Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-02-20

IN.
believe that Christ was born in Bethle-
hem, and believe that He died on the
cross" Do you believe it with your
head or your heart? / will illustrate
the difference. You are in your own
house. In the morning you open new
paper and YOU read how Captain Brave
heart on the sea risked his life for the
salvation of his passengers. You say:
sWhat grand fellow he must have
been! His family deserves very well OF
the country You fold the newspaper
and sit down at the table, and perhaps
do not think of that incident again.
That is historical faith.
But now you are on the sea, and 1t IS
night, and you are asleep, and are
awakened by the shrek OF "FlreF
/ You rush out on the deck. You hear,
amid the wringing of the hands and the
/ fainting, the cries: mo hope! We are
Iostl we are lost!" The sail puts out
its wings of fire, the ropes make burn
| ing ladder in the night heavens, the
spirit of wreck Misses in the waves, and
on the hurricane deck shakes out its
banner Of smoke and darkness. Down
with the life-boatsl' cries the Captain.
Down with the life-boats?' People
rush into them. The boats are about
full. Room for only one more man.
You are standing on the deck beside the
Captain? Who shall it be? You or the
Captain? The Captain says: Your
You Jump and are saved. He stands
there and dies. Now, you believe that
Captain Braveheart sacrificed himself for
his passengers, but you believe 1t with
love, with tears, with hot and long con-
tinued EXPLANATIONS, with grief at his
loss, and with JOY at your deliverance.
That is saving faith. In other words,
what you believe with all the heart, and
believe in regard to yourself. On
this hinge turns my sermon; aye, tho
salvation of your immortal soul.
1t is grand thing to go to sleep at
night and to get up in the morning, and
to dc business all day feeling that all is
right between my heart and God. No
accident, no sickness, no persecution, no
peril no sword can do me any perma-
nent damage. am forgiven child OF
God, and He is bound to see me through.
He has sworn He will see me through.
The mountains may depart, the earth
may burn, the light OF the stars may be
blown out by the blast of the Judgment
hurricane; but the life and death, things
present and things TO come are mine.
Yea, further than that-it means a
peaceful death.
Mrs Hemans, Mrs. Sigourney, DR..
Young and all the poets have said hand
some things about death. There Is
nothing beautiful about it. When we
stand by the white and rigid features Of
those whom we love, and they give no
answering pressure of the hand, and no
returning kiss of the lip, we donot want
any body poetizing around about us.
Death is loathsomeness, and midnight,
and the wringing OF the heart until the
tendrils snap and curl in the torture un-
less Christ be with us. / confess to you
an infinite fear, a consuming horror of
death unless Christ shall be with me.
would rather go down into cave
of wild beasts or a Jungle of reptiles
than into the grave, unless Christ goes
with me. win you tell me that am TO
be carried out from my bright home, and
put away in the darkness? ! can not
bear darkness. At the first coming Of
the evening l must have the gas lit,
and the further on in life | get, the
more like to have my friends around
about me. And am to be put off for
thousands of years in dark place. with
no one to speak to? When the holidays
come, and the gifts are distributed,
shall add no joy to the merry Christ
mas" or the Happy NewYear?' All,
do not point down to the hole in the
ground, the grave, and call ii a beautiful
place. Unless there be some super.
natural illumination, l shudder back
from it. My whole nature reyolts at it.
But now this glorious lamp is lifted
above the grave, and all the darkness is
gone, and the ay is clear. look into
it now without single shudder. Now
my anxiety is not about death; my
anxiety is that may live Alright, for I
know that If my life is consistent when
come to the last hour, and this voice is
silent, and these eyes are closed, and
these hands with which beg for your
eternal salvation to-day are folded over
the still heart, that then l shall only
begin to live. What power is there in
any thing to chill me in the last hour II
Christ wraps around me the skirt of His
own garment? What darkness can fall
upon my eyelids then amid the heaven
ly daybresk? Oh. death, will not fear
thee thenl Back to thy cavern of dark.
ness, thou robber of all the earth. Fly,
thou despoiler of families. With this
battle-axe | hew thee in twain from
helmet to sandal, the voice of Christ
sounding all over the earth and
through the heavens: "Oh, death,
will be thy plague. Oh, grave, l will
be thy destruction" To be saved is to
wake up in the presence of Christ You
know when Jesus was upon earth how
happy He made every house He went in
to,and when He brings us up to His house
how great our glee. His voice has more
music in it than is to be heard in all the
oratorios of eternity. Talk not about
the banks dashed with efllorescence.
Jesus is the chief bloom of Heaven. We
! shall see the very face that haarnad e.rr,