Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-02-04


world has a thousand self-denials. The
Chistian is not commanded to surrender
anything that Is worth keeping But
what does man deny himself who de-
MES himself the religion OF Christ? lie
denies himself pardon for sin; he denies
himself peace of conscience; he denies
himself the joy Of the Holy Ghost; he
denies himself comfortable death pill
low; he denies himself the glories OF
Heaven. DO not talk to me about the
self-denials of the Christian life. Where
there Is one in the Christian life there
are a thousand in the life of the world.
"Her ways are ways of pleasantness-"
Again: / find great deal Of religious
sunshine in Christian and divine ex-
PLANTATION. To great many people life
is an inexplicable tangle. Things turn
out differently from what was sup
posed There is a useless woman in
perfect health. There is an industrious
and consecrated woman complete in
valid. Explain that There is a bad
man with $4,000 OF income. There is
q good man with $500 of income Why
is thatP There is foe of society who
lives on, doing oil the damage he can,
to IS years of age; and here is Chris
tian father, faithful in every depart
ment Of life, at IS years Of age taken
away by death, his family left help
less. Explain that Oh! there is no
sentence that oftener drops from your
lips than this: II cannot understand it
/ cannot understand it."
Well, now religion comes in just at
that point with its illumination and its
explanation. There is a business man
who has lost his entire fortune. The
week before he lost his fortune there
were twenty carriages that stopped at
the door of his mansion. The week
after he lost his fortune all the car
riages you could count on one finger
The week before financial trouble be-
gan people all took off their hats to
him as he passed down the street The
week his financial prospects were UNI
der discussion people just touched their
hats without otherwise bending the
rim.
Now, while the world goes away
from man when he is in financial dis
trcss, the religion of Christ comes to
him and says: You are sick, and your
sickness is to be moral publication; You
are bereaved; God wanted in some way
TO take your family to Heaven, and he
must begin somewhere, and so He took
the one that was most beautiful and
was most ready to 60" do not say
that religion explains everything in
this life, but | do say it lays down GER
tain principles which are grandly con-
solatory.
There are hundreds of people in this
house who are walking day by day in
the sublime satisfaction that all is for
the best, all things working together
for good for their soul. How man
can get along through this life without
the explanation is to me a mystery.
What! is that child gone forever? Are
You never to get it back? Isyour prop
erty gone forever? Is your soul to be
bruised and to be tried forever? Have
you no explanation, no Christian expla-
nation, and yet not maniac? But
when you have the religion OF Jesus
Christ in your soul, it explains every
thing SO far as it is best for you to un-
derstand. You look off in life, and
your soul is full of thanksgiving to God
that you are SO much better off than
you might be.
Oh! the sunshine! the sunshine Of
Christian explanation! Here is some
one bending over the grave Of the dead
What is going to be the consolation?
The flowers you strew upon the tomb?
Oh, mol The services read at the grave?
Oh, no! The chief consolation on that
grave is what falls from the throne Of
God. Sunshine, glorious sunshine
Resurrection sunshine.
Again, find great deal of the sum
shine of this Bible and of our re-
ligion in the climacteric joys that
are to come. A man who gets up and
goes out from concert right after the
opening voluntary has been played, and
before the prima donna sings, or before
the orchestra begins, has better idea
of that concert than that man has who
supposes that the chief joys of religion
are in this world We here have only
the first note of the eternal orchestra
We shall in that world have the joy of
discovery. We will in five minutes
catch up with the astronomers, the
biologists, the scientists, the philoso-
pliers of all ages who so far surpassed us
in this world. We can afford to adjourn
astronomy and geology and many OF
the sciences to the next world, because
we shall there have better apparatus
and better opportunity l must study
these sciences so far as to help me in
my work, but beyond that l must give
myself to saving my own soul and saw
the soul of others, knowing that in one
fash of eternity we will catch it all.