The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-03-17

and stood there and not overlooking the
surrounding country. Oh, the complete
ness of everything that God does!
One would have thAght that, If the
waters of Jordan had dropped until they
were only two or three feet deep, the Is
raelites might have marched through it
and have come up on the other bank
with their clothes saturated and their
garments like those of men coming ashore
from shipwreck, and that would have
been as wonderful deliverance, but God
does something better than that. When
the priests feet touched the waters of
Jordan and they We're drawn off, they
might have thought there would have
been bed of mud and slime through
which the army should pass.
Draw off the waters Of the Hudson or
the Ohio, and there would be good
many days. and perhaps many weeks,
before the sediment would dry up, and
yet here in an instant, Immediately, God
provides path through the depths of
Jordan. 1t is so dry the passengers do
not even get their feet damp Oh, the
completeness of everything that God
does Does he make universe3 1t is a
perfect clock, running ever since it was
wound up, the fixed stars the pivots, the
consultations the Intervening wheels,
and ponderous laws the weights and
ruighty swinging pendulum, the stars in
the great dome of night striking the mid
night, and the sun, with brazen tongue,
tolling the hour of noon.
The widest comet has chain of law
that it cannot break. The thistle down
flying before the schoolboy's breath is
controlled by the same law that contr Dis
the sun and the planets. The rosebush
In your window is governed by the san Q
principle that governs the tree of the
universe ON which the stars are ripening
fruits, and on which God will one day
put his hand and shake down the fruit
n perfect universe No astronomy has
ever proposed an amendment.
A COMPLETE BIBLE.
If God makes Bible, it is complete
Bible. Standing amid the dreadful and
delightful truths, you seem to de in the
midst of an orchestra where the wailings
over sins, and the rejoicings over pardon.
and the martial strains of victory make
the chorus like an anthem of eternity
This book seems to you the ocean of
truth, on every wave Of which Christ
walks-sometimes in the darkness of
prophecy, again IN the splcndors with
which he walks on Galilee In this book
apostle answers to prophet, Paul to Is =
iah, Revelation to Genesis glorious
light, turning midnight sorrow into TIE
midnoon joy. dispensing every fog, hush
ing every tempest. Take this book; it
is the kiss of God on the soul of lost man.
Perfect Bible. complete Bible! No man
has ever proposed any improvement.
God provided Saviour. Heis com
plete Saviour-God-m an-divinity and
humanity united in the same person.
He set up the starry pillars of the uni
verse and the towers Of light. He plant
ed the cedars and the heavenly Lebanon.
He struck out of the rock the rivers Of
life, singing under the trees, singing I'M
der the thrones. He quarried the sar-
donyx and crystal and the topaz of the
heavenly wall. He put down the jasper
for the foundation and heaped up the
amethyst for the capital and swung the
10 gates which are IL pearls. In one in
slant he thought out a universe, and yet
he became child crying for his mother,
feeling along the sides of the manager,
learning to walk.
Omnipotence sheathed in the muscle
and flesh of childs arm; omniscience
strung In the optic nerve of a child's eye;
infinite love beating in a child's heart; a
great God appearing in the form of a
child year old, : years old. Is years
old While all the heavens were as
cribing to him glory and honor and
power on earth, men said. WHO is this
fellow" While all the heavenly hosts,
with folded wing about their faces,
bowed down before him crying Holy
holyr' on earth, they denounced him as a
blasphemer and sot. Rocked in boat
on Gennesaret, and yet he it is that I'M
dirked the lightning from the storm
cloud and dislnasted Lebanon of its for
ests and holds the five oceans on the tip
of his finger us the leaf holds the rain
drop
Oh, the complete Saviour, rubbing his
hand over the place where we have the
| pain, yet the stars Of heaven the adorn-
| ing gems of his right hand. Holding us
in his arms when we take our last view
of our dead Sitting down with us on
| the tombstone, and while we plant roses
there he planting consolation in our
heart. every chapter stalk, every verse
a stem, every word rose. A complete
Saviour, a complete Bible, complete
universe, complete Jordanic passage,
Everything that God does is complete.
OBSTACLES TO OVERCOME.
Again, learn from this Jordanic pas
sage that between us and every Canaan
of success and prosperity there is riyeI
that must be passed. "Oh, how would
like some of those grapes on the other
side!" said some of the Israelites to
Joshua. "Well," says Joshua, eff you
want the grapes, why don't you cross
over and get them?" There is river Of
difficulty between us and everything that
is worth having. That which costs moth
ing is worth nothing.
God didn't intend this world for an
easy parlor, through which we are to be
drawn in rocking chair, but we are tt
work our passage, climb masts, fight
battles, scale mountains and ford rivers
God makes everything valuable difficult
to get at, for the same reason that he put
the gold down in the mine and the pear
clear down in the sea-to make us dis
and dive for them. We acknowledct
this principle in worldly things; oh, tina
we We're only wise enough to acknowl
edge it in religious things!
] You have scores of illustrations undel
your own observation where men hay,
had the hardest lot and been trodde,
under foot, and yet after awhile had i
easy. Now their ZONES blossom ans
bloom with pictures, and carpets tina
made foreign looms laugh now embrace
their feet: the summer winds lift tht
tapestry about the window gorgeous
enough for Turkish sultan; impatien
steeds paw and neigh at the door, thei
carriages moving through the sea o
New York life very wave of splendor.
Who is it? Why, it is a boy who cam
to New York with dollar in his poke
and all his estate SLING over his shou1de