The Russellville Democrat., 1889-08-08
PRICE FIVE CENTS.

i cution, uo peril, no sword can do me any permanent damage. l am forgiven child of God, and He is bound to see ms 1 through. The mountains may depart, the earth may burn, the light of the stars may be blown out by the blast Of the | judgment hurricane; but life and death, things present and things to come, are mine. Yea, further than that-it means a peaceful death.
 Mrs. Hemans, Mrs. SigourneY Dr. Young and almost all the poets have said handsome things about death. There is nothing beautiful about it. When we stand by the white and rigid features of those whom we love, and they give no answering pressure of the hand and no returning kiss of the lip, we do nos want any body poetizing around about us. Death is loathsomeness, and midnight and the wringing of the heart until the tendrils snap and curl in the torture, un- less Christ should be with us. l confess 10 you an infinite fear. a consuming hor- TOT ot death, unless Christ shall be with me. would rather go down into cave of wild beasts or jungle of reptiles than into the grave unless Christ goes with me. Will you tell me that 1 am to be carried out from my bright home and put away in the darkness2 I can not bear darkness. At the first coming of the evening must have the gas lighted, and the further on in life l get the more l like to have my friends about me.
 And am I to be put off for thousands of years in q dark place with no one to speak to? When the holidays come and the gifts are distributed, shall add no joy to the Merry Christmas" or the ''Happy New Yearp" An, do not point down to the hole in tho ground, the grave, and call it a beautiful place. Unless there be some supernatural illumination I shudder back from it. My whole nat ure revolts at it. But now this glorious lamp is lifted above the grave, and all the darkness is gone, and the way IS clear. look into it now without single shudder. Now my anxiety is not about death; my anxiety is that I may live alright, for know that if my life is con- sistent when come to the last hour, and these hands with which beg for your eternal salvation o-day are folded over the still heart, then l shall only begin to live.
 What power is there in any thing to chill me in the last hour if Christ wraps around me the skirt of,His own garment? What darkness can fall upon my eyelids then amid the heavenly daybreak? o death, will not fear thee then. Back to thy cavern of darkness, thou robber of all the earth. Fly, thou despoiler of fam flies. With this battle axe I hew thee in twain from helmet to sandal, the voice of Christ sounding all over the earth and through the heavens: 70 death, will be thy plague. o grave, 1 will be thy de- struetion."
 To be saved is to wake up in the pres-
 TyaV was upon earth how happy He made every house He went into, and when He brings us up to His house in Heaven how great shall be our glee. His voice has more music in it than is to be heard in all the oratorios of eternity.
 Talk not about banks dashed with ef- horesoence. Jesus is the chief bloom of Heaven. We shall see the very face that beamed sympathy in Bethany, and take the very hand that dropped its blood from the short beam of the cross. Oh, want to stand in eternity with Him. Toward that harbor I steer. Toward that goal I run. I shall be satisfied when l awake in His likeness.
 Oh. broken hearted men and women, how sweet it will be in that good land to pour all of your hardships and bereave- ments and losses into the loving ear of Christ, and then have Him explain why it was best for you to be widowed and why it was best for you to be tried, and have him point to an elevation proportionate to your disquietude here saying:
 ''You suffered with me on earth; come up now and be glorifed with me in Heaven"
 Some one went into ahouse where there had been a good deal of trouble and said to the woman there:
 "You seem to be lonely"
 "Yes," she said, 'I am lonely"
 "How many in the family"
 "Only myself"
 "Have you had any childrenW
 q had seven children"
 "Where are they?"
 "Gone."
 "All gone?"
 "All.n
 "All dead?"
 "AI.n
 Then she breathed long sigh into the loneliness, and said: "Oh, sir, l have been good mother to the grave"
 And so there are hearts here that arc utterly broken down by the bereavements of life. I point you to-day to the eter- nal balm of Heaven. Are there any here that I am missing this morning' Oh, you poor, waiting maid your hearts sorrow poured in no human ear, lonely and sad how glad you will be when Christ shall disband all your sorrows and crown you queen unto God and the Lamb forever Aged men and women, fed by His love and warmed by the grace for three- score years and ten! will not your decrepitude change for tho leap of a hart when you come to look face to face upon Him whom, having not seen, you loveg That will be the Good Shep- herd, not out in the night and watchingto keep off the wolves, but with the lamp reclining on the sunlit hill. That will bo the Captain of our salvation, not amid the roar and crash and boom of battle, but amid His disbanded troops keeping victo- rious festivity Ihat Will be Ehe Bride- groom of the Church coming from afar, the bride leaning upon His arm, while He looks down into her face, and says: "Be- hold, thou art fair, my loyeS Behold, thou art fairl"