Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1894-11-12

abeth rode, shouted 10 the street, God
save the Queenm One moment the
world applauds, aud the next moment
THE WORLD ALTERNATIVES.
Oh, come over into this great JOY, this
sublime solace, this magnificent beati-
tude. The night after the battle Of
Shiloh. there were thousands Of wound,
ed on the field, AID the am0ulauces had
not come, one Christian soldier, lying
there a-dying under the starlight, be-
gan 70 sing:
There is a land Of pure delight,
Aud when he came 70 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, II was
said, there were at least ten thousand
wounded men uniting their voices as
they came 70 the verse:
There everlasting spring abides,
And never-witnering flowers;
Death like a narrow stream divides,
That heavenly land from ours.
Oh. 70 is a great religion 70 live by, and
10 is a great religion 10 die by. There
is only one heart throb between you
and that religion this moment. Just
look into the face Of your pardoning
God, aud 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 goBe far astraY. know not the
history, but you know it-yOu know To-
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 a
circle clear around where the Young
man stood. 10 was a circle Of virtue
aud honor, and be must not step beyond
that circle, Armed foes came down,
but were obliged TO halt az the circle
they could not pass. But one day
temptreSs, with diam0uded hand,
stretched forth and crossed that circle
with the hand, aud the tempted soul
took it, and by that one fell grip was
brought beyond the circle, aud died.
Some OF you have
STEPPED BEYOND THAT CIRCLE.
Would you noe ike this day, by the
grace of God, 90 step back? This, l say
20 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 ia helpless sickness,
she could not move her head or move
her hand. She was waiting Tor the
hour when the ministers of state should
gather in angry contest; and worried
and worn out by the coming hour, and
i'm momentary absence of the nurse, In
the DoWer-the strange power which
deIirium sometimes give One-she arose
and stood 10 front of the clock, aud
stood there watching the clock when
the nurse returned. The nurse said:
''Do you see anything peculiar about
that Cl0Ck?' SDe made no answer, but
soon died. There is a clock scene in
every history. III some of you would
rise from the bed of l.lhargy and come
out OF your deI.rum OF sin. and look on
the clock OF yOu- destiny this moment,
YOU would see and hear something you
have not seen or heard before, and
every tick OF the minute, and every
stroke of the hour, and every swing Of
the pendulum, would say: Now, now,
now, now" on, come home 70 your
Fathers house. Come home, Oh, prOii-
gal, from the wilderness. Come home,
come home.
But I notice when the proiigal came,
there was the fathers JOY. He did not
greet him with any formal chow do you
dO2n He did not come out and say,
You are unfit TO enter; go out and
wash in the trough by the well, and
then you can come in; we have had
enough trouble with YOU" An, no!
When the proprietor of that estate pro-
claimed festival, il was an outburst Of
a fathers love and a fathers Joy. God
is your father.
HAVE NOT MUCH SYMPATHY
with that description OF God l sOme-
times hear, as though he were a Tur-
kish Sultan-hard aud unsympathetic,
and listening not 10 the cry Of his sub
iects. a man told me he saw, In one Of
the Eastern lands, a king riding along,
and two men we're 90 an alteration aud
one charged the other with having eaten
his rice; and the king said: Then slaY
the man, aud by D0st-mortem eXamina-
ti0n fnd whether he has eaten the rice. -
Aud he was slain. An the cruelty Of
of a scene like that Our God is not
Sultan, not q despOt, but a Father
kind, loving and fOrgiving, and He
makes all heaven ring again when
predigal comes back. II have no pleas
ure, he says, Sin the death Of him that
dieth."
Ifam man does not get to heaven, it is
because he will not go there. No diff
ference the color, no difference the his
tory, no difference the antecedeutS, no
difference the surroundings, 20 differ
euce the siu. 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 all, his Joy is greater; and when a
soul comes back, there is ia his heart
the surgiug of an infinite ocean of giad-
ness; aud TO express that giadneSS, 10
takes all the rivers of pleasure, and all
the thrones Of pOmD, aud all the ages
of eternity. 10 is Joy deeper than all
depth, and higher than all height, and
wider than all width, and yaSter than
all immeusitv. Il overtops, it under
girds, it outweiEhs all the united sDIen-
dor and JOY of the universe. Who can
tell what Gods JOY is?
You remember reading the story Of
king, who on some day OF great ieSJivity
scattered silver aud gold among the
people, who sent valuable presents 10
his courtiers; but metbinks when a soul
comes back God is so glad that to eX-
press his JOY be filings out new worlds
into space, kiDdies up new suns, and
rolls among the white-robed anthems
OF the rede emed a greater ha.ieIujah,
while with q voice that reyerberates
among the mountains OF frankincense
and Is ech oed back from the everlasting
gates, be cries: This, my son, was dead,