News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-09-01

Another seraphic posture in the text.
The serapl must not always stand still.
He must move and it must be without
clumsiness. There must be celebrity and
beauty in the movement. with twain
he did fly" Correction, exhilaration
Correction at our slow gate, 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 image, and God has wings.
The Bible says so. Healing in his
WINGS" Under the shadow 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!
have it now Gagged within bars of bone
and under curtains of flesh, but one day
to be free. l hear the rustic of pinions
in Seagrave's poem, which we often
sing:
Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings.
1 hear the rustic of pinions in Alexan-
der Pope's stanZa, which says:
mount, 1 fly;
o Death, where is thy victory?
A dying Christian not long ago cried
out, "Wings, wings, wings!' The air is
full of them, coming and going, coming
and going. You have seen how the dull,
sluggish chrysalid 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 will unfurl the wings. Oh, if we
could only realize what grand thing
it will be to get rid of this old clod of a
body and mount the heavens, neither
seagull nor lark nor albatross nor falcon
nor condor pitching from highest range
of Andes, SO buoyant or so majestic of
stroke.
SORROW GOETH BEFORE FORGIVENESS.
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 melting season with
that bird. Not dying, but melting.
You see that Christian sick and weary
and worn out and seeming about to ex-
pire on what is called his deatEbed. The
world says he is dying. l say it is tho
melting season for his soul-the body
dropping away, the celestial pinionS
coming OH. Not dying, but melting.
Noting or of darkness and sin and
struggle ir,, glory and into God. Why
do you not grcrA2 Why do you sit shiv-
ering at the thought Of death and tryine
to hold back and wishing you could stay
here forever, and speak of departure as
though the subject were filled with skel-
etons and the varnish of collins, and as
though you preferred lame foot to swift
wing?
o people of God, let US stop playing
the fool and prepare for rapturous flight.
When your soul stands on the verge OF
this life and there are vast precipices
beneath and sapphired domes above,
which way will you fly? Will you
swoop or will you soar? Will you fly
downward or will you fly upward!
Everything ON the wing this morning
bidding us aspire. Holy Spirit on the
wing. Angel of the new covenant on
the wing. Time on the wing, flying
away frow Us. Eternity on the wing,
flying toward us. Wings, wings, wings
Live so near to Christ that when you
are dead people standing by your life
less body will not soliloquize, saying,
"What disappointment life was tc
him; how averse he was to departure,
what pity it was he had to die; what
an awful calamity" Rather standing
there may they see sign more vivid on
your still face than the vestiges of pain,
something that will indicate that it was
happy exit-the clearance from op-
pressive quarantine, the castof chrysa-
lid, the melting of the faded and use
less and the ascent from malarial val
leys to bright, shining mountain tops,
and be led to say as they stand there
contemplating your humility and your
reverence in life and your happiness in
death, ''With twain he covered the feet,
with twain he covered the face, with
twain he did fly" Wings! Wings.
Wings!