Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1894-05-30

Llklag took nrE. Iherc are Tan HES
/ YOU represent broken up. Fo bs tier
ingram smote the door, no i5conoclast
crumbled the statues. no flame leaped
amid the curtains; but SO far a. all the
! JOY and mei .'iment that oncs belonged
to that house are concerned, the
home has departed. Armed diseases
came down upon the quie,ness of the
scene-scarlet fevers. or pleurisies,
or consumptions, or underlined disorders
came and seized upon some members of
that family, and carried them away.
Ziklag in ashes. And you go about
sometimes weeping and sometime en-
ragged, wanting TO get back your loved
ones as much rs David and his men
wanted To construct their dcspoiled
households. ZilSlag in ashesl Some of
| you went off from home. You counted
the days of your absence. Every day
seemed rs long as week. Oh. how
glad you were when the time
came for you To go aboard the
steamboat or rail-car and start
| for homel You arrived. You went
up the street where your dwelling was,
and in the night you put your hand on
the door-bell, and, behold il was
wrapped with the signal of bereave-
ment, and you fourd that AmalclSitish
death, which has de vastatcd thousand
either households. had blasted yours.
You 80 about weeping amid the desola-
ton of your once happy home, think
ing of the bright eyes closed, and the
noble hearts stopped, and the gentle
hands folded, and you weep until you
have no more power to weep. ZilSlag
in ashes!
J A gentleman went TO friend of mine
in the city of Washington. and asked
that through him he might get n con-
sulship to some foreign court. My
friend said to him: What do YOU want
to go away from your beautiful home
for, into foreign portP" "Oh," he
replied, my home is gone My six
children are dead. | must get away,
sir. l can't stand il in this country
any longer" ZilSlag in ashcsl Why
these long shadows of bereavement
across this audience? Why is il that
in almost every assemblage black Is
The predominant color of the apparel?
is II because you do not like saffron or
brown or violet? Oh, mol You say,
The world is not so bright To us as
once IL was" and there is story of
silent voices, and of still feet, and of
loved ones gone, and when you look
over the hills, expecting only beauty
and loneliness, you find only devasta-
ton and woe. Zil<lag In ashes!
One day, in Ulster county, New York,
the village church was decorated until
the fragrance of the flowers was al
most bewildering. The maidens of the
village had emptied the place of flow
ers upon one marriage altar. One of
their own number was afiianced to- a
minister of Christ, who had come to
take her to his own home. With hands
joined, amid congratulatory audi
ence, the vows were taken. In three
days from that time one of those who
stood at the altar exchanged earth for
Heaven. The wedding march broke
down into the funeral dirge There
were not enough flowers now for the
coffin-lid, because they had all been
taken for the bridal hour. The dead
minister of Christ is brought to another
village.
He had gone out from them less than
a week before in his strength: now he
comes home lifeless. The whole church
bewailed him. The solemn procession
|
face that once had beamed the mes
sages OF salvation. Little children
were lifted up 10 look at him.
And some Of those whom he had com
forted in days of sorrow, when they
passed the silent form, made the place
dreadful with their weeping. Another
village emptied of its flowers-some of
them put in the shape of cross 10
symbolic his hope, others put i'm the
shape OF n crown TO symbolic his tri-
umph. A hundred lights blown out in
one strong gush from the open door of
n sepulcher Ziltlag in ashes!
! j preach this sermon to-day because
want TO rally you, as David rallied
his men, for the recovery of the loved
and the lost. / want not only TO win
Heaven, but / want all this congrega-
ton to go along with me. / feel that
somehow / have n responsibility in
your arriving at that great city Do
4 you really want to join the compan-
ionship of your loved ones who have
gone? Are you as anxious 20 Join
them rs David and his men were to join
/ their families? Then am here, in the
name OF God, TO say that you may, and
to tell you how.
remark, in the first place, IL you
want TO join your loved ones in glory,
you must travel the same way they
went. No sooner had the half dead
Egyptian been resuscitated than he
pointed the way the captors and the
captives had gone, and David and his
men followed after. So our Christian
friends have gone into another country,
and IL we want 20 reach their compan-
ionship we must take the same road.
They repented; we must repent They
prayed; we must pray. They trusted
in Christ; we must trust i'm Christ.
They lived a religious life; we must
live a religious life. They were
in some things like ourselves. I
know, now that they are gone, there
Is halo around their names; but they
had their faults. They said and did
things they ought never TO have said
or done. They were sometimes rebel
lious, sometimes cast down. They
were far from being perfect. So ] sup
pose that when we have gone. some
things in us that are now only toler-
able may be almost resplendent. But
as they were like us IN deficiencies. we
ought 60 be like them in taking sup
ernal Christ 90 make up for the deficit.
Had 10 not been for Jesus, they would
have all persisted; but Christ con
frOnted them, and said: II am the
tsa 70 ~ aud fbor, f,.of. q