The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-09-13

upon this subject than II God had yet %
do you the FIRST kindness or you had 20 do
Cod the first wrong. Seated on His lap
al these years His everlasting arms shel.
tering you, where IL your gratitudeY
Where Is your morning and evening pray
er! Where are your cOnaeerated hveaf
] say to you, as Daniel said 10 Belshazzar.
'lhe God IN whose hand thy breath Is
Rnd an thy way thou hast not glOrihod."
IL you treated anybody as badly as you
have treated God, you would have made
500 apologies - yea, your whole life would
have been an apology. Three times day
you have been seated at Gods table.
Spring summer, autumn and winter II
has appropriately appareled you. Your
health from Him, your companion from
Him, your children from Him, your home
from Him, all the bright surroundings OF
your life from Him.
Oh. man. what dost thou with that hard
heart? Canst thou not feel one throb Of
gratitude toward the God that made You
and the Christ who came 10 redeem you
and the Holy Ghost who has all these
years been importuning you!
If / could. gather all the griefs Of oil
sorts from these crowded streets and could
put them in one scroll, neither man nor
angel could endure the recitation. Well,
what do you want2 Would you like to
you say as a Christian man, Il was be-
coming arrogant and think that is why
the Lcrd took 1t away. ] don't want to
have my property back" Well, would
you have your departed friends back
again? NO" you say, 81 couldn't take
the responsibility Of bringing them from
q fearless realm to a realm of tears.
couldn't do it." Well, then, what do you
want? A thousand voices in the audience
E-.=A
For that reason | have rolled away the
stone from the wells mouth. Come, all
We wounded of the flock, pursued of the
wolves, come to the fountain where the
Lords sick and bereft ones have come.
! "Ah," says some one, you are not old
enough to understand my sorrows. You
have not been in the world as long as |
have, and you can't talk to me about my
misfortunes in the time of old age" Well
1 may not have lived as long as you, but
| have been a great deal among old people,
and know how they feel about their fail
! ing health and about their departed
friends and about the loneliness that some
times strikes through their souls. After
two persons have lived together for forty
or fifty years, and one of them is taken
away, what desolation!
l shall not forget the cry of DR.. De
! Witt, of New York, when he stood by the
open grave of his beloved wife, and after
the obsequies had ended he looked down
into the open place and said: Farewell,
my honored, faithful and beloved wife.
The bond that bound us is severed. Thou
art in glory, and | am here on earth. We
shall meet again. FAREWELL FAREWELL"
To lean on a prop for fifty years and
then have it break under you! There were
only two years difference between the
death of my father and mother After my
mothers decease my father used to go
around as though looking for something.
He would often get up from one room
| without any seeming reason and go to an
other room, and then he would take his
cane and start out, and some one would
say, Father, where are you goingT And
he would answer, Il don't know exactly
where / am going" Always looking for
something. Though he was a tender
hearted man l never saw him cry but
once, and that was at the burial Of my
mother After sixty years living together
it was hard to part. And there are aged
people to-day who are feeling just such a
pang as that. / want to tell them there is
perfect enchantment in the promises Of
this gospel, and l come to them and offer
them my arm, or l take their arm and
bring them to this gospel well. Sit down,
father or mother; sit down. See if there
is anything at the well for you. Come,
David, the psalmist, have you anything
encouraging to offer them? eyes," says
the psaImist; "they shall still bring forth
fruit in old age; they shall be fat and
fourishing to show that the Lord Is up
right. He is my rock, and there is no UNI
righteousness in Him." Come, Isaiah,
have you anything to say out of your pro-
phecies for these aged people? eyes,"
says Isaiah; down to old age | am with
thee, and to hoary hairs will carry thee" "
Well, if the Lord is going to carry you,
you ought not to worry much about your
ailing eyesight and failing limbs.
You get little worried for fear that
some time you will come to want, do you!
Your children and grandchildren some
times speak little sharp to you because
OF your ailments. The Lord will not
speak sharp. Do you think you will come
to want? What do you think the Lord
is? Are His granaries empty? Will He
feed the raven and the rabbit and the lion
in the desert and forget you? Why nat
uralists tell us that the porpoise will not
forsake its wounded and sick mate. And
do you suppose the Lord of heaven and
earth has not as much sympathy as the
fish of the sea? But you say, Il am SO
near worn out, and am OF no use to God
any more" | think the Lord knows
whether you are of any more use or not
If you were of no more use He would have
taken you before this Do you think God
has forgotten you because He has taken
care of you seventy or eighty years? He
thinks more of you to-day than He ever
did because you think more of Him May
the God of Abraham and Isaac and jacob
and Paul the aged be your God forever
But I gather all the promises to-day in q
group, and l ask the shepherds to drive
their focks of lambs and sheep up to the
sparkling supply. Behold, happy is the
man who God correcteth." Though He
cause grief, yet will He have compassion
MANY are the Affections of the righteous
but the Lord delvereth him out of then
all. 'Weeping may endure for a night