The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-11-24

Holy Ghost are we educated for heav-
en-. Have we done our best with the
curriculum of study put before every
mortal and immortal? Oh, this world
is not the terminus Of a journey. It
is not a theater on whose stage we are
enacting the tragic OF comic. 1t is a
schoolhouse for splendid or disgrace
full graduation, and death is COM
mencement. All that is settled in
heaven.
GODS CAUSE.
Another thing decided In the high
places of the universe ts HI this
world, with or without US. will be
made over into a scene Of arbores-
cence and purity. Do not think that
such q contamination depends upon
our personal fidelity. 1t will be done
anyhow. God cause does not go
a-begging. If all the soldiers of Jesus
Christ now living should become de-
serters and go over to the enemy, that
would not defeat the cause A large
part of the Bible is taken up with tell
ing US what the world will be. There
Is a large army, human and angelic,
now in the field, but Gods reserve
forces are more numerous and more
mighty than tRosa now at the front.
and if he could in Gideon's time rout
the Midianites with a crash of crock
cry, and he could in Shamgar's time
overcome a host with ar OK goad, and
if in Camson's time he could defeat an
army with a bleached jaWbone, and if
the walls of Jericho went down under
a blast Of perforated rams horn, and
if in Christ's day blind eyes were
cured by ointment of spittle, then God
can do anything he says he VIII co. AS
yet he has taken only one sword out
of a hole armory Of weapons. Do
not get nervous, as if the Lord were
going to be defeated. The redemption
Of these hemispheres was settled in
heaven. and Isaiah and Ezekiel and
Habakkuk and Malachi and ST. John
only reported what the Lord God AL
mighty had decided upon. My only
fear is that our regiment will not get
into the fight to do something worthy
of the Christ who redeemed us and we
be left in lazy -encampment at Tampa
when we ought to have been at San
tiago.
Oh, that coming day of the worlds
perfection! The earth will be so chang
ed that the ~sermonology will be chang
ed. There will be no more calls to re-
pentance, for all will have repented;
no more gathering of aims for the
poor, for the poor will have been en-
riched; no hospital Sunday, for dis
jointed bones will have been set and
the wounds all healed, n the incura-
BILE diseases of other times will nav
Deo1 overcome ny UldlcIld meUlCd anu
a pharmacy and a dentistry and a
therapeutics that ave conquered
everything that afflicted nerve or lung
or tooth or eye or limb-healtholOgy
complete and universal. The poultice
and the ointment and the panacea and
the catholicon and the surgeons knife
and the dentists forceps and the sci
entist's x ray will have fulfilled their
mission.
GOSPEL INFLUENCES.
The social life of the world will be
perfected. In that millennial age 1
imagine ourselves standing in front of
a house lighted for levee. We enter
among groups filled with gladneSS and
talking good sense and rallying each
other in p~leasantries n in every pos
sible way forwarding good neighbour
hood; no looking askance, no whis-
pered backbiting, no strut of preten-
sion, no oblivion Of some ones pres
ence because you do not want to know
him.: each one happy, determined on
making some one else happy; words Of
honest appreciation instead of hollow
f1attery; suavities and genialitieS in
stead of mutations and pompositieS;
equipage and upholstery and sculpture
and painting paid for; two hours of
mental and moral Improvement; all
the guests able to walk as steadily
down the steps Of that mansion as
when they ascended them; no awaking
e morning with aching head and
%bloodshot eye and incompetent for the
days duties; the social life as perfect
as refinement and common sense n
culture and prosperity and religion can
make it.; the earth made better than
it was at the start. and all through
gospelizing influences, directly or in
directly.
1 suppose the greatest tidal wave
that ever rolled the seas was that
which in 1865 was started by the Pc
ruvian earthquake. At africa, Peru, the
wave was SO feet high and swung war
ships a mile forward on the land. At
San Pedro, Cal, the wave was 60 feet
high. 1t moved on to the Sandwich Is
lands and submerged some of them
and beat against the shores of New
Zealand and rolled up the beach Of ia
pan and stopped not until it had en-
circled the entire globe. Oh, what a
wave! But the earthquake that shook
the mountain where our Lord died
started a higher and swifter and
mightier tidal wave that will roll round
and round h earth until all its rebel
lions and denominations hav gone un-
der.
That was an exciting scene after h
battle of BoSworth, which was fought
between Richard III and the earl Of
f~IlCnInODQ, the King ldlillS dIO buC
earl triumphing, when Lord Stanley
brought the crown and handed it to
the earl, seated On horseback, while
the dying and the dead of the battle
were lying all around. Butt it is a more
thrilling spectacle as we look forward
through the centuries and see the first
armed and imperial -iniquity of h
world slain and the crown of universal
victory put upon h conquerer on h
white horse of the Apocalypse and all
nations hail h power of Jesus
name" That THE whole earth will be
redeemed is one of the things long 6
settled in heaven
GODS PLAN OF SALVATION.
Another thing decided in that high
place is that all who are adjoined to
the unparalleled One of Bethlehem and
Nazareth and Golgotha will be the sub
jects of a supernal felicity without any
taking off. The old adage says that
"beggers must not be choosers," and
the human race in its depleted state
had better not be critical of the mode
by which God would empalace all of
us. I could easily think Of a plan more