Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-02-07

II
what a blessing TO have plenty OF
friendss Aye. IL you have only one
good friend. sou are blessed in tina,
glad possession. With one such friend
you can defy The world. But he mus.
be tried friea1. You cannot tell who
are your real friends till disasters come
AS long as yol collect vast dividends
and have health jocund and popularity
unbounded you will have crowds of
seeming friends, but let bankruptcy
and invalidIsm and defamation come
and the number OF your friends will
be 90 per cent Off. II you have beer
through some great crisis and you have
one friend left. thank God aud cele.
brate 1t on the sweetest barpstring.
while oil this is So" says some one
there are so many things that Others
have which I have not" I reply, It is
not what we get, but what we are. that
decides our happiness. With the bare
necessities Of life many are unspeaka.
bly, happy, while others with all the
luxuries are impersonations of misery.
In the Roman empire there was 10
man more wretched than the Nero who
ruled 1t. The porticoes OF his palace
We're a mile long. A statue OF him in
| silver and gold 120 feet high stood In
the vestibule. The walls Of his palace
We're mother of pearl and Ivory. The
ceiling was arranged to shower lowers
and pour perfumes upon the guests.
His wardrobe was so large that he new.
er wore a garment twice. His mules
were shod in silver. He fished with
hooks Of gold. A thousand carriages
accompanied him when he Travelled
His crown was worth 100000. He had
everything but happiness. Tbatsnever
came. Your heart right, all is right,
your heart wrong. all is wrong.
The Gospel of Good Morals.
| But we must tighten the cords Of our
harp and retune 1t while we celebrate
gospel advantages. The highest style
OF civilization the world has ever seer
Is American civilization, and It is built
put of the gospel OF pardon and good
morals. That gospel rocked our cradle
and IL will epitaph our grave. 1t soothes
our sorrows. brightens our hopes, in
spires our courage. forgives our sins
and saves our souls. 1t takes a mar
who is all wrong and makes him al
right. What that gospel has done fol
you and me is story that we car
never fully tell What n has done fol
the world and will yet 90 Tor the ns,
lions It will take the thousand yesrs Al
the millennium to celebrate. The grand
est churches are yet to be built. The
mightiest anthems are yet 10 be hoist
ed. The greatest victories are yet &c
be gained. The most beautiful Ma.
donnas are yet to be painted. The
most triumphant professions are yet to
march. Oh. what q world this will be
when it rotstes in its orbit redeemed
planet, girdIed with spontaneous har.
vests and enriched by orchards whose
fruits are speckless and redundant, and
the last pain win have been banished
and the last tear wept and the last
groan uttered, and there shall be moth
ing to hurt or destroy I'm all Gods holy
mountainl All that and more will come
to pass, for ''tbe mouth OF the Lord
hath spoken it,
So far have mentioned nine of the
ten strings Of the instrument OF graft
tude. l now come to the tenth and the
last. / mention 1t last that It may be
patton. BY the grace OF God we are
going TO move into a place so much
better than this that on arriving we
will wonder that we were for so many
years so loath 10 make the transfer
After we have seen Christ face TO face
and rejoiced over our departed Kindred
there are some mighty spirits we will
want 10 meet soon after we pass
through the gates. We want to see and
viii see David. n mightier king in
heaven than he ever was on earth, and
we will talk with him about psalmody
and get from him exactly what he
meant when he talked about the instru-
ment OF ten strings. We will confront
Moses. who will tell of the law giving
on rocking Sinai and OF his mysterious
burial, with no one but God present.
We will see Joshua, and he will tell us
OF the coming down OF the walls OF
Jericho at the blast OF the rams horn
and explain TO us that miracIe-how
the sun and moon could stand still
without demolition OF the planetary
system. We will see Ruth and have
her tell of the harvest field OF Boaz. In
which she CLEANED for afflicted Naomi.
We will see Yashti and hear from her
own lips the story OF her Punishment
from the Persian palace by infamous
Ahasuerus.
Delights OF the Future.
We will sec and talk with Daniel,
and he will tell us how he saw Bel
shazzar's banqueting hall turned into a
slaughter house and how the lions
greeted him with loving fawn instead
OF stroke OF cruel paw. We will see
and talk with Solomon. whose palaces
are gone. but whose inspired epIgra ms
stand out stronger and stronger as the
centuries pass We will see Paul and
hear from him how Felix trembled be-
fore him and the audience OF skeptics
on Mars hill were COMPOUNDED by his
sermon on the brotherhood OF man,
what he saw at Ephesus and Syracuse
and PhilIppi and Rome and how dark
was the Mamertne dungeon and how
sharp the AK that beheaded him on the
road to Ostia. Yea. we will see all the
martyrs, the victims OF ak and sword
and fire and billow. What a thrill of
excitement for us when we gaze upon
thC RciOCc atlQ hSEOlntS WHO SuVc their
lives for the truth. We will see the
gospel prociaimers Chrysostom and
Bourdaloue' and Whitefeld and the
Wesleys and John Knox. We will see
the great Christian poets Milton and
Dante and Watts and Mrs. Hemans
and Frances Havergal. Yea, all the
departed Christian men and women of
whatever age or nation.
But there will be one focus toward
which oil eyes will be directed. His
infancy having slept on pillow OF
straw; all the hates OF the Herodic
government planning for his assassi-
nation; in after time whipped as
though he were crfminal; asleep on
the cold mountains because no one Of
fered him lodging; though the great
est being who ever touched our earth,
derisively called this fellow" his last
hours writing on spikes of infinite
torture; his lacerated form put In sep
ulcher. then terminated and assembled