Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-05-17

| with all the babies in the next world con.
clude from what He did with the babies in
| them.
When some OF you grown people go out
OF this world, your doubtful destiny will be
an embarrassment to ministers officiating
at your obsequies, who will have to bs
cautious SO AS not to hurt surviving
friends. But when the darling children. 60
| there are no "ifs' or "buts" or guesses.
We must remember that good John CAL
win was a logician and metaphysical
and by the proclivities Of his nature put
some things in IN unfortunate way. Logic
has Its use, and metaphysics has its use
but they are not good at making creeds.
what ttmo we have had with the
dogmatics, the apologetics and the her.
meneutics! The defect in some OF the
creeds IL 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
spired: believe In the sovereignty of God.
and believe In mans free agency, but no
one can harmonize the two. It Is not
| necessary that we hnrmonize them.
Every sermon that l have ever heard
that attempt ed such harm onization was to
me as clear as London fog, US clear as
mud. My brother of the nineteenth CEN
tury, my brother of tho sixteenth century,
| give US PauPs statement ami 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 oper the door Of Gods
eternal counsels. You cannot explain the
| mysteries OF Gods government now, much
| less the mysteries Of His government five
| hundred quintiIlion ye ars ago.
| n 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 off the cere-
| ments OF old eccleslustical 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.
To 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 ii 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 is the only world lit for
US to stay In.
One of our first realizations in getting
out OF this world, think, will be that In
this world we were very much pent up and
lad cramped apartments and were kept on
the limits. The most, even of our small
world, is water, and the water says to the
human race, sd ont come here or you will
drown" few thousand feet up the at
mosphsre is uninhabitable, and the at
mosphsre says to the human race, "Don't
come up here or you cannot BREATHE" A
few miles down the earth is u furnace OF
fire, and the fire says, sd ont come here or
you will burn The caverns of the mount
aims are full of poisonous gases, and the
gases say, Don't come here or you will be
asphyxlated."
Amt pneumonias and pleurisies ana con-
sumptious and apoplexies go across this
earth in fiocks, in droves, in herds, aud it
is world OF equinoxes and cyclones and
that 1t is the only place fit to stay in. We
want TO stick to the wet plank in midocean
while the great ship, the City of God, OF
the Celestial line, goes sailing past and
would gladly take us up IN u lifeboat. My
Christian friends, let me tear off your de-
spondencies and frights about dissolution.
My Lord commands me regarding you,
saying, Loose him. and let him go.''
Heaven is ninety-iive per cent. better
than this world, u thousand per cent. bet
ter, u million per cent. better. Take the
giaddest, brightest, most jublant days
you ever had on earth and compress them
all into one hour and that hour would be
n requiem, Il fast day, gloon, a 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
w>rld to the next, and fear the swapping
OF the cord between soul and body" Well,
all the surgeons and physicians and sell
eDtists declare that there is no pang at 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 Z; a. say, ;,, ~ iea, to 60 because ,
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 say, II will take these
papers and give you my decision next
week." SO have heard ail the arguments
in regard to the next world, and scme
things are uncertain and full Of mystery,
and so l fold up the papers and reserve
until the next world my decision about
them. l can there study all the mysteries
" UetttI dQNuHtuSe, lOE tHo lISEl Will Do
better and my faculties stronger, and l
will ask the Christian philosophers, who
have had all the advantages of heaven for
centuries, to help me, and ! may be per-
mitted myself humbly to ask the Lord, and
think there will be only one mystery left;
that will be how one so unworthy rs myself
got into such an enraptured place.
The only part of the journey / made
years ago to Palestine that really dread
ed was the landing at Joppa. That is tho
port of entrance for the Holy Land, and
there are many rocks, and in rough wealth
er people cannot land ut all. The boats
taking the people from the steamer to the
docks must run between reefs that looked
to me to be about fifty feet apart, and one
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.
oler said: "The wind is just right 10
give you rough landing at Joppa; indeed
think you will not be able to land at ail.'