The Penn's Grove record., 1893-11-17

meet some radiant soul on the boulevards OF
the great city who shall say "You helped
me once. You encouraged me when | was
in earthly struggle. / did not know that L
would have reached this shining place had 1t
not been for YOU And we will laugh with
heavenly glee and say Hal! hal Do you
really remember that talk2 Do you remem-
her that warming? Do you remember that
christian invitationP What a memory you
havel Why. that must have been down there
in Brooklyn or New Orleans at least ten
thousand million years ago" And the an
swer will be, ''Yes, it was as long as that,
out I remember it as well ms though it were
yesterday"
Oh. this character building Tie structure
lasting Independent of passing centuries, in
dependent of crumbling mausoleums, indie
pendent OF the whole planetary system. Aye,
If tho material universe, which seems all
bound together like one piece Of machinery,
should some day meet with an accident that
should send worlds crashing into each nthe-
like ~telescoped railway trains, and all the
wheels Of consultations and galaxies should
stop, and down into one chasm OF immensely
all the suns AMI moons and stars should
tumble like the midnight express at Ashta-
bula, that would not touch us and would not
hurt God. for God is a spirit, and character
md memory arc immortal. and over that
grave OF a wrecked material universe might
! trGthfully be written, "The righteous shall
De held in everlasting remembrance.
o, Time. we defy thee! o. Death, we
stamp thee in the dust of thine own seput-
cheers! o, Eternity, roll on till the last star
/ has stopped rotating. and the last sun is ex-
tinguished on the sapphire pathway, and
the last moon has illumined the last night,
and "a many years have passed as all the
scribes that ever took pen could describe by
as many figures az they could write in all the
centuries OF all time, but thou shalt have no
power to eflce from any soul in glory the
p,Drnnrr IF Qnytbfup We have done 10 bring
It to God and heaven!
There is another and a more complete de-
'eat for oblivion. and that is in the heart of
God himself. You have seen a sailor roll up
his sleeve aud show you his arm tattooed
! with tho figure of a ~favorite ship-perhaps
the first one in which he ever sailed. You
have seen a soldier roll up his sleeve and
show You his arm tattooed with the figure
of n fortress which he was garrisoned, or
the face of q great general under whom he
fought. You have seen many a band tat
tooed with the face o a loved one before or
lfter marriage.
This tattooing Is almost az old as the world.
It is some colored liquid p%unctured into the
J flesh Sc indelibly that nothing can wash it
out. 1t may have been there fifty years, but
| when the man goes into his coffin that pic
ture will go with him on hand or arm. Now.
Z God says that he has tattooed us upon his
hands. There can be no other meaning in
the forty ninth ehaIter of Isaiah, where God
says. "Behold, l have craven thee on the
palms of my hands T'
1t was as much as to say 81 cannot open
My hand to help, but 1 think of you. can
not spread abroad My hands to bless, but 1
think of you. Wherever l go up and down
the heavens I take these two pictures OF YOU
with Me. They are so inwrought into My
being that I cannot lose them. AS long as
My hands last the memory of you will last.
Not on the back of My hands, as though to
- ~AAa-, L,A an tha nalpnc NJ
My hands for Myself to look at and study
and love. Not on the palm of one hand
alone. but on the palms of both hands, for
while l OIL unlocking upon one hand andthink-
ing of you, l must have the other hand free
to project you, free to strike back your
enemy, free TO lift If you fall. Palms OF Ny
hands in1elibly tattooed! And though |
hold the winds in My first no cyclone shall
uproot the inscription of your name and
your face, and though L hold the ocean in
The hollow of My hand its hillowing shall not
wash out the record of My remembrance.
Behold, I have craven thee on the palms OF
Ny hands,"
What joy, what honor can there be COM
parable to that of being remembered by the
mightiest and kindest and ~loveliest and ten
derest and most affectionate being in the
universe? Think OF it, to hold an everlasting:
place in the heart of God. The heart OF Tod !
The most beautiful palace in the universe.
Let the archangel build some palace as
grand as that If he can. Let him crlmble mp
all the stars of yesternight and tomorrow
oight and put them together as mosatcs for
such a palace floor. Let him ake all the sun
rises and sunsets of all the days and the
auroras OF all the nights and hang them as
upholstery at its windo VS..
Let him take all the rivers, and all the
lakes. and all the oceans, and toss them into
the fountains of this palace court. Let him
take all the gold of all the hills and hang it in
It's chandeliers, and all the pearls OF all the
seas. and all the diamonds OF all the fields,
and with them arch the doorways OF that
nnlace. and then invite into it all the glories
That Esther ever saw at a Persian banquet, or
Daniel ever walked among In Babylonlan
castles, or Joseph ever witnessed in Pharaoh,s
throneroom. and then yourself enter this
castle OF archangelic construction, and see
how poor a palace it Is compared with the
greater palace that some OF you have already
found in the heart of a loving and pardoning
God, and into which all the music, and MI
the PRAYERS, AMI all the sermonic considera-
ions of this day are trying to introduce you
through the blood OF the slain lamb;
On, where is oblivion now? From the
dark and overshadowing word that 1t seemed
when l began, it has become something
which no man or woman or child VINO loves
the Lord need ever fear. Oblivion defeated.
Oblivion dead. Oblivion sepulehered. But
l must not be so hard on that ~devouring
| monster, IOr lnlO io bluNO ~ -" S'H
when the Lord for Christ's sake has forgiven
them. Just blow a resurrection trumpet
over them when once oblivion mas snapped
them down. Not one OF them rises. Blow
again. Not a stir amid all the p%ardoned in
i1uities OF a lifetime. Blow again. Not one
OF them moves in the deep grave trenches.
But to this powerless resurrection trumpet
a voice responds, half human, half divine,
and it must be part man and part GOD; say
ing, s'Their sins and their iniquities will l re-
% ember no more.
THANK God for this blessed oblivion! So
YOU see I did not invite you down into q eel
lar, but upon a throne; not into the grave
yard TO which all materlalism is destined.
but into a garden all abloom with everlasting
remembrance. The frown OF my first text
has become the kiss OF the second text. Az
utilization has become coronation. The wiring
ing hands of a great agony have become the
clapping hands OF a great joy. The requiem
with which we began has become the grand
march with which we close. The tear oil
sadness that rolled down our cheek has
struck the lip on which sits the laughter oil
thermal triumph.