Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-04-02
The PULPIT.
opu,ANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THF REV. ROBERT coLLYER.
Subject: Toward the Sunset.

proot,vn. N. y The venerable
,,t Eli vigorous Dr.. Robert Colyer
Uuooohed Dus in the First Unitarian
ghurch % Sunday morning to a large
onur o1annrooation. His subject was
T 100 Tooking Toward Sunset" and for
ii. text he took the two passages OF
Scr;n1ure: I. Timothy 4:S: The
nromise of the life that now is and OF
thst which is to come" and II. Cor
;nthians 1888: This mortal must
nnt on Immortality" Dr.. Collyer
said:
7 think it is no wonder, as the
wears come and go, and we fare on
toward the sunset OF the life that
now is, the heart in us should feel
touch of dismay now and then When
we try to imagine ourselves out OF
the body, but the same man or Wom-
an away from the world we live in,
vet still in a home which will be
homelike and welcome. and Of a day
when the seasons will be no more
what they have been or the sun and
stars. the streets on which we walk
or the homes in which we dwell. A
time when we can clasp hands no
more with friends; sit no more at the
table and join in the CHEEKY talk, go
to our work in the morning and when
the days stint is done go home. take
some book we love best to read and
then 90 to sleep through the silent,
shadowy hours to wake again in the
morning and find that God has made
all things new. And I think this
touch of dismay may we'll be of all
things natural and therefore right.
because we are in this body and find
that in the measure of our life is our
loyalty to the things we can touch
and see. TO the feeble aged this 10y
atty to the world he lives in is no
more than an instinct to hold on, but
in those who are still hale and strong
it is loyalty for which they can give
good reason. They love the fra
GRANGE of the opening spring that fills
them with the old delight, and the
summer with her fruits and flowers,
and the golden treasures of the au-
tumn, and the white glory of the win
ter. All this is so dear and human
that it comes little hard to think of
what it is here and now. And SO it
ought to be. II the option were CIV
en- to many of us while the tides of
life run deep and full to exchange
this life for the splendors of the ce-
lestial city, to give up the fight for
the necessaries of life, for the white
robes, the harps and crowns, most OF
US would hesitate to say, we love this
best, after ALL and do not want to
give 1t up, no matter what may be
waiting in the blessed life to come.
lne gravitation of our being binds us
10 our planet, and we cannot cry,
On, that had wings like a dove:
then would I fee away and be at
rest"
Nor do I think that Gods gift of
life should be thought Of as if it
were In quarantine and this world a
mace to have done with, the sooner
tAe better. Some such conclusion,
Know, may come from brooding over
.ne Ills OF life. or to those who have
aralned their life of all it's pleasant
uess. The men who have talked in
tnls strain are men who were either
out OF sorts or else they did not prac-
elce what they preached. The men
WHO nave done the most and best
we're OF an abounding human life
ana while they were on the way tc
Ioi1 tne saints they could go hunting
WIN 81. Augustine or play or sing
WIN Luther. So of the men who
nave no special claim to place
among the saints. They loved their
pNn land like good Sir Walter Scott
Ine Ine waters and to go afishing like
tsS tsaac Walton and Paley, who once
.eiu friend that he could not think
p1 writing another word in his once
seacous book on the evidences unit
u',nsnlng was over.
ho W W. one thing in this universe cal
so ~ " deeper moment to a whole anc
soun' onnu man man than his own proper per
ouaa aUnal iiIe. You may talk to him for
ho ee, u.! a0out being lost in the infinite
trro WI ~ stlll cling to himself as tn,
hlo idctor and say, with worry no
H. nldn knew who has gone out O
ne 10 , yea TO Gods house: II prefer hel
sno oannlnllation." The angels are vel
sal put he would not be an an
eroo Angels have had no mothers t.
me1,n bn over them. by what we ca,
them 9 oTI' ut or fathers to romp witt
tho '4 H. lhey never fell in love whe1
raro '4nle s came. wondering over thei
tho ~ l1o!rtune, or made homes wher
Or foen enllofen clung about their knees
and 10lsnt tlst strong battles for the trut]
Anyoinn Ine right, Or wept over graves
such 10 : then, must be poor wher
wav - man is rich, or rich in som
has, Ut cannot as yet understand. II
own solveo nao the problem so far of hi
have p;erSonal - identity and would no
presona ~ resolved into the grandes
Thessa that ever trod the earth
mans years, with their clusterin
stand tadp[les, , are his own years. The
HE sua out clear and reveal to the ma
30 own life. A poor thing he ma