Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-07-27

the university, stands in n pulpit
widely influential, and breaches
Righteousness, Judgment and tenn
perance, and thousands during his
ministry are blessed. The other lad
who got the collegiate education goes
into the law, and thence into legisla-
tive halls, and after while lie com.
mands listening senates as he makes
a plea for the downtrodden and the
outcast One of the younger boys be-
comes a merchant, starting at the foot
of the ladder, but climbing on up un-
til his success and his philanthroples
are recognized all over the land The
other son stays at home because he
prefers farming life, and then he
thinks he will be able to take care of
father and mother when they get old.
OF the two daughters, when the war
broke out one went through the hos
pitfalls of Pittsburg Landing and For
tress Monroe cheering up the dying
and homesick and taking the last
message to kindred far away. So that
every time Christ thought of her he
said, as of old, THE same is my sister
and mother" The other daughter
has bright home of her own, and in
the afternoon or the forenoon, when
she has been devoted to her household,
she goes forth to hunt up the sick and
to encourage the discouraged, leaving
smiles and benediction all along the
way.
But one day there start five tele-
grams from the village for these FIVE
absent ones, saying: "Come, mother
Is dangerously ILL.," But before they
can be ready to start they receive an
other telegram, saying: Come,
mother is dead" The old neighbors
gather in the old farm house to do the
last offices of respect. But as that
farming son, and the clergyman, and
the senator, and the merchant, and
the two daughters stand by the casket
of the dead mother taking the last
look, or lifting their little children to
see once more the face of dear old
grandma, want to ask that group
around the casket one question: do
you really think her life was worth
living?" A life for God, life for
others, life of usefulness, useful
life, a Christian life is always worth
living.
Neither would have hard work TO
persuade you that Grace Darling lived
life worth living-the heroine of the
lifeboat. You are not wondering
that the duchess of Northumberland
came to see her and that people of all
lands asked for her lighthouse, and
that the proprietor of the Adelphi
theater in Philadelphia offered her
500 a night just to sit in the lifeboat
while some shipwreck scene was being
enacted.
But l know the thoughts in the
minds of hundreds who read this.
You say: while 1 know all these
lived lives worth living, / don't think
my life amounts to much" All! my
friends, whether you lead a life con-
spicuous or inconspicuous, it is worth
living, if you live Alright And want
my next sentence to go down into the
depths of all your souls. You are to
be rewarded, not according to the
greatness of your work, not according
to the holy industries with which you
employed the talents you really pos
sessed The majority of the crowns
of heaven will not be given to people
with ten talents, for most of them
were tempted only to serve them
selves. The vast majority of the
crowns of heaven will be given to
people who had one talent but gave
it all to God. And remember that our
life here is Introductory to another.
1t is the vestibule to palace; but who
despises the door of the Madeleine be-
cause there are grander glories within?
Your life if rightly lived is the first
bar of an eternal oratorio. and who
despises the first note of Haydn's sym
phonies? And the life you live now is
all the more worth living because il
opens into a life that shall never end,
and the last letter of the word time
is the first letter Of the word
eternity"