News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-24

Church of God is not so much made for you
who could have churches in your own house,
but for the vast population of our great
cities, who are treading on toward death
with no voice of merry to arrest them.
Ali when the prodigal comes into
the church, do not stare at him as
though he had no right to come. Give
him the best seat you can find for him,
Sometimes a man wakes u from his sin, and
he says: "GH go to the house of God" Per-
haps he comes from one motive, perhaps
from another. He finds the church dark
and the Christian people frigid land there
are no people on earth who can be more
frigid than Christian people when they try,
and the music is dull, and he never comes
again. Suppose one OF these men enters
the church. As he comes in he hears a song
which his mother sang when he was q boy;
he remembers it. He sits down, and some
one hands him a book, open at
"JeTusalem. my happy home,
Name ever lear to me
eyes" he says, 81 have heard that many
times" He sees cheerful Christian people
there, every mans face a psalm OF tbanksglV-
ing to God. He says: d you have this so
every Sunday? | have heard that the mouse
of God was a doleful place, and Christians
were lugubrious and repelling! lhave really
enjoyed myself!' The next Sabbath the man
is again in the same place Tears OF re
pentance start down his cheek; he begins to
pray: AMI when the table IS
u CGti Ac SAbS al NYoAANA SOtHO
and says: Il am surprised to find you here;
[ thought YOU didn't believe in such things"
Abr he says, Il have been captured: L
came in one day, and found you were all SO
loving and cheerful here that | concluded
| would come among you. Where thou goest
| will go: thy people shall be my people, and
thy God my God. Where thou diest will L
die, and there will [ be buried"
All: YOU can't drive men out OF their SINS,
but You can coax them out-you can charm
them out.
1 would to God that we could all come to
Il higher appreciation of this Sabbath herl-
tage! We can not count the treasures OF
one Christian Sabbath. 1t spreads out over
us the two wings of the archangel of mercy.
Oh, blessed Sabbath! blessed Sabbath! They
scott a great deal about the old Furitanlc
Sabkaths, and there is a wonderful amount
of wit expended upon that subject now-the
Sabbaths they used to have in New England.
| never lived in New England, but l would
rather trust the old PuritaniC Sabbath, with
all its faults, than this modern Sabbath,
which is fast becoming no Sabbath at all. If
our modern Sabbatism shall produce as stall
wart Christian character as the Old New
England Puritanic Sabbatism. l shall be
satisfied, and | shall be surprised.
Oh, blessed day. blessed day! | should
like to die some Sabbath morning when the
air is full of church music and the bells are
ringing. Leaving my home group with a
dying blessing, | should like to look off upon
some Christian assemblage chanting the
praises of God as went up to join the one
hundred and forty and four thousand and
the thousands of thousands standing around
the throne of Jesus. Harkl. l hear thu bell
of the old kirk on the hill side of heaven. 1t
is a wedding-bell, for behold the Bride groom
1t is q victor's bell for We are more
than ~conquerors through Him who hath
owed us. 1t is a Sabbath-bell. for it calls
the nations of earth and heaven to eyerlast-
ing repose.
"Oh when. thou city of my God"
Shall | thy courts ascend?
Where congregations ne'er break up,
And SahIaths have no end"