The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-04-29

into heaven. He will see in the faces of
the old people not the gloom which some
people take for religion, but the sunshine
of celestial peace, and he will say, "Why,
I wonder if that isn't the same peace that
shone out on the face of my father and
mother when they lay dying?"
And then there will come dampness
in his eyes through which he can hardly
see, and he will close his eyes to imprison
the emotion, but the hot tear will break
through the fringes of eyelashes and drop
upon the coat sleeve. He will put his
head on the back of the pew in front and
sob, "Lord God of the old people, help
mer' We ought to lay plot here for
the religious capture of all the young
people in Brooklyn.
CITY OF DEEP SYMPATHIES.
Yes, sympathy for the old. They have
their aches and pains and distresses.
They cannot hear or walk or see as well
as they used to. We must 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 today"
and the answer will be: "What, haven't
you heard? The Kings 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 rescue for all
these martyrs of traffic, foretaste of
that land where they have no rents to
! pay, and there are no business rivalries,
and where riches, instead of taking wings
to fly away, brood over other riches.
Sympathy for the fallen, remembering
that they ought to be pitied as much as
man run over with a rail train. The
fact is that in the temptations and mis-
fortunes Of life they get run over. You
and I in the same circumstances would
have done as badly. We should have
done worse perhaps. If you and had
the same evil surroundings and the same
evil parentage thasss they had and the
same native born proclivities to evil that
they had, you and should have been in
the penitentiary 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 have SYM
pathy for the worst man, remembering
he is a 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 aw-
fully still-broad winged sympathy, like
the feathers of the Almighty; warm
blooded sympathy, everlasting sympa-
thy; sympathy which shows itself in the
grasp Of the hand, in the glittering tear
Of the eye, in the consoling word of the
mouth; sympathy Of blankets for the
cold, of bread for the hungry, of medi-
cine for the sick, of rescue for the lost.
Sympathy!
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS OF HEALTH.
Let it thrill in every sermon. Let it
tremble in every song. Let it CLEAN in
every tear and in every light. Sympathy!
Men and women are signing for SYM
pathy, groaning for sympathy, dying for
sympathy, tumbling off into uncleanli-
ness and crime and perdition for lack of
sympathy. May God give it to US! Fill
all this pulpit with it from step to step.
Let the sweep of these galleries suggest
its encircling 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 passersby on foot and in car
rage shall feel the throb of it's magnif-
cent benediction.
Let that be our new departure as
church. Let that be my new departure
as a pastor. Sympathy! Gratitude to
God demands that this morning I men
'tion the fact that during all these "a
years have missed but one service
through sickness. When I entered the
ministry, | was so delicate did not think
Iwould preach three months, but preach
ing hes greed with me, and think the,
healthlest thing IN all the earth is the re-
igion of Jesus Christ. Bless the Lord,
o my soul! What ingrates we are in re-
gard to our health!
I must, in gratitude to God, also men
ton the multitudes to whom I have been
permitted to preach. 1t is simply mirac-
ulous, the attendance morning by morn
ing, 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 in their tastes. AS for my
self, like a big crowd. would like to
see an audience 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 it. Now, tell
you what am going to do with some of
my dearest friends who have hitherto
rejected the gospel. You are not afraid
of me, and I am not afraid of you, and
some day, o brother, will clasp your
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