USA > Indiana > Johnson County > Franklin > History of the half century celebration of the organization of the First Presbyterian church of Franklin, Indiana > Part 3
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tle more. If we could catch one glimpse of the glory that is waiting for us, it would require more grace than any of us have to stay here much longer.
There is one fact, however, in the future, which John says further on in the text, we do know, and it is such a blessed part of this unrevealed glory that it makes up for all we do not know. He states it in the text as if it was everything. He puts all this that is uncertain in such a shape around this that is certain that the known stands out more clearly because of the unknown; as the painter puts upon the canvas the dark background, in order that the one central figure may shine out clear and distinct. And what is this one positive fact? This is the way it comes out in the text: " Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him." We shall be like our Jesus! Our heaven is to grow out of what he is, so that we may not have a single thought about it in which he is not. He is to be to all there the center of our very being, so that when we come to ask about what we are, or shall be, our best answer will be found by pointing to him and seeing what he is. There is heaven-to be with him. That is heaven-to be like him. That is the great aim of the whole gospel-to show us Christ and make us like him. "The Lamb is the light " of heaven and of the entire pathway to heaven. Our Christian life begins with Christ, as the day begins with the sun. The first conviction which the Spirit of God flashes across our guilty souls is : How unlike Christ we are ! And the prayer that finds its way the most frequently
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up to him is: Make me like thyself. That is the deep daily struggle of every saved soul-to be Christ- like. The mere fact that we are in any respect now like him helps us over the rough places of duty. It reconciles us to the trials of life, to remember that we are even "partakers of his sufferings." But to be like him in glory, what will that be? Not perhaps like him in grandeur, but in kind; in kind of body, in kind of mind, in kind of moral nature. There is something inspiring in that. We sorrow now because we are so unlike that perfect pattern. While he was here in the flesh he labored day and night. How slothful we are! What prayers he offered up, with strong crying and tears. How lifeless our praying is ! It was his meat and drink. to do the will of God. How selfish we live! He triumphed over every temptation. How shamefully we yield! We seem to be entirely different. But all that is to be changed. " We shall be like him." That we know. How can that be? "For we shall see him as he is." Marvel- ous must that sight be. Wonderful must he be, that the seeing of him can bring about such a change in us. We can only think about him now, and our thoughts are partial and mixed with more or less of error. His character is only dimly outlined before us. Before we can get much comfort from our views of what he is, we must reason them out and justify them before our judgment. And we reason so much before we let our love go out to him, that we are chilled even when we are convinced. We keep him so long knocking at the door, hold him so much aloof from us, that when we do admit him we scarcely feel
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the warmth of his presence. But there are times, as many of us know, when our thoughts of Christ seem to start up within us with a strange, sudden self-illu- mination, when what Christ is comes upon us with such an overpowering vividness as to demolish every doubt, and bring in on our souls a peace that is just unspeakable and full of glory. I remember going once in the shop of our beloved Bro. Sloan, when he met me with a glow of gladness on his face and with both hands extended to me, said: " Oh, I've had such a sight of my Savior!" Kneeling down he prayed for you and me, as I never heard even him pray, lifting me up to almost see what he seemed to see. The next prayer-meeting in the church was the beginning of that wonderful revival, when so many were gath- ered in the kingdom of Christ. It began in that blacksmith shop. Such visions are rare and brief, but they are the promises of what shall be. They are the premonitions of the opening of some inward eye which shall see and feel as we can now only imagine. They are the foreshadowing of the time when these glorious realities which now lie behind the material face of things, of the existence of which we are only told, shall be seen in the clear light in which we shall see our Savior " face to face." Who has not hungered for such a sight of Christ? We believe he is ever near us. We know "he is very present in trouble." He whispers thoughts to us at times, as we go along in our duty, that quicken our steps and start us up as we walk along the street. But he never shows himself. We have never seen him as yet. But we shall see him. What if he should show him- 5
