Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-01-24

A million dollars? 1t is certainly worth more
than that But cheaper than that you can
have it. Ten thousand dollars? Less than
that. Five thousand dollars! Less than
that. One doilars Less than that. One
farthingi Less than that. "Without money
and without price" No money to pay. No
journey to take. No penance to suffer.
Only just one decisive action of the
soul: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved" Shall try to tell
you what it is to be saveds | cannot tell
you No man, no angel can tell you. But
can hint at it. For my text brings me up to
this point, ''Thou shalt be saved.n 1t means
happy life hero, and peaceful death and
a blissful eternity. 1t is grand thing to go
to sleep at night, and to get up in the morn
ing, and to do business all day feeling that all
is right between my heart and God. No acct
dent, no sickness, no persecution no peril, no
sword can do me any permanent damage.
am forgiven child of God, and he is bound
to see me through. He has sworn he will SEQ
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 life and death, things present
and things to come, are mine. Yea, further
than that--it means a peaceful death
u
Mrs Hemans, Mrs Sigourney, Dr. Young
and almost all the poets have said handsome
things about death. Theirs is nothing beauti-
full 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 do
not want anybody poetizing around about us.
Death is loathsomeness and midnight and the
wringing of the heart until the tendrils snap
and curl in the torture unless Christ be with
us. ! confess to you to an infinite fear, a
consuming horror, of death unless Christ shall
be with me- | would rather 90 down into O
cave of wild beasts or jungle of reptiles than
into the grave unless Christ goes with me.
Will you tell me that | am to be carried out
from my bright home and put away in the
darkness! | cannot bear darkness. AT the
first coming of the evening | must have the
gas lit, and the further on III 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
tol When the holidays come and the gifts
are distributed, shall I add no JOY tc
the MERRY Christmas or the "Happy New
Year" All, do not point down to the hole
in the ground, the grave and call it q
beautiful place: unless there be some super.
natural illumination, shudder back from it
My whole nature revOlts at it, But now this
glorious lamp is lifted above the grave and
all the darkness is gone and the way is clear
| look into il now without a single shudder
Now my anxiety is not about death: my
anxiety is that | may live Alright; for ! know
that if my life is consistent when | come tc
the last hour, and this voice is silent and
these ewes are closed, and these hands with
which BEG for your eternal salvation today
are folded over the still heart, that then
shall only begin to live. What power i.
there in anything to chill me in the last
hour, if Christ wraps around me the skirt
of his own garmenti What darkness can
fall upon my eyeids then amid the heav.
emily daybreal! o death, | will not feai
thee then. Back to thy cavern of darkness
thou robber of all the earth. Fly, thou de
spoiler of families. With this battle ak
hew thee in twain from helmet to sandal, the
voice of Christ sounding all over the eartt
and through the heavens: 80 death, viii
be thy plague O grave, will be thy de
struction."
JESUS THE CHIEF BLOOM OF HEAVEN.
To be saved is to wake up in the presenc,
of Christ. You know when Jesus was upon
earth how happy he made every house he
went into, and when he brings us up to hi
house how great our glee. His voice has
more music in it than is to be heard in al
the oratoriOs of eternity. Talk not abou
banks dashed with eiiiorescence. Jesus is tn,
chief bloom of heaven. We shall see the very
face that bealned sympathy in Bethany, anC
take the very hand that dropped its BLOOD
/ from the short beam of the cross. O,
want to stand in eternity with him Towar,
that harbor | steer. Toward that goal | run
/ shall he satisfied when | awake in his like
hess. Oh, broken hearted men and women
how sweet it will be in that good land t,
pour all your hardships and bereavement
and losses int the loving ear of Christ, ant
then have him explain why it was best TO-
you TO be sick, and why it was best for yol
to DE widowed, and why it was best for yol
to be prosecuted, and why it was best for YOU
to be tried, and have him point to an eleva
ton proportionate to your disquietude here
saying: you suffered with me on earth
come up now and be gloritied with me il
heaven
Some one went into a house where Their
had been good deal of trouble and said t
the woman there: You seem to be lonely.
Yes she said II am lonely How man
| in the family" "Only myself "Hav
you had any children Il had seven chi
dren.' w mere are they! "GOne." "A
gone" "All" "All deadf' AL" The
she breathed long sigh into the lone
illness and said: ''Oh, sir, | have been
good mother to the grave And so ther
are hearts here that are utterly broken dow
by the bereavements of life. point you tc
day to the eternal balm of heaven Are Their
any here that am missing this morningi {
you poor waiting maid! your hearts sorro,
poured in no human ear, lonely and sad! no,
glad you will be when Christ shall disban
all your sorrows and crown you queen unit
God and the Lamb forever! O. aged men an
women, fed by his love and warmed by hi
grace for three score years and ten will nc
your decrepitude change for the leap of
hart when you come TO look face to fac
upon him whom, having not seen, you love
O, that will be the Good Shepherd, not on
in the night and watching to keep OIL til
wolves, but with the lambs reclining on tn
sun lit hill. That will be the Captain of on
salvation, not amid the roar and crash, an
boom of battle, but amid his disbanded trooE
keeping victorious festivity. That will /
the Bridegroom of the Church coming fror
afar, the bride leaning upon his arm Will