The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-03-12


friends?" Eyes, I would. Tell them
that only last night the love of Jesus
came rushing into my soul like the
surges of the sea, and had to cry out,
Stop, Lord it is enough; stop, Lord
enoughr - Oh, the joys of this Chris
tan religion! Just pass over from those
tame joys in which you are indulging,
joys of this world, into the raptures Of
the gospel. The world cannot satisfy
you. You have found that out. Alexan-
der longing for other worlds to conquer
and yet drowned in his own bottle;
Byron whipped by disquietudes around
the world; Voltaire cursing his own
soul while all the streets of Paris were
opplauding him; Henry III consuming
with hatred against poor Thomas n
Becket-all illustrations of the fact that
this world cannot make man happy.
The very man who poisoned the POM
mel Of the saddle on which Queen Eliza
beth rode shouted in the street, "God
save the queenV One moment the
world applauds, and the next moment
the world mathematics. Oh, come over
into this greater joy, this sublime So
lace, this, magnificent beatitude! The
night after the battle of Shiloh, and
there were thousands of wounded on
the field, and the ambulances had not
come, one Christian soldier lying there
a-dying under the starlight began to
sing:
There is a land of pure delight.
And when he came to the next line
there were scores of voices singing:
Where saints immortal reign.
The song was caught up all through
the fields among the wounded until it
was said there were at least 10, 900
wounded men uniting their voices as
they came to the verse:
There everlasting spring abides
And never whitening flowers.
TITS but narrow stream divides
This heavenly land from ours.
An Eloquent Invitation.
Oh, it is great religion to live by
and great religion to die by! There is
only one heart thrOb between you and |
that religion. Just look into the face of
your pardoning God and surrender your
self for time and for eternity, and he is |
yours and heaven is yours and all is
yours. Some of you, like the young
man of the text, have gone far astray.
I know not the history, but you know
it, you know it. When a young man
went forth into life, the legend says,
his guardian angel went forth with
him, and getting him into a field, the
guardian angel swept a circle clear
around where the young man stood. 1t
was a circle of virtue and honor, and he
must not step beyond that circle. Arm
ed foes came down, but were obliged to
halt at the circle. They could not pass.
But one day a temptress, with diamond
ed hand, stretched forth and crossed
that circle with the hand, and the
tempted soul took it, and by that one
fell grip was brought beyond the circle
and died. Some of you have stepped be-
yond that circle. Would you not like
this day, by the grace of God, to step
back? This, [ say to you, is your hour
Of salvation. There was in the closing
hours of Queen Anne what is called the
clock scene Flat down on the pillow in
helpless sickness, she could not move
her head or move her hand. She was
waiting for the hour when the ministers
Of state should gather in angry contest
and worried and worn out by the COM
ing hour, and in momentary absence of
the nurse, in the power, the strange
power which delirium sometimes gives
one, she arose and stood i'll front of the
clock and stood there watching the
clock when the nurse returned. The
nurse said, "Do you see anything pecul-
lar about that clock?" She made no
answer, but soon died. There is clock
scene in every history. If some of you
would rise from the bed of lethargy and
come out from your delirium of sin and
ook on the clock of your destiny this
you would see and hear some
hing you have not seen or heard before,
and every tick of the minute, and every
stroke of the hour and every swing Of
5he pendulum would say, Now, now,
Fathers housed Come home, o prodi-
gal, from the wilderness! Come home,
,ome home!
But notice that when the prodigal
,ame, there was the fathers joy. He did
lot greet him with any formal "How
10 you do?" He did not come out and
Jay; "You are unfit to enter. Go and
wash in the trough by the well, and
hen you can come in. We have had
enough trouble with you. All, mol
When the proprietor of that estate pro-
claimed festival, it was an outburst Of
| fathers love and fathers JOY God
S your Father. | have not much sym
1athy with the description Of God l
sometimes hear, as though he were a
Turkish sultan, hard and unsympathet-
G, and listening not to the cry of his
subjects A man told me he saw in one
If the eastern lands king riding along,
md two men were in alteration and t
me charged the other with having eaten q
lis rice, and the king said, ''Then Stay !
he man and by post Inortem examina- |.
ion find whether he has eaten the rice. l
And he was slain. All, the cruelty of a I
Gene like that! Our God is not a sultan, q
lot a despOt, but a Father-kind, low .
ng, forgiving-and he makes all heaven 1
ing again when prodigal comes back. !
L have no pleasure, he says Gin the Z