Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-03-08


ing OF, was induced 10 decide in the
same way. Clear ON the other side of
the next million years may be the first
you hear of the long-reaehing influence
of that yes or no. but hear of it you
VIII. Will that father make "a path to
I shine after him? VIII that mother
make path TO shine after her? You
VIII be walking along THESE streets. or
along that country road, two hundred
years from now in the character of
your descendants. They will be affect
ed by your courage or your cowardice,
your purity or your deprayity, your
holiness or your sin. You viii make
the path to shine after You or blacllen
after you. Why should they point out
TO US on some mountain two rivulets,
one OF which passes down into the riv-
ers which pour out into the Pacific
ocean, and the other rivulet flowing
down into the rivers which pass out
into the Atlantic ocean? Every man,
every woman, stands at point where
words uttered, or deeds done, or
prayers offered, decide opposite desti-
MES and opposite eternities. We see
man planting a tree, and treading the
sod firmly on each side of it, and
watering it in dry weather and
taking a great care in its culture,
and he never plucks any fruit
from its boughs; but his children will,
We are all planting trees that will
yield fruit hundreds of years after we
are dead; orchards of golden fruit, or
groves of deadly upas. ! am so fasci-
mated with the phosporescenee in the
track of ship that l have sometimes
watched for a long while, and have
seen nothing on the face of the deep
but blackness. The mouth of waterv
chasms that looked like gaping jaws of
hell Not a spark as big as the FREELY;
not white scroll of surf; not taper
TO illuminate the mighty sepulehres of
dead ships; darkness three thousand
feet deep, and more thousands of feet
long and wide That is the kind of
wake bad man leaves behind him as
he plows through the ocean of this life
toward the vaster ocean of the great
future
Now, suppose a man seated in a cor
ner grocery, or business Office among
clerks, gives himself to jolly skepti-
cism. He laughs at the Bible. makes
sport of the miracles, speaks of perdi-
tion in jokes and laughs at revivals as
a frolic, and at the passage of a funeral
procession, which always solemnize~
sensible people. says: Boys, lets
take a drink" There is in tina
group a young man who Is max
ing great struggle against tempta-
ton, and prays night and morning.
and reads his Bible, and is as'ling Tod
for help day by dav. But that guifaw
against Christianity makes him lose
his grip Of sacred things, and hc gives
up Sabbath, and church, nd n lrals,
and goes from bad to worse. til he
Falls under dissipation, dies in lazar
house, and is buried in the potter'S
field. Another young man who heard
that Jolly skepticism made up his mind
that sit makes no difference what we
do on say, for we will all come out at
last at the right place" began, as a
consequence, to purloin. Some money
that came into his hands for others he
applied to his own use thinking per-
haps he would make it straight some
other time. ami all would be well even
if he did not make it straight. He ends
in the penitentiary. That seoffer who
uttered the jokes against Christianity
never realized what bad work he was
doing and he passed on through life
and out of it, and into future that |
am not now going to depict. / do not
propose with searchlight to show the
breakers of the awful coast on which
that ship is wrecked, for my business
now is to watch the sea after the keel
has plowed it. No phosphorescence in
the wake of that ship but behind ii
two souls struggling in the wave; two
young men destroyed by reckless skep-
ticism. on unillumined ocean beneath,
and on all sides Of them. BlaclSness of
darkness. You know what a gloriously
good man Rev. John Newton was the
most of his life, but before his CONVEX
sion he was very wicked sailor and
on board the ship Harwieh, instilled |
infidelitv and vice in the mind of a |
young man, principles which destroyed |
him. Afterward the two met and New
ton tried to undo his bad work, but in
vain. The young man became worse
and worse. and died profigate, hor-
rifying with his profanities those who
stood by him in his last moments. Bet |
ter look out what bad influence you |
start for you may not be able to stop |
it. 1t does not require very great force |
to ruin Others. Why was it that many |
wears ago a great flood nearly de- |
stroyed NV Orleans? A crawiish had |
burrowed into the banks of the river
until the ground was saturated, and |
the banks weakened until the flood |
burst.
But find here a man who starts out
in life with the determination that he
will never see suffering but he will |
try to alleviate it; and never see dis
couragement but ne will try to cheer
it; and never meet with anybody but
he will try to do him good Getting
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