Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1902-02-20

Ike the violin of the Swedish performer,
or the cornet of Arbuckle, or the mightiest
of all Instruments, with the hand cf Nor
gan on the keys and his foot on the pedal,
or some Sabbath tune like Coronation"
in the acclaim of which you could hear
the crowns of heaven coming down at the
feet of Jesus? Many OF us have never
tharked God for this hearing apparatus
of the soul. That is one of the ten strings
of gratitude that we ought always to
thrun after hearing the voice of the loved
one or the last strain of an oratorio or the
clang of a cathedral tower.
Further, there are many who never rec.
ognize how much Cod gives them when
ity wider known in our land than in any
other. By nidlife vast multitudes have
their nerves so overwrought that slumber
has to be coaXed, and many arc the vic.
Tins of choral and morphine. Sleepless.
ness is an American disorder. If it has
not touched you and you can rest for seven
or eight hours without waking-if for that
length of time in every twentyfour hours
you can be free of all care and worri1nelt
and your nerves are retuned and your
limbs escape from all fatigue and the ris.
ing sun finds you new man, body, mind
end soul-you have an advantage that
ought to be put in prayer and song and
congratulation.
AS long as you collect vast dividends
and have health jocund and popularity un.
bounded you will have crowds of seeming
friends, but let bankruptcy and invalid.
ism and defamation come, and the mum.
Der OF your friends will be ninety-.ive per
cent off. If you have been through some
great crisis and you have one friend left,
thank God and celebrate it on the sweet.
est harpstring.
But we must tighten the cords of our
harp and retunc it while we celebrate gos-
pei advantages. The highest style Of civ
ilization the world has ever seen is Amer
lean civi 'iZation, and it is butt out of the
gospel of pardon and good morals. That
gospel rocked our cradle. and it viii epi.
taph our grave. 1t soothes our sorrows,
brightens our hopes, inspires our courage,
forgives our sins and saves our souls. 1t
takes man who is all wrong and makes
hiIl all right. What that gospel has done
for you and me is story that we can
never fully tell.
What it has done for the world and viii
yet do for the nations it will take the thou.
sand years of the millennium to celebrate.
The grandest churches are yet to be built.
The mighticst anthems are yet to ba
hoisted. The greatest victories ere yet tc
be gained. The most beautiful Madonnal
are yet to be painted. The most trium-
Oh what a world this will be when il
rotates in it's orbit redeemed planet,
girGled with spontaneous harvests and
enriched by orchards whose fruits are
speckless 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
viii come to pass, for "thc mouth of the
Lord hath spoken it.
So far | have mentioned nine of the ten
strings of the instrument of gratitude. |
now come to the tenth and the last l
mention it last that it may be the more
hoe tio;n p,rt ! hn
grace OF Cod we are going to move into
place SO much better than this that on ar.
irving 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
reioiced over our departed kindred there
are some mighty spirits we will want to
meet soon after we pass through the gates.
We want to see and will see David
mighter king in heaven than he ever was
on EARTH and we viii 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 Jeri.
cho at the blast of the rams horn and cx,
plain to us that miracle-how the sun and
moon could stand still without demolition
We will see Ruth and have her tell of
the harvest field of Boaz. in which she
cleaned for afflicted Naomi. We will see
Vashti and hear from her own lips the
story of her banishment from the Persian
palace by infamous Ahasuerus.
We will see and talk with Daniel, and
he will tell us how he saw Belshazzar's
banCueting 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 epi-
grams stand out stronger and stronger as
the centuries pass.
We will see Paul and hear from him
how Felix trembled before him and the
audience of skeptics on Mars Hill were
confounded by his sermon on the brother
hood of man. what he saw at Ephesus and
Syracuse and Philippi and Rome and how
dark was the Mamertinc dungeon and how
sharp the axe that beheadcd him on the
road to Ostia Yea, VIC will see all the
martyrs, the victims OF axe and sword and
fire and bi,low. What thrill Of excite.
ment for US when we gaze upon the heroes
and heroines who gave their lives for the
truth.
We viii see the gospel procIaimers Chry-
sostom and Bourdalous and Whitefield,
and the Wcsleys and John Knox. We
will see the great Christian poets, Milton
and Dante and Watts and Mrs. Hemans
and Frances Havergal. Yea all the de-
parted Christian men and women of what.
ever age or nation.
But there will be one focus toward
which all eyes viii be directed. His in.
fancy having slept on pillow of straw; all
the hates of the Herodic Government plan
ming for His assassination; in after time
whipped as though He were a criminal;
asleep on the cod mountains because no
one offered Him a lodging; though the
greatest being who ever touched our earth,
derisively called this fellow" His last
hours writhing on spikes OF infinite tor
ture; His lacerated form put in sepulcher,
then terminated and assembled to be the
centre of all heavenly admiraton-upon
that greatest martyr and mightest hero
of all the centuries we will be permitted to
look. Put that among your heavenly antic-
ipa ations.
Now take down your harp of ten strings
and all the chnrds nalinn all of