The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-04-19

income. Why Is that. There is foe of
society who lives on. doing all the dam
age he can, 70 seventy-tye years OF age,
and here Il Christian father, faithful
IN every department OF life, az thirty -hve
years OF age taken away by death, his
family left helpless. Explain that. Oh.
there Is no sentence that oltener drops
from your lips than this: Il cannot un-
derstand IL; | cannot understand IT,
Well. now religion comes IN just at
that point with It's illumination and its
explanation. There Is business man
week before he lost his fortune there were
twenty. carriages that stopped az the
door OF his mansion. The week after be
lost his fortune all the carriages YOU
could count on one finger. The week
before financial trouble began people all
took off their hats 10 him as he passed
down the street. The week his financial
prospects were under discussion people
Just touched their hats without anywise
bending the rim. The week that he was
pronounced Insolyent people just jolted
their heads as they passed, not tipping
their hats at all and the week the
sheriff sold him out all his friends were
looking in the store windows as they
went down past him
Now, while the world goes away from
a man while he Is IN financial distress,
the religion of Christ comes 20 him and
says: You are sick, and your sickness
is TO be moral purihcation. You are be-
reaved God wanted in some way 20 take
your family 20 heaven, and He must be-
gin somewhere, and so He took the one
that was most beautiful and was ready 10
GO | do not say that religion explains
everything IN this life, but | do say it
lays down certain principles which are
grandly cUnsolatory. You know business
men often telegraph in cipher. The mer-
chant n EranRfsan tnlaurn ha IA fha
merchant in New York certain informa.
tlon IN cipher which no other man IN
that line OF business can understand, but
the merchant in San Francisco has the
key 10 the cipher, and the merchant in
New York has the key 10 the cipher, and
on that information transmitted there
are enterprises involving hundreds of
thousands of dollars. Now, the provi-
dences of life sometimes seem to be sense
less rlgmarole, a mysterious cipher but
God has a key To that cipher, and the
Christian a key TO that cipher, and
though he may hardly be able TO spell out
the meaning he gets enough of the mean.
ing 70 understand that 1t is for the best.
Now, Is there not sunshine in that? IL
there not pleasure in that Far beyond
laughter, it Is nearer the fountain OF tears
than bolsterous demonstration Have YOU
never cried for jov? There are tears
which are eternal rapture in distllation.
ol, tne sunsnpne, lne sunshine OF
Christian explanation! Here IS some one
bending over the grave of the dead What
is going TO be the consolation? The flow.
eTs you strew upon the tomb oh, mol
The services read at the grave? Oh, no!
The chief consolation on that grave IL
what falls from the throne of God. Sun.
SHINE, glorious sunshine-resurrection sun
shine.
Again, | find a great deal of the sun.
shine of this Bible and of our religion in
the climacterlc JOYS that are TO come. A
man who gets up and goes out from "A
concert right after the opening voluntary
has been played and before the prima
donna sings or before the orchestra be-
gins has a better idea of that concert
than that man has who supposes that
the chief lovs of religion are IN this world
We here have only the first note of the
eternal orchestra. We shall IN that
world have the JOY of discovery We will
IN five minutes catch up with the astron-
omers, the geologsts, the scientists, the
philosophers of all ages, who so far sur
passed US IN this world.
We can afford 20 adjourn astronomy
and geology and many of the sciences TO
the next world, because we shall there
have better apparatus and better oppor.
tunity, ] must study these sciences so
TAR az to help me IN my work but beyond
that | must give myself 10 saving my own
-.
ing that IN one flash of eternity we will
catch IL all
Oh, what an observatory in which to
study astronomy heaven will be- not by
power of telescope, but by supernatural
vision, aud, If there be something doubt
ful lO,OOOO0O miles away, by one stroke of
the wing you are there by another stroke
less time than | tell you, catching IL all
IN one Hash of eternity.
And geology What place tina, will
be TO study geology when the world Is be-
ing picked 10 pieces as easily as a school
glrl m botanical lessons pulls the leaf
from the corolia What place 20 study
architecture, amid the thrones and the
palaces and the cathedrals-St Marks
and 1T. Pauls rJOkcres m comparison.
Sometimes you wish you could make
the tour vi the whole earth, going around
as others have gone, but you have not
the time, you have not the means You
will make the tour yet during one musi.
cal pause IN the eternal anthem. / say
these things for the comfort OF those peo-
pie who are abridged in their opportuni-
tles-thOse people TO whom life ~ hum
drum who toll and work and toll and
work and aspire after knowledge, but
have no time to get 1t and say, If ! had
the opportunities which other people
have, how . would hll my mind and soul
with great thoughts" BE not discour.
aged, my friends You are going % the
university yet. Death will only matricu-
late you into the royal college of the uni
verse.
What a sublime thing it was that DIR.
Thornwell, OF South Carolina, uttered in
his last dying moments! As ne looked up
he SAID, 1t opens, It expands, AZ eX-
pands' Or as Mr.. Topady, the author
OF Rock Of Ages in his last moment or
during his last hours looked up and said,
as though he saw something supernatural,
Light and then a. he came on nearer
the dying moment, his countenauce more
luminous, he cried, Light" and at the
very moment Of his departure lifted both
hands, something supernatural IN his
countenance as he cried Light Only
another name for sunshine.
Besides that, we shall have all the
pleasures OF association. We will go
right up IN The front OF God without any
fright. All our sins gone, there will be
nothing 20 be frightened about There
our old Christian friends will troop
around Us. just as now one OF your sick
friends goes away to Florida the land Of
flowers, or to the south Oi France, and
you do not see him for a long while and
after awhile you meet nim, and the hOl.
lows under the eyes are all filled, and the
appetite has come back, and the crutch
has been thrown away, and he Is 20
changed YOU hardly know him You say,
why, | never saw you look 80 well" lie
says Il couldn't help but be well /
have been sailing these rivers and climb
ing these mountains. and that's how /
got this elasticity. 1 never was 80 we'll
Oh, my friends, your departed loved ones
are only away for their health in A bet
ter climate, and when you meet them
they will be 30 changed you will hardly
know them, they VIII be 40 much changed,
and after awhile, when you are assured