Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-05-04


fifty thuusand souls into the kingdom
of Christ. An argument they can laugh
at, a sermon they may talk down, but
a vast audience joining ia one anthem
is irresistible. Would that Queen Balkis
would drive all her spice laden drome-
daries into our church music Neither
was there any such spice rs the queen
of Sheba gave King Solomon"
Now l want TO impress this audience
with the fact that religion is sweetness
and perfume, and spikeunrd and saf-
from and cinnamon and cassia and
gether. oh" you say, II have not
looked at it as such thought it was
a nuisance; it had for me a repulsion; /;
l held my breath as though it were
malodor; l have been appalled, at its
advance; ] have said, If have any re-
ligion at all, want to have just as lit
tie of it as is possible b get through
with" Oh, what a mistake you have
made, my brother. The religion of
Christ is present and everlasting red
olence 1t counteracts all trouble.
| Just put it on the stand beside the pill
low of sickness 1t catches in the cur
tains and perfumes the sitting air. 1t
sweetens the cup of bitter medicine,
and throws glow on the gloom of the
turned lattice. 1t is q balm for the
aching side, and a soft bandage for the
temple stung with pain.
1t lifted Samuel Rutherford into a
revelry of spiritual delight while he was
in physical agonies 1t helped Richard
Baxter until, in the midst of such a
complication of diseases as perhaps no
other man ever suffered, he wrote THE
Saints Everlasting Rest, and it poured
light upon John Bunyan's dungeon
the light of the shining gate of the
shining city-and it is good for rheu-
matism, and for neuralgia, and for low
spirits. and for consumption. 1t is the
catholic III for all disorders. Yes, it
will heal all your sorrows.
Why did you look 50 sad today when
you came in2 Alas for the loneliness
and the heartbreak, and the load that
is never lifted from your soul. Some
of you go about feeling like Macaulay
when he wrote, 'If l had another
month of such days as | have been
spending, would be impatient to get
down into my little narrow crib in the
ground like a weary factory child.
And there have been times in your life
when you wished you could get out of
this life. You have said, "Oh, how
sweet TO my lips would be the dust of
the valley" and wished you could pull
over you in your last slumber the Gov
erlet of green grass and daisies You
have said: "Oh how beautifully quiet
it must be in the tomb. | wish was
there" | sec all around about me
widowhood and orphanage and child
lessness, sadness, disappointment, per
plexity If | could ask all those to
rise in this audience who have felt no
sorrow, and been buffeted by no disap-
pointment if / could ask all such to
rise how many would rise? Not one.
SOME ILLUSTRATIONS.
A widowed mother with her little
child went west, hoping to get better
wages there, and she was taken sick
and died. The overseer of the poor
got her body and put it in box, and
put it in wagon and started down
the street toward the cemetery at full
trot. The little child-the only child
ran after it through the streets, bare
headed, crying; "Bring me back my
mother Bring me back my lnother"
And it was said that as the people
looked on and saw her crying after
that which lay in the box in the wagon
all she loved on earth-it is said the
whole village was in tears. And that is
what great many of you are doing
chasing the dead Dear Lord, is there
no appeasement for all this sorrow that
see about me2 Yes, the thought of
resurrection and reunion far beyond
this scene of struggle and tears. "They
shall hunger no more, neither thirst
any more, neither shall the sun light
on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb
which is in the midst of the throne
shall lead them to living fountains of
water, and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes"
Across the couches of your sick, and
across the graves of your dead, fling
this shower of sweet spices. Queen
Balkis, driving up 10 the pillared por-
tico of the house of cedar, carried no
such pungency of perfume as exhales
today from the Lords garden. 1t is
peace, 1t Is sweetness, II Is comfort
II Is infinite satisfaction, this gospel
commend to you Some one could not
understand why an old German Chris
tian scholar used to be always so calm
and happy and hopeful when he had
so many trials and sleknesses and all
ments. A man secreted himself in the
house, He said, II mean a watch this
old scholar and Christian " and he saw
the old Christian man go 20 his room
and sit down on the chair beside the
stand and open the Bible and begin TO
read, He read on aud on, chapter
after chapter, hour after hour, until
his face was all aglow with the tidings
from heaven, and when the clock struck
twelve he arose and shut his Bible and
said; nBleSsed Lord, We are ON the
same old terms yet Good night, good
night
Oh, you sin parched and you trouble
pounded, here is comfort, here Is salts
faction. Will YOU come and get III