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self now? What a rapture of joy would rush into our souls if we could look upon him this moment, upon him whom our souls love! The promise is we shall see him soon, not as he was, but as he is ; not as his head was once, torn with thorns, but as it is, crowned with glory; not as his hands were, wrenched with agony, but as they are, wielding the scepter of universal dominion ; not as his face was, marred more than that of any man, but as it is, gleaming with the gladness and glory of God. Then we shall be like him -with no more burden, no more sorrow, no more sin than he has. I can not tell you how I am affected by such a hope. It seems as if Christ himself was strangely moved when he comes to speak of it. You have noticed the fond, tender, caressing language in which he speaks when he is telling us about having us with him in glory. There are some of the words which he has inspired that twine themselves around my soul, as I have seen the morning glory climb upon the trellis work, twining in and around and about it, and will not let go. There are some say- ings in the Scripture that run in upon my soul, and hang their tendrils about my heart and cover it with blossoms that make my whole being bloom with joy. This text is one. That passage is another where God says he will be with his people, and shall walk with them, and dwell with them, and wipe all tears from their eyes, and they shall go no more out from his presence. There will be no night there, no need of the sun, for the glory of God shall lighten it. The joy that beams from his face will light up our life There are many sayings of his Word when he seems
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to clasp his children tenderly to himself and assure each of them separately, and all of them together, that their pilgrimage is over-that their education is far enough along for them to come home and never leave him forever. Why, Christ tells us that when a single one of us shall turn by repentance to go to that home in heaven, there shall be "joy in the presence of the angels of God." God is so glad that he shows it to all around him, and they too catch the fire of it.
Oh! when " we shall see him as he is " in his love for us, in the gladness of his heart over us; when "the joy that was set before him," and for which he " endured the cross, despising the shame;" when that joy is fulfilled, and we see him in it, and share it with him-why, what change will not the sight of such a scene make in us! Make us like him? That it must; it shall. So glorious will be the sight that it will awaken whatever there is in us, and we shall be surprised at what we are and can be. I have read this story of an organ. The player was a poor per- former. One evening, being sick, a stranger offered to play for the evening worship. He played through the simple airs that were usually played, then he be- gan to feel his way along the keys with such strange and hitherto unknown power that those who listened turned and looked amazed at what they heard. And as the stranger went on, opening sweeter and sweeter harmonies, the organ seemed to the worshipers to be something different from what it had ever been before. No one knew the instrument, so new was its power. So when Christ shall pass the hand of his love over our souls, and bring out the long-delayed music of
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our hearts, the long-hidden powers of our being, those wonderful harmonies of our nature which now we can not understand, and of which we seem to be utterly incapable and unconscious, then methinks all the heaven will stop to listen as they hear the new song of redemption, which our Redeemer will bring out from us. We will be amazed at what we are in the hands of Christ, as he says he will surprise us by showing us what we have been to him in doing our little good deeds to the least of his. Then shall be- gin to dawn upon us "what we shall be."
And when shall all this be? The only answer that comes to us is, " When he shall appear." In his ap- pearing shall all things appear. God has willed that the morning which shall throw light upon our whole future can only dawn at the second coming of Christ. However pure and happy may be the state of those who once served the Savior here before us, and with us, and now are serving him in the spirit world, “it doth not yet appear what they shall be," and will not till he comes the second time, and come he will. That is taken for granted by the apostle. He merely says : "When he shall appear," as if it was absolutely sure. It is as certain as the word and oath of God can make it. There is no more doubt of this " appear- ing of our Lord," than there is of the sun rising out of this night and make all things clear that are now hidden in the darkness. Oh! surer than that; for there is some doubt about the sun appearing to-mor- row. There is a night coming when the only light to bring in the day will be Christ come.
