The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-09-05

rather unto the fmtherance OF tine gospel:
SO that my bonds in Christ are manifest m
an the palace. and In at other places"
Philippians / 1918. There are those who
say If / were only in a more enlarged
sphere ] would be brave and true, but this
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,
and sing the song that stirs thy heart;
Reach forth thy strong and eager hand
To lift, TO save, just where thou art.
just where thou standest light thy lamp,
IT'S dark to others as TO thee;
Their ways are hedged by unseen thorns,
Their burdens fret as thine fret thee.
"Out yonder, in the broad, full glare
CT many lamps thine own might pale
And thy sweet song amid the gear
OF many voices slowly fall
While these thy kindred wandered on
Uncheered, unlighted to the end.
Near 10 thy hand thy mission lies,
Wherever sad hearts need a friend"
First-Perhaps you are where you are
because you have not filed full that posi-
ton, and God win never call you to.
higher place until you have overhowed
where you are. Mourning and fretting be-
cause you are not where you want to be
does not make things better. The bonds
are only frightened by the fretfulness. Two
birds in two cages in room give an Illus
tration. One dashing itself against the bars
because it Is imprisoned, iniuring itself
and stopping its song the other singing
as if it would outsing the lark in the mead.
ows and moving thereby its mistress to
open the cage and set it free He who does
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.
Seeond-Usefulnes is not the primary
object for the Christian. We say, ooh,
that we might be more useful" but first
rather let us desire to be more holy. for
/ that is Gods will There is nothing bet
| ter for the most of us than sorrow or dis.
/ appointment or trial because these things
| shape character. There is little merit in
! 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 fra
! GRANGE takes care OF ITSELF If you study
the sermons of Whitfield, Wesley, Spur
| geon and Moody you may wonder why
! these sermons produced such mighty et-
fects. 1t was because the power was in
the messenger rather than in the message,
To be right with Cod to be holy, to be
! like 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.
''Let me tie your hands and paint them in
the picture" and if you have ever seen
this picture you have seen the hands OF
Morse painted in the stead of Christ. II
you are 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
bondage because they have never yet be-
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 veritabe 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
have not found it, searching for pleasure 1t
has eluded its 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 yTas 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
E,1J e. ,ol,
shrank away He meant for your editica
ton.
A dear friend Of mine with whom [ trav.
eled recently said, 81 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 | had, and
I stepped out into life of blessing such as
I 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 mar
whose sphere has been most circumscribeC
here viii doubtless find when he stands il
the presence of the King that he was but
in preparation for a mission among the
saints at which the very angels might wei
stand amazed.
IF all these seem like hardships to us anC
we have been without comfort, then let u
wait until the day of reward shall come
The mother who has had a hard time will
her children, just wait and do your best
When Charles Wesley comes to judgment
and all the hosts that have been won t.
Christ by His power of music come. it vii
be a great day. and when John Wesie,
comes to judgment with all the souls 0
Methodism with him it viii be a marvelou
sight. but higher than the throne of eithe
Charles Wesley or John viii be throne o
susanna Wesley, their mother
The old preacher who has been discour
aged oft times because his church was s.
small and his work so apparently insignif
cant, needs only to wait until that grea
day, and when that old minister VIII
IL l. I'll IL Il =