Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-02-20

most tnrllllng ILLUSTRATION Tor the orator
and they offer the most intense seen,
for the artist, and they are to the am.
bassador of the sky all enthusiasm
Complete pardon for direst guilt
Sweetest comfort for ghastliest agony
Brightest hope for grimmest death
Grandest resurrection for darkest Sc
pulcher. oh, what Gospel 10 preach
Christ over all in it. His birth, his suf.
fering, his miracles, his parallels, his
sweat, his tears, his blood, his atone
ment, his intercession7-what glorious
themesl Do We exercise faith? Christ
is its object. Do we have love? II
fastens on Jesus. Heve We fondness
for the church, II is because Christ
died for it. Have We hope of Heaven?
1t is because Jesus went ahead, the
herald and the forerunner.
The royal robe of Demetrius was SC
costly, SO beautiful, that after he had put
II of no one ever dared put it on; but
this robe of Christ, richer than that, the
poorest and the wannest and the worst
may wear. "Where sin abcunded grace
may much more abound"
"Oh, my sins, my sins" said Martin
Luther to Staupitz, my sins, my sinsl'
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, be was pardoned
and saved, he wrote to a friend, saying:
Come over and join us great and awful
sinners saved by the grace of God. You
seem to be only slender sinner, 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 il
be that you are SO desperately egotisti-
cal that you feel yourself in first rate
spiritual trim, and that from the root of
the hair to the tip of the toe you are
scarless and immaculate2 What you
need is 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 putrefying
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 cir
cumstances if we have His grace. Why,
He made Paul sing in the dungeon, and
under that grace st. John from desolate
natmos heard the blast of the apocalyp-
tic trumpets. After all other candles
had 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 trampled
into deep mire, at the foot of tho eternal
rock the Christian, from cups of granite
lily trimmed and vine covered, puts out
the thirst of his soul.
Again, l remark, that Christ is above
all in dying alleviations.
l have not any sympathy with the
morbidity abroad about our demise.
The Emperor of Constantinople ar
ranged that on the day of his coronation
the stone mason should come and con-
suit him about the tombstone that after
a while he would need. And there are
men who are monomaniacal on the sub
ject of departure from this life by
death, and the more they think of it the
less they are prepared to go. This is an
unmanliness 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: Be
hold, all that is left of Saladin, the
emperor and conqueror! OF all the
states he conquered, of all the wealth
he accumulated, nothing did he retain
but this shroud." I have no sympathy
with such behavior,ilor such absurd de-
or with much that we hear
uttered in regard to departure from this
sensioal idea on this subject that you
only two styles of departure.
A thousand feet underground, by light
of torch toiling in miners shaft,
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 halyards, we may die a
sailors death. On mission of mercy in
hospital, amid broken bones and reeking
leprosies and raging fevers, we may die
a philanthropist's death. On the field
of battle, serving God and our country,
slugs through the heart, the gun car
riage may roll 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 weall want to die the for
mer.
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 tho room still. You do not
want any curious strangers standing
around watching you. You want your
kindred from afar to hear your last
prayer. think this is the wish of all
Of us. But is that all2 Can earthly
friends hold us up where the billows of
death come up to the girdle2 Can hu-
man voice charm open heavens gate?
Can human hand pilot us through the
narrows OF death into heavens 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, mo-
Alas! Poor soul, if that is all. Better
die in the wilderness, far from tree
shadow and from fountain, alone, vult-
ures circling through the air waiting for
our body, unknown to men, and to have
no burial, if only Christ could say
through the solitudes: Il will never
leaye thee, will never forsake thee
From that pillow of stone ladder
would soar heavenward, angels coming
and going; and across the solitude and
The barrenness would come the sweet
notes Of heavenly minstrelsy.
Gordon Hall, far from home, dying in
The door of heathen temple, said:
Glory to Thee, 0 Godl" What. did dy-
ing Wilberforce say to his wife2 Come
and sit beside me, and let us talk Of