The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-01-13

| art fhou? You see the Christian way o.
measuring life and the worldly way OF
which Is the wisest n best way. The
wheel Of time has turned very swiftly,
and it has hurled Us on The old veal
what you and 1 nave been launched upon
it God only knows. Now let me ask you
all, have You made any preparation Tor
for time. my dear brother. Have you
made any preparation for eternity? Do
you wonder hat when that man on the
tract which was handed to him and just
one word landed on Is coat sleeve, the
rest Of the tract being pitched in to the
was that one word, 50 long, so broad. so
high, so deep-"eternity.' A dying wo-
man, in her last moments said call il
"Time." she said, call 1t back" Oh. 1t
cannot be called back. We might lose
our fortunes and call them back: we
might lose our health, and perhaps re-
cover 1t, we might lose our good name
and get that back, but time gone is gone
forever.
Some of you during the past year
made preparation for eternity, and it
makes no difference to you really, as to
the matter of safety, whether you go now
or go some other year-whether his year
or the next year. Both our feet on the
rock, the waves may dash around you.
strength very present help" You are
on the rock, and You may defy all earth
and hell 70 overthrow you. I congratu-
late you. 1 congratulate you. 1 give you
great JOY 1t Is a happy new year to
you.
1 can see no sorrow at all in the fact
people say. II wish I could go pack
again to boyhood." 1 would not want
to go back again to boyhood. I am
1t than 1 have made. You could not af-
ford to go back to boyhood If 1t were pos
sible. You might do a great deal worse
fhan n n W. ona Tu1o
Look out for the futurei 10 ali Chris
tians it is a time of gladness. I am glad
the years are going! You are coming on
up with the th~ought-nearer home.
Now, when one can sooner get to the
centre of things is he not to be congrat-
freshmen class? We study God in this
world by the Biblical photograph of him,
of in Me ail kn %stb we can frIed in five minutes 7 mdes
accurate idea of him than we can by
studying him fifty years through pictures
or words. The little child that died at
six months of age knows more. of God
than all Andover and all Princeton and
all New Bruins wick.
THE CENTER OF THE WHEEL.
Does not our common sense teach US
to be clear out on the rim of the wheel,
holding nervously fast to the tire lest
stern ne f fefieityyy f fhrlsa int al liE EInas and ID
optical instruments trying to peer in
through the cracks and the keyholes of
neaVen-afraid that both doors of the
celestial mansion will be swung wide
open before our ~entranced ~vision-rush-
ing about among the apothecary shops
OF his world wondering if this is good
Tor rheumatism and that is good for neu-
ralg1a n something else is good for a
bad cough lest we be suddenly ushered
into a. land of everlasting health where
the 1nha bitant never says, II am sick!'
What fools we all Are to prefer the
circumference to the centre! What a
world into the May time orchards of
heaven, and if our ~pauperism of sin and
by a presentation of an emperor's castle
surrounded by parks with springing foun-
tains and paths, up and down which an
gels OF God walk two and two!
In 1888 the French resolved that at
Client they would have a kind of mu-
steal demonstration that had never been
heard Of. 1t would be made up of the
chimes of bells and the discharge of
success. What with the ringing of the
bells and the report of the ordnance the
city trembled and the hills shook with
the march that was as strange
glorious accompaniment will Gods dear
children go into their high residence
when the trumpets shall sound and the
last day has come. At the signal given
houses, and of the cities will strike their
sweetness into a last chime that shall
ring into the heavens and float OIL upon
the sea, Joined by the boom of bursting
the cathedral towers of h~eaven-the
harmonies of earth and the symphonies
OF the celestial realm making up one
great triumphal march, fit to celebrate
they shall shine as the stars forever and
ever.