Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1890-07-19

| the old Gospel hymn they would break
! down with emotion by the time they got to
| the second line:
| Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend,
| On whom my hopes OF heaven depend?
| No! When I blush, be this my shame
| That no more revere His name.
! Again remark that we are witnesses of
| the Gospels power to comfort. There are
| Christian parents here who are willing to
| testify to the power of this Gospel to COM
| fort. Your son had just graduated from
| school or college and was going into BUSH
ness, and the Lord took him. Or youH
! daughter had just graduated from the young
| ladies' seminary, and you thought she was
! going to be useful woman and of long life:
but the Lord took her. and you were
tempted to say, "All this culture OF twenty
Years for nothing!" Or the little child came
| home from school with the hot fever
| that stopped not for the agonized prayer or
for the skillful physician. and the little
! child was taken. Or the babe was lifted
and you stood wondering why God ever
! gave you that child at all. if SO soon he was
| to take it away. And yet you are not re-
| pining, you are not fretful, you are not
! fighting against God.
| What has enabled you to stand all the
trial? "Oh," you say, Il took the medicine
| that God gave my sick soul, In my distress
1 threw myself at the feet of sympathizing
| God; and when was too weak to pray or to
| look up he breathed into me peace thatI
think must be the foretaste of that heaven
| where there is neither tear nor fare
! well. nor a grave" Come, all ye who have
been out to the grave to weep there-come.
all ye comforted souls, get up off your
| knees. Is there no power in this Gospel to
soothe the heart? Is there no power in
this religion to quiet the worst paroxysm of
grief? There comes up an answer from
comforted widowhood, and orphanage and
chiidlessness saying: "Ay. ay, we are wit
| nesses!"
When a man has trouble the world comes
in and says. Now get your mind off this;
| go out and breathe the fresh air; plunge
deeper into business" What poor advice!
Get your mind off it! When everything is
upturned with the bereavement. and every
| thing reminds you of what you have lost
Get your mind off it! They might as well
advise you to stop thinking. You cannot
stop thinking, and you cannot stop thinking
! in that direction. Take walk in the fresh
air! Why. along that very street, or that
| very road. she once accompanied you. Out
of that grass plat she plucked flowers, or
| into that show window she looked. fascin-
ated. saying, Come see the pictures" Go
deeper into business! Why, she was as
! ISOLATED with all your business ambition,
ald since she has gone you have no am
bition left. *S~
Oh. this is clumsy world when it tries to
comfort broken heart. can build a
| Corlear's engine, I can paint Raphaers
Madonna" l can play a Beethoven's
| "Eroica Symphony" as easily as this world
can comfort broken heart. And yet you
have been comforted. How was it done?
| Did Christ come to you and say, Get your
mind off this go out and breathe the fresh
| air; plunge deeper into business" No.
| There was minute when He came to you
perhaps in the watches of the night. per-
| haps in your place of business, perhaps
| along the street-and He breathed some
thing into your soul that gave peace, rest,
| infinite quiet, 50 that you could take out the
photograph of the departed one and look
| into the eyes and the face of the dear one
and say, 1T is all right: she is better off;
would not call her back. Lord, THANK thee
| that thou hast comforted my poor heart"
| Again. remark that we are witnesses of
the fact that religion has power to give
composure in the last moment. l never
! shall forget the first time [ confronted
death. We went across the corn fields in
| the country. I was led by my fathers hand,
and we came to the farmhouse where the
bereavement had come. and we saw the
crowd of wagons and carriages; but there
was one carriage that especially attracted
my boyish attention. and it had black
plumes. I said: What's that? what's
that? Why those black tassels on the top?"
| and after it was explained to me Twas llfed
up to look upon the bright face of an aged
Christian woman, who three days before
| had departed in triumph; the whole scene
made an impression never forgot.
| In our sermons and in our lay exhorta-
! tons we are very apt, when we want to
|
| back to some distinguished personage-to
John Knox or a Harriet Newell. But want
| you for witnesses. / want to know if you
| have ever seen anything to make you be-
! lieve that the religion of Christ can give
composure in the final hour. Now, in the
courts attorney, jury and judge will never
admit mere hearsay, They demand that
! the witness must have seen with his own
| eyes, or heard with his own ears. and so
want to know whether you have seen or
heard anything that makes you believe that
| the religion of Christ gives cOmpOSure in
| the final hour.
"Oh. yes" you say: Il saw my father and
mother depart. There was a great differ
ence in their deathbeds. Standing by the
one we felt more veneration. By the other
| there was more tenderness" Before the
one you bowed in awe In the other case
! with her. How did they feel in that last
hour? How did they seem to act? Were
| they very much frightened? Did they take
hold of this world with both hands as though
! they did not want to give it up? "Oh, no.,
| you say; no, remember as though it were
I yesterday; she had kind word for us all,
I aud there were a few mementoes distri-
buted among the children and then she
| told US how kind we must be to our father
| in his loneliness, and then she kissed us
good-by and went asleep as calmly as
child in cradle"
What made her so composed? Natural
| courage? No" you say; mother was very
nervous; when the carriage inclined to the
side of the road she would cry out; she was
always rather weakly" What, then. gave
her composure? Was it because she did
not care much for you and the pang of part
ing was not great? oh" you say, she
| showered upon US wealth of affection; no
| mother ever loved her children more than
mother loved u.s. she showed it by the
way she nursed us when we were sick. and