The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1889-10-24
our Father and best Friend, and this Thought

TthhVWs tht HtbDio WnO, uuFlng tnp last six
teen years, sat ON the other side OF the aisle
whose faces were familiar 10 you, but to
whom you had never spoken-you greeted
them this week with smiles and tears as Won
said; well, the old place is gone" You
I'D not want TO seem 10 cry, and so you swept
pretended it was the sharp wind made
our eyes weak. Ali there was moth.
ng the matter with your eyes; il
was your soul bubbling over 1 tell you that
Il is impossible TO sit for years around the
same church firesido and not have sympa-
thies 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 and parloned and blessed and
saved. You feel as IL you were in the Same
boat, ami you want TO glide up the same har-
Dor and want to disembark at the same
wharf
IL you put gold and iron and lead and
zinc in sufficient heat, they will melt into n
songlomerate mass; and | really feel that
last Sabbath's fire has fused us all. prosser
ana liner natures, into one. It seems as IL
we all had our hands on a wire connected
with an electric battery; and when this
church sorrow started IL thrilled through thc
whole circle, aud we all felt the shock The
oldest man and the youngest child could ioin
hands in this misfortune Grandfather said
II expected from those atars to I've buried.D
and one OF the children last Sabbath cried,
"Grandpa, that place was next 10 our own
house. Yea, we are supported and con,
ldent in this timc by the cross Of Christ.
That Is used 10 the fire. On the dark day
when Jesus died, the lightning struck IL from
above, and the flames of hell dashed up
against IL from beneath. That fearful, pair
ful, tender, blessed cross still stands. On It
we hang all our hopes: beneath it we nut
down all our sins; in tho light of Il we cx.
pcct TO make the rest OF our pilgrimage
Within sight OF such n sacrifice, who can feel
nc has 10 hardy In the sight OF such sym.
Dol, who can bc discouraged however great
the darkness that may come down upon him,
Jesus lives' The loving. patient. sympathz.
ing, mighty Jesusl II shall not be told on
earth, or IN hell, or in heaven, that three He
brew children had the Son of God beside
them in the fire, and that a whole church was
forsaken by the Lord when they went
through furnace about two hundred feet
wide.
y Lord Jesus! shall we take out OF Thy
hand the flowers and the fruits, and tho
brightncss 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 il is changed Blessed Je-
sus what has Thou put into the cup to
sweeten itY Why, it has become the wine of
heaven aud our souls grow strong | come
now, and place both of my feet deep down
into the blackened ashes of our consumed
church, and cry out with an cxhilaration
that / never felt since the day of my souls
emancipation, Victory! victory through
our Lord Jesus Christm
Your hnrps, yc trembling saints
Down from the willows take.
Loud TO the praise of love divine
bld every string awake.
We are also rc-cpforced by the Cath.
olicity that have already referred 10. We
are in the Academy to-day, not because
we have no other place To go. Last Sab.
hath pnprpincr NJ p'glppE N.sph hoI h,,t
church, now we have about thirty, all at
our disposal. Their pastors and their
trustees say: "You may take our main
audience rooms, you may take our lecture
rooms, you may take our church parlors, YOU
may baptHe in our baptistcres, and sit on
our anxious seats" Oh! If there be any
larger hearted ministers or larger hearted
churches anywhere than in Brooklyn tell me
where they are, that | may go and see them
before | die. The millennium has come Poo
pie keep wondering when IL is coming. It
has come. The lion and the lamb lie down
together, and the tiger eats straw like nm OK.
should like TO have seen two of the
old time bigots with their swords fight
ing through that great fire on Scher-
merhorn street last Sabbath / am
sure the swords would have melted, and they
who welded them have learned war no more
can never say word against any other de-
nomination of Christians. | thank God
never have been tempted to do IT, / cannot
be sectarian. | have been told ought to
be, and / have tried to be, but have not
enough material in me TO make such a
structure. Every time get the thing most
hone, there comes fire, or something else,
and all Is gone. The angels of God shake out
on this air, "Glory TO God in the highest,
and on earth peace, good wil toward men 4"
| do not know but | SEQ on the horizon the
lrst glcam of the morning which shall unite
all denominations in one organization, dis
linguished only by the locality as in apostolic
times IL was then the Church of Thyatira,
and the Church OF ThesSalonica, and the
Church Of Antioch, and the Church of I.aodi-
cen. SO do not know but that in the future
history, and not far OIL either it may be sim
ply distinction of locality and not of creed
Us the Church OF New York, the Church OF
Brooklyn, the Church of Boston, the Church
of Charleston, the Church of Madras, the
Church of Constantinople, the Church OF
America.
My dear brethren, We cannot afford TO be
severely divided. Standing in front of tho
| great foes of our common Christianity we
want to put on the whole armor of God and
march down in solid column, shoulder to
lhoulder one commander! one triumph!
The trumpotg gives martial strain
o Israel! gird thee from the fight;
Arise, the combat to maintain;
Arise, and put thy foes to flight.
| We also feel reinforced by the thought
u
never burn down. Fires may sweep through
| lther cties--but | am glad TO know that tho
New Jerusalem is iireproof. There will be
10 engines rushing through those streets;
J here will be no temples consumed in that
/ aty. Coming TO the doors of that Church,
! Ne will find them open, resonent with songs
| nd not cries of fire. Oh, my dear brother
md sisterl If this short lane of life
| ZONES up so soon 10 that blessed place what
the use Of our worryingy have felt a
| rood many times this last week like Father
Taylor, the sailor preacher. He got in u
ong sentence while he was preaching ono
| lay, and lost himself, and could not find his
way out of the sentence. He stopped and
aid: Brethren, l have lost the nominative
)f this sentence, and things are generally
mixed up but | am bound for the kingdom
myhow."
And during this last week, when | saw the
ushing 10 ana fro and the excitement, | said
% myself: II do not know just where we
hall start again, but / am bound for the
singdom anyhow" | do not want to 20
lust yet want 10 be pastor of this people
until | am about eighty nine years of age,
out have sometimes thought that there arr
such glories ahead that l may be persuaded
10 go a little earlier-for instance, at eighty.
iypo ar tb1oa. but 1 raaIlu thiuly ff ~.