Milford chronicle., 1903-01-23

pIesu ume OF all my life. l can truly
say that tonight am glad God took
my money. l know, Kate, that l was
only thinking Of my gold and not about
the good which I could do with it.
Kate, we will give ourselves to God
tonight. We will give to him our chill
dren and our whole future lives, and
VIC will promise God that never again
shall we work six days and twenty-five
! hours each week for the world and
only give to God two hours Of church
/ service on Sunday" That is the his
tory of your friend George. That is
/ the reason you now hear of George as
an elder in the church, as a leader in
the prayer meeting as a director in the
Young Mems Christian association, as
a church visitor who never refuses to
call on the poor. 1t was a dark night
when that financial storm overlook
I George on Lake Galilee, but that storm
drove George to Christ.
NV friends, you think Georges fig
urative history cannot be duplicated in
life. l tell you that it can. l declare
to you today that there are thousands
and tens of thousands of American
merchants who would never have been
able to see clearly the spiritual face
of Jesus except through a financial
tempest. The best merchant l ever
knew was cOnsecrated to Christ
through Galilean tempest. Mr.. A. F..
Brooks was not only the chief member
of the old Second Presbyterian church
of Pittsburg when l was there, but he
was also the most influential Christian
layman in the city. He told me just
before his death that the cause of his
conservation to Christ came to him
when a dishonest partner made him
lose millions of dollars. Had it not
been for the action of that dishonest
partner at that time Mr.. Brooks would
have become before closing his career
not only one of the wealthiest men in
Pittsburg, but also one of the wealth
lest men in the United States. Oh, ye
merchants, in those hours of trials and
financial embarrassment l want you to
make your troubles the stepping stones
to a complete conservation to the cross.
l want you here and now to feel that
Christ constrained you to enter the
leaky boat of financial shipwreck so
that you might truly see his face, as
the disciples saw the living Christ in
the fourth watch of the night on Lake
Galilee.
In the Dark Hours.
The dark, tempestuOus nights when
the shadow of the death angels wing
hOvered over the home have often been
in Gods sight the bright, shining days
for the broken hearted household cir
Gle. 1t was awfully hard for you to
hear the doctor say there was no hope.
You felt that other people might die,
but somehow the truth was never fully
brought home to you until then that
your mother or wife or child could ever
be taken. Since that moment not only
this life, but the next. has for you an
entirely different significance.
Why did you place upon her coffin
plate the words AT rest?" Did you
mean that her sleep was to be an end
awakening? You used to revel in the
theories Of Darwin's evolution. You
used to claim that the physical man
was only higher form of a developed
animal. Man was born like a dog; he
must die like dog. Did you still cling
TO these theories when you placed upon
her coffin lid the words "At rest" Oh,
no. You Immediately went back to the
sweet faith of your father and mother.
You acted in your own life just as
Ethan Allen, the New England inidel,
acted In reference to his dying daugh-
ter. She called the great Revolution
airy soldier into her bedroom and said;
Papa. am going to die. Mamma says
there are Christ and hereafter-if ]
trust him. You say there is no here
after. l am dying. papa, and l must
make my last decision now. Whom
shall | believe? Shall l accept mann
mas Christ or your infidelity?" The
great soldiers frame shook with emo
tiOn. Then. though he had just finished
his famous intidel book called Reason,
the Only Oracle OF Man." he turned
and said, My darling. you had better
die in your mothers faith. and not In
my unbelief." And so when the death
angels wings began to fiutter over the
bed of one of your loved ones with one
blow it not only struck your heart, but
is also knocked your intidelity clean out
Of your life You Immediately said. as
yoI looked into the pale face sleeping
in the casket: Il know she lives.
know she is living in some other world
for me-" And as you look up to see
where that other world is do you not
feel that you were being struck by
Galilean tempest. as were the disciples
Df old? Do you not feel that through
the dark shadow of the death angels
wing you have been able to see the
spiritual face of Jesus Christ as never
before? 1t was trouble that did it
trouble alone which made
you use the hillOck Of a grave for Il
zneeling stool at the altar Of mercy |
Ind pardon and love.
The dark, tempestuous nights in your |