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146 THE EABNBST CHBISTLAN.•world's history: those who dared tostand firm for the truth, in oppositionto the great men of the world, have beenpersecuted. ."Yea, and aU that -willlive godly in Christ Jesus shall sufferpersecution."»-•-
ILONG LIFE.BY BEV. B. V. LAWBENOE." The fear of the Lord prolongeth daya,"According to the census tables, ministersUve longer ithan any other classof people. This is not because theyare ministers, but because they areChristians—or a greater proportion ofthem are Christians than of any othercalling.If the census-takers could find outwho are saints, they would show thehighest longevity, as a class.Prostitutes live, on an average, onlyfour years after commencing that awihlhfe.Drankenness consumes a man likefire. Young men are dying around usat twenty-five and thirty, who had vitalityenough for four-score years. Fleshand blood cannot long endure alcoholicpoison, late hours and carousals,I know of young men of consumptivetendencies, that would die ui sixmonths, if they should Uve as do thefast young men around them. To manya young man I might say, "If you^wantto go do-wn quick into the grave, andinto hell, get on the express tra,in ofdissipation. Drink, smoke, and\ eatlike a glutton, and see if you don't soonget a through ticket to heU."Some one has defined " dissipation,to be the art of bringing on old age byexpress." We may add that it is theswiftest messenger that you can sendfor the undertaker. The voracity ofthe whole race of lions, tigers, and hyenas,is concentrated in Vice, Humanbones lie thick about her haunts.On the other hand, religion cools offthe fijes of passion.. Holiness extinguishesthe flames of lust, anger, andavarice. Faith banishes fear, that drinksthe Ufe-blood as an ox drinks water.The longest years, and the most ofthem, are found in the Kingdom of God.The greatest longevity is re'achedwithin the gates of the Eden of PerfectLove.Sin and death go hand in hand.LONG LIFE. 147HoUness and life are partners. Chooseye.»•»CHBISTIANS AS LENSES.BY AUSTIN Q. HAGEBMAN."When the human eye is nnable tosee an object because of weakness ofvision, or distance of the object, lensesare used. These do not change the object,or the eye, ^ut only cause a clearermanifestation of the former to the latter.A p-ale point of dim-seen light inthe infinitude "of space, becomes to usa blazing sun when good lenses arerightly adjusted to our eyes.It was Paul's '' expectation and hope,"that Christ should be magnified in hishody,—PhU. i, 20. He desfred to be,as it were, a clear, perfect lens—an unclouded,undistorted object-glass—makingChrist more greatiy and gloriouslymanifest to the world.It is a fact that the unregenerate cannot see Jesus, save through those whoare His trae foUowers. The world'seyes are darkened and impaired by theophthalmia, the soreness of sm, and themyopy, the shortsightedness of selfishness." The world seeth me no more;but ye see me."—John xiv. 19. Christis not spirituaUy discerned by those whoare a great'way off. Yet trae Christiansmay so magnify Him in thefr bodies—inthefr daily Uves—as to makeHun appear more and more the " Snnof Righteousness" to dull-eyed worldlings.As Christ was sent into theworld, so in like manner He sends Hisdisciples into the world.—John xvii. 18.But, alas! some are reversed glasses,crooked, smoky lenses—belittUng, distorting,beclouding the Lord of glory.Let us pray and Uve in such mannerthat Christ Jesus shall be trulj magnifiedin our bodies.He that would make a real progressin knowledge, must dedicate his age asweU as youth—fhe latter growth asweU as the first fhiits, on the altar oftrath.
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