Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-06-30
REV. DIR. 4ALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine'S SUD-
& day Sermon.
Subject: "Crapes From Canaan

Ci1Ol anu cnt OOlCn from uee7sCS u OTUHC'e Ue"s
one cluster Of grapes, and they bare.1 bet,ceen
t,co upon staff. Numbers xiii, 23.
The long trudge of the Israelites across the
wilderness was almost ended. They had
come to the borders of the promised land.
OF the 600, 900 adults who started from Egypt
for Canaan, how many do you suppose got
there? Five hundred thousand2 Oh, no.
Not 200, 900, not 100, 900, nor 80, nor 20, nor
10, but only men. Oh, it was ruinous
march that Gods people made, but their
children were living, and they were on the
march. and now that they had come up TO
the borders of the promised land they were
very curious to know what kind Of place it
was and whether it would be safe togo over.
So q scouting party is sent out to recon
hotter. and they examine the land. and they
come back bringing specimens of its growth
Just as YOU came back from California,
bringing to your family basket Of pears or
plums or apples TO show what monstrous
fruit they have there, so this scouting party
cut off the biggest bunch of grapes they could
find. II was so large that one man could not
carry it, and they thrust pole through the
cluster, and there was one man at either end
OF the pole. and SO the bunch Of grapes was
transported.
was some time ago in luxuriant vine
ward The vine dresser had done his WORK.
The vine had clambered up and spread Its
wealth all over the arbor. The sun and
shower had mixed cup which the vine
| drank until with flushed cheek it lay Stun"
bering in the light, cluster against the cheek
of cluster. The rinds OF the grapes seemed
almost bursting with the juice in the warm
lips Of the autumnal day. and it seemed as II
all YOU had to do was to lift chalice toward
! the cluster and its likelihood would begin to
| drip away. But, my friends. in these rigor-
Gus chimes we know nothing about large
! grapes.
! Starbo states that in Bible times and in
Bible lands there were grapevines so large
| that il took two men with outstretched arms
to reach round them, and he says there were
clusters two cubits in length, or twice the
length from the elbow to the tip of the long
finger. Achaicus, dwelling in those lands,
tells us that during the time he was smitten
with fever one grape would slake his thirst
for the whole day. No wonder. then. IN
those Bible times two men thought it worth
their while to put their strength together to
carry down one cluster of grapes from the
| promised land.
But this morning bring you larger clus-
ter from the heavenly Eschol--a cluster OF
hopes. q cluster of prospects, cluster OF
| Christian consultations, and l am expecting
that one taste of it will rouse up your appe-
tite for the heavenly Canaan, During the
past winter some of this congregation have
gone away never to return. The aged have
| put down their staff and taken up the scepter,
Men in midlife came home from office or
shop and did not so back again and
never will 60 back again. And the dear
children. some Of them have been gathered
| in Christs arms He found this world too
rough O place for them, and so He has gath
cred them in. And, oh, how many wounded
souls there are-wounds for which this world
offers no medicament--and unless from the
gospel Of our Lord Jesus Christ there shall
come consolation there will be no consola-
ton at ALL Oh, that the God Of all comfort
would help me while preach and that the
God of all comfort would help you while you
hear
First. console you with the divinely sane
toned idea that your departed friends are as
much yours now as they ever We're. | know
you sometimes get the idea in your mind
when you have this kind of trouble that your
friends are cut off from you and they are no
longer yours, but the desire to have all our
loved ones in the same lot in the cemetery is
natural desire. universal desire and there
fore God implanted desire and is mighty
suggestive of the fact that death has no
power 10 break up the family relations.
If our loved ones go away from our posses
sion, why put a fence around our lot IN the
cemetery Why the gathering OF four or five
names on one family monument? Why the
planting of one cypress vine 80 that 1t covers
all the cluster OF graves? Why put the hus-
band beside the wife andth children at Their
feet? Why the bolt on the gate of our lot,
and the charge to the keepers of the ground
to see that the grass is cut and the vine at
tended to and the flowers plantedS Why not
put our departed friends in one common
field and grave? Oh it is because they are
ours.
That child, O stricken mother is as much
nAln (IIy
when God put it against your heart and said
as of old "Take this child and nurse it fol
Me. and / will give thee thy wages. 1t IL
no mere within. 1t is divinely planted
principle in the soul, and God oertalnl!
would not plant lie, and He would not
! culture O lie Abraham would not ALLOW
/ Sarah TO be buried in o strangers grounds
! although some very beautiful ground wa
offered him free gift, but he pays 4O
2 shekels for Machpelah. the cave, and tn
trees overshaGowing it. The grave has beer
: well kept and to-day the Christian traveller
stands in thoughtful and admiring mooi
gazing upon MacEpelah. where Abraham
and Sarah are taking thfir long sleep o
1000 years.
Your father may be sluubering under tn
tinkling Of the bell of the Scotch kirk. You
brother may have gone down in the ship tina
. foundered off Cape Hatteras. Your littl
. child may be sleeping on the verge of tn
Towering western prairie. Yet God vii
gather them all up, however widely the dus
2 may be scattered. Nevertheless it is pleasan
e to think that we will be buried together
When my father died and we took him on
and put him down in the graveyard at Somer
vile. it did not seem so sad to leave hlr
IL there, because right beside him was my ueal
GOOD. old, beautiful Christian mother, and
seemed as if she said II was tired, and
came TO bed a little early. am glad 20
q have come; it seems as OF old.
J. oh. il is a consolation to feel that whe
I. men come aud with solemn tread carry 20
out TO your resting place they will open tn
gate through which some of your friend
- have already gone and through which man
of YOUR friends will follow. Sleeping unde
the same roof, at last sleeping under tn
! same sod. The autumnal leaves that drl
a across your grave will drift across theirs, tn
l. bird songs that drop on their mound WI
II droD on YOURS, and then in StariesS Wlnt(
NIGHTS. when the wind comes howlln
through the gorge, you will be company Il
70 each other. The child close up to the bosol
of its mother. The husband and wife rema
ried on their lips the sacrament OF the aus
| Brothers and sisters who used IN sport
y fling themselves on the grass, now again
clining side by side in the grave, In necKs
:, sunlight sitting through the long, htne WI
Il lows. Then at the trumpet oil the arcn ah9'
to rise side by side, shaking themselves lro
'the dust of ages. The faces that were ghast
|. and fixed when YOU saw them last all anus
8 with the light of interruption. Inc lath
= looking around on his children and sayln
Z "Come, come my darlings this is the NOR
ing of the resurrection. Mrs. Slgourn
wrote beautifully with the tears ana ploou
70 her own broken heart;