The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1894-06-07

| most every assemblage black is the FREEDOM
inant color of the apparel? Is it hecauseyou
do not like saffron or brown or violet? on,
MOI You saw: sThe world is not so bright
to us as once it was and there is a story OF
silent voices. and Of still feet, and of loved
| ones gone and when you look over the hills
expecting only beauty and loveliness You
And only devastation and woe. Ziklag in
| ashes
One day, in Ulster County, N. Y. the viii
| lage church was decorated until the ira
| GRANGE of the flowers was almost bewilder-
| ing The maidens OF the village had emp
! tied the place of flowers upon one marriage
altar One of their number was afffanced to
| a minister of Christ who had come to take
| her to his own home. With hands Joined,
amid congratulatory audience, the VOWS
| were taken. In three days from that time
| one of those who stood at the altar ex-
| changed earth for heaven. The wedding
march broke down into the funeral dirge
There we're not enough flowers now for the
coffin lid because they had all been taken
for the bridal hour The dead minister of
Christ is brought to another village.
He had gone out from them less than
week before in his strength now he comes
home lifeless. The whole church bewaied
him. The solemn procession moved around
to look upon the still face that once had
beamed the messages of salvation. Little
children were lifted up to look at him. And
some of those whom he had comforted in
days of sorrow. when they passed that silent
form. made the place dreadful with their
weeping. Another village emptied OF its
fiowers-some vi them put in the shape OF
cross to syns)olize his hope. others put in the
shape of q crown to symbolic his triumph.
hundred lights blown out in one strong
gust from the open door OF a sepulchre.
Ziklag in ashes
l preached this sermon to-day because I
want to rally YOU as David rallied his men
for the recovery OF the loved and the lost |
want not only to win heaven, but l want all
this congregation to go along with me. feel
that somehow have a responsibility in your
arriving at that great city. Do you really
want to join the companionshp of your loved
ones who have gone? Are you as anxious
to Join them as David and his men were to
ioin their families? Then am here, in the
name of God to say that you may and to
tell you how.
remark. in the first place, If you want to
join your loved ones in glory, you must
travel the same way they went. No sooner
had the half dead Egyptian been resuscitated
than he pointed the way the captors and the
captives had gone, and David and his mer
followed after. So our Christian friends
have gone into another country. and if we
want to reach their companionship we must
take the same road. They repented. We
must repent. They prayed: We must pray
They trusted in Christ. We must trust in
Christ. They lived religious life. Wemust
live religious life. They were in some
things like ourselves. 1 know, now they are
gone there is a halo around their names,
but they had their faults. They said and
did things they ought never to have said or
done. They were sometimes tebelllous,
sometimes cast down. They were far from
being perfect So suppose that when we
ha, n inn n that
only tolerable may be almost respondent.
But as they were like us IN deficiencies we
ought to be like them in taking supernal
Christ to make up for the deficits. Had 1t
not been for Jesus they would have all
persisted, but Christ confronted them and
said. ~ am the way and they took it.
1 have also to say to you that the path that
these captives trod was Il troubled path, ana
that David and his men had to go over the
same difficult way. While these captives
were being taken off they said, "Oh, we are
so tired we are so sick we are so hungry
But the men who had charge of them said
'Stop this crying. Go on" David and his
men also found it hard way They had to
travel it, Our friends b ave gone into glory,
and it is through much tribulation that we
are to enter into the kingdom How our
loved ones used to have to struggle. How
their old hearts ached, How sometimes
they had a tGssle for bread In our child
hood we wondered why there were so many
wrinkles on their faces. We did not know
that what were called "crows feet" on their
faces were the marks Of the black raven OF
trouble. Did you ever hear the old people.
seated by the evening stand, talk over their
early trials. their nardshps, the acct
dents. the burials, the disappointments, the
empty -four barrel when there were so many
hungry ones to feed, the sickness almost
unto death, where the next dose OF morphine
decided between CHASTITY bereavement and
an unbroken home circle? Oh, yes 1t was
trouble that whit ened their hair. 1t was
trouble that shook the cup in their hands 1t
was trouble that washed the luster from
their eyes with the rain of tears until they
needed spectacles. 1t was trouble that made
the cane a necessity for their journey. Do
you never remember seeing your Oil mother
sitting on some rainy day looking oui - 70
window, her elbow on the window sill, her
hand to her brow, looking out, not seeing
the falling shower at all (you well knew she
was looking into the distant past), until the
apron came up to her eyes because the mem
DRY was too much for her?
Oft the dig unbiddeu tear
Stealing down the furrowet check,
Told in eloquence sincere
Tales OF woe they could not speak
But, this scene of weeping Ger
Past this scene of toll and pain,
They shall feel distress no more,
Never, never weep again.
"Who are those under the ATARI the
question was asked, and the response came.
"These are they which came out OF great
tribulation and have washed their robes and
made them white in the blood Of the Lamb"
Our friends went by a path of tears into
glory. Be not surprised If we have to travel
the same pathway.
I remark again, if we want to win the So
ciety of our friends in heaven, we will not
only have TO travel path of faith and path
of tribulation, but we will also have to posi-
lively battle for their companionship. David
and his men never wanted sharp swords. and
invulnerable shields, and thick breastplates
so much as they wanted them on the day
when they came down upon the Amelikites.
If they had lost that battle, they never would
have got their families back. | suppose that
one glance at their loved ones in captivity
hurled them into the battle with tenfold
courage and energy. They said 'We must
win it. Everything depends upon it. Let
each one take man on point OF spear or
sword. We must win it," And | have to
tell you that between us and coming into the
compapionship of our loved ones who are
departed there is an Austeritz, there is a
gettysburg, there is Waterloo. War with