Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1896-08-27
DEATHS OFT"
The Ministry of Suffering-Dying Cuto
ha


There are passages of Scripture that
we ony associate with what we
call death, and yet have found them
most helpful along the line of life. Saint
Paul said: II die daily" and at another
time he said: Deaths Oft" Now am
solemnly bound to help you where l
have been helped, to comfort you with
the comfort wherewith / have been
comforted of God so while i give you
what | believe to be the teaching of the
New Testament, j am speaking as well
only Of my own experience. / cannot
for q moment lose the belief that we'are
in world of trouble-not only outward
but inward-and the more mind the
more suffering, the more delicate the
organism the greater the suffering. Any
wilderness / get through, any path
find out of dense forests am bound to
give you. Some hymn writer says:
1.-THE Christian lives to Christ alone.
To Christ alone he dies
Now, all people live and die, but they
do not all live and die to Christ. am
speaking now not of protested Chris
tians, but of real Christians; they live
and die to Christ. l Lad always taken
these lines as meaning the whole life
and the death at the end of the life-but
there never came an hour when the
spirit showed me that in the deaths we
were to die to Christ alone. Now /
mean by deaths the things that come
into our lives that make us feel or say:
This is unbearable," This is dread
full" "Must / endure this?' Now it may
be some awful thing that comes sudden
ly, or it may be daily slow death,
slow fire never going out. When you
wake up in the morning you know it is
before you. The numbers who go
through this kind of life or death cannot
be counted. 1t may be sickness in your
self or in some one you have to care for,
but it goes under the head, to my mind,
of deaths Oft" II die daily" and SO
universal arc these deaths that if you
have them to-day the best way to get
prepared for them is by living unto he
Lord-taking every pleasant thing that
can come under the head of life and iiv-
ing unto the Lord; use everything for
Him, enjoy everything in Him, be one of
Him, ler Him be one with you in every
Joy of your life, the most minute, and
then when death comes you will be pre-
pared to die unto the Lord.
\ great many people lose their attic
tions so that they are no richer for nav
ing had theIn, but worse, for one is
never tho same after an affection; we
either 80 up or go down. When we
come to an affliction, great or small, we
want to die to self, which is dying unto
the Lord, just as quickly as possible
and that is the meaning of
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Theei
Fen tho it be a cross
That raiseth me-"
You will be raised or you will find
yourself lowered. "These are they hat
come UP out of great tribulations."
Others went through the same tribula-
tons, but instead of coming up they
went down. Some washed their robes
through the fluctuations; the others
did not all go through troubles, but only
of those who die unto the Lord can it be
said: blessed are the dead which die in
the Lord" YEA saith the spirit, that
they may rest from their labors," and la
bors are not confined to the work OF your
IluuS OF your lccl. All. TIC 1dDOtS VI
nights when we tossed from one side of
the bed to the other, and thought and
thought, and could get to no end; that
was labor, and the prayer was labor, the
effort OF the will was labor, and at last
we did come to Thy will be DONE" and
we did completely surrender, and died
in the Lord, and turned from our think
ing to think His thoughts after Him,
and then we rested from our labors, and
our works followed us, we became quies,
so still. All, we had died! IrememGer
such an experience, and it was so real to
me that l took up my pen and wrote of
myself, departed this life, and put the
| date down, entered into rest and wrote
| my own name. Oh, how many lives
have ended, and yet you see people, and
so do I, that are dying, but they are not
| dying in the Lord, they are rest
| less, rebellious, fighting against des-
| tiny. 1t is al so sad! They lived
| not unto the Lord and they are not
| dying unto the Lord.-Margaret Bot
tonne in Ladies' Home Journal