Newport weekly independent., 1901-06-07

take possession of the World ana rule it in a common Ase and Christian way. There wol be less to amaze and startle, but Ii " to give equipoise another one"
 Is your talent that of persuasion? Make good use of it. We all have it to some extent, yet none of us think of it as talent. But it is the mightiest of talents. Do you know that this one talent will fetch the world back to God? Do you know it is the mightiest talent of the High Heavens? Do you know that it is the one talent chiefly employed by all the angels of God when they descend to our world-the talent of persuasion? Do you realize that the rough lumber lifted into the cross on the hill back of Jerusalem was in persuasion as we'll as sacrifice? That is the only, absolutely the only, persuasion that will ever induce the human race to stop it's race toward the city of destruction and wheel around and start for the city of light. Now may the Lord this moment show each one of us that to greater or less extent we have that one talent of per- suasion and impel us to the right use of it. You say you cannot preach sermon, but cannot you persuade some one to go and hear a sermon? You say you cannot sing, but cannot you persuade some one to go and hear the choir chant on Christmas or Easter morning? Send a bunch of flowers to that invalid in the hospital, with a message about the land where the inhabitants never say: q am sick" There is a child of the street. Invite him into the mission school. There is a man who has lost his for tune in speculation. Instead of jeer- ing at his fall go and tell him of riches that never take wings and fly away. Buckle on that talent of persuasion, 0 man, woman, and you will do work that Heaven will celebrate 1O,- 900 years.
 Among the 114,OOO words of Noah Webster's vocabulary and the thou sands of words since then added to our English vocabulary there is one out mastering word the power of which cannot be estimated, and it reaches so far up and so far down, and that is the word "come." It has drawn more peo- | pie away from the wrong and toward the right than any word I TOW think of.
 After the resurrection day and all Heaven is made up, resurrected bod | ies joined to ranSomed souls, and the gates which were so long open are shut there may be some day when all the redeemed may pass in review before the great white throne. If so, I think the hosts passing before the King will move in different divisions. With the first division will pass the mighty ones of earth who were as good and useful as tkey were great. In this division will pass before the throne all the Martin Luthers, the John Knoxes, the Wesleys, the Rich- ard Cecls, the Miltons, the Chrysos- toms, the Herschells, the Lenoxes, the George Peabodys, the Abbot Law rences and all the consecrated Chris tian men and women who were great in literature, in law, in medicine, in philosophy, in commerce. Their genius never spoiled them. They were as humble as they were gifted or opulent. They were great on earth, and now they are great in Heaven. Their surpassing and mag nificent talents were all used for the worlds betterment. As they pass in review before the King on the great white throne to higher and higher rewards it makes me think of the parable of the talents: ITO another ten" 1 stand and watch the other divisions as they go by, division after division, until the largest of all the divisions comes in sight It is hum dred to one, a thousand to one, ten thousand to one. larger than the other divisions. It is made up of men who never did anything but sup port their families and give whatever of their limited means they could spare for the relief of poverty and sickness and the salvation of the world, mothers who took good care of children by example and precept starting them on the road to Heaven, millions of Sabbath school teachers who sacrificed an afternoons siesta AoI Ihe HsteHlHS cldsS or yong lm- mOrtalS, women who declined the making of homes for themselves that they might take care of father and mother in the weaknesses of old age, ministers of the Gospel who on nig- gardly stipend preached in the back woods, meeting houses, souls who for long years did nothing but suffer, yet suffered with so much cheerful