Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-12-08

for you to do, and He is the one to ask?
And let all parents and all schools and all
universities and all colleges recognize this,
and large number of those who spent
their best years In stumbling about bust.
ncsses and occupations, now trying this and
now trying that, and faili0g in all, would
be able to 60 ahead with definite, de-
cided and tremendous purpose, saying, "Tc
this end was born.'
But my subject now mounts into the
momentous. Let me say that you are
made for usefulness and heaven.
Judge this from the way you are built.
You go into a shop where there is only
one wheel turning and that by work.
mans foot on treadle, and you say to
yourself, Here is something good being
done, yet on small SCALE but II you go
into factory covering many acres and you
find thousands of bands pulling on thou
sands of wheels and shuttles flying and
the whole scene bewildering with activi-
ties, driven by water or steam or electric
power, you conclude that the factory was
put up to do great work and on a vast
scale. Now, look at you, and If should
find that you bad only one faculty OF body,
only one muscle, only one nerve, IL you
could see but not hear or could hear and
not see, If you had the use of only one foot
or one hand, and, as to your higher nature,
If you had only one mental faculty and you
had memory but no Judgment or judgment
but no will, and il you had a soul with
only one capacity, 1 would say not much
is expected Of you. But stand up, o man,
face! Eyes capable of seeing everything.
Ears capable of hearing everything.
Hands capable of grasping everything.
Minds with more wheels than any fac
tory ever turned, more power than any
Corliss engine ever moved. A soul that will
outlive all the universe except heaven, and
would outlive all heaven il the life of the
other immortals were moment short CT
the eternal. Now, what has the world
right to expect of you? What has God
right to demand OF you? God is the great
est of economists in the universe, and He
makes nothing uselessly, and for what pur-
pose did He build your body, mind and soul
as they are built? There are only two be-
ingS In the universe who can answer that
question. The angels do not know. The
schools do not know. Your kindred cannot
certainly know. God knows, andy you ought
to know. factory running ut an expense
Of $500000 year and turning out goods
worth seventy cents year would not be
such an incongruity as you. o man, with
such semi-intinite equipment doing moth
ing, or next to nothing, in the way of USE
fulness! "What shall do?" you ask. My
brethren my sisters, do not ask me. Ask
God. There's some path of Christian USE
fulness open. 1t may be a rough path or
1t may be a smooth path, a long path or
short path. 1t may be on mount OF con-
spicuity or in valley unobserved, but 1t Is
path on which you can start with such
faith and such satisfaction and such GER
tainty that you can cry out in the face of
earth and hell and heaven, "To this end /
was born.
You have examined the family Bible and
explored the family records, and you may
have seen daguerreotypes of some of the
kindred of previous generations, you have
had photographs taken Of what you were
howl yhno vtrb yI,nf.
ten years later, and 1t is very interesting to
any one to be able to loc!: back upon pic
lures of what he was ten or twenty or
thirty years ago. But have you ever had
picture taken of what you may be and
what you will be if you seek after God and
feel the spirits regenerating power? Where
shall 1 plant the camera to take the pic
ture? l plant 1t on this platform. direct
it toward you. Sit still or stand still while
take the picture. 1t shall he an instan-
taneous picture. There! l have it, 1t is
done. You can see the picture in it's i'm
perfect state and get some idea OF what it
will be when thoroughly developed. There
is your resurrected body, so brilliant that
the MONDAY sun is patch of midnight
compared with it. There is your soul, so
pure that all the forces of dabolism could
not spot it with an imperfection. There
is your being, so mighty and so swift
that fight from heaven to Mercury or
Mars or Jupiter and back again to heaven
would not weary you, and world on each
shoulder would not crush you. An eye
that shall never shed a tear. An energy
that shall never feel a fatigue. A brow
that shall never throb with pain. You are
young again, though you died of decrepi-
tude. You are well again, though you
coughed or shivered yourself into the tomb.
Your everyday associates are the apostles
and prophets and martyrs, aud the most
exalted souls, masculine and feminine, of
n hs.n nr,tt t,rn Ntan nbov ,epAtfD
embarrassment. God Himself your present
and everlasting joy. That is an instan-
taneous picture OF what you may. be and
what am sure some of you will be.
If you realize that it is an imperfect pic
ture my apology is what the apostle John
said, 1T doth not yet appear what we
shall be-" 'To this end was 1 born
whelmed with melancholy. The world
does very we'll for little while, eighty
or 100 or $50 years, and l think that
human longevity may yet be improved
up to that prolongation, for now there
is so little room between our cradle and =.
our grave we cannot accomplish much;
but who would want to dwell in this
world 70. all eternity? Some think this
earth will finally be turned into heaven.
Perhaps 1t may, but IT would have to
undergo radical repairs and thorough
eliminations and evolutions and revolu-
tlOuS anu iuuulle 10
make 1t desirable for eternal residence.
All the east winds would have to become
west winds, and all the winters changed to
springtides, and all the volcanoes extin-
gulshed, and the oceans chained to their
beds, and the epidemics forbidden entrance,
and the world SO fixed up that think it
would take more to repair this old world
than to make an entirely new one.
In the seventeenth century all Europe
was threatened with wave Of Asiatic bar
barism and Vienna was especially be-
sieged. The king and his court had fed
and nothing could save the city from be-
ing overwhelmed unless the king of Po-
land, John Sobieski, to whom they had
sent for help. should with his army come
down for the relief, and from every roof
and tower the inhabitants OF Vienna
watched and waited and hoped until on
the morning of September II the rising
sun threw an unusual and unparalleled
brilliancy. 1t was the reflection Of the
sun on the swords and shields and helmets
OF John Sobieski and his army coming
down over the hills to the rescue, and that
day not only Vienna, but Europe, was
saved. And see you not, o ye souls be-
seged with sin and sorrow, that light
breaks in, the swords and the shields and