Dodge City times., 1889-05-23

great charities, now you have hnrd worl
to make the two ends meet.
Have you forgotten to thank God fol
your days of prosperity, and that
through your trials some of you have
made investments which will continue
after the last bank of this world has ex.
ploded, and the silver and gold are
molten in the fires of burning world;
Have you, amid all your losses and dis
couragements, forgot that there was
bread on your table this morning, and
that there shall be shelter for you,
head from the storm, and there is al,
and light for your eye, and glad and
glorious and triumphant religion TO,
your soul?
Perhaps your last trouble was be-
reavement. That heart which in child
hood was your refuge, the parental
heart, and which has been a source of
the quickest sympathy ever since. has
suddenly become silent forever, and
now sometimes, whenever in sudden
annoyance and without deliberation You
say L will 60 and tell mother" the
thought flashes on you, Il have no
mother" or the father, with voice less
tender, but as stanch and earnest and
loving as ever, watchful of all your ways,
exultant over your success without say :
ing much, although the old people do
talk it over by themselves, his trem-
bling hand on that staff which YOU now
keep as a family relic, his memory en-
balmed in grateful hearts, is taken away
| forever.
Or, there WIS your companion in life,
sharer of } our joys and sorrows, taken,
! leaving the heart an old ruin, where the
chill winds blow over a wide wilderness
of desOlation, the sands of the desert
| driving across the place which once
bloomed like the garden of God. And
Abraham mourns for Sarah at the cave
of Machpelah. Going along your path
in life, suddenly, right before you was
an open grave. People looked down
and they saw it was only few
feet deep and few feet wide,
but to You it was cavern down which
went all your hopes and all your expec-
| tations.
But cheer up in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Comforter. He is not
going to forsake you. Did the Lord
take that child out of your arms? Why,
he is going to shelter it better than you
could. He is going to array it in white
all ready to greet you at your coming
home. Blessed the broken heart that
Jesus heals. Blessed the importunate
cry that Jesus compassiOnates. Blessed
the weeping eye from which the soft
hand of Jesus wipes away the tear.
was sailing down the st. John River,
Canada, which is the Rhine and the
Hudson cOmmingled in one scene of
beauty and grandeur, and while l was
| on the deck of the steamer a gentleman
pointed out to me the places of interest,
and he said, "All this is interval land,
and it is the richest land in all the
provinces of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia.
What, said I, do you mean by inter-
val land?" We'll" he said, this land is
submerged for part of the year; spring
freshets come down, and all these plains
are overfiowed with the water, and the
water leaves a rich deposit, and when
the waters are gone the harvest springs
up. and there is the grandest harvest
that was ever reaped." And 1 instantly
thought, 1T is not the heights of the
world that is the scene of the greatest
prosperity, but the soul over which the
floods of sorrow have gone, the soul
over which the freshets of tribulation
have torn their way, that yields the
greatest fruits of righteousness, and the
largest harvest for time, and richest
harvest for eternity" Bless God that
your soul is interval land.
But these "reminiscences reach only
to this morning. There will yet be one
more point of tremendous reminiscence,
and that is the last hour of life, when
We have to look over all our past exis-
tence. What moment that will be! I
place Napoleon's dying reminiscence on
st. Helena beside Mrs. Judson's dying
reminiscence in the harbor of st. Helena,
the same island, twenty years after.
NapoleOn's dying reminiscence was one
of delirium, Head of the army" Mrs.
Judson's dying reminiscence, as she
came home from her missionary toll and
her life of self sacrifice for God, dying
in the cabin of the ship in the harbor Of
st. Helena, was, Il always did love the
historian says, she fell into a sound
sleep for an hour, and woke amid the
songs of angels.
1place the dying reminiscence of Au-
gustus Cesar against the dying reminis-
cence of Apostle Paul. The dying
"reminiscences of Augustus Caesar was,
addressing his attendants. Have
played my part we'll on the stage of
life?" and they answered in the affirma-
tive, and he said, why, then, don't you
applaud me?" The dying reminiscence
of Paul the Apostle was, Il have fought
a good fight, Ihave kept the faith; hence
forth there is laid up for me a crown
of righteousness, which the Lord, the
righteous Judge, will give me in that
day, and not to me only, but to all them
that love his appearing" Augustus
Caesar died amid pomp and great sur
roundings. Paul uttered his dying rem
iniscence looking up through the wall
of dungeon. God grant that our last
hour may be the closing of useful
lif., and the opening Of a glorious
eternity.