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THE CIXIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1892. THE TABERNACLE PULPIT TALHAOB PUEACHEiOH TH" TEAR JUB1C1.0SE. The First Mnda of New Ver Is at Fitting Time to Think on the Uncertain Ties of Life The An tedllnvlam Patriarchs. Brooklyn, Jan. ft This morning the Tabernacle congrega ';-n, meeting for the first Sunday service of the new year, found the pastor disposed to serious reflections on the flight of time. The opening hymn gave the keynote in the familiar words: My days are gliding swiftly by. And 1, a pilgrim's stranger. Would Dot detain them ax they fly. Those hour of toil and danger. Dr. Talmage read several passages Tela ting to antediluvian longevity. making characteristic comments a he read, and then preached from the ominous words. Jeremiah xxvui. 10. " This year thou shalt die." Jeremiah, accustomed to Baying bold things, addresses Haunniah in these words. They prove true. In Lxty days Hananiab had departed this life. This is the first Sabbath of the year. It is a time for review and for anticipation. A man must be a gen ius at stupidity who does not think now. The old year died m giving birth to the new. as the life of Jane Seymour, the English queen, de parted when that of her son. Edward VI, dawned. I tie old year was queen. The new shall be a king. The grave of the one and the cradle of the other are side by side. We can hardly guess what the child will be. It is only two days old. but prophesy for it an eventful future Year of mirth and madness I Year of pageant and conflagration I It will laugh: it will sing; it will groan will die. it Is it not a time for earnestthoughtl The congratulations have been given The Christmas trees have been taken down, or have well nigh cast their fruit The friends who came for the holidays are gone in the rail train While we are looking forward to an other twelve months of intense activ itiea. the text breaks upon us like a bursting tbunderbead. Inis year thou shalt dia The text will probably prove true of some of us. The probability augmented by the fact that all of us who are over thirty-five years of" age have gone beyond the average of hu man life. The note is more than due. It is only by sufferance that it is not collected. We are like a debtor who is taking the "three days' grace' of the banks Our race started with nine hundred years for a lifetime. We read of but one antediluvian youth whose early death disappoint ed the hopes of his parents by his dying at seven hundred and seventy seven years of age. The world then may have been ahead of what it is now, for men had so long a time in which to study and invent and plan. If an artist or a philosopher has forty years for work, he makes great achievements; but what must the artists and philosophers have done who had nine hundred years before themt In tne nearly two thousand years before the flood, considering the longevity of the inhabitants, there may have been nearly as many peo ple as there are now. 'The flood was not a freshet that washed a few people off a plank, but a disaster that may have swept away a thousand millions. If the Atlantic ocean, by a sudden lurch of the earth tonight. should drown this hemisphere, and the Pacific ocean, by a sudden lurch of the earth, should drown the other hemisphere, leaving about as many beings as could be got in one or two ocean steamers, it would give you an idea of what the ancient flood was. HOW LIFE WAS SHORTENED. At tnat time Uod started the race with a shorter allowance of life. The nine hundred years were hewn down. until, in the tune of Vespasian, a uen bus was taken, and only ono hundred and twenty four persons were found one hundred yean old and three or four persons one hundred and forty years old. Now a man who has come to one hundred years of age is a cun osity and we go miles to see him. The vast majority of the race passes off before twenty years. To every app'3 there are five blossoms that never get to be apples. In the coun try church the sexton , rings the bell rapidly until almost through, and then tolls it For awhile the bell ol i our life rings right merrily, but with , some of you the bell has begun to toll, and the adaptednees of the text to you is more and more probable, ,:-j.nis year tnou snail die." v r The character of occupation adds ."' to the probability. Those who are in the professions are undergoing a -sapping of the brain and nerve foundations. ' literary men in this country; a$e driven with whip and spur to their (. topmost speed. Not j one brain worker out of a,-hundred observes any moderation. There is : something so stimulating in our cli . mate that if John Brown, the essay , 1st of ' Edinburgh, had lived here he would have broken down at thirty five instead of fifty-five, and Charles p Dickens would have dropped at forty. : There is something in all our occu po tions which predisposes to disease if we be stout to disorders ranging from fever to apoplexy t if we be frafl, to diseases ranging from coo sumption to paralysis. '-v.