Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-01-30


say: "lf had month or a year or two
to do nothing but to attend to religious
things, would be great deal better
than l am now" You are mistaken.
Generally the best people are the busy
people. Elisha was blowing in the field
when the prophetic mantle fell on him.
Matthew was attending to his custom
house duties when Christ commanded
him to follow. James and John were
mending their nets when Christ called
them to be fishers of men. Had they
been snoring in the sun Christ would not
have called their Incidence into the
| apostleship. Gideon was at work with
the fail on the threshing floor when he
saw the angel. Saul was with great IA
tigue hunting up the lost asses when he
found the crown Of Israel. The prodi-
gal son would never have reformed and
wanted to have returned to his fathers
house If he had not first gone into bust
ness, though it was swine feeding. Not
once out of hundred times will a lazy
man become a Christian. Those who
have nothing to do are in very unfavor-
able circumstances for the receiving of
divine manifestations. 1t is not when
you are in idleness, but when you are,
like the Bethlehem shepherds, watching
your flocks, that the glory descends and
there is JOY among the angels of God
over your soul penitent and forgiven.
Ny subject also strikes at the delusion
that the religion OF Christ is dolorous
and grief infusing. The music that
broke through the midnight heavens
was not dirge, but an anthem. 1t
shook JOY over the hills. 1t not only
dropped upon the shepherds, but it
sprang upward among the thrones. The
robe of Saviour's righteousness is not
black. The Christian life is not made
up of weeping, and cross bearing, and
war waging. Through the revelation
Of that Christmas night find that re-
ligion is not groan, but song. In
world of sin, and sick beds, and
sepulchers, we must have trouble; but
in the darkest night the Heavens part
with angelic song. You may, like Paul,
be shipwrecked. but l exhort you to be
of good cheer, for you shall all escape
safe to tho land. Religion does not
show itself in the elongation Of the face
and the cut Of the garb. The Pharisee
who puts his religion into his phylactery
has none left for his heart. Fretful-
ness and complaining do not belong to
the family Of Christian graces which
move into the heart when the devil
moves out. Christianity does not frown
upon amusements and recreations. 1t
is not a cynic, it is not shrew, it chokes
no laughter, 1t quenches no light, it de-
faces no art. Among the happy, 1t is
the happiest. 1t is just as much at homo
on the playground as 1t is in the church.
1t is Just as graceful in the eharade as
it is in the psalm book. 1t sings just as
we'll in Surrey gardens as it prays in st.
Paul's. Christ died that we might live.
Christ walked that We might ride.
Christ wept that we might laugh.
Again, my subject impresses me with
the fact that glorious endings some
times have very humble beginnings. The
straw pallet was the starting point, but
the shout in the midnight sky revealed
what would be the glorious consumma-
ton. Christ on Mary's lap, Christ on
the throne Of universal dominion what
an humble startingl What glorious
endingl Grace begins on small scale
in the heart. You see only men as trees
walking. The grace of God in the heart
is feeble spark, and Christ has to keep
both hands over it lest it be blown out.
What an humble beginning! But look
at that same Man when He entered
Heaven. No crown able to express His
royalty. No palace able to express His
wealth. No scepter able to express His
power and His dominion. Drinking
frsm the fountain that drips from the
everlasting Rock. Among the haYpers
harping with their harps. On sea Of
glass mingled with fire. Before the
throne Of God, to go no more out forever.
The spark Of grace that Christ had TO
keep both hands over lest it come TO ex-
tinction, having famed up into honor
and glory and immortality. What hum
BILE startiEgl What glorious consumma-
toni
The New Testament church was on
small scale. Fishermen watched it.
Against the uprising walls crashed in
fernal enginery. The world said ana
thema. Ten thousand people -ejoiced
at every seeming defeat, and said:
aha! ahal so we would have it." Mar
tyrs on fire cried: How long, o Lord,
how long?" Very humble starting, but
see the difference at the consummation,
when Christ with His almighty arm has
struck off the last chain of human bond
age, and Himalaya shall be Mount Zion;
and Pyrenees, Moriah; and oceans the
walking place of Him who trod the wave
cliffs of stormed Tiberias, and island
shall call to island, sea to sea, continent
to continent, and, the song of the worlds
redemption rising, the heavens, like a
great sounding board, shall strike back
the shouts Of salvation to the earth un-
til it rebounds again to the throne Of
God, and all Heaven rising on their
thrones, beat time with their scepters. !
o, what an humble beginningl What a
glorious endingl Throne linked to a
manger, heavenly mansions to stable. |
NV subject also impresses me with the |