Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-07-31

Is not at all certain if you are not brave
and true where you stand to-day.
".Just where thou art lift up thy voice,
nd sing the song that stirs thy heart;
Reach forth thy strong and eager nano
tn lift. to sa-e. Just where thou art:
Just where thou standest light thy lamp,
,Tis dark to others as to thee;
IT cir WAYS are hedged by unseen thorns,
Their burdens fret as thine fret thee.
"Out yonder, in the broad, full glare
Of MANY lamps thine own might pale
And thy sweet song amid the gear
OF ruanv voices slowly fail;
While these thy kindred wandered q
Uncheered, unlighted, to the end.
Near to thy hand thy mission lles:
Wherever sad hearts need a friend"
First-Pernaps you are where you are
because YOU have not filed full that posi-
ton. and God will never call you to a
HIGHER place until you have over1oWed
where YOU are. Mourning and frettlng be-
does not make things better. The bonds
are only frightened by the fretfulness. Two
birds in two cages in a room give an illus
tration. One dashing itself against the bars
because it is imprisoned. 1nlurlng ltselI
and stopping It's song; the other singing
as if it would outsing the lark IN the mead
VS., and moving thereby its mistress to
open the cage and set it free; he VINO goes
the best he can where God has placed him
has put his foot on the round Of the ladder
that leads up to higher things
Second-Usefulness is not the primary
object for the Christian. We say, oh,
that we might be more useful" but first
rather let us desire to be more holy. tor
that is Gods will. There is nothing bet
ter for the most of us than sorrow or dis
appointment or trial because these things
being good when everything about us
makes US good. and usefulness is the result
of character, is to character what the fra
GRANGE is to the rose. The gardener does
not aim first for the fragrance, but
to make the rose perfect, and the ira
GRANGE takes care of itself. If you study
the sermons of Whitfield, Wesley, Spur
econ and Moody YOU may wonder why
these sermons produced such mighty ct
the messenger rather than in the message.
To be right with God, to be holy, to be
Ike Christ. is our first duty, and through
the door of holiness we pass to usefulness.
In the early painting days of West,
Morse, the philosopher, entered his studio.
He was painting his masterpiece OF Christ
Rejected" when he said to his friend,
Leu 1lC Tile NOGI I1dlUS GI1u DdlIiD t1lCll LII
the picture," and if you nave ever seen
this picture you have seen the hands Of
Morse painted in the stead of Christ. il
YOU arc in bonds for Christ's sake this very
thought will take from you the sting OF
living possibly out OF sight and doing only
common things as you have done in other
days. yet the time will come when you
will be free.
Perhaps there are those here who are in
l--5 49,. .0aa..1 4Lo-- Ia~-o ~ov-oo ryo% In
come Christians. In the old Water street
mission there came one day a man bowed
down with sin Until he stood little more
than four feet high, like a veritable dwarf,
but when he bowed at the altar and
yielded himself to Christ he stood up as
straight as an athlete. Perhaps this is
what you need. Signing for peace, YOU
has eluded it's grasp. Oh, come to Christ
to-day, for He may set you free.
Then discipline may free us. Rawlins
White, the old martyr, was decrepit and
bowed with age, but when he stepped into
the fire suddenly these bonds were snapped
and his body was as straight as it had ever
been in the days of his youth. and it may
not be when sorrow came to you and
your heart was almost breaking, when the
flames of affection took hold upon you that
God was but seeking to free you from
bondage and lead you out into a larger
field Of service. The thing from which you
shrank away He meant for your edifca-
ton.
A dear friend of mine with whom I trav-
eled recently said, II was but an average
Christian until one day God came unto my
home and took my daughter, and then in
the midst of my sorrow [ yielded
| myself to Him, gave Him my time and
my money and everything that I had, and
[ stepped out into a life Of blessing such as
| had never known, and / would not give
the last twelve years for all my life before
put together" And then, too, we shall be
free when we see Him. For the man
whose sphere has been most circumscribed
here will doubtless find when he stands in
in a preparation for a mission among the
saints at which the very angels might well
stand amazed.
If all these seem like hardships to US and
we have been without comfort, then let us
wait until the day of reward shall come.
The mother who has had a hard time with
her children, just wait and do u best
When Charles Wesley comes to Judgment.
and all the hosts that nave been won tc
Christ by His power of music come, it will
be a great day, and when John Wesley
comes to judgment with all the souls Of
Methodism with him it will be a marvellous
sight. but higher than the throne of either
Charles Wesley or John will be throne oil
susanna Wesley, their mother.
The old preacher who has been discour,
aged oft times because his church was SC
small and his work so apparently insignif.
cant, needs only to wait until that great
day, and when that old minister who
preached in Fal]kirk stands in His presence
to say possibly to Him, Master, I had but
a little field" he will hear Him saw, "Bui
you led Robert Mofat to me-" and as
Joseph Parker said the man who added
Robert Moffat to the church added a cont
nent to the kingdom. And when the old
English minister whose field was very cir
cumscribed, whose name is not generally
known, stands in His presence to saw
Master, I did the best I could, but n,
church was SMALL" He will say to him
But you led Charles Spurgeon to Christ
and Spurgeon led a multitude"
When Henry VIII. and Anne Bolevr
came up the River Thames they had :
great entrance into the city of London
Fifty barges followed the Lord Mavor
Officials were dressed in scarlet. Musician,
chanted upon the banks of the river. anc
she who was to be the queen clad in oar
ments OF beauty, walking upon velvet, en-
tered Westminster AbhoU o,J IL.