The Newtown bee., 1895-04-05

Classmates in college divided: some to receive the blessed award of "Well done" from the Great Teacher whose lessons of obedience they have we'll followed others the sentence, ssDepart; never knew you" Passengers on steamship divided some bound for the eternal haven of peace, others for the regions of end less arrangement from Fathers love. The line of division runs very sharply, cutting and snapping the most tender re- lations, wherever the name of Christ falls.
 ssAnd walk no more with him. That is the sad thing about it all. This day in Capernaum
 WASA A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to thousands of Galileans. Had they accepted the chance when offered, instead of finding Jesus after this avoiding the haunts If men, going into the far north- ern regions of Cesarea Philippi, track ing the lonely wastes of Perea, we should have seen a throng of disciples about Him, attent to hear His slightest desire, eager to be evapgels of the good tidings He bore. But the precious moments slipped by. They weighed carefully the conditions; they deliberately made the choice, and the result was irretrievable- the opportunity never came again, 'sthey walked no more with him.
 We'll it ia that we call our opportunities "golden." Aye, they are far more! A great opportunity is worth the value of many worlds. s.Oh," said Hobbes, the infidel philosopher to his physician when dying, "if had the whole world to dis pose of, I would give it, to live one day." ha Nnl- taire, when the grey mists of life's de- clining day were settling over his pillow, take half of what am worth, but give me six months of life.'' Before us are set these two roads. The one is broad and crooked way, down hill and easy to walk upon; but it leads only downward into woe. The other is straight and narrow way; it is upward and requires effort to walk thereon, but it's end is eternal life. Between these two roads the opportunity is given to choose but once.
 "Once to every man and nation comes the
 moment to decide,
 In the strife ot Truth with Falsehood, for the Some great cause, Gods new Messiah offer
 ing each the bloom or blight,
 Parts the goats upon the left hand, ana the And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that
 darkness and that light"
 s'The old, imperturbab ble clock of oppor- tunity is never changed. It varies not a second. You cannot move the hands for ward nor backward"
 And what momentous destinies hang upon single choice! Not much it seemed to the crowd that day, as they left Jesus with his twelve and went laughingly back to their homes.
 NO DOUBT, AS THEY GATHERED AT NIGHT upon the fiat roofs of their low houses to take in the cool, evening air. or strolied beside the blue waters If Lake Gennesa- ret, they idly chatted about the dOings of the day, and their talk was rather of great multitudes, the points from which they came, the prospects of the season for 8 plentiful harvest of grapes and olives and pomegranates and figs, the last great haul of herring drawn in their nets, than of the silent, majestic figure who had told them of the means by which their hunger could be satisfied for ever. The meeting with Jesus was onl, a little incident Of the street, the gossip of an hour, only one of the many scenes of life and stir that were ever happening great Dana scus road, was never in want of strangers to tell strange things. Only little incident! Don't fret. Bother not yourself with it. He'll come again and perhaps next time he'll give better hopes. But He never walked in Galilee again.
 Yes, only an incident on the streets of a busy town, quickly hushed, soon for. gotten! Only few feet between Jesus and the multitude for whom His heart longed But the paths from thence di- verged, and they never met again.
 Some years ago, with friend, stood on the Blue Ridge ssdiyide" among the mountains of western North Carolina. Look said my friend, pointing to a lit tie fountain that was squirting it's tiny spray at our feet. Do you gee that wa blows those drops on one side or the oth- CT of this line'' (and with his boot he made mark along the ground,) 'sthose drops at last fall either into the Gulf of Mexico beyond New Orleans or into the Atlantic ocean by South Carolina swampa.n And his words are true. Take your geography and you'll see that, through rills and runlets, the drops fall ing on the west of the slope will mingle with the waters of the French Broad, the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers; while those that fall on the east of the slope seek the sea through the
 
 very same spring at first they come; but pebble, it may be 8 grain of sand, turns one drop this way, another that, and the result is thousands of miles dis tant in the end.
 Considerable interest in religious mat ters was being shown among the college boys at Williamstown, Mass. Two :nti mate friends were strolling arm in arm along the ad. They halted at the gate of President Mark Hopkins. .sCome, ; said one, II am going in, talk this ques- tion over with the president and settle it once for all.v ssNo," said his comrade, sssome other time; l must translate my lesson in Pliny. can't stop. Good bye.' They separated for the time, and the decisions then made seem to have de- termined the separation of the lives for 
 THAT WAS THE WAY
 in which men faced the future in Christ's time, that is the way in which, ,unheeded, all around us every day lives are1 being made or marred.
 My work in preaching has not been long. but it has been long enough to teach me to abandon the method of frightening men to accept Christ by p0r- traYing, m awful imagery, the horrors of the lost. To me there is a far better way of appeal than that Instead of treading on too uncertain 2, ound, let us speak of that we positively know. We know that a man's choices make and mould man q char scter. Character is what man Ia. Character tends to permanepce. That to- me ia the meaning of the insepsrable gulf fixed betwet Dives and Lazarus. Not that an unchangipg God had eased to be less loving and would not forgive the sinner who should ever rppenks but the one mans character was fixed In evil, the pther permanent in good and in that world there is no change. What Is bee Is beyond we never can know here; Eut If this we can be sure. Beyond tho bounds Of this iifr the good will not fall Into evil, the evil VIII not choose eoe (