The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-09-28

they should lose their dignity. But
they loved God. and yonder they shine
in brilliant constellation Yet I shall
not long to get into that particular
group. Yonder is a constellation OF
small hearted Christians-asteroids In
the eternal astronomy. While some
souls go up from Christian battle and
blaze like Mars these asteroids dart a
feeble ray like Vesta. Yonder Is a can
s%tellation Of martyrs, OF apostles. Of pa
triarchs. Our souls as they go up to
heaven will seek out the most c%ongenial
society.
Yonder is a constellation almost
merry with the play of light. On earth
they were full Of sympathies and songs
and tears and raptures n c~ongratu-
lations. When they prayed, their
tune could not hold them; when they
wept over a worlds woes, they sobbed
as il heart-broken; when they worked
for Christ, they famed with enthu-
siasm. Yonder they are-circle of
light, constellation OF joy, galaxy Of
fire. Oh, that o and /, by that grace
which can transform the worst into
the best, might at last sail in the wake
Of that fleet and wheel in that glorious
group as the stars forever and ever!
Again, Christian worker will shine
like the stars in swiftness Of motion.
The worlds do not stop to shine. There
are no fixed stars, save as to relative
position. The star apparently most
thoroughly fixed flies thousands Of miles
a minute The astronomer. using his
telescope for an ~alpenstOck, leaps from
world crag to world crag and finds no
star standing still. The chamois hunter
has to fly to catch his prey. but not so
swift is his game as that which the sci
enlist tries f0 shoot fhronQh the tower
Of observatory Lik petrels midat-
lantic, that seem to come from no
shore, and he bound to no landing
landing place, flying, flying, so these
great flOcks of worlds rest not as they
go, wing and wing, & after age, for
ever and ever. The eagle hastes to it's
prey, but we shall in speed beat the
eagles. You have noticed the velocity
Of the swift horse under whose feet the
miles slip like a smooth ribbon, and as
he passes the four hoofs strike the
earth in such quick beat your pulses
taxi the same vibration, but all these
things are not swift in comparison
with the motion of which I speak. The
noon W. 81, 900 miles in a day. YOn-
der Neptune flashes on 1000 miles an
hour. Yonder Mercury goes 100, 900
miles in an hour. So like the stars the
Christian shall shine in swiftness of
motion.
WITH THE SPEED OF A STAR.
You hear now of father or mother or
child sick 1000 miles away, and it
takes you two days to get to them.
You hear Of some case of suffering that
demands your immediate attention, but
it takes you an hour to get there. Oh,
the joy when you shall, in fulfiillment
of the text, take starry speed and be
equal to 100, 900 miles an hour! Hav-
ing on earth got used to Christian
work, yOu will not quit When death
strikes you. You will only take on
more velocity. There is a dying child
in London, and it's spirit must be taken
VI to God. You are there in an instant
to do it. There is a young man in New
York to be arrested from going into
that gate Of sin. You are there in an
instant to arrest him.. Whether with
spring of foot, or stroke of wing, or by
the force of some new law hat shall
hurl you to the spot where you would
go, I know not, but my text suggests
velocity. All space open before you,
with nothing to hinder you in mission
of light and love and joy, you shall
shine in swiftness of motion as the
stars forever and ever.
Again, Christian workers, like the
stars, shine in magnitude. The
most illiterate man knows that these
things in the sky, looking like gilt but
tons, are great masses Of matter. To
weigh them one would think that it
would require scales with a pillar hum
dreds of thousands of miles high and
chains huncrains hundreds of thous-
ands Of miles long, and at the bottom of
the chains basins on either side hun
dreds Of thousands of miles wide, and
that hen Omnipotence alone could put
fh. pon11nfinc into tho coo1oS nn6 tho
hills into the balance, but puny man
has been equal to the undertaking and
has set a little balance on his geometry
and weighed world against world.
Yea, he has pulled out his measuring
line and announced that Herachel is
5000 miles in diameter, Saru-n 1000
miles in diameter and Jupiter 80, 600
miles in diameter and that the smallest
pearl on the beach of heaven is i'm
mense beyond all Imagination So all
hey who have toiled for Christ on earth
shall rise up to a magnitude Of privi-
lege. and a magnitude OF strength and
a magnitude of holiness, and a magni-
tude Of JOY, and the weakest saint in
glory become greater than all that we
can imagine of an archangel.
Brethren, 1T doth not yet appear
what we shall be-" Wisdom that shall
know everything, wealth that shall
pOSSeSS everything, strength CndC snail
do everything, glory that shall circum-
scribe everything! We shall not be
like a taper set in a sick mans window,
or a bundle of sticks kindled on the
beach to warm a shivering crew, but
you must take the diameter and the
circumference Of a world If you would
get any idea Of the greatness of our es-
tate when we shall shine as the stars
forever and ever.
THE REIGN WITHOUT END.
Lastly-and coming to this point my
min almost breaks down under the
contemplation-like the stars, all Chris
tan workers shall shine in duration.
The same stars that look down upon us
looked down upon the Chaldean shep-
herds. The meteor that I saw flashing
across the sky the other night I Won
der IL 1t was not the same one that
pointed down to where Jesus lay in the
manger, and if, having pointed out his
birthplace, it has eve since been wan
dorinO fhra,1ph rho hooyonS uofoh-