St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-04-29

his neart TO christ Keeps on working
with his plane and saw. The doctor
who gives his heart to Christ keeps on
with his beniticent work. The. banker
give up his banking. The miller who
gives his heart to Christ continues
to grind -four. The lawyer with his case,
the boy with his school, the apprentice
with his trade, the clerk with his
clerkship after giving his hart to Christ,
each continues ON with his case. his
school, his clerkship, his work. While
the change in these ways is so little, yet
the change in other ways is great, very
great. Before she gave her heart to
Christ, the mother was good mother
for the sake of her child. If she
were not good mother, he
would become bad child. Now
also she tries to be good mother to
him for his sake, but also and more for
the sake of her Christ. That which
was once limitation, confinement,
slavery, keeping her life down close to
the life of her child. has now become a
a large, free, generous, broad life. for
she is living this life for the sake of her
Lord. How much purer and richer is
this new life of hers. The mechanic
with his plane and saw was earn
ing living for his home only
whose days seemed so hard, and whose
nights simply rested him for a longer
and harder days work: whose future
looked so narrow and dark, has now, in
giving his heart to Christ, brought
Christ into it, he is continuing his work
not simply for the sake of the lost ages
he has given to future, but also for the
of his home and his fortune. The boy
in his school, the young man
in his college, who before labored day
by day and night by night, thumbing
lexicon with aching brow for the sake of
his own ambitious scheme, is now labor
ing just as hard, possibly harder, but
his labor he now finds not confinement
and slavery, but rather he finds it to
have the freedom and breadth of the
sky, for he is disciplining and train
ing himself for work in
which Christ himself is present. Thus
it is with each man and each woman.
Conversion does not usually cause US to
give up the special work to which we
have put our hands and our hearts, but
conversion brOadens, deepenS and
heightenS this work. 1t pushes further
Off the gray stone of circumstance, it
lifts far above us the Overhanging dark
ceiling of fate. 1t brings God into our
life, and seems to give it all the liberty
which belongs to God, and therefore to
his children.
There is a second experience also
common to man in which the laws, the
statutes of God, may become the song
of man. 1t is the experience common
to each of us in which we try to put
down some one sin. Each of us seem
to have some one sin peculiarly beset
ting. You have one base passion, and
you cry to yourself, if only it could be
INDUCED; but you know that it
cannot be INDUCED without shame and
possibly not without ruin. The vices
that we think are secret blear out of our
eyes, blush in our cheeks and tremble
in our hands. The statute demands
that you sin not: the penalty is terrible.
You wish that the statute were differ
ent, that the penalty were less terrible.
You would indulge the base passion if
the penalty were not so awful.
But, there comes a day into your
have become master of that passion,
instead of that passion being half mas
ter of you. 1t is then that you come to
find, not slavery or hardship, but
rather joy and delight in the statute.
You say to yourself, this appetite is
still here, the passion still burns, but
| would sooner burn off my right hand
than indulge it. The love for money,
the love for drink, the love for
power, the love of any indulgence, is
still strong; but you would rather give
up these than your soul, and let it rule
you in future instead. You now re-
jOice so much more, / may say, inf
nitely much more over the righteous
ness of the law than You now re-
greet the penalty of diSObedience. The
law has become yOur SOng'
In closing, he said: "The whole
verse from which my text is taken is,
''Thy statutes have been my songs in
the house of my pilgrimage" Life is
pictured as pilgrimage and the house
of pilgrimage is simply place of re-
freshment. where one is for the night
or where food is taken. Even while we
thus journey, the laws of God may be
our delightful songs. / have
said that as character grows and de-
velops, this song element in law in
creaseS. SO, also, when we have reached
the pearly gates, and have passed with
in their portals, we shall find, l think,
that the statutes have ceased to be
statutes. and are only songs of rejoic-
| ing. 1t is, think, for this reason that
| we picture the language of heaven as a
language of song. Song is the language
of deepest feeling. Song is the lam
guage of most Joyous pleasure. Song is
the universal language in which what
ever the precise words may be, the
| notes represent feelings that the world
understands and appreciates. Thus, in
| heaven, it is to be more true. if possible,
| than here in the house of our pilgrim
age. that the statutes of God are the