-' i v Printers rarely reach fifty years. I jgawk Watchmakers, in marking the time for others, shorten their own. Chem ists breathe death in their labora tories and potters absorb paralysis: Painters fall under their own brush. Foundrymen take death in with the filings. Shoemakers pound away their own lives on the last Over driven merchants measure off their own lives with the yardstick. Millers grind their own lives with the grist. Masons dig their graves with the trowel. And in all our occupations and professions there are the elements of peril. Rapid climatic changes threaten our lives. By reason of the violent fits of the thermometer, within two days we live both in the arctic and the tropic. The warm south wind finds us with our furs on. The win try blast cuts through our thin ap parel. The hoof, the wheel, the fire arms, the assassin wait their chance to put upon uh their quietus. I announce it as an impossibility that three hun area and sixty -nve days snouid pass and leave us all as we now are. In what direction to shoot the arrow I know not. and so 1 shoot it at a ven ture. "This year thou shalt die." in view or this, 1 advise that you hp re your temporal matters adjusted. Do not leave your worldly affairs at the mercy of administrators. Have your receipts properly pasted and your letters filed and your books balanced. If you have "trust funds," see that they are rightly deposited and accounted for. Let no widow or orphan scratch on your tombstone, "This man wronged me of my in heritance " Many a man has died eaving a competency whose prop erty has, through his own careless ness, afterward been divided between the administrators, the surrogate, the lawyers and the sheriffs. I charge you. before many days have gone, as far as possible, have all your worldly matters made straight, for "This year thou shalt die." POSSIBILITIES OF SABBATH WORK. 1 ad vine also that you be busy in Christian work. How many Sab baths in the year? Fifty-two. If the text be true of you it does not say at what time you may go, and therefore it is unsafe to count on all of the fifty -two Sundays. As you are as likely to go in the first half of the year as in the last half, I think we had better divide the fifty-two into halves and calculate only twenty -six Sabbaths. Come, Christian men. Christian women. wha,t can you do in twenty-six Sabbaths) Divide the three hundred and sixty five days into two parts; what can you do in one-hundred and eighty two days What by the way of sav ing your family, the church and the world! You will not. through all the ages of eternity in heaven, get over the dishonor and the outrage of going into glory, and having helped none up to the same place. It will be found that many a Sabbath school teacher has taken into heaven her whole class; that Daniel Baker, the evangelist took thousands into heaven; that Doddridge has taken in hundreds of thousands; that Paul took in a hundred millions. How many will you take in? If you get into heaven and find none there that you sent and that there are none to come through your instrumentality. 1 beg of you to crawl under some seat in the back corner and never come -it. lest the redeemed get their eyes on you and some one cry out : "That is the man who never lifted hand or voice for the redemption of his fellows! Look at him, all heaven I" Bettor be busy. Better put the plow in deep. Better say what you have to say quickly Better cry the alarm. Better fall on your knees. Better lay hold with both hands. What you now leave undone for Christ will forever be un done. "This year thou shalt die I" In view of the probabilities men boned I advise all the men and worn en not ready for eternity to get ready. If the text be true, you have no tune to talk about nonessentials, asking why God let sin come into the world. or whether the book of Jonah is in spireo, or who Meichisedec was, or what about the eternal decrees. If you are as near eternity as some of you seem to be, there is no time for anything but the question, "What must 1 do to be saved I" The drown ing man, when a plank is thrown him. stops not to ask what sawmill made it or whether it is oak or cedar or who threw it The moment it is thrown he clutches it If this year you are to die, there