The Newtown bee., 1895-04-05

uC uCYEI dpPCdlS SO kkdnAAJ ACAOAS 1S | now, when, though as keenly disap- | pointed as any one among the thousands l that had thronged Jesus feet on that day, and though not seeing how the fu- | ture would turn, he yet loved the brave. ! sensitive nature of Jesus and knew the purity of His soul and resolved to stand by Him to the bitter end. His rugged heart was reused by the sight of cow ards and hypocrites desertiDg his young Master and fellow-countryman; and, in answer to Jesus tender question that would have drawn tears from heart of stone, twill ye also go away?" he ex claimed, ssTo whom, Lord, shall we go but unto Thee; Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and know that Thou art the Holy One of God"
 sGo forward, though sometimes the way curves you know not whither, and though clouds bend down over it and obscure it's trend. Go forward! The path may be narrow and rough and steep. Look wonder! It's end is eternal life.''
 'sMANY WENT BACK;"
 but a few went on and followed Christ. Fewer and fewer they grew as the jour- ney heightened and the gloomy shad- ows of the Cross fell athwart the path.
 
 Mount where He was transfigured; only three followed into the inner recesses of the Garden, when near the scene that human speech has failed to picture, the awful agony and bloody sweat in the night of prayer; only one followed into the court of the high priest, and even he
 proved false when the supreme hour of testing came. And not single one was there to follow, when was laid upon
 Him the heavy cross, and the hour came
 when most sorely He stood in need of
 just one friend.
 ssMany went back" Here was the
 parting of the roads, many going one
 way, a few the other. The stream moved up to this point, broke into two currents and passed on. No one re- mains standing at the crossroads. Crises In character, like those in disease, do not last weeks and months; they pass, and there is progress is one direc- rion or the other. In religion we cannot
 tand still, cannot be neither this nor
 that; we are for Christ, or we are against Christ.
 It is an August day. It is very sultry !;
 the air is very still. Hardly a leaf stirs amid the branches, hardly d rustic is | heard among the forest trees. The still
 ness is almost painful; even birds cease | to chirp and twitter, and the continued | hirr of the cricket through the fields is all the noise we hear. "The earth is still," we say; s'there's not a motion anywhere" But how often our com mon speech betrays our want of truth :! The earth still! and yet, at every mo- ment of the day, of the night, in sum- l mer's heat, in winters cold, it is rush | ing, racing, sweeping through space 19 miles second, 5000 miles an hour, | 50 times faster than speediest rifle ball Still it's velocity is incalculable. The Congress limited express, through from l New York to Washington in five hours, l would be going at snail's pace compared 1 with that.
 l The earth is never still. No more are l we, never still for moment, always on. on, on. making fearful head toward a | land of delight or despair. The Hebrew language well expresses the thought 1 am
 urging. In it's grammar it has no pres ent tense, the present being conceived as | moving point. 1 say ''now" and, be- | fore the word reaches your ears, the
 ''now" has gone into the past. We look ahead to the moments that we have to | Hive; aud, while we contemplate and l think how we shall employ them, they l rush unanimously shy us. 1 stand and catch at the pearls of time, but mocking
 ly they trip by me. Aptly do we speak l of
 I ssIIFE's CURRENT AND ssLIFE's STREAM 5 l And now we put all this over into the religious world. We are putting for | ward all the time, and we are on one et | two roads; the straight and narrow | road whose end is Life. or we are on the broad way whose end is Death. Christ's | words leave no doubt about that. Men | took many positions regarding Him | one said He was Esaias, others made | him Elijah, others Jeremiah, Cthors one | of the prophets risen again from the | dead. Some said He was good map, ! others that He deceived the people, ana | so their strife went on. But Christ omitted all these endless distinctions. | With one word He classified them all, | he that gathereth not with me scattereth \ abroad. Error may branch into many | by. paths; it may even put on the cloak | of good appearances. It may wear so l inc guise that it may deceive the stVery elect" But Christ judges ii aright. A good title will not make a
 bad thing right.
 There are many matters of dispute that are trivial. In such there is no
 moral significance in being on either ! side. Our position is a mere matter of opinion. If my neighbor at the table al l ways takes coffee at his morning meal and I prefer tea, I have no right to be- come enraged at him, because he does not take the beverage prefer. If my friend across the way chooses to give his cattle certain kind of food, while I think another kind is better for mine, the mere fact that we differ should not cause ill feeling between us. He has a perfect right to his opinion, and I claim
 the equal liberty of holding mine.
 But there are some questions on which we cannot afford to say, ssIt's all mere
 matter of opinion" Such is the ques- tion that Christ asked of His disciples at the close of that eventful day in the I streets of Capernaum, ssWill ye. also go Christ is the supremest of concerns. All time and all eternity are affected by the decison we render to that question. Three worlds have share in it's settle ment. Over it's right decision all the hosts in Heaven rejoice and a great note ! of jubilant song wakes from the re- deemed myriads about the golden throne. \ Over it's wrong settlement the powers of
 darkness make merry, and Earth views the miserable ruin of one who has light lily let go through his fingers the eternal destinies of a deathless soul. Indiffer-
 ence to this question is criminal; neg lect in deciding 1t Is the farthest reach of folly; the wrong settling of it is worse than the wreck of worlds.
 l ssMany went back, 2 but some followed on. The religion of Jesus levels
 | ALL DISTINCTIONS IN WEALTH, l rank, title and position. To it the smut ty apron of the smith at his forge is as honorable badge of toll as the snow white sleeve of the mitered monk. It
 levels; it also divides. Wherever the
 claims of Christ are presented, the part | ing of the roads comes. One goes this way, another that. Friends whose love and confidence have never faltered un- clasp p hands at the Cross. The two com pany with each other warmly, lovingly. ldev0tedly; they reach point on the road | urhore sfands tha hInnd- -markpd Crnss of