Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-04-28

be reverential in their presence. On
dark days we must help them through
the aisle, and help them find the place
in the hymn-book. Some Sabbath
morning we shall miss them from their
place, and we shall say, "Where is
Father So-and-so to-day?' and the an
swer will be, "What, haven't you
heard? The King wagons have taken
Jacob up to the palace where his
Joseph is yet alive"
sympathy for business men. Twenty
four years of commercial life in New
York and Brooklyn are enough to tear
ones nerves to pieces. We want to
make our Sabbath service here a res
cue for all these martyrs of traffic,
foretaste of that land where they have
no rents to paw, and there are no bust
ness rivalries, and where riches, instead
of taking wings to fly away, brood
over other riches.
Sympathy for the fallen, remember
ing that they ought to be pitied as
much as man run over with rail-
train. The fact is that. in the tempta-
tons and misfortunes of life, they get
ruL over. You and /, in the same cir
cumstances, would have done as badly;
we should have done worse, perhaps.
If you and l had the same evil sur
roundings, and the same evil parent
age that they had, and the same
native-born proclivities to evil that
they lad, you and | should have been
in the penitentiaries, or outcasts of
society. NO" says some self-righteous
man, ~ couldn't have been overthrown
in that way" You old hypocrite, you
would have been the first to fall!
We want in this church to nave sym
pathy for the worst man, remembering
he is brother; sympathy for the worst
woman, remembering she is a sister
If that is not the gospel, do not know
what the gospel is. All! yes; sympathy
for all the troubled; for the orphans in
their exposure; for widowhood with its
weak arm fighting for bread; for the
household which erst resounded with
merry voices and pattering feet, now
awfully still-broad-w winged sympathy,
like the feathers of the Almighty
warm-blooded sympathy, everlasting
sympathy-syppathy which shows it.
self in the grasp of the hand, in the
glittering tear of the eye, in the con-
soling word of the mouth-sympathy
of blankets for the cold, of bread for
the hungry, of medicine for the sick,
of rescue for the lost. Sympathy!
tremble in every song. Let it CLEAN
in every tear and in every light Sym
pathy! Men and women are signing
for sympathy, groaning for sympathy,
dying for sympathy, tumbling off INTO
uncleanliness and crime and perdition
for lack of sympathy. May cod give
it to us! Fill all this pulpit with it,
from step to step. Let the sweep of
these galleries suggest its encirling
arms. Fill all the house with it, from
door to door, and from floor TO ceiling.
until there is no more room for it, and
it shall overflow into the street, and
passer-by on foot and in carriage shall
feel the throb of its magnificent bene-
diction. Let that be our new depart
ure as church. Let that be my new
departure as pastor. Sympathy!
Gratitude to God demands that thus
morning / mention the fact that during
all these twenty-four years | have
missed but enc service through sick
ness. When | entered the ministry
was so delicate / did not think would
preach three months, but preaching
has agreed with me, and | think the
healthiest thing in all the earth is the
religion of Jesus Christ Bless the
Lord, o, my soul! What ingrates we
are in rec ard TO our health.
must, IN gratitude to God, also
mention the multitudes to whom /
have been permitted tC preach. 1t is
simply miraculous, the attendance
morning by morning, night by night,
and year by year, and long after it has
got to be an old story. | know some
people are dainty and exclusive n
their tastes. AS for myself, / like a
big crowd. ! would like TO see an au
dience large enough to scare me! If
this Gospel is good, the more that get
it the better
Many have received the Gospel here,
but others have rejected il. Now,
tell you what l am going to do with
some Of my dearest friends who have
hitherto rejected the Gospel. You are
not afraid of me, and am not afraid
of you, and some day, o brother, will
clasp your hands together, and | will
turn your face the otherway, and will
take hold of your shoulders, and while
you are helpless in my grasp l will
. give you one headlong push into the
Kingdom of God. Christ saws we
must compel you TO come in; will
compel you to come in. Can l consent
to anything else with these men, who
are as dear to me as my own soul?
will compel you to come in.
Profiting by the mistakes of the past
/ must do better work for you and bet
ter work for God. Lest might, through
some sudden illness or casualty, be
snatched away before | have the op-
portunity of doing So take this occa-
sion to declare my love for you as
people. 1t is different work if pas
tor is placed in n church already built
up, and he is surrounded by established
circumstances. There are not ten peo-
pie in this church who have not been
brought into the church through my
ministry. You are my family. | feel
as much at home here as 1 do in my
residence on Oxford Street You are
my family-my father, my mother, my
sister, my son, my daughter. You are
my joy and crown, the subject of my
prayers.
Your present and everlasting welfare
is the object of my ambition. have
no worldly ambition. / had once. l
have not now. / know the world
about as we'll as any one knows it. |
have heard the hand clapping of its
applause, and have heard the hiss of
its opposition, and / declare TO you
that the former is not especial