Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1896-03-12
SCALING THE HEAVENS,
Popular Lecture Delivered at the Opera
House, Warren, on Tuesday
Evening, Feb. rs,

Evening, Feb. rs,
BY Rev. Chas. D.. Darling, Pastor of
First Presbyterian Church,
Warren, TIinn.
BY way of putting his audience into
good humor, Mr.. Darling related an
amusing incident in his experience at
the University of Manitoba, Winni
peg. Then turning to the lecture
proper, he said:
THERE ARE HEAVENS TO SCALE.
''There are plenty Of pessimists in
this world. There always have been,
there always will be. There are peo-
pie who always look upon the gloom
y side of everything. Everything
is going wrong in the world. Every
thing is going wrong in the state.
Everything is going wrong in the
town. And the same kind of people
have got into the churches. These
people seem to think that the Almigh
ty has gone to sleep and the devil has
got first mortgage on the world and
is going to foreclose before anyone is
aware of it. They make me think of
the Quaker in ''Unc}e Toms Cabin"
whose only idea of religion seemed to
be Woe! Woe! Woe! There is one
kind of sermon which is always pecu-
liarly acceptable to these people-one
kind of which they never tire. It is
the sermon that tells of punishment,
and misery, and woe, and birthstone
and eternal condemnation. OF this
their ears never tire. But. let the
minister tell Of Gods love, and free
grace and abundant pardon and joy
Gus welcome home to the prodigal,
and at once they shake their heads
most ominously as if to say, Woe!
Woe unto you scribes and pharisees,
hypocrites! To such people there is
no heaven to scale. To the pessimist
there are no golden heights to glory.
Shame on such a view of things.
Shame on such religion. There's
broader, grander view. There's
view that's founded on an unbroken
trust and deep-rooted faith on the
eternal omnipotence and everlasting
fatherhood of the Great and Infinite
God. Look up and away from the
littleness of your own self and the
narrowness of your own life to the
great world Of life and the great uni
verse around you. Cease looking
downward at the mud and the slime,
and gaze toward the splendor of the
midday heavens. There's bright
ness enough in the dawn, and brill
lance in the monday, and saffron
enough in the sunset t,-there's beauty
enough of tree and field and flower :;
music enough in the soughing of the
wind, and song enough in the ripple
of the stream, and life enough in the
wide, wide world to awaken and sus-
tain hope in your bosom if you will
only open your eyes and see.
There's story told by the rolling wave
Ac 1oou re co,,1 in +Io ho,r< ,f <,ooo,
There's song that's sung the trees among
As they yield to the winds unceasing motion.
There's music made in the deep, dark glade,
Of the forest wide by the lonely river.
There's voice of Right that speeks with might
In the sunlight strong as it shineth ever.
And the tempest tells in its loudest swells,
OF note of peace in its inmost being,
And the pale moonbeam upon the stream
Is known by feeling not by seeing.
So spoke the soul of all that's fair,
To soul of ours in accents clear.
Though not of word or voice or sound
Yet lists our soul, and 10 we hear.
In quiet country home, just as the
leaves are changing the verdant green
Of summer for the deep golden of the
fall, on a bright sunshiny morning, a
young mother is bending over her
first born. A new JOY is in her heart
and new light in her soul. AS she
gazes into the face of the cherub she
lifts her heart in prayer to heaven
and the first link is forged in the
chain binding the child to his God.
The days go by. The tiny babe is