The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-01-15
flax
TOWARD THE SUNRISE

of Ahaz and | see the shadow of i
move | notice that il went back to
ward the sunrise instead of forward
toward the sunset toward the
morning instead of toward the night
That thing the world is willing now
to do and in many cases has done
There have a great many things beer
written and spoken about the sunset
of life. l have said some of then
myself. But my text suggests bet
ter idea. The Lord who turned bach
that day from going toward sundowI
and started it toward sunrise is will
ing to do the same thing for all of us
The theologians who stick to ole
religious technicalities until they be
come soporifcs would not call Il
anything but conversion. / call it 6
change from going toward sundowI
to going toward sunrise. That mar
who never tries to unbuckle the clasI
of evil habit, and who keeps all the
sins Of the past and the present
freighting him, and who ignores the
one redemption made BY the only
One who could redeem-if that mar
will examine the sundial he will fine
that the shadow is going forward
and he is ON the way to shutdown
His day is on the road to night
All the watches that tick, all the
clocks that strike, all the sandglasses
that empty themselves, all the shad
6ws that move on all the sundials
indicate the approach of darkness
But now, in answer to prayer, as in
my text the change was in answer
to prayer, the pardoning Lord re-
Yeres things and the man starts to
ward sunrise instead Of sunset. He
turns the other way. The captain
of salvation gives him the military
command: Attention Right about
facet" He was marching toward in.
difference, marching toward hard.
ness of heart, marching toward pray.
erlessness, marching toward sin,
marching toward gloom, marching
. toward death
Now he turns and marches toward
peace, marches toward Light and
marches toward comfort and march,
IS toward high hope and marches
toward a triumph stupendous and
everlasting, toward hosannas that
ever hoist and hallelujahs that ever
roll. Now if that is not the turning
of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz
from going toward shutdown to going
toward sunrise, what is it?
l have seen daybreak over Mont
Blanc and the Matterhorn, over the
heights of Lebanon, over Mount
Washington, over the Sierra Ne
vadas and mid-Atlantic, the morn
ing after departed storm when the
pillows were liquid Alps and liquid
Sierra Nevadas, but the sunrise of
the soul is more effulgent and more
transporting: 1t bathes all the
heights of the soul and illumines all
the depths of the soul and whelms
all the faculties, all the aspirations,
all the ambitions, all the hopes with
a light that sickness cannot eclipse
or death exting1lish or eternity do
anything but augment and magnify.
| preach the sunrise.
As | look at that retrograde move
ment of the shadow ON Ahaz's dial, !
remember that it was a sign that
Hezekiah was going to get well, and
he got well. So have to tell all you
who are by the grace Of God having
your day turned from decline toward
night to ascent toward morning, that
you are going to get well-well of all
your sins, well of all your sorrows,
well of all your earthly distresses.
SUNRISE
But, says some one, all that you
say may be true, but that does not
hinder the horrors of dissolution.
Why, you who are the Lords are
not going to die All that the grave
gets of you as compared with your
chief, your immortal nature, is as the
clippings of your finger nails as com.
pared with your whole body. AS you
run the scissors along the edge OF
your thumbnail and you cut off that
which is of no use but rather a hin
drance, you do not mourn over the
departure of that fragment which
flies away.
Death will be only the scissoring
off of that which could be of no use,
and the soul has no funeral over that
which would be an awful nuisance il
we could not get rid of it, This body
as it now is, what failure it would
make of heaven if our departing SOU
had to be burdened with it in the
next world While others there &C
ten thousand miles a minute we
would take about an hour to walk
four miles, and while our neighbol
immortals could see a hundred miles
we could see only ten miles, and the
feetest and the healthiest of oul
bodies if seen there would make il
! HCSCSoetl y w upon III hCdNCi Oil ttoy
lum for cripples.
No, no; one of the best possible
things that will happen to us will bt
the sloughing off of this body wher
we have no more use for it in its pres
ent state. When it shall come up il
its resurrected form we will be very
| glad to get it back again, but not al
it is now with its limitations and be
dwarfments innumerable. Sunrise
| There shall battle my weary soul
! In seas of heavenly rest,
| And not wave of trouble roll
Across my peaceful breast
SUNSHINE IN YOUR FACES.
Sunrisel But not like one of thos,
mornings after you had gone to be-
Late or did not sleep well, and you
get up chilled and yawning, ant
the morning bath is a repulsion, ant
you feel like saying to the morning
IL -, 4 II 4