Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-03-20
where it is safe to walk and where it is

! your life to sin and Satan and then get
converted and then rest awhile in sal1ea
titled lazitiess and then go up to get yout
heavenly reward, and 1 warrant it will
not take the cashier of the royal bank
ing house a great while to count out to
you all your dues. He will not ask you
if you will have it in bills of large de-
nomination or small / would like to
put one sentence of my sermon in italics
and have it underscored and three ex-
clamation points at the end of the sem
tence, and that sentence is this: As we
can not live our lives over again, the
nearest we can come to atone for the
past is by redoubled holiness and indus
| try in the future.
II this rail train of life has been de-
tanned and switched of and is far be-
hind the time table the engineer for the
| rest of the way must put on more
pressure of steam and go mile min
ute in order to arrive at the right time
and place under the approval of coz
ductor and directors.
As supposed it would be, there are
mulitudes Of young people listening to
this sermon on whom this subject has
acted with the force of a ga1vanic bat
terry. Without saying a word to them
they have soliloquized, saying: "As one
can not live his life over again, and 1
can make only one trip, 1 must look out
| and make no mistakes; I have but one
chance and 1 must make the most Of it,
My young friends, am glad you made
/ -, - ho
When a minister toward the close of his
sermon says: Nov few words by way
of application people begin to look
around for their hats and get one arm
| through their otercoats, and the ser
monte application is failure. l am
glad you have made your own applica-
ton and that you are resolved, like a
Quaker of whom 1 read years ago, who,
| IN substance, said: "I shall be along this
pathway of life but once and so 1 must
do all the kindness cam" My hearers,
the mistakes of youth can never be cor
rected. Time gone is gone forever. An
opportun 'ty passed the thousandth part
of a second has by one leap reached the
other side of a great eternity.
In the autumn when the birds migrate
you look up and see the sky black with
wings and the foclEs stretching out into
many leagues of air, and SO to-day l look
up and see two large wings in full
sweep. They are the wings of the flying
year. That is followed by flock of S65,
and they are the flying days. Each OF
the flying days is followed by twenty
four and they are flying hours, and each
of these is followed by sixty and these
are the flying minutes. Where did this
flock start from? Eternity past. Where
are they bound? Eternity to come.
You might as we'll go a-gunning for tho
quails that whistled last year in the
meadows or the robins that last year
caroled in the sky as to try to fetch down
and bag one of the past opportunities OF
your life. Do not say, 81 will lounge
now and make it up afterward." Young
men and boys, you can't make itup. My
observation is that those who in youth
sowed wild oats, to the end of their short
life sowed wild oats, and that those who
start sowing Genesee wheat always sow
Genesee wheat. And then the reaping
of the harvest is so different. There is
grandfather, now. He has lived to old
age because his habits have been good.
His eyesight for this world has grown
somewhat dim, but his eyesight for
Heaven is radiant His hearing is not so
acute as it once was, and he must bend
clear over to hear what his little grand
child says when she asks him what he has
brought for her. Buthe easily catches the
music raised from supernal spheres.
Men passing in the streets take of their
hats in reverence and women say:
What good old man he is" Seventy
or eighty years all for God and for max
ing this world happy. Splendid! Glor-
ious! Magnificent He will have hard
work getting into Heaven, because those
he helped to get there will fill up and
crowd the gates to tell him how glad
they are at his coming, until he says:
"Please to stand back little till pass
through and cast my crown at the feet
of Him whom having not seen I love" "
do not know what you call that. call
it the harvest of Genesee wheat.
Out yonder is man very old at forty
years of age, at time when he ought
to be buoyant as the morning. He got
bad habits on him very early, and those
habits have become worse. He is man
on fire, on fire with alcoholism, on fire
with all evil habits, out with the world
and the world out with him. Down and
falling deeper. His swollen hands in
his thread ARE pockets and his eyes
fixed on the ground, he passes through
the street, and the quick step of an in
nocent child or the strong step of
young man or the roll Of prosper
Gus carriage maddens him, and he
curses society and he curses God.
Fallen sick, with no resources, he
is carried to the almshouse. A loath-
some spectacle he lies all day long watt
ing for dissolution, or in the night rises
on his cot and fights apparitions of what
he might have been and of what he will
be. He started life with as good pros
pect as any man on the American CONT
nent, but there he is bloated carcass,
waiting for the shovels of public charity
to put him five feet under. He has only
reaped what he sowed. Harvest of wild
oats! There is way that seemeth
right to a man, but the end thereof Is
death" Young man, as you can not
live life over again, however you may
long to do so, be sure to have your
one life right.
would like to write them a letter
and you to carry the letter, saying: ''By
the blessing of God on my sermon in
troduce to you one whom you have never
seen before, for he has become a new
creature in Christ Jesus" My boy, go
home and put your tired head on the
bosom that nursed you so tenderly in
ronr childhood Years A Young Scotch-