The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-11-16
the sins Of the world are to be swept at

Their, and Christ for our Saviour, and
Heaven for our home, and angels for fu-
ture companions, and eternity for life
time, we should strike all the notes OF
joy. Going through the wilderness OF
this world, let us remember that we are
On the way to the summary cline of
heaven, and from the migratory popula-
tons flying through this autumnal air
learn always to keep singing:
Children Of the Heavenly King,
AS ye journey sweetly sing;
Sing your SaYiourS worthy praise,
Glorious in His works and ways.
We are travelling home to God,
In the way your fathers trod
They are happy now, and we
Soon their happiness shall see.
The church Of God never will be a
church until it becomes
singing church.
| go further, and remark that the
birds of the air are wiser than we, in
the fact that, in their migration, they
fly very high. During the summer,
when they are in the field, they often
come within reach of the gun; but
when they start for the annual fight
southwark, they take their places and
go straight as an arrow to the mark.
The longest rifle that was ever brought
to shoulder cannot reach them Would
to God that we were as wise as the
stork and crane in our fight heaven
ward! We fly so low that we are within
easy range of the world, the flesh and
the devil. We are brought down by
temptations that ought not to come
within a mile of reaching us. o, for
some of the faith of George Muller,
of England, and Alfred Goodman, once
of the church militant, now of
the church triumphant! SO poor is
the type of piety in the church of
God now, that men actually caricature
the ideA that there is any such thing as
a higher life. Moles never did believe
in eagles. But, my brethren, because
we have not reached these heights our
selves, shall we deride the fact that
there are such heights? A man was
once talking to Brunei, the famous en-
gineer, about the length of the railroad
from London to Bristol. The engineer
said, at is not very great. We shall
have after awhile steamer running
from England to New York" They
laughed him to scorn; but we have gone
SO far now that we have ceased to laugh
at anything as impossible for human
achievement Then, ask, is anything
impossible for the Lord? do not be-
lieve that God exhausted all His grace
in Paul, and Latimer and Edward Pay
son. l believe there are higher points
of Christian attainment to be reached
in the future ages of the Christian
world.
You tell me that Paul went up to Vie
tiptop of the Alps of Christian attain
ment Then l tell you that the storh
and crane have found above the Alps
plenty of room for free flying. We &C
out and we conquer our temptations by
the grace of God, and lie down. On the
morrow these temptations rally them
SclNCS anu tltiCh uo, dui Wy VIC x i1SS
of God we defeat them again; but stay
ing all the time in the old encampment
we have the same old battles to fight
over. Why not whip out our tempta
tons and then forward march, making
one raid through the enemies country
stopping not until we break ranks after
the last victory. Do, my brethren, LEI
us have some novely of combat, at any
rate, by changing, by going on, 10y
making advancement, trading off oul
stale prayers about sins we ought tc
have quit long ago, going on toward q
Christian character, and routing ou'
sins that we have never thought of yet
The fact is, if the church of God-if we
as individuals, made rapid advancement
in the Christian life, these stereotypet
prayers we have been making for ter
or fifteen years would be as inappropri
ate to us as the shoes, and the hats anC
ago. O, for a higher flight in thu
Christian life, the stork and the Gran,
in their migration teaching rs the les
son.
Dear Lord, and shall we ever live,
At this poor living rate
Our love so faint, so cold to Thee,
And Thine 10 us great?
Again, | remark that the birds of the
, air are wiser than we, because they
know when to start. If you should g
out now and shout, ''Stop, storks anC
cranes, don't be in a hurryr' they would
say: mo, we cannot stop; last nigh
we heard the roaring in the woods bid
ding us away, and the shrill flute o
the north wind has sounded the retreat
We must go. We must GO" So the,
gather themselves into companies, anC
turning not aside for storm or mountain
top or shock of musketry, over land ant
sea, straight as an arrow to the mari
they go. And if you come out thi
morning with sack of corn and throw
it in the fields and try to get them t.
stop, they are so far up they would hard
" see it. They are on their way south
You could not stop them. o that w,
were as wise about the best time to star
for God and Heaven! We say: "Wai
until it is little later in the season O
mercy. Wait until some of these gree
leaves of hope are all dried up and hav
been scattered. Wait until next year.
After awhile we start, and it is to
late, and we perish in the way wher
Gods wrath is kindled but little
There are, yoA know, exceptional cases
where birds nave started too late, an
in the moraing you have found ther
dead on the snow. And there are thos
who have persisted half way betwee
the world and Christ They waite
until the last sickness, when the min