Middletown transcript., 1917-03-31
TRIUMPHANT HOPES
An Interesting Address Delivered
by Rev. E. W. Caswell
in BETHESDA M. E. CHURCH

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The following address was delivered
at the Mid Week Prayer service Of the
Bethesda NJ. Church, on March 81,
1917.
During the recent session of the Phil
adelphia Conference, held in Goodman
Church, Philadelphia, and presided over
by Bishop Henderson, Rev. G. w. Izer,
d. D., one of the District Superinten-
dents of the Conference, sent most
remarkable message to his brethren.
DR.. Izer was stricken last August with
q deadly disease and realized that he
would not be able to attend the Confer
ence session. A committee was ap-
pointed by the Conference to visit the
sick man. In response to their call at
his bedside, DR.. Izer dictated the final
words to the body, which were publicly
read two hours after the Committee
visited him. The vast audience was
often moved to tears during the delivery
of the message. The following is his
letter:
To my beloved Bishop and brethren,
of the Conference, Greeting: Grace,
mercy and peace from God our Father
and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Last August fifth day, dated the be-
ginning of series Of fierce physical
ordeals. supreme test of faith, patience
and hope. Bodily suffering verging the
limit of mortal endurance has been
we'll nigh constant experience; few pain
less moments in wakeful hours. This
crucial experience has furnished evil
dences of the highest order and cumu-
lated proofs of incompatible value.
thank God for them. They are riches
to the soul; they are treasures more
priceless than silver or gold or precious
stones. Pearls are not to be compared
with them. Sustained and strengthened
by grace divine, superior to suffering.
l have been enabled to joy and rejoice,
to trust and triumph in God.
How long may linger in earthly life,
prisoner of pain, no one can forecast;
neither my physician nor my surgeon
will give guess. My earthly house
shaken, tottering; the tabernacle fall
ing into ruins, it seems to me must soon
dissolve. Certainly it has come to be
poor tenement in which to live. hope
to move out at an early date. exchang-
ing for it my building of God, house
not made by hands, mansion promised
and prepared, eternal in the heavens.
A fine exchange. l do not expect to
move far. The Paradise into which
Gods loved ones 60 l know is nigh.
"Absent from the body, present with
the Lord" From this strange land in
which awhile we sojourn, to the home
land, in which we shall have permanent
abode, forever with the Lord, cannot be
a great distance. There in Gods pres
ence, at Gods right hand, amid innu-
merable company of angels; in associa-
ton with the spirits of just men made
perfect; numbered in the general as
sembly of the churchcof the first born,
written in heaven, we shall dwell in
safety and in. satisfaction throughout
eternity.
Out Of this passing, perishing, present
life. l am fastening to this permanent
abode. Into this Presence and at the
right hand of God l am pressing with
eager desire. Life, in this Presence,
enriched by fullness of joy, will be life
eternal. What the vestibule in its mar
rowness and barrenness is to the temple,
with its amplitudes of space and beauty
and furnishings; what the first faint
streak of the morning, when the dim
dawn just edges the incoming day, is to
the noon sun in zenith splendor; what
the far away twinkler caught in the in
tensely magnifying telescope, is to great
Jupiter, dazzling the unaided eye; what
the remotest and least significant satel-
lite, in all the sweep of the sky is to the
glowing sun IN its system of planets,
such is the passing, perishing, earthly
life that now is to the permanent prom
ised life beyond-the life that lives for
ever. unbroken. unmarried, unmoved,
untouched by any i'll. To this blessed
beatific life in Gods pavilion, and in
Gods presence, we who love Him are
being borne. according to His good,
gracious purpose. There, in the fairest
of fair mornings, we will meet and
mingle; separation and sorrow, sickness
and suffering, sighs and shadows no
part of that life, lneffable and unchange-
able. Not as profession of Christian
experience, but as a confession of
personal Christ; not as an expression of
any lofty attainment of sainthood, but
as humble acknowledgment of unde-
served blessing, bear testimony to the
glory of God that in every hour of nv
protracted period of pain-three and
thirty consecutive weeks-in His pity
and His love He has redeemed me, the
angel of His presence has gone before
me, saved me, given me rest, made me
rejoice.
In the furnace and in the floods have
been preserved and upheld. God has.
been with me, underneath me has been
His everlasting arms. / have rested in
sweet repose. / have been enabled to
face the future with untroubled compo-
sure, mingled with joyous anticipations.
] assuredly expect soon, very soon, to
see our King in His beauty, to be with 2
Him in the heavenly rlaca t< eh.r. ~