Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-07-16
lily is nightshade, or a morning lark is
OR DAY rs NIGHT.

lily is nightshade, or morning lark is
| vulture.
OR DAY Is NIGHT
| Now, if | should demand that all those
| people here present who have felt the con-
| verting power of religion should rise, so far
| from being ashamed, they would spring to
| their feet with more alacrity than they
| ever sprang to the dance, the tears ming
| ling with their eXhilaration as they cried,
| We are Witnesses And if they tried TO
| sing 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 l blush, De this my shame:
That no more revere his name.
Again, | remark that I'VE are witnesses"
| of the gospels power to comfort When a
man has trouble the world comes in and
says: Now get your mind of this; go out
| and breathe the fresh air: plunge deeper into
| business" What poor advice. Get YOUR
| mind off it. when everything is uptulned
with the bereavement, and everything re-
| minds you of what you have lost Get your
| mind off ii. They might as well advise
you to stop thinking in that direction
| Take a walk in the fresh air. Why. along
that very street, or that very road she once
accompanied you. Out of that grass-plot
she plucked flowers, or into that show
| window she looked fascinated. saving:
Come and see the pictures" Go deeper
into business. Why, she was associated
with all your business ambition, and since
she has gone YOU have no ambition left
Oh, this is clumsy world when it tries TO
comfort broken heart, | can build
Corliss engine, L can paint a Raphael's
Madonna" / can play a Beethoven's
symphony as easily as this world can
comfort a broken heart. And yet YOU have
been cornforted. 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 a 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,
so 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 colnforted my poor heart
There are Christian parents here who are
willing to testify to the power of this Cos
pei 10 comfort. Your son had Just gradu-
ated from school or college and was going
into business, and the Lord took him. Or
your daughter had just graduated from the
young ladies' seminary, and YOU thought
she was going 10 be a 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 out of your arms by some quick cpl
demic, and you stood wondering why God
ever gave YOU that child at all, if so soon he
was 10 take it away. And vet YOU are not
NIfarn NJ f-arf f11 pnt
fighting against God. What enabled you to
stand all the trial. oh" you say, Il took
the medicine that God gave my sick soul.
In my distress threw myself at the feet of
sympathlZlng God: and when l was too
weak TO pray, or to look up, he breathed
into me peace that ! think must be the
fOretaste of that heaven where there is
neither tear nor a farewell nor grave"
Come, all We who have been out to the grave
TO weep thcre-cOme all We cOmforted souls,
get off your knees. Is there no power in
this gospel to soothe the heart, Is there |
no power in this religion to quieu the worst
paroxysm of grief! There comes up an an
swer from comforted widowhood, and or
phanage, and childlessness, saying.
LAY, AY. WE ARE wITNEssEs!' |
Again, | remark that we are witnesses of |
the fact that religion has power 10 give |
cOmposure in the last moment. | shall |
never forget the first time | confronted |
death. W. went across the corn-fields in |
the country. | was led by nv fathers |
hand and we came TO the farm house |
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 that2 Why those black tassels at |
the top?' And after il was explained TO |
me, was lifted 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 /
bring illustrations of dying triumph. to go |
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 |
believe that the religion of Christ can give
compoSure i'll 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 [ |
am critical in my examination of you now;
and 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 great
difference in their death-bedS. Standing |
by the one we felt more generation. By the |
other, there was more tenderness" Before |
the one, you bowed. perhaps, in awe. In
the other case. You felt as if you would like |
TO so along 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
il up! oh, no. you say. no; | remember
as though IL were yesterday: she had !
kind word for vs all, and there were few |
mementoes distributed among the children,
and then she told US how kind We must he |
TO our father in his loneliness, and then she
kissed us good-by and went asleep as
child in cradle. What made her so COM
posed2 Natural courage. No" you say, |
'mother was very nervous: when the car
riage inclined to the side of the road, she
would cry out: she was always rather |
weakly" What gave her comp0sure? Was |
it because she did not care much for you. |
and the pang of parting was not greats
oh" YOU say. ''she Showered upon us d
wealth of affection; no mother ever loved
her children more than mother loved rs: |
she showed it by the way she nu'seG us |
when we We're sick, and she toiled for us |
until her strength gave out What. then, |
was it, that gave her composure in the last
hour Do not hide il. Be frank, and let |
me know! oh" YOU say, lit was because
she was so good: she made the Lord her |
portion. and she had faith that she would
go straight to glory, and that we should all
meet her at last
rrrr -.nNr an