Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-02-24

words to Job calls me TO look at the path
Of foamsin the wake of that ship, and l
tell you it is all a-gleam with splendors
of kindness done, and rolling with il
lumined tears that were wiped away,
and a-dash with congratulations, and
clear ont to the horizon in all directions
is the sparkling, flashing, billowing phos-
phoreScence Of Christian life HE
maketh t-lth to shine after him"
| And here | correct one Of the mean no.
tons which at some time takes posses
SION of all ot US, aud that is as to the
brevity oF human life. When | bury
some very useful man. clerical or lay in
his thirtie,h or fortieth year, / say:
Nv hat a waste of energies. 1t was
hardly woIth while for him to get ready
for Christian work, for he had so soon
| 20 quit it.. But the fact is that | may
insure any man or woman VINO does any
good on q large CT small scale for a life
Oh earth as longas the world lasts. Sick
ness, trolley Car accidents, death itself
can no more destroy his life than they
can tear down one Of the rings of Sat
urn. You can start one good word, one
! kind act, one cheerful smile, on mis-
son that VIII last until the world be-
comes bonfire. and out Of that blaze it
will pass into the heavens, never to halt
as long as God lives.
WHAT ORDINARY PERSONS CAN DO.
There were III the seventeenth century
men and women whose names you never
heard Of Who are today influencing
schools, colleges. churches, nations You
can no more measure the gracious re-
suits of their lifetime than You could
measure the length and breadth and
depth of the phosphorescence last night
following the ship of tho White Star line
1900 miles cut at sea. How the courage
and conservation Of others inspire Us TO
follow, as general in the American
army, cool amid the flying bullets, in
spired trembling soldier who said aft
srward, Il was nearly scared to deatl
but saw the old mans white mustache
over his shoulder and went on" Aye,
we are all following somebody either in
right or wrong directions.
a few days ago l stood beside the gar
landed casket Of q gospel minister, and
IN my remarks had occasion to recall a
snowy night in farmhouse when was
a boy and an evangelist spending
night at Ely fathers house, who said
something so tender and beautiful and
impressive that it led me into the king
dom of God and decided my destiny for
this world and the next. You will, be-
fore "a hours 90 by, meet some man or
woman with a big pack Of care and trou-
Ole. and You may say something TO him
Or her that will endure until this world
shall have been so far lost III the past
that nothing bat the stretch Of angelic
memory will be able to realize that it
ever existed at all.
am not talking Of remarkable men
and women, but of what ordinary folks
can do. am not speaking of the phos-
phorescence in the wake Of Il Campania,
but of the phosphorescence in the track
Of a Newfoundland fishing smack God
makes thunderbolts out of sparks. and
out Of the small words and deeds of
small life he can launch power that
will fash and burn and thunder through
the eternities.
How do You Ike this prolonSation of
your, earthly life by deathless influence?
Many Il bate that died at months of
age by the anxiety created in the parents
heart to meet that child in realms Sc
raphic is living yet in the transformed
heart and life OF those parents and will
live on forever in the history Of that
family. If this be the opportunity of or
binary souls, what is the opportunity of
those Who have especial intellectual or
social or monetary equipment?
Have youany arithmetic capable of es-
timating the influence Of our good and
gracious friend who Il few days ago went
up to rest-George v. Childs of Phila-
delpha: From newspaper that was
printed for 80 years without one word of
defamation or scurrhty or scandal, and
putting chief emphasis on virtue and
charity and clean intelligence, he reaped
a fortune for himself and then distlib-
uted a vast amount Of il among the poor
and struggling, putting his invalid and
aged reporters on pensions. until his
name stands everywhere for large heart.
edness and sympathy and help and high
est style Of Christian gentleman.
In an era which had i'll the chairs of
it's journalism Horace Greeley, and a
Henry j, Raymond, and James Gordon
Bennett. and an Erastus Brooks. and a
George William Curtis, aud an Irenaeus
Prime, none Of them viii be longer re-
membered than George W. Cmlls. Stay
ing away from the unveiliugof the mOn-
ument he had reared at large expense in
our Greenwood in memory of Professor
Proctor, the astronomer, lest ! shogld
say something in praise OF the man who
had paid for the monument. BY all &C
knowledged representative Of the high
est American journalism.
If you would calculate his influence
for good, you must count how many
sheets of his newspapers have been pub
lished i'll tie last quarter Of century,
and how many people have read them,
and the effect, not only upon those read
ers. but upon all whom they shall infu-
ence for all time, while you add TO all
that the work of the churches he helped
build and of the institutions Of mercy he
helped found. Better give up before you
start the measuring Of the pEosphores-
cence in the wake of that ship OF the Ce-
lestial line. Who can tell the post NOR
TEN influence Of a Savonarola. Win
kelried a Gutenberg. Marlborough, a
Decatur, Toussaint, Bolivar. a Clark
son, Robert Raikes, Harlan Page,
who had l25 Sabbath scholars. 81 Of
whom became Christians. and SIX of them
ministers Of the gospel.
THE BRIGHT PATH.
With gratitude and peniteRca and wor-
ship mention the grandest life that was
ever lived. That ship Of light was
launched from the heavens nearly SEQ
years ago. angelic hosts chanting. and
from the celestial wharves the ship
sprang into the toughest sea that ever
tossed. It's pillows were made up of The
wrath of men and devils, Herodic and
sanhedrinic prosecutions stirring the
deep with red wrath. and all the hurri-
canes of woe slnote it until On tie ROCKS
of Golgotha that life struck with q re-