Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-02-09
r wont INTO +ba room of an aged man.

said Il would like to go over and join
nv wife on the other side of the flood,
and am waiting until the Lord calls
me. / am happy now | shall be
happy there,
What is it that gave that aged man
SO much satisfaction and peace Phys
zeal exuberance? No, it has all gone.
Sunshine He cannot see it. The voices
of friends He cannot hear them. 1t
is the grace of God, that is brighter
than sunshine and that is sweeter than
music If harpist takes harp and
finds that all the strings are broken but
one string, he does not try to play upon
it. Yet here | will show you an aged
man the strings of whose joy are all
broken save one, and yet he thrums it
with such satisfaction, such melody
that the angels of God stop the swift
stroke of their wings and hover about
the place until the music ceases. Oh, re-
ligion's ''ways are ways of pleasantness,
and all her paths are peace. And If
YOU have not the satisfaction that is to
be found in Jesus Christ | must tell
you, with all the concentrated emphasis
of my soul, "One thing thou lackest.
CHRIST CALLS YOU TO USEFULNESS.
l remark, again. that you lack the
element of usefulness. Where is your
business? You say it is No. 45 such a
street, or No $50 such a street, or No.
300 such street. My friend immortal,
your business is wherever there is a
tear to be wiped away or a soul to be
saved You may, before coming to
Christ, do great many noble things.
You take a loaf of bread to that starv-
ing man in the alley, but he wants i'm
mortal bread You take q pound Of
candles to that dark shanty. They
want the light that springs from the
throne of God, and you cannot take it
because you have it not in your own
heart. You know that the fight OF an
arrow depends very much upon the
strength of the bow, and / have to tell
YOU that the best bow that was ever
made was made out of the cross OF
Christ. and when religion takes soul
and puts it on that and pulls it back
and lets it fly, every time it brings
down a Saul or Goliath.
There are people here of high social
position, and large means, and cultured
minds, who. if they would come into
the kingdom of God, would set the city
on fire with religious awakening. Oh,
hear you not the more than million
voices Of those in these two cities who
are unconverted? Voices of those who
in these two cities are dying in their
sins? They want light. They want
bread They want Christ. They want
heaven Oh, that the Lord would
make you a flaming evangell As for
myself. have sworn before high
heaven that | will preach this gospel as
well as | can, i'll all its fullness, until
every fiber OF my body, and every fac
ulty of my mind and every passion Of
my soul is exhausted. But we all
have a work to do | cannot do your
work, nor can you do my work God
points US out the place where we are to
serve, and yet are there not people IN
this house who are thirty, forty, fifty,
and sixty years of age, and yet have
not begun the great work for which
they were created2 With every worldly
equipment, "One thing thou lackest. "
Again, you lack the element of per
sonal safety. Where are those people
who associated with you twenty years
ago? Where are those people that fif-
teen wears ago used to cross South
ferry or Fulton ferry with you to New
York? Walk down the street where
you were in business fifteen years ago
and see how all the signs have changed.
Where are the people gone? How
manv of them are landed in eternity
cannot say, but many, many. l went
to the village of my boyhOOd. TIE
houses were all changed. [ passed one
house in which once resided a man
who had lived an earnest, useful life,
and he is in glory now. In the next
house miser lived. He devoured
widows houses, and spent his whole
life in trying to make the world worse
and worse. And he is gone-@he good
man and the miser both gone to the
same place All, did they go to the
same place? 1t is an infinite absurdity
to suppose them both in the same
place. If the miser had a harp what
tune did he play on it?
Oh, my friends, l commend to you
this religion as the only personal safety.
When you die where are you going to-
When we leave all these scenes, upon
what scenes will we enter? When we
were on shipboard, and we all felt that
we must go to the bottom, was L right
in saying to one next me, Il wonder L
we will reach heaven if we do go down
to-nightY Was | wise or unwise il
asking that question? l tell you that
man is a fool who never thinks of the
errna+ f=.t--1,A
If you pay money you take re
,eipt. If you buy land you record
the deed. Why? Because everything
is so uncertain you want it down IL
black and white, you say. For hous'
and lot twenty-five feet front by on
: hundred feet deep, all security; bu
for a soul, vast as eternity, nothing
nothingl If some man or woman
: standing III some of these aisles, should
drop down, where would you go to
l Which is your destiny? Suppose
man is prepared for the future world
what difference does it make to hin
whether he goes to his home today o
I goes into glory2 Only this difference
{ if he dies he is better off. Where b
l had one Joy on earth he will have
million in heaven. When he has
small sphere here he will have CRANE
) sphere there. Perhaps it would COS
) you sixty, or one hundred, >or one hun
dred and fifty dollars to have you
physical life insured, and yet free o
charge l offer you insurance on you
immortal life, payable not at your de
cease, but now and tomorrow am
| every day and always.
My hope in Christ is not SO bright a
r many Christians l know, but [ woul
not give it up for the whole universe il
, one cash payment if it were offere
f me- 1t has been so much comfort
me in time of trouble, it has been S
f much strength to me when I have bee
: assailed, it has been SO much rest t
me when have been perplexed, and
3 is around my heart such an encasemen
I of satisfaction and blessedness that
9 can stand here before God and say
a 'HTake away my health, take away M