The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1892-06-06

sepulchrfze religion, when we oU&ht %
present it in in animated and spectacular
manner.
Sabbath morning by Sabbath morn.
ing address many theological stu.
dents who are preparing for the minis
try. They come in here from the differ
ent institutions. l say TO them this
morning: If yon will go home and look
over the history of the church yop will find
that those men have brought most souls
to Christ who have been dramatic.
Rowland Hill, dramatic; Thomas Chal-
mers, dramatic; Thomas Guthrie, dra-
matte; John Knox, dramatic; Robert Nc
Cheyne. dramatic; Christmas Evans.
dramatic; George Whitefeld, dramatic;
Robert Hall, dramatic; Robert South,
dramatic; Fenelon, dramatic; John Ma
son, dramatic; DR.. Mott, dramatic.
When you get into the ministry. If you
attempt to culture that element and try
to WELD it for God, you will meet with
mighty rebuff and caricature, and eccles-
iastical 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 assiduous and
the plucky.
What we want, ministers and laymen,
is to get our sermons and our exhOrta-
tions and our prayers out Of the old rut
see great deal of discussion in the re-
ligious papers about why people do not
come to church. They do not come be-
cause they are not interested. The old
hackneyed religious phrases that come
moving down through the centuries will
never arrest the masses. What we want
to-day, you in your sphere and l 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 megatherium
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 yivacity, and the holy sarcasm, and
the sanctified wit, and the epigrammatic
power, and the blood red aarnestness,
and the fire Of religious zeal, and do
not know of any way of doing it as well
as through the dramatic. Attention.!
Behold! Hark' Selah!
Next speak of the Selah of pereptu-
ity. The Targum, which is the Bible in
Chaldee, renders this word Of my text
'forever." Many writer's agree in be-
lieving and stating that one meaning Of
this word is forever" In this very
verse from which I take my text Selah
means not only poetic significance and
intermission and emphasis, but it means
eternal reverberation-fOrev Gods
government forever. Gods goodness for
ever, the gladness of the righteous for
ever. OF course you andI have not sur
veyer's chain with enough links to meas
ure that domain of meaning.
In this world we must build every
thing on small scale. A hundred
years are a great while. A tower 500
feet Is great height A journey Of 1000
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 trying in the small shallow of
human thought to voyage across it.
A skeptlc desiring to show his con-
tempt for the passing years, and to show
that he could build enduringly, had his
own sepulcher 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 I'M
seen crevice Of the marble. That seed
grew and enlarged until it became tree
and split the marble to pieces. There
can be no LIBERALIZATION of anything
earthly. But forever! Will you and l
live as long as that? We are apt to
think Of the grave as 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
cessation.
Instead of that we find the marble
slab of the tomb Is only a 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 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. Measurelessl measureless!
This Selah Of perpetuity makes earthly
inequalities so insignificant, the differ
ence between scepter and needle, be-
tween Alhambra and hut, between
chariot and cart, between throne and
curbstOne, 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
guide books, of passports, and OF escort?
Are we putting out on desert, simeon
swept and ghoul haunted, or into regions
Of sun-lighted and spray-sprinkled gar
dens? VIII 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 can
steer out Of it. no herculean or titanic
arm can battle it Hark to the long re-
sounding echo ''forever!' Oh. wake up
to the interest of your deathless spirit!
Strike out for Heaven. Rouse re. men
and women for whom Jesus died. Selah:
Selah! Forever! Forever!