The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-11-23
vert! Oh, the gladness Of the clristi;sn

service
You have seen sometimes a man in 9
religious assembly get up and give his
experience Well, Paul gave his expert
ence. He rose in the presence of two
I churches-the church on earth and the
church in Heaven and he said: "Now
this is my experiences: 'Sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing; poor, yet making
many rich; having nothing, yet pos.
sessing all things" If all the people
who read this sermon knew the joys OF
the Christian religion, they would all
pass over into the kingdom of God the
next moment. When Daniel San
deman was dying of cholera, his at
tendant said: "Have you much pain?"
"Oh," he replied, "since found the
Lord have never had any pain except
sim" Then they said to him: "Would
you like to send message to your
friends?" eyes, would-tell them
that only last night the love of Jesus
came rushing into my soul like the
surges of the sea, and / had to cry out,
Stop, Lord; it is enough! Stop, Lord
.-enoughp" Oh, the joys of this Chris
tian religion!
just pass over those tame joys in
which you are indulging-joys of this
| world-into the raptures of the Gospel.
| The world cannot satisfy you; you
have found out-Alexander longing
for other worlds to conquer, and yet
| drowned in his own bottle; Byron,
whipped by disquietudes around the
world; Voltaire, cursing his own soul
while all the streets of Paris were
applauding him, Henry H., con-
suming with hatred against poor
Thomas q Becl1et-all illustrations
of the fact that this world
can not make man happy. The very
man who poisoned the pommel of the
saddle on which Queen Elizabeth rode
shouted in the street: "God save the
Queen!" One moment the world APP
plauds, and the next moment the
world mathematics. Oh, come over
into this greater joy, this sublime SOL
ace, this magnificent beatitude. The
night after the battle of Shiloh there
were thousands of wounded on the
field and the ambulances had not come.
One Christian soldier, lying there
a-dying under the starlight, began to
sing:
There is a land OF pure delight,
And when he came to the next line |
there were score of voices uniting
Where saints immortal reign.
The song was caught up all over the |
field among the wounded; until, it was
said, there were at least ten thousand |
wounded men uniting their voices as
they came to the verse:
There everlasting spring abides,
And never-withering flowers
Death like narrow stream divides,
That Heavenly land from ours.
Oh, it is great religion to live by,
and it is 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 pardon
ing God, and surrender yourself for
time and for eternity, and He is yours.
Some of you, like the young man of
the text, have gone far astray. know
not the history, but you know it-you
<now it.
When young man went forth into
life, the legend says, his guardian
nigel went forth with him, and get
ing him into field, the guardian
nigel swept 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
ould not pass. But one day tempt
ess with diamond hand stretched
orth and crossed that circle with
he hand, and the tempted soul took
t, and by that one fell grip was
rought beyond the circle, and died.
ome of you have stepped beyond that I
ircle. Would you not like this day,
" the grace of God, to step back? I
his, l say to you, is your hour of sal
alton. There was in the closing S
ours of Queen Anne what is called t
he clock scene. Flat down ON the e
illow in helpless sickness, she t
ould not move her head or move /
Ter hand. She was waiting for the d
our when the ministers of state y
hould gother in angry contest; and i
rorried and worn out by the coming i
our, and in momentary absence of
he nurse, in the power-the strange a
over which delirium sometimes gives r
arose and stood in front of n
he clock, and stood there watching C
he clock, when the nurse returned. y
he nurse said, "Do you see anything a
ocular about that clock?" She made no e
nswer, but soon died. There is clock e
cene in every history. If some of you s
yould rise from the bed of lethargy and a
ome out of your delirium of sin, and .
Dok on the clock of your destiny this o
you would see and hear X
you have not seen or heard