Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1895-02-08

gin the millennium, ani Christ would
reign, either in person on some throne set
up between the Aileghanies and the Rockies
or IN the institutions OF mercy and grandeur
set up ~ His ransomad people. Discouraged
work will meet with defeat. Expectant and
buoyant work will gain the victory. Start
out with the idea that ali men are liars AMI
scoundres, and that everybody IL as bad as
he can be, and that society, and the church,
and the world are on the way to demolition.
and the only use you will ever be TO the
world will lie to increase the value OF
lots in cemetery. We need more
cheerful front in all our religious work
People have enough trouble already and
do not want to ship another cargo oftrouble
In the shape OF religiosity. II religion has
been to you a peace. q defense, an inspira-
ton and e JOY, say So Say 1t by word Of
mouth, by pen in your hand. by face illu-
mined with divine satisfaction. If this
world is ever to be taken for God, 1t will not
be by groans, but by halleluiahs. II we
could present the Christian religion as it
really is, in its true attractiveness, all the
people would accept it, and accept it right
away. The cities, the nations would cry
out: "GiYe Us that, give it to US in all its
holy magnetism and gracious power! Put
that salve on our wounds Throw back tho
shutters for that morning light. Knock off
these chains with th&t silver hammerl Give
us Christ-His pardon, His peace His com
fort, His heaven! Give US Christ in song,
Christ in sermon, Christ in book, Christ in
living example"
AS system of didactics religion has never
gained ono inch OF progress. As q tech
nicality 1t befogs m1re than 1t irradiates. As
dogmatism it is an awful failure. But as
fact, as u reinforcement, as q transdguru-
tton, it is the mtghtiest thing that ever
descended from the heavens or touched the
earth. Exemplfy it in the life of q good
man or a good woman, and no one can help
but like it. city missionary visited house
in London and found a scx and dying boy.
There was an orange lying on his bed, and
the missionary said, "Where did you get
that orange?' He said "a man brought il
to ME. He comes here often and reads the
Bible to me and prays with me and brings
me nice things to eat. "What is his
forget his name," slid the sick Toy,
'but he makes great speeches over in
that great building" pointing to the
Parliament House of London. The mis-
sionary asked, "Was his name Mr.. Glad
stone?' ooh, yes" said the boy, THAT is
his name-Mr. Gladstonew - Do you tell mo
a man can see religion like that and not like
1t? There is an old fashioned mother in a
farm house. Perhaps she is somewhere in
the seventies, perhaps seventy-tiva or sew
enty-six. 1t is the early evening hour.
Through spectacles No. 8 she Is reading
newspaper until toward bedtime when she
takes up well-worn book, called tha Bible.
| know from the illumination in her face
she Is reading one OF the thanksgiving
psalms, or in Revelation the story of the
twelve pearly gates. After awhile she closes
the book and folds her hands and thinks over
the past and seems whispering the names of
her children. some OF them on earth and
some of them in heaven. Now smile Is on
her face, and now q tear, and sometimes the
smile catches the tear. The scenes Of long
life come back to her. One minute she
sees all the children smiling around her,
with their toys and sports and strange ques.
tiontngs. Then she remembers several of
them down sick with infantlle disorders.
Then She sees short grave, but over 1t cut
in marble, "Suffer them to come to Me-"
Then there is the wedding hour, and the
neighbors IN. and the promise OF "I will,'
and the departure from the old homestead,
then scene of hard times, and scant bread
and struggle. Then she thinks of few
years with gush of sunshine and fittings of
dark shadows and vicissitudes.
Then she kneels down slowly, for many
years have sttfPened the jointa, and the III
nesses Of a lifetime have made her less sup
pie Her prayer Is a mixture of thanks for
sustaining grace during all those years, and
thanks for children good and Christian
and kind, and prayer ror tne wandering
boy whom she hopes to see come home be-
fore her departure. And then her trembling
lips speak of the land Of reunion, where she
expects to meet her loved ones already
translated, and after telling the Lord in very
simple language how much she loves Him.
and trusts Him, and hopes to see Him soon,
hear her pronounce the quiet "Amen, and
she rises up-a little more difficult effort
than kneeling down. And then she puts her
head on the pillow for the night, and the
angels of safety and peace stand sem
tinel about that couch ia the farm
house, and her face ever and
anon shows signs of dreams about
the heaven she read of before retiring. In
the morning the day work has begun down
stairs, and seated at the table the remark Is
made, "MOther must have oversight her
SELF" And the grandchildren also notice
that grandmother is absent from her usual
place at the table. One of the grandchildren
goes to the foot of the stairs and cries,
"Grandmotherm But there is no answer.
Fearing something is the matter, they go up
to see, and all seems right The spectacles
the bed are smooth, and the face is calm
her white hair on the white pillow case like
snow on snow already fallen. But her soul
Is gone up to look upon the things that the
night before she had been reading Of In the
Scriptures. What transporting look on her
dear old wrinkled face! She has seen the
''King in His beanty." She has been well
comed by the Lamb who was slain" And
her two Oldest sons, having hurried up
stairs, look and whisper, Henry to George,
"That is religioni' George to Henry, ayes.
that is religion !"
There is a New York merchant who has
been in business I should say forty or fifty
years. During an ola-fashioned revival of
religion in boyhood he gave his heart to
God. He did not make the ghastly and in
finite and everlasting mistake OF sowing
''wilG oats, with the expectation Of sowing
good wheat later on. He realized the fact
that the most Of those who SOW "wild OATS
never reap any other crop. He started right
and has kept right He went down In 1867.
when the banxs failed, but he failed honestly
and never lost his faith in God. Ups and
downs-he sometimes laughs over them
but whether losing or gaining he was grow
ing better all the time. He has been In many
business ventures, but he never ventured the
experiment Of gaining the world and los
ing his soul. His name was a power
both in the church and In the business
world. He has drawn more checks for contri-
buttons to asylums and churches and schools
than any one, except God, knows. He has
kept many a business man from failing by
lending his name on the back of a note till
the crisis was past. All heaven knows about
him, for the poor woman whose rent he paid
In her last days and the man with consump-
ton in the hospital to whom he sent flowers
and the cordials just before ascention, and
the people he encouraged in many ways, af-
ter they entered heaven kept talking about
II, for the immortals are neither deaf nor
dumb. Well, 1t Is about time for the old
merchant himself to quit earthly residence.
AS it is toward evening, he shuts the safe,
puts the roll Of newspapers in his pocket,
thinking that the family may like to read
them after he gets home. He folds up a S5
bill and gives it to the boy TO carry to one
of the car men who got his leg broken and
may be in need Of a little money (; puts
stamp on letter to his grandson at college,
a letter with good advice, and an incIosur1
to make the holidays happy, then looks
around the store or office and says to the
clerks, "Good evening"" and starts for
home, stopping on the way at door to ask
how his old friend, deacon in the same
church, is getting on since his last bad at
tack Of vertigo. He enters his own home,
and that is his last evening on earth. He
does not say much. No last words are
necessary. His whole life has been
a testimony for God and righteous
ness. More people would like to attend