Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-06-15

with some Of those who are here 1t IS
the annoyance Of the kitchen, and the
sitting room, and the parlor-the wear
ing economy Of trying to meet large OK
penses with q small income Ten thou
sand voices Of business, business, bust
ness" drown the voice Of the eternal
Spirit, silencing the voice Of the advano-
Ing Judgment day, overcoming the voice
Of eternity, and they cannot hear; they
cannot listen. They SCI, 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 l
am ontreating you about your soul and
the danger Of procrastination you say:
go thy way for this time. When have
a convenient season, 1 will call for thee.
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 no
comes YOU will have to 90. Death
waits for no man, however high, how
ever low. VIII 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: VIII You put 200
acres Of ground against immeneIty?
VIII you put 40 or 80 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
Ciesarea will crumble, and the breal1wa-
ter at the beach, made Of great blocks
Of stone GO 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
vet You wave him back to the guard
room, saying: go thy way for this
time. When l have a convenient sea-
son, 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!
Inevcr saw the honors Of this world in
their hollowncss 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 We're 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 caricaturcd Of the picto-
rails; how charged with every motive
mean and ridiculous; how all the urns
Of scorm and hatred and billingsgate
emptiod 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'S that man that sleeps in your pub
lie hail covered with garlands and
wrapped in the stars and stripes: Is
that the man who, only few months
before. You denounced rs the foe Of re-
publican and democratic institutions;
Is that the same man: Ye American
people, We could not by one week Of fu-
neral eulogium and newspaper leaders
which the dead senator could neither
read nor hear, atone for % years Of
malrcatmeut and caricature.
When l see a man like that, pursued
by all the hounds of the political kennel
20 long as he lives and then buried un-
der a great pile Of garlands and amid
the lamentations Of a whole nation, l
say to myself: What an unutterably
hypocritical thing is all human APP
plause and all human favor You took
2j years in trying to pull down his
fame and then take % years in trying
to build his monument My friends,
was there ever a better commentary on
the hollowncss Of all earthly favor: If
there are young men who read this who
are postponing religion in order that
they may have the favors of this world,
let me persuade them of their complete
folly. If you are looking forward to
gubernatorial, senatorial or presidential
chair, let me show you your great mis-
take.
Can it be that there is now any young
man saying: Let me have political
Office, let me have some Of the high
positions Of trust and power, and then
l will attend to religion, but not now.
Go thy way for this time. When l
lave convenient season, l will call
for thcen"
And now my subject takes a deeper
tone and it shows what a dangerous
thing is this deferring Of religion.
When Paul's chain ratified down the
marble stairs Of Felix, that was Felix's
last chance for heaven Judging from
his character afterward, he was repro
bate and abandoned. And so was Dru-
silla.
One day in southern Italy there was
a trembling Of the earth, and the air
got black with smoke intershot with
liquid rocks, and Vesuvius rained upon
Drusilla and upon her son a horrible
tempest of ashes and fire. They did not
reject religion They only put it off.
They did not understand that that day,
that that hour when Paul stood before
them, was the pivotal hour upon which
everything was poised, and that it tip
ped the wrong way Their convenient
season came when Paul and his guards
,,o,, o,,to,oI tbo raloco II xvopf QUAY