The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1921-01-13
opportunity is closed forever.

What a solemn trust is life itself |
How sad for those who draw nigh its
end and are compelled to say to their
Creator: GAS thy servant was busy
here and there and it is gone" Yet
there is many one of whose life this
sad account must be given. He looks
back and life is behind him. Its bat
ties are on and the shadows are clos
ing about him. He is weary of the
conflict, wounded in the strife and
sits down on the edge of life's great
battlefield. The inevitable hour draws
nigh; he faces death and he knows it.
Then he thinks of his trust and how
he has kept it. Life rises up before
him. Failure stares him in the face;
life has been wasted. The possibilities
for good which were at hand were al
lowed to slip one by one-forever
gone-unused, and then he means that
bitterest of all means, that bitter wall
of regret, which, if heard in heaven,
might mar the rejoicing of angels
the moan that has gone up many
time from gloomy deathbed; the
moan for lost and wasted life.
Such is the trust and such are some
of its most signal failures.
If this be true-that narrow bound
between our birth and death-and it
is awfully true, what shall we say of
the trust of the soul whose life endeth
not, but reaches far into the unknown
eternity beyond the grave. And what
is the soul? A spark from the eter-
nal Being, a ray of light let down to
earth from the Sun of Righteous
ness. This is the trust of all trusts
1t is trust of imperishable life-of
life that cannot be extinguished. The
soul with its wonderful talents, its
splendid fancies, its heavenward-so
ing powers stamped with the very
image of God-the likeness of the
Omnipotent Himself.
We talk of life's responsibilities and
they are great. We speak of the re-.
sponsibility of the engineer, of the
ships captain who guides her course
through the dangers of the sea; of
the leader of an army who must di-
rect his forces, though it means the
sacrifice of many lives; but each of US
has responsibility greater far than
any of these, for to us is entrusted
for veal or for woe that never ends, a
human soul-a soul that is to be brot
to Christ for pardon, to be cleansed
by His blood; to be frightened by His
presence, to be strengthened by His
might to be consecrated to His SER
vice and at last to be set as a precious
jewel in the crown of His eternal
glory-or a soul that will be stained
deeper and deeper with increasing
guilt, to be more and more subjected
to the tyranny of sin, to wander far
Their and farther from its center God,
and as the years pass by to trample
out entirely the lingering image of its
Maker and at last to be shut out for
ever in the black despair of unending
wretchedness.
In the conservation Of life no par
ent is content with the physical beau
ty of child if its mentality is dead,
and so it is idiotic.
Nor is God satisfied to see mental
viuor accop,paniaJ b,, sr;r;.,,oI 1o,.L
He looks for change, passing from
death to life and for this He gives us
abundant opportunity. This is the
supreme trust that you and | have to
keep, my friends. Of all, this is our
paramount trust, the supremest in re-
suits and consequences. The trust our
great Creator has given US to keep
for Him through the stress and strain
of the long and hard battle of life.
However, we are not confined to the
trust of watching our own soul. To us
is given the stupendous work of
watching for the souls of Others In
this work all, but especially Chris
tians, should be interested and ac-
lively engaged. 1t is a great work
The soul must be saved If not, then
all life is a failure Its salvation de-
mands deep earnestness and persistent
work. But it is personal work. In
the nature of the case we cannot reach
all, yet we do not try to reach our
friends. What of the outlying masses?
They must be reached with the Gospel
message. That is our mission as
Christians and the Christians
duty is to seek first Of all a saving
interest in Christ and then 90 to work
in His vineyard. JOANNES.