Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1894-05-24
that house arc concerned the homo hos
Il 49,

bers of that family and carried them away.
Ziklag in ashesl And you 90 about somo-
times weeping and sometimes enraged,
wanting to get back your loved ones as
much as David and his men wanted to re-
construct their lespoilcd households Zk
lag in ashcsl Some of you went off from
home. You counted the days of your alb
scncc. Every day seemed as long as a
week oh, how glad You were when the
time came for you to go aboard the steam.
boat or rail car and start for home! You
arrived. You went up tho street where
your dwelling was, and in tho night you
put your hand on tho doorboll, and, be-
holdl it was wrapped with the signal of
bereavement, and YOU found that Amalc-
kitish death. which has devastated thou-
sand other households, had blasted yours
You go about weeping amid tho dcsola-
tion OF your once happy home, thinking of
the bright eyes closed. and the noble hearts
stopped, and the gentle hands folded, and
you weep until you have no more power
to weep. Ziblag in ashcsl
A gentleman went TO q friend of mine
in the city of Washington and asked that
through him he might get q consuship to
some foreign port. My friend said to- him.
"What do you want to go away from your
beautiful homo for into a foreign port?'
"Oh, " he replied, "my homo is gonc My
six children are dead. ] must get away,
sir l can f stand it in this country any
longer" Hiklag in ashcs
Ashes of Life.
Why these long shadows of bereavement
across this audience? Why is II that in al
most every nssemblagc black is the pre-
dominant color of the apparel is it be
cause you do not like saffron or brown or
violet? oh, no! You say, The world is
not So bright to us as once it WIS, and
there is a story Of silent voices and of still
feet and Of loved ones gone, and whom you
look over the hills, expecting only beauty
and loneliness you find only devastation
and woe. Iiklag in ashes
One day in Ulster county, y. y, the
village church was decorated until the
fragrance Of the flowers was almost Devil
dering. The madens of the village had
emptied the place Of flowers upon one mar
rage altar One Of their own number was
affiancCd to a minister of Christ, who had
como to take her to his own home. With
hands joined, amid a congratulations au-
diencc, the vows were taken. In three
days from that time one Of those who stood
at the altar exchanged earth for heaven.
| The wedding march broke down into the
funeral dirgc. There were 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 n
week before in his strength, now he comes
home lifclcsS. The whole church bcwailcd
| 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 nj him.
| And some of those whom he had comfortcd
in days of sorrow, when they passed that
silent form, made the place dreadful with
their weeping. Another village cmpticd of
its ilowcrs-somc of them put in the shape
of cross to symbolic his hope, others put
in the shape of ii crown to symbolic his
triumph. A hundred lights blown out in
one strong gust from the open door of a
sepulcher. Ziklag in ashes
A Rally Cay.
/ preach this sermon today because !
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 want
all this congregation to go along with mo.
/ feel that somehow have a responsibility
in your arriving at that great city. Dc
you really want to join the cOmpaniOnship
of your loved ones who have gone: Arc
you rs anxious to join them rs David and
his men were to join their families Then
l 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 rcsusci
tated than he pointed the way the captor-
Il > 1
his men followed after. So our Christian
! friends have gone into another country
and if we want to reach their companion
ship 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 a rcli
gious life; we must live a religious life
They were in some things like ourselves
/ know, now that they are gone, there is {
halo around their names, but they hat
their faults. They said and did thing,
they ought never TO have said or done
They were sometimes rcbclliOus, some
times cast down. They were far from be
Ing perfect. SO l suppose that when We
have gone some things in us that are now
only tolerable may be almost rcsplendent
But as they were like us in deficiencies W.
ought to be like them in taking a supelna
Christ to make up for the deficits Had il
not been for Jesus they would have all per
ishcd, but Christ confronted them ant
said II am the way, and they took it,
have also to say to you that the patti
that these captivcs trod was "A troubled
path, and that David and his men had It
go over the same difficult way. Will,
J these captives were being taken off the.
said "Oh, we are SO tired we are so sick
, we are so hungry" But the men who haC
charge of them said: stop this crying
; Go onn' David and his men also found i
hard way They had to travel it, Gu
) friends have gone into glory, and it i
through much trbulation that we are t,
enter into the kingdom. How our lovcC
} ones used TO have to struggle! How thci
, old hearts ached How sometimes they haC
! a tussle for bread! In our childhood w
wondered why there were so many wrn
7 kles on their faces. We did not know tina
? what were called crows feet on thci
l faces were the marks Of the black ravel
of trouble. Did you never hear the oil
people seated by the evening stand fall