The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-04-24

| posture; for widowhOod with its weak arm
fighting for bread; for the household
which erst resOunded with merry voices
/ and pattering feet, now awfully still
| broad-winged sympathy, like the feathers
/ of the Almighty - warm-bloOded SYM
/ pathv everlasting sympathy sympathy
/ which shows itself in the grasp of the
/ hand, in the glittering tear of the eye, i'm
/ the cOnsolinC word of the mOuth-sym
/ pathy of blankets for the cold, of bread
| for the hungry, of medicine for the sick,
/ Of rescue for the lost. Sympathy!
/ Let IL thrill in every sermon. Let it
| tremble in every song. Let it CLEAN in
1 every ray and in every light. Sympathy
I Men and women are signing for sympthy,
/ dying for sympathy, struggling of intO
/ uDcleanliness and sin and perditiOn for
lack of sympathy May God give it to
us. Fill all this pulpit with it, from step
to step. Let the sweep of these galleries
suggest its encircling arms. Fill all the
house with it, from door to door, and from
floor to ceiling until there is no more
room for it, and il shall overflow into
the street, and passer-by on foot and
in carriage shall feel the throb of
fits magnificent benediction Let that
be our new departure as church. Let
that be my new departure as a pastor.
| Sympathy! Gratitude to God demands
that this morning I mention the fact that
] y
missed but one service through sickness.
When l entered the ministry was so deli
cate ! did not think | would preach three
| months; but preaching has agreed with
me. and ! think the healthest thing in
all the earth is the religion of Jesus
Christ Bless the Lord, O, my soul!
| What ingrates we are in regard to our
| health
must, in gratitude to God, also men
tion the multitudes to whom ] have been
permitted to preach. 1t is simply mirac-
! ulous, the attendance morning by morn
| ing, night by night and year by year, and
long after it has got to be an old story.
! know some people are dainty and eXclus-
sive in their tastes. AS for myself, | like
a big crowd. | would like to see an audi
ence large enough to scare me! If this
gospel is good the more that get it the
better.
Many have received the gospel here,
but others have rejected it. Now, | tell
you what | am going to do with some of
my dearest friends who have hitherto re
iected the gospel. You are not afraid of
me- and | am not afraid of you and some
day, O brother, ] will clasp your hands
together, and l win turn your face the
other way, and I will take hold of your
shoulders, and while you are helpless in
my grasp ] will give you one headlong
push IlbO blb hlllBuOul Oh NTOu. OuIlSI
says we must compel you to come in; |
will compel you to come in. Can ! CON
sent to do anything else with these men,
who are as dear to me as my own soul2
will compel you to come in.
PrOfting by the mistakes of the past,
must do better work for you and better
work for God. Lest | might, through
some sudden illness or casualty, be
snatched away before l have the opportu-
nifty of doing so, take this occasion to de
clare my love for you as a people 1t is
different work if a pastor is placed in a
church already built up, and he is sur
rounded by established circumstances.
There are not ten people in this church
that have not been brought into the
church through my ministry. You are
my family. ! feel as much at home here
as ] do in my residence on Oxford street
You are my family-my father, my
mother, my sister, my son, my daughter
You are my Joy and crown, the subject of
my prayers.
Your present and everlasting welfare
is the object of my ambition. | have no
worldly ambition. | had once | have not
now. l know the world about as well as
any one knows it. / have heard the hand
clapping of its applause, and have heard
| the hiss of it's opposition, and | declare to
you that the former is not especially to be
sought for, nor is the latter to be feared
Tho world has given me about all the
comfort and prosperity it can give a man,
and have no worldly ambition. / have
an all-cOnsuming ambition to make full
proof of my ministry, to get to heaven my
self and to take a great crowd with me.
Upon your table, and cradle, and arm
chair, and pillow, and lounge, and nur-
serY, and drawing room, and kitchen may
the blessing of the Almighty God come
down.
During these twenty-four years there is
hardly family that has not been invaded
by sorrow or death. Where are those
grand old men, those glorious Christian
women who used to worship with us2
Why, they went away into the next
world so gradually that they had con
cluded the second stanza or the third
Stanza in heaven before you knew they
were gone. They had on the crown before
you thought they had dropped the staff of
the earthly pilgrimage.
And then the dear children. O, how
many have gone out of this church You
could not keep them. You folded them in
your arms and said: "Ol God, cannot
give them up. Take all else, take my
property, take my reputation, but let me
keep this treasure. Lord cannot bear
this"
Oil we could all die together if we
could keep all the sheep and the lambs of
the family fold together until some bright
spring day, the birds achant and the
waters aglitter, and then we could alto
gether hear the voice of the Good Shep-
herd, and hand in hand pass through the
flood. No. no, no, mol o! if we only had
notice that we are all to depart together
and we could say to our families: "The
time has come. The Lord bids us away
And then we could take our little children
to their beds, and straighten out their
limbs, and say: CHOW. sleep the last
| sleep. Good night until it is good morn
| ing" And then we could go to our own
couches, and say: 'Now, altogether we
| are ready to go. Our children are gone
now let us depart" No, no! 1t is one by
! one. 1t may be in the midnight, it may be
in the winter, and in the snow coming
| down twenty inches deep over our grave
| 1t may be in a strange hotel, and our arm
| too weak to pull the bell for help. 1t may
! be so suddenly we have no time even tc
! say go0d-bY. Death is a bitter, crushing
| tremend us curse.
! play you three tunes on the gospel
| harp of comfort. weeping may endure
| for night, but JOY cOmeth in the morn
! ing That is me ''All things work
! together for good to those who love God. 80
| That IS the second And the Lamb
which is in the midst of the throne shall
/ lead them to living fountains of water.
and God shall wipe all tears from their
! eyes That is the third During these
twenty-four years I have tried as far as !