Democratic messenger., 1892-11-05

Yc are travelling home 10 God
In the way Your fathers trod
They are happy now. and
soon their happiness shall
The church of God never will be n
triumphant church until it becomes a
singing church.
20 further and remark that the birds
of the air are wiser than we in the fact
that in their migration they fly very
high. During the summer. when they
are in the fields, they often come within
reach of the gun. but when they start
for the animal flight southwark they
take their places midheaven and go
straight as an arrow 10 the mark. The
longest rifle that was ever brought 10
shoulder cannot reach them. Would 10
God that we We're as wise as the stork
and crane in our flight heavenwardl
We fly so low that we are within easy
range of the world, the flesh and the
devil. We are brought down by temp
tations that ought not TO come within a
mile of reaching MS.
Oh. for some of the faith of George
Muller, of England, and Alfred Cook
man. once of the church militant, now
of the church triumphant. So poor is
the type of piety in the church of God
now that men actually caricature the
idea that there is any such thing as a
higher life. Moles never did believe in
eagles. But, my brethren, because we
have not reached these heights ourselves,
shall we deride the fact that there are
any such heights:
A man was once talking to Brunei.
the famous engineer, about the length
of the railroad from London to Bris ol
The engineer said: 1T is not very great.
We shall have after awhile steamer
running from England to New York. =
They laughed him to scorn; but we have
gone SO far now that we have ceased to
laugh at anything as impossible for hu-
man achievement. Then, ask, is any
| thing impossible for the Lord: do not
believe that God exhausted all his grace
in Paul and Latimer and Edward Pay
son. | believe there are higher points Of
Christian attainment to be reached in
the future ages of the Christian world.
KEEP ABOVE THE ATMOSPHERE OF SIN.
You tell me that Paul went up to the
tiptop of the Alps of Christian attain
ment. Then | tell You that the stork
and crane have found above the Alps
plenty of room for free flying. We 20
ont and we conquer our temptations by
the grace of God and lie down. On the
morrow those temptations rally them
selves and attack us, and by the grace of
God we defeat them again, but staying
all the time in the old encampment we
have the same old battles to fight over.
Why not whip ont our temptations and
then forward march, making one raid
through the enemys country, stopping
not until we break ranks after the last
victory?
| Do, my brethren. let us have some
novelty of combat at any rate, by chang
ing, by going on, by making advance
ment. trading off our stale prayers about
sins we ought to have quit long ago.
going on toward higher state of Chris
tian character and routing out sins that
we have never Thought of yet The fact
| is. if the church of God, if we, as indi-
viduals, made rapid advancement i'll the
Christian life, these stereotyped prayers
we have been making for ten or fifteen
years would be as inappropriate to us as
the shoes. and the hats, and the coats
we wore ten or fifteen years ago. Oh.
for higher flight i'll the Christian life,
the stork and the crane in their migra-
tion teaching us the lesson.
Dear Lord. and shall We ever live
| At this poor dying rate
Our love SO faint cold TO thee.
And thine to Us great:
| Again, remark that the birds of the
air are wiser than we, because they
know when to start. If You should go
ont now and shout. stop. storks and
cranes; don't be in a hurry" they would
say: mo, we cannot stop. Last night
we heard the roaring i'll the woods bid
ding us away, and the shrill flute of the
north wind has sounded the retreat
We must go. We must GO So they
| gather themselves into companies, and
turning not aside for storm or mountain
top or shock of musketry, over land and
sea. straight as an arrow to the mark,
they go.
And if you come ont this morning
with sack of corn and throw it in the
fields and try 10 get them To stop, they
are so far up they would hardly see it.
| They are on their way south You
could not stop them. Oh. that we We're
as wise about the best time to start for
God and heaven. We say: Wait until
il is little later in the season of mercy.
| Wait until some of these green leaves of
hope are all dried up and have been
scattered. Wait until next year" And
after awhile we start. and it is too late,
and we perish in the way when Gods
wrath is kindled but little.
FATE OF THOSE WHO LiNGER TOO LONG.
| There are, You know. exceptional
cases where birds have started too late,
AMI in the morning you have found
them dead on the snow. And there are
those who have perishcd half way be-
tween the world and Christ. They
waited until the last sickness, when tho
mind was gone, or they We're ON the ex-
press train going at forty miles an hour.
and they came To the bridge. and the
draw was mp" and they Went down.
How long to repent and pray: Two
seconds. Two seconds. To do the work
of lifetime and to prepare for the vast
eternity in two seconds.
was reading of an entertainment
given in kings court. and there wcr"
musicians there with elaborate pieces of
music. After awhile Mozart came ami
began to play. and he had a blank piece
of paper before him. and the king famil-
iarly looked over his shoulder and said:
What are you playing: see no music
before You" And Mozart put his hand
on his brow. as much as To say, II am
improvising. 1t was very well for him,
but, OH my friends. we cannot extern
porize heaven, If we do not get pre-
pared in this world we will never take
part in the orchestral harmonies Of the
saved. Oh, that we We're as wise as the
crane and the stork. flying away, flying
away from the tempest