The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-06-15

of cosviviality-a few more guttaws Of
unclean laughter, few more steps Oh
the road to death, and then, sir, | viii
listen to what you say. Go thy way fol
this time. When l have a convenient
season, l will call for thee. "
Another reason why Felix sent Pau
to the guardroom and adjourned this sub
ject was he was so very busy. In ordl-
nary times he found the affairs of state
absorbing but those were extraordinary
times The whole land was ripe for in
surrection. The Sicarii, band of assas-
sins, were already rrowling around the
palace, and / suppose he thought, II
can't attend to religion while l am sc
pressed by affairs of state. " 1t was
business among other things that ruined
his SOUL and suppose there are thou
sands of people who are not children OF
God because they have so much busl-
ness. 1t is business in the store-losses,
gains, unfaithful employees.
"Go Thy Way For This Time."
1t is business in your law office-sub-
penas, writs you have to write out pa
pers you have to file, arguments you
have to make. 1t is your medical pro-
fession, with it's broken nights and the
exhausted anxieties of life hanging
upon your treatment 1t is your real es-
tate office, your business with landlords
and tenants and the failure OF men to
meet their obligations with you Aye,
with some of those who are here it is
the annoyance of the kitchen. and the
sitting room, and the parlor-the wear
ing economy of trying to meet large ex'
penses with a small income. Ten thou
sand voices of business, business, bust
ness" drown the voice of the eternal
Spirit, silencing the voice of the advanc-
| ing Judgment day, overcoming the voice
of eternity, and they cannot hear; they
cannot listen. They say, "Go thy way
for this time" Some of you look upon
your goods, look upon your profession,
you look upon your memorandum books,
and you see the demands that are made
this very week upon your time and your
patience and your money, and while
am entreating you about your soul and
the danger of procrastination you say:
go thy way for this time. When have
Oh, Felix, why be bothered about the
affairs of this world so much more than
about the affairs of eternity? Do you not
know that when death comes you will
have to stop business, though it be in
the most exacting period of it-between
the payment of the money and the TAX
ing of the receipt? The moment he
tn 90
waits for no man, however high, how
ever low. Will you put your Office,
will you put your shop in comparison
with the affairs of an eternal world,
affairs that involve thrones, palaces,
dominions eternal? Will you put 200
acres of ground against immensely?
Will you put 40 or so years of your
life against millions of ages? Oh, Felix,
you might better postpone everything
else, for do you not know that the up
holstering of Tyrian purple in your pal
ace will fade, and the marble blocks of
Casarea will crumble, and the breakwa-
ter at the beach, made of great blocks
of stone 60 feet long, must give way
before the perpetual wash of the sea,
but the redemption that Paul offers you
will be forever? And yet and yet and
yet you wave him back to the guard
room, saying: go thy way for this
time When | have convenient sea-
son, I will call for thee. -
The Favor of Men.
Again, Felix adjourned this subject |
of religion and put off Paul's argument |
because he could not give up the hon
ors of the world. He was afraid some |
how he would be compromised himself |
in this matter. Remarks he made after
ward showed him to be intensely ambi-
tious. Oh, how he Rugged the favor of |
men!
l never saw the honors Of this world in
their hollowness and hypocrisy so much
as in the life and death of that wonder
full man, Charles Sumner. AS he went
toward the place of burial, even hide
pendence hall in Philadelphia asked
that his remains stop there on their way
to Boston The flags were at half mast,
and the minute guns ON Boston COM
mon throbbed after his heart had ceased
to beat. Was it always so? While he
lived, how censured of legislative reso-
buttons; how caricatured of the picto-
rails; how charged with every motive
mean and ridiculous; how all the urns
of scorn and hatred and billingsgate
upon his head; how, when
struck down in senate chamber, there
were hundreds of thousands of people
who said, "Good for him; serves him
right" how he had to put the ocean
between him and his maligners that he
might have a little peace, and how,
when he went off sick, they said he was
broken hearted because he could not
get to be president or secretary of state!
o commonwealth of Massachusetts,,
who is that man that sleeps in your pub
lie hall covered with garlands and
in the stars and stripes? Is
that the man who, only few months
before, you denounced as the foe of re-
publican and democratic institutions?
?