Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1892-06-11

u gvu our sermons. ana our exnor,aIlons,
and our prayers out of the old rut. | see a
great deal OF discussion in the religious pa
pers about why people do not come to
church. They do not come because they are
not interested. The old hackneyed religious
phrases that come moving do wa through
the centuries will never arrest the masses.
What we want to-day. You in your sphere
and [ in my sphere, Is to freshen up. Peo-
pie do not want in their sermons the sham
flowers bought at the millinery shop, but
the japonicas wet with the morning dew:
nor the heavy bones OF extinct rnegatherium
OF past ages, but the living r~einleer caught
last August at the edge Of Scbroon lake.
We want to drive out the drowsy. and the
prosaic. and the tedious. and the humdrum,
and introduce the brightness and vivacity,
and the holy sarcasm, and the sanctlfiei
Wit. and the e~pigrammatic power. ana the
blood red earnestness, and the fire Of relig-
tous zeal and l do not know Of any way
of'doing it as we'll as through the dramatic.
Attention! Behold Hark, Selah'
Next / speak of the Selah OF perpetuity.
The Targum,, which is the Bible in Chaldee,
renders this word Of my text forever"
Many writer's agree in believing and stating
that one meaning of this word is forever"
In this very verse from which l take my
text Selah means not only poetic significance
and intermissIon and emphasis, but it means
eternal reverberation forever. Gods
government forever. God goodness. for
over. the gladness of the righteous for
ever. OF course you and | have not
surveyors chain with enough links to
measure that domain of meaning. In this
world we must build everything on a small
scale. A hundred years are a great while.
A tower five hundred feet is a great height.
A journey Of four thousand miles is very
long. But eternity! II the archangeI has
not strength Of wing to fly across it, but
P,,tforc opd dror- 1iEa q xro,r1aI caornji
there is no need of our trying in the small
shallow Of human thought to voyage
across it.
A skeptic, desiring to show his contempt
for the passing years and to show that he
could build enduringly, had his own
sepulcher made of the finest and the hardest
marble, and then he had put on the door the
words. For time and for eternity" but it
SO happened that the seed Of a tree somehow
got into an unseen crevice Of the marble.
That seed grew ana enlarged until it became
a tree and split the marble to pieces. There
can be no LIBERALIZATION Of anything earthly.
But forever! Will you and | live as long as
that? We are apt to think of the grave as
the terminus. We are apt to think OF the
hearse as our last vehicle. We are apt to
think of seventy or eighty or ninety years.
and then a cessation.
Instead of that we find the marble slab Of
the tomb Is only a milestone, marking the
u hIAics o1A Ludt SIcdk JUL ley L DS-
You'd. We have only time" enough in this
world to put on the sandals and to clasp our
girdle and to pick up our staff. We take our
first step from cradle to grave, an | the we
open the door and start-great God, whittier:
The clock strikes the passin. away OF time,
but not the passing away OF eternity. Meas
ureless, nleasureless. This Selah Of perpet,
uity makes earthly inequalities SO insignifi
cant, the difference between scepter anC
needle, between Alhambra and hut, between
chariot and cart, between throne and curb
stone, between Administer and bare floor
between satin and sackcloth, very trivial.
This Selah Of perpetuity makes our getting
ready so important. For such prolongatiou
of travel what outfit OF guidebooks, of pass
ports and of escort? Are we putting out Oh
a desert, simeon swept and ghoul huntel, OF
into regions of sun lighted and spray
sprinkled gardens: VIII it be Elysium OF
Gehenna? Once started in that world, WE
cannot stop. The current is SO swift that
once in no oar can. resist it, no helm car
steer out of it, no herculean or titanic arm
can battle it. Hark to tho long resoundine
echo, forever" Oh, wax e up to the inter
est of your deathless spirit. Strike out fol
heaven. Rouse ye, men and women fol
whom Jesus died. Selah! Selah! Forever
Forever!