Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1888-10-11

1 gether they make a chain. And so there is
/ a chain on your hand, and chain on your
/ foot. and chain on your tongue, and
4 chain on your eve and chain on your brain,
and chain ON your property, and chain
on your soul Some day you wake up and
you say: 81 am tired of this and am going
to get loose from this shackle.n You pound
i away with the hammer Of good resolution
| but can not break the thrall Your friends
join you in a conspiracy of help, but fall ex-
bausted in the unavailing attempt. Now
you begin and with the writing of Lao
| coon TO try to break away, and the muscles
are distended, and the great beads of per-
SEPARATION dot your forehead, and the eyes
stand out from the sockets, and with all the
concentered energies of body, mind, and
soul you attempt to get loose, but have only
made the chain sink deeper.
All the devils that encamp in the vino
flask and the rum jug and the decanter-
for each one has a devil of its own-come
out and sit around you and chatter. In
some midnight you spring from your couch
and cry: 81 an fast. o God, let me loosel
o, We powers of darkness, let me loosel
Father and moth n and brothers and sisters,
help me to get looser' And you turn your
prayer to blasph smy and then your bias
phemy into prayer and to all the din and
uproar there is played an accompaniment.
not an accompaniment by key and pedal but
the accompaniment is rattle, and the rattle
is that OF a chain. For five years, for ten
years, for ugenty years, you have been
making 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 the gospel
have broken off, If piled together would
make a mountain. The captives whom
Christ has set free, il stood side by side,
would make an army. Quicker than a ship
chandler's furnace ever melted cable,
quicker than a key ever unlocked hand
cuff quicker than the bayonets of revolu-
ton pried open the Bastile, you may be
liberated and made a free son or free
daughter Of God. You have only TO choose
between serfdom and emancipation, be-
tween chain and coronet, between Satan
and God. Make up your mind and make it
up quick When the King of Sparta had
crossed the Hellespont aud 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 friend or an enemy.
"By all means as friend" an
swered most of the regions but the King
OF Macedon replied; II will take time to
consider it, 'Thenn said the King OF
Sparta, "Let them consider it, but, mean
time, 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 opportunities are marching by. And
we shall be the loving subjects of his reign,
or the victims of our obduracy. So urge
you TO precipitaucy, rather than slow delib-
Grafton. and write all over your soul the
words OF Christi saw inscribed on the monu-
ment 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 a life
time OF trouble, "Come unto me all
We who are weary and heavy laden, and I
will give you rest Is there a drunkard
here You may, by the Saviour's grace,
have that fire Of thirst utterly extinguished.
Is there defrauder herel You may bs
made saint Is there a libertiue herei
You may be made as pure as the light.
When a minister in an outdoor meeting in
Scotland was eulogizing goodness, there
were hanging around the edge of the audi
ence some of the most depraved men and
women. and the minister said nothing about
mercy forp rodigals. And adepraved woman
cried out, Your rope is not long enough for
the like of us.n Blessed be God, our gospel
can fathom the deepest depths and reach to
fartherest wanderings, and here is a rope
that is long enough TO rescue the worst:
"Whosoever will
But why take the extreme cases, when we
all have been or are now the captives of sin
and death! And we may through the great
-. ~, Ill. N,l-,
throne. You have looked at your hand and
arm 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 undeveloped wing And il
you would know VIII 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 descend
ing TO the highest peak of Chimborazo.
Your right hand and arm, and your left
hand and arm, two undeveloped wings, bet
ter get ready for the empyrean.
Rise my soul, and sire CHI thy wing.
Thy better portion trace
There have been chains famous in the
worlds history, such as the chain which
fastened the prisoner of Chillon to the pillar.
into the staple Of which | have thrust nv
hand, on the isolated rock Of the Lake Ge-
neva; such as the cham which the Russian
exile clanks on his way to the mines
Siberia; such as the chain which
Zenodia, the captive queen, wore when
brought into the presence of Azure.
liam. Aye. there have been races in
chains, and nations in chains, and there has
been a world in chains; but thank God, the
last one of them shall be broken, and under
the liberating power of the omnipotent gos-
pei the shackles shall fall from the last neck
aud the last arm and the last foot But
these shattered letters shall all be gathered
up again from the dungeons and the work.
houses 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 a recreant world and
a lost world shall by that chain be lifted
aud hung TO the throne of God, no longer
the iron chain of oppression, but the golden
chain of redeeming love. There let this old
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