The record-union., 1891-04-27

AAlSel CL4Co W bllC SIhNS. LAY cllcCStbS
day, but the day gone with its blessings
anu privileges, has gone forever!
Listen to the water mln,
All the livelong day;
How the grinding of the wheels
Wear the hours away!
Languidly the autumn wind
StirS the withered leaves.
In the fields the reapers sing,
Binding up the Sheaves;
And prOverb hauntS the mind,
As its spell is cast
"You can never grind again
With the water that Is paStn'
Oh, the wasted hours of life
Swiftly gliding by!
Oh, the good we might have done
Gone, without sigh!
Love, that one had power to save,
Never put in word
Thoughts conceived, but ne'er expressed
Perishing unheard!
Take the proverb to thy soul
Take and hold il fast.
'That the mill viii never grind
With the water that is pastw
Take the lesson TO thyself
Loving heart and true;
Golden years are speeding by
Youth is passing, too!
Learn TO make the most of life,
Lose no happy day;
Time VIII neeT return its joys,
Slighted-thrOWn away!
Leave no tender word unsaid;
Love, while love can last;
"FOr the mill will never grind
With the water that IS paStn'
Work while yet the sun doth shine
Man OF strength and will!
For the StFeamlet never glideS
Useless by the mill.
Wait not till tO-mOrrOw'S sun
Shines upon thy way
All that thou canst call thine own
Lies within today
Intellect and blooming health
CannOt-Will not last
For the mill viii never grind
with the water that is past!"
Who has not felt pang of heart-ache
as he looked for the last time over the
hill-tops toward the dear old home
nesting amid the trees and foliage, and
seen the last glimpse of a waving hand
kerchief, and caught a look from
sad, wlstful face, as a devoted mother
watched through binding tears the fad
ing form of the child of her heart and the
strong support of old ages enfeebled
powers! All, many of you can even now
recall some such sweet but sad expert
ence; and how, night after night, as you
sat in the hush and meditation of twi-
light, you knelt and prayed that the
blessing Of God might rest upon that sa-
cred spot and the dear ones of that far
away household. =
How the poor emigrants heart must
sink Within as he leans over the taffrail
OF the vessel and gaZeS upon the fading
shores of his native land, and the home
and the green fields of his happy child
hood! The bold Jack-tar lifts his little
ones up III his arms as he tenderly kisses
them good bye'' in front of the little
vine-clad cottage; and often when the
wind shrieks and means through the
creaking cordage and the lurid glare Of
the lightning leaps from billow 70 billow
there comes before his eyes a shadowy
vision of that last good by'' at the door
OF that tar-away, precious cottage!
The soldier, wrapped in his well-worm
blanket, crouches over the dying en-
bers OF the smoldering campfire to take
last look at some farewell trinket-tne
cherished locl1et within whose golden
circle Is the sweet face of wife or
babe-tor the booming guns proclaim that
ere the sun sets tomorrow many wife
viii be widowed, and many a babe and
home viii be fatherless!
All through life there are farewells and
partlngS. Every setting sun carries with
ii the fact of d day departed! Then there
are farewells-deep and sad farewells-tO
LIES once bright hopes and expectations.
Oh, how many there are here this morn
ing who often sit down and feel the tears
trickle over their cheeks when they
think of their best hopes and expecta-
tions unfulflled and unrealized. How
the vision of their early life has
crumbled into dust and youths bright
pictures turned into somber blotches
low much better life would have been
for many had they only lived nobly-
wiselyi But ii is too late-too late! and
the past is gone, with its gifts and its OPP
portunities, and there remains only the
present and the futuren'
OF all the sad words of tongue or pen..
The saddeSt are these-it might have been
And now, under the brooding shadow
of that past which seems TO hover about
us this morning, l entreat you to learn
the lesson ofprotit and retrievement, and,
by all these mistakes and errors, and by.
al those misspent hours and neglected
blessings the brevity of life, and hope
OF Heaven-I ask you to look 10 God, and
i've wisely and nobly.
But il is well for us to remember. amid
the ceaseless rattle and jar of times tly
ing ShuttleS that the Great Power which
stands above and superintends this vast
machinery of human activity is God,
Our tather-iufinite, gracious, loving and
personal; and that, amid all the change
ana decay-the farewells and partings,
the seeming jar and discord-he who
works with God must be in harmony
with his plans and purpose.
10 such one there comes the con-
sclouSness ofpeace and resignation. The
shuttle may stop, or the thread seem
broke etft II Is well; the pattern is in the
NINA OF God, perhaps unknown to you
and to me. Our portion has been done.
and we nave woven our little part into
Gods eternal fabric.
Then, there is the flippant and shallow
''good by" that trips from lips with no
soul nor heart beneath il. or the cold vim
dictiye good byh that still dwelIS uDon
some fancied III of the past and is tipoed
with un-Christian bitterness, Rut fbe
true farewell-the sincere farewell of the
noble Apostles kind and generous:
everything bitter and unpleasant forgot,
ten, everything bright and cheerful re-
mem bered! Bless God, may such GOOD
bvs ever be ours! May trials, hardships
and errors be buried deep in the drifted
past, while its joys and Victories be kept
and cherished!
In every ministerial life there are two
phases-that which is public, and that
the other has a deeper meaning and inn
Dort; it lies within the charmed circle of