The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-08-18

you felt an irresistible drawing heaven
ward. You have been purer and holiel
of heart ever since that night when the
little one for the last time put its arm.
around your neck and said: sfGooc
night, papa: good night, mamma. Nee
me in Heaven"
But / must come on down to your
later sorrow. What was it? Perhap.
it was sickness The child's tread or
the stair or the tick of the watch on
the stand disturb you. Through the
long weary days you counted the figure.
in the carpet or the flowers in the wall
paper. But you are better. perhap:
even well. Have you thanked God that
to-day you can come out in the fresh
air; that You are in this place to hear
Gods name, and to sing Gods praise
and to implore Gods help, and to ask
God forgiveness?
| Perhaps your last sorrow was finap-
cial embarrassment. BY an unadvised
| Endorsement, or by conjunction of uu.
foreseen events, or by fire or storm, OF
senseless panic, you have been flung
headlong, and where you once dis
pensed great charities now You have
hard work to make both ends meet.
Have you forgotten to thank God for
your days of prosperity, and that
through your trials some of you made
| investments which will continue after
| the last bank of this world has ex-
ploded and the silver and gold are
molten in fires of burning world?
Have you, amid all your losses and en-
couragements, forgot that there was
bread on your table this morning and
that there shall be shelter for your
head from the storm, and there is air
for your lungs, and blood for your
heart, and light for your eye, and a
glad and glorious and triumphant re-
ligion for your soul?
Perhaps your last trouble was be-
reavement. That heart which in child
hood was your refuge, the parental
heart, and which has been source of
the quickest sympathy ever since, has
suddenly become silent forever. And
now sometimes, whenever in sudden an
noyance and without deliberation you
say, II will go and tell mother" the
thought flashes on You: Il have no
mother" Or the father, with voice
less tender, but at heart as earnest and
loving-watchful of all our ways, eX-
ultant over your successes without say
ing much, although the old people do
talk it over by themselves-is taken
away forever.
Or there was your companion in life,
sharer of your joys and sorrows, taken,
leaving the heart an old ruin. where
the i'll winds blow over wide wilder
ness of desolation, the sands of the
desert driving across the place which
once bloomed like The garden of God.
And Abraham mourns for Sarah at the
cave of Machpelah. Going along your
path in life, suddenly, there was an
open grave.
But cheer up N the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Comforter. He is not
going to forsake you. Did the Lord
take that child out of your arms? Why
he is going to shelter il better than you
could. He is going to array it in a
white robe, and give it a palm branch
and have it all ready to greet you at
Your coming home. Blessed the broken
heart that Jesus heals Blessed the
importunate cry that Jesus compassion
ates. Blessed the weeping eye from
which the soft hand of Jesus wipes,
away the tear.
Some years ago ] was sailing down
the st. John river, which is the Rhine
and the Hudson comingled in one
scene of beauty and grandeur, and
while | was on the deck of the steamer
gentleman pointed out to me the
places of interest, and he said: "An
this is interval land, and it is the rich
est land in al the provinces of Nev
Brunswick ard Nova Scotia"
What" said l, do you mean by it,
teYTal land?" Well he said, "tlais
land is submerged for n part of the
year; spring freshets, come down and
all these plains are overlooked with
the water, and the water leaves n rich
deposit. and when the waters are gone
the harvest springs ZIP, and there is the
grandest harvest that was ever
reaped," and / instantly thought: 1T
IS not the heights of the church and it
is not TIE heights of this world that
are the scenes of ihe greatest prosper
ity, but the soul over which the floods
of sorrow have gone, the soul over
which the freshets of tribulatiNn have
torn their way, that yields the greatest
fruits of righteousness, and the largest
harvest for time, and the richest har-
vest for eternity" Bless God that your
soul is eterval land.
But these "reminiscences reach only to
this morning. There is one more point
of tremendous "Reminiscences, and that
is the last hour of life, when we have to
look over all our past existence. What
moment that will bel place Napo-
Icons dying "Reminiscences on st. Helena
beside Mrs. Judson' dying "Reminiscences
in the harbor of St Helena. the same
island, twenty years after. Napoleon's
dying "Reminiscences was one of delirium
as he exclaimed: Head of the army"
Mrs. Judson's dying Renaissance, as
she came home from her missionary
toll and her life of self-sacrifice for God,
dying in the cabin of the ship in the
harbor of St Helena, was: Il always
did love the Lord Jesus Christ" And
then, the historian says, she fell into
sound sleep for al hour, and woke amid
the songs of angels
1 place the dying Renaissance of
Augustus Caesar against the dying rem.
iniscence of the Apostle Paul. The
dying "Reminiscences of Augustus Cesar
was, addressing his attendants, Have
played my part well on the stage Of
life?" and they answered in the affirma-
tive. and he said: why, then, don't
you applaud me?" The dying reminis-
cence of Paul the Apostle was: Il