News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-07-19

VI INC pIOuI3dAF w ere Uney not IN YOul
house when the birth angel capped its wings
over your dwelling: And they have 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 Jesus
bends. Blessed is that nursery where Jesus
walks. Blessed is that sick brow from which
Jesus wipes the Gampness. Blessed is that
table where Jesus breaks the bread. Blessed
| is that grave where Jesus stands with HIS
| scarfed feet OH the upturned sol, saying: 81
| am the resurrection and the life; he that be
| leveth in Me- though he we're dead, yet shall
| he live Have you a babe in the house!
| Put it into the arms of the great Child
Lover. Is there a sick one Ill the house,
| Think of Him who said "Damsel, arise"
| Are you afraid you will come to want! Think
| of Him who fed the five thousand. Is there
! little one 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
| vulsion. 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 in
| prosperity who VIII not i'll adversity.
| But Christ comes through darkest night
| and amid CHASTITY sorrow, and across
roughest 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 trial enough to exhaust
ten times their physical strength. Their
property went. their health went, their fami-
lies were scattered. God only knows what
| they suffered They are an amazement to
themselves that they have been able to stand
1t. They look at their once happy home,
surrounded by all comfort Gone! They
think of the time when they use to rise
strong in the morning and walk vigorously |
down the street, and had experienced a |
hea tn they thought inexhaustible Gonel |
Everything gone but Jesus. He has pitied |
them His eye has watched them. His ON |
impotence has defended them. Yes. He has |
been with them. They have gone through |
disaster, and He was pillar of fire by night. |
Ihey 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 de- |
fense, 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, |
ing thereof Selah." The other day there
was a sailor who came into the Bethel in New
York, and said: "My lads (he was standing
among sailors, l don't know what's the
matter with me. l used to hear a good deal
about religion and about Jesus Christ. L |
don't know that [ have any religion, or that
I know anything much about Christ; but
when was in mid Atlantic l looked up one
day through the rigging, and there seemed to
come light through my soul have felt diff |
ferent ever since, and l love those I once |
hated, and [ feel JOY l can't tell you. | |
really don't know what is the matter of me- |
know what's the matter of you. You have |
found Jesus. 1t is enough to make any man
happy"
His worth if al the nations knew
Sure the whole earth would love him too.
I remark again: Christ is precious to the
believer, as a final deiverer You and l
must after awhile get ont of this world
Here and there, one perhaps may come on to
eighty, to ninety years of age, but your COM
mon sense tells you that the next twenty five
years will land the ma jOrity of this audience
in eternity The next ten years viii thin out
Il great many Of these family circles. This
day may do the work for some of US. Now,
why do | say this? To scare yoI2 No; but
just as [ would stand in your office, if l were
a business man, and Tx over risks. You do
not consider it cOwardly to talk in your
store over temporal risks. Is 1t base i'll us
this morning to talk 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. W here IS your father. w here
is your mother Your Child, Your brother?
Nour sister. O. how cruel does death seem |
20 b. H4.l lie pIu- X avery lower. VIII he |
prison every fountain! Will He put black on |
string' Can keep nothing! Are there no |
charmed weapons with which to go out and
contend against Him? Give me some keen
sword, sharpened in God armory, with
which [ may stab him through Give me
some battle that 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 match in Him who
rideth on the white horse st. John heard
the contest, the paving of the steeds, the
rush, the battle cry, the onset, until the pale
I J. l.,
rider bit the dust, while Christ the con-
queror, with uplifted voice, declared it: ''Oh
death, will be thy plague; grave Will
be thy destruction"
The sepulcher is a lighted castle on the
shore of heavenly seas, and sentinel angels
walk up and down at the door to guard 1T |
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 gasplng, IS oniy
the long inhalation of the air of heaven. Oh,
bless God for what Christ is to the Christian
SOUL here and hereafter!
heard a man say some time ago that they
never laugh in heaven. do not know where
he got his authority for that. l think they
do laugh in heaven. When vlctorS come
home. do we not augh2 When fortunes ara
won in a day, do we not laugh? After we
have been ten or fifteen years away from
not laugh? Yes we will laugh in heaven.
Not hollow laughter, not meaningless
laughter, but full, round, clear,
deep resonant outbreak of eternal
gladness Oh, the glee of that moment when
we first see Jesus? 1 think we will take the
first two or three years in heaven to look at
Jesus: and if, in ten thouS3nl years, there
hOu'd be a moment when the doXology
paused, ten thousand souls would cry out:
Sing! sing!' and when the cry was: wv nat
shall we sing?@ the answer would be: Jesus!
Jesus!" Oh, you may have all the crowns in ;
heaven; | do not care SO much about them.
You may have all the robes in heaven; do
not care so much about them. Y ou may
have all the sceptres in heaven; do not care I
so much about them. You may have all the
thrones in heaven; 1 do not care so much
about them. But give me JesuS-that Is ,
enough heaven for me. o Jesus! | long to
see Thee. Thou "Chef among ten thousand,
the One altogether lovely" :
There may be some here who have come
hardly knowing why they come. Perhaps IL I
was in Pauls time-you have come to hear
what this babbler sayeth; but am glad to
meet you face to face, and to strike hands
with YOU in one earnest talk about your
deathless spirit. Do you know, my friend,
that this world is not good enough for you!
1t cheats. 1t fades. 1t dies You are immortal I
see it in the deathlesS spirit looking out from
your eye. 1t is "A mighty spirit 1t IS an :
spirit. 1t beats against the window
IF the cage. | come out to feed it. During
the past week the world has been trying to
feed it with huSkS. | come out this morning
to feed it with that bread OF which if a man g,
eat he will never hunger What has the
world done for you! Has it not bruised you! v
Hos it not betrayed you; Has it not NAL :.
treated you! Look me in the eye, immortal
man, and tell me if that is not So And yet, s
will you trust it, O, | wish that you could
forget me, the weak and sinful man-that l
might vanish from your sight this morning, G
and that Jesus might come in. Aye, he
comes here this morning to plead for your
in all covered with the wounds =
If Calvary. He says: so, immortal man!
died for thee. [ pity thee | come to save 0
hee With these hands, torn and crushed .
will lift thee up into pleasures that never
lie" Who will reject-who will drive him 7
,ack? When Christ was slain on the cross,
hey had cross and they had nails, and
hey had hammers. You cruelty by your I
in, o impenitent SOUL the Lord Jesus Christ. = 9
Here is cross; but where are the nails3
Where are the hammers! "Ah, >" says some a
me rejecting Christ, some one standing a
ong way off, Il will furnish the nails
lon't believe i'll that Jesus | will furnish
he nails Now we have the nails; who will
urnish the hammers! "Ah," says some hard l
cart, 81 will furnish the hammers Now A.
We have the nails and the hammers. We J.
ave no spears; who will furnish the spears' 4
All" says some one long in the habit of sin -
nd rejection of Christs mercy II will fur
lsh them.' Now we have all the instru- il
lents; the cross, the nails, the hammers the 4,
pears, and the crucitfxion goes on. o, the u
arkness! O, the pang O, the tears! o, a
he DEATH Behold the Lamb of God, that
akest away the SIN of the world. y 81
Lord Jesus, help that man. He sits far m
aCk TODAY. He does not like TO come for