Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1901-10-17

him was nearby a 1aver, in which he
might wash and a coronet Of eternal bless
edness he n ight wear?
What are epitaphs in g~raveyards, what
are e%ulogiun.s in presence OF those WHOSE
breath IS in their nostrils, what are unread
biographies in the alcoves of a city library,
compared with the i~mperishabie records
YOU have made in the illumined memories
of those to whom you did such kindnesses!
Forget them? They cannot forget them.
Notwithstanding all their might and splen,
dor. there are some things the g%loriiedl
Of heaven cannot do, and this IS one OF
them. -
They cannot forget an earthly kindness
done. They nave not cutlass to part that
cable. They have nj strength to hurl into
oblivion that benefaction. Has Paul for
gotten the inhabitants OF Malta, VINO eX,
tended the island hospitality when he and
others with him had felt. added to a ship
wreck, the drenching rain and the sharp
cold? Has the victim of the highwayman
on the road to Jericho forgotten the good
Samaritan with a medicament OF oil and
wine and a free ride to the hosiery? Have
the English soldiers who went up to SOD
from the Crimean battlefields forgotten
Florence Nightingale?
It is not half as we'll on earth known
that Christopher Wren planned and built
St. Paul's as it will be known in all heaven
that YOU were the instrumentallty OF
building a temple for the sky. We teach
a Sabbath class, or put a Christian tract
in the hand of a passer-by, or testify tor
Christ in a prayer meeting, or preach a
sermon and go nome discouraged, as
though nothing had been accomplished,
when we had been character building. with
a material that no frost or earthquake or
rolling of the centuries can damage or
bring down.
Another defeat of Oblivion will be
rescue. uplift or save. Character is eter-
nal. Suppose by a right influence we aid
in transforming a bad man into a good
man, q dolorous man into a happy man, a
disheartened man into a courageous man,
every stroke of that work done will be Inn
mortalized. There may never be so much
as one line in a newspaper regarding 1T or
no mortal tongue may ever whisper 1t into
human ear, but wherever that soul shall
90 your work upon it shall go, 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 that soul in heaven that
il shall forget that you invited him to
Christ: that you, by prayer or gospel
work, turned him round from the wrong
will ever smite a heavenly citizen.
Oh. this character building! The struc-
ture lasting independent Of passing CEN
turtles, independent of c%rumbling 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-
stellations and g~alaxies should stop, and
down into one chasm of immensely all the
suns and moons and stars should tumble
ike 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 truthfully be written, THE righte-
Gus shall be held in everlasting remem-
brance." 0 time. we defy thee! 0 death,
we stamp thee in the dust of thine own
sepu}chers! o 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 illumined 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
NLItO LII ~ LIN 10 VI oA LIN ouS
thou shalt have no power to eface from
any soul in glory the memory of anything
we have done to bring it to God and
heaveni
There is another and a more complete
defeat for oblivion, and that is in the
heart Of God Himself. You lave 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
n1-or, salad V0, hoxn raar n oolI,a~ vol
up his sleeve and show his arm t%attooed
with the figure of a fortress where he was
garrisoned or the face of a great genera
under whom he fought. You have seer
many a hand tattooed with the face of g
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 beer
into his coffin that picture will go will
him on land or arm. Now. God says tina
He has tattooed us upon His hands. Their
can. be nc other meaning in the forty-nintl
chapter of Isaiah, where God says, "Be
hold. [ have craven thee on the palms O
My hands" 1t was as much as to say
II cannot open My hand to help but
think of you. | cannot spread abroad M!
hands to bless but [ think of you. Wher
w l. ~ up VI NO"A liz ASo l. a
these two pictures of You with Me. The!
are SO inwrought into My being that
cannot lose them. AS long as My hand
last the memory of you will last. Not OF
the back of My hands, as though to an
nounce you to others, but on the palm
of My hands for Myself to look at AM
study and love. Though I hold the wind
in My fist, no cyclone shall uproot the in
scrlpt1on of your name and your face, an.
though I hold the ocean in the hollow O
My hand it's billowing shall not wash GU
the record of My remembrance. Behold
| have craven thee on the palms of M,
hands,"
What joy, what honor, can there b
comparable to that Of being remembered
by the %mightiest and most affectionat
being in the universe? Think of 1T
hold an everlasting place in the heart o
God! The heart Of God! The most beau
tlful palace in the universe. Let the arch
angel build some palace as grand as tina
if he can. Let him crumble up all tn
stars of yesternight and tomorrow nigh
and put them together as mosaics for sue
a palace floor. Let him take all the SUI
rises and sunsets of all the days and tn
auroras of all the nights and hang ther
as upholstery at its windows. Let hir
a all the rivers and all the lakes an
all the oceans and toss them into the four
talns of this palace court.
Oh, where is oblivion now? From til
dark and overshadowing word that
seemed when [ began it has become som,
thing which no man or woman or chi
who loves the Lord need ever fear. OF
1ivion Iofoa+od Ob1;r;o, Jo,J Obl:-;-