Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1902-02-05

disasters come. As long as you collect
vast dividends and have health jocund
and popularity unbounded you will have
crowds OF seeming friends, but let bank
ruptcy and invalidism and defamation
come, and the number OF your friends
will be 95 per cent of. II you have been
through some great crisis and you have
one friend left, thank God and celebrate
il on the sweetest harpstring.
While all this is So" says some one,
there are so many things that others
have which ! have not" | reply. II is
not what we get. but what we are. that
decides cur happiness. With the bare
necessities of life many are unspeaka-
bly, happy, while others with all the
Injuries are representations OF misery.
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 it while we celebrate
gospel advantages. The highest style OF
civilization the world has ever seen is
American civilization, and 1t is built out
of the gospel Of pardon and good morals.
That gospel rocked our cradle and it will
epitaph our grave. 1t soothes our sor-
rows, brightens our hopes, inspires our
courage, forgives our sins and saves our
souls. 1t takes man who is all wrong
and makes him all right What that gos-
pei has done for you and me is a story
that we can never fully tell. What it
has done for the world and will yet de
for the nations il will take the thousand
years OF the millennium TO celebrate The
grandest churches are yet TO be built. The
mightiest anthems are yet to be hoisted.
The greatest victories are yet to be gain
ed. The most beautiful Madonnas are
yet to be painted. The most triumphant
professions are yet to march. oh, what
a world this will be when it rotates in
its orbit a redeemed planet, girdled with
spontaneous harvests and enriched by
orchards whose fruits are speckess and
redundant, and the last pain will have
been banished and the last tear wept and
the last groan uttered, and there shall be
nothing to hurt or destroy in all Gods
holy mountain! All that and more will
come to pass, for "the mouth of the Lord
hath spoken il.
So far / have mentioned nine of the
ten strings of the instrument of graft
tude. I now come to the tenth and the
last. | mention il last that it may be
the more memora ble-heayenly anticipa-
ton. 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
to 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 to meet soon
fha GOT q
want to see and will see David, might
Ter king in heaven than he ever was on
earth, and we viii talk with him about
psalmody and - from him exactly what
he meant when lie talked about the in
strument Of ten strings. We will con-
front Moses, who will tell of the law Civ
| ing on rocking Sinai and Of his mysteri-
Gus burial, with no one but God present.
We win see Joshua, and he will tell us
of the coming down of the walls OF Jeri-
! cho at the blast of the rams horn and
explain to us that miracle-how the sun
and moon could stand still without demo
lition Of the planetary system. We will
see Ruth and have her tell of the har-
vest field of Boaz, in which she CLEANED
for afflicted Naomi We viii see Wash
ii and hear from her own lips the story
| of her Punishment from the Persian pal
| ace by infamous Ahasuergs
Now take down your harp of ten
strings and sweep all the chords, max
! ing ALL of them tremble with great
gladness. l have mentioned just ten
! delightsome food, eyesight, hearing
healthful sleep, power of physical loco
motion, illumined nights, mental facul-
ties in equipoise, friendships of life, gos
pei advantages and heavenly anticipa-
tions. Let us make less complaint and
offer more thanks. render less dirge and
more cantata. Take paper and pen and
write down in long columns your bless
| ings. | have recited only ten. To ex-
press all the mercies God has bestowed
| you would have TO use at least three,
and | think five, numerals, for surely
| they would run up into the hundreds and
| the thousands "Oh, give thanks unto
the Lord. for he is good, for his mercy
I endureth forever"
! All things will work together for your
good. and heaven is not far ahead. Wake
/ up all the ten strings. Blessing and
honor and glory and power be unto him
that stitch upon the throne and unto the
Lamb forever. Amen.