The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-11-08

DID you md Tor that man released from
prison q place 10 get honest work. Did
YOU pick up a child. fallen on the curb
stone. and by q stick of candy put in his
hand stop the hurt on hia scratched kneet
Did you assure a business man, swamped
by the stringency of the money market,
that times would after awhile be bettorg
Did you lead a Magdalen OF the street
into q midnight mission, where the Lord
said to her. Neither DO / condemn thee
Go and sin no more" Did you tell man.
clear discouraged in his waywardness and
hopeless and plotting suicide, that for
him was nearby a LAYER, In which re
might wash aud coronet Of eternal bless
edness be might wear?
What are eptaphs in graveyards, what
are oulogiums in presence OF those whose
breath is in their nostrils, what are unread
biographies in the alcoves of a city library
compared with the imperishable records
you have made in the illumned memories
of those to whom you did such lindnesscsy
Forget them? They cannot forget them.
Notwithstanding all their might and splen-
dor there are some things the gloriied
of heaven cannot do, and this is one OF
them
They cannot forget an earthly kindness
done. They have not eutlass to part that
cable They have no strength TO hurl into
oblivion that benefaction. Has Paul for
gotten the inhabitants Of Malta, who exc
tended the island nosDltaltv when ne and
Others with him had felt added TO a ship
wreck, the drenching rain and the sharp
cold2 Has the victim OF the highwoyman
ON the road TO Jericho forgotten the good
Samaritan with q medicament of oil and
wine aud free ride 10 the hostelryy have
the English soldiers who went up to God
! from the Crimean battlelields forgotten
Florence Nightingale?
1t IS not half as well on earth known
| that Christopher Wren planned and built
| St. PauPs as it will be known in all heaven
| that you were the instrumentality a
! building n temple for the sky We teach
n Sabbath class, or put a Christian tract
in the hand of passer-by, or testify for
| Christ in a prayer meeting, or preach
sermon and 90 home discouraged, as
| though nothing had been accomplished
when we had been character building with
/ a material that TO frost or earthquake or
rolling Of the centuries can damage or
/ bring down.
Another defeat Of Oblivion win be
! found in the character of those whom we
! rescue. uplif5 or save. Character is etef-
\ nal. Suppose by a right influence we aid
/ in transforming a bad man into a good
| man. a dolorous man into happy man,
! dishe0rtened man into a courageous man,
! every stroke of that work done viii be i'm
mortalized. There may never be so much
| as one line in a newspaper regarding 1t or
! no mortal tongue may ever whisper it into
! human car, but wherever that soul shall
20 your work upon it shall 60, wherever
/ that soul rises your work on it will rise,
and so long as that soul will last your
work on it will last. Do You suppose
! there will ever come such an idiotic lapse
in the history Of chat soul in heaven chat
! it shall forget that you invited him to
| Christ; that YOU, by prayer or gospel
work, turned him round from the wrong
wav to the right way? No such insanity
will ever smite a heavenly citizen.
Oh, this character building! The struc'
ture lasting Independent of passing cen
turies, independent of erumbling mauso-
leums, independent Of the whole planetary
system Aye, if the material universe,
which seems all bound together like one
piece Of machinery, should some day meet
with an accident that should send worlds
crashing into each other like telescoped
railway trains. and all the wheels of con-
stellatons and galaXies should stop. and
down into one chasm of immensely all the
suns and moons and stars should tumble
like the midnight express at Ashtabula,
that would not touch US and would not
hurt God, for God is a spirit, and charac-
ter and memory are immortal, and over
that grave of a wrecked material universe
might tIuthfully be written, "The righte-
Gus shah be held in everlasting remem-
brance" 0 time, we defy thee! o death,
we stamp thee in the dust Of thine own
sepulchersl 0 eternity, roll on till the last
star has stopped rotating and the last sun
is eXtinguished on the sapphire pathway,
| and the last moon has lllumined the last
night, and as many years have passed as
all the sCribes that ever took pen could
describe by as many figures as they could
write in all the centuries Of all time, but
thou shalt have no power to efface from
any soul in glory the memory of anything
we have done to bring it to God and
heaven!
There is another and more complete
defeat for oblivion, and that is in the
heart of God Himself. You have seen a
sailor roll up his sleeve and show you his
arm tattooed with the figure of a favorite
ship, perhaps the first one in which he
ever sailed. You have seen a soldier roll
up his sleeve and show his arm tattooed
with the figure of a fortress where he was
garrisoned or the face of great general
under whom he fought. You have seen
many a hand tattooed with the face of a
loved one before or after marriage. This
custom of tattooing is almost as old as the
world 1t is some colored liquid pune
tured into the flesh so indelibly that moth
ing can wash it out. 1T may have been
there fifty wears, but when the man goes
into his coffin that picture will go with
him on hand or arm. Now, God says that
He has tattooed us upon His hands There
can be no other meaning in the forty-ninth
chapter Of Isaiah where God says, "Be-
hold, I have craven thee on the palms Of
My hands" 1t was as much as to say,
~ cannot open My hand to help but !
think of you. I cannot spread abroad My
hands to bless but I think of you. Wher.
these two pictures of you with Me- They
are so inwrought into My being that ]
cannot lose them. As long as My hands