Connecticut western news., 1896-11-12

deck, on beach. on hillside; tell us
 Golgotha, who heard the stroke of the
 hammer on the spikeheads and the dy-
 ing groan in that midnight that dropped
 on midnoon. did any one like Jesus have this passion for souls:
 Longing For Souls.
 But breaking right in upon me is the question, How can we get something of
 this Pauline and Christly longing for
 saved immortalities? I answer, by bet ter appreciating the prolongation of the souls existence compared with every thing physical and material How I hope that surgeon will successfully re- move the cataract from that mans eye It is such a sad thing to be blind. Let
 us pray while the doctor is busy with
 the delicate operation. But for how long a time will he be able to give his
 patient eyesight? We'll, if the patient
 be 40 years of age, he will add to his
 happiness perhaps 50 years of eyesight,
 and that will bring the man to 90 years, and it is not probable that he will live longer than that or that he will live so long. But what is good eyesight for 50
 years more as compared with clear vision for the soul billion of centuries? l hope the effort to drive back the typhoid fever frcm wonder home will be successful God help the doctorsi We will wait in great anxiety until the fires
 of that fever are extinguished, and when the man rises from his pillow and walks
 out, with what heartiness we will wei come him into the fresh air and the
 church and business circles. He is 80
 years of age, and if he shall live GO years more that will make him 90. But
 what are 60 years more of earthly vigor
 compared with the souls health for a quadriliion millenniums-a millen-
 nium, as you know, ], 1000 years? This
 world, since fitted up for mans resi-
 dence, has existed about 5000 years How much longer will it exist? We will suppose it shall last as much longer, which is very doubtful. That will make its existence 12,000 years. But what
 are or will be 12, coo years compared with the eternity preceding those years and the eternity following them? Time
 as compared to eternity, like the drop of the night dew shaken from the top of grass blade by the cows hoof on its way afield this morning as compared with Mediterranean and Arabian and Atlantic and Pacific watery dominions
 A stranger desired to purchase a farm, but the owner would not sell it.
 would only let it. The stranger hired it by lease for only one crop, but he sowed
 acorns, and to mature that crop 300
 years were necessary. That was prac-
 ticed deception, but I deceive you not
 when tell you that the crop of the soul
 takes hold of amending ages.
 see the author of my text seated in the house of Gaius, who entertained him at Corinth, not far from the over hanging fortress of Aero Corinthus, and meditating on the longevity of the soul and getting more and more agitated about its value and the awful risk some of his kindred were running concerning it, and he writes this letter containing
 the text, which Chrysostom admired so much he had it read to him twice N
 week, and among other things he says
 those daring and startling words of my text, 1T could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren,
 my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Force of Tears.
 Another way to get something of the Pauline longing for redeemed immor talities is by examining the vast ma chinery arranged to save this inner and spiritual nature. That machinery start ed to revolve on the edge of the garden
 of Eden, just after the cyclone of sin prostrated its sycamores and tamarisks and willows and will not cease to re- volve until the last soul of earth shall get rid of its last sin and enter the heav
 enly Eden. On that stupendous ma
 chinery for soul saving the patriarch
 put his haHd, and prophet his hand. and evangelist his hand, and apostle his I hand, and Christ his hand, and almost every hand that touched it became crushed hand. It was the most expcn- sive machinery ever constructed. It cost more to start it and has cost and will
 cost more to keep it running than all the wheels that ever made revolution on this planet. That machinery turned
 not by ordinary motive power, but by ! force of tears and blood. To connect its | bands of influence, made out of human | and Christly nerves, with all parts of the | earth, millions of good men and women are now at work and will be at work until every wilderness shall become | garden, and every tear of grief shall be
 a tear of joy, and the sword of divine victory shall give the wound to the old | dragon that shall send him bowling to
 the pit, the iron gate changing against
 him, never again to open. All that, and
 infinitely more, to save the souli Why, | it must be a tremendous soul-tremen- | dous for good or tremendous for evil, tre- mendous for happiness or tremendous for woe. Put on the left side of the | largest sheet of paper that ever came
 from paper mill single unit, the fig
 ure l, and how many ciphers would you
 have to add to the right of that figure
 to express the souls value, each cipher
 adding tenfold? Working into that
 scheme of the souls redemption, how
 many angels of God, descending and
 ascending? How many storms sweeping
 on Lake Galilee? How many earth
 quakes opening dungeons and striking | cataclysms through mountains, from top to base? What monday sun was put
 on retreat? What omnipotence lifted,
 and what Godhead was put to torture? All that for the soul!
 | No wonder that Paul. though possess
 ing great equipoise of temperament,
 when he thought what his friends and
 kindred were risking concerning their
 souls, flung aside all his ordinary modes
 of speech, argument and apt simile and
 bold metaphor and learned allusion as
 unfit to express how he felt. and seizing | ho rkols of
 text cries out, ''I could wish myself ac-
 cursed"-that is, struck of the thunder
 bolts of the omnipotent God, sunk to
 unfathomed depths, chalned into servi-
 tude to Abaddon and thrust into fur
 Laces whose fires shall never burn out,
 if only those whom I love might now