Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-05-04
SERMONS OF THE DAY

Marfyrdom of Stephen fhe Thcm
For Able Sermon GIimpses O
Heaven Through the Eyes of TN
Great Preacher The Eternal Sleep
TEXT: "Behold 1 see the heaven
opened" etc.-Acts vii, $500.
stephen had been preaching a rousin.
sermon, and the people could not stand it
They resolved to do as men sometime
would like to do in this day if they dared
with some plain preacher of Righteousness
Kill him. The only way to silence thi
nan wac to knock the breath out of him
SO they rushed stephen out of the gates o
the city, and with curse and whoop anl
below they brought him to the cliff, as wa
the custom when they wanted to take ava,
life by stoning. Having brought him t.
the edge of the cliff, they pushed him off
After he had fallen they came and looked
down and seeing that he was not yet dead
they began to drop stones upon him. stons
after stone. Amid this horrible rain O
missiles stephen chambers up on his knee:
and folds his hands, while the blood drips
from his temples to his cheeks, from hi.
cheeks to his garments from his garment.
to the ground, and then, looking up, he
makes two prayers-One for himself and
one for his murderers. Lord Jesus, re-
ceive my SPIRIT" that was for himself
Lord, lay not this sin to their charger
that was for his assailants. Then from pain
and loss of blood he swooned away and fell
asleep.
Iwant to show you to-day I've pictures
stephen gazing into heaven, Stephen look
Ing at Christ, stephen stoned, Stephen In
his dying prayer and stephen asleep.
First look at Stephen gazing Into heaven
Before you take a leap you want to know
where you are going to land. Before you
climb a ladder you want to know to what
D0lnt the ladder rAaphpl ~ crht
that stephen, within a few moments of heav-
en-, should be gazing:into it. Wewould all dc
we'll to be found in the same posture. There
Is enough in heaven to keep US gazing. A
man OF large wealth may have statuary in
the hall and paintings in the sitting room
but he has the chief pictures Ia the art gal
lery, and there hour after hour you walk
with catalogue and glass and ever increas-
Ing admiration. Well heaven is the gallery
where God has gathered the chief treas
ures OF his realm. The whole universe is
his palace. In this lower room where we
stop there are many adornments tessella-
ted noor of amethy st, and on the winding
cloud stairs are stretched out canyases on
which commingle azure and purple and
saffron and gold. But heaven is the gallery
in which the chief glories are gathered
There are the brightest robes. There are
the richest crowns. There are the highest
exhilarationS. John says off The kings
of the earth shall bring their honor and
glory into it, And l see the procession
forming, and in the line come ali empires,
and the stars spring up into an arch for the
| hosts to march under. The hosts keep
step to the sound Of earthquake and the
pitch OF avalanche from the mountains
and the flag they bear is the flame of con.
suming world, and all heaven turns out
with harps and trumpets and myriad voiced
acclamation of angelic dominion to vel
a. hAn in h..I l., Al
bring their honor and glory into it. Dc
| you wonder that good people often stand
| like stephen, looking into heaven2 We
have many friends there.
There Is not a man in this house to
day so isolated in life but there is some one
| in heaven with whom he once shook hands
/ As man gets older the number of his
celestial acquaintance5 very rapidly mul-
| tiplies. We have not had one glimpse Of
them since tue night We kissed them good.
by, and they went away, but still we stand
gazing at heaven. And when some OF our
| friends 90 across the sea, we stand on the
dock or on the steam tug and watch them
and after awhile the hulk of the vessel
disappears, and then there Is only a patch
of sail on the sky, and soon that is gone
and they are all out of sight, and yet we
stand looking in the same direction, SO
when our friends go way from us into the
future world we keep looking down
through the narrows, and gazing and gaZ-
ing. as though we expected that they
would come out and stand on some cloud
and give us one glimpse of their blissful
and traDsfigured faces.
Pass on now and see stephen looking
upon Christ. Ny text says he saw the Son
of Man at the right hand of God just how
Christ looked in this world Just how He
looks in heaven, we cannot say. A writer
[ in the time of Christ says, describing the
Sayiour's personal appearance, that He
had blue eyes and light complexion and "A
very graceful structure, but | suppose it
was all guesswork. The painters of the
different ages have tried to imagine the
features of Christ and put them upon can
vas, but we will have to wait until with
our own eyes we see Him and with our own
ears we can hear Him. And yet there is a
way of seeing and hearing Him now. |
have to tell you that unless you see and
hear Christ on earth you will never see and
hear Him in heaven. Look There He isl
Behold the Lamb of God! Can you not see
Him? Then pray to God to take the scales
off your eyes. Look that way-try to look
that way. His voice comes down to YOU
this day-comes down to the blindest, to
the deafest soul, saying, Look unto Me,
all We ends Of the earth, and be ye saved
for am God, and there is none else. %
Proclamation of universal emancipation
for all slavesi Proclamation of universal
amnesty for all rebelsl Belshazzar gath
George /. entertained the lords of England
at banquet; Napoleon iii. welcomed the
Gar of Russia and the Sultan Of Turkey to
his feast; the Emperor of Germany was
glad to have our minister, George Ban
croft, sit down with him at his table, but
history, what other king ever asked the
abandoned and the forlorn and the wretch
ed and outcast to come and sit beside HIM ?
Oh, wonderful invitationI You can take
II to-day and stand at the head Of the
darkest alley in any city and say: "Comel
Clothes for your rags, salve for your sores,
a throne for your eternal reigning." A
Christ that talks like that and acts like
that and pardons like that-do you wonder
that Stephen stood looking at Him2
hope to spend eternity doing the same
thing. l must see Him.
l pass on now and look at stephen
stoned The world has always wanted to
get rid of good men. Their very life is an
assault upon wickedness. Out with
Stephen through the gates of the city.
Down with him over the precipices. Let
every man Gomez up and drop stone upon
his head. But these men did not so much
kill Stephen as they killed themselves.
Every stone rebounded upon them. While
these murderers were transfixed by the
scorn of all good men, stephen lives in the
admiration of all Christendom. stephen
stoned, but stephen alive. SO all good
men must be pelted. All who VIII live
godly in Jesus Christ must suffer persecu-
ton. 1t is no eulogy of a man to say that
everybody likes him. Show me anyone
who is doing all his duty to state or church
and | will show you men who utterly
abhor him.
If all men speak we'll of you, it is because
you are either a iaggard or a dolt. If a
steamer makes rapid progress through the
waves, the water will boil and foam al
around il. Brave soldiers of Jesus Christ
will hear the carbines click. When l see q
man with voice and money and influence
all on the right side, and some caricaturt
him. and some sneer at him, and some de
nounce him, and men who pretend to be
actuated by right motives conspire to Grip
pie him. to east him out, to destroy him,
say, ''Stcph= u stoned"
Pass on now and see Stephen in his dyin,
prayer. His first thought was not hoy
.ha .tonns hurt lila head nor what Woul