ia no time for anything but immediate ly laving hold on God. It is hitrh time to get out of' your sins. You say, "1 have committed no great transgressions. " - But - are you not aware that your life has been sinful I The snow comes down On the Alps flake by flake, and it is so light that ' 1 f i A.m M you may noia it. on ins up ox your finger without feeling any weight; but the flakes gather; they compact, until someday a traveler's foot starts the slide, and it goes down in an avalanche, crushing to death the vil lagers. Bo the sins of your youth and the Sins of your manhood and the sins of your womanhood may have Beemed only , slight inaccuracies or ' trifling divergences from the rightso slight that they are hardly worth mention ing, but they have been piling up and piling up, packing together and pack ing together, until they make a mountain of sin, and one more step of your foot in the wrong direction may slide down upon ' you an ava lanche of ruin and aondomnation. i .i . jtjul'lIa: toffiTir flSililif A man crossing a desolate and lonely plateau, a hungry wolf took after him. He brought his gun to his shoulder and took aim, and the wolf howled with pain, and the cry woke up a pack of wolves and they came ravening out of the forest from all sides and horribly devoured him. Thou art the man. Some one sin of your life summoning on all the rest, they surround thy soul and make the night of thy sin terrible with the assault of their bloody muzzles. Oh. the unpardoned, clamoring, ravening, all devouring sins of thy lifetime I A maniac was found pacing along the road with a torch in one hand and a pail of water in the other, and Borne one asked him what he meant to do with them. He answered. "With this torch 1 mean to burn down heaven, and with this 'water 1 mean to put out the fires of hell." He was a maniac. He could do the one thing just as well as he could do the other. No time to lose if you want to escape your sins, for "This year thou shalt die." Let me announce that Christ, the Lord, stands ready to save any man who wants to be saved. He waited for you all last year, and all the year before, and all your life. He has waited for you with blood on his brow, and tears in his eye, and two outstretched, mangled hands of love. You come home some night and find the mark of muddy feet on your front steps. You hasten in, and find an excited group around your child He fell into a pond, and had it not been for a brave lad, who plunged in and brought him out ami curried him home to be resuscitated, you would have been childless. You feel that you cannot do enough for the rescuer. You throw your arms around him. You offer him any compensation You say to him: "Anything that you want snail oe yours. 1 will never tease to be grateful. '" But my dear Lord Jesus sees your soul sinking and attempts to bring it ashore, and you not only refuse him thanks, but stand on the beach and say -. "Drop that soul ! If 1 want it saved I will save it myself." I wish you might know what a job Jesus undertook when he carried your case to Calvary. They crowded him to the walL They struck him They spat on him. They kicked him. They cuffed him. They scoffed at him. They scourged him. They murdered him. Blood I Blood) As he stoops down to lift you up the crimson drops upon you from his brow, from his side, from his, hands, Do you not feel the warm current on your face? Oh, for thee the hunger, the thirst, the thorn sting, the suffo cation, the darkness, the groan, the sweat the struggle, the death ! A great plague came in Marseilles. The doctors held a consultation, and decided that a corpse must be dissect ed or they would never know how to stop the plague. A Dr. Guyon said, "Tomorrow morning I will proceed to a dissection.'" He made his will, prepared for death, went into the hospital, dissected a body, wrote out the results of the dissection and died in twelve hours. Beautiful self sac rifice, you say. Our Lord Jesus looked out troin heaven and saw a plague stricken race. Sin must be dissected. He made his will, giving everything to his people. He comes down into the reeking hospital of earth. He lays his hand to the work. Under our plague he dies the healthy for the sick, the pure for the polluted, the innocent for the guilty, Behold the love I Behold the sacri fice! Behold the rescue! Decide, on this first Sabbath of the year, whether or not you will have Jesus. He will not stand forever begging for your love. With some here his plea ends right speedily "This year thou shalt die." SALVATION CANNOT BE BOUGHT. This great salvation of the Gospel I now offer to every man, woman and child. You cannot buy it You