The Russellville Democrat., 1889-01-31
awav. sir. I can't stand 1t in

must get away, sir. I can't stand it in this country any longer" ziklag tn ashesl
 Why these long shadows of bereavement across this audiencey Why is it that in almost every assemblage black is the pre- dominant color of the apparelg Is il be- cause you do moi like saffron, or brown, or yiolety Oh. mol You say: ssThe world IS not so bright to us as it once vast and there is story of silent voices, and of still feet, and of loved ones gone, and when you look oyer the hills, expecting only beauty and loveliness, you find only devastation and woe. Ziklag in ashesl In Ulster County, N. Y., the village church was decorated until the fragrance of the flowers was almost bewildering. The maidens of the village had emptied the place of flowers upon one marriage altar. One of their own number was af- fianced to minister of Christ, who had come to take her to his home. With hands joined, amidst a congratulatory audience, the VOWS were taken. In three days from that time one of those who stood at the altar exchanged earth for Heaven. The wedding march broke down into the funeral dirge. There were not enough flowers now for the coffin lid, be- cause they had all been taken for tho bridal hour. The dead minister of Christ is brought to another village. He had gone our less than a week before in his strength; now he comes home lifeless. The whole church bewailed him. The sol emn procession moved around to look Al. c. 4. 1x.e,r 1 with messages of salvation. Little chill dren were lifted up to look at him. And some of those whom he had comforted in days of sorrow, when they passed that silent form made the place dreadful with their weeping. Another village emptied of its fiowers--some of them put in the shape of cross to symbolize his hope, others put in the shape of a crown to symbolize his triumph. A hundred lights blown out in one strong gust from the open door of sepulcher. Ziklag in ashes
 1 preach this sermon to-day because want to rally you, as David rallied his men, for the recovery of the loved and the lost. want not only to win Heaven, but l want all this congregation to go along with me. l feel that somehow have responsibility in your arriving in that great city. have on other Sabbaths used other inducements. I mean to-day, for the sake of variety, hoping to reach your heart, to try another kind of induce ment. Do you really want to join the companionship of your loved ones who have gone? Are you as anxious to join them as David and his men were to join their families? Then I am here in the name of God to say that you may and to tell you how
 1remark, 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 Egy ptian been resusci- tated 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 into another country, and if we want to reach their companion- ship we must take the same road. They repented we must repent. They prayed; {; we must pray. They trusted in Christ; {; we nust trust in Christ. They lived a re- ligious life; we must live religious life. They were in some things like ourselves. l know, now that they are gone, there is a halo around their names; but they had their faults. They said and did things they ought never to have said or done. They were sometimes rebelious, sometimes cast down. They were far from being perfect. So I suppose that when we have gone some things in us that are now only tolerable may be almost re- splendent. But as they were like us in deficiencies, we ought to be like them in taking supernal Christ to make up for the deficits Had it not been for Jesus they would have all perished, but Christ confronted them and said: 'I am the way" and they took it.
 I have also to say to you that the path that these captives trod was troubled path, and that David and his men had to go over the same difficult way. While these captives were being taken off, they said: ooh, we are so tired; we are so sick; we are so hungry!" But the men who had charge of them said: ''Stop this crying. Go 70 D avid and his men also found it hard way. They had to travel it. Our friends have gone into glory, and it is through much tribulation that we are to enter into the Kingdom. How our loved ones used to have to struggle! how their old hearts ached how, sometimes, they had a tussle for bread In our childhood we wondered why there were so many wrinkles on their faces. We did not know that what were called "crow's feet" on their ia ces 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, their hardships, the accidents, the burials, the disappoint- ments, 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. It was trouble that shook the cup in their hands. It was trouble that washed the luster from their eyes with the rain of tears, until they needed spectacles. It was trouble that made the cane a necessity for their jour ney. Do you never remember seeing your old mother sitting, on some rainy day, looking out of the window, her elbow on the window sill, her hand to her brow; looking out, not seeing the falling shower at all-you well knew she was looking into the distant past-until the apron came up to her eyes, because the me mory was tao much for her?
 oft the big unbidden tear,
 Stealing down the furrowed cheek,
 Told in eloquence sincere,
 Told of woe they could not speak.
 But this scene of weeping OCT.
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