Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-05-28


shall be near and like my God.
And sin and sense no more control
The endless pleasures OF nv soul.
But when speak Of the Selah OF en-
phasis must notice it is n startling, q
dramatic, emphasis. 1t has in it the
bark, the hist of the drama. That
Weakening and arousing emphasis we
who preach or instruct need to use
more frequently. The sleepiest audi
ences in the world are religious audi
ences.
You Sabbath school teachers ought to
have more of the dramatic element in
your instructions. BY graphic Scrip
ture scene, by anecdote, by descriptive
gesture, by impersonation, urge your
classes to right action. We want in all
our schools and colleges and prayer
meetings, and in all our attempts ut re-
form, and in all our churches, to have
less of the style didactic and more OF
the style dramatic.
o! we want in all our different de-
partments of usefulness-and l address
hundreds of people who are trying to
do good-we want more of the dramatic
element and less of the didactic. The
tendency in this day is to drone relig-
ion, to whine religion, to cant religion,
to moan religion, to croak religion, to
sepulchrize religion, when we ought to
present it in animated and spectacular
manner.
Sabbath morning by Sabbath morn
ing address many theological students
who are preparing for the ministry.
They come in here from the different
institutions say to them this morn
ing: If you will go home and look over
the history of the church you will find
that those men have brought most souls
to Christ who have been dramatic.
Rowland Hill. dramatic; Thomas Chal-
mers, dramatic; Thomas Guthrie, dra-
matte; Robert McCheyne, dramatic;
John Knox, dramatic; Christmas Evans,
dramatic: George Whiteiicld, dramatic;
Robert Hall. dramatic: Robert South,
dramatic: Fcnelon, dramatic; John
Mason, dramatic; DR.. Mott, dramatic.
When you get into the ministry, If you
attempt to culture that element, and try
to WELD it for God, you will meet with
mighty rebuff and caricature, and &C.
clesiastical council will take your case
in charge, and they will try to put You
down: but the God who starts Won will
help you through. and great will be the
eternal rewards for the assiduous and
the plucky.
Next speak of the Selah of perpetu-
itv. 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 1t means
eternal observation-disclosures! Gods
government forever, Gods goodness
forever, the gladness of the righteous
forever. 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
small scale. A hundred years are
great while. "a tower 500 feet is great
height. A journey of 1000 miles is
very long. But eternity! If the arch
angel has not strength of wing to fly
across it, but flutters and drops like a
wounded sea gull, there is no need OF
our trying in the small shallow OF
human thought to voyage across it.
A skeptic desiring to show his con-
tempt for the passing years, and to
show that he could build enduringly,
had his own sepulchre made OF the nm
est and the hardest marble, and then
he had put on the door the words FOR
time and for eternity" but it so hap
| pencd that the seed of tree somehow
rot into an unseen crevice OF the
marble. That seed grew and enlarged
until it became tree, and spnt the
marble to pieces. There can be no eter'
nalization of anything earthly. But for
ever. Will you and l live as long rs
that? Weare apt to think of the grave as
the terminus. We are apt to think OF
the hearse as our last vehicle. We are
ant to think of seventy or eighty or
ninety years, and then cessation. In
stead of that we find the marble slab OF
the tomb is only n milestone, marking
the first mile, and tine great journey Is
bevond. We have only time enough IN
this world to put on the sandals and &c
clasp our girdle and to pick up our staff.
We take our first step from cradle to
grave, and then we open the door and
start-great God, whittier? The clock
strikes the passing away of time, but
not the passing away of eternity
Measureless! Measureless! This Selaf
of perpetuity makes earthly inequali
ties SO insignificant, the difference be
tween scepter and needle, between Al
hambra and hut, between chariot anC
cart, between throne and curbstone, be
tween Administer and bare floor, be
tween satin and saclscloth, very trivial
This Selah of perpetuity makes our get
t;,y reodv so important. For such pro