The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-11-15

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/ earth we ought 10 be impressed with
/ how we may he influenced hy others far
/ away back and how we may influence
/ others far down the future That rim
away up among the Alleghanies, 30 thin
/ YOU think it viii hardly find its way down
/ the rocks, becomes the mighty Ohio, roll.
/ ing into the Mississippi and rolling into
/ the sea. That word YOU utter that deed
| You do, may augment itself az the years
60 by until rivers cease 20 roll and the
ocean Itself snail be dried mp ia the burn.
ing Of the world. Paul, who was all the
time saying important things, said moth.
ing more startlingly suggestive than when
/ he declared None Of MS lveth or dieth
to himself" Words. thouEhts, actions,
have an eternity Of fight.
As Job could not bind the sweet in
fuenecs of the Seven Stars, as they were
| called, 80 we cannot arrest or turn aside
/ the good projected long ago. Those in.
/ fiuences were started centuries before our
cradle was rocked and viii reign cen
turtles after our graves are dug Oh, IL is
a tremendous thing to live! God help as
to live Alright.
Astronomers can easily locate the PIE
fades They viii take You into their OBJ
servatorigs on a clear night and aim their
revealing instrument toward the part i'm
the heavens where those seven stars have
their habitude. and thew will point TO the
constellation taurus, anu yuu can see
for yourself. But it is impossible to point
TO influences far back that have affected
our character and will affect our destiny
| We know the influences near by-pa-
ternal, maternal coniugal-but by the
time we have gone back two generations,
| or, at most, three. our investigations
falter and fail Through the modern,
interesting habit of searching back to
find the ancestral tree we may find
long list Of names, but they are only
names. The conservation on abandon
ment of some one 200 years ago was not
recorded. 1t would not be so important
If YOU and /. by our good or bad be-
haviOr, blessed or blasted only those i'm.
mediateiy around MS, but our goodness
or our badness will reach as far % the
strongest ray of Alcyone-yea, across the
eternity. Under this consideration,
what do you think Of those VINO give
themselves up to frivohty or ldleness
and throw away fifty years of their exist
euce as though they were shells or peb-
bles or pods instead of embyro eternites?
1 suppose one Of the greatest surprises
Of the next world viii be to see what
wide, far-reaching influence for good or
evil we have all exerted l am speaking
of ourselves. who are only ordinary peO-
PIE. But who can fully appreciate the
far-reaching good done by men of wealth
in Great Britain for the working classes
Mr. Lister. of Bradford; Edward
Akroyd, of Halifax; Thomas Skies, of
Huddersfeid; Joseph Wentworth, and
Josiah Mason, and Sir Titus Salt? This
last great soul, with his vast wealth, pro
vided 756 houses at cheap rent for 5000
working people, and chapel and cricket
ground and croquet lawn and concert
hall and savings bank, where they
might deposit some of their earnings,
and life insurance for those who looked
further ahead, and lighthouses and parks
and museums and lecture halls with
philosophical apparatus, the generous
example of those men of a previous gem
Grafton being copied in many places in
Canada and the United States, making
life, which would otherwise be a pro-
longed drudgery, an inspiration and a
joy.
If something appears against us, they
say. wait till [ hear the other side"
If disaster shall befall US, we know from
whom would come the first coincidence.
Family friends, church friends business
friends, lifelong friends. In our heart
of hearts we cherish them.
When the heirs OF a vast estate in
England wished to establish their claim
TO property worth 500 100000 they offered
reward of $500 for the recovery of an
old Bible, the family record of which
contained the evidence requisite. But
any Bible, new or old, can help us to q
vaster inheritance than the one spoken
OF, one that never fades away.
The sweet influences of the heavenly
world, which many wise men thought
for long while was Alcyone, the centre
of the constellation of the Pleiades-
world of our future residence, as we hope;
world of chorus and illumination; world
of reunion; world where we shall be
everlastingly complete; world where our
old faculties will be itensihed and quick
ened and new faculties Implanted; world
of high association with Christ, through
whose grace we got there at all, and
apostles and poets, Habakkuk, and st.
John of Patmos, and Edward Young, his
might Thoughts" turned into eternal
day. and Horatius Bonar of modern
.hymnology, and Hannah More, and Mrs.
Hemans, and Mrs. Sigourney, who struck
their harps till nations listened; and
David, the victor over Goliath with what
seemed insufficient weapons; and Joshua
of the prolonged day in Gideon, and
Havelock, the evangelist hero, and those
thousands of men of the sword who
fought on the right side. What company
to move in! What guests to entertain!
What personages to visit What cholrs
to chant! What banquets with lifted
chalice filed with "the new wine of the
llingdoml" What victories to celebrate!
The stories of that world and its holy
hilarities come in upon our souls some
times in song, sometimes in sermon.
, sometimes in hours of solitary reflection
and they are, to use the words of my
text, sweet influences. But there is one
star that affects us more with its sweet
influences than the centre star, the
Alcyone of the Pleiades, and that is what
one Bible author calls the Star of jacob
and another Bible author calls the Morn
, ing Star. OF all the sweet influences that
have ever touched our earth those that
| radiate from Christ are the sweetest