The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-07-06

needs OF the soul. We are taught In
seventy years what we really want.
Something, some one most dear, God
takes. Did we want II? Oh, how much
Did We treat IL as from God, for Godr
Did we understand all its use to usy
Who can say that he mas given his
friend all he could give, or takcn from
his friend ell he could take? Is there
not more in those we love than we
know? l know somebody's value. She
Is gone. How richer she was able TO
make me i 40 not know. 1 know,
having learned. for size passed beyond
sea. l did net lean enough; how gladly
l did not learn her patience. Would j!
Aye, would i? l will l shall have
sister again. God gave her all the
world she needed; God gives us more
than we improve. separation also
helps 10 make character-but it is not
the end of life. Fellowship is the mark
OF eternity. Pathos Is temporal. The sea
shall be passed on foot, ory shod. They
shall come again, those pure feet, bles-
sing the soil OF earth they that once
were torn by its thorn shall bring
where their white feet slept the down
without its thistle, the lose minus the
thorn. Tne sea shall give up its dead;
tho barriers bear backward; the unstable
element become n path for the feet OF
all saints and before them all. to the
darkened voyager. comes lightly on the
flood the step OF Jesus: "lt Is 1, fear
notl" Separation shall be no more.
2. The sea also symbolizes mystery. AL
though we have in the very book from
which the text is taken revelation.
how many things there are which God
has still 10 tell usl We can only feebly
penetrate the mystery of which have
just spoken-separation. Not only are
we on the sea, but in the fog. Our
wreck on the point did not, imagine,
foreknow her nearness to that fatal
shore. How much OF the future can
you tell me, and of all the good men
names preserved? Msyterv, Ignorance,
are our sea. There is not human diff
Guilty which some of the righteous dead
did not surmount. But we know them
not. Here, where we worship, what
voices in unknown ages called upon God
and fought temptation? The good that
has been, is and shall be is mostly veil
ed from us. The graves OF praying an
cestors are lost. How many OF this gen.
Grafton know where their father of the
fourth generation lies buried? The re-
suits of other mems tears and triumphs
are now inscrutably kept from us, but
they shall not be. Mystery and the
sea, pass away. All that we need to
know, more than we hope to see, will be
in wrecks, but all the leaves VIII talk of
the migrations that have proved Goi's
providence in their compositions. Shame
will mantle all our faces who heve ques-
toned the love, in all Gods dispensations.
We shall see everything as i; is, nothing
es Ii now seems. For there is no visible
thing, there is no moral truth that we
now perfectly understand and appreciate.
Even the truth we know best lacks
greatly in the glory that properly belongs
TO il when we shall see II as God sees 1t.
Mystery is good, because IL now stimu-
lates faith; it challenges love. We are
fed full on mystery. Every possible
question seems TO have been started, until
suddenly we hear one more. 1t Is well.
knowledge and affection are the ends of
life, and no thirst in your soul will be
without satisfaction. We know In part.
The sea is still with US. They may send
cablegrams under the sea, and science IS
tempted 10 the incautious boast that con-
dtions have changed since John wrote
the Revelation. But the thing vs. most
wish to hear in the cablegrams they do
not tell us. That the nations have laid
down their guns and are embracing one
another that the Turk has become
merciful and wise; that the Lord cometh h
we do not hear over the sea. There Is
still a waiting, a questioning, an unre-
vealed future, until the heart sighs for it,
and natuie cries in yearning after 1t. For
the mystery of iniqulty doth already
work until The time be fulfilled, and the
sea, with mystery shall pass away.
g. The sea is also the symbol of rest
lessness and change. The tide the tide!
In every particle of its ponderous bulk.
throughout every primeval generation.
until now that rise and fall goes on !
And although men tell us about its cur
rents there are side Influences like winds
to make the currents unsafe guides, and
when we cast boat on its surfice, no man
can say on what shore it will finally lie,
or whether it will sleep In the cool sea
depths. There is also in life much of
what mechanics call lost motion-thst is
motion eheoting no good. We do not
escape this merely by having purpose
and bending all our energies to a point.
Some men awake mt 20 years and discover
that their lifelong purpose was not worth
while. The ftful fever, and the strong
trend in life may be both of little per-
mauent use. All action not governed by
the highest law Is lost motion. And
the highest law ~ love. Supreme love
shuts OUT restlessness. 1t stoadies. Gains,
aIligns the soul to divine destiny; sees
an end worthy of life and opens TO the
harbor entrance--"where beyond these
voices there is peace" The church before
us represents Kingdom, condition,
established in the midst of time, and yet
having no dependence on time. For
though wnen courtiers placed the chair
of the great Danish King on the shore,
the tide did not respect the royal feet,
but flowed up resistlessly upon them we
have here in the midst of the years the
kingdom TO when the sea Is subservient,