin
In our last moment we will all be
children. Said DIR. Guthrie, the famous
Scotch clergyman, when dying: '.Sing
me BARNS hymn" Yes, we will all be
children then. In that hour the world
will s. and 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 moment We want that bread
which came down from heaven. Who
will give it to us? Oh, we want Chris
tian people in the room, so that If our
hope begins to struggle they may say:
{" Courage brother! all is we'll Cour-
agel' In that expiring moment 1 want
to hear the old songs that we used to
sing in church and prayer-meeting. In
that last moment l want to hear the
voice of some Christian friends pleading
that the sins and shortco ,ninga of my
life may be forgiven, and the "oois of
he ven may be opened before my en-
trancel spirit.
Come sing TO me of heaven,
When I'm about to die; 49,
Sing songs Of holy ecstacy,
To watt my soul on high"
Yes; Christian people on either side
the bed, md Christian people at the
foot of the bed, and Christian people to
close my eyes. and Christian people to
carry me out, and Christian people to
look after those whom 1 leave behind,
and Christian people to remember me
a little willie after l am gone. 4" Where
thou d.est, will die, anu there will be
buried.
Sometimes an epitaph covers up moro
than it expresses. Walking through
Greenwood Cemetery l have sometimes
seen an Inscription which impressed me
how harI the sculptor an: friends were
tIyi. 6 to make out good story in
s one. l saw from the inscription that
the man or woman buried there had
lied without hope. The inscription
told me the man was a member of
Congress-. or bank president. or some
prominent tlZ:n. but said no hing
about Ills souls destiny. The body is
no,hing. The soul! The soul! And
here b, Thu inscription I see that this
man was born i'll 1900 and died in 1875.
Ssventv- five years on earth and no
Cn1ls,ian Lope! Oh, II n all the ceme-
tcries OF your city the graves of those
who have gone out of this world unpre-
pared should sigh on the wind, who
would have the nerve to drive through
such O place? Ii all those who have
gone out OF this world unprepared
could cone back to-day and float
through t. is air, telling the story of
their discontinue, this audience would
fall fiat on Its face asking to
be rescued from the avalanche Of
horror.