Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-11-19

text of the sermon in which DR.. Slough
brought his hearers face to face with
the problem of death, and lead them
through the valley of the shadow to
the brilliant promise of redemption
through Christ, leading to that Elys-
ian hill where the sun never sets, nor
clouds obscure, where there is no more
sorrow, tears nor separation, and
where the shadows never fall"
AS his sermon rose and fell in its
waves of emotion and passed from
one crisis of pathetic pleading to an
other and concluded in the presenta-
ton of the Incompatible Christ, who
is the Way, the Truth and the Life"
with the appealing call for confession,
the varying effect on the audience
could be plainly observed. Many eyes
never left the energetic figure of the
militant evangelist as he strode back
and forth on his platform, and the
most stolid showed at times the stirr-
ing of the soul within.
What the Faces Showed
Some faces we're blanched with fear,
some downcast in solemn thought and
| others stared in wide-eyed wonder at
the power of the man. There were
force, worried faces above restless,
shifting bodies as the consciences of
some were stirred at the conviction of
sin. Countless handkerchiefs became
wet before the end OF the service, and
there were few that were not touch
ed at some part of the sermon.
Death" he said, 'is one Of the tre-
mendously solemn realities that you
do not care to read or hear about, but
as soul YOU must face 1t on your
course to eternity. 1t is appointed
once for man to die, and death is on
our trail with the certainty that we
I will some day meet God face to face.
We are separated from death at all
times by only a few seconds; at each
count Of six, at every breath we fight
d lth. ThI narrow margin of life can
be upset by the least change in tenn
persture, the action of the heart or
the disturbing of the delicate balance
of the physiological facts of life. 1t Is
fight from the cradle to the grave"
Deathbed Scenes
He gave a graphic description of a
deathbed scene in which the patient
hears his death warrant by the doctor
and sees the drawn haggard faces of
his loved ones watching over him AS
: he slowly creeps up the ragged hill
of life to convalescence the man re-
covers and lives a few years more only
at last to find himself slipping into
the trap of old age, the assassin that
ends all.
| Your thoughts of God tonight
prove that YOU need preparation. You
are not ready to meet God. You have
blasphemed, desecrated the Sabbath.
neglected your Bible and set at naught
the church. Your thoughts and fear
Of death itself prove that you are not
prepared tonight. You shudder at the
mention of the shrouds. the death
chamber, the undertaken, the hearse
and the mourners. You try to close
time YOU know you are to be the food
of worms.
Is Heaven For You u?
Your thoughts and hope of Heaven
tonight prove that you are not pre-
pared. That abode of just man, that
land fairer than day, with it's streets
/ of gold and its many mansions, that
paradise of beauty of which your
mother sang when she rocked you in
the cradle, the place where she has
gone before, that place is not for you
if you are one of those who would
rather play bridge-whist and attend
the theater and wine parties than at
tend to your Christian duties.
| But do not mistake death as my
| text tonight, it is God / am talking
about. 1t is appointed men once to
die but that is not all, after that is
the Judgment. Dare you face your
record in that day."
He drew picture of the deathbed
of a man not prepared for the future
and who feared to make the journey
alone. He described the death rat
tie of the victim in the throes of q
spell of angina pectoris, one of the
most severe and painful forms of heart
! disease. He acted the death scene on
the chair on the platform and brought
shudders 30 the audience, as he asked
how many would have to go out to
meet God alone as this man had done.