The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-07-16

I'm the Presbyterian church at clsu-
ton preached an able soui-stirring
sermon from tho text: sand I give
unto them eternal iife." John 10th
chapter aud 2sth verse. lie .aid
that recently he was talking with n
lady OF the Unitarian belief and she
said that she hal carefully real the
New Testament aud had failed TO
find a single argument In prof OF
the divinity of Christ. She Wa.
careless and uncomprehan.iing read.
er. She passed over and failed To
observe many arguments or proofs.
The text to-day is one of the proofs,
proof positive and sufficient with.
In itself. "Ieive unto them eternal
life" Who can do that but one d.
vine? Who else has ever claimed
to do it? The world IL profane and
wicked aud men have said many dar-
ing, preposterous, presumptuo,is. and
sacriligious things and claimed credit
for doing things 20 weak men Inn
possible, but lone but Jesus Christ
and his Faiher who are one, has ever
laid claim to the power To give eter-
nal life. Yes, II 10 the gilt OF diviu-
ity.
LIFE MATERIAL.
But let NJ look at life In the
material world. A flower buds,
blooms, languishes aud passes away.
1t Is dead and that Is all. The butch
er takes a young, strong fat aud Wig
orous animal TO the slaughter he
cuts the jugular vein, the animal
bleeds, trembles, falls, Is soon stiff
Is dead, and that Is all. Another
animal called man IL strong and Wig
orous; 1t becomes sick, languishes,
dies, II returned e. mother earth and
apparently that IL all. Yes, the life
that we sec Is gone. Life, life!
What is life? The philosopher con.
tracts his brow aud speculates, but
cannot answer. The chemist analy-
ses and experiments, but cannot an
swer. We look out at the stars and
planets and trace their course and
discover the law CT their movements,
we look nj the vegetable life arJund
us, analyse 1t and learn something Of
| Its svo,ot powor, b..t tho iifa that ~
| "ii.i.- 49,, - ffs.i.. ..... L.a,u a.r @.
We scarcely know anything. Bat we
know one thing. We know that II
Is short and checkercd. A large per
cent die in infancy, another large
rer cent before maturity, very few
reach the ripe development Of from
fifty 10 sixty and only here and there
ut long intervals stands tottering
remnant Of gone and hushcd GEN
Grafton.
The editor Of literary paper OF
this State said few days since that
he was the only one left Of a large
class at school. every other one had
mingled with the dust. A few gen.
erationssince the average age Of man
was only thirty years. Due TO tho
increased knowledge of the sciences,
arts and medicines, Il Il now thirty
three years. How short, how feet
ing, how uncertain! often look
upon body or number OF mon, some
with siivery locks and all over forty,
putting their heads and energy to.
gether to accomplish some work.
see them striving and working with
every effort, and the thought comes
up, II few years more and where will
you be? In the dust and time rolls
on. saw a gathering OF young peo-
pie, full Of bouyant life and energy.
They are striving fer amusement and
enjoyment, or TO attain some noble
purpose. 1t makes me..feel younger
AID stronger sose them, and enjoy
it with them, but the same thought
comes up, II will not down. / see
someti,nesa group Of romping bright
eyed children in my yard, enjoying
life like butterflies. i am delighted
to sec their guileless amusements.
But the same thought, the same
shadow comes up and drops veil
over the pleasure. A third of their
average life is already gone and they
have not even yet conceived the pur-
pose Of earthly life. Yes, a few more
moments Of time and they too have
yaiiished--are dust again. And thus
shadow hangs around all OF what
we call pleasure. Just think of IT,,
our even chances are only thirty
three years, and those Of us who are
lingering longer are staying on bor-
rowed time. But at longest, what q
+ short space! Only span of space.
: only moment Of time. Yet how
.lo We spend it, how do we use this
moment of time ON which We show
what our place shall be I'm all eterni-
ty? We spend 1t striving to mass
/ up wealth and in contending with
each other. And thus we spend life,
Of which we know 80 little, save
th.tit is short, I'm scramble and strife.
Plato with all his speculation and
philosophy had little or no concep-
, zion of anything beyond this unsat-
,, isfactory and trying moment OF life.
, Caesar in all his earthly glory and
!, power said i'm the Itoman Forums
that deatI, was an eternal sleep, q
: surceasc from toll and strife. Even
the Jews, the chosen people Of God,
with all their boasted religion, had
: 10 adequate conception OF the life
: eternal. Surrounded by this state o
affairs, Christ stood I'm the world
3 and m..ee the simple statement thai
8 He would give Us
: ETERNAL LIFE.
What a magnificent, what q gloriou,
gift! Yes, We are to have spiritual
= life-a life eternal. But here We
: are i'm the midst of change, continua
!. change, where everything is con-
stantly stopping, going out, dying
How can we conceive of a life thai
= does not end? As we know little OF
: temporal life, SO we know little ol
= the endless life. We know what
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