The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-07-12

railroads. and all the plottings of stock gam
blers shall be put to confusion, and God
with his little finger shall wipe. ont their in
famous projects. How oftenit has been that
We have seen men gather up riches by fraud,
in a pyramid of strength and beauty, and
the Lord came and blew on it and it was
gone; while there are those here to-day who,
If they could speak out in this assemblage, or
dared to speak out, would say: "The best
friend had in 1887; the best friend had in
1857; the best friend | had at the opening Of
the war; the best friend / ever had has been
the LORI Jesus Christ. ! would rather give
up all other friends than this one"
But we have also family friends. They
come in when We have sickness in the house
hold. Perhaps they say nothing, but they
sit down and they weep as the light goes out
the lily are scattered in the blast of death.
They watch through the long night by the
dying couch, and. then, when the spirit has
gone, sooth you with great comfort, They
say: Don't cry, Jesus pities you. All is
well. You will meet the lost one again."
heart, did they not come and put the story
in the very best shape and prophecy the
return of the prodigal? Where they
not in your house when the birth
angel tapped its wings over your
dwelling? And they AVE been there at the
baptisms and at the weddings. Family
friends! But have to tell you that Christ is
the best family friend. Oh, blessed is that
cradle over which Christ bends. Blessed is
that nursery where Jesus walks. Blessed is
that sick brow from which Jesus wipes the
dampness. Blessed is that table where Jesus
breaks the bread. Blessed is that grave
where Jesus stands with his SCARED feet on
the upturned sod saying; "Iam the resurrec-
ton and the life; he that believeth in me,
| though he were dead, yet shall he i've"
Have you a babe in the house? Put it into
| the arms of the great Child Lover. Is there a
sick one in the house? Think of
him who said: "Damsel,, arise"
to want? Think of him who fed the five
| thousand. Is there q little enc in your house
that you are afraid will be blind or deaf or
lame? Think of him who touched the blinded
| eye and snatched back the boy from epileptic
%convulsion. Oh. He is the best friend. Look
over your family friends to-day and find an
other that can be compared to him. When
we want our friends they are sometimes out
of town. Christ is always in town. We find
that some will stick to us is prosperity who
will not in adversity. But Christ comes
through darkest night, and amid CHASTITY sor-
row, and across toughest sea, to comfort
you. There are men and women here who
would have been dead twenty years ago but
for Jesus. They have gone through trials
enough to exhaust ten times their physical
strength. Their property went, their health
went, their families were scattered. God only
knows what they suffered. They are an
amazement to themselves that they nave
been able to stand it. They. look at their
once happy home, surrounded by all comfort.
Gone! They think of the time when they used
to rise strong in the morning and walk Wig
orously Town the street, and had experienced
a health they thought inexhaustible.
Gone! Everything gone but Jesus. He
has pitied them. His eye has watched
them. His %omnipotence has defended
them. Yes, he has been with them.
They have gone through disaster and he was
a pillar of fire by night. They have gone
across stormy Galilee, but Christ had His
foot on the neck of the storm. They felt the
waves of trouble coming up around them
gradually, and they began to climb into the
strong rock of Gods defense, and then they
sang as they looked over the waters: "God
is our refuge and strength, an ever present
help in time of trouble; therefore we will not
fear though the earth be removed, though
the mountains be carried into the midst OF
the sea, though the waters thereof roar and
be troubled, though the mountains shake
with the swelling thereof. Selah." The
the Bethel in New York, and said: my
lads Che was standing among sailors), |
don't know what's the matter with me,
! used to hear a good deal about religion
and about Jesus Christ. don't know that l
have any religion, or that know anything
Atlantic Hooked up one day through the
rigging, and there seemed to come light
through my soul. have felt different ever
since, and 1 love those | once hated, and /
feel a joy l can't tell you. l really don't
know what is the matter of me-" A rough
sailor got up and said: "My lad, l know
what's the matter of you. You lave found
Jesus. 1t isenough to make any man happy"
His worth if all the nations knew.
Sure the whole earth would love him too.
l remark again: Christ is precious to the
believer, us a final deliverer. Yon and l
must after awhile get out of this world. Here
and there, one perhaps may come out to
eighty, to ninety years of age, but your com
mon sense tells you that the next twenty-five
years will land the majority of this audience
in eternity. TIL next ten years will thin out
O great many of these family circles. This
day may do the work for some of us. Now,
why do | say this? TO scare you? No; but
just as l would stand in your office, if / were
q business man, and talk over risks. You do
not consider it cowardly to talk in your store
over temporal risks. Is it base in us this
morning to talk u little while over the risks
of the soul, that are for eternity? In every
congregation death has the last year
been doing a great deal of work
er? Your child? Your brother? Your sis
ter? 0, how cruel does death seem to be!
Will he pluck every over? Will he poison
every fountain? Will he put black on every
door knob? Will he snap every heart stringl
Can / keep nothing? Are there no charmed
weapons with which to go out and contend
sharpened in Gods armory, with which l may
stab him through. Give me some battle ak
that l may clutch it, and hew him from helmet
to sandal. Thank God, thank God, that he
that rideth on the pale horse hath more than
amatch in. him who rideth on the white horse.
steeds the rush, the battle cry, the
onset until the pale horse came down on his
launches, and his rider bit the dust, while
Christ, the conqueror, with uplifted voice, de-
clared it: go death, l will be thy plagne; o
grave, l will be thy destruction"
The sepulcher is a lighted castle IN the
shore of heavenly seas, and sentinel angels
walk up and down at the door to guard it.
The dust and the dampness of the grave are
only the spray of the white surf of celestial
seas, and the long breathing of the dying
Christian, that you call his gasping, is only
the long inhalation of the air of heaven. Oh,
bless God for what Christ is to the Christian
soul, here and hereafterl :.
heard a man say some time ago that they
never laugh in heaven. lido not know where
he got his authority for that. l think they do
laugh in heaven. When victors come HON
do we not laugh? When fortunes are won in
a day do we not laugh? After we have been
ten or fifteen years away from our friends and
greet them-again, do we not laugh? Yes, we
will laugh in heaven. Not hollow laughter,
not meaningless laughter, but a full, round,
clear, deep, resonant outbreak of eternal
gladness. Oh, the glee of that moment when
we first see Jesusl ! think we will take the
first two or three years in heaven ia
look at Jesus; and if In ten thousand
years. there should be q moment when