The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1895-09-26

hear Christ on earth You Will never
see and hear him in heaven.
Look! There he Isl! Behold the
Lamb OF God! Can you not see him?
Then pray to God to take the scales
look that way. His voice comes down
/ to you this day-comes down to the
blindest, to the deafest soul, saying,
Look unto me, all We ends Of the
earth, and be We saved, for I am God
| and there Is none else" Proclamation
of universal emancipation for all
slaves. Tell me, We who know most
OF the worlds history, what other king
! ever asked the abandoned, and the
| forlorn, and the Wretched, and the out
| cast to come and sit beside him? Oh,
| wonderful invitations! You can take
| 1t to-day, and stand at the head of the
darkest alley in all this city, and say,
Come! Clothes for your rags, salye
| for your sores, throne for your eter-
nal reigning." A Christ that talks like
| that-do you wonder that Stephen
| stood looking at him? I hope to spend
| eternity doing the same thing. must
see him; l must look upon that face
once clouded with my sin, but how ra-
dlant with my pardon. I want TO
touch that hand that knocked off my
shackles. | want to hear the voice
that pronounced my deliyerance. Be
hold him, little children, for if you
live to thDee-score years and ten, you
will See none SO fair. Behold him, We
aged ones; for he only can shine
through the dimness of your failing
eyesight. Behold him, earth. Behold
him, heaven. What a moment when
all the nations of the saved shall
gather around Christi All faces that
way. All thrones that way, gazing on
Jesus.
His worth if all the nations knew -.
Sure the whole earth would love him,
too.
pass on now, and look at Stephen
stoned. The world has always wanted
to get rid of good men. Their very
life is an assault upon wickedness.
Out with Stephen through the gates
Of the city. Down with him over the
precipices. Let every man come up
and drop stone upon his head. But
these men did not SO much kill Ste
phen as they killed themselves Every
stone rebounded upon them. While
these murderers were transtiXed by
the scorn of all good men, Stephen
lives in the admiration Of all Chris
tendon. Stephen stoned, but Stephen
alive. So all good men must be pelted.
All who will live godly in Christ
Jesus must suffer persecution" 1t is
no eulogy OF a man to say that every
body likes him. Show me any one who
is doing all his duty to state or church,
and Will show you scores Of men who
utterly abhor him.
Ii all men speak well Of you it is be-
cause you are either a laggard or a
dolt. If a steamer makes rapid pro-
gress through the waves, the water
will boil and foam all around it.
Brave soldiers Of Jesus. Christ will
hear the carbines click. When I see
a man with a voice, and money, and
influence all on the right side, and
some caricature him, and some sneer
at him, and some denounce him. and
men who pretend to be actllated by
right motives conspire to cripple him.
to cast him out, to destroy him, I
say, stephen stoned"
When I see a man in some great
moral or religious reform, battling
against grog-shops, exposing wicked
ness in high places, by active means
trying to purify the church and better
the worlds estate, and I find that the
newspaper anatthematize him, and
men, even good men, oppose him and
denounce him, because, though he does
good he does not do it in their way,
say, "Stephen stoned" But you no.
tice my friends, that while they as
saulted Stephen they did not succeed
really in killing him. You may assault
good man, but you can not kill him.
On the day of his death, Stephen spoke
before a few people in the Sanhedrim;
this Sabbath morning he addresses
all Christendom. Paul the Apostle
stood on Mars Fill undressing a
handful of philosophers who knew not
so much about science as a modern
school girl. To day he talks to all the
millions of Christendom about the
wonders Of justification and the glories
of resurrection. John Wesley was
howled down by the mob to whom he
preached and they threw bricks at
him, and they denounced him, and
they jostled him. and they spat upon
him and yet to-day in all lands, he is
admitted to be the great father of
Methodism. Booths bullet vacated
the presidential chair; but from that
spot of coagulated blood ION the floor
in the box of Ford's Theater there
sprang up the new life of a nation.
Stephen stoned, but Stephen alive.
Pass on now, and see Stephen in his
dying prayer. His first thought was
not how the stones hurt his head, nor
what would become Of his body. His
first thought was about his spirit
Lord Jesus receive my spirit THE,
murderer standing on the trap door,
the black cap being drawn over his
head before the execution, mary gri-
mace about the future, but you and
have no shame in confessing some
anxiety about where we are going to
come out You are not all body.
There is within you a soul. I see a
CLEAN from your eye to-day, and see
it irradiating your countenance Some
times am abashed before an audience
not because come under your physi-
cal eyesight, but because I realize the
truth that stand before so many inn
mortal spirits. The probability is that
x,,sII 49,