The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-10-25

since me Time OF benjamin Franklin the
world has been trying to tame the lightnings,
and they seem to he quite we'll harnessed,
but they occasionally kick over the traces
But though We cannot master great natural
forces, God can and does, and that God is
our Father and best Friend, and this thought
give us confidence.
We are also reinforced BY the increased
consolation that comes from co-fraternity of
sorrow. The people who, during the last is
years, sat on the other side of the aisle,
whose faces were familiar to you, but to
whom you had never spoken-you greeted
| them this week with smiles and tears 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 eyes; it was
your soul bubbling over. tell you that it
| is impossible to sit for years around the
same church Preside 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 aud pardoned and blessed and
saved. You feel as if you were in the same
boat, and you want to glide up the same
harbor and want to disembark at the same
wharf.
fyou put gold and iron and lead and zinc
in sufficient heat, they will melt into a con-
glomerate mass: and l really feel that last
Sabbatb's fire has fused us all, grosser and
finer natures into one. 1t seems as it we all
had cur 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. Grandfather said, "Iexpect-
ed from those affairs to be Buried" and
one OF the children last Sabbath CRIED
GRANDPA, that place was next to our own
house. Yea. We are supported and con-
fident in this time by the cross of Christ
That is used to the fire. On the dark day
when Jesus died, the tightening struck it
from above, and the flames of hell dashed up
against it from beneath. That fearful, pain
full. tender blessed cross still stands. On it
we hang all our hopes beneath it we nut
down oil our sins; in the light of 1T we ex-
Pect 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
boil who can be discouraged, however great
the darkness that may come down upon him?
Jesus lives! The loving. patient, sympa-
| thlzlng, mighty Jesus 1t 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 a whole church
was forsakcn by the Lord when they went
through furnace about 200 feet wide.
o, Lord Jesus! shall 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 bitter
ness to drink? Oh, 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 become the wine of
heaven and our souls grow strong. l come
now, and placed both of my feet deep dow,
into the blackened ashes of our consumed
church, and cry out with an exhiJaration
that never felt since the day Dim souls
emancipation, .sVictory! victory! through
our Lord Jesus Christ!'
Your harps, ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take, 4
Loud to the praise of love divine Z:
Bid every string awake.
We are also REINFORCED by the catholicity
that have already referred to. We are in
the academy today not because we have no
other place to go. Last Sabbath morning
at O'clock we had but one church. Now we
have about 80, all at our disposal.
NY dear brethren, we cannot 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
shoulder! one commander one triumph
The trumpet gives martial strain
o Israel! grid the for the fight;
Arise, the combat to maintain;
Arise, and put thy foes to night.
We also feel rein orced by the thought that
we are on the way to a heaven that can
never burn down. Fires may sweep through
other citles-but am glad to know that
the New Jerusalem is fire proof There will
be no engines rushing through these streets;
there will be no temples consumed in that
city. Coming to the doors of that church,
we will find them open, resonant with songs,
and not cries of fire. Oh, my dear brother
and sister, if this short lane of life comes up
so soon to that blessed place, what is the
use of worrying? l have felt a good many
many times this last week like Father Taylor,
the sailor preacher He got in long SEN
lost himself, and could not find his way out
of the sentence. He stopped and said:
brethren, l have lost the nominative of this
sentence, and things are generally mixed up,
but l am bound for the kingdom anyhow"
And during this last week when I saw the
rushing to and fro and the excitement I
said to myself, II do not know just where
We shall start again, but [ am bound for the
kingdom anyhow" l do not want to go
just yet. l want to be pastor of this people
until l am about 80 years of age. but have
sometimes thought that there are such glo-
ries ahead that may be persuaded to go
little earlier-for instance. at 80 or 49, but 1
really think that, if we could have an appre
citation of what God has in reserve for u.s.
we would want to go, stepping right out of
the Academy OF Music into the glories of the
skies.
All! that is good land. Why, they tell
me that in that land they never have heart
ache They tell me that man might walk
500 years in that land and never see tear
or hear a sigh They tell me that ourfriends
who have left us and gone there, their feet
are radiant as the sun, and that they take
hold OF the hand of Jesus famiarly, and that
they open that hand and see in the palm
of if a healed wound that muSt havo hoon
very cruel before it was healed And they
tell me that there is no winter there, and
that they never get hungry or.cold, and that
the sewing girl never wades through the
snow bank to her daily toll, and that the
clock never strikes II for the night, b ut only
II for the day.
See that light in the window. I wonder
who set it there. '.Oh!'' you say. my father
licEht in ho