The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-03-17


Philadelphia, and that same Benjamin
Franklin. the philosopher, just outside
of Boston flying kite in the thunder
storm.
An idler was cured Of his bad habit by
looking through the window, night after
night, at man who seemed sitting at
his desk turning off one sheet of writing
after another until almost the dawn OF
the morning. Tho man sitting there
writing until morning was industrious
Walter Scott; the man who looked at
him through the window was Lockhart,
his illustrious biographer afterward,
Lord Mansfield, pursued by the press and
by the populace, because of certain line
Of duty, went on to discharge the duty,
and while the mob We're around him de-
handing tho taking of his life he shook
his fist in the face of the mob and said,
"Sirs, when ones last end comes, it can.
not come too soon if he falls in defense
of law and tie liberty of his country"
And SO there is, my friends, a tug, a
tussle, a trial, push, an anxiety,
through which every man must go be-
fore he comes to worldly success and
worldly achievement. You admit it.
Now be wise enough to apply it in reli.
gion. Eminent Christian character is
only gained by the Jordanic passage; no
man just happened to get good.
Why does that man know so much
about the Scriptures? He was studying
the Bible while you were reading Il
novel. He was ON fire with the sublimi-
ties of the Eible while You We're sound
asleep; by ting, tussle, pushing and run
ming in the Christian life that man got
so strong for God in hundred Softer
mos he learned how to fight; in hun
dred shipwrecks he learned how to swim.
Tears over sin, tears over lions dcsola-
ton, tears over the impenitent, tears
over the graves made, are the Jordan
which that man had passed. Sorrow
pales the cheek, and fades the eye, and
wrinkles the brow, and withers the hands.
There are mourning garments in the
wardrobe, Il there are deaths in every
family record all around are the relics
Of the dead.
THE JORDAN OF DEATH.
The Christian has passed the Red sea
of trouble, and yet he thinks there is a
Jordan of death between him and heav-
en-. He comes down to that Jordan Of
lost there. When Molyneux was explor-
ing the Jordan in Palestine, he had his
boats all knocked to pieces in the rapids
of that river. And there are great
many men who have gone down in the
river of death; the Atlantic and Pacific
have not swallowed so many. 1t is an
awful thing to make shipwrecks ON the
rock of ruin-masts falling, hurricanes
flying, death coming, groanings in the
water, meanings in the wind, thunder in
the sky, while God, with the finger of
lightning, writes all over the sky, Twill
tread them in my wrath, and will tram
pie them in my fury"
The Christian comes down to this rag
ing torrent. and he knows he must pass
out, and as he comes toward the time
his breath gets shorter, and his last
breath leaves him as he steps into the
stream, and no sooner does he touch the
stream than it is parted, and he goes
through dry shod, while all the waters
wave their plumes, crying: 80 death,
where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is
thy victory God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more weeping, and there shall be no
more death.
Some of your children have already
| gone up the other bank. You let them
down ON this side of the bank; they will
| be on the other bank to help you up with
supernatural strength. The other morn
| ing at my table, all my family present, ]
| thought to myself how pleasant it would
be if could put all in boat and then
| go in with them, and we could pull across
| the river to the next world and be there
| all together. No family parting, RIO
gloomy obsequies. 1t wouldn't take five
| minutes to go from bank to bank, and
then in that better world to be together
forever. Wouldn't it be pleasant for yon
to take all your family into that blessed
country if you could all go together?
| remember my mother in her dy-
ing hour said to my father, Father,
wouldn't it be pleasant if, we could all
| go tcgether?' But we cannot all go to-
gether, We must go one by one, and
we must be grateful if we get there at
all. What a heaven it will be if we
have all our families there to look
around and see all the children are pres
ent! You would rather have them all
| there, and you go with bare brow for
| ever, than that one should be missing
to complete the garlands of heaven for
your coronal. The Lord God of Joshua,
give them safe Jordanic passage!
Even children will go through dry shod.
Those of us who were brought up in the
country remember, when the summer
was coming ON in our boyhood days, we
always longed for the day when we were
to go barefooted, and after teasing our
mothers in regard to it for good while,
and they consented, we remember the dc
licious sensation of the cool grass when
we put our uncovered foot on it.
And the time will come when these
shoes we wear now, lest we be cut of the
sharp places of this world, shall be taken
off, and with unsandaled foot we will
step into the bed of the river; with feet
untrammeled, free from pain and fa-
tigue, we will gain that last journey,
when, with one foot in the bed of the
river and the other foot on the Other
bank, we struggle upward. That will
be heaven. Oh, pray for all my deal
people safe Jordanic passage! That is
what the dying Christian husband felt
when he said: "How the candle fickers,
Nellie! Put it out. shall sleep well to-
night and wake in the morning."
COMFORT FOR THE BEREAvED.
One word of comfort on this subject
for all the bereaved. You see, our de.
parted friends have not been submerged
have not been swamped in the waters
They have only crossed over. These
Israelites were just as thoroughly alive on
the western banks of the Jordan as they
had been on the eastern banks of the
Jordan, and our departed Christian
friends have only crossed over-not sick
not dead, not exhausted, not extin
guished. not blotted out. but with
healthier respiration, and stouter pulses
and keener eyesight, and better prospects
crossed over, their sins, their physica,