The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-09-04

Darreu against your soul, ana VOICE
from the throne shall stun you with the
announcement, You shall not see my
face except your brother be with you,
NO soLAcE IN THIS WORLD
My text also suggests the reason why
30 many people do not get any real
comfort, You meet ten people, nine
of them are in need of some kind Of
coincidence. There is something in
their health, or In their state, or in
their domestic condition, that demands
sympathy. And yet the most OF the
worlds sympathy amounts to abso.
lutely nothing, People 30 to the wrong
crib, or they go In the wrong way,
When the plague was In Rome great
many years ago there were eighty men
who chanted themselves to death with
the litanies of Gregory the Great--lit-
orally chanted themselves to death.
and yet It did not stop the plague. And
all the music of the world cannot halt
the plague of the human heart.
come to some one whose ailments
are chronic, and say, in heaven You
will never be sick" That does not
give you much comfort What you
want is a soothing power for your pres
ent distress Lost children, have youi
| come to tell you that in ten years per
haps you will meet these loved ones be-
fore the throne Of God But there is
but little coincidence In that. One day
is year without them, and ten years
is small eternity. What you want Is
sympathy now-present help |
come to those of you who have lost
dear friends, and say; Try to forget
them. Do not keep the departed al
ways in your mind" How can you
forget them when every figure in the
carpet, and every book, and every pic
ture and every room calls out their
name
Suppose come to you and say by
way of coincidence, God is wise ="
"Oh," you say, that gives Inc no
help" Suppose come to you and say,
God, from all eternity, has arranged
this trouble. Abr you say, that does
me no good" Then l say, with the
swift feet of prayer go direct to the corn
crib for heavenly supply" You go.
You say, Lord, helpme; Lord, comfort
me-" But no help yet. No comfort
yet. 1t is all dark What is the mat
teri have found. You ought to go
to God and say: Here, o Lord, are
the wounds of my soul, and l bring
with me the wounded Jesus Let his
wounds pay for my wounds, his be-
reavements for my bereavemcnts, his
loneliness for my loneliness, his heart
break for my heart break. 0 God! for
the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ-the
God, the man, the Benjamin, the broth
er-deliver my agonized soul. o Jesus
Of the weary foot, ease my fatigue, o
Jesus of the aching head, heal my ach-
ing head. O Jesus of the Bethany sis
tiers, roll away the stone from the door
of our grave"
THE FERvENT, EFFECTUAL PRAYER.
That is the kind of prayer that brings
help; and yet how many Of you are
getting no help at all, for the reason
that there is in your soul, perhaps, a
secret trouble You may never have
mentioned it to single human ear, or
you may have mentioned it to some
one who is now gone away, and that
great sorrow is still in your soul. After
Washington Irving was dead, they
found little box that contained a
braid of haIr AMI n;iii1,t ure, anu thc
name of Matilda Hoffman, and a
memorandum of her death, and re-
mark something like this: THE world
after that was blank to me, I went
into the country, but found no
peace in solitude. tried to go into
society, but l found no peace in socie-
ty. There has been horror hanging
over me by night and by day, and
am afraid to be alone"
How many unuttered troublesl No
human ear has ever heard the sorrow.
0 troubled soul, want to tell you that
there is one salve that can cure the
wounds of the heart, and that is the
Balve made out of the tears of sym
pathetic Jesus And yet some of you
will not take this solace; and you try
choral and you try morphine and you
try strong drink and you try change of
scene and you try new business associa-
tons and everything and anything ra-
ther than take the divine companion
ship and sympathy suggested by the
words of my text when it says, you
shall not see my face again unless your
brother be with you" Oh that you
might understand something Of the
height and depth and length and
breadth and immensely and infnity of
Gods eternal consultations.
l go further and find in my subject
a hint as to the way heaven opens to
the departing spirit. We are told that
heaven has twelve gates, and some
people infer from that fact that all the
people will go in without reference to
their past life. But what is the use of
having a gate that is not sometimes to
be shut9 The swinging of gate i'm
plies that our entrance into heaven is
conditional 1t is not a monetary con
dition. If we come to the door of an
exquisite concert we are not surprised
that we must pay fee, for we know
that fine earthly music is expensive
but all the oratorios of heaven cost
nothing.
Heaven pays nothing for its music.
| 1t is all free There is nothing to be
paid at that door for entrance, but the
condition Of getting into heaven is our
bringing our divine Benjamin along
with us. Do you notice how otter
dying people call upon Jesus2 tits the
usual prayer offered-the prayer offered
more than all the other prayers put to
gether-'I Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
One of our congregation, when asked
in the closing moments of his life, "Dc
you know usf' said: ''Oh, yes, | know
you. God bless you. Goodby Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit" and he wa: