The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-14

k1epared only by C. 1. Hood a Co, Lowell, Mass
il to-day. and stand at the head of the
darkest alley in any city and say: Come!
Clothes for your rags. salve for your sores,
a throne for your eternal relgning.'' A
Christ that talks like that, and acts like
that and pardons like that--do you Won
der that Stephen stood looking at him? I
hope to spend eternity doing the same
thing l must see him; q must look upon
that face, once clouded with my sin, but
now radiant with my pardon I want 10
touch that hand that knocked off my
shackles, l want to hear that voice which
pronounced my deliverance. Behold MIN,
little children, for if you live to three-score
years and ten you win see none so fair.
Behold him, We aged ones for he only con
shine through the dimness of your failing
eyesight Behold him, earth. Behold him,
heaven. What a moment when all the
nations of the saved shall gather around
Christ! All faces that way. All thrones
that way, gazing on Jesus.
His worth If all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love him, too.
I pass on now, and look at Stephen aton-
ed. The world has always wanted to get
rid of good men. Their very life is an
assault upon wickedness. Out with Ste
phen through the gates Of the city Down
with him over the precipices. Let every
man come up and drop a 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. Ste
phen stoned, but Stephen alive. So all
good men must be pelted. All who will
live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer per
L. &. 81, 70,
that everybody likes him. Show me any
one who is doing all his duty to state or
church, and l will show you men who ut
terly abhor him.
If all men speak well of you, it is be-
cause you are either q laggard or a dolt.
If a steamer makes rapid progress
through the waves, the water will boil
and foam all around it. Brave soldiers
of Jesus Christ will hear the carbines
click. When l see man with voice, and
money, and influence all on the right side,
and some caricature him, and some sneer
at him, and some denounce him, and men
who pretend to be actuated by right mo-
tives conspire to cripple him, to cast him
out to destroy him, j say: stephen ston-
ed"
When I see a man in some great moral
or religious reform battling against grog
shops. exposing wickedness in high places,
by active means trying to purify the
church. and better the worlds estate,
and 1 find that some of the newspapers
anathematize him, and men, even good
men, oppose him and denounce him, be-
cause, though he does good, he does not
do il in their way, say, stephen ston-
ed" The world, with infinite spite, took
after John Frederick Oberlin, and Paul,
and stephen of the text But you notice,
my friends that while they assaulted him
they did not succeed really in killing him.
You may assault good man, but you
cannot kill him.
On the day of his death, Stephen spoke
before a few people in the Sanhedrim;
now he addresses all Christendom. Paul
the Apostle stood on Mars Hill address,
Ing handful of philosophers who knew
not so much about science as a modern
Z school girl. To-day he talks to all the
millions of Christendom about the won
ders of justification and the glories of re-
surrection. John Wesley was howled
down by the mob to whom he preached,
and they threw bricks at him, and they
denounced 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. Booths bullet vaca-
ted the Presidential chair; but from that
spot of coagulated blood on the floor in
the box of Fords theater there sprang up
the new life of a nation. Stephen stoned
but Stephen alive.
Pass on now and see Stephen in his dy-
ing prayer. His first thought was not
how the stones hurt his head. nor what
would become of his body. His first
thought was about his spirit Lord Jesus.
receive my spirit" The murderer stand
ing on the trap door, the black can being
drawn over his head before the execution,
may grimace about the future, but
you and I have no shame in confess
ing some anxiety about where we are go
ing to come out. You are not all body.
There is within YOU a soul l see it CLEAN
from your eyes, and l see it irradiating
your countenance Sometimes am
abashed before an audience, not because
l come under their physical eyesight, but
because l realize the truth that l stand
before so many immortal spirits. The
probability is that your body will at last
| mad sepulchre in some of the cemete-
ries that surround your town or city. There
Is no doubt but that your obsequies will
be decent and respectful, and you will be
able to pillow your head under the maple.
or the Norway spruce, or the cypress or
! the poisoning fir; but this spirit about
which Stephen prayed, what direction will
that take? What guide will escort it?
What gate will open to receive it? What
cloud will be cleft for its pathway? After
it has got beyond the light of our sun. win
there be torches lighted for Il the rest of
the way? VIII the soul have to travel
through long deserts before it reaches the
good land? If we should lose our path
way, viii there be a castle at whose gate
we may ask the way to the city? Oh,
| this mysterious spirit within us. 1t has
| two wings, but it is in a cage now 1t is
locked fast TO keep it; but let the door of
| this cage opet the least and that soul is
/ off. Eagles wing could not catch il. The
| hghtnings are not swift enough to take up
with it. When the soul leaves the body
it takes fifty worlds at a bound And
| have no anxiety about 1t? Have you no
anxiety about it?
/ do not care what you do with my body
! when my soul is gone, or whether you be-
! lieve in cremation or inhumation | shall
| sleep just as well in a wrapping of sack
cloth as in satin lined with eagles down.
| But my soul-before this day passes,
will find out where it will land Thank
God for the intimation of my text. that
| when we die Jesus takes us. That an
| swers all questions for me- What though
there were massive bars between here and
the city of Light. Jesus could remove
them. What though there were great Sa-
haras of darkness, Jesus could Hume
them What though l get weary on the