Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-02-08

anu some OF those huOll llt liau GOiulOILeu
in days of sorrow, when they passed that
silent form. made the place dreadful with
their weeping. another village emptied OF
its flowers-some of them put in the shape OF
a cross to symbolic his hope, others put IN
the shape of a crown to Symbolic his trl-
umph. A hundred lights blown out In one
strong gust from the open door Of sepul-
cher. Ziklag in ashes!
| preach this sermon to-day, because l
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 60 along with me- l
feel that somehow | have a responsibility in
your arriving at that great city. have on
other Sabbaths used other inducements. |
mean, to day, for the sake of variety, hoping
to reach your heart to try another
kind of inducement Do you really want to
join the companionship OF your loved ones
who have gomez Are 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 into another country, and
| if we want to reach their companion
ship we must take the same road. They re-
pented; we must repent They prayed; we
must pray. They trusted in Christ; we must
trust in Christ. They lived religious life;
| we must live religious life. They were in
some things like ourselves. 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 rebellious,
sometimes cast down. They were far from
being perfect. So suppose that when we
| are gone, some things in us that are now
! only tolerable may be almost Respondent.
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
persisted; but Christ confronted Them and
said: ~ am the way" and they took it,
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 of, they said: "Oh, 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 on" David and his
men also found it a hard way. They bad 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 breadl 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 faces were
the marks of the black raven of trouble.
Did you never hear the old people,
seated by the evening sand, talk
over their early trials, their hardships,
the accidents, the burials the disap-
pontments, the empty flour barrel when
e.,
sickness almost unto death, where the next
dose of morphine decided between CHASTITY
bereavement and an unbroken home circle
Oh, yes it was trouble that whitened their
hair. 1t was 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
made the cane necessity for their Journey
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-looEng out, moi
seeing the falling shower at all (you vel
knew that she was looking into the distant
past, until the apron came up to her eyes
because the memory was too much for herr
soft the big, unbidden tear.
Stealing down the furrowed cheek,
Tod in eloquence sincere,
Tales Of woe they could not speak.
"But this scene OF weeping DER
Past tn 9 scene Of toll and pain,
They shall feel distress no more,
Never, never weep again"
"Who are these under the altar'' the ques
ton was asked; and the response came
"These are they which came out of grea
tribulation, and have washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of tn
Lamb" Our friends went by path of tear
into glory. Be not surprised if we have t.
travel the same pathway.
remark, again, if we want to win the SO
ciety of our friends in heaven, we will no
only have to travel path of faith and
path of tribulation, but we will also have t
positively battle for their companionship
David and his men never wanted sharp sword
and invulnerable shields and thick breast
plates so much as they wanted them on the da
when they came down upon the Amalekite;
If they had lost that battle, they neve
would have got their families back. / SUP
! pose that one glance at their loved ones il
,, captivity hurled them into the battle witt
. ten-fold courage and energy. They sale
|. "We must win it. Every thing depends upo
, it. Let each one take man on point of spea
, or sword. We must win it." And have {
> tell you that between us and coming into tn
companionship of our loved ones who al
+ departed there is an Austerlitz, there is
Gettysburg, there is Waterloo. War wit
the world, war with the flesh, war with til
, devil We have either to conquer our trout
.. les or our troubles will conquer us. Davi
l will either STAY the Amalekites, or tn
Amalekites will slay David. And yet is ne
, ell the peril, all the besiegemen
! Look! who are they on the brigl
} hills of heaven yonders There the
are, those who sat at your own table, tt
chair now vacant. There they are, tho
( whom you rocked in infancy in the cradle
l or hushed to sleep in your arms. There the
are, those in whose life your life was boun
t | up There they are, their brow more radial
than ever before you saw it, their lii
waiting for the kiss of heavenly greeting
3 their cheek roseate with the health of etern
. summer, their hands reckoning you up Il
: steep, their feet bounding with the mirth
heaven. The pallor of their last sickne
gone out of their face, never more to be sic
t never more to cough, never more to linn
4 never more to be old, never more to wee
= They are watching from those heights to 81
t If through Christ you can take that fort, al
/ whether you will rush in upon them-victor
r They know that upon this battle depend
@ whether you will ever join their society," U
l strike harderl Charge more bravely! R
member that every inch you gain puts "
g so much further on toward that heavenly I
q union.
i IF this morning while speak you cou
@ hear the cannonade of a foreign navy comm
t through the Narrows which was to despc
t our city, and if they really SHOULD succeed
! carrying our families away from us, no
! long would we take before we resolved to
i after them? Every weapon, whether fires
t from Springfield or old and rusty in the ga
g ret, would be brought out; and we wou
s drge on, and, coming i'll front of the foe, v
Q would look at them, and then look at OF
u families, and the cry would be: 'Victory
n DEATH" and when the ammunition WI
gone, we would take the captors G
a the point Of the bayonet or under the breec
t OF the gun. If you would make such
o struggle for the getting back of your earthl
4: friends, will you not make as much strugg
r Tor the gaming of the eternal companionshi
y of your heavenly frends9 Oh, yes! we mu
K JON them. We must sit in their holy societ,