Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-08-06

about the pilgrims progress to the
celestial city, or John Bunyan had at
tempted an essay on the human will.
Brighter than the light, fresher than
the fountains, deeper than the seas are
all these gospel themes. Song has no
melody, flowers have no sweetness,
sunset sky has no color compared with
those glorious themes. These harvests
of grace spring up quicker than we can
sickle them. Kindling pulpits with
their fire and producing revolutions
with their power, lighting up dying
beds with their glory, they are the
sweetest thought for the poet, and they
are the most thrilling illustration for
the orator, and they offer the most in
tense scene for the artist, and they are
to the ambassador of the sky all enthu-
siasm. Complete pardon for direst
guilt. Sweetest comfort for ghastli-
est agony. Brightest hope for grim
NEST death. Grandest resurrection
for darkest sepulchre. o, what q
gospel to preach! Christ over all in
it. His birth, His suffering, His mira
Giles, His parallels, His sweat, His tears,
His blood, His atonement, His interces-
sion-what glorious themes! Do we
exercise faithP Christ is its object Do
we have love? It fastens on Jesus.
Have we fondness for the church? 1t
is because Christ died for it. Have we
q hope of Heaven? 1t is because Jesus
went ahead, the herald and the fore
| runner.
The royal robe of Demetrius was so
costly, so beautiful, that after he pat it
off no one ever dared to put 1t on; but
this robe of Christ, richer than that,
the poorest and the wanest and the
worst may wear. "Where sin abounded
grace may much more abound"
''Oh my sins, my sins, said Martin
Luther to Staupitz, my sins, my sins!'
The fact is that the brawny German
student had found Latin Bible that
had made him quake, and nothing else
ever did make him quake; and when he
found how through Christ he was par
doned and saved, he wrote to friend,
saying: Come over and join us great
and awful sinners saved by the grace
OF God You seem to be only n slender
sinner, and you don't much extolthe
mercy of God; but we who have been
such very awful sinners praise His
grace the more now that we have been
redeemed"
And how much we need Him in our
sorrows! We are Independent OF cir
cumstances if we have His grace. Why,
He made Paul sing in the dungeon, and
under that grace st. John from desolate
Patmos heard the blast of the apocalyp-
tic trumpets After all other candles
have been snuffed out, this is the light
that gets brighter and brighter unto
the perfect day; and after, under the
hard hoofs of calamity, all the pools of
worlds enjoyment have been trainpled
into deep miro, at the foot of the eter-
nal rock the Christian, from cups of
granite, lily trimmed and vine covered,
puts out the thirst of his soul.
Again, l remark, that Christ is above
all in dying alleviations. l have not
any sympathy with the morbidity
abroad about our demise. The Emperor
of Constantinpole arranged that on the
day of his coronation the stonemason
should come and consult him about his
tombstone. And there are men who
are monomaniacal on the subject of
departure from this life by death, and
the more they think of it the less they
are prepared to go. This is an I'M
manliness not worthy of you, not
worthy of me.
God grant that when that hour comes
you may be at home! You want the
hand of your kindred in your hand.
You want your children to surround
YOU. You want the light on your pill
low from eyes that have long reflected
your love. You want the room still.
You do not want any curious strangers
standing around watching you. You
want your kindred from afar to hear
your last prayer. / think that is the
wish of all of us. But is that all? Can
earthly friends hold US when the pillows
of death come up to the girdle? Can
human voice charm open Heavens gate?
Can human hands pilot us through
the narrows of death into Heav-
ems harbor? Can an earthly
friendship shield us from the arrows of
death and in the hour when Satan shall
practice upon us his internal archery?
No, no, no, no! Alas poor soul, if that
is all, better die in the wilderness, far
from tree shadow and from fountain,
alone, vultures circling through the
air waiting for our body, unknown to
men, and to have no burial, if only
Christ could say through the solitudes,
81 will never leave thee, l will never
forsake thee" From that pillow of
stone ladder would soar heavenward,
angels coming and going; and across
the solitude and barrenness would come
the sweet notes of heavenly minstrelsy.
Gordon Hall, far from home, dying in
the door of q heather temple, said: