Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-03-13

went out his discourse, while George
Whitefeld, with the manner and the
voice and the start Of an actor, over
whelmed his auditory. 1t would have
been different thing If Jonathan Ed
wards had tried to write and dream
about the pilgrims progress to the c.
lestial City, or John Bunyan had at
tempted an essay on the human viii.
Brighter than the light, fresher than
the fountains deeper than the seas are
all these Gospel themes. Song has no
melody, flowers have no sweetness, sun
set sky has no color compared with
these glorious themes. These harvests
of grace spring up quicker than we can
sickle them. Kindling palpits with
their fire, and producing revolutions
with their power, lighting up dying
beds with their glory, they are the
sweetest thought for the poet, and they
are the most thrilling illustration for
the orator, and they offer the most in
tense scene for the artist, and they are
to the Ambassador OF the sky all enthu-
siasm. Complete pardon for direst
guilt, sweetest comfort for ghastliest
agony, brightest hopefor grimest death,
grandest resurrection for darkest sepul-
cher. Oh, what a Gospel to preachl
Christ over all in it. His birth, His suf-
fering, His miracles, His parallels, His
sweat, His tears, His blood, His atone
ment, His intercession-what glorious
themesl Do we exercise faith? Christ
is its object. Do we have love? 1t
fastens on Jesus. Have we 8 fondness
for the church? 1t is because Christ
died for it, Have we hope of Heaven?
1t is because Jesus went ahead, the her
aid and the forerunner.
The royal robe of Demetrius was so
costly, so beautiful, that after he had
put it off no one ever dared put it on;
but this robe of Christ, richer than that,
tho poorest and wanest and the worst
may wear "Where sin abounded grace
may much more abound"
'sOh, my sins. my sins" said Martin
Luther to Staupits; my sins, my sins!"
The fact is that the brawny 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 par
doned and saved, he wrote to friend,
saving: Come over and join us great
and awful sinners saved by the grace of
God. You seem to be only a slender sim
ner, and you don't much extol 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 egotis-
tical that you feel yourself in frst-rate
spiritual trim and that from the root of
the hair to the tip OF the toe you are
scarless and immaculate? What you
need is loolsing-glass, and here 1t 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 purifying
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.
And how much we need Him in our
sorrows We are independent of circum-
stances If we have His grace. Why, He
made Paul sing in the dungeon, and un-
der that grace st. John from desolate
Patmos heard the blast of apocalyptic
trumpets After all other candles have
been snuffed 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 rFampled into
deep mire at the foot Of the eternal rock,
the Christian. from cups OF granite,
lily-rimmed and vine-coyered, puts out
the thirst of his soul.
Again. l remark that Christ is above
all in dying alleviations. have not
any sympathy with the morbidity
abroad about our demise. The Emper-
or of Constantinople arranged that on
the day of his coronation the stonema-
son should come and consult him about
the tombstone that after a while he
would need And there are men who
are monomaniacal on the subject Of do
parture from this life by death, and the
more they think of It the less they are
prepared to go. This is an unmanllness
not worthy OF you, not worthy of me.
Saladin, the greatest conqueror 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 army, and
that then the soldier ever and anon
should stop and say: Behold all that
is left OF Saladin, the Emperor and
conqueror. or all the States he con-
quered. Of all the wealth he accumu-
lated, nothing did he 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 life to the
next. There is common-sensical idea
on this subject that you and need to
consider-that there are only two styles
of departure.
A thousand feet underground, by light
of torch toiling in a miners shaft, a
ledge of rock may fall upon us, and we
may die a miners death. Far out at
sea, falling from the slippery ratlines
and broken on the halyards. we may die
a sailors death. On mission of mercy in
hospital, amid broken bones and reelx-
ing leprosies and raging fevers, and we
may die a philanthropist's death. On