Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1893-04-22

Did religion make Raleigh any less OF
statesman. or Haveloct any less of sol.
der. or Grinnell any less of a merchant, or
West any less of a painter? Religion is the
best security in every bargain, it is the
sweetest note in every song. it is the bright
est gem in every coronet. No time to ba re.
ligious! Why, you will have to take time
to be sick. to be troubled, to die. Our
world is only the wharf from which we are
to embark for heaven. No time to secure
the friendship OF Christ. No time to buy
lamp aud trim it for that walk through the
darkness which otherwise will be illumiuel
only by the wilderness OF the to1bstones.
No time to e fucate thu eye for heavenly
spiendors. or tbs han for choral harps or
the ear for everlasting songs, or the soul for
honor, glory AMI immortality. One would
think we had tina for nothing else.
Othsr persons s"oiogiz, for not entering
the Christian life because it is time enough
yet. That Is very like thos5 persons who
send their regrets and say: 81 will come in
perhaps at L or ~ O'Clock. | will not be
there at the opening OF the banquet, but 1
will be there at the close" Notyeti Not
yet
Now. do not give any doleful view OF
this life. There is nothing in my nature,
nothing In the grace OF Col, that tends to-
ward doleful view of humsn life. havs
not much sympathy with Afdison's descrsp-
tiou of the vision Of Mira whers he req
resants human lie as being bridge OF a
hundred arches an both en- Is of the bridge
covered with clouds, ami the race coming
on, the most OF them falling down through
the first span, and all of them falling down
through the last span. 1t is very dismal
picture. have not much sympathy with
the Spanish provero which say, The sky
Is good, and the earth is gooi--that which
Is bad Is between the esrsh and the sky
But while we Christian people are bound
to take a cheerful view Of life we must also
confess that life is great uncertainty. and
that man who says, II can't become q
Christian becau % there is time enough yet"
is running a risk Infinite. You do not per-
haps rsaliz, the fact that this descending
grade OF sin gets sleeper and sleeper, and
that you are gathering up rush and veloc-
ity which after aw bile NAV not answer to
the brakes. Oh. my friends. be not among
those who give their whole life to the world
and then z We their corpse to God. II
doss not seem fair while our pulses are in
full play OF health that we serve our
selves aud serve toe world and thea make
Col at last the present Of q coffin. It does
not seem right that we run our ship from
coast to coast, carrying cargoes for ourselves
and then when the ship Is crushed on the
rocks give TO Goi the shivered timbers IL
Is great thing for 4 man on his dying pill.
low 70 repenf-oeECef t0an never at an-Ouy
how much better, how much more generous,
it would have been il he had repented fifty
years bsforei My friends you viii never
get over these representations
Here Is a delusion- People think, tI can
60 on in sin and woridiiness but after awhile
l will repent. and then 1t win be as though
had come at tbs very start" That is q
delusion. No ons ever gets fully over pro-
crastinaticn. IL you give your soul TO God.
some other time than this, you viii enter
heaven with only half the capacity for en-
joyment and knowledge you might have
had. There will be heights of biessedness
you might have attained. you will never
reach; thrones osgiory on which you might
have been seated, but which you viii never
climb We will never get over pro-
crastination. neither in tins nor in eter-
nifty We have started on q march from
which there Is no retreat This shad-
ows OF eternity gather on our path
way. How insigaidcan. Is time compared
with the vast eternity | was thinking OF
this while coming down over the Allegheny
Mountains At noon, by that wonderful place