Junk, 1922 



Ci L E A N I N G S IN B K K O U L T U R K 



401 



moment to what spiritualists have in the 

 way of proof. 



I commenced hunting my Testament tor 

 the words of the Savior. I studied his words 

 as I never did before. Ow good pastor came 

 to my rescue, and I questioned him. He 

 referred me to quite a number of passages. 

 The dear friends who have sent in words of 

 comfort and svmpathy have given me in- 

 spiring passages from God's holy word along 

 the same line, but I am sorry to tell you 

 that they did not at the time seem to be 

 very satisfying; but while I was m the di- 

 lemma I happened to notice an inquiry m 

 the Christian Herald as to what proof we 

 have that we shall know and recognize each 

 other in the world to come. The editor 

 o-ave quite a number of quotations— m fact, 

 I think he gave pretty nearly a whole page 

 —but finally concluded by saying the dear 

 Savior did not see fit to give us anything 

 verv positive. But the Christian Herald 

 said we are to take it as granted from the 

 mass of evidence that comes so close to it; 

 and our church hymns are full of it, espe- 

 cially the gospel hymns given us by Moody 

 and Sanky.* I am now going to tell you a 

 little of "mv researches. Our good pastor 

 o-ave me all the passages that he could hunt 

 up. Somebody suggested (or maybe it was 

 the Holy Spirit) the declaration of Christ 

 in the parable of the lost sheep, where he 

 says ''Joy shall be in heaven over one sin- 

 ner that repenteth, more than over ninety 

 and nine iust persons which need no repent- 

 ance ' ' After this follows the parable ot 

 the prodigal son. Now comes the question, 

 who is it in the above that rejoices? By 

 an examination of both passages it seems 

 pretty plain that it is not only angels but 

 the inhabitants of the earth who have gone 

 to their reward. They are permitted to 

 know what is going on here in this world 

 of ours to a sufficient extent, at least, to see 

 the work of spreading the gospel and re- 

 claiming lost souls. Of course things are 



* Bv the wav, it occurs to me I shoiild tell you 

 that after searchinff my Testament, I began to 

 eel a great longing for the Gospel Hymns. (I find 

 in a Docket edition there are something over 400 

 of them ) In starting mission Sunday schools 

 vears a^o. we made great use of these Hymns and 

 in manv places and on many occasions I had to 

 ead the singing, and so I was more or less famil- 

 ar with thi greater part of them Well, right 

 Lfter Mrs. Root's death these Gospel Hymns had 

 a new attraction and a new meaning Snatches of 

 ?hem would come to memory not only during the 

 dav butTometimes in the night: and it was a won- 

 derful comfort to me to he permitted to smg them 

 iloud It finally came to be understood that it 1 

 should break out singing sOme of these precious 

 old hymns in the middle of the night no one was 

 to paV anv attention to it; and even now, after 

 Mrs'^ Root has been away almost six montlis 

 every few davs a new hymn comes to me that 

 gives me wonderful comfort and .icy. The chorus 

 ^f one of Wesley's hymns, came to "^e^"^* ^^^^^ 

 morning, and set me to praising God both for the 

 me[ody and the beauty of the sentiment it ex- 

 presses. It is as follows: 



"I do believe, T now believe 

 That Jesus died for me. 

 And that he shed his precious blood 

 From sin to set me free,' 



not going on in heaven as here on earth. 

 You will remember they were going to puz- 

 zle the dear Savior once by telling about a 

 woman who had had seven husbands, and 

 they asked him whose wife she should be in 

 heaven. He replied, "Wlien they shall rise 

 from the dead, they neither marry, nor are 

 given in marriage; but are as the angels 

 which are in heaven." 



Now, friends, while they neither marry 

 nor are given in marriage in heaven, they 

 no doubt respect marriages made here on 

 earth; and repentance is all made in this life 

 instead of the life to come. I think I am 

 right about it, am I not? The only chance 

 to repent is here on this earth. 



Moses and Elijah at the transfiguration 

 give us very plain and positive evidence of 

 the life beyond the grave; and we can take 

 it for granted that these two veteran heroes 

 were well acquainted and Avere keeping tab 

 on affairs here on earth. Well, in Luke 23, 

 verses 42 and 43, the penitent thief 's dying 

 words were, "Lord, remember me when 

 thou comest into thy kingdom"; and then 

 came the quick and blessed response, "To- 

 day shalt thou be with me in paradise." 

 This matter came up years ago on these 

 very pages; and somebody tried to spoil my 

 rejoicing over it by saying the word "para- 

 dise" ages ago did not mean what it means 

 to us now. I replied that I did not care 

 what it meant or means now. To be with 

 Jesus would be paradise to me without any- 

 thing else. And please notice that the dear 

 Lord did not say that he and the penitent 

 thief were to be alone in paradise. Every 

 penitent thief since the beginning of the 

 world, no matter what his sins, provided 

 they were truly repented of, was included. 

 And, by the way, I think this would include 

 both Moses and Elijah. At the time of the 

 dear wife's removal from this earth every- 

 thing seemed to center on the words of the 

 dear Savior. I have been spending hours 

 in hunting up all of his precious words to a 

 sinful world. My faith in him, since he, in 

 almost one moment "lifted me from the 

 sinking sand," shall never fail. A sainted 

 follower of the Lord Jesus, in oTden times, 

 ended a verse thus: 



"But this I do find. 



He'll not be in glory 

 And leave me behind." 



That describes my own faith in the Lord 

 Jens Christ better 1;han anything else I can 

 think of. 



Notwithstanding the comfort I received 

 from reading the Bible, and praying every 

 day, again and again sorrow for the dear 

 lost wife would come back to me; but 

 searching the scriptures, and prayer were a 

 great help, and the kind letters I received 

 were an additional help. Let me give you 

 two of them. The first comes from H. G. 

 Rowe. Tn years gone by Mr. Rowe was one 

 of the pupils in my Sunday-school class. In 

 closing a letter he writes as follows: 



May T now express to you my sincere sym- 

 pathy" in these sorrowful days that are yours? I 



