Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-07-04

4; tions. When they prayed their words too
< fire, when they sang the tune could nc
} hold them, when they wept over a world
, woes, they sobbed as if heartbroken, whe
they worked for Christ they famed wit
! enthusiasm. Yonder they are-circle Q
light constellation of Joy galaxy of fire
can transform the worst into the best
might at last sail in the wake of that fleet
and wheel in that glorious group, as th
stars forever and ever !
Again: Christian workers will shine lik
the stars in swiftness of motion. Th
worlds do not stop to shine. There are NJ
fixed stars save as to relative position. Th
star most thoroughly fixed flies thousand
of miles minute. The astronomer, usin,
his telescope for an Alpine stock, leaps from
world-crag to world -crag, and finds no sta
standing still. The chamois hunter has t.
fly to catch his prey, but not so swift is hi
game as that which the scientist tries t,
shoot through the tower of observatory
Like petrels mid-Atlantic, that seem t,
come from no shore. and be bound to no
anding-place-fying fying-so these grea
focks of worlds rest not as they go-winl
and wing-age after age-forever and ever
The eagle hastes to its prey, but we shal
in speed beat the eagles. You have noticed
the velocity of the swift horse under whose
feet the miles slip like a smooth ribbon, ant
as he passes the four hoofs strike the eartf
in such quick beat your pulses take tn,
same vibration. But all these things ar,
not swift in comparison with the motion o
which l speak. The moon moves fifty fou
thousand miles in day. Yonder Neptune
flashes on eleven thousand miles in an hour
Yonder Mercury goes one hundred an(
nine thousand miles in an hour. So lik'
the stars the Christian worker shall shine
in swiftness of motion. You hear now o
father, or mother, or child sick one Thousand
miles away, and it takes you two days t.
get to them. You hear of some case of suf
fering that demands your immediate atten
tion, but it takes you an hour to get there
Oh, the joy when you shall, in fulfilment ol
the text, take starry speed, and be equal tC
one hundred thousand miles an hour. Hav
| ing on earth got used to Christian work,
you will not quit when death strikes you
You will only take on more velocity. There
| is dying child in London, and its spirit
must be taken up to God; you are there in
an instant to do it. There is young man
in New York to be arrested from going in
to that gate of sin; you are there in an in
slant to arrest him. Whether with spring
of foot, or stroke of wing, or by the force OF
some new law that shall hurl you to the
spot where you would 60, know not; but
my text suggests velocity. All space open
before you, with nothing to hinder you in
mission of light, and love and joy, you shall
shine in swiftness of motion as the stars
forever and ever.
Again: Christian workers, like the stars,
shall shine in magnitude. The most litter
ate man knows that these things in the sky,
looking like gilt buttons, are great masses
of matter. To weigh them, one would
think that it would require scales with a
pillar hundreds of thousands of miles high,
and chains hundreds of thousands of miles
long, and OF the bottom of the chains basins
on either side hundreds of thousands of
miles wide, and that then Omnipotence
alone could put the mountains into the
scales and the hills into the balance. But
puny man has been equal to the undertak-
ing, and has set little balance on his
geometry, and weighed world against
world. Yea, he has pulled out his measur-
ing line, and announced that Herschel is
thirty-six Thousand miles in diameter, Sa-
turn seventy-nine thousand miles in diam
eter, and Jupiter eighty nine tfN ssand
miles in diameter, and that the sZizalest
pearl on the beach of heaven is immense
beyond all imagination. So all they who
have toiled for Christ on earth shall rise
up to magnitude of privilege, and magni-
tude OF strength, and magnitude of holi-
ness, and a magnitude of Joy; and the
weakest saint in glory become greater than
all that we can now imagine of archan-
gel.
Brethren, it doth not yet appear what we
shall be. Wisdom that shall know every
thing; wealth that shall possess everything;
strength that shall do everything; glory
that shall circumscribe everything! We
shall not be like taper set in sick mans
window, or bundle of sticks kindled on
the beach to warm shivering crew; but
you must take the diameter and the circum-
ference of the world if you would get any
idea of the greatness of our estate when
we shall shine as the stars forever and
ever.
Lastly-and coming to this point my
mind almost breaks down under the con-
templation-like the stars, all Christian
workers shall shine in duration. The same
stars that look down upon US looked down
upon the Chaldean shepherds. The meteor
that l saw flashing across the sky the other
night, / wonder if it was not the same one
that pointed down to where Jesus lay in
the manger, and if, having pointed out His
birthplace it has ever since been wander
ing through the heavens, watching to see
how the world would treat Him. When
Adam awoke in the garden in the cool of
the day, he saw coming out through the
dusk of the evening the same worlds that
greeted US on our way to church tonight.
In Independence Hall is an old cracked
bell that sounded the signature of the Dec
laration of Independence. You cannot ring
it now; but this great chime of silver bells
that strike in the dome of night ring out
with as sweet tone as when God swung
them at the creation. Look up at night,
and know that the white lilies that bloom
in all the hanging gardens of our King are
century plants-n0t blooming once in
hundred years, but through all the GEN.
turies.
The star at which the mariner looks to-
night was the light by which the ships of
Tarshish were guided across the Mediterra-
mean, and the Venetian fotilla found its
way into Lepanto. Their armor is as bright
tonight as when, in ancient battle, the
stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
To the ancients the stars were symbols of
eternity.
But here the figure of my text breaks
down-not in defeat, but in the majesties
of the judgment. The stars shall not shine
forever. The Bible says they shall fall like
autumnal leaves. 1t is almost impossible
for man to take in courser going mile
in three minutes; but God shall take IN the
worlds. flying hundred thousand miles an
hour, by one pull of his little finger. As,
when the factory band slips at nightfall
from the main-wheel, all the smaller wheels
slacken their speed, and with slower and
slower motion they turn until they come to
full stop, so this great machinery of the
universe, wheel within wheel, making rev
olution of appalling speed, shall by the
touch of Gods hand slip the band of pres
ent law and siacken aud stop. That is
what will be the matter with the mountains.
The chariots in which they ride shall halt
so suddenly that the kings shall be thrown
out. Star after star shall be carried out to
burial amid funeral torches and burning
worlds. Consultations shall throw ashes
on their heads, and all up and down the
highways Of space there shall be mourning,
mourning, mourning, because the worlds
are dead. But the Christian workers shall
never quit their thrones-they shall reign
forever and ever. If, by some invasion
from hell, the attempt were made to carry
them off into captivity from heaven, the
souls they have saved would rally for their
defense, and all the angels of God would
4