Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-06-17

pushing us off into the great abyss OF
trouble. He rescues us by the infinite
power OF the atoning cross. He then
teaches us how TO go up and up and up
by the object lessons of Christs earth,
ly life.
Christ's Life an object Lesson.
Have you and ever stopped to fully
consider how Christ's earthly life was
meant TO be an object lesson for sinful
men. as the tapping wings of the old
eagles are meant TO be visible object
lessons to teach the young eagles how
10 fly? God did not tell us how to be
good merely i'm the abstract. but he
tells us To be good as Jesus Christ was
good, because Christ was born bone of
our bone and flesh OF our flesh and
suffered as we suffer and was tempted
as we are tempted. Thus Christ's life
is an object lesson TO us I'm all our
trial. We must do as he would do IL
he were in our place.
He knows the bitter. weary way.
The endless strivings. day by day,
The souls that weep. the souls that pray.
He knows. He knows.
be learned from the old eagle stirring
up her nest. she pushes out her young
in order 10 make room for the next
batch Of fiedgelngs. III she did not do
this there would be only one brood
Matched in the nest. Thus the eagles
offspring would only consist of two or
three or four young. But no sooner
does the old eagle finish raising one
family than she prepares TO raise an
other batch of fiedgellngs.
Have you ever considered how soon
this old earth would be overcrowded
and an unfit place IL which to live If
God did not push the generations on
and up? This is an age of the slaugh,
ter of the innocentS. Life is i'm mortal
combat for life. The earth is soaked
with blood. The guillotine never stops
it's endless chop. Every lullaby has
n corresponding death rattle. Every
cradle implies q grave. SO rapidly can
shell life propagate that one tiny cell
can reproduce itself one thousand mil.
lion times In month \ common cod.
fish lays between eight and nine mil.
lion eggs every year. A common queen
ant lays eighty thousand eggs ina u day.
Herbert Spencer declared that if the
cattle propagated themselves as rapid
ly as the insectile world the cattle
would die of starvation In a week.
But, though the human race does not
reproduce itself as rapidly as the in
sectile world, or even as the cattle, vet.
IL allowed to live on this earth uninter-
ruptedly, IL would soon be impossible
for the growing members of the human
family TO exist
New generations come, and room
must be made for them. The infant
leaves the cradle to successor and be-
comes the youth, the youth passes on
TO manhood and on TO old age, and the
younger generations tread upon his
heels Mt every step. At last he passes
on Into eternity. What theny The
apostle says. lit doth not yet appear
what we shall be-" but we know
enough OF that life TO be full OF hope.
To those who through Christ have
made peace with God there is the
promise of continued development.
They that wait on the Lord" says
the prophet. shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles; they shall run and
not be weary, and they shall walk and
not faint" In that heavenly state
there shall be neither hunger, nor pain.
nor WEAKNESS, nor sickness, nor death.
Even the eagle. long lived as it is,
grows old and dies, but there we shall
live forever. And the love OF our
Father I'm heaven Is eternal. The
eagles affections are transferred from
one brood TO the next, but nothing can
separate Us from tho love of God,
whose heart is large enough for all
his children.
Dread SIN Like "a Serpent.
Would you have such future TO an.
ticipate? Then let that power which
God promises 10 impart come even now
into your life. The only thing that can
blot out that prospect Is sin. Dread sin
as you would dread the bite of SER
pent. Theodore l.. Cuyler the grand
old man of the Brooklyn pulpit, graph
ically described scene which l have
carried in my memory for many years.
A peasant living upon the mountain
side was on his way home i'm the even
Ing hour. Tired after II hard days
work. he turned TO look down the val
ley which as panorama stretched
AWAY at his feet. Suddenly he saw
mighty winged eagle begin TO lift itself
from distant cliff. Higher and high
err 1t rose, gorgeous amid the fires OF
the setting sun. Suddenly its move
ments became labored. 1t struggled
and fought in midair and seemed TO be
gasping for breath. First one wing be-
came helpless. then the second wing
Then the huge bird, like a stone, shot
through the air and fell dead almost at
the peasants feet. The peasant could
not understand the cause until he went
to the side OF the bird and picked up
the still warm corpse. Then to his
horror there wriggled from between
his fingers tiny serpent that had
fastened itself under the birds wing
and sucked the life out OF the mon
arch OF the air" So sin as venomous.
clinging serpent, tries to fasten itself
upon US. The mightier winged we are
the more anxious that satanic serpent
Is for our life's blood. But God will to-
day not only save us. as the mother
eagle does her young. but he does more.
Christ has given us his life in order to
overcome the power OF the serpent He
has died in order that we might live
In this text OF an eagle stirring up the
nest OF her young cannot you feel the
touch OF saving CHRISTI
/ would send this gospel message
everywhere. The Episcopalian rector
reads the Scriptures on the Sabbath
day. upon lecturn made up of the
outstretched wings OF an eagle. Som,
writer's declare that these eagles wings
symbolic ST. Johns inspired vision.
which beheld the heavenly glories, as
the eagles eye looks into the light of
the dazzling sun. Others assert that
those eagles symbolic the flight of the
gospel message over the world. The
last Interpretation to me is the mos.
beautiful. May this sermon not only
have in it the message of Gods love,
but may IL have the speed which every