Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-06-01


one of those who stood at the altar ex-
changed earth for heaven. The wedding
march broke down into the funeral dirSe.
There were not enough flowers now for the
coffin lid, because they had all been taken
for the bridal hour. The dead minister OF
Christ is brought to another village.
He had gone out from them less than
week before in his strength; now he comes
home Ilfeless. The whole church bewailed
him. The solemn procession moved around
to look upon the still face that once had
beamed the messages of salvation. Little
children were lifted up to look at him. And
some of those whom he had comforted in
days of sorrow, when they passed that silent
form, made the place dreadful with tnelr
weeping. Another village emptied OF IT'S
fowers-some of them put in the shape ct
cross to symbolic his hope, others put lnthe
shape of crown to symbolic his triumph.
A hundred lights blown out in one strong
gust from the open door of a sepulchre.
Ziklag In ashes
preached this sermon to-day because l
want to rally you, as David rallied his men,
for the recovery of the Lowell and the lost.
want not only to win heaven, but want all
this congregation to go along with me. feel
that somehow I have q responsibility In your
arriving at that great city. Do you really
want to join the companionship of your loveI
ones who have gone? Are you as anxious
to join them as David and his men were to
Join their families? Then an here, in tho
name Of God, to say that you may and to
tell you how.
remark in the first place, If you want to
join your loved ones in glory, you must
travel the same way they went. No sooner
had the half dead Egyptian been resuscitated
than he pointed the way the captors and tho
captves had gone and David AMI his men
followed after So our Christian friends
have gone into another country, and II we
want to reach their con DGniOnship we must
take the same road. They repentel. We
must repent. They prayed. We must pray.
They trusted in Christ. We must trust in
Christ They lived religious life. Wemust
live religious life. They were in some
things like ourselves. I know, now they are
gone, there is halo around their names,
but they had their faults. They said and
did things they ought never to have said or
done. They were sometimes cebel1ous,
sometimes cast down. They were far from
being perfect. SO [ suppose that when we
have gone some things IN US that are now
only tolerable may be almost resplendont.
But as they were like US IN deficiencies We
ought to be like them in taking a supernai
Christ to make up for the deficits. Had 1t
not been for Jesus they would have all
pershed, but Christ confronted them and
said. 81 am the way" and they took it.
have also to say to you that the path that
these captives troi was troublet path and
that David AMI his men had to go over the
same difficult way. While these captives
were being taken off they said, "Oh, we are
so tired we are 50 sick; we are 80 hungry J!
But the men who had charge OF them said
"Stop this crying. Go on! David and his
men also founl it a hard way. They had to
travel it. Our friends have gone into glory,
and 1t Is through much trOuiation that we
are to enter into the king lon. How our
loved ones used to have to struggle! How
their old hearts ached! How sometimes
they had a tu5sle for bread! In our child
hood we won lered why there were 50 many
wrinkles on their faces. We did not know
that what were called "croW's feet" on their
faces we're the marks of the black raven OF
trouble Did you ever hear the old people,
seated by the evening stand, talk over their
early trials. their harishipS, tho a;ti-
dents, the burials, the disappOintments, the
empty -four barrel when there We're so many
hungry ones to feed, the sickness almost
unto death where the next dose of morphine
decided between ghastly bereavement and
an unbroken home circle? Oh, yes 1t was
trouble that whitened their hair. 1t was
trouble that shook the cup in their hands. 1t
was trouble that washed the luster from
their eyes with the rain of tears until they
needed spectacles. 1t was trouble that made
the cane necessity fer their journey. DO
you never remember seeing your old mother
sitting on some rainy day looking out OF the
window, her elbow on the window sill, her
hand to her brow, looking out not seeing
the falling shower at all (you we'll knew she
was looking into the distant paSt), until the
apron came up to her eyes because the mem-
ory was too much for her!
Oft the big unbidden tear,
Stealing down the furrowet cheek,
Toll IN elOQuence sincere
Tales of woe they could not speak.
But this scene of weeping Ger,
Past this scene of toll and pain,
They shall feel distress more,
Never never weep again.
"Who are those under the altar" the
| question was asked, and the response came,
| ''These are they which came out Of great
! tribulation and have washed their robes and
! made them white in the blood of the Lamb"
| Our friends went by a path of tears into
glory. Be not surprised if we have to travel
| the same pathway.
| remark again, if we want to win the So
| ciety of our friends in heaven, we will not
| only have TO travel q path of faith and q path
| of tribuiation, but we will also have to posi-
lively battle for their companonship. David
and his men never wanted sharp swords, and
invulnerable shields, and thick breast plates
so much as they wanted them on the day
when they came down upon the Ameikites.
If they had lost that battle, they never would
| have got their families back. l suppose that
one glance at their loved ones in captivity
hurled them into the battle with tenfold
courage and energy. They said: "We must
win it. Everything depends upon it. Let
| each one take a man on point OF spear or
| sword. We must win it," And l have to
tell you that between Us and coming into the
companionship of our loved ones -ho are
departed there is an Austerlitz, there is
| Gettysburg, there is a Waterloo. War with
| the world, war with the 1esh, war with the
| devil We have either to conquer our trou-
| bles or our troubles will conquer David
| will either slay the Amalekites, or the Anale-
kites will slay David. And yet IS not the
fort to be taken worth all the pain, all the
peril all the besiegement?
Look! Who are they on the bright hills
of heaven yonder? There they are, those
who sat at your own table, the chair now
vacant. There they are, those whom you
rocked in infancy in the cradle or hushed to
sleep in your arms. There they are, those
in whose life your life was bound up. There
they are, their brow moro radiant than ever
before you saw it, their lips waiting for the
kiss of heavenly greeting, their cheek roseate
with tho health of eternal summer, their
hands beckoning you up the steep, the feet
bounding with the mirth of heaven. The
pallor of their last sickness gone out of their
face, nevermore to be sick, neyermore to
cough, nevermore to limp, nevermore to be
old, nevermOre to weep. They are watching
from those heights to see If through Christ
you can take that fort, and whether you viii
rush in upon them-victors. They know
that upon this battle depends whether yor
| will ever join their society. Up! Strike
harder! Charge more bravely! Remembe
that every inch you gain puts you 80 mucf
farther Oh toward that heavenly reunion.
If this morning while I speak you coulc
hear the cannonade of a foreign enem.
which was to despoil your city, and if the.
really should succeed in carrying you
families away from you, how long would W
take before we resolved to go after them
Every weapon, whether fresh from tn
armory or old and rusty in the garret, wouiC
be brought out, and we would urge n, an
coming In front of the foe we woulf look
; them and then look at our families, and III
' cry would be, ''Victory or death p and whel
the ammunition was gone we would take tn
> captors on the point of the bayonet or unde
the breech of the gun.
1 If you would make such a struggle TO
the getting back of your earthly friends. VII
| you not make as much struggle for the gain
ing of the eternal companionship of you
heavenly friends? On, yes, we must jotl
them! We must sit in their holy society