Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-08-16

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,
| may not have lived as long as you, but
have been a great deal among old people,
and I 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!
| 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 l 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
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 going?" And
he would answer, 81 don't know exactly
where 1 am going" Always looking for
something. Though he was tender
hearted man l never saw him cry but
once, and that was at the burial of my
mother; After sixty years living together
people to-day who are feeling just such
pang as that l want to tell them there is
perfect enchantment in the promises of
this gospel, and 1 come to them and offer
them my arm, or 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 psalmist; "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 un-
Righteousness in Him." Come, Isaiah,
have you. anything to say out of your pro,
says Isaiah; down to old age am with
thee, and to hoary hairs will l 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 a 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 granares 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, II am SO
near worn out, and am of no use to God
any more" l 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. 10 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 gather all the promises to-day in
group, and ask the shepherds to drive
their focks of lambs and sheep up to the
sparkling supply. Behold happy is the
cause grief, yet will He have compassion"
MANY are the Affections of the righteous,
but the Lord delivereth him out of them
ALL" Weeping may endure for a night,
but joy cometh in the morning" l am
determined that no one shall 60 out of
this house uncontrolled.
So I come to your timid and shrinking
soul to-day and compel you to come out
in the presence of the Divine Physician.
He will not hurt you. He has been heal
ing wounds for many years, anu He will
give you gentle and omnipotent medica-
ment.
But people, when they have trouble, 60
anywhere rather than to God. DE Quin-
cey took opium to get rid of his troubles,
Charles Lamb took to punch, Theodore
Hook took to something stronger. Edwin
Forrest took to theatrical dissipation, and
men have run all around the earth, hop
ing in the quick transit to get away from
their misfortunes. 1t has been a dead
failure. There is only one we'll that can
slake the thirst of an afflicted spirit, and
that is the deep and inexhaustible well of
the gospel.
But some one in the audience says,
Notwithstanding all you have said this
morning. find no alienation for my trou-
bles." Well, am not through yet.
have left the most potent consideration
for the last. am going to soothe YOU
with the thought of heaven. However
laxative we may be, there will come a
time when the stoutcst and most en-
phatic interrogation will evoke from lis
our lips for the final silence no power on
earth can break that taciturnity. But
where, o Christian, will be your spirit?
In scene of infinite gladness; the spring
morning of heaven waving its blossoms in
the bright air; victors fresh from battle
showing their scars; the rain of earthly
sorrow struck through with the rainbow
of eternal Joy; in one group God and an
gels and the redccmcd-Paul and Silas,
Latimer and Ridty, Isaiah and jeremiah,
Payson and John Milton, Gabriel and
Michael, the archangel; long line of choris-
ters reaching across the hills; seas of JOY
marching from gate to gate, you among
them. Oh. what a great flock God will
gather around the celestial well! No stone
on the wells mouth while the shepherd
waters the sheep. There Jacob will rec
ognize Rachel, the shepherdess. And.
standing on one side of the we'll of eternal
rapture your children and standing on the
other side of eternal rapture your Chris
tan ancestry, you will be bounded on all
sides by a JOY so keen and grand that no
other world has ever been permitted to
it. Ont Of that one deep we'll
OF heaven the Shepherd will dip reunion
for the bereaved wealth for the poor,
health for the sick, rest for. the weary.
And then all the flock of the Lords sheep
will lie down in the green pastures, and
world without end we will praise the
Lord that on this summer Sabbath morn
ing we were permitted to study the story
of Jacob and Rachel at the well