The age-herald., 1902-02-09

us appreciate the goodness of God to us if our mental faculties are in equipoise- NoyasinJ from New Zealand to Australia, a storm swooped upon us and we saw all around us fragments of ships that had been caught in the same tempest. And how thankful we were, sailing into Syd- ney harbor. that we had escaped! So that man and that woman whose intel lect goes safely through the storms of this life, in which so many have found- cred, ought every day and every night employ one of the ten strings in gratitude for that particular mercy.
 The Blessings of Friendship.
 Another string of this instrument I now touch-friendships, deep and abiding, by which I refer to those people who, when good bad motive may be ascribed to you, ascribe the good; those concerning
 whom you do not wonder which side they l will take when you are under discussion;
 those who would more gladly serve you
 than serve themselves; those to whom i you can tell everything without reserve 1 those who are first in your home by per- l son or by telegram when you have trou-
 ble. Oh, what a blessing to have plenty
 of friends Aye, if you have only one 1 good friend, you are blessed in that glad
 possession With one such friend you can l defy the world. But he must be tried 1 friend You cannot tell who are your
 real friends till 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 bankruptcy and invalidism and defamation come, and the number of your friends will be 90 per cent off If you
 have been through some great crisis and
 you have one friend left thank God and celebrate it on the sweetest harpstring While all this Is so," says some one,
 there are so many things that others
 have which l have not" I reply, it Is not what we get. but what we are that decide our happiness. With the bare necessities of life many are unspeakaby happy, while others with all the luxuries are impersonations of misery. In the Ro- man empire there was no man more wretched than the Nero who ruled it. The porticos of his palace were a mile long. A statue of him in silver and gold 120 feet high stood in the vestibule. The walls of his palace were mother of pearl and ivory. The ceiling was arranged to shower flowers and pour perfumes upon the guests. His wardrobe wa. so large that he never wore a garment twice. His mules were shod in silver. He fished with hooks of gold. A thousand carriages ac- companied him when he travelled. His crown was worth $500000, He had every thing but happiness. That never came.
 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 1 gospel advantages. The highest style of l civilization the world has ever seen is American civilization, and it is built out
 of the gospel of pardon and good morals 1 That gospel rocked our cradle, and it will epitaph our grave. It soothes our sor- rows, brightens our courage forgives our sins and saves our souls. It takes a man who is all wrong and makes him all right. What that gospel has done for you and me is a story that we can never fully tell. What 1t has done for the world and
 will yet do fos the nations It will take l the thousand years of the millennium to celebrate. The grandest churches are vet to be built. The mightiest anthems are yet to be hosted. The greatest victories
 are vet to be gained. The most beautiful Madonnas are yet to be painted. The
 most triumphant processions are yet to | march Oh, what world this will be when it rotates in It's orbit a redeemed planet girded with spontaneous har- vests and enriched by orchards whose fruits are speckless and redundant, and the last pain will have .een banished and
 the last tear wept and the last groan
 uttered, and there shall be nothing to
 Hui UT ueSlroy III all God holy noun tain! MI that and more will come to pass for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it'
 so Tar l have mentioned nine of the ten strings of the instrument of grati- tuue. l now come to the tenth and the last l mention 1t last that it may be me more memorable-heavenly anticipa- uon By the grace of God we are going | 10 move into a place so much better than thls mat on arriving we will wonder that | we were Tor so many years so loath to | make the transfer. After we have seen 1 Christ face to face and rejoiced over our l departed kindred there are some mighty l splrlts we will want to meet soon after l we pass through the gates We want to l see and will see David, a mightier king Tn heaven than he ever was on earth and we will talk with him about psalmody and get from him exactly what he meant when he talked about the instrument or ten strings. We will confront Moses who will tell of the law giving on rocking Sinai and 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 Jericho at the blast Of the rams horn and explain to us that miracle-how the sun and moon could stand still without demolition of the planetary system. We will see Ruth and have her tell of the harvest field of Boaz in which she gleaned for afflicted Naomi We will see Vashti and hear from her own lips the story of her banishment rom the Persian palace by infamous Ahasuerus
 Delights of the Future.
 We will sell and talk with Daniel. and he will tell us how he saw Belshazzar's' oanauetins hall turned into a slaughter 1r .l |.