Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-05-03

heal, no coat for your back, no snoes ~.
your feet. Better travel on toward eternity
bare headed and bare footed, and houseless
| AMI homeless, AMI friendless, than &C
through life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less of
EtateSman, or Havelocl any less of SOL
der, or Grinnell any less OF merchant, or
West any less of a painter2 Rsligion is the
best security in every bargain, il Is the
sweetest note in every song it il the bright
est gem in every coronet. No time to be re-
ligious! Why, you will have to take time
to he sick, to he troubled, to die. Our
world is only the wharf from which we are
to embark for heaven. No time to secure
the friendship OF Christ. No time to buy
lamp and trim it for that walk through the
darkness which otherwise will be illumine1
only by the whiteness Of the tombstones.
No time to EDUCATE the eye for heavenly
splendora or tie hand for choral harps, or
the ear for everlasting songs, or the soul for
honor, glory and immortality. One would
th;nk we had tina for nothing else.
Other persons apologizs for not entering
the Christian life because it is time enough
yet. That Is very like those persons who
send their regrets and say, 81 will come in
perhaps at 1 or II o'clock. | will not be
there at the opening OF the banquet, but
will be there at the close" Not yeti Not
Yeti
Now, do not give any doleful view of
this hte. There Is nothing in my nature,
nothing in the grace OF God that tends to-
ward doleful view of human life. have
not mush sympathy with Addison's descrip-
ton OF the "Vision of Mira" where he rep
res ents human life as being a bridge of a
hundred arches, and both en- Is of the bridge
covered with clouds, and 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 very dismal
picture. have not much sympathy with
the Spanish proverb which say, The sky
Is good, and the earth is good-Jhat whice
IS bad is between the earth and tbs sky"
But while we Christian people are bound
10 take a cheerful view of life we must also
confess that life is a great uncertainty. and
that man who says, Il can't become a
is running a risk Infinite. You do not per.
haps reaizs the fact that this descending
grade of sin gets sleeper and sleeper, and
that you are gathering up rush and yeloc-
ity which after awhile may not answer to
the brakes Oh, my friends. be not among
those who give their whols life to the world
and then give their corpse to God. 1t
does not seem fair while our pulses are in
full play of health that we serve our
selves aud serve the world and then make
Go at last the present of a coffin. 1t does
not seem RI yht that We run our slip from
coast to coast, carrying cargoes for ourselves.
and then when the ship is crushed on the
rocks give to Col the shivered timbers. IL
l
low to repent-better than never at all-but
how much better, how much more generous,
1t would have been il he had repented fifty
years beforeI My friends, you will never
get over these procrastinations.
Here is a delusion. People think, 81 cal
go on in sin and world.inass but after awhile
l will repent, an then it will be though
had cone at the very start" That is a
deuson. No one ever gets fully over pro-
crasJination. Ii you give your soul to God,
some other time than this, you will enter
heaven with only half the capacity for en-
jOyment and Knowls1ge You might have
had. There will bs heights of blessedneSS
you might have attained, you will never
reach; thrones of glory on which you might
have been seated, but which you will never
climb We will never get over pro-
crastination, neither in time nor IN eter-
nifty. We have startsi on a march from
which there is NO retreat The shad.
ows OF eternity gather on our path
wav. How insignihcin5 is tine compared
with the vast eternityl | was thinking of
this while coming down over the Allegheny
Mountains at noon, by that wonderful place
whIcn you have all heard described 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 the description OF the Horseshoe
and thinking on this very theme and prepar-
ing this very sermon it seemed TO me as il
the great courser of eternity speeding along
had just struck the mountain with one hoof
and gone into illimltsole space. So sh Drt IL
time, so insignificant is earth, compared With
the vast eJernityl
This morning voices roll down the sky,
and all the worlds of light are ready to
ioice at your dissnthralI ment. Rush not
into the presence of the King ragged with
sin when you may have this robe OF right
eousness. Dash not your foot to pieces
against the throne OF a crucified Christ
Throw not your crown of life off the battle
ments- All the scribes of God are this mo-
ment ready with volumes of living light to
record the news OF your soul emanc ipated.