The Monitor-register., 1896-01-10

cure consumption 70 cents. Prepared only
byC.l Hood q Co., Lowell, Mass.
ceased to weep. Oh, it is not AN un
meaning thing when 1 tell you that
when Christ receives a soul into his
keeping he puts on it a marriage ring!
He endows You from that moment with
all his wealth. You are ona-Christ
and the soul-one in sympathy, one in
affection, Il i'll hope.
There is no power on earth or hell to
effect a enforcement after Christ and
the soul are united. Other kings have
turned out their companions when they
got weary of them and sent them adrift
from the palace gate. Ahasuerus ban
ished Vashti; Napoleon forsook jose
phine, but Christ is the husband that is
true forever. Having loved you once, he
loves you to the end. Did they not try
to divorce Margaret, the Scotch girl,
from Jesus? They said, "You must give
up your religion" She said, 81 can't
give up my religion" And SO they took
i her down to the beach of the sea, and
they drove i'll a stake at low water
mark, and they fastened her to it, ex-
pecting that as the tide came up her
faith would fail. The tide began to rise,
and came up higher and higher, and to
the girdle, and to the lip, and in the
last moment, just as the wave was
washing her soul into glory, she shouted
the praises of Jesus.
Oh, no, you cannot separate a soul
from Christ! 1t is an everlasting mar
riage. Battle and storm and darkness
cannot do it. Is it too much eXultation
for a man, who is but dust and ashes
like myself, to cry out this moment, 81
am persuaded that neither height nor
depth nor principalities nor powers, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor
any other creature, shall separate me
! from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus, my Lord:' Glory be to God that
when Christ and the soul are married
they are bound by a chain-a golden
chain-if / might say so-a chain with
one link, and that one link the golden
ring of Gods everlasting love.
The Marriage.
1 go step farther, and tell you that
when Christ receives a soul into his
love, he puts on him the ring of festivi-
ty. You know that it has been the Gus
tom i'll all ages to bestow rings on very
happy occasions. There is nothing more
appropriate for a birthday gift than a
ring. You delight to bestow such a gift
upon your children at such a time. 1t
means joy, hilarity, festivity. Well,
when this old man of the text wanted
to tell how glad he was that his boy
had got back, he expressed it in this
way. Actually, before he ordered san
dals to be put on his bare feet; before
he ordered the fatted calf to be killed
to appease the boys hunger, he COM
manded, Put a ring on his hand"
Oh, it is Il merry time when Christ
and the soul are united! Joy of forgive
ness! What a splendid thing it is to
feel that all is right between my God
and myself. What a glorious thing it is
to have God just take up all the sins of
my life and put them in one bundle,
and then fling them into the depths Of
the sea, never to rise again, never to be
talked Of again. Pollution all gone.
Darkness all illumined. God reconciled.
The prodigal home. "Put a ring on his
hand"
Every day l find happy Christian peo-
pie. l find some of them with no second
coat, some of them in huts and tene-
ment houses, not one earthly comfort
afforded them, and yet they are as hap
Ply as happy can be. They sing Rock
of Ages" as no other people in the world
sing it. They never wore any jewelry in
their life but one gold ring, and that
was the ring of Gods undying affection.
Oh, how happy religion makes usi Did
it make you gloomy and sad? Did you
go with your head cast down? 1 do not
think you got religion, my brother. That
is not the effect of religion. True reli-
gion is a joy. "Her ways are ways of
~pleasantness, and all her paths ara
peace"
Why, religion lightens all our bur-
! dens. 1t smooths all u way. 1t inter
prets all our sorrows. 1t changes the jar
of earthly discord for the peal of festal
bells. In front of the flaming furnace
of trial it sets the forge on which scep-
tiers are hammered out. Would you not
like this hour to come up from the
swine feeding and try this religion? All
the joys Of heaven would come ont and
meet you, and God would cry from the
throne, "Put a ring on his hand"
You are not happy. 1 see it. There is
no peace, and sometimes you laugh
when you feel a great deal more like
crying. The world is a cheat. 1t first
wears you down with its follies, then it
kicks you out into darkness. 1t comes
back from the massacre of a million
souls to attempt the destruction of your
soul today. No peace out of God, but
here is the fountain that can slake the
thirst. Here is the harbor where you
a drop safe anchorage.
From Tears to Joy.
Would you not like, I ask you-not
perfunctorily, but as one brother might
talk to another-would you not like to
have a pillow Of rest to put your head
on? And would you.uot like, when you
retire at night, to feel that all is well,
whether you wake up tomorrow morn
ing ate o'clock or sleep the sleep that
/, knows no waking? Would you not like
to exchange this awful uncertainty
about the future for a glorious assurance
of heaven: Accept of the Lord Jesus to-
day and all is well. If ON your way
home some peril should cross the street
and dash your life out, it would not
hurt you. Yon would rise up imme-
diately. You would stand i'll the ce-
lestial streets. You would be amid the
great throng that forever worship and
are forever happy. If this night some
sudden disease should come upon you,
it would not frighten you. If you knew
you were going, you could give a calm
farewell to your beautiful home OIL
earth and know that you are going right
into the companionship Of those who
have already got beyond the toiling and
the weeping.
You feel on Saturday night different
from the way you feel any other night
of the week. You come home from the
bank, or the store, Or the office, and you
say, "Well, now my weeks work is
done, and tomorrow is Sunday" 1t is a
pleasant thought. There are refreshment
and reconstruction i'll the very idea. Oh,
how pleasant it will be if, when we get
through the day of our life, and we go
and lie down i'll our bed of dust, we can
realize, "Well, now the work is all
done, and tomorrow is Sunday-an
everlasting Sunday"
Oh, when, thou city of my God,
Shall l thy courts ascend,
Where congregations ne'er' break up
And Sabbaths have no end?
There are people in this house today