The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-05-09


easier to keep good health than to regain
II when once lost. The reason so many
good men think the world is going to
ruin is because their own physical condt-
ton is on the down grade No man
ought to preach who has a diseased liver
or an enlarged spleen. There are two
things ahead of US that ought 10 keep
us cheerful in our work-heaven and the
millennium.
And now, having come up to the twen-
ty-fifth milestone in my pastorate, 1
wonder how many more 'es / am TO
travel? Your company Us been ex-
ceedingly pleasant, o. my ear people.
and 1 would like to march by your side
until the generation with whom we are
now moving abreast and step TO step
shall have stacked arms after the last
battle. But the Lord knows best, and
We ought to be willing to stay or go.
A Pastors Vacation.
Most Of you are aware that I propose
at this time. between the close Of my
twenty-ffth year of pastOrate and before
the beginning of my twenty-sixth year,
to be absent for few months in order
to take journey around the world. /
expect to sail from San Francisco in the
steamer Alameda May 81. My place here
on Sabbaths will be fully occupied, while
on Mondays, and every Monday. l will
continue 10 speak through the printing
press n this and other lands as hereto
fore. Why do 1 go? To make pastoral
visitation among people whom / have
never seen, but to whom L have been
permitted a long while TO administer.
want to see them in their own cities.
towns and neighborhoods. l want to
know what are their properties, what
their universities and what their opportu-
mites, and so enlarge my work and get
more adaptedness. Why do 1 go? For
educational purposes. l want to freshen
my mind and heart by new scenes, new
faces, new manners and customs. / want
better to understand what are the
wrongs TO be righted and the waste
places to be reclaimed. I will put all I
learn in sermons TO be preached to you
when L return. / want 10 see the Sand
witch islands, not so much in the light
Of modern politics as in the light Of the
gospel Of Jesus Christ, which has trans
formed them. and Samoa and those vast
realms Of New Zealand and Australia
and Ceylon and India. I want TO see
what Christianity has accomplished.
want to see how the missionaries have
been lied about as living in luxury and
idleness.
l want to know whether the heather
religions are really as toIerable and as
commendable as they were represented
by their adherents in the parliament of
religious at Chicago. 1 want to see
whether Mohammedanism and Budd-
hism would be a good thing for trans
plantation in America, as il has again
and again been argued. 1 want to hear
the BrahmanS pray. l want to test
whether the Pacific ocean treats its
guests any better than does the Atlantic.
/ want to see the wondrous architecture
Of India, and the Delhi and CawnpOre
where Christ was crucified in the masSa-
ere of his modern disciples, and the dis
abled Juggernaut unwheeled by Chris
tianity, and TO see If the TAI which the
Emperor Shah Jehan built in honor Of
his empress really means any more than
the plain slab we put above our dear
departed. l want to see the fields where
Havelock and Sir Colin Campbell won
the day against the sepoys. / want TO
see the world from all sides, how much
Of il is in darkness. how much Of it is
in light. what the bible means by the
ENDS of the earth, and get myself
ready TO appreciate the extent Of the
present to be made 10 Christ as spoken
of in the Psalms, ASK for me, and
shall give thee the heather for thine in
heritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession and so I shall
be ready 10 celebrate in heaven the vic
tories Of Christ in more rapturOus song
than ! could have rendered had 1 never
seen the heather denominations before
they were conquered. And so l hope to
come back refreshed. reinforced and bet
ter equipped and TO do in ten years more
last twenty-five.
Beautiful Garland.
And now in this twenty-ffth anniver-
sary sermon 1 propose to do two things
first, to put a garland on the grave Of
the generation that has just passed off
and then to put a palm branch in the
hand of the generation just now coming
on the field Of action, for my text is
true. "One generation passeth away, and
another generation cometh." Oh how
many we revered and honOred and loved
in the last generation that quit the
earth Tears fell at the time of their
going, and dirges were sounded. and
signals of mourning were put on, but
neither tears nor dirge nor somber veil
told the half we felt. Their going left
a vacancy in our souls that has never
been filled up. We never got used to
their absence. There are times when
the sight of something with which they
were associated-a picture. or a block.
or a garment, or a. stsff-breaks us down
with emotion, but we bear it simply be-
cause we have to bear it, Oh. how
snowy white their hair got, and how
the wrinkles multiplied, and the sight
grew more dim, and the hearing less
alert, and the step more frail and one
day they were gone out Of the chair by
the fireside. and from the plate at the
pew, where they worshiped with US. o
my soul. how we miss them! But let
us console each other with the thought
that we shall meet them again in the
land Of salutation and reunion.
And now / twist a garland for that
departed generation. 1t need not be
costly, perhaps just handful Of clover
blossoms from the field through which
they used to walk, or as many violets
as you could hold between the thumb
and the forefinger, plucked out Of the
garden where they used to walk in the
cool of the day. Put these old-fashioned
flowers right down over the heart that
never again will ache. and the feet
that will never again be weary, and the
arm that has forever ceased 10 toll
Peace, father! Peace, mother! Ever
lasting peace! All that for the genera
ton gone.
An ExhOrtatiOn.
But what shall we do with the palm
branch? That we will put in the hand
of the generation coming on. Yours is
TO be the generation for victories. The
last and the present generations have
been perfecting the steam power and
the electric light, and the electric forces.
To these will be added transportation.
II will your mission to use all these
forces. Everything Is ready now for you
to march right up and take this world
for God and heaven. Get your heart
right for repentance and the pardoning
grace of the Lord Jesus, and your mind
right by elevating books and pictures.
and your body right by gymnasium and