The Penn's Grove record., 1894-02-23

= " -thSt christianity never realfaeu Wliht VA,
M2rk he was doing, and he passed on througl
me ana out o. it and into q future that an
not now going to depict.
L 10 not propose with a searchlight to SHOW
me breakers Of the awful coast on whiehtha
snip IS wrecked, for my business now is Il
watch the sea after the keel has plowed it.
no phosphoresGence in the wake of that ship
our behind it two souls struggling in the
whVe-tWo young men destroyed by reckless
skepticlsIn, an unillumined ocean beneath
ness.
You know what a g~loriously good maj
hev; JOIN Newton was the most of his life
but ne, ore his conversion he was u very
Nscked sailor, and on board the ship Har'
wien instilled in1delity and vice into the
mlna OF young man-principles Whlch de,
sfroyet him. Afterward the two met, and
Newton tried TO undo his bad work, but in
VAN. The young man became worse and
worse and died a proligate, horrifying those
VINO stood by him in his last moments.
Better loot ont what bal influence you
start, Tor you may not be able to stop 1t. II
does not require very great force to ruin
Others. Why was it that many years ago q
great flood nearly destroyed New Orleans!
A rawlis hal hutrowel into the banks OF
the river until the ground was saturated and
the banks weakened until the flood burst.
But | find here 4 man who starts out p
life with tine determination hat he VIII
never see Suffering but he viii try to al
levlate it, and never see Encouragement
but he will try to cheer it. and never meet
with anybody but he will try to do him
igood. Getting his strength from God. he
starts from hone with high purpose of doing
all the good he can possibly do in one day.
Whether standing behind the counter, or
talking in the business Office with a pen be-
hind his ear, or making a bargain with n fell
low trader, or out in the field discussing
with his next neighbor the wlsest rotation OF
the crops, or in the shoemaker's shop pound
ing sole leather. there is something in his
face, and in his phraseology and in his man
ner, that demonstrates the grace of God in
his heart. rs can talk on religion without
lWkwardiy drag Eing it in by h ears. He
IloYcs God and loves the souls of all whom he
meets and is interested in their present and
eternal destiny.
For fifty or sixty years he lives thai life,
and then gets through with it and goes into
20 describe the port into which that ship has
entered.
am not going TO describe the Pilot who
imet him outside at the '~'lightship." L am
not going to say anything about the crowds
Of friends who met him On the crystalline
gharyes up which he goes on steps of
l,hrysoprasps. For God IN His words TO Job
~'tA-E1 Nv " lS"N II AAiC Bthhh VI OhH - hAb
wake o! that ship, and toll you it is all
t-gieam with ~spleudors of kindness done,
and rolling With illHmined tears that wer9
wiped away. aul a-iash with congratula-
lions, and clear out to the horizon in all di-
~rections is the sparkling, flushing, billowing
phosphorsscencs of n Christian life. .'He
maketh a path to shine after him."
And here 1 correct one OF the maan no.
lions which at sDme time takes possession of
all of us, AMI that is as TO the brevity OF hu-
man life. When [ bury some very useful
man, clerical or lay, in his thirtieth or for
tieth year. 1 say What a waste OF ener-
giesl 1t was hardly worth while for him to
get ready for CHRISTIAN work, Tor he had SO
soon to quit it." But the fact is that 1 may
insure any man or woman h does any
good on a lar{ &c or small scale for a life on
earth as long as the world lasts. Sickness,
trolley car accidents, death itself, can no
more destroy his life than they can tear
down one of the rings of Saturn. You can
start one good word, n kind act, one
cheerful smile, on a mission that will last
until the world becomes a bonfire, and out
of that blaze it will pass into the heavens,
never to halt rs long as God lives.
There were in t~hessventeenth century men
and women whose names you never heard
of who are to-day influencing schools, COL
leges. churches. Nations. o can no more
measure the gracious results of their life
time than you eaald measure the length and
breadth and depth OF the phosphorescencs
last night following the ship OF the White
Star line 1903 miles out at sea. How the
courage AMI conservation OF Others inspire
US to follow. as . general in the American
army, ccol a all tea flying bullets, inspired
a tremb!ing |s,li,er. who sid after ward, 81
was near;r >.trslto death, but | saw the
old man. Hnita mustache oyer his shoulder
and weAi on Ave, we are all following
,aroakaJ,- ,.+E.nr Ia riuhf o- ryrnpp dir-1-
lions.
A few days ago I stood beside the gar
landed casket Of a gospel minister, and in
my remarks had occasion TO recall a snowy
night in a farmhouse when l was a boy and
evangelist spending a night at my fathers
house, who said something SO tender and
beautiful and impressive that 1t led me into
the kingdom Of God and decided my destiny
for this world and the next. You will. be-
fore twenty-four hours go by, meet some man
or woman with a big pack OF care and trou-
BILE, and you may say something to him or
her that will endure until this world shall
have been so far lost in the past that nothing
the stretch of angelic memory will be
able to realize that 1t ever existed at all.
l am not talking of remarkable men and
but OF what ordinary folks can do.
I am not speaking OF the phosphorescence
In the track of a Newfoundland fishing
God makes thunderbolts out of
sparks, and out Of the small words and deeds
OF a small life He can launch a power that
will flash and burn and thunder through the
eternitles.
How do you like this prolongation of your
life by deathless influence? Many a
babe that died at six months of age by the
anxiety created in the parents heart to meet
that child in realms seraphic is living yet in
the transformed heart and life of those
parents ant will live on forever in the his
tory Of that family. If thisb be the opportu-
nifty of ordinary souls, what is the oppor-
tunIty of those who have especial intellectual
social or monetary equipment?
Have you any arithmetic capable of estl-
the influence of our good and gra- |
cious friend who "A few days ago went up to
rest-George W.. Childs, OF Philadelphia?
From a newspaper that was printed for
thirty years without n word OF defama-
lion or scurrility or scandal, and putting
a chief emphasis on virtue and charity
and clean intelligence, he reapei a fortune
for himself ard then distributed a vast
mount OF it among the poor and struggling, |
putting his invalid and saged reporters on
pensions, until his name Stands everywhere |
Tor large heartedness and sympathy and
help and highest style of Christian gentle
man.
In an era which had in the chairs OF its
journalism Il Horace Greeley, and a Horny J. |
anu u JhuleS boru0n beAnttt am |
IN Erastus Brooks, and a George William
Curtis, and an Irenaeus Prime, none ofthem
be longer remembered than George ", |
Childs. Staying away from the unyeiliny oil
he monument he had reared at large ex-
pense in our Greenwood in memory of Pro- |
lessor Proctor, the astronomer, lest should
,ay something in praise OF the mar who had
paid for tho monument. BY all acknowl-
a representative OF the highest Amert- ,
can journalism.
If YOU would calculate his influence for
good, you must count how many sheets of
his newspapers have been published in the
quarter of a century, and how many
people have read them. and the effect not
oniy upon those readers, but upon all whom |
hey shall influence for al time, while YOU :
add to all that the work of the churches be
helped build and of the institutions of mercy !
he helped found. Better give up before YOU ,
start the measuring of the phosphoreseence
IN the wake OF that ship Of the Celestial line. !
Who can tell the post mortem influence of a I
SaVonarola. a Winkelried, n Gutenberg. n !
Marlborough, a Decatur, a Toussaint. a Boil.
a GARRISON, a Robert Raikes, a Harlan
Page, who had 1875 Sabbath scholars, eighty |
our Of whom became Christians. and six OF |
-. 49, ~ NAn .-o- 1