The Penn's Grove record., 1888-12-08

~ t1AAA IN IVA lSAI "
ACKNOWLEDGMENT, and do nothing for th
ialleviatlon of the worlds woes. TIL
cedar of Lebanon standing on til
mountain seems to hand down til
storms ont Of the heavens to the earth
but it BARS no fruit, while some dwar
pear-tree has more fruit on Its branche
than it can carry. Better to have on
talent and put it to full use than Nv
hundred wickedly neglected.
My subject teaches me that there i:
coming
A DAY OF SOLEMN SETTLEMENT.
When the old farmer of the text go
home, he Immediately called all tn,
servants about him, and said: "Her'
is the little account 1 have been keep
ing. l want to see your account, ami
we will first compare them; and I'll pay
you what / owe you, and you'll pay mt
what you owe me. Let us have a settle
ment.n The day will come when the
Lord Jesus Christ will appear, and vii
say to you: "What have you been do
ing with my property What have you
been doing with my faculties? What
have you been doing with what l gave
you for accumulative %purpopes?'
There will he no escape from that settle
ment. Sometimes you cannot get o
settlement with a man, especially if he
owes yot. He postpones and procras-
tinates, and says: "I'll see you next
week." or ssIll see you next month. -
The fact is he does not want to settle.
But when the great day comes of which
I am speaking. there will be no escape.
We will have to face all the bills.
l have sometimes been amazed to see
how an accountant will run up or down
n lone line of figures. If 1 see ten OF
Arteen figures in u line, and I attempt
t4 add them up, and l add them two
on three times, l make them different
eafth time. But l have admired the
~,ay an accountant will take a long
line of figures, and without a single
mistake, and with great celebrity, an
Dounce the aggregate. Now, in the last
great settlement, there will he a correct
account presented. God has kept a
long line of sins, a long line Of broken
Sabbaths, a long line of p~rOfane words,
- long line Of discarded sacraments, a
long line of misimproved privileges.
|TEz1k will all be added up, and before
An0W%0I4uu uotllS auu Aucu
rHrshk2GGREGATE WILL BE An
SfSn--SoUNCED.
oh, tdaI will be the great day of settle
Flhentl / have to ask the question: Am
1 ready for it?" 1t is OF more Hepcrt-
ance to me to answer that question in
regard to myself than in regard to you;
and it is of more importance for You to
answer it in regard to yourself than in
regard to me. Every man for himself
In that day. Every woman for herself
in that day. "If thou be wise, thou
shalt be wise for myself; IL thou scorn-
est, thou alone shalt bear it," We are
apt to speak of the last day as an occa-
sion of vociferation-agreat demonstra-
ton of power and pomp; but there will
be on that day, / think, a few moments
Of entire silence. / think a tremendous,
an overwhelming silence; l think it
will be such a silence as the earth eve
heard. 1t will be at the moment when
all nations are listening for their doom.
/ learn also from this parable of the
text that in heaven u degrees of
HAPPINESS WILL BE GRADUATED
according to our degrees of usefulness
or earth. Several fthe commentators
agree in making this parable the same
one as in Luke, where n man was
made ruler over five cities, and another
made ruler over t wo cities. Would it
be fair and right that the professed
Christian man who has lived very near
the line between the world and the
Church-the man who has often COM
promised his Christian Characteristic
man who has never spoken out for God
the man who has never been known
as a Christian only on communion-days
the man whose great struggle has
Deen to see how much of tbs world he
could get and yet win heaven-is it
right to suppose that that nan will
have as grand and glorious q seat in
heaven rs the man who gave all his
energies of body, mind, and soul to the
service of God? The dying thief entered
heaven, but not with the same startling
acclaim as that which greeted Paul,
who had gone under screenings, and
across dungeons, md through mall
treatments into the kingdom of glory.
One star differs from another star in
glory, and they who toll nightly for
Christ on earth shall have II far greater
reward than those who have rendered
only half a service.
Some Of you are Fastening on toward
the reward of the righteous. l want to
cheer you UP at the thought that there
will be some kind of
REWARD WAITING FOR YOU.
There are Christian people III the house
who are very near heaven. This week
some of you may pass out into the light
Of the unsetting sun. L saw II blind
man going along the road with his staff,
and he kept pounding the earth and
then stamping with his foot. 1 said TO
him: "Wha do you do that forY'
"Oh,n he said, II can tell by the sound
of the ground when l am near a dwell
ling.n And some Of you al tell by
the sound of your earthly pathway that
you are coming near to your fathers
house. 1 congratulate you. Oh,
weather beaten yoyagers, the storms are
driving you into the harbor! Just as
when you were looking for a friend,
you came up to the gate of his house,
and you were talking with the servant,
| when your friend holsted the window
and shouted; "Come in! come inl"
| y uot 81, Wueu 1Ou SOiho " tho Sueo VI
the future world, and you are talking
with Death. the black porter at the
gate, methinks Christ will hoist the
window aud say: "Come ini come inl
/ will make the ruler oyer ten, cities"
In anticipation of that land l do not
wonder that Augustus Toplady, the
Iauthor of "Rock OF Ages" declared in
his last moment: 81 have nothing more
to pray for; God has given me every
thing. Surely nj man can live OH earth
after the glories l have Witnessed" oh,
my brothers and sisters, how sweet it
win be, after the long wilderness march,
to get home. That was a bright mo-
ment for the tired dove in the time Of
the Deluge. when it found its way into
the window OF the ark.
John Rogers. q painter, of Day
ton, Ohio, was put of a Dayton and
Michigan train, near johnson station,
on the Both ult. lie started to walk
back 10 Dayton, and, for revenge, as