The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1898-03-19

if Won live to tlircc-score years and
ten, you will see none so fair. behold
Him. We aged ones. for He only can
shine through the dimness ofyour fail
ing cvcSight. Behold Him, earth. Be
hold Him. Heaven. What 4 moment
when all the nations OF the saved shall
gather around Christ! All faces that
4 All thrones thatvay, gazing on
Jesus.
/ pass on now. and looli at Stephen
stoned. The world has always wanted
to get rid of good men. Their very
life is an assault upon wickedness.
Ont with Stephen through the gates OF
the city. Down with him over the
precipice. Let every man come up and
drop 4 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
will live godly in Christ Jesus must
suffer persecution. 1t is no eulogy OF
man to say that everybody likes him.
Show me any one who is doing all his
duty to state or church and 1 will show
you men who utterly abhor him.
If all men speak well of you, it is
because you are either a laggard or q
dolt. If a steamer makes rapid prog
ress through the waves, the water will
boil and foam all arount 1t. Brave
soldiers of Jesus Christ will hear the
carbines click. When 1 see a mar
with voice, and money, and influence
all on the right side, and some carica-
ture him, and some sneer at him, and
some denounce him, and men who pre-
tend to be actuated by right motives
conspire to cripple him, to cast him
out, to destroy him, 1 say: stephen
stoned"
When / see a man in some great
moral Or religious reform battling
against g~rogshops, exposing wicked
ness in high places, by active means
trying to purify the church inc better
the worlds estate, and 1 find that
some anathematize him,
and men, even good men, oppose him
and denounce him, because, though he
does good, he does not do it in their
way, 1 say: stephen Stoned" The
world. with infinite spite, too after
John Frederick Oberlin, and Paul, and
Stephen of the text. But you notice.
nv friends, that while they assaulted
MIN they did not succeed really In
SiIlinE him. You may assault n good
man, but you cannot kill him
On the day of his death Stephen
spoke before a few people in the San
hedrim; now he addresses all Christer.
dom. Paul the apostle stood on Mars
hill addressing 4 handful of philoso.
pliers who knew not so much about
science as n modern schoolgirl. To-
day he talks to all the millions OF
Christendom about the wonders of
justification and the glories of resur-
reotion. John Wesley was howled
down by the mob to whom he
preached, and they threw bricks at
him, and they jostled him, and they
spat upon him, and yet to-day, in all
lands, he is admitted to be the great
father of Methodism. Booth's bullet
vacated the presidential chair; but from
that spot of c~oagulated blood on the
floor in the box of Ford's theater there
sprang up the new life of n nation.
Stephen stoned. but Stephen alive.
Pass on now and see Stephen in his
dying PRAYER. His first thought was
not how the stones hurt his head, mol
what would become of his body. His
first thought was about his spirit.
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" The
murderer standing on the trap-door,
the black cap being drawn over his
head before the execution, may grim.
ace about the future, but you and /
have no shame in confessing some
anxiety about where we are going to
come out You are not all body.
There is within you a soul. 1 see it
CLEAN from your eyes, and / see it
irradiating your countenanoe. Some
times 1 am abashed before an
audience, not because l come
under their physical eyesight but
because / realize the truth hat
l stand before SO many immortal spir-
it's The probability is that your body
will at last find a sepulcher in some of
the cemeteries hat surround your
town or CITY. There is no doubt but
hat your obsequies will be decent and
respectful, and you will be able to pill
low your head under the maple, or the
Norway spruce, or N cypress or the
poisoning fir; but this spirit about
which Stephen prayed. what direction
will that takeP What guide will e.
oort it? What gate will open to re-
ceive it? What cloud will be cleft for
its pathway? After it has got beyond
the light of our sun, will there be
torches lighted for it the rest of the
way? VIII the soul have to travel
through long deserts before it reaches
the good landP If we should lose our
pathway, will there be q castle at
whose gate we may ask the way to the
city? Oh, this mysterious spirit with
in US! 1t has two wings, but 1t is In a
cage now. 1t is locked fast to keep 1t.
but let the door of this cnge opon the
least, and that soul is off. Eagles
wing could not catch it. The light
nings are not swift enough to take up
with IL. When the soul leaves the
body it takes SO worlds at n bound.
And have ! no anxiety aboutit Have
you no anxiety about it?
do not care what you do with my
body when my soul is gone, or whether
you believe in cremation or inhuma-
ton. l shall sleep just as we'll In &
wrapping of sackcloth as in satin lined
with eGgle's down. But my soluble
fore this day passes, 1 will find out
where it will land. Thank God for
the intimation of my text, tina when
we die Jesus takes MS. That answers
all questions for me. What though
ACA "OAS 4oSo4NO b1l9 hGAC
and the city OF light, Jesus could re-
owe them. What though there were
great Saharas of darkness, Jesus could
illume them. What though l get weary
of the way, Christ could lift me On His
omnipotent shoulder. What though
there were chasms to cross, His hand
could transport INC. Then let Stephens
prayer be my dying litany: Lord
Jesus, receive my spirit" 1t may be
that in that hour we will be too fee.
BILE to say n long prayer. 1t may be
In that our we will not be able to say
the Lords Prayer" for 1t has seven
petitions. Perhaps we may be too fee
BILE sven to say the infant prayer u
mothers taught US, which John Quincy
Adams, 10 years of age, said every
night when he put his head upon his
pillow.
Now I lay me down to sleep.
pray the LorI my soul to keep
We may be too feeble to employ
either of these familiar forms; but this
prayer Of Stephen is 50 short, is SO con-
else, is so earnest, is so comprehensive,
we surely will be able to say that:
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit" Oh,
20 .I.N z...-- -z--l Ia,v no