Now to that one bright fact in the future we are di-
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rected to look. While we are given to understand that the vail must still hide the secret things of God, until his own hand shall draw it aside, yet we are over and over again told to "look for that glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ," as if that luminous point ahead of us would illuminate everything. And what will follow the look- ing at this spot of which only the bare bright fact we know? While I ask the question, does there not start up in your mind the answer, or what is the same, this question: How can I prepare for this great sight, so that whatever my future turns out to be, I may be fitted for it ? What does the apostle say about that ? Here it is: " Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." Let us be sure that we read these words rightly, and understand what they say. As they are printed in our Bibles, there is danger of making a mistake. They look as if they meant, Every man that hath this hope in him, within himself, cherishing in his own heart a hope of heaven, that he, because of that hope in himself, will purify himself. But that is not true, and it takes all the force out of the words to say so. Very many are cherishing a hope of heaven without a care of holiness. Purity is not always the result of such a hope. If, however, you will take your Bibles and put a capital H to the word "him," in whom the hope is, and make it mean the Lord and not the man, we can get the correct idea. For it really reads, Every one that has this hope in Christ, resting on Christ, that man, and because of that hope in Christ, will purify himself. That is true, and it puts life in
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the words to say it. There is no reason whatever why any one who is cherishing any other hope should expect it to be well with him. It is a mere fancy and has no force in it. The hope that purifieth rests on a sure foundation. It is grounded on the Son of God, not on the purity of our past lives, or character of our present desires, or on anything that is our own, but solely on our blessed Lord. There is something in that to stimulate us to purity, to kindle in us the desire to be as pure as he is. It will keep up a life- long struggle to be the persons the judgment-day calls for, and for whom God's heaven is waiting.
It is well to stop and think about this high stand- ard of purity, which Christ sets before us in order to stir up efforts and purposes to be pure. The artist sometimes puts a perfectly pure pebble in his hand while at his work, and once in a while looks at it. It is to tone up his eyesight. In working paints into tints the eye gets down and dull, and there must be some color at hand that is perfectly pure, to sharpen up his sight, so that he can distinguish the nice shades. In working in this world, where there is so much to lower our standard of right and wrong, our spiritual sight becomes worn and weakened, and we need continually something to tone up our moral sense. The holiness and heaven that Christ has pre- pared for us, the perfect peace and purity that dwell there with him and in him, that is the very ideal of all that is beautiful, and true, and noble, and loving. To make us look at that which we can be in Christ, so as to make us like him, God sometimes dark- ens all the sky save where he is. He spreads suffer-
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ing all around us, until there is no place left to which we can flee for refuge but Christ.
There is an aged blind woman, whose sightless eyeballs have been straining to see the day for these years. It is said that her room is one of the sunniest in her city. She says: "Christ is the light thereof." It is that same light that will gild the waters of death, and make it "the shining shore" of which we some- times sing.
Does it not pay, then, to be a Christian? Has it not paid our beloved brothers and sisters, who have gone to see Christ before us ? The joy comes out in all directions ; but what makes it doubly delightful to us now, gathered as we are to renew our friendships, is the very precious part of our reward, which comes to us in the recognition of each other in our heavenly home. It is in this struggle to be like Christ that we get the preparation to know one another. The suffering that cost us to be pure, " as he is pure," will be one great part of the joy of recognition. Strange that there should ever be a doubt about that among us who have labored to- gether in the Lord. The doubt can only come from forgetting who we are and what we have been doing. A few years ago there strolled into a town in Illinois an old drummer with his drum. His remarkable skill drew around him a large crowd of citizens, among them an old fifer who lived there. It was ar- ranged that they two should play together. They were both old and gray, and bowed down with infirm- ity. As they went on with their music the drummer dropped his sticks, turned square round and faced
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·
the fifer, rubbed one hand over his eyes, and with the other pushed up the fifer's cap, and, peering into his eyes, said: "Is not this John ? Did not you play that at Lundy's Lane, as we charged the British when the sun was setting? Did not I drum it there by your side?" The fife and drumsticks dropped, and then two long-forgotten comrades in war were in each
other's arms. It had been nearly half a century since they had met. Time had hacked at their bodies, till they were seamed with scars. But there was something in the music, or in the men, that had not changed. I can not tell how it will be, my friends, but somehow, yonder in heaven, we, who have "battled together for the Lord," will find out each other, changed as we shall be. There will be something in our voice, or form, or flash of the eye, or simply in what we say, or in the way we say it, or in what we do. There will be something that will reveal the wonderful secret. Every one of Christ's children who have walked these streets of Franklin, we will know as they walk the streets of the New Jerusalem. And think you the joy of that meeting will not more than make up for all the self-denial through which we had to go to be Christ-like, and all the pain which our purity cost us. Thank God for the service and suffering for Christ that marks us off for that heavenly meeting, that makes and preserves our friends to us. It is this holy work that has brought us together once more on earth, that makes us one for heaven and in heaven.