cannot earn it A Scotch writer saya that a poor woman, one cold winter's day, looked through the window of a king's conservatory and saw a bunch of grapes hanging against the glass. She said, "Oh. if I only had that bunch of grapes for my sick child at home! At her spinning wheel she earned a few. shillings and went to buy the grapes. The king's gardener thrust her out very roughly and said he had no grapes to sell She went off and sold a blanket and got some more shillings and came back and tried to buy the grapes. But the gardener roughly assaulted her and told her to be off. The king's daugh ter was walking in the garden at the time and she heard the excitement, and, seeing the poor woman, said to her, "My father is not a merchant to sell, but he is a king and gives." Then she reached up and plucked the grapes and dropped them into the poor woman's apron. So Christ is a king and all the fruits of his pardon he freely gives. They may not be bought Without money and with out price take this sweet cluster from the vineyards of God. ' I am coming to the close of my sei- mon. I sought for a text appropri ate to the occasion. 1 thought of taking one in Job, "My days fly as a weaver's shuttle;" of a text in the Psalms, "So teach us to number out days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom;" of the prayer of the vine dresser, "Lord, let it alone this year also;" but pressed upon my at tention first of all and last of all and above all were the Words, "This year thou shalt die." .. . '.Y1' "v h issfrisMi'i'i Aiiifiiiwiis)itf(sl snsemTai5Mir:if,- eSsVjatet Perhaps it may mean me. Though in perfect health now, it does not take God one week to bring down the strongest physical constitution. I do not want to die this year. We have plans and projects on foot that I want to see completed, but God knows best, and he has a thousand better men than I to do the work yet undone. I have a hope that, notwith standing all my sins and wanderings, I shall, through the infinite mercy of my Saviour, come out at the right place. I have nothing to brag of by way of Christian experience; but two things I have learned my utter helplessness before God, and the all abounding grace of the Lord Jesus. If the text means some of you, my hearers, I do not want you to be caught unprepared. I would like to have you, either through money you have laid up, or a "life insurance," be able to leave the world feeling that your family need not become paupers. But if you have done your best and you leave not one dollar's worth of estate, you may confidently trust the Lord who hath promised to care for the widow and the father less. I would like to have your soul fitted out for eternity, so that if any morning or noon or evening or night of these three hundred and sixty-five days death should look in and ask, "Are you ready?" you might with an outburst of Christian triumph an swer, "Aye, aye! all ready?" CHARACTERISTIC LAST WORDS. I know not what our last words may be. Lord Chesterfield prided himself on his politeness and said in his last moment, "Give Dayrolles a chair." Dr. Adam, a dying school master, said: "It grows dark. The boys may dismiss.'' Lord Tenterden, supposing himself on the bench of a courtroom, said in his last moment, "Gentlemen of the jury, you will now consider your verdict." A dying play actor said: "Drop the curtain. The farce is played out." I would rather have for my dying words those of one greater than Chesterfield or Dr. Adam or Lord Tenterden: "I am now ready to be offered and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous ness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me." The sooner the last hour comes the better if we are fitted for entrance in the celestial world. There is no clock in heaven, because it is an everlasting day ; yet they keep an ac count orV the passing years because they are all the time hearing from Lour world. The angels flying through heaven report how many times the earth has turned on its axis, and in that way the angels can keep a diary ; and they say it is almost time now for father to come up or for mothei to come up. Some day they see a cohort leaving heaven and they say, "Whither bound?" and the answer is, "To bring up a soul from earth." And the ques tion is asked, "What soul?" And a family circle in heaven find that it is one of their own number that is to be brought up. and they come out to watch, as on the beach we now watch for a ship that is to bring our friends home. After awhile the cohort will heave in sight, flying nearer and nearer, until with a great clang the gates hoist and with an embrace wild with the ecstacy of heaven