The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-09-20


with my sin, but now radiant with my
pardon. want 10 touch that hand that
knocked off my shackles, want - hear
the Voice that pronounced my deliver,
ance, Behold him, little children, for
II You live to threescore 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 eye
sight, Behold him, earth, Behold him,
heaven. What moment when all the
nations of the saved shall gather around
Christ All faces that way. All thrones
that way, gazing ON Jesus,
His worth IL all the nations knew
Sure the whole earth would love him too
stoned by the World.
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 preci-
pieces. Let every man come up and drop
did not so much kill Stephen as they
killed themselves, Every stone re-
bounded upon them While these muir
derers are transflxed by the scorn of
all good men Stephen lives in the adj
miration of all Christehdom Stephen
stoned, but Stephen alive. So all good
men must be pelted. "All who viii
live cody in Christ Jesus must suffer
persecution. 1t is no eulogy of a man
TO say that everybody 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.
If all men speak we'll of you, it is
because you are either a laggard or
dolt. If a steamer makes rapid progress
through the waves, the water will boil
and foam all around it. Brave soldiers
Of Jesus Christ will hear the carbnes
click When | see a man with voice
and money and influence all on the
right side, and some caricatuIe him,
and some sheer at him, and some de-
nounce him, and men who pretend to
be actuated by right motives conspire
to cripple him, to cast him ont, to de-
stroy him, | say, Stephen stoned"
When | see a man in some great
moral or religious reform battling
against grogshops, exposing wickedness
in high places, by active means trying
to purify the church and better tbs
worlds estate, and l find that the news
papers aDathematize him, and men,
even good men, oppose him and de-
nounce him because, though he does
good, he does not do it in their way, l
say, "Stephen stoned" But you notice,
my friends, that while they assaulted
Stephen they did not succeed really in
killing him, You may assault good
man, but you cannot kill him. On the
day of his death Stephen spoke before
"A few people in the sanhedrin. This
Sabbath morning he addresses Chriaten-
dom. Paul, the apostle, stood ON Mars
hill addressing a handful of philoso-
piers who knew not so much about
science as modern schoolgirl. Today
he talks to all the millions of Christen-
dom 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 today, 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 on the floor in the box
Of Ford's theater there sprang up the
new life Of nation. Stephen stoned,
but Stephen alive.
A Dying Prayer.
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 trapdoor, the black cap
being drawn over his head before the
execution, may grimace about the fu
ture, but you and I have no shame in
confessing some anxiety about where we
are going to come out. You are not all
body There is within you soul. see
it CLEAN from your eyes today, and see
1t irradiating your countenance. Some
times am abashed before an audience,
not because / come under your physical
eyesight, but because | realize the truth
that | stand before so many immortal
spirits The probability is that your
body will at last find sepulcher in
some Of the cemeteries that surround
this city. There is no doubt that
your obsequies will be decent and re-
spectful, and You will be able to pillow
your head under the maple, or the Nor
way spruce, or the cypress, or the bios
soming fir, but this spirit about which
Stephen prayed, what direction will
that take? What guide will escort it ]:
I What gate will open to receive it? What
cloud will be cleft for its pathway? Aft
er it has got beyond the light of our sun
will there be torches lighted for it the
rest Of the way!
Will the soul have to travel through
long deserts before it reaches the good
land? If we should lose our pathway
will thors be a castle at whose gate we
may ask the way to the city? Oh, this
mysterious spirit within us 1t has two
wings, but it is in cage now. IL is
locked fast to keep it, but let the door
of this cage open the least, and that
soul is off Eagles wing could not catch
it. The lightnings are not swift enough
to come up with it. When the soul leaves
the body it takes so worlds at bound.
And have / no anxiety about it? Have
you no anxiety about it?
do not care what you do with my
body when my soul is gone, or whether
you believe in cremation or inhumation.
shall sleep just as well in wrapping
of sacicloth as in satin lined with
eagles down. But my soul-before
close this discourse / will find out
where it will land. Thank God for the
intimation of my text that when we die
Jesus takes us. That answers all ques-
tions for me. What though there were
massive bars between here and the City
of Light, Jesus could remove them.
What though there were great Saharas
of darkness, Jesus could illume them,
What though | get weary ON the way