The Monitor-register., 1897-11-05

the Titians and the Raphaels I come to
them and say, why, don't you go In
side the gallery" "Oh," they say,
1--WE don't know whether we can get
ip." l say, Don't you see the door is
open?" Eyes" they say, but we have
been SO long on these cold steps, we are
SO attached to them, we don't like to
leave" But, l say, 'it is SO much
brighter and more beautiful in the gal
lery you had better go in. mo" they
say, 1--WE know exactly how it is out
here, but we don't know exactly how it
is inside.
So we stick to this world as though
we preferred cold drizzle to warm habi-
tation, discord to c~antata, sackcloth to
royal purple-as though we preferred a
piano with four or five of the keys out
of tune to a instrument fully attuned,
as though earth and heaven had eX-
changed apparel and earth had taken on
bridal array and heaven had gone into
deep mourning, all its waters stagnant,
all its harps broken, all chalices cracked
at the dry wells, all the lawns sloping
to the river plowed with graves, with
dead angels under the furrow. Oh, l
want to break up my own in~fatuation,
and l wan to break up your infatuation
with this world. | tell you if we are
ready, and if our work is done, the
sooner we go the better, and if there are
blessings in longevity l want you to
know right we'll there are also blessings
in IN abbreviated earthly existence.
Fortunate Escapes.
If the spirit of this sermon is true,
how consoled you ought to feel about
members of your family that went ear
~. "Taken from the evil to come"
this book says. What a fortunate escape
they had How glad we ought to feel
that they will never have to go through
the struggles which we have had to go
through. They had just time enough to
get out of the cradle and run up on the
springtime hills of this world and see
how it looked, and then they started for
a better stopping place. They were like
ships that put in at St. Helena. staying
there long enough to let passengers go
up and see the barracks of Napoleon's
captivity. and then hoist sail for the
port of their own native land. They on
~ took this world in transitu. 1t is hard
for us. but it is blessed for them.
And if the spirit of this sermon is
true, then we ought not to go around
signing and groaning when another
year is going, but we ought to go down
on one knee by the milestone and see
the letters and thank God that we are
365 miles nearer home. We ought not
to go around with morbid feelings about
our health or about anticipated demise.
We ought to be living not according to
that old maxim which l used to hear in
my boyhood that you must live as
though every day were the last; you
must live as though you were to live
forever, for you will. Do not be nerv-
u lest you have to move out of a shan
ty into an Alhambra-
One Christmas day l witnessed some
thing very thrilling. We had just dis
tributed the family presents Christmas
morning when l heard a great cry of
distress in the hallway. A child from a
neighbours house came in to say her ia
Their was dead. 1t was only three doors
off, and l think in two minutes we were
there. There lay the old Christian sea
captain, his face upturned toward the
window, as though he had suddenly
seen the headlands, and with an illumi-
mated ~countenance, as though he were
just going into harbor. The fact was he
had already got through the Narrows
In the adjoining room were the Christ
mas presents waiting for his distribu-
ton. Long ago, n night when he had
narrowly escaped with his ship from
being I'll down by a great ocean steam
er, he had made his peace with God,
and a kinder neighbor or a better man
than Captain Pendleton you would not
find this side of heaven. Without a mo-
ment's warning the pilot of the heaven
ly harbor had met him just off the
lightship
Faith In God.
He had often talked t o me of the good
ness of God and especially of a time
when he was about to enter New York
harbor with his ship from Liverpool,
and he was suddenly impressed that he
ought to put back to sea. Under the
protest of the crew and under their very
threat he put back to sea, fearing at
the same time he was losing his mind,
for it did seem so unreasonable that
when they could get into harbor that
night they should put back to sea. But
they put back to sea. and Captain Pen
dleton said to his mate. "You call me
at 10 o'clock at night" At IL O'Clock
at night the captain was aroused and
said: What does this mean? l thought
l told you to call me at 10 o'clock, and
here it is 12 why" said the mate,
81 did call you at 10 o'clock, and you
got up, looked around and told me to
keep right on the same course for two
hours, and then to call you at ~
O'Clock" Said the captain: SIS it pos
sible? l have no remembrance of that.
At 10 o'clock the captain went on
deck, and through the rift of a cloud
the moonlight fell upon the sea and
showed him a shipwreck with 100 strug-
Cling passengers He helped them off. |
Had he been any earlier or any later at
that point of the sea he would have
been of no service to those drowning
people. On board the captains vessel
they began to band together as to what
they should pay for the rescue and what
they should pay for the provisions.
"Ah," says the captain. my lads, you
can't pay me anything. All | have on
board is yours l feel too greatly hon
ored Of God in having saved you to take
any pay" Just like him. He never got
any pay except that of his own applaud
ing conscience.
Oh. that the old sea captains God
might be my God and yoursl Amid the
stormy seas of this life may we have al !
ways some n as tenderly to take care
OF US as the captain took care of the |
drowning crew and the passengers. And
may we come into the harbor with as
little physical pain and with as bright a
hope as he had, and if it should happen
to be a Christmas morning, when the
presents are being d stributed and we
are celebrating the birth of him who
came to W our shipwrecked world, all
the better. for what grander brighter |
Christmas present could we nave than
heaven?
A bsd man can never own anything
t a i fl ep-oof.