Democratic messenger., 1894-11-17

have never had any pain except sin. :"
Then they said TO him. Would you
like To iend u message To your friends:"
Yes. | w"nld. Tell them that only
last night the love nf Jesus came rush
ing into my soul like the surges of the
Sea. and i had To try ont: Stop, Lord;
it is enough. Stop, Lord-enoughr "
Oh. the joys If this Christian religion
Vanity of sinful Pleasures.
just pass over from those tame joys
IN which you arc Neutrality-suspicious. of
this world--into the rapturcs of the gos-
pei. The world cannot satisfy you; you
have found out-Alcxander longing for
other worries To conquer and vet drown
ed i'll his OWN bottle, Byron whipped
by disquietudcs around the world. Vol
tairc cursing his own soul while all the
streets of Paris were applauding him
Henry II consuming with hatred against
poor Thomas Beckett. all illustrations
of the fact that this world cannot make
man happy. The very man who poi
soncd the ponmcl of the saddle ON
which Queen Elizabeth rode shouted i'll
the street. God save the queenr' One
moment the world applauds. and the
next moment the world mathematics
Oh. come over into this greater joy.
this sublime solace. this magnificent
bcatitude. The night after the battle of
Shiloh there We're thousands of wound
ed on the field, and the ambulanccs had
not come. One Christian soldier, lying
there a-dying under the starlight. he
gan 10 sing:
There il n land of pure delight.
And when he came to the next line
there were scores of voices uniting:
Where saints immortal reign.
The song was caught up all over the
| field among the wounded until il was
said that there Were at least 10, 600
wounded men uniting their voices a
they came TO the verse:
There everlasting spring abides
And never whitening flowers.
| Death, like narrow stream. divides
That heavenly land from ours.
Oh, it is a great religion to live by.
and it is a great religion to die by.
There is only one heart throb between
you and that religion this moment. Just
look into the face of your pardoning
God and surrender yourself for time
and for eternity, and he is yours, and
heaven is yours. and all is yours. Some
of you, like the young man of the text,
have gone astray. know not the his
tory, but you know it-you know it.
The Circle of safety.
When u young man went forth into
life, the legend says, his guardian angel
went forth with him, and getting him
into field the guardian angel swept a
circle clear around where the young
man stood 1t was circle of virtue and
honor, and he must not step beyond that
circle Armed foes came down, but
were obliged to halt at the circle. They
could not pass. But one day temptress,
with diamonded hand, stretched forth
and crossed that circle with the hand,
and the tempted soul took it. and by
that one fell grip was brought beyond
the circle and died.
Some of you have stepped beyond that
circle. Would you not like this day. by
| the grace of God, to step back: This,
say to You. is your hour of salvation.
There was in the closing hours of Queen
Anne what is called the clock scene.
Flat down on the pillow, in helpless
sickness, she could not move her head
or move her hand. She was waiting for
tho hour when the ministers of state
should gather i'll angry contest, and
worried and worn ont by the coming
| hour, and in momentary absence of the
nurse, III the power-the strange power
which delirium sometimes gives one
she arose and stood i'll front of the
| clock, and stood there watching the
clock when the nurse returned. The
nurse said, do you see anything pecul.
lar about that clock" She made no an
swer, but soon died. There is n clock
scene i'll every history. If some Of you
would rise from the bed of lethargy and
come out of your dclirium of sin and
look on the clock of your destiny this
moment. you would see and hear some
thing you have not seen or heard be-
fore, and every tick of the minute. and
every stroke of the hour. and every
swing of the pendulum. would say,
"Now, now, now, now" Oh. come
home to your Fathers house! Come
home, oh. prodigal, from the wilder
ness! Come home. come home.
The Divine Justice.
But notice that when the prodigal
came there was the fathers JOY. He
did not greet him with any formal
How do You do" He did not come
out and say: ''You are unfit to enter.
Go out and wash in the trough by the
well, and then you can come III. We
have had enough trouble with you. :
! All, no! When the proprietor of that es-
tate proclaimed festival, it was All ont
burst of fathers love and father 5
| joy. God is your father.
have not much sympathy with that
description of God sometimes hear. as
though he were Turkish sultan-hard
and unsympathetic and listening not to
the cry of hi, subjects. A man told me
he saw in one of the eastern lands a
king riding along. and two men were
| i'll alteration. and one charged the 9th
er with having eaten his rice. and the
king said. Then slay the man, and by
post mortcm examination find whether
he has eaten the rice. And he was
slain. All, the cruelty Of scene like
that! Our God is not sultan. not a
| despot, but father-kind. loving, for
| giving-and he makes all heaven ring
again when q prodigal comes back. Il
have no pleasure, hc says, in the
death of him that dieth.
If man docs not get heaven. it is
because he will not 90 there. No differ
ence the color. no difference the history.
no difference the antcce,lents, no differ
ence the surroundings. indifference the
sin. When the white horses of Christ S
victory are brought out to celebrate the
eternal triumph. You may ride one Of
them, and. as God is greater than all.
his joy is greater. and when a soul comes
back there is i'll his heart the surging of
an infinite ocean of gladness, and To ex-
press that gladness il takes all the rivers