The Leon reporter., 1901-12-19

nizing the payements looking for tur-
quoises and emeralds and rubies. Per-
haps you might find them, but there is
not much probability that in fifty years
you would find one of them.
Another discovery that surprises us
| because we had not passed this way be-
| fore is the fact that if two be in quar-
rel or in war with each other the one
who is the most wrong is the hardest
and the slowest to make up.
But closely allied is the other fact
which we limited at in the opening
| that we will not pass this way again.
This is our only opportunity for doing
certain things that ought to be done.
On all sides there are griefs We ought
to solace, hunger we ought to feed, cold
that we ought to warm, kind words
that we ought to speak, generous deeds
we ought to perform. All that you and
| do toward making this world better
and happier we must do very soon or
never do at all. Joshua and his troops
never came back over the way they
were marching toward the crossing of
| the Jordan. The impress of the sandal
or the bare feet of each soldier showed
in what direction he was going, but
never did the impress # the sandal Of
any one of them show that he had re-
turned. We are all facing eternity to
come. There is no retreat Alertness
and fidelity would not be SO important
If we could trpthfully say: Il will be
back here again. The things l neglect
now | will do the next time l come.
l will be reincarnated, and l will re-
sumo my earthly obligations. Having
then more knowledge than l have now,
l will discharge my earthly duties bet
ter than l can now discharge them l
do not give solemn farewell to these
obligations and opportunities but a
smiling and CHEEKY good-by until l
see them again" No; we cannot say
that. There will be no new and cor
rected edition of the volume of our
earthly life. How many millions of
people have lived and died | know not
but of all the human race who have
gone only seven persons that | now
think of have returned, the son of the
widow at Zarephath, the young man Of
Main, the rulers daughter, Tabitha,
Eutychus, Lazarus and Christ Among
all the ages to come | do not suppose
there will be one more who will return
to this life: having once left it,
Lord Bacon said that he who shall
discover the way to make myrrh solu-
Bile by human blood will discover i'm
mortal life on earth, but no such dis
covery will ever be made. With what
SIl0ppStiVa cn1pnnity ic ph}
charge every hour of our earthly exist
ence. 1t is said that it is possible to
know which way the wind blew at the
time of the deluge by the mark of the
wave still to be found in the sand and
the direction of our influence however
slight, will leave a mark tha will last
forever
AT this point | ask you to notice the
TACT that my text does not call atten-
tlon to the crossing of the Jordan, but
to the way leading thereto. We all
think much of our crossing of the Jor-
dan when the march of our life is end
ed, but put too little emphasis on the
way that leads to the crossing. What
you and | need most to care about is
the direction of the road we are travel
ing. We need have no fear of the
crossing if we come to it in the right
way. In other words, we need not care
about death if our life has been what
it ought to be. We will die right ii we
live right.
What an absurdity it would have
been for Joshua and his men to have
asked each other questions like these:
How can we cross the Jordan if we
get there? Will not the water be too
deep to allow us to wade? Will we not
all be so saturated that we may lose
our lives by exposure? How many OF
| us can swim? Had we better not wait
until the annual freshet has subsided?"
No such folly did they commit They
were anxious chiefly about the way
that they had mot passed before and
were ignorant of and TO keep their eyes
on the golden covered acacia box, wing
mounted which was the ark of the coy-
enant.
O hearer, stop bothering about your
exit from sublunary scenes! BY the
grace of God get your heart right and
then go ahead. If the Lord takes care
of you clear on to the bank on this
side of the river, | think you can
trust him to take you from bank to
bank on the other side. Keep your eye
on the ark, and whatever betides, you
will go through all right
One Easter morning Massena, the
marshal of France, appeared with 49,
600 armed men On the heights above
the town of Feldkirch. There were no
arms to defend the town, and the in
habitants were wild with terror. Then
the old dean of the church cried ont.
MY brothers, this is Easter day! We
have been depending on our own
strength, and that fails. Let us turn
to God. Ring the bells and have serv
ice as usual" Then the bells rang ont