Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-01-12

everything but religion. common sense about
everything but transference from this world.
Again, there Is blessing in an abbrevi-
ated earthly existence in the fact that one cs-
capes so many bereavements. Tho longer
we live the more attaehmsn snts and the more
kindred, the n ore chords TO be wounde or
rasped or sundered. If a man live on to
seventy or eighty years of age. how many
graves are cleft at his feet2 In that long
reach of time father and mother go. brothers
and sisters go. children go. gran ichildreu
go. personal friends outside the family circe
whom they had loved with love like that of
David and Jonathan.
Besides that, some men have a natural
trepidation about dissolution, and ever and
anon during forty or fifty or sixty years this
horror of their dissolution shudders through
soul and body. Now. suppose the lad goes
at sixteeT. years of age. He escapes fifty
funerals, fifty caskets. fifty obsequies, Atty
awful wrenchings of the heart. II Is hard
enough for US to bear their departure, but IS
it not easier for us to bear their departure
than for them to stay and bear fifty de-
partures? Shall we not, by the grace of God
rouse ourselves into n generosity of bereave-
r1ent which will practically say, 1T is hard
enough for me to go through this bereave-
rnent, but how glad an that he will never
have to go through it !"
So reason with myself. and so you will
find it helpful to reason with yourselves
David lost his son. Though David was king
he lay on the earth mourning and inconsO-
liable for some time. At this distance of time,
which do you really think was the one to be
congratulated, the short lived child or tho
long lived father2 Had Daved died as early
as that child, he would in the first place have
that particular bereavement, then he would
have escaped the worst bereavement of Alb
SALON., his recreant son and the pursuit of
the Phibstines, and the fatigues Of his mill
tary campaign. and the jealousy of Saul and
the perfidy of Ahithophel, and the curse of
Shimei, and the destruction of his family at
Ziklag, and, above all, he would have es-
capped the two great calamities of life, the
great sins of uncleanness and murder. David
lived to be of vast use to the church and the
world, but so far as his own happiness was
concerned, does 1t not seem to you that it
would have been better for him to have gone
early?
Now, this, my friends, explains some
things that to you have been inexplicable
This shows you why when God takes little
children from a household he is very apt to
take the brightest, the most genial. the most
sympathetic, the most talented Why? 1t is
because that kind of nature suffers the most
whenit does suffer and is most liable to
temptation. God saw the tempest sweeping
up from the Caribbean, and He put the deli
cate craft into tho first harbor. Taken away
from the evil to come"
Again, my friends, there is a blessing in an
abbreviated earthly existence in the fact that
1t puts one sooner in the centre of things.
All astronomers, infdel as we'll as Christian,
agree in believing that the universe swings
around some great centre. Any one who has
studied the earth and studied the heavens
knows that Gods favorite figure in geom-
etry is a circle. When God put forth His
hand to create the universe, He did not
strike that hand at right angles, but He
waved it in circle, and kept on waving it
In a circle until systems and consultations
4 ILL H.
tiOn. Our planet swinging around the sun,
other planets swinging around other suns,
but somewhere great hub around which
the great wheel Of the universe turns. Now,
that centre is heaven. That is the capital Of
the universe. That is tie great metropolis
of immensely.
Now, does not our common sense teach us
that in matters Of study it is better for US TO
move out from the centre toward the circum-
ference, where our world is? We are like
those who study the American continent
while standing on the Atlantic beach. The
way to study the continent is to cross it or
go to the heart of 1t. Our standpoint in this
world is defective. We are at the wrong end
of the telescone. The best way to study
piece of machinery is not to stand on the
doorstep and try to look in but to 90 in with
the gineer and take our place right amid
the saws and cylinders. We wear our eyes
out and our brain out from the fact that We
are studying under such great disadvantage.
Millions of dollars for observatCreS to
study things about the moon. about the sun.
about the rings of Saturn, about transits and
Occutations and CcIipses, simply because our
studio, our observatory, is poorly situated.
We are down in the cellar trying to study the
palace of the universe, while our departed
Christian friends have gone up stairs amid
the skylights to study.
Now, when one sooner get to the
centre of things is he not to be cOngratu-
lota fO hp n lIU1 va in he frpg h.
man class? We study God in this world by
the Biblical photograph of Him, but we all
know we can in five minutes OF interview
with friend get more accurate idea Of him
than we can by studying him fifty years
through pictures ., words. The little child
that died last night to-day knows more oi
God than all Andover. and all Princeton, and
all New Brunswick, and all Edinburgh, and
all the theological institutions in Christen-
dom. Is it not better to so up to the very
headquarters of knowledge?
Does not our common sense teach US that
it is better to be at the centre than to be
clear out on the rim Of the wheel, holding
nervousIy fast to the tire lest we be sud
denly hurled into light and eternal felicity?
Through all kinds of optical instruments
trying to peer in through the cracks and the
keyholes of heaven-afraid that both doors
of the celestial mansion will be swung wide
open before our entIanced viStOn-rushinS
about the apOthecary shops OF this world,
wondering if this is good for rheumatism.
and that is good for neuralgia and some
thing else is good for bad cough, lest we
be suddenly ushered into land of everlast
ing health, where tho tnhabitant never says
81 am sick"
What fools we all are to prefer the cir.
inference to the centre, What a dreadful
thing it would be if we should be suddenly
ushered from this wiHtry world into the
Maytime orchards of heaven, and il our
denly broken up by a presentation of an
emperor's castle, surrounded by parks with
springing fountains and paths up and down
which angels of God walk two aud two.
We stick to the world as though we pre-
ferred cold drizzle to warm habitation, dis
cord to cantata sacacloth to royal purple
as though we preferred piano with four OF
Eve keys out of tune to an instrument fully
attuned-as though earth and t.eaven had
exchanged apparel and earth had taken OD
bridal array and heaven had gone into deep
mourning all it's waters stagnaDt. all its
harps broken, all chalices cracked at the dry
wells, all the lawns sloping to the river
plowed with graves, with dead angels uni"'
the furrow. Oh, want 10 break up my own
infatuation. and l want to break up your in
fatuation for this world. Iteil you if we are
ready and if our work is done the sooner
We 60 the better, and if there are blessings
in longevity, want you to know right well
there are also blessings in. an abbreviated
earthly existence.
If the spirit of this sermon is true, how
consoled you ought to feel about members OF
your families that went early. Taken from
the evil to come" this book says. What
fortunate escape they had! How glad We
ought to feel that they will never have TO 70
the struggles which We have hal 10
go through. They had just time enough to
get out of the cradle and run up the spriIr-
time hills of this world and see how it looked,
and then they started for better stopping
place. They were like ships that put in at
st. Helena. staying there long enough to let
go up and see the barracks OF
Napoleon's captivity and then hoist sail for
the port of their own native land. They only
took this world "In transitu." It is hard for
u.s. but it is blessed for them.
And if the spirit ofthis sermon is true, then
we ought not TO go around signing and
because another year has gone.
But we ought to go down on one knee blythe
and see the letters and thank God