The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1908-03-19
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. ROBERT coLLYER-
Subject; Toward the Sunset.

preached In the ftrSt Unitarian
Church Sunday morning to large
congregation. His subject was
Looking Toward Sunset" and for
his text he took the two passages of
Scripture: !. Timothy ASS: "The
promise of the life that now is and of
that which is to come" and II. Cor
inthians 1888: This mortal must
put on Immortality" DR.. Collyer
said:
l think it IL no wonder, as the
years come ard 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,
yet still In a home which will be
homelike and welcome, and OF 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 go to sleep through the silent,
shadowy hours to wake again in the
morning and find that God has made
all things new. And / think this
touch of dismay may well 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
~ fa ha, tv, fe
more than an instinct to hold on, but
in those who are still hale and strong
It is a 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 flowSs,
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 a little hard to think of
a time when all this can be no more
| what il is here and now. And so 1t
ought to be. If 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 it up, no matter what may be
waiting in the blessed life to come.
! The gravitation of our being binds us
| to our planet, and we cannot cry,
"Oh, that l had wings like a dove;
/ then would / flee away and be at
rest"
Nor do think that Gods gift Of
! life should be thought of as IL it
were in quarantine and this world a
place to have done with, the sooner
the better. Some such conclusion,
know. may come from brooding over
the ills of life. or to those who have
drained their life of all its pleasant
| ness. The men who have talked in
this strain are men who were either
out of sorts or else they did not prac-
tice what they preached. The men
who have done the most and best
were of an abounding human life,
and while they were on the way to
join the saints they could go hunting
with st. Augustine or play or sing
with Luther So of the men who
havef no special claim to a place
among the saints. They loved their
own land like good Sir Walter Scott,
the waters and to go afishing like
Isaac Waiton and Paley, who once
told friend that he could not think
of writing another word in his once
famous book on the evidences until
hy-fshing was over.
No one thing in this universe can
be of deeper moment to a whole and
sound man than his own proper per-
sonal life. You may talk TO him for
ever about being lost in the infinite,
he will still cling to himself as the
true factor and say, with very no
bic man l knew who has gone out of
the bed to Gods house: II prefer hell
to annihilation. The angels are we'll
enough, but he would not be an an
gel. Angels have had no mothers to
Groom over them. by what we can
make out, or fathers to romp with
them. They never fell in love when
the time came, wondering over their
rare fortune, or made homes where
the children clung about their knees
or fought strong battles for the truth
and the right, or wept over graves
Angels, then, must be poor where
such q man is rich, or rich in some
way he cannot as yet understand He
has solved the problem so far of his
own personal identity and would moi
have 1t resolved into the grandest
presence that ever trod the earth
These years, with their clusterine
memories, are his own years. They
stand out clear and reveal to the mar
his own life. A poor thing, he may
say, but mine own; full of mistakes
but mine own. | want to keel
track Of myself. Send me where yol
will, but let me be sure that am still
the man who is now living this hu
man life, as those are who have lived
human lives with me. The kind
the true, the brave, the sweet wht
walk with us no more" they will bt
there in the life to come, not un
clothed but clothed upon and then
shall rest in hope for:
1t is the dear belief
That on some solemn shore,
Beyond the reach of grief
We find our own once more;
Beyond the sphere OF time.
And sense and fates control,
Serene in changeless prime,
Dwells the immortal soul.
This faith fain would keep,
This hope would not forego
Eternal be the sleep,
If not TO waken so.
There must be another life TO roun,
this out and clothe 1t with perfec
tion. The tree loses nine blossom
for one globe of fruit; the wild thing
let their young go forth and forget
the focks are kith and kin, but on
is taken and another left and to-moI
row it Is all the same. They do nc
resret their mistakes or sorrow 70