Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-01-12

Graves ara cleft at his feet2 In that long
reach of time father ard,n1othet go, brothers
and sisters 90, ebiIdfeh go, grahdchllaren-
So nersons friends outside the family circle
whom tRev had loved with q love like that OF
David and Jonathan.
Besides that, some men have naturaI
trepidation about dissolution, and ever and
anon during forty or fifty or sixty years TINS
horror Of their dissolution shudders through
soul and body. Now. suppose the lad goes
at sixteen years Of age He escapes my
fdnerals, fifty caskets. fifty obsequies, fifty
AWFUL wrenchings Of the heart. 1t is hard
I enough for lbs ia bear their departure. but is
| # not easier Tor us TO bear tnelr departure
than for them to stay and bear nfty oe-
partures? Shall we not, by the grace OF Goa,
rouse ourselves into generosity OF bereave,
merit which will practically say, 1T IS nara
enoagh for me to go through this nereave-
ment, but how glad | am that ne Will never
have to go through 1t !"
So | reason with myself, and so you VIII
| find il helpful to reason with yourselves.
| David lost his son. Though David was KING
he Law on the earth mourning and ihconso'
/ liable for some time. At this distance 81 time,
which do you really think was. the One to be
congratulated; The short lived child Or the
| long lived father? Had Davied died as early
ms that child. he Would in the first place have
that particular bereavement, then he would
i have escaped the worst bereavement of Ab-
salon, his recreant son and the pursuit oil
the Phfistinee and the fatigues Of his mill
tary campaign, and the jealousy Of Saul, and
the peffdy Of Ahithophel, and the curse OF
| Shimei; aid the destruction OF his family at
Ziklag. and, above all, he would ,have es
capped the two great calamities OF life, the
great sins of uncleanness and murder, David
lived to be OF vast eto 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 fer him ID have gone
early2
Now, this, my friends, explains some
things that I'd you have been inexplicable.
Ebis shows you why when God takes little
children from household he is very apt to
take the brightest, the most genial. the most
sympathetic, the most talented; Why Il is
because that kind Of nature suffers the most
when it does suffer and is most liable to
temptation. God saw tho tempest sweeping
up from the Caribbean; an 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
it puts one sooner in the centre of things.
All astronomers, inhdel as we'll as Christian,
agree in believing that the universe swings
around some great centre. Ally one who has
studied the eafth aid studied the heavens
knows that Gois fav6rite figure ia geom-
etry is circle. When Col put forth His
hand to create the universe, He did not
strike that hand at right angles but He
waved it in circle, and kept on waving it
in circle until systems AMI consultations
and galaxies and ali worlds t5ok that mo-
ton. Our planet swinging around the sun,
other blsiets swinging around other suns,
bit somewhere a great hub around which
the great wheel of the universe turns. Now
that centre is heaven. That is the capital of
the universe. That is the great metropolis
of immensely.
- Now, does not our common sense teach us
that in matters of study it il better fer us to
move out trem the cehife toward The citcdm-
ference, Where dur world is? we are like
thoss who study The American continent
while standing on the Atlantic beach. The
way to study the continent is TO cross it or
go 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 q
piece of machinery is not to stand on the
doorstep and try to look in, but to goin with
the engineer and take eur. place fight amid
the saws and eylindefs. We wear Our eyes
out and Cur bfaiH otit from the fact that wa
arc Studying Under such great disadvantage.
Millions of dollars for observatories to
study things about the moon, about the sun,
about the rings oil Satuf1s about -trfifsts and
OCCUPATIONS and ecipses, simply because our
studio, our observatory, Is poorly ssthated.
Weare down in the cellar trying TO Study the
palace of the universe, while our departed
Christian friends have gene UP staifs amid
the sksligh5 t3 Study.
Now, when one can sooner get to the
centre of things, is. he not to be congrafu
lo@oI ho Mt To ho oltua inf ha fraE
man class? We study Gpdsin this world by
the Biblical photograph OF Him, but we all
know we ~can in five minutes of interview
with friend get more accurate idea OF him
than we can by studying him fifty years
through pictures of words; The little child
that died last hight to-day knows more 1T
God thar all Andover; and all Princeton; and
all New Brunswick, and all Edinburgh; and
all the theological Institutions IN Christen
dom. Is 1t Rot betterto go up to the very
headquarters of knowledge
Does not our common sense teach US that
it is better to be at the centre than to be
clear out on the rim OF the wheel, holding
neryously fast to the tire lest we be sud
denly hnrled into light and eternal felicity?
Through all kinds of optical instruments
trying To peer in through the cracks and the
kevholes' Of heaven--afraid that: both doors
o, the celestial mansion will he swung wide
omen before cur ertfanced Vision rushing
about the apothecary shops of this world,
wondering if this is good for rheumatism,
an that is good for neuralgia and some
thing else is cool for bad cough, lest We
be suddenly ushered into land OF everlast-
ing health. where the inhabitant never says,
81 am sick.
Whist fools we sll afe to prefer the cir
Observation-Disclosures What dreadful
thing it Would be if We should be suddenly
ushered from this Wintry World into the
Maytine erchatds 6f hsavep AMI if our
pauperism OF sin and borrow should be sud-
denly broken up by presentation OF an! an
emperor's CASTLE surroun led by parks with
springing fountains and paths DIP and down
which ahges Of DOL walk two and two.
We stick TO the World az though we pre-
ferred cold dfizSl6 I'd warm habtation, dis
cord Id eantata; sackcloth I'd royal purple
as though we preferred piano with four or
five keys out Of tune I'd an instrument fully
attined=as though earth and heaven had
exchanged apparel and earth had taken on
bridal array aid heaven had gone into deep
mourning, all its waters stagtant, all its
harps broken. all chaices cracked at the dry
wells. all the lawns sloping to tue river
plowed with graves, with dead angels under
the furrow. Oh, L:want1o break up my own
infatuation. and want 10 break up your in
fatuaticn for this world. Itell you If we are
ready. and If our work is done, the sooner
we 90 the better. and if there are blessings
in longevity, want You to know right well
there are also blessings in an abbreviated
earthly existence
If the spirit Of this sermon is true, how
consoled you onght to feel about members OF
your families that went early. Taken from
The evil to come" this book says what