The Penn's Grove record., 1894-01-05

| pfShythin6 Jul tblIBhuu, COluulOn uhoo hpCNe
everything but transference from this world.
Again, there is a blessing in an abbrevi-
ated earthly existence in the fact that one es-
capes so many bereavements. The longer
we live the more attachments and the more
kindred, the more chords to be wounded or
rasped or sundered. II a man live on to
seventy or eighty years OF age, how many
graves are cleft at his feeta In that long
reach OF time father and mother go, brothers
and sisters go, children go, grandchildren
go, personal friends outside the family circle
whomthey had loved with q love like that oil
| David and Jonathan.
Besides that, some men have a natural
trepidation about dissolution, and ever and
anon during forty or fifty or sixty years this
horror of their dissolution shudders through
soul and body. Now, suppose the lad goes
at sixteen years of age. He escapes nifty
funerals, nifty caskets, fifty ~obsequtes, nifty
! awful wrenchings Of the heart. 1t is hard
enough for US to bear their departure, but Is
1t not easier for US to bear their departure
han for them to stay and bear nifty de-
partures2 Shall W. NOT, by the grace OF God,
rouse ourselves into a generosity OF bereaye-
ment which will practically say, 1.It is hard
enough for me to go through this bereave-
ment. but how glad I an that he will never
have TO go through itp
So l reason with myself, and so you will
find 1t helpful to reason with yourselves.
David lost his son. Though David was king,
he lay on the earth mourning n inconso-
liable for some time. At this distance oftime,
whichdo you really think was the one to be
congratulated, the short lived child or the
long lived father? Had Dayied died as early
as that child, he would In the first place have
that particular bereavement, then he would
have escaped the worst bereavement OF Alb
SALON., his recreant son and the pursuit o.
the Philistines, and the fatigues OF his mill,
tary campaign, and the jealousy OF Saul, and
the peridy Of Ahithophel, n the curse OF
Bhimef, and the destruction of his family at
Ziklag, and, above ali, he would rave es-
capped the two great calamities OF life, thf
great sins of uncleanness and murder DaviC
I1ived to be Of vast useto the church and the
world, but so far as his own happiness was
concerned, does 1t not seem to you that it
would have been better for him to have gone
early?
Now. this, my friends, explains some
things that to you have been inexplicable.
This shows you why when God takes little
children from a household he Is very apt to
take the brightest, the most genial, the most
sympathetic, the most talented. Why? 1t Is
because that kline of nature suffers the most
when II does suffer and Is most liable to
temptation. God saw the tempest sweeping
up from the Caribbean, and He put the deli
cate craft into the first harbor. "Taken away
from the evil to come"
Again, my friends, there Is a blessing in an
abbreviated earthly existence in the fact that
1t puts one sooner in the centre of things.
All astronomers, infidel as well as Christian,
agree in believing that the universe swings
around some great centre, Any onetwhoh has
studied the earth and studied the heavens
knows that Gods ~fayorite figure In geom-
etry is d circle. When God put forth His
hand to create the universe, He did not
strike that hand at right angles, but He
waved it in a circle, and kept on waving 1t
In q circle until systems and consultations
and g~alaxies and all worlds took that mo-
ton. Our planet swinging around the sun,
other planets swinging around other suns,
but somewhere a great hub around which
the great wheel of the universe turns. Now,
that centre is heaven. That ia the capital OF
the universe. That is the great metropolis
of tnmensity.
that in matters OF study it is better for us to
move out from the centre toward the circun
ference, where our world is? We are like
those who study the American continent
while standing on the Atlantic beach. The
way to study the continent Is TO cross it or
so to the heart Of it. Our standpoint in this
world is defective. We are at the wrong end
Of the telescope. The best way to study u
piece of machinery is not to stand on the
doorstep and try to look.in, but to go in with
the engineer and take our place right amid
the saws and cylinders. We wear our eyes
ont and our brain out from the fact that We
are STUDYING under such great disadvantage.
Millions of dollars for observatories to
study things about the moon about the sun,
about the rings OF Saturn, about transits and
orcultstions and eclipses, simply because our
studio, our observatory, is poorly situated.
We are down in the cellar trying TO study the
tpllaee OF the universe, while our departed
christian friends have gone up stairs amid
she skylights TO say.
Now when ODB can sO0Qer get to the
centre of things, is he not to be eongratu-
lated? Who wants to be always in the fresh
man class? We study God in this world by
line Biblical photograph Of Him, but we all
know we can in five minutes of interview
with a friend get more accurate idea Of him
than we can by studying him fifty years
through pictures Of words. Tho little child
that died last night to-day knows more OF
God than all Andover, and all Princeton, and
all New Brunswick, N all Edinburgh, and
all the theological institutions in Christen-
lon. Is it not better to go up to the very
Headquarters Of knowledge?
Does not our common sense teach us that
liz Is better to be at the centre than to be
clear out on the rim Of the wheel, holding
%aervously. fast to the tire lest We be sud
lenly hurled into light and eternal felicity?
Through all kinds of optical instruments
rying to peer in through the cracks and the
iSeyholes of h~eaven-afraid that both doors
Jf the celestial mansion will be swung wide
open before our entranced vision-rushing
libout the apothecary shops of this world,
Wondering IL this is good for rheumatism,
and thai is good for neuralgia and some
| hing else Is good for a bad cough, lest We
1e suddenly ushered into a land OF e~verlast-
, ng health. where the inhabitant never says,
lam sick"
What fools we all are to prefer the cir
l.umferenee to the centre! What a dreadful
hing it would be If we should be suddenly
: ashered from this wintry world into the
| Maytime orchards of heaven, and IL our
lpauperism of sin and sorrow should be sud
lenly broker up by a presentation OF an
smperor's castle, surrounded by parks with
~,pringing fountains and paths up and down
! which angels OF God walk two and two.
; We stick to the world as though we pre-
; lierred cold drizzle to warm habitation, dis
l cord to cantata, sackcloth to royal purple
: As though we preferred a piano with four or
/, i've keys out of tune to an instrument fully
! ta~ttuned-as though earth II heaven had
. exchanged apparel and earth had taken on
bridal array and heaven had gone into deep
mourning, all its waters stagnant, all its
a harps broken, all ehalice3 cracked at the dry
: wells, all the lawns sloping TO the river
2 Flowed with graves, with dead angels under
, he idrrow. Oh, 1 want 10 break up my own
! %nfatuation. and / want to break up your in
Q iatustion for this world. Itell you If we are
ready. and If our work is done, the sooner
: we go the better, and IL there are blessings
in longevity, l want you to know right wei
. here are also blessings in an abbreviated
2 earthly existence.
Hthe spirit OF this sermon is true, how
a .onsoleI you ought to feel about members o.
gour families that went early. "Taken from
( lbs evil to come,' this book says. What q
fortunate escape they had How glad W,
,ught to feel that they will never have to s,
9 through the struggles which We have had L
10 through. They had just time enough e
9 set out OF the cradle n run up the spring
y time hills Of this world and see howl Il looked
and then they started ior q better stoppin;
: 81. Helena, staying there long enough to le
passengers 20 up and see the barracks Q
n Eapoleon's captivity and then hoist sail 70
the port Of their own native land. They onl,
Q took his world Gin transitu." 1t t hardfo
Q US, but It is blessed for them.