The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-07-09
PEOPLES PULPIT
G.. L. MORRILL,.
feathers Watch"

It lies on my desk, q beautiful
watch Of yellow gold like a harvest
sun. The face is plain, and the hands
mark the Silent, never-resting thing
called time.''
On one side of the hunting case is
a monogram, ID. T. NJ; on the other,
an engraving Of the church. Within
one reads the Inscription, Presented
to Rev. D. T. Morrill, by the members
and congregation Of the First Baptist
Church, Newark, N. J., May 8, 1862"
1t was a valuable watch, but
thought most Of because it came from
the rich and poor, young and old, who
had put into the gift the gold and sill
yer, prayers and tears of their love.
One summer while living at st.
Louis he took the boat to visit Min
neapolis. He walked at Dubuque to
find the stateroon broken open, his
vest on the floor and the watch gone.
He returned home, knelt by the old
leather trunk, and prayed:
Lord, You know loved that watch
and the people who gave 1t. If 1t
won't make me proud, let me have 1t
again."
Then he went to the newspapers,
described and advertised the watch,
offering $50 reward for Its recovery,
with no questions asked.
Detectives traced it in various
pawnshops in the leading cities Of the
country.
One night at prayer meeting, six
months later, telegram came from
| Keokuk, stating the watch had been
! found. Next day 1t came, and there
| was great joy in the parsonage, for
| the lost had been found.
| - The amuffled tramp Of years came
stealing up the slopes Of time" and
| the watch lay ticking by the side of
l q |, o,,tr 1r,x~1 1r<,,
years he lay bedridden, looking up
| into heaven-then the well DONE
| came to the faithful servant of forty
| four years ministry. His hands were
still. but the second, minute and hour
hands Of the watch moved along just
| the same.
| The devoted wife took the watch
It seemed to beat with the throb OF
i the husbands heart over which it had
lain so long. 1t urged her to renewed
4 work, and in the home, and publicly
! she followed it's duty-pointed path
1 One day her faithful hands were par
alyzed, but she held the watch, loved
it, looked at it, pressed it to her lips
talked to it by day, and put it under
the dreamy ear Of night. At last
the weary wheels Of her life stood still
and she rested in the many-man-
! stoned home Of the loved.
Time has rolled his ceaseless
course" and the days have been long
and lonesome since I said the last
goodby. love to look at the face OF
4 the watch which looked up into the
face Of my father. Often I place my
I ear to it and imagine I am a child
4 once more with my head pillowed or
my mothers heart.
i Again and again T have asked the
4 watch If death ends all or is a door
i into life eternal. The question, which
/ would not down, has just been an.
i swered. The watch needed cleaning
/ I saw the man take the works from
the case, but the wheels and hands
t moved just as before; and T said
"The body is like the watchcase; The
soul Is like the works. Death does MOI
affect the soul. The body may be
! buried, but the soul still exists with
all that forms its thinking, willing and
/ loving
i Tick on, old watch. Some day
4 somewhere, somehow, I shall see my
i loved again; look into their eyes; lis
ten to their voices; clasp their hands
i kneel by their side; rest my head II
the old place, and forget all the ache!
of the past.
i The stream Of Time runs thru the
1 fields of sorrow to the ocean of Eter,
4 nifty, where God wipes away all tears
II from our eyes. 81
i "Gainst the tooth Of time ant
razure OF oblivion I know and an
persuaded with the psalmist:
'Your heart shall live forever"
,