Dodge City times., 1889-11-07

can and does, and that God il our
Father and best Friend, and this thought
gives us confidence.
We are also reinforced by the in
creased 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 are familiar to you, but 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 to cry, and
so you swept the sleeve near the corner
of the eye, and pretended it was the
sharp wind made your eyes weak. All!
there was nothing the matter with your
ewes; it was your soul bubbling over.
tell you it was impossible to sit for
years around the same church freside
and not have sympathies in common.
Somehow you feel that you would like
those people on the other side of the
aisle, about whom you know but little,
prospered and pardoned 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 sufficient heat, they will melt
into a conglomerate mass; and really
feel that last Sabbath's fire has fused us
all, grosser and finer natures, into one.
It seems as if we all had our hands on
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. Grandfather said,
fhnuo o1forr IN ho
buried" and one of the children last
Sabbath cried, Grandpa, that place
was next to our own 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 ubove, and the flames of
hell dashed up against it from beneath.
That fearful, painful. tender, blessed
cross still stands. On it we hang
all our hopes; beneath it We put
down all our sins; in the light of it
we expect to make the rest of our pill
grimage. Within sight of such a sacri-
fee, who can feel he has it hard? In
the sight of such Q symbol, who can be
discouraged, however great the dark
ness that may come down upon him?
Jesus livesl The living. patent. sym
pathising, mighty Jesus! It shall not
be told on earth, or in hell, or in Heaven,
that three Hebrew children had the son
of God beside them in the fire, and that
q whole church was forsaken by the
Lord when they went through a furnace
about two hundred feet wide.
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? Oh, no,
Jesus! we will drink it dry. But how it
is changed! Blessed Jesus, what has
Thou put in the cup to sweeten it?
Why, it has become the wine, of Heaven,
and our souls grow strong. come now,
and place both of nv feet deep down
into the blackened ashes of our con-
sumed church, and l cry out with an ex-
liberation that l never felt since the
day of my souls emancipation. Vic
tory! victory! through our Lord Jesus
Christi"
Your harps. ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take,
Loud to the praise of lcve divine
Bid every string awake.
We are also re- enforced by the Cath
olicity that l have already referred to.
We are in the Academy to-day, not be-
canse We have no other place to go.
Last Sabbath morning at 8 o'clock We
had but one church; now We have about
thirty, all at our disposal. Their pas
tors 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 bapt!ze in
our baptisteiies, and sit on our anxious
Seats" Oh, if there be any larger
hearted minister or larger hearted
churches anywhere than in Brooklyn,
tell me where they are, that may 60
and see them before die. The millen-
ium has come. People keep wondering
when it is coming. II has come. The
lion and the lamb lie down together,
and the tiger eats straw like an OK. I
| should like to have seen two of the old
time bigots, with their swords, fighting
through that great fire on Schermerhorn
street last Sabbath. I am sure the
swords would have melted, and they
who welded them would have learned
war no more. can never Say a word
against any other denomination of
Christians. thank God I never have
been tempted to do it. I cannot be q
sectarian. I have been told I ought to
be, and have tried to be, but have not
enough material in me to make such o
structure. Every time I get the thing
most done, there comes q tire or some-
thing 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," I do not know
but I see on the horizon the first CLEAN
of the morning which shall unite all
denominations in one organization, dis
tinguished only by the locality as in
apostolic times. 1t was then the Church
of Thyatira, and the Church of Thes-
salonica, and the Church of Antioch,
and the Church of Laodicea. So I do
not know but that in the future history,
and not far of either, it may be simply
q 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
Church of Madras, the Church of Con-
stantinople, the Church of America.
My dear brethren, We cannot afford to
be severely divided. Standing in front
of the great foes of our common Chris
| tisnity, we want to pnt on the whole
armor of God and march down in solid
column, shoulder to shoulder! one COM
mander! one triumph!
The trumpet gives martial strain
o Israeli grid thee for the fight;
Arise. the combat to maintain;
Arise. and put thy foes to flight.
We also feel reinforced by the thought
thet We are on the way to Heaven that
can never burn down. Fires may sweep
through other cities-but am glad to
know that the New Jerusalem is fire.
proof. There will be no engines rush.
ing through those streets; there will be
no temples consumed in that city. Com
ing to the doors of that Church. We will
r M fham oman pecnnau With eoua and
not cries of fire. Oh, my dear brother
and sister! if this short lane of life
comes up soon to that blessed place,
what is the use of our worrying? I have
felt a good many times this last week
like Father Taylor, the sailor preacher.
He got in q long sentence while he was
preaching one day, and lost himself,
and could not find his way out of the
sentence. He stopped and said: