The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1895-09-27

name AZ they would not answer; ana
perhaps sometimes you do make the
experiment. and when no one but God
and yourself are there you distinctly |
call their names, and listen, and sit |
gazing into Heaven.
Pass on now and see Stephen look
ing upon Christ. My text says he saw |
the Son of man ut the right hand OF
God. just how Christ looked in this
world, just how He looks in Heaven,
we can not say. The painters of the
different ages have tried to imagine
the features of Christ, and put them
upon canvas; but we will have to wait
until with our own eyes we see Him
and with our own ears we can hear
Him. And yet there is way of see
ing Him and hearing Him now.
have to tell You that unless you see
and hear Christ on earth, You will
never see or hear Him in Heaven.
Look! There He is! Behold the
Lamb of God! Can you not see
Him? Then pray to God to take
the scales off your eyes. Look
that way try to 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 ye
saved, for am God, and there is none
else" Proclamation of universal
emancipation for all slaves. Tell me,
We who know most of the worlds his
tory, 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 invitationl You can
take it to-day. and stand at the head
of the darkest alley in all this city,
| and say: Come! Clothes for your
rags, salve for your sores, a throne for
your eternal reigning." A Christ that
talks like that, and acts like that. and
pardons like that-do you wonder
that Stephen stood looking at Him?
l hope to spend eternity doing the
same thing. l must see Him; | must
look upon that face once clouded with
my sin, but how radiant with my par
don. want to hear the voice that
pronounced my deliverance. Behold
Him, little children, for if you live to
three-score years and ten, you will see
none so fair. Behold Him, ye aged
| ones; for He only can shine through
the dimness Of your failing eyesight.
Behold Him, earth. Behold Him,
Heaven. What moment when all
the natious of the saved shall gather
around Christ! All faces that way. All
thrones that way, gazing on Jesus.
His worth If all the nations knew
Sure the whole earth W ould 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 precl
pices. Let every man come up and
drop stone upon his head. But these
men did not so much kill Stephen a.
thew killed themselves. Every stone
rebounded upon them. While these
murderers were transfixed by the scorr
of all good men, Stephen lives in the
admiration of all christendom. STE
phen stoned, but Stephen alive. So al
good men must be pelted. "All wh'
will live cody in Christ Jesus mus
suffer persecution" 1t Is no eulogy o
a man to say that everybody likes him
Show me any one who is doing all hi
duty to state or church, and l VIII
show Won scores of men who utterl.
abhor him.
If all the men speak well of you it
, because you are either laggard or
dolt. If steamer makes rapid prog
ress through the waves, the water Wi
boil and foam all around 1t. brav
/ soldiers of Jesus Christ will hear tn
carbines click. When see man wit
, voice, and money, and influence all o.
| the right side, and some caricatur
him, and some sneer at him, and som
denouuce him. and men who preten
, to be actuated by right motives COZ
, spire to cripple him, to cast him out
to destroy him. l say: Stephe
ston ed"
E Pass on now. and see Stephen in hi
dying prayer. His first thought wa
, not how the stones hurt his head, nc
| what would become of his body. Iii
first thought was about his spirit
a Lord Jesus receive my spirit" In
: murderer standing on the trap dool
q the black cap being drawn over n
a head before the execution, may grin
!. ace about the future, but you and
a have no shame in confessing som
e anxiety about where W., are going
come out. You are not all bod,
:. There is within you soul. | see
i CLEAN from your eyes to-day, an
p1 II see it irradiating your counte
r nance. Sometimes am abashe
l. before an audience, not because L CON
n under your physical eyesight' but b
4 cause realize the truth that l sian
{ before so many immortal spirits. III