The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-11-12

ter the battle Of Shiloh. there were thou
sands of wounded on the field, and the
anbolances had not come One Christian
soldier, lying there a-dying under the star
light. began TO sing:
There is land Of pure delight"
And when ne came TO the next line there
were scores of voices uniting
Where saints immortal reign
The song was caught up all over the
field by the wounded, until, il 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-witherinE flowers;
Death like a narrow stream divides,
That hevenly land from ours.
oh, II is a great religion to live by, and il
is a great religion to die by. There isonly
one heart throb between you ana that re-
lision this moment. Just look into the face
of your pardOninE 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 far astray. l know
not the history, but You know it-you
know 1t.
When a young man went forth into life,
the legend says his guardian angel went
forth with him, and getting him into "a
field, the guardian angel swept circle
clear around whore the young man stood.
1t was a circle of virtue and honor, and
he must not step beyond that circle
Armed foes came down, but We're Obliged
TO halt at the eircle-they could not pass
But one day a 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 Ike this day, by the grace
of God, to step back2 This, l say TO You,
10 Won h1r Of za1t ion 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 the hour when the min
listers Of state should gather in angry
contest; and worried and worn ont by
the coming hour, and in momentary alb
enCe of the nurse in the power-the strange
power which delrium sometimes gives
one-she arose and stood in front of the
clock and stood there watching the clock
when the nurse returned. The nurse said,
do you see anything peculiar about that
Clock?| She made no answer, but soon
died. There is a clock scene in every his
tory. If some of you would rise from the
bed of lethargy and come out of your
delirium of sin, and look on the clock
of your destiny this moment, you would
see and hear something you have not
seen or heard before, and every tick of
the minute, and every stroke of the hour,
and every swing of the pendulum, would
say: Now now, now, nowr' Oh come
to your fathers house. Come home, oh.
prodigal from the wilderness. Come home.
Come home!
But l 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 in; we have had enough trouble
with you" All, no! When the proprietor
of that estate proclaimed festival, it
was an outburst of a fathers love and
fathers joy. God is your father. l have
not much sympathy with that description
of God l sometimes hear as though he
were a Turkish sultan-hard and unsym-
pathetic, and listening not to the cry Of
his subjects. A man told me he saw,
in one of the eastern lands, king rid
ing along, and two men were in alterca-
ton, and one charged the other with hav-
ing eaten his rice; and the king said:
| Then slay the man, and by post-mortem
| examination find whether he has eaten the
| rice" And he was slain. All! the cruelty
/ of a scene like that our God is not a sui
| tan, not a despot, but a father-kind,
| loving, forgiving. and he makes all heaven
| ring again when a prodigal comes back.
! Il have no pleasure he says, in the
| death of him that dieth."
If a man does not get to heaven it is
| because he will not so there. No differ
/ ence the color, no difference the history,
/ no difference the anteCedents. no differ
/ ence the surroundings, no difference 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 in his heart the surging
] Of an fnf Of oil oy1H 70
express that gladness, it takes all the
/ rivers of pleasure, and all the thrones of
/ pomp, and all the ages of eternity. 1t is
a joy deeper than all depth, and higher
than all hight, and wider than all width,
and vaster than all immensely. 1t oven
tops, it undergirds, it outweighs all the
! united splendor and JOY of the universe.
! Who can tell what Gods joy is?
You remember reading the story of 9
| king, who on some great day of festiVity
| scattered silver and gold among the peo
pie, who sent valuable presents to his cour
tiers; but methnks when soul comes
back, God is so glad that to express his JOY
he filings out new worlds into space, kndle,
up new suns and rolls among the white
ROBBED anthems of the redeemed n greater
hallejulah, while with voice that reverbe
rates among the mountains of franklin
cense and is echoed back from the ever
lasting gates, he cries This, my son
was dead, and is alive again"
At the opening of the exposition in New
Orleans, l saw a Mexican tlutist, and h,
played the solo, and then afterward TIL
eight or ten bands of music, accompanie,
by the great organ, came in; but the SCUM,
of that one flute compared with all tn
orchestra, was greater than all the com
bined JOY of the universe, when compares
with the resounding heart of Almight,
God.
For ten years, a father went three time
a day to the depot. His son went off il
aggravating circumstances; but the fathe
said, He will come back" The strait
was too much, and his mind parted: AIN
three times a day the father went In tn
early morning, he watched the train--it
arrival, the stepping out of the passengers
and then the departure of the train A
noon he was there again, watching the ad
vance of the train, watching the departure
At night, there again, watching the com
ing watching the going, for ten years II
was sure his son would como back. Go
has been watching and waiting for some o
you, my brothers, ten years. twenty years
thirty years, forty years. perhaps Mt
years-waiting, waiting. watching. watch
ing; and If this morning the prodiea
I ehOuld come homo what "a epapc ,f ola,