The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-12-12

Is me Unr1ss OF Mary ana Martha wnen
they had lost Laznrus, and Of David when
he had lost his son, and q AbrahaR. when
he had lost Sarah, and Of your ethey and
mother whsn In. time Of old age they part
ed at the gates Of the tomb. Whsp last I
was In Savannah, at the close Of the Sab.
bath morning service was asked to 60
and see Christian woman, for many
years an invalid. Iwent l had not In
all that beautiful city Of splendid men and
gracious women seen face brighter than
hers. Reaching her bedside, | put out
my hand, but she could not shake hands,
for her hand was palsiod, 1 said to her,
wHow long have you been down on this
bed?" She smiled and made no answer,
for her tongue had been palsied, but those
standing around said, Fifteen years." I
said to her, "Have you been able to keep
your courage up all that timer" She gave
a very little motion of her head In affirna-
ton, for her whole body was paral vito.
The sermon had preached that morning
had no power on others compared with
the power that silent sermon had on me.
What was the secret of her conquest over
pain and privation and incapacity to
mover Shall toll you the secretp will
tell you. The Lord shut her in.
There Ia a good deal of fanaticism
abroad about the recovery Of the sick, but
II we had as much faith az Martin Luther
we would have Luther's success. His
friend Myconius WIS very III, and Luther
fell upon his knees and said: 80 Lord. mol
Thou must not yet take our brother Ny
oonius to thyself. Thy cause will not
prosper without him. Amen" Then no
wrote: my Dear Myoonius-There is no
cause for fear The Lord will not let me
hear that you are dead. You shall not
and must not die. Amen" Luther's let.
ter so excited Myoonius that an ulcer on
his lungs broke, and he got we'll Would
70 God that like that we might be able to
pray, that we might have similar resultsl
o men and women, visible and invisi-
bie The probability is you will never
write your autobiography. 1t is the most
difficult book to write, because you are
tempted to omit passages In your life that
were not complimentary to yourself and
to quote from diary which is always In
complete because there arc some things
which you do not think best to write
ta,wn. As you will not undertake m
autobiography, the story of yourself, l
will take the responsibility Of presenting
your biography, which is the story Of ones
life by some one else II you will give
your love and trust TO him Of Bethlehem
and Calvary, this will be your biography;
."Born at the right time, but the most i'm
portant event In his life was whom he was
born again. Diod at the right time, but
long before that he had died unto sin. He
had many crises, but in all Of them was
divincly directed; weaknesses, but they
were divinsly sympsthized with. In his
life there were many sorrows, wave after
wave, storm, after storm, but he outrode
everything and landed In eternal safety.
Whyp WhyP Because the Lord shut him
in."
Heavens Twelve Gates.
But do not think that heaven is made
up of All indiscriminate population. Some
Of my friends are so generous In their
theology that they would let everybody in
without reference to condition or charac.
ter. Do not think that liberttnes and
blasphemers and rejeoters Of God and his
gospel have "letters Of credit" that will
draw anything from the bank Of heaven.
Pirate crafts will not be permitted to go
up that harbor. II there are those who as
to heSven are to be shut ms, there are
those who will belong to the shut outs"
Heaven has ~ gates, and while those 10
gates imply wide opan entrance for those
who are properly prepared to enter them
they imply that there are at least 10 posi-
bilites that many will be shut out, because
a gate Is of no use unless 1t can sometimes
be closed. Heaven is not an unwashed
mob Show your tickets or you will not
get in-tickets that you may get without
money and without price, tickets with
GROSS and crown upon them. Let the
unrepentant and the vile and the offscour.
ings OF earth enter heaven as they now
are, and they would depreoiate and de-
moralize it SO that no one Of us would
want to enter, and those who are there
would want to move out. The Bible
speaks of the "withouts" as we'll as the
"withins xii, 10, without
are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremon-
gers, and murderers, and idolaters, and
whosoever loveth and maketh lie."
Through the converting, pardoning, sane
tifying grace of God may we at last be
found among the shut ms ana not among
the shut outsl