The Sussex Republican., 1906-01-06

next day the milk soured; that meant
no coffee. While father was eating his
lunch on log he saw crawling up be-
tween his legs snake, lifting Its head
to strike. That ended our outing. That
ended the beautiful dreams of boyhood
days. T. De Witt Talmage, the father
OF lot of babies, did not want to be
II. De Witt Talmage, the farmers boy,
eating In the woods and sleeping on
hard boards. Thus with us. We may
put halo about the past, but the past
was never as bright or as happy as is
the present You would not live your
life over again IL In order to do 1t you
had to surrender the blessings now at
hand. U
surrenderfng the Past.
Our past lives cannot be lived with.
out surrendering the present; but,
thank God, we can live out the future
with the present and the past to q
great extent combined into one. And
we can combine the present and the
past in the year which is to come by
guarding against the most awful mis-
take we made in past years. We have
tried to fight the battle of life alone.
We have tried to conquer In our
own strength rather than in the
strength of the Lord God Almighty,
who has always promised to sustain
US IL we would put our trust in him.
We can now grip hold of the arm of
the Almighty God IL we will. And oh,
my friends, IL we put our trust in
Christ do you not believe that with his |
help we could during the coming years
overcome many of the mistakes of the |
past? We can make the past, purified |
of its evils, live and breathe again in |
the future. We can! Yes, we can! II |
we only enter the new year with |
Christ's help we should be able to undo |
many OF the wrongs OF the past, be-
sides taking advantage of the blessed |
opportunities Of the future.
Not only that, but still another bless
ing may be ours. In Christ we may be
aDle to live again during the years Of
the coming eternity with those who
have made the past years for us so
happy. We shall not be at that time
like the old lady who lived for many
years in the city of Los Angeles. She
died there at eighty-four years of age
In November, 1908. When she died II
was found out that for the last TWEEN
ty-eight years Of her life she had con-
cealed In her attic the dead body OF her
oldest daughter This was the body of
q young girl of twenty-seyen years,
who had breathed her last in the far
east, and her body had been shipped
from Amherst, Mass, to the home of
her mother in the far west. For nearly
thirty long years this broken hearted
mother had clung to the body of her
child and carried 1t wherever she went.
So some Of us have been clinging to
the dead bodies of our loved ones
which were buried many, many years
ago. But IL we will only give our
hearts to Christ here and now on the
last Sunday of the year Christ will
some day give our loved ones alive
back to us. Then we will not have to
choose between wife and mother or
and father or brother and
child. Then we shall have them all to-
gether again. Then the past and the
present and the future shall be united
into one. Then father and mother,
brother and sister, wife and husband,
children and grandchildren shall all as
semble together before the throne of
God to forever sing the song of Moses
and the Lamb. Oh, my friends, will
you let your past life live again in
Christ?
A joyful Ending.
Thus In closing this sermon on the
asst Sunday Of the year / do not feel 1
/ sense Of sadness such as I have Of
en felt upon similar occasions in the ,
,ast. Whenever have attended the {
watch night meetings of previous New /
Years ewes the ringing of the bell
when the clock struck 12 has always
Iounded to me like the tolling of
Urge. 1t has been to me a death
lnell. 1t has been like the tolling of
he bell when the hearse enters the
As the clock struck 1, 2, 8,
|, 8, 8. Z, 8, 0. 10. II. 10, 1t seemed to G
all: "Dead and gone! The years of .
900 and 1901 and 1902 and 1908 and u
904 and 1905 are dead and gonei
hey are dead and gone foreveri Hear h
t, We living! Dead and gone foreverr' II
Sut as / hear the clock striking the n
hour tonight it will not be
irge, but a promise Of reunion. 1t I,
gill ring: ''The year Of 1905 is not 81
cad and gone forever. Thou shalt 1,
meet it with its sanctified joys and ii
orrows. Thou shalt meet it again
milling with the faces Of those who "
ave made thy last twelve months st
Apply and blessed. Thou shalt meet
he year of 1905 coming forth to greet r,
hee, o Christian, with the sacred
ears Of 1890 and 1880 and 1870 by its a.
de. All these years shall live again h
thou wilt put thy faith in Christ d
nd have him live In thee and thou In a,
im." My friends, on this last Sun
ay of the year, wilt thou have the a,
lidnlght bell toll for thee a dirge or
ng out for thee a gospel Triumph =,
ou can here and now decide if you y,
hall live over again your happy past. \,
Thou blessed past with our hallowed -
ear onesl Art thou alive? Shall 1t =,
,me forth to greet us at the day of y,
ldgment and. purified of all evil, live i,
18th us through all the coming eterni- +,
es? 1t will. Thou year of 1905, 60