Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-17

WanneSt and the worst may wear. w mere
sin abounded grace may much more
| abound" -
"Oh, my sins, my SINS" said Martin
Luther to Staupitz, ''my sins, my. sinsF'
The fact is, that the brswny German student
had found Latin Bible that made him
| quake, and nothing else ever did make him
| quake; and when he found how, through
Christ, he was pardoned and saved, he
wrote to = friend, saying: "Come over and
join us great and awful sinners saved by the
grace of God. You seem to be only a slender
sinner and you don't much extoI the mercy
OF God; but we that have been such very
awful sinners praise His grace the more
now that we have been redeemed" Can it
be that you are so desperately egotistical
that you feel yourself in first rate spiritual
trim, and that from the root of the hair 20
the tip Of the toe you are scarless and i'm
maculate? What you need is a looking
glass, and here it is in the Bible. Poor,
and wretched. and miserable, and blind, and
naked, from the crown of the head to the
sole of the foot, full of wounds and putrety-
ing sores. No health in us. And then take
the fact that Christ gathered up all the
notes against us and paid them, and then
offered Us the receipt 49,
NEEDED IN ALL OUR SORROWS.
And how much we mead Hi m in our sor-
rowsl We are Independent of circum-
stances if we have His grace. Why, he
made Paul sing in the dungeon and under
that grace St. John from desolate Patmos
heard the blast of the apocalyptic trumpets.
After all other candles have been snufed
out, this is the light that gets brighter and
brighter unto the perfect day; and after,
under the hard hoofs of calamity, all the
pools of worldly enjoyment have been
trampled into deep mire, at the foot of the
eternal rock the Christian, from cups of
granite, lily trimmed and vine covered, puts
out the thirst of his soul.
Again, remark, that Christ is above all
in dying alleViatiOns.
have not any sympathy with the NOR
bidity abroad about our demise. The En-
peror of Constantinople arranged that on
the day of his coronation the stone mason
should come and consult him about the
tombstone that after awhile he would need.
And there are men who are monomaniacal
on the subject of departure from this life by
death, and the more they think of it the
less they are prepared to GO. This is an un-
manliness not worthy of you, not worthy of
me-
Saladin, the greatest eonqueror of his day,
while dying, ordered that the tunic he had
on him be carried after his death on his
spear at the head of his armv, and that then
the soldier, ever and anon, should stop and
say: behold, all that is left of Saladin,
the Emperor and conqueror! OF all the
states he conquered, of all the wealth he ac-
cumulated, nothing did be retain but this
shroud." have no sympathy with such
behavior, or such absurd demonstration, or
with much that we hear uttered in regard to
departure from this lie to the next There
is a commonsensical idea on this subject
that you and 1 need to consider-that there
are only two styles of departure.
ONLY TWO STYLES OF DEATH.
A thousand feet underground, by light of
torch toiling in a.miner's shaft, a ledge of
rock may fall upon us, and we may die
miners death. Far out at sea, falling from
the slippery ratlines and broken on the hal
yards, we may die sailors death. On
mission of mercy in hospital, amid broken
bones and reeking leprosies and raging
fevers, we may die philanthropist's death.
On the field of battle, serving God and our
country, slugs through the heart, the gun
carriage may run over us, and we may die
patriots death. But, after all, there are
only two styles of departure-the death of
the righteous and the death of the wicked
and we all want to die the former.
God grant that when that hour comes you
may be at home. You want the hand of
your kindred in your hand. You want your
children to surround you. You want the
light on your pillow from eyes that have
long reflected your love. You want the room
still. You do not want any curious stran-
gers standing around watching you. You
want your kindred from afar to hear your
last prayer. I think that is the wish of all
of US. But is that all? Can earthly friends
hold us up when the billows of death come
up to the girdle? Can human voice charm
open heavens gate? Can human hand pilot
us through the narrows of death into heaY-
ems harbor? Can any earthly friendship
shield us from the arrows of death, and in
the hour when Satan shall practice upon us
his internal archery? No, no, no, mol Alasi
Poor soul, if that is all.
=. A SUFFICIENT COMFORTER.
Better die in the wilderness, far from tree
shadow and from fountain, alone, vuItures
circling through the air waiting for our
body, unknown to men, and to have no
burial, if only Christ could say through the
solitudes: 81 will never leave thee, will
never forsake thee" From that pillow of
stone ladder would soar heavenward, an
gels coming and going; and across the soli-
tude and the barrenness would come the
sweet notes of heavenly mInstrelsy.
Gordon Hal, far from home, dying in the
door of a heaIhe temple, said: "Glory to
thee, o God 70 What did dying wilber-
force say to his wife? Come and sit beside
me, and let us talk of heaven. never knew
what happiness was until found Christ"
What did dying Hannah More say? "To
go to heaven, think what that is To go to
Christ, who died that might live! Oh,
glorious grave! Oh, what glorious thing
il is to diel Oh, the love of Christ, the
love of Christ P' What did Mr. Toplady,
the great hymnmaker, say in his last hour?
"Who can measure the depths of the third
heaven? Oh, the sunshine that fills nv
soul 1 shall soon be gone, for surely no
one can live in this great world after such
glories as God has manifested to my SOUL"
What did the dying Janeway say? 81
can as easily die as close my eyes or turn
my head in sleep. Before few hours have
passed shall stand on Mount Zion with the
one hundred and four Thousand and with the
just men made perfect, and we shall ascribe
riches and honor and glory and majesty and
dominion unto God and the Lamb" DIR.
Taylor, condemned to burn at the stake, on
his way thither broke away from the guards
men and went bounding and leaping and
jumping toward the fire. -
A RAPTURoUs VISION.
Sir Charles Hare, in his last moment had |
such rapturous vision that he cried: "Up- |
ward, upward, upwardP' And so great
was the peace Of one of Christ's disciples |
that he put his fingers upon the pulse in his |
wrist and counted it and observed it; aud |
SO great was his pIacidity that after while |
be said: "StoppedP and his life had ended |
here to begin in heaven. But |
grander than that was the testimony |
Of the worn-out first missionary, |
when, in the Mamartine dungeon, he cried:
~ am now ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand; l have fought