Milford chronicle., 1893-04-21

with its thuudershOd sQlemnluitas attended
/ by bursting mountains and the deep laugh
Of earthquakes, and suns win fly before the
feet Of God like sparks from the anvil, and
ten thousand burning worlds shall blaze like
banners in the track Of God Omnipotent.
Oh, then we win not stop and say, There
was mean Christian; there was cowardly
Christian; there was lying Christian;
there was an impure Christian" In that
day, as now, IF thou be wise, thou shalt
be wise for thyself, but il thou scornest
thou alone shall bear Il"
Why, my brother, the inconsistency Of
Christians, so far from being an argument
to keep YOU away from God, ought to be an
argument to drive you to him. The best
place for a skilIful doctor is in a neighbor-
hood where they are all poor doctors; the
best place for an entorprising merchant to
open his store is in a place where the bar
gain makers do not understand their busi-
ness, and the best place for you who want
to become the illustrious and complete
Christian, the best place for you is to come
right down among us who are so incompe-
tent and so inconsistent sometimes.
Other persons apologize for not becom-
ing Christians because they lack time, as
though religion muddled the brain of tho
accountant, or tripped the pen Of the
author, or thickened the tongue Of the or
ator, or weakened the arm of the mechanic,
or scattered the briefs Of the lawyer, or in
terrupted the sales Of the merchant. They
bolt their store doors against it and fight it
back with trowels and yardsticks and cry,
away with your religion from our store
our Office, our factOryW
They do not understand that religion in
this workaday world will help you TO do
anything you ought to do. 1t can lay a
keel; it can sail a ship; it can buy a cargo;
1t can work pulley; It can pave a street;
Il can fit a wristband; it can write a consti-
tuition, it can marshal host, It is as ap-
propriate to the eastronomer as his telescope;
to the chemist as his laboratory; to The ma
son as his plumbline; to the carpenter as
his plane; to the child as his marbles; to the
grandfather as his staff.
RELIGION ADDS To ONES ENERGIES.
No time to be religious herel You have
no time not to be religious. You might as
well have no clerks in your store, no books
in your library, no compass on your ship,
no rife in the battle, no hat for your head,
no coat for your back. no shoes for your
feet. Better travel on toward eternity bare
headed and barefooted and houseless and
homeless and friendless than to 60 through
life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less Of a
statesman, or Havelock any less Of a sol
der, OF 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 be reli-
gious? Why, you will have to take time to
be sick, to be troubled, ta die. Our world
Is only the wharf from which we are to em-
bark for heaven No time to secure the
friendship of Christi No time to buy a
lamp and trim It for that walk through the
darkness which otherwise viii be illunined
only by the whiteness Of the tombstones?
No time to educate the eye for heavenly
splendors. or the hand for choral harps, or
the ear for everlasting songs, or the soul for
honor, glory and Immortality? One would
think we had time for nothing else.
Other persons apologize for not entering
the Christian life because it is time enough
yet. That is very like those persons who
send their regrets and say: Il viii come in
perhaps at IL or 70 o'clock. VIII not be
there at the opening Of the banquet, but
will be there at the close" Not yeti Not
yeti
Now, do not give any doleful view Of
this life. There Is nothing in my nature,
nothing In the grace of God, that tends to-
ward q doleful view of human life I have
not much sympathy with Addison's de-
scription of the "VisiOn Of Mirza,n where
he represents human life as being bridge
ofTs,hundreo, arches, and both ends Of the
bridge covered with clouds, and the race
coming Sau, the most Of them falling down
through the ifEst span and ali'ef them fall
ing down through the last span. 4. Is a
very dismal picture. Eiis at '7siss''eh sym-
pathy with the Spanish pr0te4D7Tl lags'AsfsSs,
1.-THE sky is good, and the earth is good
that which is bad is between the earth and
the sky
But while we as Christian people are
bound to take cheerful view Of life we
must also confess that life is a great uncer-
tainty, and that man who says, II can't
become a Christian because there is time
enough yet, +" is running risk infinite. You
do not perhaps realize the fact that this de-
scending grade Of sin gets sleeper and steep
er, and THAI you are gathering up rush
and velocity which after awhile may not
answer to the brakes, Oh, my friends, be
not among those who give their whole life
to the world and then gre their corpse to
God
1t does not seem fair while oSr pulses are
in full play Of health that we serve our
ives and serve the world and then make
God at last the present Of coffin. 1t does
not seem right that we run our ship from
coast to cosst carrying eargoes for our
selves and then when the ship is crushed
on the rocks give to God the shivered tim
bers. 1t is a great thing for q man on his
dying pillow to repent-better that than
never at all, but how much better, how
much moro generous, it would have been if
he had repeuted so years beforel My
friends, you viii never get over these pro
NOW IS THE PROPER TIME.
Here is a delusion People think, II can
90 on in sin and worldliness, but after
awhile I Will repent, and then it viii be as
though I had come at the very start That
q a delusion. No one ever gets fully over
If you give your soul to
God some other time than this, you VIII en-
ter heaven with only half the capacity for
enjoyment and knowledge you might have
had. There will be heights Of blessedness
you might have attained you VIII never
reach; thrones of glory on which you might |
have been seated, but which you will never /
climb.
We will never get over procrastinatlon, !
neither in time nor in eternity. We have /
started on q march from which there is no I
retreat. The shadows o. eternity gather on |
our pathway How insi gnifcant is time /
with the vast eternityi ] was /
thinking Of this while coming down over
the Allegheny mountains at noon by that 1
wonderful place which you have all heard 1
described as the Horseshoe, depression in 4
The side Of the mountain where the train 1
almost turns back again upon itself, and I
you see how appropriate is the description |
Of the Horseshoe and thinking on this |
very theme and preparing this very ser
mon it seemed to me as if the great conrser |
Of eternity speeding along had just struck !
The mountain with one hoof. and gone on /
into illimitable space. So short is time, 80
is earth, compared with the
vast eternity
This morning voices roll down the sky, \
and all the worlds Of light are ready to re-
ioice at your disenthrallment. Rush not T
into the presence Of the King ragged with i
5i.t vixen YOU may have this robe Of right-