The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-01-01


admiration for the superior qualities
OF our religion: mo mention shatl be
made of coral.
Take my hand, and we will walk
through this bower of the sea, while
show you that even exquisite coral is
not worthy of being compared with
the richer jewels of Christian soul.
! The first thing that strikes me in look
ing at the coral is its long-continued
accumulation. 1t is not turned, up
like Cotopaxi. but is an outbutting and
an outbranching OF ages. In Polynesia
there are reefs hundreds of feet deep
and 1000 miles long. Who built these
reefs, these islands? The zoophytes
the corallines. They were not such
workers who built the pyramids
as were these masons, these crea-
lures of the sea. What small creations
amounting to what vast aggregation?
| Who can estimate the ages between
the time when the madrepores laid the
| foundation OF the islands and the time
when the mndrepores put on the cap
stone of n completed work? IL puzzles
all the scientists to guess through how
many years the corallines were build
ing the Sandwich and Society is ands
and the Marshall and Gilbert grbups.
But more slowly and wonderfully ac-
cumulative is grace in the heart. You
omctimes get discouraged because the
upbuilding by the soul does not 80 on
III ore rapidly. Why, you have all eter-
nifty to build in. The little annoyances
of life are zoophite builders, and there
will be small laycron top of small
layer, and fossilized grief on the
top of fossilizcd grief. Grace
does not go up rapidly~in your SOUL
but, blessed be God, il goes up. Ten
thousand million ageSNwill not finish
you. You will never be finished. On
forever! Up forever! Out of the sea
Of enrthly disquictude will gradually
rise the reefs, tho islands, tho CONT
nents, the hemispheres of grandeur
and glory. Men talk as though in this
life we only had time to build; but
what we build in this life, as compared
with what we shall build in the next
life, is rs striped shell to Australia.
You go into an architects study and
there you see the sketch of temple
the cornerstone of wlrfch has not yet
been laid. o, that | could have al
architectural sketch Of what you will
be after eternity has wrought UNI
on you. What pillars Of strength.
What affairs of supernal worship! What
-pinnacles thrusting their glittering
spikes into the sun that never sets!
You do not scold the coralines because
they can not build an island in day.
Why should you scold yourself because
you can not complete IL temple of holt
ness for the heart in this short tife-
time? You tell me we do not amount
to much now, but try us after u thou
sand million ages of hallelujah. Let
us hear the angels chant for million
centuries. Give us an eternity with
God, and then see if we do not amount
to something. More slowly and
marvelously accumulativc is the grace
in the soul than anything | can think
of. mo mention shall DC made of
coral"
Lord, help us to learn that which
most of US are deficient in-patience.
If Thou canst take, through the sea-
anemones, millions Of years to build
one bank of coral, ought we not to be
willing to do work through ten years
or 80 years without complaint, without
restlessness, without chatting of spirit?
Patience with the erring; patience that
we can not have the millennium in Il |
few weeks; patience with assault of
antagonists; patience at what seems |
slow fulfillment of Bible promises; pa
thence with physical ailments; pa
thence under delays of Providence.
Grand, glorious, ull-enduring, all
conquering patience! Patience like |
that which my lately assembled friend, |
DR.. Abel Stevens, describes when |
writing of one of Wcsley's preachers,
John Nelson, who, when u man had |
him put in prison by false charges,
and being for long time tormented |
by his enemy, said: THE Lord lifted |
up a standard when the anger was |
coming on like flood, else / should |
have wrung his neck TO the ground and |
set my foot upon it." Patience like |
that Of Pericles, the AtheniaD states
man, who, when man pursued him to !
his own door, hurled at him epithets,
and arriving there when it had be-
come dark, sent his servant with Il
torch TO light his enemy back TO his |
home. Patience like that eulogized by
the Spanish proverb when it says:
II have lost the rings, but
here are the fingers still"
Patience! The sweetest SUI
gar for the sourest cup; the balance
wheel for all mental and moral ma-
chincry; the foot that treads into pla-
cidity stormiest lake; the bride for
otherwise rash tongues; the sublime
silence that conquers the boisterous
and blatant. Patience like that of the
most illustrious example of all the ages
Jesus Christ; patient under betrayal;
patient under the treatment of Pilates |
oyer and terminer; patient under .he |
expectoration of His assailants; patient |
under hagellation; patient under the
charging spears of the Roman cavalry;
patient unto death. Under all exas-
perations employ it. Whatever comes,
stand it; hold on; wait, bear up.
Take my hand again. and we will go
n little further into this garden of the
sea, and we shall find that in proper
tiou as the climate is hot the coral is
wealthy. Draw two isothermal lines
at go degrees north and south of the |
equator, and you will find the favorite
home of the coral. Go to the hottest |