Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-06-26


track. Sin and sorrow have collide1 with
| IT, The groan OF agony Is fourteen hun
dred million voiced. God has opened for
| relief and cure q great sanitarium, great
house OF mercy, and all its shelves are
| filed with balslms with catholicons, with
help-gloriods help, tremendous help, help
so easily administered that you need not get
upon any step ladder to reach it. You can
reach It Oh your knees and then hand it TO
all the suffering and the shining, and the
| diving. Comfort for all the troubled Par
don for all the guilty Peace for all the dy-
! ingl But while the world is needing the re-
lief and perlshing for lacl; OF it. what OF thu
church, Why, it is full OF ghting doctors.
| On the top shelf are some Old bottles, which
| several hundred years ago Calvin or Armin-
| ius, or the members of the synod of bort, or
| tho formers OF the Nicene creed filled with
| holy mixtures, aud until We get q revision Of
these old bottles and find out whether we
| must take a teaspoonful or tablespoonful,
and whether before or after meals, let the
nations suffer and groan and die. Save the
bottles by all means, il you cannot save any
thing else.
Now, what part shall you aul take in
this controversy which fills all Christeudom
with clangory My advice is, take no part.
In time OF riot all mayors OF cities advise
good citizens TO stay at home or III their
places of business AMI in this time Of relg-
lous riot advise you to go about your reSu-
lar work for God. Leave the bottles on tho
higher shelves for others to fight about AMI
take the two bottles on the shelf within
easy reach, the two bottles whlcl are all
this dying world nccls; the one tlllei with
potion which is for the cleansing OF all sin,
the other filled with n potion which is for
the soothing of all suffering. Two Gospel
bottles! Christ mike them out Of His own
tears and blood. In them is no human
admixture Spenl no time on the
mysteries! You, man only five or
six feet high, ought not 10 try to wade
an ocean a thousand feet deep. My own
experience has bcen vivid. | devoted the
most OF my time for years IN trying to un-
derstand Gods eternal DEGREES, and was de-
termined to find out why the Lord let sin
come into the world, and / st out to explore
the doctriue OF the Trinity, and with yari-
stick TO measure the throne OF the Infinite.
AS with all my predecessors, the attempt was
dead failure For the last thirty years
have not spent two minutes in studying the
controverted points Of theology, and II I live
thirty years longer | will not spend the thou.
saudth part Of a second in such exploration.
know two things and these [ will devote
all the years Of my life in proclaiming Sod
will through Jesus Christ pardon sin, and
He will comfort trouble.
Creeds have their uses but Just now the
church is creeded TO death. The young men
entering the ministry are going to be
launched in the thickest fog that ever set
tied on tho coasts. AS am told that in all
our services students of Prin ceton and IN
ion and Drew and other theological semi
naries are present. AMI as thes3 words will
come to thousands of young men who are
soon to enter the ministry, let me say 10
such and through them To their associates
keep out OF the bewidering be'ittling, de-
S:roying and angry controversies abroad
Inc questions our doctors OF divinity are
! trying TO settle will not be settled until the
day after the day of judgment. 1t Is such a
! poor economy OF time TO spend years and
| years in trying to fathom the unfathomable
! when in five minutes in heaven we will know
! all we want to know Wait till we get our
throne. Wait till the light Of eternity
flashes upon our newly ascended
spirits. 1t is useless for ants on different
sides Of a mole hill to try to discuss the COM
parative heights of Mount Blanc and Mount
| Washington. Let me say to all young men
about TO enter the ministry that soon the
greatest novelty in the world will be the un-
adulterated religion of Jesus Christ Preach
that and you will have crowd. The world
! is sick TO regurgitation with the modern
quacks in religion. The world has been
swinging Off from the old Gospel, but it will
swing back, and by the time you young men
go into the pulpitS the cry will be coming up
from all the millions of mankind "Give us
the bread OF life; no sweetened bread, no
bread with sickly raisins stuck here and
there into it but old-fashione1 bread as God
our mother mixed and baked itp
Now, what is the simple fact that you in
the pew and Sabbath-school class and re-
formatory association and we in the pulpits
have to deal withS Is is this: That God has
49,
somewhere, provided great heaven, great
for quetneSS for those who want quiet; great
for vast aSsemhlage for those who like null
ttudes; great for architecture for those who
like architecture; great for beautiful land
scape for those who like beautiful landscape;
great for music for those who like music;
great for professions for those who
like armies on white horses, and great
for anything that one especially desires in
such a rapturous dominion, and through the
doings OF one who was born about
five miles south Of Jerusalem AMI died
about ten minutes walk from its east
ern gate all may enter that great heaven
for the earnest and heartfelt asking. Is
that allp That is all. What, then, is your
work and miner Our work is to persuade
people to face that way and start thither-
ward and finally go in. But has not reli-
gon something to do with this world as we'll
v
that IL the people start for heaven on their
way there they will do all the good they cant
They will at the very start of the journey
get so much Of the spirit of Christ which is
a spirit OF kindness and self sacrifice and
generosity and burden bearing aud helpful
ness that every step they take will resound
with good deeds. Oh, get your religion of
of stilts Get it down out of tho high tow
ersl Get it on level with the wants and
of human rnpaf Cot IL N
the dusty theological books that few people
read, and put it in their hearts and lives
Good thing is 1t to profess religion when
you join the church, but every day. some
how, we ought to profess religion.
A peculiar patchwork quilt was, during
tho Civil War; made by lady and sent 70
the hospitals at the front. She had a boy in
the army, and was naturally Interested in
the welfare Of soldiers. But what patch.
work quilt she sent! On every block o. tbs
quilt was "A passage of Scripture or a vers;
Of a hymn. The months and years of thu
war wentby. On that quilt many q woundct
man had lain and suffered and diel. But
one morning the hospital nurse saw patient
under the blanket kissing the figure OF a leaf
in the quilt, and the nurse supposed he was
only wandering in his mind. But no. he wa:
the son OF the mother who had made the
quilt and he recognized that figure of leaf
as part OF a gown his mother used to wear,
and 1t reminded him of home. "Do you know
where this quilt came fromY he asked. The
nurse answered, II can find out, for there
was card pinned fast to it, and will fine
that" Sure enough. it confirmed what h,
, thought. Then the nurse pointed to passag
, Of Scripture in the block of the quilt the pas
sage which says "When he was yet a grea
, ways off his father saw him and ran and fel
on his neck and kissed him." "Yes," said tn
,, dying soldier, ~ was great way Off, bu
God has metme and had compassion on me.
"Shall write to your mother and tell he
that the lost one is found and the dead
alive againY' He answered, II wish yo
. would, II it would not be too much trouble
? Do you suppose that woman who made thn
9 quilt and filled it with scripture passages ha
l any trouble about who Melchizedek was, O