Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-04-27

brother; sympathy for the worst woman,
remembering she is n sister. If that is not
the gospel, do not know what the gospel
is All, yes sympr Thy for all the troubled;
for the orphans in their exposure; for wild
owhood with its weak arm fighting for
bread; for the household which erst re-
sounded with merry voices and pattering
feet, now awfully still-broad winged SYM
patty, like the feathers of the Almi ghty-
warm blooded sympathy, everlasting sym
pathy--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 medicine for the
sick, of rescue for the lost. sympathy!
GRATITUDE TO GOD FOR THE PAST.
Let it thrill in every sermon. Let it trem-
BILE in every song Let it CLEAN in every
tear and in every light. Sympathy Men
and women arc signing for sympathy, groan-
ing for sympathy, dying for sympathy,
tumbling off into uncleanliness and crime
and perditon for lack of sympathy. May
God give it to usl 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 carriage
shall feel the thrUb of its magnificent ben
ediction.
Let that be a new departure rs a church.
Let that be new departure as pastor.
Sympathy! Gratitude to God demands
that this morning | mention the fact that
during all these p years | have missed but
one service through sickness. When | en-
tered the ministry, | was so delicate did not
think | would preach three months, but
preaching has agreed with me, and think
the healthest thing in all the earth is the
religion of Jesus Christ. Bless the Lord,
O my soul What ingrates we are IN re
gard to our health!
must. in gratitude to God, also mention
the multitudcs to whom / have been per-
mitted to preach 1t is simply miraculous,
the attendance morning 10y morning. 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 myself, like big crowd. l
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
am not afraid of you, and some day, O
brother, ! will clasp your hands together,
and | will turn your face the other way,
and | will take hold of your shoulders, and
while You ere helpless in my grasp | will
give you one headlong push into the king
dom of God. Christ says we must compel
you to come in. | will compel you to come
in. Can | consent to anything else with
these men, who are as dear to me as my
own soul? will compel you to come in.
Profiting by the mistakes of the past, I
must do better work for you and better
work for God. Lest | might through
some sudden illness or casualty be snatch
ed away before have the opportunity of
doing So take this occasion to declare my
love for you as a people. 1t is different
work if n pastor is placed in church al
ready built up, and he Is surrounded by es-
tahlished circumstances. There are not 10
people in this church that have not been
brought into the church through my min
istry. You are my family. | feel as much
at home here as do in my residence on
Oxford street. You are my family-my
father, my mother, my sister, my son, my
daughter You are my joy and crown, the
subject of my prayers.
Your present and everlasting welfare is
the object Of my ambition. ] have no
worldly ambition. Ind once. have not
now. know the world about as well as
any one knows it. | have heard the hand
clappng of its applause and have heard
the hiss Of its opposition and declare 10
you that the former is not especially to be
sought for nor is the latter to he feared
The world has given me about all the COM
fort and prosperity it can give man, and
have no worldly ambition. | have an all
consuming ambition to make full proof of
my ministry, to get TO heaven myself and
to take "A great crowd with me. Upon your
table and cradle and armchair and pillow
and lounge and nursery and drawing room
and kitchen may the blessing of the Al
mighty God come down.
During these ~ years there is hardly
family that has not been invaded by sorrow
or death. Where are those grand old men,
those glorious Christian women, who used
to worship with us? Why, they went away
into the next world so gradually that they
had concluded the second stanza or the
third stanza in heaven before you knew
they were gone. They had on the crown
before you thought they had dropped the
staff of the earthly pilgrimage.
Ana then the dear children! Oh, how
many have gone out of this church! You
could not keep them. You folded them in
your arms and said: 30 God, | cannot give
them up. Take all else-take my property,
take my rcputation-bUt let me keep this
treasure. Lord, canuot bear this"
Oh, if we could all die together, if we
could keep all the sheep and the lambs of
the family fold together until some bright
spring day, the birds a-chant and the wa
tiers a-glitter, and then we could altogether
hear the voice Of the good Shepherd and
hand in hand pass through the flood No,
no, no, no! Oh, if we only had notice that
we are all to depart together, and we could
say to our families: The time has come.
The Lord bids us away" And then we
rould take our little children to their beds
and straighten out their limbs and say:
Nov, sleep the last sleep. Good night,
until it Is good morning. And then We
could go to our own couches and say:
Now, altogether we are ready to 60 Our
children are gone; now let us depart"
No, no. II is one by one. 1t may be in
the midnight, 1t may be in the winter,
md in the snow coming down 90 inches