Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-10-20

by stage-coach, or a ! the pasSt myers
from Albany TO Buffalo by canal-boat,
OF do all the battling Of the wor
with bow and a row, as with the old
style of church to meet the eNigencies
of this day. Unless the church in our
day will adapt it elf to the time, it
will become xtinct. the people read
ing newspapers and books all the
week in alert pi lures ne and resound-
ing STYLE, will have no patience with
sabbath hum-drum. We have no Oh
jections to bands and surplice, and all
the paraphernalia of clerical life but
these things make no impression -
make no more impress on on the great
mass of the peol lie than the ordinary
business suit that you wear in Wall
street. A tailor cannot make a minis
ter. Some of the poorest preachers
wore the best othes and many a
back woodsman has dismounted from
the saddle bags, and in his linen
buster preached a sermon that shook
earth and heaven with its Christi n
eloquence. No new gospel, only the
old gospel in way suited to the time.
No new church, but a church TO be the
asylum, the inspiration. the practical
sympathy, and the eternal help of the
people.
But while half of the doors OF the
church are to be set open toward this
world, the other half of the doors
must be set open toward the next
You and / tarry here only a brief
space. We want somebody to teach
us how to get out of this lie at the
right time and in the right way.
Some fall out of life, some go STUN
nf I'M
out of life, some go cursing out of
life. We want TO go singing, rising,
re ioic ng, triumphing. We want half
the doors Of the church set in that di-
rection. We want half the prayers
that way, ha the sermons that way
We want to know how to get ashore
from the tumult of this world
into the land of everlasting
peace. We do not want TO
stand doubling and shivering when
we go away from this world; we want
our anttcipations aroused to the
highest pitch. We want To have the
e-hllara ion If diving child in Eng
land, the father telling me the story.
When he said 10 her, lis the path mar
row." she answered, "The path is
narrow; it is so narrow that | cannot
walk arm in arm with Christ, so Jesus
goes ahead, and he says, Mary, fol-
ow.'" Through these church gates
set heavenward how many of your
friends and mine have gone? The last
time Lhey were out of the house they
came o church. The earthly pilgrim
age ended at the pillar vi public wor-
shin, Snd then they marched out TO a
bigger and b lighter assemblage.
SOM of them were so old they
could not walk without cane or
two crutches now they have eternal
juvenescence. Or they were so young
they could not walk except as the ma
ternal hand guided them; now they
hound with the hilarities celestial.
The asst time we saw them they were
wasted with malarial or pulmonic dis
order; but now they have no fatigue,
and no d,tiicu ty of respiration in the
pure air Of heaven. How ! won err
when you and | w il cross over Some
of YOU have had about enough of the
humping and fail ng of this life A
draught from the fountains of heaven
would do you good Complete release
YOU could stand very well. 4 You got
on the other side, and had permission
to come back, yo would not come.
Though y u were invited 70 come back
and join your friends on earth, you
would saw, mo, let me tarry here
until they come; shall not risk Voing
back; if a man reaches heaven he had
better stay h re.
Oh, join hands with you this morn
ing in that uplifted splendor.
Whsn the shore is won at last,
Who will count he pillows paste
In Freybourg, Swift >erland, there Is
the trunk OF tree 400 years old
That tree was planted to commemor-
ate an event. About ten miles from
the rity the Swiss conquered he Bur
gundians. and a young man wan ed to
take the tidings to the city. lie took
a tree branch and ran with such speed
che ten miles, that when he reached
the city wa ing the tree branch he
had only the strength TO cry, Nv c.
ry.' and dropped dead. The
tree branch that he carried w S
planted, and it grew to be a great
tree twenty feet in circumference, and
the remains of IL are there to this dav.
My he rer, when you have fought
your last battle with sin and death
and hell, and they have been routed
in the conflict, IL will be n Joy worthy
of celebration. You will fly to the
city and cry "Victory,.' and drop at
the feet of the great leg. Then the
palm branch of the earthly race will
be planted to become the ut-brauch-
ing tree of everlasting rejoicing.
When shall these eyes thy heaven built
walls,
And pearly gates behold
Thy bulwarks with salvation strong,
And streets of shining gold!