The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-02

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sions." Upper springs of giadness,
Upper springs of light! Upper springs
love. 1t is no fancy Of mine. THE
Lamb which is in the midst of the
shall lead them to living foun-
tains of water"
o Saviour divine, roll in upon our
souls one of those anticipated raptures,
Pour around the roots of the parched
tongue one drop OF that liquid life.
Toss before our vision those fountains
of God, rainbowed with eternal victory,
Hear it. They are never sick
there; not SO much as a head
ache or twinge rheumatic or thrust
neuralgia. The inhabitants never say,
Il am sick" They are never tired
there. Flight to farthest world is only
the play Of a holiday. They never sin
there 1t is as easy for them to be
holy as it is for us to sin They never
die there. You might go through all
the outskirts of the great city and
find not n place where the ground
was broken for a grave. The eyesigtt
of the redeemer is never blurred with
ears. There is health in every cheek.
There is spring in every foot There
is majesty on every brow. There is
joy in every heart. There is hosanna
IN every lip. How they must pity US
as they look over and look down and
see US, and say, Poor things, away
down in that world!" And when some
Christian is hurled into a fatal acct
dent, they cry, Good, he is coming,"
And when We stand around the couch
of some owed one whose strength is
going away and we shake our heads
forebOdingly, they cry. I'm glad he
is worse. He has been down there long
enough. There, he is dead. Come home,
come home!" Oh, if we could only get
our ideas about that future world I'M
ryfrf 49, @,~ 90
as it was to a little child that was dy-
ing. She said, Papa, when will l go
home?' And he said, To-day, Flor
ence." To-day? So soon? I am so
glad!"
CHOOSE YOUR POSITION.
1 wish 1 could stimulate you with
these thoughts, o Christian man, to
the highest possible exhilaration. The
day of your deliverance is coming, is
coming rolling on with the shining
wheels of the day, and the jet wheels
of the night. Every thump of the heart
is only a hammer stroke striking off
another chain of clay. Better scour the
deck and coil the rope, for harbor is
only six miles away. Jesus will come
down in the Narrows to meet you.
Now is your salvation nearer than
when you believed"
Man of the world, will you not to-
day make a choice between these two
portions, between the south land" Of
this world, which slopes to the desert.
and this glorious and which thy Faith
err offers thee, running with eternal
water courses? Why let your tongue be
consumed of thirst when there are the
neither springs and the upper springs,
is that it cannot give us anything af-
comfort here and glory hereafter?
You and I need sumething better
than this world can give us. The fact
ter awhile. 1t is a changing world. Do
you know that even the mountains on
the back of a thousand streams are
leaping into the valley? The Allegha-
MES are dying. The deWs with crys-
talline mallet are hammering ava the
rocks. FrOstS and showers and light
nings are sculpturing Mount Wash
ingtOn and the Catskills. Niagara ev-
cry year is digging for itself a quicker
plunge. The sea all around the earth
on its shifting shores is making
mighty changes in bar and bay and
firth and prOmOntory. Some of the old
s~eacOastS are midland now. Off Nam
tucket, eight feet below low water
mark, are found now the stumps of
trees, showing that the waves are con-
quering the land. Parts of Nova Scotia
are sinking. Ships today sail over what
only a little while & was solid
ground. Near the mouth of the ST.
CrOiX river is an island which in the
movements of the earth is slowly but
certainly rotating. All the face of the
earth changing-changing. In 1881 an
island springs up in the Mediterrane-
an sea. In 1866 another island comes up
under the observation of the American
consul as he looks off from the beach.
The earth all the time changing, the
columns of a temple near BiZoli show
thof Tho r,ofon Ior r;ro~ -;~o fo1{
above the place it was when these COL
umns were put down. Changing, Our
Colorado river, once vaster than the
Mississippi, flowing through the great
American desert, which was then IN
Eden of luxuriance, has now dWindled
to a small stream creeping down
through a gorge. The earth itself, that
was once vapor, afterward water
nothing but Water-afterward molten
rock, cooling off through the ages
until plants might live, and animals
might live, and me might live, chang
ing all the while, now crumbling, now
breaking off. The sun burning down
gradually in it's socket. Changing,
changing, a intimation of the last
great change to come over the world
v infused into the mind of the
heather who has never seen the Bible.
A SLEEPLESS GOD.
The HindOOs believe that Brahma,
the creator, once made all things. He
created the water, then moved over the
water, out of it lifted the land, grew
the plants and animals and men on it.
Our of his eye went the sun. Out of
his lips went the fire. Out of his ear
went h air. Then Brahma laid down
to sleep 1920, 600, 900 years. After that,
they say, he will wake up, and then
the world will be destroyed. and he
will make it over again, bringing up
land, bringing up creatures upon it;
then lying down again to sleep 4,32J,-
900, 900 years, then waking UP and de-
stroying the world again-creation and
demolition following each other, until
after 800 sleeps. each n Of these
slumbers 1920, 0oc, 900 years long, Brah-
ma will wake up and die, and the uni
verse will die with him, an intimation,
though very faint, of the great change
to come upon this physical earth spok-
en- of in the Bible. But while Brahma
may sleep, our God never slumbers
nor sleeps, and the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the ele-
ments shall melt with fervent heat,
n the earth and ali things that are
therein shall be burned up.
Well" saw some one. eff tha is so.