Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-09-09

and fill it as the well of Belgium never was.
Unclean, unclean
Another seraphic posture in the text
with twain he covered the face" That
means reverence Godward. Never 50 much
irreverence abroad in the world as to-day
You see it in the defaced statuarY, in the
cutting out of figures from fine paintings
in the chipping of monuments for a me-
mento in the fact that a military guard
must stand at the graves OF Grant AMI Gar
field, and that old shade trees must be cut
down for firewood, though fifty George
P. Morrises beg the woodmen TO
spare the tree, and that calls
corpse a cadaver, and that speaks of
jority, and substitutes for the reverent
terms, father and mother, 1.-THE old man"
ard ''the old woman" and finds nothing
impressive in the ruins Of Baalbec the
columns of karnac, and sees No dlHeren
liz the Sabbath from any other days except
it allows more dissipation. and reads the
Bible in what is called higher criticism,
making it not the Word of Goa. but good
book with some fine things IL it. Irrever-
ence never so much abroad. How many
take the name OF God In vain, how many
trivial things said about the Almighty.
Not willing to have Col III the world
they roll up an idea Of sentimentality
and humanitarianism and impudence
and imbeclity and call it God. No
wings of reverence over the face no taking
from the way they talk they could have
made better world than this, and that the
God of the Bible shocks every sense of pro-
priety. They talk of the love of God in
way that shows you they believe it does not
make any difference how bad man is here,
he will come in at toe shining gate. They
talk Of the love of God in such way which
shows you they think it is a general jail de-
livery for all the abandoned and the scoun-
drelisn of the universe. No punishment
hereafter for any wrong done here.
The Bible gives two descriptions of Col,
and they are just opposite, and they are
both true. In one place the Bible says God
is love. In another place the Bible says God
is consuming fire. Inc explanation is
plain as plain can be. God through Christ
is love. God out of Christ is fire. TO
the one AMI to escape the other we have only
to throw ourselves, body, mind and soul in
to Christs keeping. No." says lrrever-
ance, 81 want no atOnement, L want no par
don, want no intervention; will go up and
face God, and will challenge Him, and L
will defy Him, and [ will ask Him what He
wants to do with me.' So the finite con-
fronts the infinite, so a tack hammer tries to
break thunderbOlt, so the breath OF human
nostrils defies the everlasting God, while the
herarchs of heaven bow the head and bend
the knee as the King IS chariot goes by, and
tn archangel turns away because he cannot
endure the splendor, and the chorus OF all
the empires of heaven comes In With full
diapason, ''Holy, holy, holy"
Reverence for sham, reverence for the old
merely because it is old, reverence for stu
pidity however learned, reverence for in
capacity, however finely inaugurated, have
none. But want more reverence for
God, more reverence for the sacraments
more reverence for the Bible, more re7er
ence for the pure, more reverence for the
good. Reverence a characteristic of all
great natures. YOd hear it in the roll of
Ghe master oratorios. You see it in the
Raphaels and Titians and Ghirlandijos. You
study it in the architecture of the Aholiabs
and Christopher Wrens. Do not be f1ippant
about God. Do not joke about death, Do
not make fun of the Bible. Do not deride
the Eternal. The brightest and mightest
seraph cannot look unabashed upon Him.
Involuntarily the wings come up. "Witb
twain he covered his face"
Another seraphic posture in the text. The
seraph must not always stand still He
must move and it must be without clumsi-
ness. There must he celebrity and beauty in
the movement. with twain he did fly ="
Correction, exhilaration. Correction at our
slow gait, for we only crawl in the service
when we ought to fly at the divine bidding.
Exhilaration in the fact that the soul has
wings as the seraphs have wings. What is a
wing? An instrument of locomotion. They
may not be like seraph's wing, they may not
be like birds wing, but the soul has wings.
God says so. He shall mount up on wings
as eagles" We are made in the divine i'm
age, and God has wings; The Bible says SO:
of His wings" Under whose wings thou
hast come to trust" We have folded wing
now, wounded wing, broken wing, bleeding
wing, Gagged wing, Aye! l have it now,
Gagged within bars of bone and under cur
tains of flesh, but one day to be free. hear
the rustic of pnions in Seagraves poem,
which we often sing:
Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings.
Ihear the rustic of pinions in Alexander
Popes stanZa, which says.
Q Death, where he is thy victory
A dying Christian not long ago cried out,
Swings, wings, wingsp The air is full of
them, coming and going, coming and going.
You have seen how the dull, sluggish chrysa-
lid becomes the bright butterfly; the dull,
and the stupid, and the lethargic turned into
the alert and the beautiful. Well, my friends.
in this world we are in the chrysalid state.
Death VIII unturI the wings. ON, II we could
only realize what grand thing it will be to
get rid of the old clod of body and mount
the heavens, neither seagull nor lark nor
albatross nor falcon nor condor pitching
from highest range of Andes, so haoYant or
so ma estic of stroke.
See that eagle in the mountain nest. 1t
looks so sick, so ragged feathered, so worn
out and so half asleep. Is that eagle dying?
No. The ornithologist will tell you it is
season with that bird. Not dying,
but noting You see that Christian sick
and weary and worn out and seeming about
to expire on what is called his deathbed.
The world says he is dying. [ say it is the
melting season for his soul-the body
dropping away, the celestial pinions COM
ing on. Not dying, but molting. Melting
out of darkness and sin and struggle into
glory and into God. Why do you rot shout?
Why do you sit shivering at the thought OF
death and trying to hold back and wishing
IS