Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-09-08

with Uou. Inc wings or reverence are
lifted. with twain he covered the face.
THE Use OF Wigs.
Another seraphic posture in the text
The seraph 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, exhila-ation.
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 wingg
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" "Un-
der whose wings thou hast come to trust. 4"
We have folded wing now, wounded wing,
broken wing, bleeding wing, Gagged wing.
Ayel have it now. Gagged within bars
of bone and under curtains of flesh, but
one day to be free. hear the rustic Of
pinions in Seagrave's poem which we
often sing:
Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings.
hear the rustic of pinions in Alexander
Pope's stanza, which says:
Imount, 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 60
ing. You have seen how the dull, slug
gish chrysalid becomes the bright butter
fly; the dull and the stupid and the leth-
argic turn into the alert and the beautiful.
Well, my friends, in this world we are in
a 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 the body and mount the
heavens, neither seagull nor lark nor alba
tross nor falcon nor condor pitching from
highest range of Andes so buoyant or SO
majestic of stroke.
STRUGGLE TOWARD GOD.
See that eagle in the mountain nest. 1t
looks SO sick, so ragged feathered, so worn
out and so half asleep. Is that eagle dying9
No. The ornithologist will tell you IL is
molting season with that bird. Not dy-
ing, but molting. You see that Christian
sick and weary and worn out and seeming
about to expire on what is called his death
bed. The world says he is dying I say
it is the molting season for his soul-the
body dropping away, the celestial pinions
coming on. Not dying but molting. Molt-
ing out of darkness and sin and struggle
into glory and into God. Why do you not
shout2 Why do you sit shivering at the
thought of death and trying to hold back
and wishing you could stay here forever,
and speak of departure as though the sub
ject were filed with skeletons and the
varnish of coffins, and as though you pre-
ferred lame foot to swift wing?
Opeople 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 be-
meath, and sapphired domes above, which
way will you fly? Will you swoop or will
you soarH 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 from 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 lifeless body
will not soliloquize, saying, "What dis
appointment life was to him; how averse
he was todeparture; what a pity it was he
had to die; what an awful calamityp'
Rather standing there may they see sign
more vivid on your still face than the yes
tiges of pain, something that will indicate
that it was a happy exit--the clearance
from oppressive quarantine, the castof
chrysalid, the molting of the faded and
useless, and the ascent from malariaI
valleys to bright, shining mountain tops
and be led to say, as they stand there con
templating your humility and your rever
ence 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