The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-10-06

excitement and worry and fume AMI
canno sleep, but religion comes To
him and says: Man, God is on your
side. He will take care Of your repu-
tation. If God be for you. who an be
against you?" How much should that
man worry about his reputation? Not
much. If that broker who some years
ago in Wall street, after he had lost
money, sat down and wrote a fare
well letter to his wife before he blew
his brains outfit. instead of taking out
of his pocket a pistol, he had taken out
a well read New Testament there
wouId have been one less suicide.
0 nervous and feve-ish people of the
world, try this almighty sedative. You
Will live % years longer under its
soothing power. 1t is not choral that
you want or morphine that you want
1t is the gospel Of Jesus Christ. with
long life will / satisfy him.
Again, practical religion is a friend
of longevity in the fact that it removes
all corroding carr about a future ex-
istence. Every man wants to know
what is to become of him. If you get
on board a raj train, you want to
know at what depot it is going to stop.
If you get on board a ship, you want
TO know into what harbor it is going
to run And If you should tell me you
have no interest in what is to be your
0IdIC oCSNAAy l. III dS jill q
way as / know how, tell you / did not
believe you. Before 1 had this matter
settled with reference to my future
existence the question almost worried
me into ruined health. The anxieties
men have Upon this subject put to-
gether wOul make a martyrdom. This
is a state Of awful unhealthiness.
There are people who fret themselves
to death for fear of dying. I want to
"a Kp tha ctrain off ON nnrvac and
the depression off you soul, and l
make two or three eGI eriments. Elk
pertinent first: When O go out OF this
world, it does not make any difference
whether you have been good or BAD,
whether you believed truth or error.
you will go straight to glory. I'M
possible" you say. MY common sense
as well as my religion teaches that the
bad and the good cannot live together
forever You give me no comfort in
that experiment." Experiment the sec
ond When o leave this world, you
will go into an intermediate state,
where you can get converted and pre-
pared for heaven. Impossible you
say. LAS the tree falleth, so must it
lie, and l cannot postpone to an inter-
mediate state reformation which ought
to have been effected in this state"
Experiment the third: There is no flu
ture world. When a man dies, that is
the last of him. Do not worry about
what you are to do in another state OF
being. You will not do anything. I'm
possible" you say. There is some
thing hat tells me that death is not
the appendix, but the preface to life.
There is something that tells me that
on this side Of the grave I only get
| started and that 1 shall go on forever
My power to think say forever my
affections say forever; my capacity
to enjoy or suffer, forever"
THE HEALING BALM.
Well, you defeat me in my three ex-
periments. 1 have only one more to
Make, and if you defeat me in hat I
am exhausted: A mighty One on a
knoll back of Jerusalem n day, the
skies filled with forked lightningS and
the earth filled with volcanic disturb
ances, turned his pale n agoniZed
face toward the heavens and said: Il
take the sins and sorrows of the ages
into my own heart. L am the eXpla-
ton. Witness earth and heaven and
hell, 1 am the expiration" And the
hammer struck him, and the spears
punctuated him, and heaven Numbered:
THE wages of sin lis DEATH" '"The sou
that sinneth, it shall die" L Will by
no means clear the guilty." Their there
was silence for half an hour, and the
lightningS were drawn back into the
scabbard of the sky, and the earth
ceased to CULVER, and all the colors OF
the sky began to shift into a rainbow
woven out of the falling tears of Jesus
and there was red as Of the blOodshed-
ding, and there was blue as Of the
bruising, and there was green as OF
the heavenly foliage, and there was
orange as of the day dawn, and along
the line of the blue I saw the words,
Il was bruised for their ~iniquities,'
| and along the line of the red [ saw the
words, 1.-The blood Of Jesus Christ
| cleanseth from all sin," and along the
line of the green I saw the words, 9TH
leaves of the Tree of Life for the heal
ing of the nations" and along the line
of the orange I saw the words, The
day spring from on high hath visited
u.s." and then I saw the storm was
over, and the rainbow rose higher ano
higher Until 1T seemSd r~etreating tt
another heaven, and, planting one cot
umn of it's 'colOTs On n side he ct. r.
nal hill, and planting the other col
umn of its colors on the other side the
eternal hill, it rose upward n up
ward, land, behold, there was a rain
bow about the throne" Accept thar
sacrifice and quit worrying. Take thu
tonic, the inspiration, the longevity, o.
this truth. Religion is sunshine; tina
is health. Religion is fresh air anc