Democratic messenger., 1892-01-16

Do not be watching for symptoms,
or you will have symptoms of every
thing. Some of you will yet die of
symptoms symptoms are often only
what we sometimes see in the country
"a dead owl nailed ON ii barn door to
scare living owls. Put your trust in
God, go to bed ut ten o'clock. have
the window open six inches to let in
the fresh air, sleep on Your right side
and fear nothing. The old maxim
was right. Get thy spindle and
distaff ready. and God will send thee
flax"
TOWARD THE SUNRISE
But while looking at this sundial
of AhaZ and | see the shadow of il
move notice that il went back to
ward the sunrise instead of forward
toward the sunset - toward the
morning instead of toward the night
That thing the world is willing now
to do and i'll many cases has, done
There have great many things been
written and spoken about the sunset
of life have said some of them
myself But my text suggests Il bet
ter idea. The Lord who turned back
that day from going toward sundown
and started it toward sunrise is will
ing to do the same thing for all of us
The theologians who stick To old
religious technicalitics until they be
come soporifics would not call it
anything but conversion. call it
change from going toward sundown
/ to going toward sunrise That man
who never tries to unbucklc the clasp
of evil habit, 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 ~.uld redeem-if that man
will examine the sundial he will find
that the shadow is going forward
and he is on the way To sundown
His day is on the road to night
All the watches that tick. all the
clocks that strike. all the sandglasses
7 that empty themselves. all the shad
ows that move ON all the sundials
indicate the approach of darkness.
But now, IN answer to prayer, as III
my text the change was in answer
to prayer, the pardoning Lord re
veres things and the man starts TO
ward sunrise instead of sunset He
turns the other way The captain
of salvation gives him the military
command: Attention. Right about
face" He was marching toward i'll
difference. marching toward hard
ness of heart, marching toward pray
erlessness. marching toward sin.
marching toward gloom, marching
toward death
Now he turns and marches toward
peace marches toward light and
marches toward comfort and march
rs toward high hope and marches
toward a triumph stupendous and
everlasting, toward hosannas that
ever hoist and hallelujahs that ever
roll Now if that Is not the turning
of the shadow on the dial of Ahaz
I from going toward sundown to going
toward sunrise. what is itl
have seen daybrcak over Mont
Blanc and the Matterhorn, over the
heights of Lebanon, over Mount
W ,,snlngton, over the Sierra Ne
vadas and mid Atlantic. the morn
ing after a departed storm when the
pillows We're liquid Alps and liquid
Sierra Nevadas. but the sunrise of
the soul is more cffllgent and more
transporting. 1t bathcs all the
heights of the soul and illmines all
the depths of the soul and whclms
all the faculties, all the aspirations,
all the ambitions. all the hopes with
light that sickness cannot eclipse
or death extinguish or eternity do
anything but augment and magnify
preach the sunrise.
AS look ut that retrogrsldc move
ment of the shadow ON AhaZ's dial, |
remember that it was 4 sign that
Hezekiah was going to get well, and
he got well So have to tell all you
who are by the grace of God having
your day turned from decline toward
night to ascent toward morning. that
you are going to get wcll-wcll of all
your sins, well of all your sorrows.
well of all your earthly distrcsscs
Sunrise,
But, says some one. all that you
say may be true. but that does not
hinder the horrors of dissolution
Why, you who are the Lords are
not going to die. All that the grave
gets of you as compared with Your
chief, your immortal nature, Is as the
clippings of your finger nails as com
pared with your whole body. As YOU
run the scissors along the edge of
your thumbnail and you cut off that
which is of no use but rather hin
drance, you do not mourn over the
departure Of that fragment which
flies away.
Death will be only the sCisSol'ing
off of that which could be of no use.
and the soul has no funeral over that
which would be an awful nuisance if
we could not get rid Of it, This body
as it now is. what Il failure it would
make of heaven if our departing soul
had to be bur,lencd with it III the
next world, While others there 90
ten thousand miles Il minute we
would take about an hour to walk
four miles. and while our ncighbur
immOrtals could see Il hundred miles
we could see only ten miles. and the
fieetest and the healthicst of ou
bodies if seen there would make ii
necessary to open in heaven an a'y
lum for cripples.
No, no; one of the best possible
things that will happen to us will H.
the sloughing off of this body when
we have no more use for it iii its pres
ent state When it shall come up IN
its resurrected form we will bc very
glad to get it back again, but not rs