After prayer, by Rev. Eliphalet Kent, of Shelby- ville, the congregation joined in singing :-
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All hail the power of Jesus' name ! Let angels prostrate fall; Bring forth the royal diadem, And crown him Lord of all.
Crown him, ye martyrs of our God, Who from his altar call ; Extol the stem of Jesse's rod, And crown him Lord of all.
Ye chosen seed of Israel's race, Ye ransomed from the fall ; Hail him, who saves you by his grace, And crown him Lord of all.
Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget The wormwood and the gall; Go, spread your trophies at his feet, And crown him Lord of all.
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Let every kindred, every tribe, On this terrestrial ball, To him all majesty ascribe, And crown him Lord of all.
Oh ! that with yonder sacred throng, We at his feet may fall ; We'll join the everlasting song, And crown him Lord of all.
The benediction was pronounced by Rev. A. Parker, of Columbus.
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AT half past ten o'clock Sabbath morning a very large congregation assembled to hear the sermon to be preached by Rev. J. F. Tuttle, D. D., President of Wabash College.
The choir sang the anthem : "SEEK YE THE LORD."
President Tuttle invoked the divine blessing, after which the entire congregation joined in singing the hymn :
Blow ye the trumpet, blow ! The gladly solemn sound ; Let all the nations know, To earth's remotest bound, The year of jubilee is come; Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.
Exalt the Lamb of God, The sin-atoning Lamb !
Redemption by his blood, Through every land, proclaim : The year of jubilee is come; Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.
Ye slaves of sin and hell ! Your liberty receive,
And safe in Jesus dwell, And blest in Jesus live : The year of jubilee is come ; Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.
The gospel trumpet hear, The news of pardoning grace : Ye happy souls, draw near ; Behold your Savior's face : The year of jubilee is come; Return, ye ransomed sinners, home. (54)
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Jesus, our great High Priest, Has full atonement made ; Ye weary spirits, rest ; Ye mourning souls be glad : The year of jubilee is come ; Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.
President Tuttle then read selections of Scripture and led the congregation in prayer.
The pastor announced the following hymn, which was sung:
Hark ! the song of jubilee, Loud as mighty thunders roar, Or the fullness of the sea, When it breaks upon the shore ! Hallelujah ! for the Lord Good omnipotent, shall reign ! Hallelujah ! let the word Echo round the earth and main.
Hallelujah ! hark, the sound, From the depths unto the skies, Wakes above, beneath, around, All creation's harmonies ! See Jehovah's banner furled, Sheathed his sword, he speaks-'tis done, And the kingdoms of this world Are the kingdoms of his Son !
He shall reign from pole to pole, With illimitable sway : He shall reign, when like a scroll Yonder heavens are passed away, Then the end: beneath his rod Man's last enemy shall fall : Hallelujah ! Christ in God, God in Christ, is all in all l
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After some very appropriate introductory remarks, in which President Tuttle referred to the church as "occupying an illuminated platform," and about to "commemorate the virtues and works of the brave men and women who had dared to meet the hard- ships of pioneer life, in order to lay here the founda- tion of homes and society," he announced as his theme, GOD'S WORK IN THE WORLD THE LAST FIFTY YEARS.
