Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-02-13

now. wear it forever, son of God, daughte
of the Lord God Almighty" Oh, the 10!
of the new convert! Oh, the glsdness OF th'
Christian service
You have seen sometimes man in relig
ious assembly get up and give his experl
ence. Well, Paul gave his experience. IL
arose in the presence of two churches, th'
church on earth and the church in heaven,
and he said: SHOW this is my experience
'sorrowful, yet always rejoicing-poor, ye
making many rich-having nothing, ye'
possessing of things.'" If the people ir
this house this morning knew the joys o
the Christian religion, they would all pass
over into the kingdom of God the next mo
ment. When Daniel Sandeman was dying
of cholera his attendant said: 'Have you
much pain ?" "Oh," he replied, ''since
found the Lord have never had any pai
except sin." Then they said to him
"Would you like to send message to your
friends ?'' sYes, I would; tell them that
only last night the love of Jesus came rush
ing into my soul like the surges of the sea,
and had TO cry out: Stop. Lord, it is
enough; stop, Lord, enough ~, Oh, the
joys of this Christian religion
Just pass over from those tame joys IN
which you are indulging-joys ofthis world
into the raptures of the Gospel. The
world cannot safety you; you have found
that out-Alexander longing for other
worlds to conquer, and yet drowned in his
own bottle; Byron whipped by disquietudes
around the world; Voltaire cursipg his own
soul while all the streets of Paris were ap
plauding him; Henry II. consuming With
hatred against poor Thomas Becket-all
illustrations of the fact that this world can
not make man happy. The very man
who poisoned the pommel of the saddle on
which Queen Elizabeth rode, shouted in
the street, 'God save the Queen" One
moment the world applauds and the next
moment the world mathematics. Oh,
come over into this greater joy, this sub
lime solace, this magnificent beatitude. The
night after the battle of Shiloh, and there
were thousands of wounded ou the field,
and the ambulances had not come, one
Christian soldier lying there a-dying under
the starlight began to sing:
"There is land of pure delight
And when he came to the next line there
we're scores of voices uniting:
where saints Immortal reign"
The song WAS caught up all through the
fields among the wounded, until it was
wounded men reuniting their voices as they
came to the verse:
"There everlasting spring abideg,
And never. W hering flowers;
Death like narrow stream divides
That heavenly land from ours.''
Oh, it is great religion to live y,and it
is great religion to die by. There is only
one heart-throb between you and that re-
ligion this morning. Just look into the
face of your pardoning' God, and surrender
yourself for time auG for eternity. and He
is yours, and hea zen is yours, and all is
yours. Some of you, like the young man
of the text, have gone far astraF. know
not the history, but you know II, you know
it. When a young man went foIsh into
life, the legend says, his guardian angel
went forth with bin, and getting bic, into
a field, the guardian angel swept circle
clear around where the young man stood.
1t was circle of virtue and honor, and be
must not step beyond that circle. Armed
foes came down, hut we're obliged to halt
at the circle-they could not pass. But
one day temptrsss with diamonded hand
stretched forth aod crossed that circle with
the hand, and the tempted soul took 1t,
and bv that one fell grip was brought be
yond the circle and died. Some of you
have stepped beyond that circle. Would
you not like this day by the grace Of God
to step back? This, say to you, is your
hour of salvation. There was in the clos
ing hours of Queen Anne what is called
the clock scene. Flat down on the pillow
in helpless sickness, she could not move
her head Or move her band. She was wait
ing for the hour when the ministers of
state should gather in angry coDtest. and,
worried and worn out by the coming hour,
ard in momentarY absence of the nurse, in
the power, the strange power which de-
lirium sometimes gives one, she arose and
stood in front Of the clock, and stood there
watching the clock when the nurse return
ed. The nurse said; "Do you SEQ anything
peculiar about that cloch?" She MADE
DO answer but soon died. There is clock
scene in every history. If some of you
would rise from the bed of lethargy and
come out frcm your delirium of sin aod
look on the clock of your destiny this morn
ing, you would sec and hear something
you have not seen or heard before, and
every tick of the minute, and every stroke
of the hour, and every swing of tho pen
dulum would say: "Now, nnw, novr'
Oh, come bone to your Fathers house.
Come home, oh, prodigal, from the wilder
ness. Come home, come home!
H. But I notice that when tho prodigal
came there was the fathers joy. He did
not greet him with any formal Chow do
yon do?" He did not come out and cay:
"You are unfit TO enter; go out and wash
in the troug Oh by the we'll. and then ynu
can come in; we have had enough trouble
with you" An! no. When the proprietor
of that estate proclaimed festival, it was au
outburst of fathers love and 4 fathers
Joy. God is your father. l have not much
sympathy with that description of God
sometimes hear, as though he were a
Turkish Sultan, hard and unsympathetic,
and listening not to the cry of His subjects.
A man told me he saw in one of the Eastern
lands king riding along, and two mer
were in alteration, and one charged the
other with having eaten his rice; and the
King said, Then slay the man, and By
post mortem examination find whether he
has eaten the rice" And he was slain.
God is MOI Sultan, not Czar not a des
pot, bnt Father-kipd, loving, forgiviug
and He makes all heaven ring again wher
prodigal comes back. 81 hava no pleas
ure," He says, 'in the death CT him thai
dieth "
II man does not get to heaven it is be
cause he will not go there. No difference
the Color no d d'fferencs the history, no diff
ference the antecedan's. ~ difference the
surroundings, 10 d ference the sin. Wher
the white horses of Christ's victory are
brought out to celebrate the eternal
triumph you may ride oDe of them, and as
God ia greater than all, His joy is greater
and when a soul comes back there is in His
heart the surgiug of an infinite ocean Of
gladuess, and to express that gladness il
takes all the livers of pleasure, and all the
thrones of promp, aud all the ages of eter,
nifty. 1t is a joy deeper than ail depth,
and higher than all height, and wider than
all width, and vaster than all immensity.
It overtops, it undergirds, it outweiehs all
the united splendor and joy of the universe.
Who can tell what Gods joy is?
You remember reading the story of a
king, who on some great day Of testivity
scattered silver and gold among the peo-
pie, and sent valuable presents to his cour-
tiers; but methinks when soul comes
back, God is so glad that to express His
low ha nipus out uavy worlds jptOaDaca and