New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1889-01-30

5}3t : S
Home. You counted the days of your abb
sence Every day seemed as long as week
Oh, how glad you were when the time came
for you to go aboard the steamboat or rail-
car and start for home! You arrived You
went up the street where your dwelling was,
and IN the night you put your hand on the
door-bell, and, behold! it was wrapped with
the signal ofbereayement, and you found that
Ameekitish Death, which has devastated q
thousand other households, had blasted yours.
You go about weeping amidst the desolation
OF your once happy home, thinking of the
bright eyes closed and the noble heart
stopped, andthe gentle hands folded, and you
weep until you have no more power to weep.
Ziklag in ashes
A gentleman went to friend of mine in the
city of Washington, and asked that through
him he might get q consulship to some for
eign port. My friend said to him: what
do you want to go away from your beautiful
home for, into foreign port?" Oh!'' he re-
piled, z"my home is gone!" My six children
stand it in this country any longer" Ziklag
in ashes
Why these long shadows of bereavement
across this audience? Why is it that in al
most every emblage black is the predom-
lnant color of the apparel? Isit because you
do not like saffron or brown or violet? Oh,
no! You say: "The world is not SO bright
to us as it was" and there is a story of 81
lent voices, and Of still feet, and of loved
ones gone, and when you look over the hills,
expecting beauty and loneliness, you find on.
~ devastation and woe. Ziklag in ashes
In Ulster county, New York, the village
church was decorated until the fragrance Of
the flowers was almost bewildering The
maidens of the village had empted the place
of flowers upon one marriage altar. One OF
their own number was affanced to minister
Of Christ. who had come to take her to his
home. With handsj oined in acongratulatory
audience, the VOWS we're taken. In three
at the altar exchanged earth for heaven
The wedding march broke down into the
funeral dirge There were not enough flow
ers now for the coffin lid, because they had
all been taken for the bridal hours The
dead minister of Christ is brought to
another village. He had gone out from
them less than a week before in
his strength; now he comes home li!eless.
The whole church bewailed him The
solemn procession moved around to look
upon the still face that once had beamed
with messages of salvation. Little children
were lifted up to look at him And some of
those whom he had comforted in days ofsor-
row, when they passed that silent form,
made the place dreadful with their weeping
Another village emptied ofits fowers-some
of them put in the shape of across to symbol
ize his triumph. hundred lights blown out
in one strong gust from the open door of a
sepulchre. Ziklag in ashes!
preach this sermon today because want
to rally you, as David rallied his men, for
the recovery Of the loved and thelost. Iwant
not only to win heaven, but want all this
congregation to go along with ME. I feel
that somehow have responsibility in your
arriving at that great city. 1have on other
Sabbaths used other inducements. mean,
to day, for the sake of variety, hoping to
roach heart to trva rnthor bind Of in
ducement. Do you really want to join the
companonship of your loved ones who have
gone? Arc you as anxious to join them as
David and his men were to join their families?
Then am here, in the name of God to say
that you may, and to tell you how.
remark in the first place if you want to
join your loved ones in glory you must travel
the same way they went No sooner had the
half-dead Egyptian been resuscitated than he
pointed the way the captors and the captives
had gone, and David and his men followed
after. So our Christian friends have gone in
their cOmpanlOnshlp we must take the same
road. They repented and we must repent.
They prayed that we must pray. They trust
ed in Christ and we must trust in Christ
They lived a religions life and we must live a
religious life. They were in some things like
ourselves know, now that they are gone,
there is halo around their names but they
they ought never to have said or done. They
were sometimes rebellious, sometimes cast
down. They were far from being perfect. So
suppose that when We have gone, some
things in US that are now only tolerable may
be almost resplendent. But as they were like
us in deficiencies, we ought to be like them in
taking a supernaI Christ to make up for the
deficits. Had it not been for Jesus, they
would have all persisted; but Christ confronted
them, and said: Il am the way" and took
it.
have also to say to you that the path
that these trod was troubled path that
David and his men had to go over the same
difficult way. While these captives were be-
ing taken off they said: ooh, we are so tired;
who had charge of them said: "Stop this
crying. Go on!' David and his men also
found it a hard way. They had to travel it,
Our friends have gone into glory, and it is
through much tribulation that we are to en-
ter into the kingdom. How our loved ones
hearts ached! How sometimes they had a
tussle for bread! In our childhood we won
dered why there were SO many wrinkles on
their faces. We did not know that what
were called CROWS" feet on their faces were
the marks of the black raven of trouble. Did
you never hear the old people, seated by the
evening stand, talk over their early trials,
the disappointments, the empty -four barrel
when there were SO many hungry ones to
feed, the sickness almost unto death, where
the next dose of morphine decided between
ghastly bereavement and an unbroken home
circle? Oh, yes! it was trouble that Whitened
their hair. twas trouble that shook the cup
in their hands. 1t was trouble that washed
the lustre from their eyes with the rain of
tears until they needed spectacles. It was
trouble that made the cane necessity for
their journey. Do you never remember see
ing your old mother sitting on some rainy
day, looking out of the window, her brow
looking out, not seeing the falling shower at
oil (you well knew she was looking in the dis
tant past), until the apron came up to her
eyes, Because the memory was too much for
her?
colt the big unbidden tear,
Stealing down the furrowed cheek,
Told in eloquence sincere,
Tales of woe they could not speak.
But this scene of weeping DER,
Past this scene of toll and pain,
They shall feel distress no more
Never, never weep again"