Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-02-01

occurred. lU5 popuiattDu h"8 p"o@
rspled. sextupled. centIipled. Heaven
has more on hand, more of iapture.
more of knowledge. more Of inter
communication. more Of worship.
There is not so much difference be
tween Brooklyn seventy-fve years
ago. when there were few houses
DOWN on the East river and the vii
lage reached up only to Sands street.
as compared with whct this great city
Is pow-yea. not so much difference
between New York when Canal street
was far up town and now when Canal
street is far down town, than there
Is a difference between what heaven
was when my text was written ard
what heaven is now. The most thrill
ing place we have ever been in IL
stupid compared with that, and if we
now have no time TO spare we will
then have no eternity to spare. 81
lence in heaven only half an hour
HALF HOURS TO BE REMEMBERED.
Ms subject also impresses me with
the Immortality of half hour. That
half hour mentioned in my text is
more widely known than any other
period in the calendar Of heaven.
None of the whole hours OF heaven
are measured of, none OF the years,
none of the centuries. Of the mil
lions of ages past and the millions Of
ages to come. not one is especially
measured off in the Bible The half
hour of my text is made immortal.
The only part of eternity that was
ever measured by earthly timepiece
was measured by the minute hand of
my text.
Oh, the half hours They decide
everything. | am not asking what
you will do with the years or months
or days of your life, but what of the
half hours9 Tell me the history of
your half hours and will tell you
the story of your whole life on earth
and the story Of your whole life in
eternity. The right or wrong things
you can think in thirty minutes, the
right or wrong things you can say in
thirty minutes, the right or wrong
things you can do in thirty minutes
are glorious or baleful, inspiring or
desperate. Look out for the frag
ments Of time. They are pieces of
Il was the half hours between shoe
ing horses that made Elihu BnTitt
the learned blacksmith, the half
hours between professional calls as a
physician that made Abercrombie the
Christian philosopher, the half hours
between his duties as schoolmasteT
that made Salmon p. Chase chief jus
tice, the half hours between shoe
lasts that made Henry Wilson vice
president Of the United States, the
half hours between canal boats that
made James A. Garfield president.
The half hour a day for good books
or bad books, the half hour day for
prayer or indolence, the half hour a
day for helping others or blasting
others, the half hour before you go
to business, and the half hour after
you return from business: that
makes the difference between the
scholar and the ignoramus, between
the Christian and the infidel, be-
tween the saint and the demon, be
tween triumph aud catastrophe, be-
tween heaven and hell. The most
tremendous things of your life and
mine were certain half hours.
The half hour when in the parson-
age of country minister ] resolved
to become a Christian then and there
the half hour when / decided to be.
come preacher of the Gospel; the
half hour when | realized that my
son was dead; the half hour when ]
stood on the top of my house in Ok
ford street and saw our church burn
the half hour in which entered
Jerusalem; the half hour in which l
ascended Mount Calvary; the half
hour in which stood on Mars hill
the half hour in which the dedicatory
prayer of this temple was made, and
about ten or fifteen other half hours
are the chief times of my life.
You may forget the name of the
exact years or most of the important
events of your existence, but those
half hours, like the half hour of my
text will be immortal. do not
query what you will do with the
twentieth century, l do not query
what you will do with 1892, but
what viii you do with the next half
houri Upon that hinges your des
tiny. And during that some of you
win receive the Gospel and make
complete surrender, and during that
others of you viii make final and
fatal rejection of the full and free
and urgent and impassioned offer of
life eternal.
Oh, that the next half hour might
bo the most glorious thirty minutes
Of your earthly existence. Far back
in history great geographer stood
with a sailor looking at a globe
that represented our planet, and he
pointed TO a place on the globe where
he thought there was an undiscov-
cred continent. The undiscovered
continent was America. The geog-
rapher who pointed whore he
thought there was new world was
Martin Behaim, and the sailor TO
whom he showed il was Columbus.
This last was not satisfied till he had
picked that gem out of the sea and
set ii in the crown of the worlds
geography.
Oh, ye, who have been sailing up
and down the rough seas of sorrow
and sin, let me point out TO you an
other continent, yea, another world,