The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-05-06

the upsetting of I'll such preconceived
notions, it would close well. Who
a Judge best Of the features of n
man-those who are close by him, or
thos who are afar off? oh" you
say, those can judge best OF the fea-
lures OF a man who are close by him."
Now, my friends. who shall Judge OF
the feature Of death-whether they
are lovely or whether they are repul-
sivet You? You are too far of. II
want to get a judgment as TO what
really the features OF death are, | will
no ask you; / will ask those who have
Deen within a month of death or A
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 testimony, if they are
CHRISTIAN people, that death. instead
OF being demoniac, is cherubic. or all
the thousands of Christians who have
been carried through the gates of the
cemetery, gather up their dying ex-
perlences and you will find they nearly
all bordered ID a jubilate. How often
you nave seen a dying man join in the
psalm being sun 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 if 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
UNUan into <bn nnrDoS of D,- Ias-s1I
meadows. No. This world is not the
best thing God can do; this world is
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
in that week than in any other week
OF the year. Blossom week, And that
is what the future world is t o which
the Christian is invited-blossom week
orever. 1t is far ahead of this world
as paradise is ahead of Dry Tortugas,
and yet here We stand shivering and
fearing to go out, and We want to stay
on the dry sand and amid the stormy
petrels, when We are invited to arbors
of jasmine and birds of paradise.
One season | had two springtimes.
| went to New Orleans in April, and I
marked the difference between going
toward New Orleans and then coming
back. AS | went on down toward New
Orleans the verdure, the foliage. be-
came thicker and more beautiful.
When | came back, the farther l came
toward home the less the foliage, and
less and less it became until there
was hardly any. Now, it all depends
unOn tho 6ir0ctinn in which uoY r
Ell. If a spirit from heaven should
come down toward our world, he is
travelling from June toward December,
from radiance toward darkness, from
hanging gardens toward icebergs.
And one would not be very much sur
prised if a spirit of God SEM forth from
heaven toward our world should be
slow to come. But how strange it is
that we dread going out toward that
world when going is from December
toward June, from the snow of earthly
storm to the snow of Edenic blossom,
from the arctics of trouble toward the
tropics of eternal joy.
Oh, what an ado about dying! We
get so attached to the malarial marsh
in which we live that we are afarid to
go up and live Of the hilltop. We are
alarmed because vacation is coming.
Eternal sunlight and best programme
of CELESTIAL Ministries and halleluiah
no lnducement. Let us stay here and
keep cold and ignorant and weak. Do
MOI introduce us to Elijah and John
Milton and Bourdalone. Keep our feet
on the sharp cObblestones of earth in
stead of planting them on the bank of
amaranth in heaven. Give us this
mall island of leprous world instead
OF the immensities of splendor and de-
light. Keep u hands full of nettles,
and u shoulder under the burden,
and our neck in the yoke, and topples
on our ankles, and handouts on our
wrists. Dear Lord" we seem to say,
keep us down here where we have to
suffer instead Of letting us up where
we might live and reign and rejoice"
DEATH IS TRUE LIFE.
l am amazed at myself and at your
self for this infatuation under which
we all rest. Men you would suppose
would get frightened at having to stay
in this world instead Of getting fright
ened at having to go toward heaven.
| congratulate anybody who has a
right to die. By that l mean through
sickness o cannot avert or through
accident you cannot avoid-your work
consummated. Where did they bury
Lily?" said one little child to another.
"Oh," she replied, they buried her in
the ground" What. In the cold
ground?" "Oh, no., no, not in the
cold ground, but in the warm ground,
where ugly seeds become beautiful
flowers"
But" says some one, cit pains me
so much to think that I must lose the
body with which my soul has so long
companioned." You do not lose it.
You no more lose your body by death
than you lose your watch when you
send it to have it repaired or your
jewel when you send it to have it re-
set or the faded picture when you send
it TO have If touched I'D or the photo