Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-06-02

until his crutch slipped and he fell. !
helped him up as well as could, gathered
up the fragments Of the package as well Hs
could. put them under one arm and the
crutch under the other arm, but when !
saw the blood run down his pale cheek
was completely overcome. Fifty essays
about the suffering Of the poor could not
touch one like that little drama OF accident
and suffering
Oh, we want in all our different depart
ments OF lsefulness-and ! address hun
dreds Of people who are trying 70 do COOL
we want more OF the dramatic element
and less Of the didactic. The tendency in
this day is 10 drone religion. to whine re-
ligion. to cant religion, to moan religion.
to croak religion, TO sepulchrize religion,
when we ought to present it In animated
and spectacular manner.
Sabbath morning by Sabbath morning
address many theological students who are
preparing for the ministry. They come n
here from the different institutions ! say
to them this morning; II you will go homo
and look over the history of the church
you will find that those men have brought
most souls to Christ who have been drar
matte. Rowland Hill, dramatic; Thomas
Chalmers, dramatic; Thomas Guthrie,
dramatic; John Knox, dramatic; Robert
McCheyne, dramatic; Christmas Evans,
dramatic; George Whiteheld, dramatic;
Robert Hall. dramatic; Robert South, dra-
matte; Fenelon, dramatic; John Mason,
dramatic; DIR. Mott, dramatic. When you
get into the ministry, II you attempt to
culture that element and try to WELD it
for God, you will meet with mighty rebuff
and caricature, and ecclesiastical council
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 assidu-
GUS and the plucky.
GET OUT OF THE RUT.
What we want, ministers and laymen, is
to get our sermons and our exhortations
and our prayers out of the old rut. | see
great deal of discussion in the religious
papers about why people do not come to
church. They do not come because they
are not interested. The old hackneyed re
ligious phrases that come moving down
through the centuries will never arrest the
masses. What we want today, you in your
sphere and in my sphere, is to freshen up.
People do not want in their sermons the
sham flowers bought at the millinery shop,
but the japonicas wet with the morning
dew; nor the heavy bones Of extinct meg
atherium 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 prosaic, and the tedious, and the hum
drum, and introduce the brightness and
xysx und fha hO1u nl h.
sanctifed wit, and the epigrammatic power,
and the blood red earnestness, and the fire
of religious zeal, and do not know of any
way of doing it as well as through the dra-
matte. Attention! Behold Harkl Selah!
Next speak of the Selah of perpetuity
The Targum, which is the Bible in Chal-
dee, renders this word of my text for
ever" Many writers agree in believing
and stating that one meaning of this word
is forever" In this very verse from
which ! take my text Selah means not
only poetic significance and intermission
and emphasis, but it means eternal rever-
beration-foreverl Gods government for
ever, Gods goodness forever, the gladness
of the righteous forever. Of course you
and | have not surveyors chain with
enough links to measure that domain of
meaning.
In this world we must build everything
on small scale. A hundred years are a
great while. A tower five hundred feet is
great height. A journey of four thou
sand miles Is very long. But eternity! II
the archangel has not strength of wing
to fly across it, but flutters and drops like
wounded seagull, there is no need of our
| +rvipO in tho small choI1oru Of hrp
thought to voyage across it.
FOR TIME AND ETERNITY.
A skeptic desiring to show his contempt
for the passing years, and to show that he
could build enduringly, had his own sepul
cher 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 un.
til it became tree and split the marble to
pieces. There can be no eternalization OF
anything earthly. But forever! Will you
and live as long as that? We are apt to
think of the grave rs the terminus We
are apt to think of the hearse as our last
| vehicle. We are apt to think of seventy
or eighty or ninety years, and then cessa-
| tion.
Instead of that we find the marble slab
of the tomb is only milestone, marking
the first mile, and that the great journey
is beyond. We have only time enough in
this world to put on the sandals and to
clasp our girdle and to pick up our staff
We take our first step from cradle tc
| grave, and then we open the door and start
great God, whittier? The clock strikes
the passing away of time, but not the pass
ing away of eternity. Measurelessl meas
ureless! This Selah of perpetuity makes
earthly inequalities so insignificant, the
| difference between scepter and needle, be
tween Alhambra and hut, between chariot
and cart, between throne and curbstone
between Administer and bare floor, be-
tween satin and sackcloth, very trivial
This Selah of perpetuity makes our get
ting ready SO important. For such pro
| longation of travel what outfit of guide
books, of passports and of escortP Are we
putting out on desert, simoom swept and
| ghoul haunted, or into regions of sur
lighted and spray sprinkled gardens? Will
it be Elysium or GehennaP Once started
| in that world, we cannot stop. The cur
rent is SO swift that once in no oar can re
sist it, no helm can. steer out of it, no her
culean or titanic arm can battle it. HarB
to the long resounding echo 'forever!'
| Oh, wake up to the interest Of your death
less spiritl Strike out for heaven. Roust
ye, men and women for whom Jesus died
Selahl Selah! Forcverl Forever!
| 80 1lirfI,nIooo