The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-05

class, reformer telling Ii to .outcast.
preacher telling il to assemblage. The
story of the Loveliest of hea ven COM
ing down to this SCARED and biased
island Of a world. He was ordered back
from its shores and struck though
with lances of human hate as soon as
he landed. Shepherds dog baying on
the hills that Christmas night was
better treated than this rescuer or A
race. yet keeping right on. brambles
on brow, feet on spikes, fiagellat5j with
whips that had Jumps of lead fastened
to them, through midnight withcu, Ian
terms, through storms without a srel-
ter through years that got blacker
until they ended in a MONDAY with the
sun blotted out. Migatisst tale ever
told, and keep or telling it Until the
last sorrow is assuaged and the last
animosity is quenche1 and the last
desert is white with the lily and golden
with the cowslip and blue with the
gentian and crimson with the rose.
THE END OF THE STORY.
While reading my text the fourth
time / bethink myself hat the story
Of life will end when the group breaks
Up. The tale that is told stops when
the listeners depart. Some times we
have been in groups i~nterestedly list
ening 10 some story told when other en-
gagements or the hour OF the night de-
manded the going Of the guests. That
stopped the story. BY this exit OF an
other year / am reminded that these
earthly roups will break UP. No fam
lily group or social group or religious
group or political group stops long to-
gether. Suppose some one should take
from me national archives the roll Of
yonder United States senate chamber
or the roll of yonder house of repre-
sentatives as ii was made up twenty
years ago and then call the roll. The
silence would be mightier than the
voices that would hear and respond.
The family group breaks up. Did
you ever know a household that for %
years remained intact? Not one. Was
there ever a church record the same
after the passage of % years or Is years
or 10 years? The fact is that the story
of our life will soon end because the
group of listeners will be gon So you
see if we are going to give the right
trend and emphasis we must give it
right away. If there are old people in
the group of our influence, all we can
do for them will be in five or ten years.
If there are children around us, in 10
!, or Is years they will no longer be chill
dren, and they will be fashioning the
story Of their own life. What thy
hand ndeth to do, do it with all thy
might" Passing all, passing every
thing, as a tale that is told"
My text, in referring to the years, re-
minds me that in II ours this year
will forever have gone away. Ninety
min out of the undre years of this
century will have disappeared. We
: have only one year of the century left.
: There ought to be something especially
suggestive in the last year of a CEN
fury. 1t ought to be a year of IN
t parelleled industries, of unheard of
conservation. Not a person in any of
our audiences this day can remember
the first year of this century. Not a
f person in any of our audiences today
will ever again see the last year of a
century.
: THE USEFULNESS OF DEATH.
Through medical science the worlds
longevity may De greatly improved in
= the future, al it has been in the past,
but it would not be we'll for people to
!, live too long. Some of them would,
through their skill at acquisitiveness,
I gather too much, and some multimil-
; liOnaires would become b~illionaires and
t~rillionaires, and some one would after
awhile pocket a hemisphere. No. Death
: is useful in it's financial limitations, and
then all have enough sorrows and an
noyances and sufferings by the time
they become n~onagenarians or centen-
) arians to make it desirable to quit. Be
, sides, that, it would not be fair so long
to keep so many good old people out
of heaven. So it is well arranged hat
those who stand by the deathbed of the
nineteenth century will not be called to
stand by the deathbed of the twentieth
century.
Oh, crowd this last year with pray
, ers, with ~hosannas, with kind words,
} with helpfulnesS. Make the neroration
of the century the climax of Christlike
deeds. Close up the ranks of God and
during this remaining II months charge
nightly against the host of Abaddon.
Have no reserve corps. Let swiftest
COSna1 cavalry gallon ond oouiosf
!, moral artillery role and mightiest evan
gelistic batteries thunder on the scene.
Let ministers of the gospel quit all con-
troversy with each other, and in solid
!, phalanx march out for the worlds dis
inthrallment. Let printing press, Sec
movement to instruct and emancipate
the world. On all the hills let there be
) Elijah, praying for a great rain"
and on every contested field Joshuas to
, see that final victory is gained before
} the sun goes down, and every mountain
{ become a TRANSPORTATION. and every
: Galilee a walking place of him who can
hush a tempest. Let US be jealous of
!, every month, OF every week, of every
day that passes without something sig
) nificant and glorious wrought for God
and this sin cursed world. Let our
churches be thronged with devout as
: semblages. Let the chorals be more
like grand marches than reQuiems. Let
this coming year see the last wound of
~Transvaal and Philippine conflict, and
, the earth quake with the grounding
arms of the last regiment ever to be
m~arshaled, n the furnaces of the
foundries blaze with the fires that shall
turn the last swords into plowshares.
And may all those whose lives shall
go out in this last year of a century,
as many will, meet in the heavenly
world those who in the morning and
MONDAY of this hundred years toiled
and suffered for the worlds salvation,
to tell them how much has been ac-
complished for the glory of him whose
march through the last 10 centuries and
through all the coming centuries the
Scriptures describe as going forth
~'conquering and to conquer" Oh, the
contrast between that uplifted spec
tacle of eternal triumph in the presence
Of God and the Lamb and these earth
lY scenes. Mhere I'VE Spend OLE years