Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-04-29

strange thing 1t Is that you have CHOSEN
those who were physically disorderea'
Moses-I know he was nervous from the
clip he gave the Egyptian. Job-hls
blood was yitiated aud diseased, aud
his skin distressfully eruptive. David
be had running sore, which he speaks
of when be says, MY sore ran in tho
night and ceased not. jeremiah had
enlargement of the spleen. Who can
doubt it who reads Lamentations! Paul
he had q lifetime sickness which the
commentators have been guessing about
for years, not knowing exactly what the
apostle meant by "a thorn in the flesh.
l do not know either, bat it was some
thing sharp, something that stuck MIN.
gather from all this that physical dis
order may be the means Of grace to the
soul. You say you have so many tempta-
tions from bodily ailments and II you
were only we'll you think you could be
a good Christian. While your tempta-
tions may be different they are no more
than those of the man who has an appe-
tite three times a day and sleeps eight
hours every night.
Views of Heaven.
From my observation / judge that
invalids have a more rapturous view OF
the next world than well people and
will have higher renown in heaven.
The best view Of the delectable noun
tains is through the lattice Of the sick
room. There are trains running every
hour between pillow and throne, be-
tween hospital and mansion, between
bandages and robes. between crutch and
ualm branch. Oh, | wish some OF you
people who are compelled to cry My
head, my head My foot, my foot! My
back, my backl" would try some of the
Lords medicinel You are going 10 be
well anyhow before long. Heaven is an
old city. but has never yet reported one
case of sickness or one bill Of mortality.
No ophthalmia for the eye. No pneu-
monia for the lungs. No pleurisy for the
side. No neuralgia for the nerves. No
rheumatism for the muscles 1.-The IN
habitants shall never say, | am sick.
"There shall be no more pain.
Again, you ought to make the best OF
life's finality. Now, you think have
very tough subject. You do not see how
I am TO strike spark of light out Of
the flint Of the tombstone. There are
many people who have an idea that
death is the submergence Of everything
pleasant by everything doleful. II my
subject could close in the upsetting Of
all such preconceiyed notions, 1t would
close well. Who can judge best Of the
features of a man-those who are close
by him, or those who are afar on!
"Oh." you say, "those can judge best
of the features OF man who are close
by him.
Now, my friends, who shall judge OF
the features of death-whether they are
lovely or whether they are repulsiye'
You? You are too far off. If ! want to
get Judgment as to what really the
features of death are, will not ask you;
I will ask those who have been within
month Of death or week OF death or
an hour of death or a minute OF death.
They stand so near the features, they
can tell. They give unanimous tesl-
mouy. if they are Christian people, that
death. instead Of being demoniac, Is
cherubic. Of all the thousands OF Chris
tians who have been carried through the
gates of the cemetery. gather up their
dying experiences and you Will nna
they nearly all bordered On Jubilate.
How often you have seen dying man
Join in the psalm being sung around his
bedside. the middle Of the verse opening
to let his ransomed spirit free, long
after the lips could not speak looking
and pointing upward.
Not Gods Best Work.
Some of you talk as though God had
exhausted himself in building THIS
world and that all the rich curtains he
ever made he hung around this planet
: and all the flowers he ever grew he has
woven into the carpet Of our daisied
meadows. No. This world is not the
best thing God can do; this world Is
r not the best thing that God has done
One week Of the year is called BIOS
som week-called so all through the
, land because there are more blossoms ID
that week than il any other week ol
the year. Blossom week And that Il
| what the future world is to which the
= Christian is invited-blossom week for
ever. It is as far ahead of this world as
o paradise is ahead Of Dry Tortugas, ano
=, vet here we stand shiyering and fearing
, TO 90 out, and we want to stay on th'
dry sand and amid the stormy petrels,
when we are invited to arbors OF Jas
o mine and birds of paradise.
. One season had two springtimes-
+ went TO New Orleans IN April, and
n marked the difference between going TO
) ward New Orleans and then coming
Z back. AS went on down toward New
: Orleans the verdure, the foliage, becam'
. thicker and more beautiful When
came back, the farther | came toward
= home the less the foliage, and less an'
!, less il became until there was hardl,
. any. Now, it all depends upon the al
n rection in which you travel. II spiri
A from heaven should come toward ou
a world. he is travelling from June TOWARD
a December, from radiance toward dark
II ness, from hanging gardens toward Ice
o bergs. And one would not be very muc
b surprised if a spirit of God sent fort
p from heaven toward our world shoul
/. be slow to come. But how strange II
10 that we dread going out toward tina
h world when going is from December tI
? ward June, from the snow Ct earthl
It storm TO the snow Of Edenic blossom
y from the arctics of trouble toward tn
IT tropics Of eternal joy.
70 Oh, what an ado about dying "
10 get so attached TO the malarial mars
- In which we live that We are afraid
20 mp and live on tho hilltop. We al
alarmed because vacation is cominI
Eternal sunlight and best programn
. of celestial minstrels and halleluiah
p , inducement. Let us stay here and ke'
y cold and ignorant and weak. Do not II
troduce us TO Elijah and John MiltC
= and Bourdaloue. Keep our feet on u
III - oorfh instead