Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-12-23
SAVANNAH TENNESSEE, FRIDAY, DECEMBER %, 1885,

nc was 40. By the advancement OF
medical science and the wider ac-
quaintance with the laws Of health and
the fact that the people know better
how to take care of themselves human
life is prolonged, But do you realize
what, after all, is the brevity of our
earthly state? In the times when peo-
pie lived roo and 500 years the patriarch
Jacob said that his years were few.
Looking at the life of the youngest per
son in this assembly and supposing
that he will live to be nonagenarian,
how short the time and soon gone
while banked up in front of us Is an
eternity so vast that arithmetic has not
figures enough to express its length, or
BREADTH or depth, or height. For n
happy eternity you were born, unless
you run yourself against the divine in.
tentions, If standing in your presence
my eye should fall upon the feeblest
soul here as that soul will appear when
the world let's it up and heaven en-
frances it, I suppose would be so over.
powered that | should drop down as one
dead.
You have examined the family Bible
and explored the family records, and
you may have seen daguerreotypes o.
some of the kindred of previous gener-
ations, you have had photographs taken
of what you were in boyhood or girl.
hood on1 xtr1,nt ta,
later, and it is very interesting to any.
one TO be able TO look back upon pic
lures of what he was ten, or twenty, @,
thirty years ago, but have you ever had
picture taken of what you may be
and what you will be If you seek after
God and feel the spirits regenerating
power? Where shall plant the cam
era to take the picture? plant it on
this platform. ! direct IL toward you.
Sit still or stand still while l take the
picture. 1t shall be an instantaneous
picture. There! have it. II is done
You can see the picture in its imper.
feet state and get some idea of what
it will be when thoroughly developed.
There is your resurrected body, so bril-
liant that the MONDAY sun is patch
of midnight compared with IL. There
is your soul, so pure that all the forces
of diaboism could not spot ii with an
imperfecton. There is your being, so
mighty and so swift that fight from
heaven to Mercury or Mars or Jupiter
20 t..at,11 ~
weary you, and a world on each shoul-
der would not crush you. An eye that
shall never shed tear An energy
that shall never feel fatigue. brow
that shall never throb with vain. You
are young again, though you died Of
decrepitude. You are well again,
though you coughed or shivered your
self into the tomb. Your everyday as
sociates are the apostles and prophets
and martyrs and most exalted souls,
masculine and feminine, of all the cen
turtles. The archangel to you no EN-.
barrassment. God Himself your pres.
ent and everlasting joy. That is an
instantaneous picture of what you may
be and what ] am sure some Of you
will be.
If you realize that it is an imperfect
picture, my apology is what the apostle
John said: at doth not yet appear what
we shall be-" ''ro this end was | born.
Il | did not think so, would be ever
whehned with melancholy. The world
does very well for little while, so or 1cC
or $50 years, and | think that human
longevity may yet be improved up to
that prolongation, for now there Is SO
little room between our cradle and our
grave we cannot accomplish much, but
who would want to dwell in>this world
for all eternity? Some think this earth
will finally be turned into Heaven. Per
| haps it may, but it would have to under
go radical repairs and thorough elm
| nations and evolutions and revolu
tions and transformations infinite tc
make it desirable for eternal residence
All the east winds would have to be
come west winds, and all the winters
changed to springtides and all The
/ volcanoes eXtinguished and all th,
oceans chained to their beds, and the
epdemics forbidden entrance and tht
world so fixed up that think it would
take more to repair this old world thar
10 make an entirely new one. But
must say | do not care where HEAVIER
is, if we can only get there; whether
| ,y1,
Gised Europe or world central to the
whole universe. "To this end was
born" If each one of us could say thai
we would go with faces shining ant
hopes eXhilarant amid earth's wors
misfortunes and trials.
In the seventeenth century all Eu
rope was threatened with n wave o.
Asiatic barbarism, and Vienna was es
pecially besieged. The king and hi
court had fed, and nothing could save
the city from being overwhelmed I'M
less the king of Poland, John Sobieski
to whom they had sent for help, SHOULD
with his army come down for the re
lief, and from every roof and towel
the inhabitants of Vienna watched ant
waited and hoped, until on the morn
ing Of September II the rising SUI
threw an unusual and unparalleled
brilliancy. 1t was the reflection of th,
sun on the swords and shields and hel
NETS Of John Sobiesld and his arm,
coming down over the hills to the res
cue, and that day not only Vienna, Blu
Europe, was saved. And see you not
o ye souls, besieged with sin and sor
row, that light breaks in; the sword
and the shields and the helmets of di
vine rescue bnthed in the rising SUI
Of heavenly deliverance? Let every
thing else go rather than !et Heavel
go.
What poor farthing is all that thi
world can offer you compared with par
don here and life immortal beyond tn
stars, unless this side of them ther
le "a nlnpe LARGO nnouub md hoo All g.,