Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-08-14
NO. 35.

| tOSSeu ana ground by the 1ceDergS oil SIN,
hosting no sail for heaven. 1 go on board.
I find all asleep. 1t is frozen sleep. Oh,
that my Lord Jesus would come aboard and
lay hold of the wheel and steer the craft
down into the warm gulf stream OF His
mercy! Awake. thou that seepest! Arise
from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
life.
Again, notice that men are aroused by tha
most unexpected means. If Jonah had been
told one year before that heather sea
captain would ever awaken him to q sense
of danger, he would have scoffed at the idea.
but here 1t Is done. SO now men in strangest
| ways are aroused from spiritual stupor. A
profane man is brought to conviction by the
| shocking blasphemy of comrade. man
attending church and hearing a sermon from
the text, "The OK knoweth his owner" ETC.,
goes home impressed, but. crossing his barn
yard. an OK come up and licks his hand, and
he says: "There it is now. THE OK knoweth
his owner and the ass his masters crib, but
| do not know Col" The careless remark
| Of a teamster has led n man to thoughtful
| ness and heaven. The child's remark:
"Father. they have prayers at uncles house.
Why don't We have them?" has brought saliva.
| ton to the dwelling.
By strangest ways and in the most unex-
pected manner men are awakened. The gar
| dener Of the Countess of Huntingdon was
convicted of sin by hearing the countess on
| the opposite side OF the wall talk about Jesus.
| John Hardoak was aroused by dream. in
| which he saw the last day, and the Judge sit
ting, and heard his own name called with
terrible emphasis, John Hardoak come to
| Judgment The Lord has thousand ways
/ Of waking up Jonah. Would that the mes
| sengers Of mercy might now find their way
| down into the sides Of the ship. and that many
| who are unconscious!y rocking in the awful
tempest OF their sin might hear the warning:
What meanest thou, o sleeper? Arise and
| call upon thy Goir'
kL,k
too late. If, instead of sleeping, Jonah had
been on his knees confessing his sins from
| the time he went on board the craft, think
| that God would have saved him from being
thrown overheard. But he woke up too late.
The tempest is in full blast and the sea, in
convulsion. is lashing itself. and nothing will
stop it now but the overthrow of Jonah.
Now, lest any of you should make this
| mistake, l address you in the words of the
Mediterranean sea captain: "What mean
est thou, o, sleeper? Arise, call upon thy
God, II so be that God will think u pom US,
that We perish not" If YOU have a God,
you had better call upon Him. Do you saw,
81 have no God?' Then you had better call
upon your fathers God. When your father
was In trouble. whom did he fly to? You
heard him in his old days tell about some
terrible exposure in n snowstorm. or at sea,
or in battle, or among midnight garroters,
and how he escaped. Perhaps twenty
years before you were born your
father made sweet acquaintance with
worn pages of the Bible he used to read which
makes you think your father had God. In
the old religious books lying around the
house, here are passages marked with a
lead pencil-passages that make you think
your father was not goddess man. but that,
on that dark day when he lay in the back
room dying he was rea1y-all ready. But
perhaps your father was bad man-prayer-
less and blasphemer-and you never think
OF him now without shudder. He wor-
SHIPPED the world or his own appetites. Do
not then, beg of you. call upon your faith
ers God. but call on your mothers God.
think she was good. You remember when
your father came home drunk late on cold
night, how patient your mother was.
You often heard her pray. She used to sit
by the hour meditating as though she were
thinking of some good, warm place, where
1t never gets cold, and where the bread does
not fail, and staggering steps never come.
You remember her now as she sat in cap and
spectacles reading her Bible Sunday after
noon. What good advice she used to give
you! How black and terrible the hole in the
ground looked to you when with two ropes
they let her down to rest in the graveyard!
All, 1 think from your look that am on the
right track. Awake, o sleeper, and cali
upon thy mothers God.
But perhaps both your father and mothe,
were depraved. Perhaps your era lie was
rocked by sin and shame, and it is a wonder
that from such starting you have come to
responsibility. Then don't call upon the
God Of either Of your parents beg OF you.
But you have children. You know God
ktndled those bright eyes and rounded those
healthy limbs and set beating within their
breast an immortality. Perhaps in the be-
lief that somehow it would be for the best
you have taught them to say an evening
prayer, and when they kneel beside you an |
fold their little hands and look up, their
f..Aa oil L.,
there is God somewhere about in the
room.
think am on the right track at last
Awake, o sleeper, and call upon the God OF
thy children! May He set these little ones to
pulling at thy heart until they charm thee to
the same God to whom tonight they will say
their little prayers.
But, alas alas some of these men and wo.
men are unmoved by the fact that thei
father had a God. that their mother had a
God, and their children have God, but they
have no God. All the divine goodness for
nothing. All warning for nothing. They are
'ound asleep in the side Of the ship, though
he sea and sky are in mad wrestle.
Many years ago a man. leaving his family
In Massachusetts,, sailed from Boston to
China to trade there. On the coast Of China
In the midst of a night of storm he made
shipwreck. The adventurer was washed up
on the beach senseless-all his money gone.
He had to beg in the streets of Canton to
keep from starving. For two years there
was no communication between himself and
family. They supposed him dead. He knew
not but that his family were dead. He had
gone out as captain. He was too proud to
come back as private sailor But after
while he choked down his pride and
sailed for Boston. Arriving there
he took an evening train for
the center of the State. where he had left his
family. Taking the stage from the depot
and riding a score Of miles, he got home.
He says that, going up in front of the cot
tage in the bright moonlight, the place
looked to him like heaven. He raped on
the window, and the affrighted servant let
him In. He went to the room where his
wife and child were sleeping. He did not
dare to wake them for fear OF the shock,
Bending over to kiss his child's cheek a tear
fell upon the wifes face, and she wakened.
and he said: "Mary!' and she knew his
voice, and there was an indescribable scene
OF welcome and joy and thanksgiving t
God.
To-day know that many of you are sea
tossed and driven by sin in worse storm
than that which came down on the coast OF
China, and yet I pray God that you may, like
the sailor, live to get home. In the house OF
many mansions your friends are waiting tC
meet you. They are wondering why you dc
not Come. Escaped from the shipwrecks OF
earth, may you at last go in, 1t will be
bright night-a very bright night "a
you put your thumb on the latch OF that
door. Once In you will find the old family
faces sweeter than when you last saw them,
and there it will be found that He who was
your fathers God, and your mothers God,
and your children's God, Is your own most
blessed Redeemer, to whom be glory and
dominion throughout all ages. worll with.
out end. Amen.
Al LIVING picture. the rervous