Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1892-05-26

pause. God will fill it up with a sick
bed or commercial disaster, or q
grave. But, thank God, it is not a
breaking down; it is only pause. 1t
helps us to appreciate the blessings
that are gone; 1T gives us higher appre-
Citations of the blessings that are to
| come.
The Selah of HabaklulS and David is
q dividing line between two anthems.
David begins his book with the words,
blessed is the man." and after seven
| ty-four Selahs, he closes his book with
the words, praise ye the Lord" So
are going to be mercies before us. 1t
is good for us that God halts us in
our fortunes, and halts us with
physical distress, and halts us at
| the graves of our dead. More
| than once you and have been halted
by such Selah. You wrung your
hands and said, 81 can't see any sense
| in this Providence; l can't see why God
gave me that child, if he is SO soon go.
ing to take it away, o my desolate
home! o my broken heart" You could
not understand it. But it was not
Selah of overthrow. 1t gave you greater
appreciation of the blessings that have
gone; it will yet give you greater APP.
probation of the blessings that will
come.
When the HuguenOts were being
very much prosecuted in France,
father and mother were obliged to fly
a. II. II.
in the possession of Il comparative
stranger They did not know whether
they would ever return, or returning,
if they would be able to recognize their
child, for by that time she might be
grown. The mother was almost
frenzied ut the thought of leaving
the child, and then, even if coming
back again, not being able to know
her. Before they left, the father
drew his sword, and he marked the
wrist of that child with deep cut
1t must have been a great exigency
to make father do that.
Years of absence passed on, and after
while the parents returned, and their
first anxiety was to find their lost
land examining the wrists of the young
people, when 10! after while the
father found maiden with scar upon
her wrist She knew him not, but he
knew her. And o, the joy of the re-
union. So it is now. "Whom the Lord
loveth he cEasteneth." He cutteth, he
marketh, and when he comes to claim
l.; m I Nd lnntu 4,
are his; know them by the scar of their
trouble, know them by the stroke OF
their dcsolation.
A sceptic 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
finest and the hardest marble, and then
lie had put on the door the words, "For
time and for eternity" but it so hap
pened that the seed of tree somehow
got into an unseen crevice of the mar,
bic. That seed grew and enlarged
until 1t became tree, and split the
marble to pieces. There can be no
eternalization of anything earthly.
But forever viii you and
live as long as that? We are apt to
think of the grave as the terminus.
We are apt to think of the hcarse as
our last vehicle. We are apt to think
of seventy or eighty or ninety years,
and then a cessation. Instead of that
we find a marble slab of the tomb is
only Il milestone, marking the first
mile, and that the great journey is be-
Nrnnl Va hn 10 in,
this world to put on the sandals and to
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-grcat God, whittier?
| The clock strikes the passing away of
time, but not the passing away OF
eternity. Measureless! Measureless.
This Selah of perpetuity makes earthly
| inequalities SO insignificant, the differ
ence between scepter and needle, be-
| tween Alhambra and hut, between
chariot and cart, between throne and
| curbStone, between Administer and
bare floor, between satin and sack
cloth, very trivial. This Selah of per-
petuitv makes our getting ready so
important, For such prolongation of
travel, what outfit of guideboolx of
passports and of escort? Are we
| putting out on desert, simoom-swept
and ghoul-haunted, or into regions of
sun-lighted and spray-sprinklcd gar
dens? VIII it be Elysium or GeLenna?
Once started in that world, we cannot
stop. The current is so swift that once
in, no oar can resist it, no helm can
steer out of it, no herculean or titantic
arm can battle it. Hank to the long
resounding echo forever" o wake
up to the interest of your deathless
| spirit! Strike out for heaven. Rouse
We, men and women for whom Jesus
died. Selah! Selah. Forever! forever!