The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-01-02

AS soon as one is old enough to take care
of himself he is put on his guard. BoltS
on the door to keep out the robbers. Elre-
proof safes to keep off the flames. Life
insurance and fire INSURANCE. against accl-
dent. Receipts lest you have to pay a DEBT
twice Lifeboat against shipWreck. West
inghouSe 2irbrake against railroad colllSion.
There are many ready to oVerreach you
and take all you have. Defense against
cold defense against heat, defense against
Sickness defense against the world ABUSE
defense all the way down to the grave,
and the tombstone sometimes is not
a sufficient barricade. II q soldier VINO mas
been guard, shiverinS and stunG with
the cold, pacing up and down the p2rapet
with should cred musket, is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and he can 90
inside the fortress, ought not that man to
shout for joy who put down his weapon
for earthly defense and go into the KING
castle? Who is more fortunate, the soldier
who has to stand guard twelve hours, or
the man who has TO stand guard SIN houF>'
We have common sense about every lli!iS
but religion, common sense about every
thing but transferance from this W3fid.
Again: There is q blessing III an abbreNl-
ated earthly existence in the fact that one
escapes many bereavements. Inc longer
we live the more attachments and the more
kindred, the more chords to be wounded or
rasped or SunGered. If q man live on TO
seventy or eighty years of age, how many
graves are cleft at his feet! In that long
reach of time father and mother go, broth
ers and sisters co. children go, Srandchl-
dren so, personal friends outside the fam
lily circle whom they mad loved with love
like that OF David and Jonathan
Beside that, some men have a natural
trepdation about dissolution, and ever ana
anon during forty or fifty years TINS nor
ror of their dissolution shoulders through
the
at sixteen years of age? He escapes fifty
funerals fifty baskets, fifty obSeQules, nifty
awful wrenchings of the heart IT IS nara
enough for us to bear their departure, but
is it not far easier for us to bear their
departure than for them to stay and bear
fifty departures? Shall we not by the grace
OF God rouse ourselves into generosity Oh
bereavement which will practically say, 1T
is hard enough tor me to so through this
bereavement. but how glad | am that he
Will never have to go through it.,
SO I reason with myself and so you will
fnd il helpful TO reason with yourselves.
David lost his son. Though David was king,
he lay on the earth mourning and lnconsoI-
able for some time. At this distance Of
time, which do you really think
was the one to be congratulate
ed, the short-Ioved ci-.d or the long
lived father? Had David died as early
as that child died he would, in the first
place, have escaped that particular oereaVe-
L,
worse bereavement of \ hsalom, his recreant
son, and the pursuit Of the Philiistnes, ana
the fatigues of his military campaign ahi
the jealousy of saul and the perndy uf
Ahithophel, and the curse of Shilnei, and
the destruction OF his family at IiklaS, and
above all! he would have escaped the two
great calamities OF his life, the great sins OF
unceanness and murder. David lived to DE
of vast use to the church and the world,
but so far as his own happiness was con-
:; com a Ill
would have been better for HIM TO nave
gone early?
Now, this, my friends, explains some
things that to you have been lneXplicaDle.
This shows you why when Goa takes niue
taldreu rom a household he Is very apt TO
take the brightest, the most genial, the most
sylnpathet1c, the most talented. Why? 1t
is because that kind nature suffers the
most when it does suffer, and is most liable
to temptation. God saw the tempest sweep
ing up from the Caribbean, and he put the
delicate craft into the first hafpor' 1dheh
away from the evil to come
Again. my friends, there is q blessing IN
an abbreviated earthly existence IN the l2ct
that it puts one sooner IN the center OF
things. All astronomers, intdel as well as
christian, agree in believing that the uni
verse swings around some great center
ANY one who has studied the earth ana
studied The heavens knows that Goa favor
tie figure in geometry IS . circle. w men
cd
verse he did not strike that hand at rlSht
anoles hllt he waved ii III q circle and
kent on waving it ia a circle until systems
and costeatIons and GalaAIe5 ana an
worlds took that motion. oar planet swing
ntr around he sum other planets SN iilSlhS
nr1ni1d other suns but somewhere a great
h,,b around winch the great Whcel OF me
universe turns. NCVt, that center u hcI NJ
That is the capital OF the uhlEti@c. Alid'
is the great metropolis OF lHlheiiSItS' ~
Now does not our common sense teach ''S
+bat in matters Of study it is better Tor us
TO move out from the center TOWARDS tIie
circumference, rathes IMAM 20 o@ on w w
circumference where our world now is we
ara like those who study the American CON
+t,t 1,.l,ile etandina. on the Atlantic beach.
Tho 1yay to study the continent is 10 cross
II or go to the heart OF It, Our Slandpoliit
in this world is detective we are Ill Iile
wrons. end Of the telescope. Inc pest wy
"a study a piece of machinery is not TO StaAu
~, thn doorstep and try to look III, but TO
on in with the engineer and take our place
r;uht amid the saws and the cyllhoers' we
wear our eyes out ana our Drain out ioii
the fact we are studying under Sucn great
Gisadvantage. Millions of dollars Tor OBJ
earwotories to study things about the moon,
ohout the sun, aboUs the rings Oh Ss.tUriL
about transits and occuitatlons anu eSl1pSeS
simply because our studio, our onSel'ato
a, nnor,v situated. We are down in the eel
lar irving to study the palace or the UNI
arso while our departed Christian irlehuS
,,,o GONE i,Dstairs amid the shyLShtS 10
study. o,,or o,a+ +o tho
Now. when one can sooner get 10 the
o,tor Of things is he not to be cohgratu-
1atad2 Who wants TO be always IN the liesh-
NAN class? We study God III Inns WoliU ny
tho biblical photograph OF Hlh' oul We al
Inov we can in five minutes OF mterFle"
.-itb a friend get more accurate lue< oi
~; +bon we can by studying Elm my
,,nnrs through pictures of WORDS Inc niue
o,;II that died last night TO-DAY Knows more
If Cod than all Andover, ana i,'i 4 lnoS.o,'
I'D ali New Brunswick and all i1tllip oi Slt'
anG ali the theological institutions III IN. rs
tanaom Is it not better TO go up " 'he
ror,1 bead1uarters of knowledge
Doas not orr common sense teach us that
- hatter to be at the center tilaii 10 We
80 ar on the rim Of the Wheel hoiuhlS
nervouslv fast to the tire lest we We Suiue
" hurled into light, and e1ernai 1880
,I,,,a,,ab all kinds of optical Instruments
.,i,,,r 70 near in through the CRACKS anu Tue
,~o,,to,as IF heaven-afraid that poth oooIS
nf tLe celestial mansion will be swung woe
onan befora our entranced Vlslon-rushlhs
obnr+ among apothecary shops OIL inns
urorld wondering if this is good Tor fheu-
matism. and that is good for neuralgia ana
something else is good for a bad cough, lest
we be suddenly ushered into land or ever
lasting health where the inhabtant lever
SAYS IT am SICK.
what fools we all are to prefer the cir
conference to the center. what dreadful
,orrld bD ny,lx