The Opelousas courier., 1893-01-28

A clockmaker in one of the old English
towns appreciated the value of time when
he put on the front of the town clock the
words, Now or wheng' Mitchell, the as
tronomer, appreciated. the value OF time
when he said, Il nave been in the habit OF
calculating the value Of q thousandGh part
of a second" That minister of the Gospel
did not appreciate the value of time who.
during a season of illness, instead Of employ
lngh his time in useful reading or writing.
wrote a silly religious romance, which IN
some unknown way came into thepossession
OF the famous Joe Smith, who introduced
the book as a divine revelation, which be-
came the foun iation of Mormonism. the
most beastly abomination of all time.
They best appreciate the value of lime
whose Sabbaths have been wasted and
whose opportunities of repentance and USE
fuiness are all gone, and who have nothing
left but memories, baleful and eiegiac.
They stand in the bleak September, with
bare feet, on the sharp stubble of a reaped
wheat field, crying, 1.-THE harvest is pastP'
And the sough of an auturlal equinox
means forth in echo. The harvest is pastp
But do not let US get an impression from
chronology that because the years Of time
have been so long in procession they are to
go on forever. Matter is not eternal. No,
mol If you watch half a day, or a whole
day or two days, as | once did to see a mill
tary procession, o remember the last
brigade, and the last regiment, and the last
company finally passed on. and as we rose to
go we said TO each other. 'I5 is all over"
So this mighty procession OF earthly years
will terminate. just when | nave no power
to prognosticate, but sciences confirms the
Bible prophecy that the earth canno always
last. Indeed there has been a fatality Of
worlds. The moon is merely the corpse of
what 1T once was, and scientists have again
and again gone up in their o~bservatories to
attend the deathbed of dying worlds, and
have seen them cremated. So 1 am certain,
both from the Word of God and science,
that the worlds chronology will sooner or
later come to its last chapter.
The final century will arrive and pass on,
and then will come the final decade, and
then the final year, and the final month, and
the final day. The last spring will swing it's
censor of apple blossoms aud the last winter
bank its SHOWS. The last sunset will burn
like Moscow and the last morning radiate
the hills. The clocks will strike their last
hour. and the watches will tick th0ir hast
second. No jncendiaries will be needed to
run hither and yon with torches to set the
world on fire.
Chemistry teaches us that there is a very
infammable element in water. While oxy-
gen makes up a part of the water, the other
part of the water is hydrogen, and that is
very combustible. The oxygen drawn out
from the water, the infammabIe hydrogen
will put instantly into c~onfagration the
Illusions and Savannahs aud Mississippis and
Rhinesand Uralsa and Danubes, and Atlantic
and Pacific and Indian aud Mediterranean
seas. And then the angel of God, de-
scending from the throne, might put one,
foot on the surf of the sea and the other on
the beach and cry to the four winds of
heaven. thine was, but time shall be no,
longerp' Yet, found in Christ. pardoned
and sanctified, we shall welcome the day
with more gladness than you ever well
coined q Christmas or New Years morn.
When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow
And heavens last thunder shakes the earSd be.
low,
Thou, u~ndismayed, shalt DER thu ruin smile
And light thy torch at natures funeral nile