Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-12-01

OF Jner lie, on, now Jney QeNOurcu
the prey! But there came a better time
TO their soul They found out that an
immortal nature cannot live on bank
stock. They took up a Northern Pacific
bond, and there was hole in il through
which they could look into the uncer-
tainty of all earthly treasures. They
saw some Ralston, living at the rate of
S25, 200 month, leaping from San Fran
cisco wharf because he could not con-
tinue TO live at the same ration. They
saw the wien and paralytic bankers
who had changed their souls into
molten gold stamped with the image of
the earth, earthly. They saw some
great souls by avarice turned into
homunculi, and they said to them
selves: Twill seek after higher treas
ure."
My friends, this world is poor thing
to hunt. 1t s healthful to go out in
the woods and hunt. 1t rekindles the
lustre OF the eye. 1t strikes the brown
of the autumnal leaf into the cheek.
1t gives to the rheumatic limbs the
strength to leap like roe. Christie
pher North's pet gun, the muclIle-
rloud-Meg, going off in the summer in
the forests, had its echo in the winter
time in the eloquence that rang
through the university halls of Edin-
burgh. 1t is healthy to go hunting in
the fields; but tell you that it is be-
lifting and bedwarfing and belaming
for man to hunt this world. The
H,,
and the barrel eXplodes and kills you
instead of that which you are pur-
suing. When you turn out to hunt the
world the world turns out to hunt you;
and as many n sportsman aiming his
gun at partners heart has gone down
under the striped claws, SO, while you
have been attempting to devour this
world the world has been devouring
you. So it was with Lord Byron. So
it was with Coleridge. So it was with
Catherine of Russia. Henry H. went
out hunting for thjs world and its
lances struck through his heart
Francis |. aimed at the world, but the
assassin's dagger put an end TO his am
bition and his life with one stroke.
Mary Queen of Scots wrote on the win
dow Of her castle:
From the top OF all my trust
Mishap hath laid me in the dust.
The queen dowager of Navarro '. as
offered for her wedding day costly
and beautiful pair of gloves, and she
put them on; but they were poisoned
gloves, and they took her life. Better
bare hand of cold privation than a
warm and poisoned glove of ruinous
success. oh" says some young man
in the audience, II believe what you are
preaching. l am going to do that
very thing. In the morning of my
life am going TO devour the prey, and
in the evening shall divide the spoils
of Christian character. l only want a
little while to SOW my villa oats, and
then will be good" Young man, did
you ever take census of all the old peo-
pie? How many old people are there
in your house? One, two, or none?
How many in a vast assemblage like
this? Only here and there gray
head, like the patches of snow here
and shere i'm the fields on a late April
day. The fact is that the tides of the
years are SO strong that men go down
under them before they get to be 60,
before they get TO lie 80, before they
get to be 40 before they get to be 30,
and if you, my young brother, resolve
now that you will spend the morning
of your days in devouring the prey,
the probability is that you win never
divide the spoils in the evening hour.
He who postpones until old age the
religion of Jesus Christ, postpones it
forever. Where are the men who,
thirty years ago, resolved to be-
come Christians in old age, put
ting il off a certain number of
years? They never got to be old. The
railroad collision, or the steamboat
explosion, or the slip on the ice, or the
falling ladder, or the sudden cold put
an end TO their opportunities. They
have never had an opportunity since,
and never will have an opportunity
again. They locked the door of heaven
against their soul, and they threw
away the KEYS. They chased the world,
and they died in the chase. The
wounded tiger turned on them. They
failed to take the game they pursued.
Mounted on a swift courser, they
leaped the hedge, but the courser fell
on them and crushed them. Proposing
to barter their soul for the world, they
lost both and got neither
While this is an encouragement TO
old people who are still unpardoned. it
is no encouragement to the young wEo
are putting off the day Of grace. This
doctrine that the old may be repentant
is TO be taken cautiously. 1t is medi-
cine that kills or cures. The same
medicine, given TO different patients,
in one case it saves life, and in the
other it destroys it, This possibility of
repentance at the close OF life may
cure the old man while it kills the
young. BE cautious in taking it.
Again, my subject is descriptive to
those who come to a sudden and a rad
zeal change. You have noticed how
short time it is from morning TO
night-only seven or eight hours. You
know that the day has "a very brief life
It's heart beats twenty-four times and