Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-04-19
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There is an industrious and consecrated
woman complete Invalid. Explain that.
There is bad man with $780, 600 of in.
come. There is a good man with $500 of
income Why is that? There is foe of
society who lives on, doing all the dam.
and here is a Christian father. faithful
in every department of life, at thirty-fve
wears of age taken away by death, his
family left helpless. Explain that. Oh,
there is no sentence that oftener drops
from your lips than this: Il cannot I'm.
derstand it; cannot understand it,"
Well, now religion comes in just at
that point with its illumination and its
explanation. There is business man
week before he lost his fortune there were
twenty carriages that stopped at the
door of his mansion. The week after he
lost his fortune all the carriages you
could count on one finger. The week
before financial trouble began people all
took off their hats to 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 insolvent 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 to him and
says: "You are sick, and your sickness
is to be moral publication. You are be-
reaved. God wanted in some way to take
your family to heaven, and He must be-
gin somewhere, and so He. took the, one
that was most beautiful and was ready to
CO." l do not say that religion EXPLAINS
everything in this life, but | do say it
lays down certain principles which. are
men often telegraph in cipher. The mer-
chant in San Francisco telegraph his to the
merchant in New York certain informa-
ton in cipher which no other man in
that line of business can understand, but
the merchant in San Francisco has the
key to the cipher, and the merchant in
New York has the key to 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
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 to understand that it is for the best.
Oh, what an observatory IN which to
study astronomy heaven will be, not by
power of telescope, but by supernatural
full 100000 miles away, by one stroke of
the wing you are there, by another stroke
of the wing you are back again. and all in
less time than | tell you, catching it all
in one fash of eternity.
And geology! What place thai will
be to study geology when the world is be-
ing picked to pieces as easily as a. school.
girl in botanical lessons pulls the leaf
from the corolla What a place to study
architecture, amid the thrones and the
palaces and the cathedrals-St. Marks
and st. Paul's rookeries in comparison
Sometimes you wish you could make
the tour of 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 must
cal pause in the eternal anthem. l say
these things for the comfort of those peo-
pie who are abridged in their opportuni'
ties-those people to whom life is: hum;
drum, who toll and work and toll and
work and aspire after knowledge. but
have no time to get it and say, eff had
have, how would fill my mind and soul
with great thoughts!" Be not discour
aged, my friends. You are going to the
university yet Death will only matricu
late you into the royal college of the uni
verse.
What a sublime thing it was that DR..
Thornwell, of South Carolina, uttered in
his last dying moments! As he looked uD
he said, at opens; it expands, 1t eX'
pands" Or as Mr.. Toplady, the author
Of Crock of Ages" in his last moment or
during his last hours looked up and SAID,
aa though ho ,o,.iethins supernatural,
"LightW and then as he came on nearer
the dying moment, his countenance 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 oil 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 to 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 Of France, and
you do not see him for a long while, and
after awhile you meet MIN, and the hol-
lows under the eyes are all filed, and the
appetite has come back, and the crutch
has been thrown away, and he is so
changed you hardly know him. You say,
"Why, | never saw you look so WELL. lie
says: II couldn't help but be well. L
have been sailing these rivers and climb,
ing these mountains, and that's how.
got this elasticity. ] never was so we'll"
Oh, my friends, your departed loved ones
are only away for their health in bet
ter climate and when you meet them
they will be so changed you will hardly
know them, they will be SO much changed,
and aftsr awhile, when you are assured
that they are your friends, your depart
ed friends, you will say: "Why, where
is that cough? Where is that paralysis?
Where is that pneumonia Where is that
consumption" And he will say: "Oh, l
am entirely WE'LL There is no sick ones
in this country. | have been ranging
these hills and hence this elasticity. !
have been here now tw"nty years, an,
not one sick one have L seen. We are all
well in this climate"
And then | stand at the gate of the &C.
lestial city to see the professions come
out, and ] see a long procession OF little
children with their arms full of flowers,
and then see a procession of kings and
long procession, but no black tasseled
vehicle no mourning group-and | say:
Glow strange it Isl Where is your Green
wood? Where is your Laurel Lii? Where
is your Westminster Abbey? And they
shall cry, "There are no graves here" And
then listen for the tolling of the old bell.
fries of heaven, the old belfries of etelni.
ty. I listen to hear TEN toll for the
dead, but they toll not for the dead. They
only strike up a silvery chime, tower. to
tower, east gate to west gate, as they