The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1894-09-29

OF God whom / happen to know, for The
most part, find religion great joy. Il
} is exhilaration to the body. 1t is in
vigoratlon to the mind. 1t is rapture
to the soul. 1t is balm for all wounds
1t is light for all darkness. 1t is har.
Dor from all storms, and though God
knows that some of them have trouble
enough now, they rejoice because they
are on the way to the congratulations
eternal.
stopped one nightfall, years ago,
at Freyburg, Switzerland, to hear the
organ of worldwide celebrity in that
place. I went into the cathedral at
nightfall. All the accessories were
favorable. There was only one light
in all the cathedral, and that a faint
taper on the altar. l looked up into
the venerable arches and saw the
shadows of centuries, and when the Or
gan awoke the cathedral awole, and
all the arches seemed to lift and quiv-
er as the music came under them.
That instrument did not seem to be
made out of wood and metal, but out
| OF human hearts, so wonderfully did it
| pulsate with every emotion; now
laughing like child, now sobbing like
a tempest. At one moment the music
would die away until you could hear
the cricket chirp outside the wall, and
then it would roll up until it seemed as
If the surge of the sea and the crash of
an avalanche had struck the organ pipes
at the same moment At one time
that night it seemed as if squadron
of spirits weeping up from earth had
met squadron of descending angels
whose glory beat back the VICE. Stand
ing there and looking at the taper on
the altar of the cathedral, l said:
''How much like many Christians
life! Shadows hover, and sometimes
his hope is dim, and faint, and flicker
ing, like a taper on the altar But at
what time God wills, the heavens
break forth with music upon his soul,
and the air becomes resonant as the
angels of God beat it with their shin
ing scepters."
Oh, the Lord God has many fair and
beautiful daughters, but the fairest of
them all is she whose ways are pleas
antness and whose paths are peace!
Now, my brothers and sisters-for 1 |
have right to call you all SOL know |
some people look back on their an
cestral line, and they see they are de-
scended from the Puritans of Hugue- |
nots, and they rejoice in that; but |
L look back on my ancestral
line, and L see therein such a
mingling and mixture of the blood
of all nationalities that / feel akin to
all the world, and by the blood of the
Son of God, who died for all people, /
address you in the bonds of universal
brotherhood. 1 come out as only
servant, bringing an invitation to a
party, and Iput it into your hand, say
ing: Come, for all things are now
ready" and I urge it upon you and con-
tinue to urge it, and, before 1 get
through, hope by the blessing of God,
to compel you to come in.
We must take care how we give the
invitation. My Christian friends,
think sometimes we have just gone OPP
posite to Christ's command and we
have compelled people to stay out
sometimes our elaborated instructions
have been the hindrance. We gradu-
tie from our theological seminaries on
stills, and it takes five or six years be-
'ore we can come down and stand right
beside the great masses of people,
earning their joys, sorrows, victories,
lefeats We get our heads so brim- /,
ul of theological wisdom that we !
nave to stand very straight lest
hey spill over. Now. what do the
great masses of the people care about |
he technicalities of religion? What }
10 they care about the hypostatic }
lnion or the difference between sub
apsarian and supra -lapsarian? What
10 they care for your profound ex-.
clear as London fog? d
When man is drowning he does not =
want you to stand by the dock and de-
cribe the nature of the water into
which he has fallen, and tell him there
re two parts hydrogen gas and one of !
Xygen gas, with a common density of
hirty-nine degrees fahrenheit, turn I
1g to steam under a common atmos- T
heric pressure of two hundred and +
welve. He does not want a chemical d
scture on water; he wants rope.
Oh, my friends, the curse of God on !.
ne church, it seems to me, in this day, !.
metaphysics. We speak in an I'M
nown tongue in our Sabbath schools.
nd in our religious assemblages, and :
! our pulpits, and how can people be =
lved unless they understand us? We :,
ut on onr official gowns, and we =
mink the two silk balloons flap
ing at the elbows of a preach
r give him great sanctity. :
he river of Gods truth flows
own before us pure and clear a
5 crystal; but we take our theolop-