Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-06-08

6ReSG Is IL not u Comfort 10 you 70 huoW
that that child, instead of being besoiled
and flung into the mire OF sin. Is swung
clear into the skies? Are not those chill
dren to be congratulated that the point OF
celestial bliss which you expect to reach
by a pilgrimage of fifty or sixty or seventy
years they reached at a fiash2 II the last
i0. 900 children who had entered heaven
had gone through the average of human
life on EARTH are you sure all those III, ,oO0
children would have finally reached the
blissful terminus? Besides that, my friends,
you are to look at this matter as self-de-
niaI on your part for their benefit. Ifyour
children want to go of In n May day party;
II your children want to go on fiowery
and musical excursion, you consent. You
might prefer to have them with you, but
their jubilant absence satisfies you. Well,
your departed children have only gone out
In a May-day party, amid fiowery and
musical entertainment, amid joys and
hilarities forever. That ought to quell
some of your grief, the thought OF their glee.
So it ought to be that you could make
the best OF all bereavements. The fact that
you have so many friends in heaven will
make your own departure very cheerful.
When you are going on a voyage. every
thing depends upon where your friends are
If they are on the wharf that you leave,
or on the wharf toward which you are GO
ing to sail. In other words. the more
friends you have In heaven the easier it
will be to get away from this world. The
more friends here, the more bitter good
byes: the more friends there the more
glorious welcomes. Some of you have SO
many brothers. sisters, children, friends in
heaven, that 1 do not know hardly how
you are going to crowd through. When
the vessel came from foreign lands, and
brought a Prince to New York harbor, the
ships were covered with bunting, and you
remember how the men-of-war Numbered
broadsides; but there was no Joy there
compared with the joy which shall be
demonstrated when you sail up the broad
bay OF heavenly salutation. The more
friends you have there, the easier your own
transit What is death to a mother whose
children are in heaven? Why, there is no
more grief in 1t than there is in her going
into a nursery amid the romp and laughter
OF her household. Though all around may
be dark. see you not the bright light in the
clouds-that light the irritated faces of
your glorified kindred?
So also my friends, I would have you
make the best OF your sicknesses. When
you see one move off with elastic step and
in full physical vigor, sometimes you be-
come impatient with your lame foot. When
aman describes an object a mile off, and
you cannot see it at all, you become i'm
patient of your dim eye. When you hear
of a we'll man making great achievement
you become impatient with your depressed
nervous system or your dilapfdated health.
l will tell you how you can make the worst
| illnesses, and your nerves will become ore
twitchy, and your dyspepsia more aggra-
waited, and your weakness more appalling.
But that is the DEVILS work to tell you how
| to make the worst of it: it is my work to
| show you bright light in the clouds.
Which of the Bible men most attract your
attention? You say, Moses, Job, David,
jeremiah, Paul. Why, what a strange thing
1t is that you have chosen those who were
physically disordered! Moses-I know he
was nervous from the blow he gave the
| Egyptian. Job---his blood was vitiated and
diseased, and his skin distressfully erup-
tive. David--he had a running sore, which
| he speaks of when he says: my sore ran
in the night and ceased not" jeremiah
| had enlargement of the spleen. Who can
he had lifetime sickness which the CON-
| mentators have been guessing about fol-
| years, not knowing exactly what the
apostle meant by "a thorn in the flesh"
do not know either; but it was something
sharp, something that stuck him. l gather
from all this that physical disorder may be
| the means of grace to the soul. You say
| you have so many temptations from bodily
! ailments, and if you were only well you
| think you could be good Christian.
While your temptations NAV he different,
/ they are no more those OF the man who
has an appetite three times a day, and
| sleeps eight hours every night.
! From what l have heard l judge that
| invalids have more rapturous view of the
/ next world than well people, and will have
| higher renown in heaven. The best view
! OF the delectabte mountains is through the
! lattice of the sick room. There are trains
running every hour between pillow and
| throne, between hospital and mansion,
| between Dandages and robes, between
crutch and palm branch. oh, 1 wish some
of you people who are compelled to cry,
"My head, my headl My foot, my footl
] L. ..I- Ia. -
the Lords medicinel You are going tc be
well anyhow before long. Heaven IL an
| old city, but has never yet reported one
| case of sickness or one bill of mortality.
! No ophthalmia for the eye. No pneumonia
| for the lungs. No pleurisy for the side.
/ No neuralgia for the nerves. No rheuma-
| tism for the muscles. The inhabitants
shall never say, 81 am sick" ''There shall
be no more pain"
Again, you ought to make the best of
life's finalitv. Now, You think 1 have a
very tough subject. You do not see how
am to strike a 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. If my subject could
close In the upsetting OF all such precon-
ceived notions, it would close we'll Who
can judge best of the features of a man
those who are close by him, or those who
are afar Off? "Oh," you say, "those can
Judge best of the features of man who
are close by himi''
Now my friends who shall Judge of the
features of death-whether they are lovely
or whether they are repuIsive? You? You
are too far off. If l want to get judg-
ment as to what really the features oI
| death are, / will not ask you; l will ask
those who have been within a month OF
death, or a week of death, or an hour o
death, or a minute of death. They stand
so near the features, they can tell
They give unanimous testimony, II they
are Christian people. that death, instead
of being demoniac, is cherutic. OF all the
thousands of Christians who have beer
carried through the gates of the cemetery
gather up their dying experiences, and you
will find they nearly all bordered on
jubilate. How often you have seen dy
ing man join in the psalm being suns
around his bedside, the middle of the vers
opening to let his ransomed spirit free!-
long after the lips could not speak, h
looking and pointing upward.
Some of you talk as though God had ex
hausted Himself in building this world
and that all the rich curtains He ever mad
He hung around this planet, and all tn
flowers He ever grew He has woven int
the carpet Of our daisied meadows. Nc
This world is not the best thing God ca
do: this world is not the best thing tha
God has done.
| One week of our year Is called bloSsoy
|
cause there are more blossoms in tha
week than in any other week of the yea
Blossom week. And that is what the futur
world is to which the Christian is invite
blossom week forever. 1t Is as far ahea
of tlhs world as Paradise is ahead Of DR..
rortcgas and yet here We stand trembling
and fearing to go out, and We want to sta.
on the dry sand. AMI amid the storm.
| petrels when we invited to arbor5 o
tessamine, and birds of paradise.
One season 1 had two springtimes.
! went to New Orleans in April, and marke'
. the differences between going toward Ne,
Orleans and then coming back. As wen
on down toward New Orleans the vertur2
, the foliage, became thicker and NOR
beautiful When I came back, the furthe
| came toward home the less the foliage
and less 1t became until there was hardl
any. Now, it all depends upon the direc
tion in which you travel. II spirit fror
heaven should come toward our world, h
| Is travelling from June toward ID december