Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-10-31
recklessIy, God builds for them road to

harnessed, but they occasionally kick over
the traces. But though we can not master
great natural forces, God can and does
and that is our Father and best friend,
and this thought gives US confidence
We are also reinforced by the increased
! consolation that comes from confraternity
OF sorrow. The people who, during the
last sixteen years, sat on the other side
Of the aisle, whose faces were familiar to
| you, bat to whom you had never spoken
you greeted them this week with smiles
and tears as you said: well, the old
place is gone" You did not want to seem
10 cry, and so you swept the sleeve near
the corner of the eye, and pretended it
was the sharp wind made your eyes weak
Ali there was nothing the matter with
your eyes; it was your soul bubbling over.
tell you that it is impossible TO sit for
years around the same church freside and
| not have sympathy in common. Somehow
you feel that you would like these people
| on the other side of the aisle about whom
you know but little. prospered and par
! doned and blessed and saved. You feel
as if you are in the same boat and you
want to glide up the same harbor and
want to disembark at the same wharf If
you put gold and iron and lead and zinc
in suffc ent heat they will melt into a con-
glomerate mass; and l really feel that last
| Sahbath's fire has fused US all, grosser and
! finer natures, into one. 1t seems as if we
all had our hands on a wire connected
with an electric battery; and when this
church sorrow started it thrilled through
the whole circle, and we all felt the shock.
The Oldest man and the youngest child
could join hands in this misfortune.
IL I, i
affairs to be buried;" and one of the chill
dren last Sabbath cried: "Grandpa, that
place was next to our house" Yea, we
are supported and confident in this time
by the cross of Christ. That Is used to
the fire. On the dark day when Jesus
died, the lightning struck it from above,
and the flames of hell dashed up
against it from beneath. That
still stands. On it we hang
all our hopes; beneath it we put down all
cur sins; in the light of it we expect to
make the rest of our pilgrimage. Within
sight of such sacrifice, who can feel he
has it hard? In the sight of such SYM
Dol who can be discouraged, however
great the darkness that may come down
upon him! Jesus lives The loving, patient,
be told on earth, or in hell, or in Heaven,
that three Hebrew children had not
the Son of God beside them in the fire. and
that Whole church was forsaken by the
Lord when they went through a furnace
about two hundred feet wide.
o Lord Jesus! shall we take out of Thy
hand the flowers and the fruits, and the
brightness and the joys, and then turn
away because Thou dost give US one cup
of bitterness to drink? o. no, Jesus, we
will drink it dry. But how it is changed
Blessed Jesus, what hast Thou put into
the cup to sweeten it? Why, it has be-
come the wine OF Heaven, and our souls
grow strong.
1 come now. and Place 10th of my feet
deep down into the blackened ashes OF our
consumed church, and c.y out with an
exhlaration that l never felt since the
day of my souls emancipation. Victory!
victory! through our Lord Jesus Christw
Your harps, We trembling saints,
Down from the willows take,
Loud TO the praise of love divine
Bid every string awake.
We are also reinforced by the catholicity
that l have already referred to- We are
in the academy to-day, not cause we
have no other place 10 go. Last Sabbath
morning at nine O'Clock we had but one
church; now we have about thirty all at
our disposal Their pastors and their
trustees say: 'You may take our main
audience rooms, you may take our lecture
rooms, you may take our church parlors,
you may baptise in our baptistTies, and
sit in our anxious seats" o! if there be
any larger hearted ministers or larger
hearted churches anywhere than in Brook
lyn, tell me where they are that may go
and see them before l die. The millennium
has come People keep wondering when
it is coming. 1t has come. The lion and
the lamb lie down together and the
tiger eats straw like an OK. / should
like to have seen two of the old
time bigots, with their swords, fighting
through that great fire on Schermerhorn
street last Sabbath. l am sure the swords
would have melted and they who welded
them would have learned war no more.
can never say word against any other
denomination of Christians. thank God
Inever have been tempted to do it. I can
not be sectarian. / have been told
ought to be and have tried to be- but
have not enough material in me to make
such a structure. Every time l get the
things most done there comes fire or
something else and all is gone The angels
of God shake out on this air GLORY to
God in the highest and on earth peace,
good will toward men," do not know
but see on the horizon the first CLEAN of
the morning which shall unite all denom-
nations in one organization. distinguished
only by the locality as in apostolic times.
1t was then the Church of Thy atira, and
the Church of Thessalonicl, and the
Church OF Antioch, and the Church of
Laodicea. So do not know but that in
the future history and not far off either,
it may be simply distinction of locality,
and not of creed, as the Church of New
York, the Church of Brooklyn. the Church
of Boston, the Church of Charleston, the
ChuI Oh of Madras, the Church of Con-
stantinople, the Church of America.
NY dear brethren, we can not afford to
be severely divided. Standing in front of
the great foes of our common Christianity,
we want to put on the whole armor of God
and march down in solid column. shoulder
to shoulderi one commander! one tri-
umph!
The trumpet gives a martial strain
o Israel. grid thee for the fight;
Arise, the combat to maintain;
Arise and put thy foes to flight.
We also feel reinforced by the thought
that we are on the way to a Heaven that
can never burn down. Fires may sweep
through other cities-but 1 am glad to
know that the New Jerusalem is fireproof.
Aud during this last week, when l saw
the rushing to and fro and the excitement
l said to myself: Il do not know just
where we shall start again, but l am
bound for the kingdom anyhow" 1 DO