Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-04-28

the friendship OF Christ. No time to buy a
lamp and trim it for that walk through the
darkness W aich otherwise will bs illuminei
| only by the whiteness of the tombstones.
No time to EDUCATE tho eye for heavenly
splendors. or tie 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 aoologiz, for not entering
the Christian life because it is time enough
yet. That is very like those persons who
send their regrets and say: VI will come in
perhaps az Il or - o'clock. | will not be
will be there at the close" Not yet! Not
yeti
Now, do not give any doleful view Of
this life. There is nothing ia my nature,
nothing in the grace OF CD, that tends to-
ward a doleful view os humsn life. have
not much sympathy with A ldison's descrlp.
ton OF the "Vision Of Mirzl" where he rep
resants human life as being brioge or
hundred arches, AMI both en- Is OF the bridge
covered with clouds, AMI the race coming
on, the most Of them falling down through
the first span, and all Of them falling down
through the last span. 1t is a very dismal
picture. Ihave not much sympathy with
the Spanish proverb which says, 1.-The sky
is good, and the earth is good-that which
is bad is between the earth and the sky"
But while we Christian people are bound
to take cheerful view of life we must also
confess that life is great uncertainty, and
that man who says, 81 can't become
Christian because there is time enough yet"
is running a risk infinite. You do not per-
hapS realize the fact that this descending
grade OF sin gets s5eeoer and sleeper, ana
that you are gathering 10 rush and ve!oc-
ity which after awhile may not answer 10
the brakes Oh, my friends. be not among
those who give their whole life to the world
and then g.vs their corpse TO God. 1t
does not seem fair while our pulses are in
full play of health that we serve our.
selves and serve the world and then make
Col at last the present of coffin. 1t does
not seem II ght tnat we run our ship from
coast to coast, carrying cargoes for ourselves.
and then wden the ship is crushed on the
rocks give TO Go 4 the shivered timberS 1t
is great thing for a man on his dying pill
low to repent-oetter than never at all-hut
b Nv much better, how much more generous,
it would have Desn il he had repented fifty
years beforei My friends, you will never
get over these procrastinations.
Here is deuslon People think. ~ can
go on in sin and worldliness. but after awhile
| will repent, aud then it will be as though
had come at the very start" That Is
delusion. No one ever gets fully over pro-
crasoination. Ii you give your soul to God,
some other time than tnis, you will enter
heaven with oly half the capacity for en-
j)yment and knowledge you might have
had. There will be helghGs of blesSedneSs
you might have attained, you will never
reach; thrones o.glory on which you might
have Oeen seated, but waica you will never
climb. We will never get over pro-
crastination. neither in tina nor in eter-
nifty. We have started on a march from
which there ia no retreat The shad.
ows Of eternity gather on our path
way. How Insignificant is time compared
with the vast eternity l was thinking Of
this while coming down over the Allegheny
Mountains at noon. by that wonderful place
which you have all heard described as the
Horsehoe-a depression in the side OF the
mountain where the train almost turns backs
again upon itself. and you see how appro-
pirate is ths description OF the Horseshoe
and thinking on this very theme and prepar-
ing this very sermon it seemed to me as If
the great courser of eternity speeding along
had just struck the mountain with one hoof
and gone into illimitaole space. SO sh ort is
time, so Insignificant 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
Into the presence of the King ragged with
sin when you may have this robe of right
sousness. Dash not your foot to pieces
against the throne Of crucified Christ
Throw not your crown OF life off the battle
ments ALI the scribes OF Col are this mo-
ment ready with volumes of living light to
record the news OF your soul emancipated.