1824.
1874.
GOD'S WORK IN THE WORLD
THE LAST
FIFTY YEARS.
A DISCOURSE
PREACHED AT
Franklin, Indiana, November 29, 187.4.
BY
JOSEPH F. TUTTLE, D. D., President of Wabash College.
GOD'S WORK IN THE WORLD THE LAST FIFTY YEARS.
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TEXT .- Numbers xxiii. 23: "What God hath wrought!"
MY theme is, God's work in the world the last fifty years; and, in the first place, let me show in what ways it may be said that God has been working in the world.
In general God works through the so-called laws of nature. These are a necessary condition to the more specific methods which I shall name. Progress in any department of nature, or in the spheres where rational and free human beings act, is conditioned on the constancy with which the Creator works through the laws of nature.
It is a very surprising and beautiful fact that human progress is very closely connected with the work of men of genius. This progress has been dependent on the scientific discoveries, the practical inventions, and upon the philosophical formulas which express the rights of men in society, and their faith as moral beings in God. The ordinary mind gropes in vain in the midst of the endless mazes of material and spir- itual phenomena until the men of genius open the hidden mysteries of nature, and announce the great principles which determine man's relations in the fam- ily, the society, and the moral government.
(59)
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Mr. Carlyle pleasantly speaks of such men as "the living light-fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near; not as a kindled lamp only, but as a natural luminary, shining by the gift of Heaven."
What a debt the world owes to the men who have made the great discoveries of the forces which have given such an impulse to human progress, electricity, electro-magnetism, steam, and who have invented the steamboat, the railway, the telegraph, the mowing and the sewing machines! Surely such are "lumin- aries shining by the gift of Heaven."
And so are the men who have genius to make and employ money to produce values. The silver and the gold are the Lord's, if for no other reason that money-makers receive their gift to make money from Him who taught Newton the path among the stars, and the scientist the secret things of the Lord in nature.
The same is true of the men who have announced the great principles which guard human rights, prin- ciples formulated by statesmen, fought for by heroes, and died for by martyrs. They are God's workers, and in so saying I do not assert that each one of these workers is a good man. La Place was a great astronomer; but in saying, "There is no God," he was not so great as Kepler, who said: "O God, I think thy thoughts after thee!" and yet of both of them, and all whom they represent, God may well say, claiming them as his servants: "Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it?"
Let me here arrest this strain of remark by again
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stating the truth that God in various ways has been working in the world, not only in the stupendous fabric of nature, but in the rise and fall of nations, in the advance of civilization and religion, in the better- ing of the conditions of mankind, in the discoveries of science, in the works of art, in the creation and use of capital, in the deeds of great men, in every department of thought, in one word, in all that has taken place in the world. If so in general, then is it so also with the period with which we are now deal- ing. God has been working his work in the world during the last fifty years.
In the second place let me name and describe briefly several lines of thought which indicate how remarkable has been the progress made during the last fifty years.
I have already shown you that it seems to me both philosophical and grateful to recognize God as in these several respects working in the world. In this review we will not say even in our hearts with the fool : "There is no God," but rather with true wisdom : " What hath GOD wrought!"
My remarks will be grouped under four heads.
I. The physical changes effected during this period. I shall mention those mainly which tend to make the earth a better place for man's residence, and man a fitter inhabitant of the earth. Among these changes we have this, that millions of acres of land have been reclaimed for man's use in that time. Not including Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, 50,000,000 of acres of land west of the Alleghenies are now plowed that fifty years ago were wild.
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In the islands of the Pacific that have been civilized during that period vast areas have been subdued. The Malthusian theory of increasing population, and the means of sustaining them not increasing, is a great deal farther from realization to-day than it was fifty years ago.
In this country, and no doubt in others also, vast tracts of marsh lands, and lands under water, have been reclaimed and built on. The values thus , cre- ated in the vicinity of Boston, New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New Orleans, and other cities, amount to hundreds of millions.
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