The Alaska citizen., 1915-10-25
Sermon to the People
 G. G.
BY THE REV. G. c. BRUCE.

IS tu Eloilly God and enjoy Him ! forever. Duty first, then enjoy
 ment as the consequence of duty | No man Is called to merely vege
 tate. to live as an animal. to eat, to sleep to be merry and nothing more | He was created 10 do his duty, and the duty of man is that for | which he vas created-to bring l the world to it's highest possibli- 1 tlcs. The acme of any mans life | Is to be like his Creator. No man who lives for less lives well This is the only idea of life We are to take into the tolls, and temptations. and testings of life. This is the | ideal that We are to take 10 God 1 in our thanksgivings and confes- sionS. It is the only ideal of life upon which you are to let the light of day begin and the curtain of night fall. These powers, these gifts. wealth earned, and influence impart- ed, all are to be laid at the feet Of Him. who gave His life for you Life is real earnest, momentous, over whelming in its responsibility to its possessor. It is the richest of boons or the most intolerable of curses
 The life of a good man lives on good forever. Bunyan lies in the Bunhill Fields. but his mighty spirit i walks on the earth in the "Pilgrims Progress" Wesley slumbers beside the City Road Chapel and his dead hand rings thousands of church bells round the globe. Isaac Watts dead.
 Yes. and yet from ten thousand throats we hear his words inspired in song. Howard still keeps our prisons clean. Franklin watches ou. dwellings to protect Us from the thunder bolt. For one hundred and JIi'tyliye years Robert Raikes has gathered his Sunday schools all over Christendom. Abraham Lincon's breath still breathes through the life of the nation to which, under
 fod, he gave new birth of free dom. The life of good man o: woman never dies. It is alone in fanny to die and not be missed.
 III. Life is valuable from the eternal consequences flowing from it. This world with it's canopy of lights, its boundaries of majestic
 landeur its carpets of verdure is the solemn vestibule of eternity
 This world upon which you have walked and exhibited your nature this day is the porch to heaven or the gateway to hell Treasure laid ip here through Christ and for Christ is making you a millionaire ioT all eternity. Here by simply refusing to hearken to the voice of the Christ, by rejecting the cross, by grieylng tho spirit you
 nay kindle a flame that shall con sume, and give birth to the worm that "dieth not" In this brief score, two score. or possibly three score of years you must, without mistake, settle a question, the de clsion of which will lift you to the Indescribable raptures of heaven or plunge you to the depths of despair or darkness. Men stand as babes at the thought of eternity The brain in it's poverty and weakness is unable to find thoughts to con vey an adequate answer to those who ask it's meaning. as the At lantic is compared drop by drop to the cup of water from which you drink, so boundless is it's extent and limitess it's duration.
 In view of such knowledge, and lack of knowledge. what a grand place Is occupied by the man who warns and helps and guards his tellowmen. In view also of lfes in finite importance, it's preciousness and possibilities. and it's eternal consequences, there should be press ed home upon us some practical truths coming out of the foregoing
 ]. It 'T a pra aotical thought that we should be careful to guard amt Nusband the precious life that we hold. It is a sin to neglect life t is an insult to Almighty God r
 2 a tamperino with a trust greater than which He has not bestowed
 erect deal of your happiness today 9epends much on the way you treat this body you hold in trust Not Hnly living lips" but the wilfu' 4vsnentlc ''is an abomination to the Lord" Anyone who impairs reck- 'esslv. or imperils or weakens his bodily strength by bad hours. un- wholesome diet. poisonous stimu- Tents or sensualities, is a suicide and there are some who yield un thoir powers to exceGses in business ventures contrary tH the laws of God who are shortening their years and breaking down their ultimate usefulness. And what shall be said of men who deliberately lay snares for the young, where it is 80 many
 'ac"@ cf silver for so many ounces of blood and an immortal soul tossed in the balance Would that one ray of eternity could shine into every dram GAoo 10 frehten bact the poison seller from making his living at the mouth of the pit
 ?. It is a practical thought that we should remember we'll the build ing Of life and the accounting for +he structure. We are often told that life is as an arrow. a shadow vapor. not that we should mini mize it's importance. but that we should recognize it's brevity Every tNin@ in Gods creation ennobles life and breathes upon it the breath # things sacred, solemn, earnest, momentous. The highest ends are proposed to it while it lives on earth and the noble rewards in ete1nitv at the end. To many it is but a continual grind. Down to the of fce: hack to the house Down to the office; back to the house, with only the grave in sight. Some see nothing in the golden moments shin ing through the silvery hours, no. thing, nothing. And yet every life is setting in motion wheels that shall carry them to an eternal fe- licity or grind them beneath in