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

get all the i've years, or the ten years
or the fifteen years I'm which she came
every night for a kiss. all the tones OF
her voice or the soft touch of her hand?
Because In some financial Euroclydon
your fortune went into the breakers did
| you forget all those years IN which the
Injuries and extravagances Of life show
cred on YOU pathway? Ala that is an
unwise man., an ungratefuf a an un-
fair a an unphilosophic a and,
most of all, an un-Christian man, who
measures his life On earth by groas and
tears and dyspeptic fit and abuse and
| scorn and terror and neuralgia thrust.
| Again, I remark that there are many
| people VIC estimate their life on earth
b. the amount mt OF money ey, they na We a G
1870 or 1893 was wasted" why? Made
no money" Now. it is all cant and in
though it had no valne. It may repre-
sent refinement and education and ten
thousand blessed surroundings. Tt is the
children's hunger. 1t is the lighting of
the furnace that keeps you warm. 1t is
the making of the bed on which you rest
from care and anxiety. 1t is the carry
ing Of you out at last to descent sepulch-
er, and the putting up of the slab on
tan hope. It is simply hypocrisy, this
TRADE in pulpit and lecture hall against
money.
THE CURSE OF MONEY.
But while al this is so, he who uses
but a means to an end, will find out his
mistake when the g1ittering treasures slip
out of his nerveless grasp, and he goes
out of this world without a shilling of
none or a certificate of stock. He
might better have been the Christian
porter that opened his gate or the be,
grimmed who last night heaved
the coal into his cellar. Bonds and mort
cages and leases have their use, but they
make mas sure "a p ,ifs 9ycarTSd aN tba With hoa whi tbem to
selves in their wealth and trust in the
multitude of their riches, none of them
can, by any means. redeem his brother or
give to Goo a ransom for him that he
should not see corruption"
But 1 remark, there are many| wish
there were more-who estimate their life
by their moral and spiritual develop
ment.
man. to say: II am purer than 1 used to
many of the bad habits in which 1 used
to tSa ind ! Used I t am be- a gre There aeai is 0e mt si mah
egotism in that. Tt Is not base egotism
for a soldier to say, II know more about
military tactics than I used to before |
to present arms and when I was a pest
to the drill officer" 1t is not base ego
how to clew down the mizzen topsail than
I used to before I had ever seen Al ship"
And there is no sinful egotism when a
Christian man, fighting the battles of the
Lord, or If you will have it, voyaging to-
ward a heaven of eternal rest, says, I
know more about spiritual tactics and
about vOyaging toward heaven than /
used to-"
why, there are those in this presence
foe and endorsed it! There are Christian
men here who have become swarthy by
hammering at the forge OF calamity.
They stand on an entirely different plane
of nh oractnr from that (which thew once
occupied. They are measuring their life
ON earth by golden gated Sabbaths. by
lon tables. by b5aptismaI fonts, by halle
on Sinai and heard it thunder. They
into the promised land. They have stood
on Calvary and seen the cross bleed. They
can, like Paul the apostle, write on their
moment" The darkest night their soul
Is irradiated, as was the : night night over so
Cheer. they are only waiting for the
gate to open and the chains to fall off
and the glory 60 begin. -
I remark again, there are maryland
I wish there were more-who are estl-
mating life by the good they can do.
John Bradford said he counted that
day nothing at all in which he had not
by pen or tongue done some good. Ii a
man begin right, I cannot tell how many
dens he may lift, how many outcasts he
may reclaim. There have been men who
have given their whole life in the right
ingenuity and mental acumen and phys
ical force and enthusiasm for Christ.
They climbed the. mountain and delved
trudged the desert and dropped at last
into martyrs graves, waiting for the
rssurrection of the Just. They They meas measu RE-
by the garments they put upon naked
ness, by the miles they travelled to ale
viate every kind of suffering. They felt
in the thrill of every nerve, in the mo-
ton of every muscle, in every throb of
their heart, in every respiration Of their
l3HngSS, the the b magnificent Tbe tTu Vent h; tH fhro mgh
cold and through heat, foot blistered,
cheek srnitten, back scourged,. tempest
the way they measured life-by the
amount of good they could do.
THE ETERNAL LIFE.
Do you want to know how old Luther
was? How old Richard Baxter was? How
old Philip Doddridge was? Why, you
by any human arithmetic! Add to their
lives 10000 times 10000 years, and you
nave not expressed it-what they have
that is to Measure a mans life by! There
are those in this house who think they
ave only lived 80 years. They Will nave
lived a thousand; they have lived a thou
sand. There are those who think they
are so years of age. They have not even
entered upon thelr 1nIancy, IOr one must
become a babe in Christ to begin at all.
Now, 1 do not know what your ad-
vantages Or disadvantages are. I do not
know what your tact or talent is. I do
not know what may be the fascination
of your manners or the responsiveness of
them, but I know this: There is for you,
my nearer, a field to culture, a harvest
to reap. a tear to wipe away, a soul to
save If you have worldly means, conse-
crate them to Christ. If you have elo-
quence, use it on the side that Paul and
Wilberforce used theirs. If you have
learning, put it all into the poor box of
the worlds suffering. But if you have
none of ~these-neither wealth, nor elo-
quence, nor learning-you will at any rate
lave a smile with which you can en-
courage the disheartened, a frown with
which you may blast injustice, a voice
with which you may call the wanderer
back to God. oh" you say that is a
very anctimonious view of life!' 1t is
not. 1t is the only bright view of life,
and it is the only bright view of death.
Contrast the death scene of a man who
hos roaac,,ro5 ltfa hu the worldly stand