old friends meet again. Away with your stiff, formal heaven! I want none of it. Give me a place of infinite and eternal sociality. My feet free from the clods of earth, I shall bound the hills with gladness and break forth in a laugh of triumph. Aha! aha! We weep now, but then we shall laugh. "Abra ham's bosom" means that heaven has open arms to take us in. Now we fold our arms over our heart and ten tne world to stand bacK, as though our bosom was a two barred gate to keep the world out Heaven stands not with folded arms, but with heart open. It is "Abraham's bosom. CHILDHOOD IN HEAVEN. I I see a mother and her child meet ing at the foot of the throne after some years absence. The! child died twenty years ago, but is a child yet I think the little ones who die will remain children through all eternity. It would be no heaven without the little darlings. I do not want those that are in heaven to grow up. we need their infant voices in the great song. And when we walk out in the fields of light we want them to run ahead and clap their hands and pick out the bright est of the field flowers. Yes, here is a child and its mother meeting. The child long in glory, the mother just arrived. "How changed you are, my dar ling I" says the mother. "Yes," says the child, "this is such a happy place. and Jesus has taken such care of me, and heaven is sokind, I got right over the fever with which I died. The skies are so fair, mother! The flowers are so sweet, mother! The temple is so beautiful, mother I Come, take me up in your arms as you used to." Oh, I do not know how we shall stand the first day in heaven. Do you not think we will break down in the song from over delight? I once gave out in church the hymn: ' There l a land of pure delight, Where aalnta immortal reign. and an aged man standing in front of the pulpit sang heartily . the first verse and then he sat down weep ing. I said to him afterward, "Fa ther Linton, what made you cry over that hymn?" He said, "I could not stand it the joys that are coming. When heaven rises for the doxology, I cannot see how we can rise with it if all these waves of everlasting de light come upon the soul, billow of joy after billow of joy. Methinks Jesus would be enough for the first day in heaven, yet here he approach es with all heaven at his back. But I must close this sermon. This is the last January to some who are present. You have entered the yc r, but you will not close it Within these twelve months your eyes will shut for the last sleep. Other hands will plant the Christmas tree and give the New Year's congratulations. As a proclamation of joy to some, and as a matter of warning to others, I leave in your ears these five words of one syllable each, "This year thou shalt die." The Cook and Her Dress. A woman may dress a turkey bet ter than she can dress her person ; she may blend harmoniously into a sauce divers flavors, anc out of sim ple elements evolve triumphs of cul inary good taste in every sense of the phrase, and yet be herself a dismal, unwholesome looking object while en gaged in the daily routine of duties. It seems to be an article of belief with many cooks that personal neg lect and a general air of untidiness are outward and visible signs of great culinary skill, the possessor of which talent is by them deemed exempt from the laws of neatness and order. Their ideas on the subject of dress, however, are by no means lacking in definiteness, but unfortunately they are confined to the elaboration of toilets for high days and holidays, and the natural womanly wish to look well is perverted into a desire for finery as unsuitable as it is flimsy and flashy. Wages are freely spent on imitation splendors, and arrayed in sleazy silk or satin, glittering with jet, the head crowned with the very latest style of hat, the young woman sallies forth with the proud convic tion that she is "quite the thing. " In some such garb as this she often applies for a situation, never dream ing that she thereby imperils her chances of obtaining a good home, so much does her attire repel the sen sible housekeeper, who, by repeated experience, has learned that finery covers a multitude of sins of omission . .... . . and that almost certainly there is scarcely a decent change of under clothing or a whole calico gown among the belongings of the gayly dressed applicant There are exceptions, of course, and memory dwells fondly on the merits of an excellent cook who joined to her skill the rare virtue of appropriate, even tasteful, dressing while she was officially engaged. The neat print gown, the glossy hair and bright face and the cheerful readi ness to do her very