The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-08-12

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their fire and producing revolutions
with their power, lighting up dyins
beds with their glory, they are the
sweetest thought for the poet, and they
are the most thrilling illustration fol
the orator, and they offer the most in
tense scene for the artist, and they arr
to the ambassador of the sky all enthu
siasm. Complete pardon for direst
guilt. Sweetest comfort for ghastli
est agony. Brightest hope for grim
NEST death. Grandest resurrection
for darkest sepulchre. o, what q
gospel to preach! Christ over all il
it. His birth. His suffering, His mira
cles, His parallels, His sweat, His tears
His blood, His atonement, His interces.
sion-what glorious themes! Do we
exercise faith? Christ is its object Do
we have love? 1t fastens on Jesus.
Have we fondness for the church? II
Is because Christ died for it. Have we
a hope of Heaven? 1t is because Jesus
went ahead, the herald and the fore
runner.
The royal robe of Demetrius was Sc
costly, so beautiful, that after he pat If
off no one ever dared to put it on; but
this robe of Christ, richer than that,
the poorest and the wanest and the
worst may wear. "lYhere sin abounded
grace may much more abound"
''Oh, my sins, my sins, said Martin
Luther to Staupitz, my sins, my sinsr'
The fact is that the brawny German
student had found a Latin Bible that
had made him quake, and nothing else
ever did make him quake; and when he
found how through Christ he was par
dOned and saved, he wrote to a friend,
saying: Come over and join us great
and awful sinners saved by the grace
of God You seem to be only slender
| sinner, and You don't much extol the
mercy of God; but we who have been
such very awful sinners praise His
| grace the more now that we have been
redeemed" Can it be that you are SO
| desperately egotistical that you feel
yourself in first rate spiritual trim, and
that from the root of the hair to the tip
of the toe you are scarlcss and immacu-
| late? What you need is a looking glass,
! and here it is in the Bible. Poor, and
wretched. and miserable, and blind,
and naked from the crown of the head
to the sole of the foot, full of wounds
and putrefying sores. No health in lis.
And then take the fact that Christ gath
( cred up all the notes against US and
paid them, and then offered us the re-
ceipt.
And how much we need Him in our
sorrows, We are independent of cir
cumstances if we have His grace Why,
He made Paul sing in the dungeon, and
under that grace ST. John from desolate
Patmos heard the blast of the apocalyp-
tic trumpets. After all other candles
have been snuffed out, this is the light
that gets brighter and brighter unto
the perfect day: and after, under the
hard hoofs of calamity, all the pools of
worlds enjoyment have been trampled
into deep mire, at the foot of the eter-
nal rock the Christian, from cups of
granite, lily trimmed and vine covered,
puts out the thirst of his soul.
Again, remark, that Christ is above
all in dying alleviations. l have not
any sympathy with the morbidity
abroad about our demise. The Emperor
of Constantinpole arranged that on the
day of his coronation the stonemason
should come and consult him about his
tombstone. And there are men who
are mOnOmaniacal on the subject of
departure from this life by death, and
the more they think of it the less they
are prepared to go. This is an UNI
manliness not worthy of you, not
worthy of me.
Saladin, the greatest conqueror of
his day, while dying, ordered the tunic
he had on him TO be carried after his
death on a spear at the head of his
army, and then the soldier ever and
anon should stop and say: Behold, all
that is left of Saladin, the emperor and
conqueror! OF all the states he con-
quered, of all the wealth he accumu-
lated, nothing did he retain but this
shroud." l have no sympathy with
such behavior or such absurd demon
stration, or with much that we hear ut
tered in regard to departure from this
life to the next There is a common
sensical idea on this subject that you
and l need to consider-that there are
only two styles of departure,
A thousand feet under ground, by
light of torch toiling in miners shaft,
ledge of rock may fall upon us, and
we may die miners death. Far out
at sea, falling from the slippery rat
lines, and broken on the halyards, we
may die a sailors death. On mission
of mercy in hospital, amid broken bones
and reeking leprosies and raging fevers,
we may die a philanthropist's death.
On the field of battle, serving God and
our country, slugs through the heart,
the gun carriage may roll over us, and
we may die a patriots death. But,
after all, there are only two styles of
departure; the death of the righteous
and the death of the wicked, and we all
want to die the former.
God grant that when that hour comes
you may be at home! You want the
hand of your kindred in your hand
You want your children to surround
you. You want the light on your pill
low from eyes that have long reflected
your love. You want the room still. |
You do not want any curious strangers
standing around watching you. You
want your kindred from afar to hear
your last prayer. l think that is the |
wish of all of US But is that all? Can |
earthly friends hold us when the pillows |
of death come up 20 the girdle? Can |
human voice charm open Heavens gate? |
Can human hands pilot US through |
the narrows of death into Heav- |
ems harbor? Can an earthly |
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