The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-12-23

wzll BE an the brighter for pour EARTH
~ privatfons and environments. For
D man who has always lived In . man
sion and walked In fine gardens and
RECALLED his appetite on best fruits and
had warmeSt furs for winter attire and
coolest linens for August heat and bril-
Hart earthly SURROUNDINGS HEAVIER viii
NOT be @ much q change OF scene He
viii be disposed 10 say: why. ! am
used TO this. Don't show me the gar
dens. Why was brought up at Chats
worth Don't~invite me into Q chariot;
/ always had q splendid turnout. Don't
customed to Belshazxarian banQuets.
1t wouid be a relief to me IL I could
leave heaven q little while n rough
Ii In some other world"
But what q heaven 1t will be for
those whose limbs were so rheumatic
they could not take a step when they
wings! What q heaven 1t will be
they are always well, and after TWEEN
ty years of pain to have millions of
years OF health. What a light viii be
the light Of heaven for those who on
earth could not see their hand before
their faces! And what will be the mu-
sic of heaven be to those the tympanum
OF who's ears for many years had
ceased to virbate, Denied on earth the
pleasure Of listening TO Handel and
Haydn n Mendelssohn's Symphonies.
at last reaching a world where there
has never been a discord, and hearing
singing where all are perfect songsters,
and oratorios in which all the nations
Of heaven chant! Great heaven it will
be for all who get there, but a hun
dred times more of a heaven for those
who were shut in.
DIVINE SYMPATHY.
Meanwhile you have all Irvine and
angelic sympathy in your infirmities.
That satan thoroughly understood poor
human nature was evidenced when in
plotting to make Job do wrong the
great master OF evil, after having fail
ed in every other way to overthrow
the good man., proposed physical dis
tress, n then the boils came which
made him swear right out. The might
lest test of character is physical suf-
fering. Critics are impatient at the way
Thomas Carlyle scolded at everything.
His 20 years Of dyspepsia We're enough
to make any man scold. When you
see people out of patience and irasci-
BILE and lachrymose, inquire into the
case, n before you get through with
the exploration your hypecriticism will
turn to pity, and to the divine and an
gelic sympathy viii be added your
own. The clouds of your Indignation,
which were full of thunderbolts, will
begin to rain tears of pity.
By a strange providence, for which I
shall be forever grateful, circumstances
with which 1 think you are all famil-
lar, / have admission through the
newspaper press week by week to tens
Of thousands Of Gods dear children
who cannot enter church on the Sab
bath and heal their excellent pastors
because of the age of the sufferers, or
illness, or the lameness of foot,
or their i~ncapacity to stay in n po-
sition an hour and a half, or their
poverties, or their troubles of some
sort will not let them go out doors,
n to them as much as to those who
me I preach this sermon, as l
preach many of my sermons, the in
visible audience always vaster than
the visible, some Of them tossed on
wilder seas than those that tossed the
eight members of Noah's family, and
instead of, 40 days Of storm and five
months of being shut in, as they were,
it has. been with these invalids five
years of "shut in," or ten years Of
"shut in," and twenty years of shut
in" Oh, comforting God! Help me to
comfort them! Give me two hands full ]
of salve for their wounds. When we |
were 300 miles out at sea, a hurricane |
y = NSg oAAO 49, NOS11 Il
from the davits and all the lights |
in the cabin were put out by the roll |
ing of the ship and the water which |
through the broken skylight had pour |
ed in. Captain Andrews entered and
to the men on duty: why don't |
you light up and make things bright |
err, for we are going to outride this |
Passengers, cheer up! Cheer
up!" And he struck a match and be-
gan to light the burners. He could not |
either the wind or the waves, |
but by the striking of that match, ac-
by encouraging words, we /
were all helped.
LIGHT IN DARKNESS.
And as I now find many in hurri-
canes of trouble, though 1 cannot quiet
storm, I can strike a match to
Whom the Lord loveth he
I strike another match.
Weeping may endure for a night, but
Joy cometh in the morning." I strike
match. w have a great
High Priest who can he touched with !
feeling Of our infirmities, and he was
n all points tempted like a. we are"
Are you old? One breath of heaven will
you everlastingly young again.
you aches and pains? They in
sure Christ's presence and sympathy
through the darkest December nights
which r the longest night of the
year. Are you bereft? Here is a resur-
-eeted Christ, whose voice is full of
'esurrectionary power. Are you lone
All the angels of heaven are ready
% swoop down into your companion
ship. Here is the Christ of Mary and
when they had lost Lazarus,
and of David when he had lost his son,
of Abraham when he had lost
and Of your father and moth
n when in time of old age parted at
he gates of the tomb. When asst 1 was
n Savannah, at the close of the Sab
oath morning service, / was asked to
and see a Christian for
many years an invalid. I went. 1 had
lot in all that beautiful city of splen-
lid men n gracious women seen al
ace brighter than hers. Reaching her
I put out my hand, but she
could not shake hands, for her hand
vas palsied. I said to her, How Iona
nave you been down on this bed?"
smiled and made no answer. for
Ter tongue had been palsied, but those
around said, Fifteen years."