best made visits to the kitchen most attractive, and it was easy to overlook the want of taste and judgment which governed her choice of Sunday toilets. Har pers Bazar. What Some Men Steal. It is said that some men will steal anything from a hairpin to a red hot stove. That saying may be an ex aggeration as to the red hot stove, but it is certain that some men will steal articles of very trifling value. To illustrate. A certain popular res taurant down town keeps a liberal supply of butter upon its tables, and its patrons are allowed to help them selves at pleasure. But there are no individual butter plates. A patron of the restaurant sug gested to the proprietor that it would be a good thing if he would put a number of individual butter plates on each table, so that his patrons could use them if they wanted to do so. "That would cost me too much money," was the reply of the propri etor. ' 'Hundreds of men come here every day who would steal the butter plates. Some of the people who come in here actually steal the bread plates, and they frequently take away tumblers and other pieces of tableware, and napkins they steal by the score. Knives, forks and spoons, too, are taken." New York World. One Test In Buying a Horse. When examining a horse with a view to purchasing, always have him led down a steep or stony descent at the end of a halter and with no whip near him. Many horses when brought out of the stable are excited by the presence of strangers, and be come still more so at sight of a whip. A slight lameness may therefore be momentarily overlooked by the horse himself, just as a man under strong excitement will sometimes forget a sore foot Leading the horse down a slope will show any defect in his forequarters, and running him back will develop any weakness that may exist in his hind legs. Horse sharp ers know these facts as well as any body, so if the horse is in the least affected they will generally avoid a hill when showing off a horse to a probable purchaser. St. Louis Globe Democrat Coat of the Army and Navy, SIS, 150,000. The officers and sailors in the navy ' get $7,500,000 and the officers and soldiers in the army $10,000,000. . Un cle Sam spends $150,000 for horses for bis cavaly and artillery, and pays his retired army officers a million and a half of good round dollars. Cleveland Leader. v V'o'V"-7- .' THE SONG OF SALVATION 1.KBSON II, INTERNATIONAL SERIES, JAM. IO. Text of Lesson, lata, xzvl, i-io Memory Veraca 141 Golden Text laa. xzvl, 4 Commentary by tne Rev. D. M. Stearns). L "Id that day shall this song be snog in the land of Judah. We have a strong ejty. salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." This, like. chapter xii. will be one of Israel's millennial songs. See the phrase "that day" seven times between xxiv, 21 and xxvii. 18, and note its connec tions. Especially observe xxiv, 28: xxvii, 18, and you cannot fail to see the reference to Israel's restoration and glory in coming days, now perhaps very near. "The name of the city from that day shall be the Lord is there. " "It shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more forever." The Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and the glory in the raidnt of her He will be her strength ami salvation (Ezek. xlviii, 85; Jer. xxxi. 40: Zech. li, & laa. xii. I. 3) 2. "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." This is the righteous nation of Isa. Ix, 21: Jer. xxxi, 84. The nation shall be born at once: their iniquity purged in one day; for they shall look upon their long rejected King when He shall come in His power and glory (Isa. lxvi, 8; Zech. iii, 9, xii, 10; xiii, 1). The city shall be a city of truth, for the God of Truth shall be her EUng (Zech. viii, 8; Isa. lxv, 16). As to opening the gates see Ps. xxiv, 7-10; cxviii, 10, and note carefully for your owl soul the King of Glory longing to enter (Rev 111,20). 8. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trustetb in Thee." The Scriptures every where speak of Israel's restoration and fu ture glory as preceded by a time of great trouble. See verses 20, 21; also chapters xxxiv, 28; xxxv, 4; Dan. xii, 1, 2; Mutt, xxiv, 21, 29, 80. But however great the tribulation, either then or now, the one who trusts in God need never be disturbed, and the mind that is stayed on Him will have perfect peace (Pa. xlvi, 1-3; Matt, xxiv, 6; John xiv, 1, 27; xvi, 83). 