Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-07-11

lifted so much as a finger. The Bible fire.
| quently speaks of Gods hand. and Gods
arm, and Gods shoulder and Gods footi
then suppose He should put hand and arm
and shoulder and foot to the utmost ten
sion what could He not make? That God
of such demonstrated and undemonstratsd
strength you may have for your present
and everlasting friend. Not 9
stately and reticent friend, hard
! to get at, but as approachable
as country mansion on a summer day
when all the doors and windows are wide
open. Christ said: 81 am the door"
And He is wide door, high door, a palace
door, an always open door. Ny four
| year-old child got hurt and did not cry
\ until hours after, when her mother came
home, and then she burst into weeping.
and some of the domestics, not under
standing human nature, said to her:
why did you not cry before" She an
swered: There was no one to cry to-"
Now 1 have to tell you that while human
sympathy may be absent divine SYM
patty is always accessible. Give God
your love and get His love; your service
and secure His help; your repentance and
have His pardon. God a friend! Why.
that means all your wounds medicated,
all your sorrows sootbed, and if some sud-
den catastrophe shouli hurl you out of
earth it would only hurl you into Heaven.
If God is your friend, you can not go out
| of the world too quickly or suddenly, so
far as your own happiness is concerned.
There were two Christians last Tuesday
who entered Heaven; the one was stand
| ing at a window in perfect health watch
ing a shower, and the lightning instantly
; ew him; but the lightning did not flash
down the sky as swiftly as his spirit
flashed inward. The Christian man who
died on the same day next door had been
for year or two failing in health. and
| for the last three months had suffered
from disease that made the nights sleep
less and the days an anguish. Do you
not really think that the case of the one
who went instantly was more desirable
| than the one who entered the shining gate
through long lane of insomnia and con-
| geStion: In the one case it was like your
standing YEARLY at a door. knocking and
waiting and wondering if it would ever
open, and knocking and waiting, again,
while in the other case it was a swinging
| open of the door at the first touch OF your
knuckle. Give your friendship to God,
and have Gcd's friendship for you, and
even the worst accident will be victory.
How refreshing is human friendship,
and true friends, what priceless treasures!
When sickness comes, and trouble comes,
and death comes we send for our friends
| first of all. and their appearance in our
| doorway at any crisis is reinforcement,
and when they have entered we say:
Now it is all rightw o. what would we
do without friends, personal friends, bus
mess friends. family friends: But we
want something mightier than human
friendship in the great exigencies. When
Jonathan Edwards in his final hour had
given the last goodbye to all his earthly
friends he turned on his pillow and
closed his eyes confidently, saying: "Now
where is Jesus of Nazareth, my true and
never failing friend:" Ye l admire human
| friendship seen in the case of David
and Jonathan, of Paul and Onesiphorus,
of Herder and Goethe. of Goldsmith and
Reynolds, of Beaumont and Fletcher Of
COwley and Harvey, of Erasmus and
| Thomas More, of Leasing and Mendelssohn,
of Lady Churchill and Princess Anne, OF
Orestes and Pylades each requesting that
himself might take the point of the dagger
so that the other might be spared, of
Epaminondas and PelOpjdas, who locked
IQolT SWCEQS III DaJIIo 10 ul0
together; but the grandest, the mightiest,
the tenderest friendshipin all the universe
is the friendship between Jesus Christ and
believing soul. Yet after all l have said
l feel l have only done what James
Marshall, the miner, did in 1913 in
California, before its gold mines were
known. He reached in and put upon the
table of his employer, Captain Sutton a
thimbleful of gold dust. Where did you
get that" said his employer. The reply
was: II got it this morning from a mill
race from which the water had been
drawn off," But that gold Gust which
could have been taken up between the
finger and thumb was the prophecy and
specimen that revealed California's wealth
to all nations. And to-day have only
put before you specimen of the value Of
divine friendship. only a thimbleful Of
mines inexhaustible and infinite, though
all time and all eternity go on with the
exploration.