The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-01-27
turned back that day from going

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for all of us The theologians who
stick to old religious technicalities until
they become soporifics would not call it
anything but conversion. ! call it q
change from going toward shutdown to
going toward sunrise. That man who
never tries to unbuckle the clasp of evil
habits 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 man will examine the sun-dial he
will find that the shadow is going for
ward 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 sand glasses that empty
themselves, all the shadows that move
on all the sun-dials indicate the APP
proach of darkness But now. in an
swer to prayer, as in my text the
change was in answer to prayer, the
pardoning Lord reverses things and the
man starts toward sunrise instead Of
sunset He turns the other way. The
Captain of Salvation gives him the mill.
tary command: Attention.! Right
about facet" He was marching toward
indifference, marching toward hard
ness Of heart marching toward prayer
lessness, marching toward sin, march
ing toward gloom, marching toward
death. Now he turns and marches to-
ward peace, marches toward light and
marches toward comfort and marches
toward high hope and marches toward
triumph stupendous and everlasting,
toward hosannas that evor 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 day break over Mont
Blanc and the Matterhorn, over the
heights of Lebanon, over Mount Wash
ington, over the Sierra Nevadas, and
mid Atlantic, the morning after de.
parted storm when the pillows were
liquid Alps and liquid Sierra Nevadas,
but the sunrise of the soul is more eff
fulgent and more transporting. II
battles 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 light that sickness can
not eclipse or death extinguish or eter'
nifty do anything but augment and mag
nifty. preach the sunrise. AS | look
at that retrograde movement of the
shadow on Ahaz's dial, / remember thai
it was sign that Hezekiah was going
to get we'll and he got we'll So / have
to tell all you who are by the grace o.
God having your day turned from de
cline toward night to ascent toward
morning, that you who are going to ge
we'll, we'll of all your sins, we'll of al
your sorrows, well of all your earthl.
distresses. Sanrise!
But, says some one, all that you sa.
may be true, but that does not hinde
the horrors of dissolution Why, yol
who are the Lords are not going IT, die
All that the grave gets of you as con-
pared with your chief. your immorta
nature, is as the clippings of you
finger nails as compared with yoa
whole body. AS you run the scissor
along the edge of your thumb nail an
you cut of that which is of no use
but rather hindrancc, you do NO
mourn over the departure of that frag
ment which flies away. Death will b
only the scissoring-off of that whic
could be of no use and the soul has n
funeral over that which would be q
awful nuisance if we could not get ri
of it. This body as it now is, what
failure it would make of heaven if Oh
departing soul had to be burdenc
with it in the next world. Will
others there go ten thousan
miles a minute we would talk
about an hour to walk four miles, an
while our neighbor immortals could Sc
hundred miles we could see only tie
miles, and the fleetest and healthiest I
our bodies if seen there would make
necessary to open in Heaven an asylur
for cripples. No; no; one OF the hes
possible things that will happen to u
will be the sloughing off of this bod
when we have no more use for it in il
present state. When it shall come u
in its resurrected form we will be yer
glad to get it back agaiu, but not as
is now with its limitations and bedwar
ments innumerable. Sunrise!
Then shall / battle my weary soul
In seas OF Heavenly rest.
| And not a wave Of trouble roll
Across ny peaceful breast.
Sunrisa But not like one of thos
mornings after you had gone to be
late, or did not sleep we'll and you &c
up chilled and yawning, and the morr
ing bath is repulsion, and you fee
like saying to the morning sun shinin
into your window: 81 do not see whs
you find to smile about; your brigh
ness is to me mockery. But the il
rush of the next world will be morr
ing after a sound sleep, sleep ths
nothing can disturb, and you will ris
the sunshine in your faces, and in yor
first morning in Heaven you will wac
down into the sea of glass mingled wit
fire, the foam on fire with a splendo
YOU never saw on earth and the rollin
waves are doxologies, and the rocks {
that shore are golden and the pul
bles of that beach are pearl, and tn
skies that arch the scene are con
mingling of all the colors that st job
saw on the wall of Heaven, the crimso
and the blue and the saffron and Il
orange and the purple and the gold ar
, the green wrought on those skies
zl.,>o of ,rorlandS of hammers of In