Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-05-02
,aIestlns when He hugged them and Kissed

| uu cuDuIEhSSmcuG 10 mluiStoIS OuctBSlu8
at your obsequies, who will have to be
cautious SO as not to hurt surviving
| friends. But when the darling children 60
there are no ''ifs'' or "buts" or gresses.
+, We must remember that good John Cal-
vim was a logician and a metaphyslcian
some things In IN unfortunate way. Logic
has its use, and metaphysics has its use,
but they are not good at making creeds.
| What a time We have had with the
meneutics! The defect In some Of the
creeds Is that they try to tell us all about
the DEGREES Of God. Now, the only human
being that was ever competent to handle
that subject was Paul, and he would not
have been competent had he not been in
and believe In mans free agency, but no
one can harmonize the two. It Is not
necessary that we harmonize them.
Every sermon that i have ever heard
that attempt ed such harmonization was to
me as clear as a London fog, as clear as
| mud. Mybrotber of the nineteenth GEN.
tury, my brother OF the sixteenth century,
give US Paups statement and leave out
your own. .
Better one chapter Of Paul on that SUBJ
ject than all of Calvin's Institutes, able
| and honest and mighty as they are. Do
not try to measure either the throne OF God
or the thunderbolts Of God with your little
steel pen.
What do you know about the DEGREES?
You cannot pry open the door OF Gods
mysteries Of Gods government now, much
less the mysteries OF His government i've
hundred quintilliOn ye ars ago.
But now that the old creeds have been
put under public scrutiny something radi-
cal must be done. Some would split them,
some would carve them, some would elon-
gate them, some would abbrevinte them.
At the present moment In the present
shape they are hindrance. Lazarus Is
! alive, but hampered with the old grave
clothes. II you want one glorious church,
free and unincumbered, take of the cere-
ments OF old ecclesiastical vocabulary.
Loose her, and let her go!
Again, my text has good advice concern
Ing any Christian hampered and bothered
and bound by fear of his own dissolution.
10 such the book refers when 1t speaks OF
those who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondags. The
most OF US, even IL We have the Christian
hope, are towards about death.
Backed up by the teachings OF your Bible,
just look through the telescope some bright
night and see how many worlds there are
and reflect that all you have seen, COM
pared with the number OF worlds In exist
ence, are less than the fingers OF your right
hand as compared with all the fingers OF
the human race. How foolish, then, for Us
to think that ours isthe only world tit for
us to stay In.
One of our first realzations In getting
out Of this world, think. will be- that In
| this world We were very much pent up aud
had cramped apartments and were kept
the limits. The most, even OF our small
world, Is water, aud the water says to the
human race, "Don't come here or you will
drown" A few thousand feet up the at
mosphere Is uninhabitable, and the at
mosphere says to the human race, Don't
come up here or you cannot BREATHE" A
few miles down the earth Is furnace OF
| fire, and the fire says, I'D oht come here or
| you will burn The caverns OF the mount
! aims are full OF poisonous gases, aud the
gases say, Don't come here or you will be
asphyxiated."
And pneumonias and pleurlsies ana con.
sumptions and apoplexies go across this
earth la focks. In droves, In herds, and 1t
Is world OF equinoxes and cyclones and
graves. Yet we are under tho delusion
that 1t is tho only place fit to stay In. We
want to stick to the wet plank In midoceau
while the great ship, the City OF God, OF
the Celestial line, goes sailing past and
| would gladly take us up IN a lifeboat. My
Christian friends, let me tear off your de-
spondencies and frights about dissolution.
| My Lord commands me regarding you,
saying, "Loose him, aud let him co."
Heaven is ninety-fve per cent. better
than this world, thousand per cent bet
ter, a million per cent. better. Take tho
gladdest, brightest. most jubIlant days
| you ever had on earth and compress them
| all into one hour, and that hour wOuld be
II requiem, fast day, gloom, II horror.
as compared with the poorest hour they
| have had In heaven since the first tower
was built or its first gates swung or its
| first song carOled.
"Oh," you say, "that may be true, but
am so afraid OF crossing over from this
world to the next, and fear the snnpping
Of the cord between soul and body" Well,
| all the surgeons and physicians and SOL
entists declare that there Is no pang Mt the
| parting OF the body and soul, and all the
restlessness at the closing hour OF life Is
involuntary and no distress at all.
"But," you cay, II fear to go because
the future is SO full OF mystery" Well, |
| will tell you how to treat the mysteries.
The mysteries have ceased bothering me,
for do as the judges OF your courts often
do. They hear all the arguments In the
case, and they sny, Il will take thes g
papers and give you my decision next
week." SO have heard all the arguments
in regard to the next world, and scme
things are uncertain and full OF mystery.
hnd so l fold up the papers and reserve
until the next world my decision about
them. can there study all the mysteries
to better advantage, for the light will be
better and my faculties stronger, and
will ask the Christian philosophers, who
have had all the advantages OF heaven for
centuries, to help me, and l may bs per-
mitted myself humbly to ask the Lord, and
| 1 tuIuk tu5Et Will D6 Ouly Ouo III lSttty
that will be how one so unworthy as myself
got into such an enraptured place.
, The only part Of the journey 1 made
years ago to Palestine that 1 really dread
I'D was the landing ut Joppa. That is tho
| port Of entrance for the Holy Land, and
| there are many rocks, and in rough wealth
| er people cannot land at all. The boats
taking the people from the steamer to the
docks must run between reefs that looked
to me to be about nifty feet apart, and ono
misstroke OF an oarsman or an unexpected
wave has sometimes been fatal and
hundreds have perished along those
reefs. Besides that, as We left Port
Said the evening before, an old trav.
eler said: "rhe wind Is just right TO
give you a rough landing at Joppa; indeed
1 think you will not be able to land mt all"
The fact WAS that when our Mediterranean
| steamer dropped anchor near Joppa and
we put out for shore In the small boat, tho
water was as still as though 1t lad been
sound asleep II hundred years, and we
landed as easily as l entered this pulpit.
Well, your fears have pictured for you an
appalling arrival at the end OF your voyage
OF life, and they say that the seas will run
high and that the breakers will swallow
you up, or that IL you reach Canaan at all
1t will be II very rough landing.
| The very opposite will be true IL you
have the eternal Col for your portion.
Your Decentralization for the promised
| land will be as smooth as was ours ut
Palestine. Christ will meet you fur ont at
sea and pilot you into complete safety, and
you will land with a hosanna on one side
Of you and haleluiah on the other.
Land aheadl' Its fruits are waving
| O'er the hill OF fadeless green
the living waters laving
stores where heavenly forms are seen.
:beks and storms I'll fear no more
When on that eternal shore.
Drop the anchor, furl the saili
am safe within the vcili