Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-11-16

streets Of Paris were applauding him
Henry II consuming with hatred against
poor Thomas q Beckett, all illustrations
of the fact that this world cannot make
a man happy. The very man who poi
soned the pommel Of the saddle on
which Queen Elizabeth rode shouted in
the street, God save the queen" One
moment the world applauds, and the
next moment the world mathematics.
Oh, come over into this greater JOY,
this sublime solace, this magnificent
beatitude The night after the battle Of
| Shiloh there were thousands Of wound
ed on the field, and the ambulances had
not come. One Christian soldier, lying
there a-dying under the starlight, be-
gan to sing
There Is o land Of pure delight
And when he came to the next line
there were scores Of voices uniting:
Where saints immortal reign.
The song was caught up all over the
field among the wounded until 1t was
said that there were at least 10000
wounded men uniting their voices as
they came to the verse:
There everlasting spring abides
And never whitening flowers.
Death, like narrow stream. divides
That heavenly land from ours.
Oh, it is q great religion to live by,
and it is a great religion to die by.
There is only one heart throb between
you and that religion this moment. Just
look into the face Of your pardoning
God and surrender yourself for time
and for eternity, and he is yours, and
heaven is yours, and all is yours. Some
of you, like the young man Of the text,
have gone astray. know not the his
tory, but you know it-you know it.
The Circle OF Safety.
When q young man went forth into
life, the legend says, his guardian angel
went forth with him, and getting him
into a field the guardian angel swept q
circle clear around where the young
man stood. 1t was q circle Of virtue and
honor, and be must not step beyond that
circle. Armed foes came down, but
were obliged to halt at the circle. They
could not pass. But one day temptress,
with diamonded hand, stretched forth
and crossed that circle with the hand,
and the tempted soul took 1t, and by
that one fell grip was brought beyond
the circle and died.
Some Of you have stepped beyond that
circle. Would you not like this day, by
the grace Of God, to step backi This, ]
say to you, is your hour Of salvation
There was In the closing hours Of Queen
Anne what is called the clock scene.
Flat down on the pillow, in helpless
sickness, she could not move her head
or move her hand. She was waiting for
the hour when the ministers OF state
should gather in angry contest, and
worried and worn out by the coming
hour. and in momentary absence OF the
nurse, in the power-the strange power
which delirium sometimes gives one
she arose and stood in front Of the
clock, and stood there watching the
clock when the nurse returned. The
nurse said, "Do you see anything pecul'
lar about that clock?" She made no an
swer, but soon died. There is clock
scene In every history. II some Of you
would rise from the bed Of lethargy and
come out Of your delir;um Of sin and
look on the clock Of your destiny this
moment, you would see and hear some
thing you have not seen or heard be-
fore, and every tick Of the minute, and
every stroke of the hour, and every
swing Of the pendulum, would say,
Now, now, now, nowP Oh, come
home to your Fathers houseI Come
home, oh, prodigal, from the wilder
nessl Come home, come homel
Tho Divine Justice.
But notice that when the prodigal
came there was the fathers JOY. He
did not greet him with any formal
"How do you dor" He did not come
out and say: "You are unfit to enter.
Go out and wash in the trough BY the
we'll. and then you can come in. We
have had enough trouble with you. ="
Ah, mol When the proprietor OF that es-
tate proclaimed festival, 1t was an out
burst Of a fathers love and father 8
Joy. God is your father.
I have not much sympathy with that
description Of God I sometimes hear, as
though he were Turkish sultan-hard
and unsympathetic and listening not to
the CRY of his subjects. A man told me
he saw in one Of the eastern lands q
king riding along, and two men were
in alteration, and one charged the 9TH
er with having eaten his rice, and the
king said, "Then slay the man, and by
post mortem examination find whether
he has eaten the rice" And he was
| slain. All, the cruelty Of scene like
that Our God is not a sultan, not q
despot, but father-kind, loving, for
giying-and he makes all heaven ring
again when prodigal comes back II
have no pleasure, he says, "in the
death of him that dieth.
II a man does not get heaven, 1t is
because he will not go there. No differ
ence the color. no difference the history,
no difference the antecedents, no differ
enoe the surroundings no difference the
sin. When the white horses Of Christ's
victory are brought out to celebrate the
eternal triumph. you may ride one OF
them. and, as God Is greater than oil,
his 10y is greater, and when soul comes
back there Is In his heart the surging OF
an infinite ocean Of giadneso. and to ex-
press that gladness 1t takes all the rivers
of pleasure, and all the thrones Of pomp
and all the ages Of eternity. 1t Is Joy
deeper than all depth, and higher than
all height, and wider than all width, and
vaster than all immensity. It overtops,
It undergirds. 1t outweighs all the unit
ed splendor and Joy Of the universe
Who can tell what Gods Joy isi
The Rejoicing Father.
You remember reading the story Of q
king who ON some great day Of festiyi-
ty scattered silver and gold among the
people, who sent valuable presents to
his courtiers, but methinks when . soul
comes back God is SO glad that to ex-
press his Joy he fiings out new worlds
into space, kindles up new suns and
rolls among the white robed anthems OF