New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-09-26

jug and the decanter-for each one has q
devil OF it's oWn-cOme out and sit around
you and chatter In some midnight You
spring from your couch and cry: ST am fast.
o God, let me loosel Dye powers of dark
ness letme loose Father and mother and
brothers and sisters, help me to get loose!''
And you turn your prayer to blasphemy, and
then your blasphemy into prayer, and to all
the din and uproar there is played an ac-
compartment, not an accompaniment by
| tie, and the rattle is that of a chain. For
i've years, for 10 years, for 20 years, you
have been making q chain.
But here take a step higher and tell you
there is power that can break any chain,
chain of body, chain of mind, chain of soul.
The letters that the hammer of gospel have
broken off, if piled together, would make a
mountain. The captives whom Christ has
set free, if stood side by side. would make an
army. Quicker than ship chandler's fur
mace ever melted a cable, quicker than key
ever unlocked a handcuff, quicker than the
bayonets OF revolution pried open the bas-
tile, you may be liberated and made free
son or free daughter of God. You have
only to choose between serfdom and emanci-
patton, between a chain and a coronet, be-
tween Satan and God. Make up your mind,
and make it up quick When the King Of
Sparta had crossed the Hellespont and was
about to march through Thrace he sent
word to the people in the different regions
asking them whether he should march
through their countries. as a friend or an
enemy. By all means as friend, an
swered most of the regions, but the King Of
Macedon replied: 81 will take time to con-
siderit." "Then, said the King of Sparta.
let him consider it, but meantime, we
march-we march," So Christ, our King,
gives us our choice between his friendship
and his frown, and many of us have long.
been considering what we had better do; but
meantime he marches on, and our opportu-
mites are marching by. And we shall be the
loving subjects OF His reign, or the victims OF
our own obduracy. So, Iurge you to precip-
ltancy, rather than slow elaboration, and
write all over your soul the words of Christ
saw inscribed on the monument of Princess
Elizabeth in the Isle of Wight, the words to
which her index finger pointed in the open
Bible when she was found dead in her bed
after lifetime of trouble: "Come unto Me,
all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and
will give you rest Is there drunkard
here? You may. by the Savior's grace, have
that fire of thirst utterly e4tinguished. Is
there defrauder here? You may be made a
saint Is there a libertine here? You NAV
be made as pure as the light. When a min
lister in an outdoor meeting in Scotland was
eulog1zlng goodness, there were hanging
around the edge of the audience some of the
most depraved men and women and the
minister said nothing about mercy for prodi-
gals And depraved woman cried out:
Your rope is not long enough for the like of
us" Blessed be God, our gospel can fathom
the deepest depths and reach to farthest
Wanderlngs, and here is a rope that is long
enough to rescue the worst. ''Whosoyer will .
But why take extreme cases, when we all
have been or are now the captives of sin and
death? And we may through the great
Emanclpator, drop our shackles and take a
throne. You have looked at your hand and
arm only as being useful now, and a curious
piece of anatomy; but there is something
ABOUT your hand and arm that makes me
think they are an undevolped wing. And if
you would know what possibilities are sug-
gested by that ask the eagle that has looked
close into the eye of the MONDAY sun; or ask
the albatross that has struck its claw into
the black locks OF the tempest; or ask the
condor that this morning is descending to
thehighest peak of Chimborazo. Your right
hand and arm and your left hand and arm
and two undeveloped wings, better get ready
for the empyrean
Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wing,
Thy better portion trace"
There have been chains famous in the
worlds history, such as the chain which fas-
tened the prisoner of Chillon to the pillar.
into the staple of which have thrust nv
hand on the isolated rock of the lake OF Gen
eva; such as the chain which the Russian
exile clanks on his way to the mines of Sibe-
ria; such as the chain which Zenobia. the
captive queen, wore when brought into the
presence of Aurelian. Aye there have been
races in chains, and nations in chains, and
there has been world in chains; but thank
God, the last one of them shall be broken,
and under the liberating power of the omnip-
otent gospel the shackles shall fall from the
last neck and the last arm and the last foot.
But these shattered letters shall all be gath
cred up again from the dungeons and the
warehouses and the mines and the rivers and
the fields, and they shall again be welded and
again strung link to link, and polished and
transformed until this world, which has
wandered off and been q recreant world and
a lost world, shall by that chain be lifted and
hung to the throne OF God, no longer the
iron chain OF oppression, but the golden
chain of redeeming love. There let this old
ransomed world swing forever. Roll on, We
years, roll on ye days, roll on, We hours, and
hasten the glorious consumation!