The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-03-27

- Ths Vacant Chair.
There were years that passed along b.
fore your family circle was invaded BY
= death, but the moment the charmed circle
was broken everything seemed to dissolve.
Hardly have you put the black apparel in
the wardrobe before you have again to
take II out. Great and rapid changes In
your family record. You got the house
and rejoiced in 1t, but tho charm was gone
Is soon as the crspe hung on the doorbell.
The one upon whom you most depended
was taken away from you A cold marble
slab lies on your heart today. Once, az
the children romped through the house,
you put your hand over your aching head
and said, "Oh, II could only have II
still" Oh, " u too still nowl You lost
your patience when the tops and the
strings and the shells were left amid floor,
but, oh, you would be willing to have the
trinkets scattered all over the floor again
Il they we're scattered by the same hands.
With what ruthless plowshare b.
Seavement rips up the heart But Jesus
knows all about that You cannot tell
him anything new in regard to bereave.
ment. He had only few friends. and
whom he lost one 1t brought tenrs TO his
eyes. Lazarus had often entertained him
ct his home Now Lazarus Ia dead and
buried, and Christ breaks down with emo
ton, the convulsion Of grief shuddering
through all tho ages of bereavement.
Christ knows what 1t Is ~ 60 through tho
house missing familiar inmate Christ
knows what 1t 10 to see an unoocupied
place at the table. Were there not four
Of them-Mary and Martha and Christ
and Lazarus9 Four Of them. But whero
Is LasarusP Lonely and afflicted Christ,
his great loving eyes filled with tearsl Oh,
yes, yssl He knows all about the loneli-
ness and the heartbreak. He took the
vinegar!
Gates of the Future.
Then there IL the sourness Of the death
hour. Whatever else we may escape, that
acid sponge will be pressed to our lips I
sometimes have q curiosity to know how
will behave when come to die. Whether
will be calm or excited, whether will
be filled with "Reminiscences or with antici-
patton, cannot say. But come to the
point must and you must An officer
from the future world will knock at the
door Of our hearts and serve on us tho
writ Of ejectment, and we will have to
surrender. And we will wake up after
these sutumnal and wintry and vernsl
and summary glories have vanished from
our vision. We will wake up into a realm
which has only one season and that the
season Of everlasting love-
But you say: II don't want to break
out from my present associations. 1t Is 90
chilly and SO damp to 60 down the stairs
Of that vault I don't want anything
drawn so tightly over my eyes. If there
were only some why Of breaking through
the partition between worlds without tear
ing this body all to shreds! wonder II
the surgeons and the doctors cannot COM
pound mixture by which this body and
soul can all the time be kept together IL
there no escape from this separationf"
None, absolutely none. A great many
men tumble through the gates of the fu-
ture, as II were, and we do not know
where they have gone, and they only add
gloom and mystery to the passage, but
Jesus Christ so nightly stormed the gates
Of that future world that they have never
since been closely shut. Christ knows
what 1t Ii to leave this world, Of the beauty
Of which he was more appreciative than
we ever could be. He knows the exquisite
ness of the phosphorescence Of the sea. He
trod it. He knows the glories Of the mid
night heavens, for they were the spangled
canopy of his wilderness pillow. Heknows
about the lilies. He twisted them into his
sermon. He knows about the fowls Of the
air. They whirred their way through his
leaving this beautiful world. Not taper
LIT nl1 Id d., L.. II.
physicianless. He died In cold sweat and
dizziness and hemorrhage and agony, that
have put him In sympathy with all the
dying. He goes through Christendom, and
he gathers up the stings out Of all the
death pillows, and he puts them under
his own neck and head. Ho gathers ON his
own tongue the burning thirsts Of many
generations. The sponge Is soaked in the
sorrows of all those who have died in their
beds, as we'll as soaked In the sorrows of
all those who persisted In Icy or fiery mar
tyrdom. While heaven was plying, and
earth was hooking, and hell was deriding,
he took the vinegarl
Carry sorrows to Jesus.
To all those to whom life has been an !
acerbity-a dose they could not swallow,
a vi ulp OAuC oCu lllSlI VCCtA OIl Cukc
a-rasptng-I preach the omnipotent SYM
pathy Of Jesus Christ. The sister of Her.
schel, the astronomer, used to spend much |
Of her time polishing the telescopes
through which ho brought the distant
worlds nigh, and it is my ambition now
this hour to clear the lens Of your spiritual
vision, SO that, looking through the dark
night of your earthly troubles, you may
behold the glorious constellation of Saw
tours mercy and Saviours love. Oh
my friends 10 not try to carry all your
Ills alone. Do not put your poor shoulder
under tho Apennines, when the Almighty
Christ is ready to lift up all your burdens.
When you have a trouble Of any kind, you
rush this way and that way, and you
wonder what this man will say about 1t
md what that man will soy about II, and
you try this prescription and that prescrip-
lion and the other prescription. Oh, why
10 you not go straight to the heart Of
Christ, knowing that for our own SHINING
and suffering race he took the vinegar'
There was vessel that had been tossed
IN the seas for great many weeks and
been disabled, and the supply Of water
gave out, and the crew were dying Of
thirst. After many days they saw gail
against the sky. They signaled it. When
the vessel came nearer, the people on the
Juffering ship cried to the captain Of the
other vessel "Send us some water. We
ire dying for lack Of water" And the
,aptain on the vessel that was hailed re-
sponded: dip your buckets where you
are. You are In the mouth Of the ANA
Eon, and there are scores Of miles Of fresh
water all around about you and hundreds
IF feet deep" And then they dropped
their buckets over the side Of the vessel
and brought up tho clear, bright, fresh
water and put out the fire Of their thirst.
So ! hail you today, after long and peril
BUS voyage, thirsting as you are for par
Ion and thirstlng for comfort and thirst
ing for eternal life, and I ask you what is
The use Of your going in that death struck
rtate while all around you Is the deep,
,lear, wide, sparkling flood Of Gods sym
pathetic mercy. Oh, dip your buckets
and drink and live forever. "Whosoever
will, let him come and take of the water
of life freely"
Divine sympathy.
Yet there are people who refuse this
Avine sympathy, and they try to fight
heir own battles, and drink their own
Vinegar, and carry their own burdens, and
u