Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-06-03

ments OF usefulness-and address hunirs Is
OF people who are trying co do good-wa
want more OF the dramatic element an less
of the diiactic. The ten iency in this way
is to drone religion, 20 moan religion, to
croak religion, &c sepulchrizs religion when
we ought to present it in animated and spec
tacular manner.
Sabbath morning by Sabbath morning
address many theological students who ara
preparing for the ministry. They come in
TO them this morning: If you will go
home and look over the history of the
church you will find that those
men have brought most souls to
Christ who have been dramatic-Rowland
Hill, dramatic; Thomas Chalmers, dramatic,
Thomas Guthrie, dramatic; John Knox,
dramatic: Robert McCheyne, dramatic;
Christmas Evans dramatic; George White
field. dramatic: Robert Hall, dramatic;
Robert South, dramatic; FeneloD, dramatic;
John Mason, dramatic: DR.. Mott, dramatic.
When you get into the ministry, if you at
tempt to culture that element and try to
WELD it for God You will meet with mighty
rebuff and carIcature, and ecclesiastical
counsel Will take your case in charge, and
they Will try to put you down, but the God
who starts you will help you through, and
great will be the eternal rewards for the as
siduous and the plucky
What we want, ministers and laymen, is
to get our sermons, and our exhortations,
great deal OF discussion in the religious na.
pers about why people do not come to
church. They do not come because they are
not interested. The old hackneyed religious
phrases that come moving do wn through
the centuries will never arrest the masses,
What we want to-day. you in your sphere
and | in my sphere, is to freshen up. Peo-
pie do not want in their sermons the sham
flowers bought at the millinery shop, but
the Japonlcas wet with the morning dew:
NOR fhoh nn h%r,o 6
Of past ages, but the living reindeer caught
last August at the edge Of Schroon lake
we want to drive out the drowsY and the
prosalc, and the tedious and the humdrum.
and Introduce the brightness and vivacity,
and the holy sarcasm, and the sanctifed
wit. and the epigrammatic power, and the
blood red earnestness, and the fire of relig-
lous zeal and 1 do not know of any way
of doing it as we'll as through the dramatic
Attention! Behold Hank. Selah!
Next speak of the Selah of perpetuitv
The Targum, which is the Bible in Chaldee,
renders this word of my text forever"
Many writers agree in believing and stating
that one meaning OF this word is forever"
In this very verse from which l take my
text Seiah means not only poetic significance
and lntermlssIon and emphasis, but it means
eternal reverberation - forever! Gods
government forever, Gods goodness for
ever, the gladneSs of the righteous for
ever. or course you and have not
surveyors chain with enough links to
measure that domain of meaning In this
world we must build everything on a small
scale. A hundred years are great while.
A tower five hundred feet is great height
A journey of four thousand miles is very
long. But eternity. II the archaneeI has
not strength of wing to fly across IL, but
t1utters and drops like a wounded seagull,
there IS no need of our trying in the small
shallow of human thought to voyage
across it.
A c1zo b L.
for the passing years and to show that he
could build enduringly, had his own
made of the finest and the hardest
marble, and then he had put on the door the
words "For time and for eternity" but it
SO happened that the seed of tree somehow
got into an unseen crevice of the marble.
That seed grew and enlarged until it became
a tree and split the marble to pieces There
can be no Generalization of anything earthly.
But foreverl Will you and 1 live as long as
that? We are apt to think of the grave as
the terminus. We are apt to think of thu
hearse as our last vehicle. We are apt to
think of seventy or eighty or ninety years,
and then a cessation.
Instead of that we find the marble slab of
the tomb is only milestone, marking the
first mile, and that the great journey is be-
yond. We have only time enough in this
world to put on the sandals and to clasp our
glrdle and to pick up our staff. We take our
first step from cradle to grave, and then we
open the door and start-great God whittier?
The clock strikes the passing away of time,
but not the passing away Of eternity. Meas
ureless, measureless! This Selah of perpet-
ulty makes earthly inequalities so insignif-
cant, the difference between scepter and
needle, between Alhambra and hut, between
chariot and cart, between throne and curb
stone, between Administer and bare floor.
between satin and sackcloth, very trivial
This Selah of perpetuity makes our getting
ready SO important. For such prolongation
of travel what outfit Of guidebooks, of pass
ports and of escort? Are we putting out on
a desert, simoom swept and ghoul hunted, or
into regions of sun lighted and spray
sprinkled gardens? Will it be Elysium or
Gehenna? Once started in that world, we
cannot stop. The current is so swift that
once in no oar can resist it, no helm
steer out of it, no herculean or titanic arm
can battle it. Hark to the long resembling
echo, forever" Oh, wake up to the inter
est of your deathless spirit! Strike out for
heaven: Rouse ye, men and women for
whom Jesus died. Selah! Selahi Forever!
ForeverI