Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1902-04-19

Tue util WHICH, anu the ldCioiE Dduu. stAIlhe
a thousand shuttles all a-buzz and a-clat-
ter. And the widest, the haughtiest, the
most ungovernable man ever created by
the grace of God may be subdued and sent
out on ministry OF kindness. as God sends
an August thunderstorm TO water the wild
flowers down in the grass. Peter. with
nature tempestuous as the sea that he
once tried to walk. at one look from
Christ went out ana wept bitterly. Rich
harvests OF grace may he grown on the
summit of the jagged steep, and tiocks OF
christian graces may lind pasturage IN
ieids OF bramble and rock.
Though "o"~ disnnsiti"n NAV be all
Artistic with frei7u:ness. though you
have Il temper a-gleam with quick light
the horse leech. crying. "Give! though
damnable impurities have wrapped you IN
all consuming fire, God can drive that
devil out of your soul, and over the chaos
and the darkness He can say, Let there
be light"
The best place for a skillful doctor is in
a neighborhood where there are all poor
doctors, the best place for an enterprising
merchant to open his store Is In place
where the bargain makers do not under
stand their business, and the best place
for YOU who want to become the Illus
trious and complete Christian, the best
place for you is to come right down among
US who are so incompetent and so moon
sistent sometimes. Show us how. Give
us an example.
Exudations from poisonous trees IN our
neighbor's garden will make very poor
balm for our wounds.
Sickness will come, and we will be
pushed out toward the Red Sea which d.
vdes this world from the next, and not
the inconsistency, OF Christians; but the
rod OF faith, viii wave back the waters
as a commander wheels his host: The
Judgment will come, with its thunder
shod solemnities. Oh. then we will not
stop and say. There was mean Chris.
tian; there was an impure. Christian.
shalt be wise for thyse!f. but if thou
soonest thou alone shall bear L." Why,
my brother, the inconsistency of Chris
tians. so far from being an argument to
keep YOU away from God. ought to be an
argument to drive you to Him.
No time to be religious here! You
have no time not to be religious. You
might as well have no clerks in your
store. no books in your library, no com
pass on your ship, no rifle In the battle.
no hat on your head, no coat for your
back, no shoes for your feet.
Better travel on toward eternity bare.
headed and barefooted and houseless and
homeless and friendiess than to go through
life without religion.
Did religion make Raleigh any less Of a
statesman or Havelock any less of
soldier or Grinnell any less OF merchant
or West any less OF painter!
Why, my friends. religion Is the best
security in every bargain; it is the sweet.
est note in every song; IL Is the brightest
ligious? Why, You will have to take time
to be sick, to be troubled. to die. Our
world is only the wharf from which we
are TO embark for heaven.
No time to secure the friendship OF
Christ? No time to buy lamp and trim
it for that walk through the darkness
which otherwise will be illumined only
by the whiteness OF the. tombstones: No
time to educate the eye for heavenly splen-
doris or the hand for choral harps or the
ear for everlasting songs or the soul Tor
honor. glory and immortality? One would
think we had time for nothing else.
Other persons apologize Tor not enter
ing the Christian life because it is time
enough yet That is very like those per-
sons who send regrets and say, Il will
come in perhaps at IL or IL o'clock; /
will not be there at the opening OF the
banquet, but l Will be there at the close"
Not yet. Not yet! Now, l do not give
any doleful view Of this life. There is
nothing in my nature, nothing in the
view of human life.
dison's description of the Vision of
Mirza,' where he represents human life
as being a bridge of hundred arches and
both ends of the bridge covered with
clouds and, the race coming on, the most
of them falling down through the first
span and all of them falling down through
the last span.
1t is very dismal picture. / have not
much sympathy with the Spanish proverb
which says. The sky is good and the earth
is good; that which is bad is between the
earth and the sky
bound to take cheerful view OF life. we
must a1o confess that life is a great un-
certainty and that man who says, Il
can't become a Christian because there is
time enough yet" is running risk in
finite.
You do not perhaps realize the fact that
this descending grade OF sin gets sleeper
and sleeper and that you are gathering
up rush and velocity which after awhile
may not answer to the brakes.
Be not among these who give their
whole life to the world and then give their
corpse to God II does not seem fair that
while our pulses are in full play of health
we serve ourselves and serve the world
and then make God at last the present OF
n coffin. 1t does not seem right that we
run our ship from coast to coast carrying
cargoes for ourselves and then, when the
ship is crushed in the rocks, give to God
the shivered timbers. 1t is a great thing
for a man on his dying pillow to repent
bett:r that than never at all; but how
much better, how much more generous, it
would have been if he had repented fifty
years before. My FRIENDS. you will never
get over these procrastinations.
We have started on a march from which
there is no retreat. The shadows of
eternity gather on our pathway. How
insignificant is time compared with the
vast eternity! AS l was thinking of this
one day while coming down over the Ale
ghany Mountains at noon, by that won.
derful pass which you all have heard de-
scribed as the Horseshoe-a depression in
the side OF the mountain where the train
almost turns back again upon itself. and
you see how appropriate is the name of
the Horseshoe-and thinking on this very
theme and preparing this very sermon, it
seemed to me as il the great courser of
eternity speeding along had Just struck
the mountain with one hoof and gone on
into illimitable space. So short Il time,
so Insignificant is earth. compared with
the vast eternity, This moment voices roll
down the sky and all the worlds of light
are ready to rejoice at your disenthrall-
ment. Rush not into the presence of the
King ragged with sin when You may have
this robe OF righteousness. Dash not your
foot pieces against the throne of a cruel
fed Christ. Throw not YOUR crown of life
off the battlements. All the scrbes of
God are at this hour ready with volumes
OF living light to record the news of your
soul emancipated.
copyright. 1862. L. Klopsch.l