4, "Trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." The peculiar name "Lord Jehovah," or Jan Jehovah" (R. V. margin), is found only here and in the other millennial song, Isa, xii, 2. Its full significance shall be seen in that day. Everlasting strength, or Rock of Ages (Margin), makes me think of Moses in the cleft of the rock covered with God's hand (Ex. xxxiii, 22), and of the perfect and eternal safety of all whose lives are hid with Christ in God. CoL iii, 8. Therefore let us trust in Him at ail times (Ps. Ixii, 8). 6. "For He bringeth down them that dwell on high; the lofty city, He layeth it low; He layeth it low even to the ground; He bringeth it even to the dust," Here ia haughtiness humbled, and this is the rec ord throughout the whole book, whether applied to a nation, city or a person. We often see it now, but It shall be fully seen In that day. The proud and ungodly may prosper for a time, but let the righteous, though for a time oppressed, have faith and patience. Note carefully laa, li, 11, 17. with the context; also the songs of Han nah and Mary, I Sam. li, 1-10; Luke 1. 46-45. 6. "The foot shall tread It down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy." Here is humility exalted. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the king dom of heaven" (Math, v, 8). "Ye ahaU tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that 1 shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts" (Mai. iv, 8). See, also, Ps. lxxli, 4, 12, and fret not thyself because of evil do ers, but be patient, wait on the Lord and keep His way and He shall exalt thee to inherit the earth. (Ps. xxxvli, i, 7, 9, 11, 84). 7. The way of the lust is uprightness. Thon most upright dost weigh the path of the Just." The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. His countenance doth be hold the upright (Ps. xl, 7). No good thing will He withhold from them that walk up rightly (Ps. Ixxxiv, 11). But we must re member that He not only weighs our path, but also our actions, and He trieth heart and reins (I Sam. 11, 8; Jer. xvil, 10). If we are only sincere before Him we shall share His glory. & "Yea, in the way of Thy Judgments, O Lord, have we waited for Thee; the de sire of our soul is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee." In chapter xxv, 9, we read, "And it shall be said in that day, Lo this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us; this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation." Jacob, on bis death bed, looking forward to the last days, said: "I have waited for Thy salvsv tion, O Lord" (Gen. xlix, 1, 18). None shall be ashamed that wait upon Him and for Him. He commands us to wait upon Him. We therefore do well to say, "My soul, wait thou only upon God" (laa. xxx, 18; xliv, 28; Zeph. Ill, 8; Ps. Ixil, 0). a "With mi soul have I desired Tha In the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek Thee early; for when Thy judg ments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." The first part of the verse reminds us of Ps. Ixili, 1; xlii, 1, 9; and the oft repeated. Him whom my soul loveth," of Cant, iii. 1-4. God Himself is our salvation, Joy and strength now, as He will be to Israel in that day; therefore see and follow "Jesus only." The last part of the verse poluta to the great gathering unto God when He shall begin to pour out His Judgment in , the last days, after the cburoh is trans lated; then shall be gathered out of the great tribulation the multitude of Bev. vil, 9-17; too late for the honor of the first company of translated ones for Bev, v, 9, 10, but not too late to be present at the marriage of the Lamb (Rev. xix, 1-10). 10. "Let favor be showed to the wicked yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the : '. Lord." Some can only be humbled and led to see the grace and love of God by affliction; but .God tries every way to win men to Himself (Job. xxxiii, 89, 80; II Pet. 1 -111,9). There are some who will not sub mit, except feignedly, even In the millen nlum (Ps. lxvi, 8, margin). These shall follow satan at the end of the thousand .1' years, and being destroyed With him shall never see the majesty of the Lord in the : new earth (Bev. xx, 7-9). . Blessed are ail , Who now receive the grace of God snd 1 walk humbly and alnoerely with Him. W A need hot wonder that In this present time - - -many followers Of the wicked one shall for V their own ends seek and find an entranee ' into the nominal church. In the early, ' ohurch there was a Judas, an Ananlua ' and Sapphire, Demas and many other ' who though receiving favor would not', learn righteousness, and tt has been so ever -lao:.,l;'v;.V,;t;y',..;''-,J'': ; "":C vV. ktomVM&tilaJk t--J- 11TI , insr,'ii imsm
The Semi-Weekly Citizen (Asheville, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Jan. 7, 1892, edition 1
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