The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-11-20

ana more whom might mention, the
characteristic of whose lives was an
overtowering passion for sould. A. B.
Earl, the Baptist evangelist had it. l.
$. Inskip, the Methonist evangelist,
had it. Jacob Knapp had it. DR..
Bachus, president of Hamilton college,
had it, and when told he, had only half
an hour to live, said: ''ls that so?
Then take me out of my bed and place
me upon my knees, and let me spend
that time in calling upon God for the
salvation of the world" And SO he
died upon his knees. Then there have
been others whose names have been
known only in their own family or
neighborhood, and here and there you
think of one. What JUNCTION they had
in prayer? What power they had in
exhortation! If they walked into a
home every member Of it felt holy
thrill, and if they walked into a
prayer meeting the dullness and stol-
idity instantly vanished. One of them
would wake up q whole church. One
OF them would sometimes electrify
whole city.
But the most wonderful one of that
Characterization the world ever saw or
heard or felt was peasant in the far
east, wearing plain blouse like amin
verted wheat sack, with three open
ings, one for the neck, and the other
two for the arms. His father, a wheel
wright and builder, and given
to various carpentry. His mother, at
first under suspicion because of the
circumstances of his nativity, and he
chased by Herodic mania out of his
native land, to live awhile under the
shadows of the sphinx and Pyramid
of Gizeh, afterwards confounding
the LIDS of Jerusalem, then
stopping the paroxysm of temp
est and of mailman. His path
strewn with slain dropsies and
catalepsies and ophthalmias, trans
figured on one mountain, preaching
on another mountain, dying on an
other mountain, and ascending from
another mountain-the greatest, the
loveliest, the mightiest, the kindest,
the most self-sacrificing, most beauti-
full being whose feet ever touched the
earth. Tell us, We deserts who heard
our Saviour's p rayer; tell us, We seas
that arcnched Him with your serf;
tell us, We multitudes who heard Him
preach on deck, on beach, on hillside;
tell us. Golgotha, who heard the
stroke of the hammer on the spike
heads, and the dying groan i'll that
midnight that dropped on midnoon.
did anyone like Jesus have this pas
sion for souls?
But. breaking right in upon me is
the question: How can we get some
thing of this Pauline and Cbristly
longing for saved immortalities? Ian
swer: BY better appreciating the pro-
longation of the souls existence com
pared with everything physical and
material. How hope that surgeon
will successfully remove the cataract
from that mans eye! 1t 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 eye
sight? Well, if the patient be 40 years
of age, he will add to his happiness
perhaps fifty years of eyesight, and
that will bring the man to 80
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 SO years
more as compared with clear vision
for the soul billion of centuries? |
hope the effort to drive back the ty-
phoid fever from yonder home will be
successful. God help the doctors! We
will wait in great anxiety until the
fires of that fever are extinguished.
and when the man rises from his pill
low and walks out, with what hearth
ness we will welcome him into the
fresh air and. the church and business
circle. He is 30years of age, and if he
shall live go years more that will make
him 90. But what are go years more
of earthly vigor compared with
the souls health for a quadrillion mil
leniums--a millennium, as you. know,
1000 years? This world, since fitted
up for mans residence, has existed
about 5000 years. How much longer
will it exist? We will suppose it will
last as much longer, which is very
doubtful That will make its exist
ence 12,000years. But what are or will
be $4,000 years compared with the
eternity preceding those years and the
eternity following them? Time, as
compared to eternity, like the dew
drop of the night new shaken from the
top of grassblade by a cows hoof on
its way afield this morning, as COM
pared with Mediterranean, and Ara
bian. and Atlantic, and Pacific watery
dominions.
Another way to get something of the
Paulian longing for redeemed innmor-
taIities is bv examining the vast ma