The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-04-28

overcoats and hats, and / will TAX,
care OF them while you kill Stephen
SO Saul said to the stoners of tn,
hrst martyr. II do not care to ex
ert myself much, but will guart
your surplus apparel while you d.
the murder" The New Testament ac
count says: "The witnesses laid dowr
their clothes at young mans feet
whose name was Saul" No wonder
he said: SINNERS, of whom l am tn,
chief"
Christ is used to climbing. He
climbed to the top of the temple. He
climbed to the top of Mount Olivet
He climbed to the top of the cliffs
about Nazareth. He climbed to the
top of Golgotha. And to the top oil
the hills and the mountains of your
transgression He is ready to climb
with pardon for every one of you
The groan of Calvary is mightier than
the thunder of Sinai Full receipt is
offered for all your indebtedness. II
one throws a stone at midnight into
bush where the hedge bird p,osts,
1T Immediately begins to sing. and
into the midnight hedges of your
dependency these words | hurf, hop
ing to awaken you to anthem. Drop
the tunes in the minor key and take
the major. Do you think it pleases
the Lord for you to be carrying
around with you the debris and car
casses of old transgressions? You
make me think of some ship that has
had tempestuous time at sea and
now that it proposes another voyage
keeps on its davits the damaged life
boats and the splinters of a shiv-
cred mast and the broken glass of a
smashed skylight. My advice is:
Clear the decks, overheard with all
the damaged rigging, brighten up the
sailed smokestacks, open new log
book, haul in the planks, lay out a
new course and set sail for Heaven.
You have had the spiritual dumps
long enough. You will please the
Lord more by being happy than by
being miserable.
Again, my text has good advice con-
corning any Christian hampered and
bothered and bound by fear of his
own dissolution. 70 such the book re.
fers when it speaks of those who
through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. The most
of us, even if we have the Christian
hope, are towards about death. If
plank fall from a scaffolding and just
grazes our hat, how pale we look! II
the Atlantic ocean plays with the
steamship, pitching it toward the
heavens and letting it suddenly drop,
how even the Christian passengers
poster the steward or stewardess as to
whether there is any danger, and the
captain, who has been all night on
the bridge and chilled through, COM
ing in for a cup of coffee, is assailed
with whole battery of questions as
to what he thinks of the weather.
And many of the best people are, as
Paul says, throughout their lifetime
in bondage by fear of death. My
brothers and sisters, if we made full
use of our religion we would soon get
over this.
Heaven is IS per cent. better than
this world, a thousand per cent. bet
ter, million per cent. better. Take
the gladdest, brightest, most jubilant
days you ever had on earth and COM
press them all into one hour, and that
hour would be requiem, fast day,
a gloom, horror, as compared with
the poorest hour they have had in
Heaven since it's first tower was built |
or it's first gate swung or it's first song
caroled. "Oh," you say, "that may
be true, but I am so afraid of cross
ing over from this world to the next,
and l fear the swapping of the cord
between soul and body" Well, all the
surgeons and physicians and scientists
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
al. And agree with the doctors, for
what they say is confirmed by the
fact that persons who were drowned
or were submerged until all conscious
ness departed and were afterward re-
;uscitated declare that the sensation
If passing into Inconsistencies was
Measurable rather than distressful.
The cage of the body has door on
,asy hinges, and when Jnat door of
he physical cage opens the soul
imply puts out it's wings and scars.
But" you say, Il fear to go be-
ause the future is so full of mystery"
Veil, will tell you how to treat the
mysteries. The mysteries have ceased
me, for do as the judges of
our courts often do. They hear all
he arguments in the case and they
ay: II will take these papers and
i've you my decision next week" So
have heard all the arguments in re-
ard to the next world, and some
Kings are uncertain and full of mys-
cry, and so fold up the papers and
eserve until the next world my de-
ision about them. can there study
Il the mysteries to better advantage,
or the light will be better and my
aculties stronger, and I will ask the
philosophers, who have had
II the advantages of Heaven for cen.
lries, to help me. and may be per-
lifted myself humbly to ask the Lord,
nd I think there will be only one
lystery left; that will be how one so
nworthy as myself got into such an
1raptured place. Come up out of the
,pulchral shadows. If you are not
hristians by faith in Christ, come up
ITO the light; and if you are already
Ike Lazarus, terminated, but still
ave your grave clothes on, get rid of
lem. The command is: loose him,
i'd let him CO."
The Family Described. !