The semi-weekly messenger., 1901-11-15


might be called at any time to leave the
city. never saw him again, but 1t seem
ed to me that he had turaed his back
upon his wicked past and had started in
the right direction And it may be so with
yaur boy. Write him often. Tell him how
You are all thinking OF him at home, and,
it may be, your letter in hand, he may
call upon his mothers God TO help and
save him. Hope, you of the gray hairs
and wrinkles, Heaven has its thousands
of souls who were once as thoroughly
wrong as your boy is. They repented, and
they are with the old folks in the healthy
air Of the eternal hills, where they may
become young again. Hope on, and,
though you may never hear OF your sons
reformation and others may think he has
left this life hopeless, who knows but that
In the last moment, after he has ceased TO
speak and before his soul launches away,
your prayer may have been answered and
he be one of the first to meet you at the
shining gate. The prodigal in the parable
got home and sat down at the feast, while
the elder brother, who never left the old
place, stood pouting at the back door and
did not so in at all.
To another class Of persons / introduce
the angel of Hope, and they are the inva-
lids. Perhaps after long watching or
oyerwOrk or towering grief your nervous
system is ruined. Perhaps you have a
hidden disorder that the world knows
nothing about and which you cannot with
any delicacy speak OF. Perhaps it may be
a rheumatism that distorts and inflames
or q neuralgia which runs its sharp knife
along the temples of your forehead. Per-
haps it is an indigestion causing food
yr-l.I If.n ic - l.,
come torture to you. Perhaps it is an
insomnia which keeps you as wide awake
at Il o'clock at night as at II o'clock at
noon, and hour after hour, like one in the
Bible times, you cry, would God it
were morning"
/ cannot take the diagnosis of your dis
order, but let hope cheer you with one Of
two thoughts. Such marvellous cures are
being wrought in our day through medi-
cation and surgery that your invalidism
may yet be mastered. Persons as i'll as
you have got well. Cancer and tuberculo-
Sis will yet give way before some new
discovery. | see every day people strong
and well who not long ago | saw palEd
and leaning heavily on Il staff and hardly
able to climb stairs.
Take the Hand of Hope.
But if you will not take the hand Of
Hope for earthly convalescence let me
point you to the perfect body you are yet
to have if you love and serve the Lord.
Death will put a prolonged an9sthetic
upon your present body. and you will
never again feel an ache or pain, and
then in his good time you will have n
resurrection body about which we know
nothing except that it will be painless and
glorious beyond all pr0"~Nt apprecia tion
What must be the Il. of that land
which never feels cut ., lid or blast Of
heat and where there is no east wind
sowing pneumonia on the air, your fleet
ness greater than the foot of deer, your
eyesight clearer than eagle in sky-per
feet health in country where all the in
habitants are everlastiEgly well! You who
have in your body an encysted bullet ever
since the civil war, you who have kept
alive only by precautions and self denials
and perpetual watching of pulse and
lung, you of the deafened ear and dim
vision and the severe backache, you who
have not been free from pain for ten
years, how do you like this story Of
physical reconstruction, with all weak
ness and suffering subtracted and every
thing jocund and bounding added?
Do not have anything to do with the
gloom that Harriet Martineau expressed
in her dying words: 81 have no reason to
believe in another world. l have had
enough of life in one and can see no good
reason why Harriet Martineau should be
perpetuated." Would you not rather have
the Christian enthusiasm of Robert An
nan, who, when some one said, Il will be
satisfied if l manage somehow to get into
heaven" replied, pointing to a sunken
fhof Io,,, 1ror -
er Tay: 'Would you like to be pulled into
heaven with two tugs like that vessel
yonder? I tell you I would like to 60 in
with all my sails set and colors flying"
Again, let me introduce the element Of
hope to those good people who are in de-
spair about the worlds moral condition.
They have gathered up appalling statis-
tics. They tell of the number of divorces,
but do not take into consideration that
there are thousand happy homes where
there is one of marital discord. They tell
you of the large number in our land who
are living pro1igate lives, but forget to
mention that there are many millions Of
men and women who are doing the best
they can. They tell you the number Of
drunkerieS in this country, but fail to
mention the thousands of glorious church
es with two doors, one door open for all
who will enter for pardon and consolation
and the other door opening into the heav-
ems for the ascent of souls prepared for
translation.
Gods Instruments.
Those pessimists do not realize that
two inventions of our times are going to
make it possible under God to bring this
whole world into salvable and millennial
condition within few weeks after those
two inventions shall be turned into the
service Of God and righteousness, as they
will be. / refer to the telegraph and the
telephone. If you think that God allowed
those two inventions to be made merely
to get rapid information concerning the
price Of railroad stocks or to call up
friend and make with him business en-
gagement, you have very abbreviated
idea Of what can be done and will be done
with those two instruments. The intelli-
gence of the world is to be expanded, and
civilization will overcome barbarism. and
illiteracy will be extirpated, and the
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