The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1902-09-05

preparing for the great and eternal
! journey beyond the grave, beg of you
at this critical time to look after the
spiritual interests of your loved ones
and those who are near to you.
But there is one overwhelming
thought about my text upon which
love to dwell. If we go to the throne
of grace in the right spirit of prayer,
God will let every one of us live as
long as is necessary to do the work
he wants us to do in his name. When
the prophet Isaiah entered the royal
palace of Jerusalem and said to the
sick Hezekiah, "Thus saith the Lord,
set thine house in order, for thou shalt
/ die" the king turned his face toward
the wall and began to weep. Hezekiah
was not weeping because he had to die.
He was not afraid to die. But he wept
because he could not accomplish for
God and his people that which seemed
necessary for him to do. Then, in
answer to Hezekiah's prayer, God said
to Isaiah the prophet, go and say to
Hezekiah, Thus saith the Lord the God
of David thy father, | have heard thy
prayer; have seen thy tears. Behold,
l will add unto thy days fifteen years."
So today, IL, like Hezekiah, we will
pray in the right spirit, God will let
most Of us live long enough to carry
the gospel message to all of our dear
ones as well as to spiritually prepare
for our own eternal journey. But as
our earthly time is short, in order to
make this spiritual preparation our
selves and to help make the spiritual
preparation of our loved ones by bring
ing them to the Saviour, we must con-
secrate ourselves to the Lords service
now. By the power of the Holy Spirit
we must consecrate our lives to Gods
work as we have never consecrated
them before. We must so eat and
drink and breathe and talk and pray
that we shall make Christ the supreme
ruler of our lives so that in all things
we may do nothing inconsistent with
our allegiance to him. Are you and
like Hezekiah-ready to surrender our
lives entirely to the Divine Masters
will?
"Christ or Diana?"
Some of us have seen the noted pic
ture which bears the title Christ or
Diana? The central figure is a beau
tiful girl, with one of the sweetest,
noblest faces ever painted by an art
lists brush. With true dramatic pow
err the master has surrounded that
young girl with all the horrors of a
Neronian persecution. There in the
background of the picture is the am
phitheater in which wild beasts are
tearing the martyrs to pieces and
crunching the bones of the slain.
There are the torches made out of the
living bodies of men and women, COW
cred with pitch, who are dying for
their belief in the lowly Nazarene.
There are the grim faced Roman sol
diers. There is the pleading lover, as
well as the pleading mother and ia
Their, begging the young girl to re-
nounce her belief in her Saviour. And
there the young maiden stands be-
tween the altar of heather God and
the solemn upright cross, upon which
is hanging the bruised body of dead
Christ.
That picture may be dramatic and
but, OH my brother, there is
a truer scene being enacted here to-
day. AS l speak the words of my
text your own eternal redemption, as
well as that of all your loved ones, is
pleading with you. They are pleading
with you to stop worshiping at the
altar of Caesar, which is the altar of
sin. They are pleading with you be-
cause if you do not cease to bow be-
fore sins altar you shall surely die. |
But if you will in the few years that |
are left on earth bow before the cross |
and accept Christ as your Saviour you
shall eternally live. And if you here
and now consecrate your life Alright to
the Divine Masters service your loved |
ones, by hearing the gospel message
from your life, may eternally live also.
May the Holy Spirit lead every one of
is to make the right preparations for
he imminent Journey through the
lark valley of the shadow of death.
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