The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-08-24

weary, heart-sicl, slumbering earth,
singing to its silvery music, while it is
rocked in the cradle of the spheres.
Now, says my text, "Who is she, fair
as the moon?' Our answer is the church.
Like the moon, she is borrowed light.
She gathers up the glory of IA Saviours
sufferings, Saviour's death, a Saviours
resurrection, Saviour's ascension, and
pours that light on palace and dungeon,
on squalid heathenism and elaborate
scepticism, ON widows tears and mar
tyrs robe of flame, on weeping peni-
tence and loud-mouthed scorn.
She is the only institution to-day that
gives any light to our world. Into her
portals the poor come and get the sym
pathy of once pillowless Christ, the
bereaved come and see the bottle in
which God saves all our tears, and the
captives come, and on the sharp corners
of the affairs dash off their chains, and
thesthirsty come and put their cup under
the-'Rock of Ages" which pours forth
from it's smitten side living water,
sparkling water, crystalline water from
under the throne OF God and the Lamb.
Blessed the bell that calls her Worship
ers to prayer. Blessed the water in
which her members are baptized.
Blessed the wine that glows in her sac
ramental cups. Blessed the songs on
which her devotions travel up and the
angels of God travel down.
AS the moon goes through the midst
of the roaring storm clouds unfinished
and unframed, and comes out calm and
beautiful on the other side, so the
Church of God has gone through all the
storms of this worlds persecution and
come out uninjured, no worse for the
fact that Robespierre cursed it, and
Voltaire caricatured it, and Tom Paine
sneered at it, and all the forces of dark
ness have bombarded it. Not like some
baleful comet shooting across the sky,
scattering terror and dismay among the
nations, but above the long, bowling
night of the worlds wretchedness the
Christian Church has made her mild
way, ''Fair as the moon"
l take step further into my subject
CLEAR as the SUM-" After season of
storm or fog, how you are thrilled
when the sun comes out at MONDAY
The mists travel up hill above hill,
mountain above mountain, until they
are sky lost. The forests are full of
chirp and buzz and song; honey-makers
on the log, birds beak pounding the
bark, chatter of the squirrel on the
rail, the call of hawk out of the clear
sky, make you thankful for the sun
shine which makes all the world so
busy and SO glad The same sun which
in the morning so kindied conflagra-
tons among the castles of cloud, stoops
down to paint the lily white, and the
buttercup yellow, and the forget-me-
not blue.
What can resist the sun? Light for
the voyager on the deep; light for shep-
herds guarding the flocks afeld; light
for the poor who have no lamps to
burn; light for the downcast and
weary; light for aching eyes and burn
ing brain and consuming captive; light
for the smooth brow of childhood and
the dim vision of the octegenarian;
light for queens coronet and sewing
girls needle LET there be light"
Now, says my text. "Who is she that
looketh forth clear as the SUM" Our
answer is, the church. You have been
going along road before daybreak,
and on one side you thought you saw a
lion, and on the other side you thought
you saw a goblin of the darkness, but
when the sun came out you found these
were harmless apparitions. And it is
the great mission of the church of Jesus
Christ to come forth as ''clear as the
sum-" to illumine all earthly darkness,
to explain, as far as possible, all mys-
terry, and to make the world radiant
in its brightness; and that which YOU
thought was an aroused lion is found
out to be Il slumbering lamb; and the
sepulchral gates of your dead turn out
to be opening gates of heaven; and that
which you supposed was flaming
sword to keep you out of paradise, is an
angel of light to beckon you in.
The lamps on her affairs will cast
their glow on your darkest pathway,
and cheer you until, far beyond the
need of lantern or lighthouse, you are
safely anchored within the veil. O, sun
of the church, shine on until there is no
sorrow to soothe, no tears to wipe away,
no shackleS to break, no more souls to
be redeemed. Ten thousand hands of sin
have attempted to eXtinguish the lamps
on her affairs, but they are quenchless;
and to silence her pulpits, but the thun-
der would leap and the lightning would
flame.
The church of God will yet come to
full meridian, and in that day all the
mountains of the world will be sacred
mountains, touched with the glory of
Calvary, and all streams will flow by
the mount of God like cool Sloan, and
all lakes be radiant with gospel men,
cries like Gennesaret, and all islands of
the sea be crowned with apocalyptic
vision like Patmos, and all cities be sa-
cred as Jerusalem, and all gardens lux
uriant as Paradise, with God walking
in the cool of the day. Then the chorals
of grace will drown out the anthems of
earth. Then the throne of Christ will
overtop all earthly authority. Then the
crown of Jesus will outflame all other
coronets. Sin destroyed. Death dead.
He'll defeated. The Church triumphant.
All the darknesses of trouble, all the
darknesses of earthly mystery, hieing
themselves to their dens. 'Clear as the
sun, clear as the sum-