The Newtown bee., 1896-09-25

say aught that is mean about another, each one performing someskin of Chris tian service, all laborers together with God? Don't say you never have such pic. lures come before you, don't be so cruel as that. His the whole urpose of my preaching to create the outlines of these pictures ever before your mind; for that labor, for that reason never let go the ideal. /" .'''7 ''',' ~''o :"
 To create pictures for the fancy, to bring the ideal constantly to view, is the task of every one that breaches the word of God. The setting forth of the ideal fills the Bible. How fair is the picture of the land flowing with milk and honey, the goodly land, the t'Ta6d of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land of wheat. and barley and vines and fig trees and pomegrqpates, 8, land of oil olive and
 
 hQney!,' How fair, is. the picture that Moses saw,as on Nebo's height he looked over the border and the whole country lay before him in magnificent panorama, "all the, land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Napntali, and the land of ~Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea? Ever the prophets tried to set before the people, sunk in idolatry and sin, the beauty and glory of a nation whose God was the Lord. How fair the vision Isaiah saw, the redeemed returning to Zion with everlasting joy upon them, the ideal condition of things when the lion and the leopard lie down together, when the weaned child puts his hand up. on the hole of the asp, when there is nothing to hurt or destroy in all Gods holy mountain! How the picture charms us that John saw on the rocky, lone isle of Patmos, of the city whose foundation is four-square, whose streets are of gold, whose gates are every several one a pearl, where no light of the sun or of the moon is needed, where there is no more sorrow nor crying nor any pain!
 THE STRIFE OF ALL RIGHT PREACHING is to hold the ideal before men, for, as Lowell says,
 The thing we long for, that we are
 For one tcanscerdent moment.
 The contemplation of noble things makes us noble, the vision of purity makes us strive to be pure, the thoughts of the good and great makes us desire to be good and great. .....
 All common people have visions, and that is one of the minor proofs to me of the reality of the unseen world, because these visions are so real, Paul's vision was from Heaven, and most visions are from Heaven. Heaven touches earth Heaven overlaps earth. Heaven is so big and vast that it pushes Itself down into earth. A vision of 1oveliness is & voice from God, vision of purity is message from on high. A thought of what may be is a thought from Him who placed be. fore all men that great\ideal: "Be>ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect"
 If we all have visions, what are they for? They are to be obeyed. Paul obey ed his vision, and his obedience made him what he was. If we all obeyed our visions, how much better we should be! When the great painter Raphael was ask. ed how he painted his wonderful pictures, he replied; 1T dream dreams and I see visions, and then paint my dreams and my visions" Raphael had 8 vision, but he did not let it go; he put it on the can- vas, and there he made it it stay. Paulhad Ia vision, and he wrought it out in his life' The housewife takes dough and works it nto bread, the inventor takes an idea and transforms it into ma- chine, the farmer takes a seed and with the help of Nature changes it into 6 tree4 we should take visions and by Gods laid mould them into character. If beauty were only transferred from our mind to our life, if every glimpse of Heaven we see we tried to make it real on earth, if. every transporting moment to our soul we let bless the world, we should be far better Christians then we are.
 Do great religious, conventions pay? Are they worth all the time expended in all the expense of getting the delegates to and fro, all the absence from regular work? Is it not all a great waste? They do not pay, if. you only,l count what is remembered of the speeches and thus brought away. They do not pay, if you measure so many dollars over against so many days Of recreation. and social delight, The only way they pay is by visions. Great conventions l inspire. They take one. out, of the com mon round, They, show the ideal way ofl loing things They narrate the wonder I tql success some great leaders aceomps ish in some specially favored quarters. They lift one out of the valley and set i'm on a Aill.' They say, Hook and otdoWn, look forward and not back, ook. out and not #, and lend 3 hand,