St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-10-19

With the saints, goodness is a positive
thing, personal worth and nobleness.
Those glimpses of our best which have
disclosed themselves here from time to
time to ourselves and our friends have
become habitual what we thought the
good and holy ought to be, that we
have become. Blessed end of our
earthly struggles Blessed disap-
pointment of our former fears! Bless
ed realization of our earthly hopes Oh
friends, if a tithe of this greatness and
goodness for you and for me lies so
near, just across a narrow, dark stream,
that itself cannot be far away, what
spell is on us that we do not think
more about it, anticipate it more
What means it that we, who were i'm
patient in childhood that the years did
not fly faster so that we could become
nen and women, are not longing for
EZS.s life to fly as fast as thc Lord will,
that we may enter upon our grand in
heritance beyond
II. would ask you to notice. sec
ondly, the sOul's environment, that in
part constitutes its heaven. But | see
| shall not have space for what had
to say of it and | pass to notice
III. Thirdly, the social element in
heaven. 1t is in that sphere especially
that our faithfulness on earth runs for
ward to meet us in glad surprises. 1t
is related of Beethoven, "father of so
many enhancing melodies, but stone
deaf to their sound" that he was once
.'traveling on foot to Vienna, and
stopped ut an inn to lodge. The host
and his family were musicians, and
during the evening they played and
sang. One long selection excited so
much evident enthusiasm and delight
in the performers that when they were
done the great composer asked to see
the score. 1t was one of his own sym
phOnies He placed his hand on his
breast to still the beating of his heart.
Il am Beethoven he said. VIII not
heaven he full of such sweet surprises,
such unexpected meetings with for
gotten achievement, when for the first
time the Christian knows the harmo-
nies he has created, and the full effect
of his every true word, and fervent
prayer, and noble deed Y' at seems to
me-" says another, "accordant to all the
principles of human nature to suppose
that the departed meet peculiar con-
graduation from friends who had gone
before them to that better world and
especially from all who had in any
way given aids to their virtue from
parents who had instilled into them
the first lessons of love to God and
man from associates whose examples
had won them to goodness, whose faith
ful cOunsels deferred them from sin.
The ties created by such benefits must
he eternal. The grateful soul must
bind itself with peculiar affection to
such as guided it to Immortality. :
Our friends who leave us for that world
do not find themselves among strangers.
No desolate feeling springs up of hav-
ing exchanged their home for foreign
country. The tenderest accents of hu-
man friendship never approached in
atleetionateness the voice of congratu
iatiOn which bids them welcome to
their new and everlasting abode" The
centennial exhibition ut Philadelphia
furnished me some of the most vivid
suggestions of heaven that ever re-
ceived. First, in the preparations
made beforehand. An agent had gone
forward to make all necessary arrange
ments. So Christ has gone to prepare
a place for his own. Arrived on the
ground, there were pleasant meetings
and congratulations with friends from
home. BY newer arrivals tidings were
brought from others left behind, pre-
pairing to come. There were daily,
almost hourly surprises at meeting old
friends, from distant parts of the coun-
try, friends of earlier years, some al
most forgotten, sudden recOgnitiOns
by tone of the voice or IL smile or a
glance of the eye. There was the hope
of meeting this one or that one, and 4
search-alas there are some who will
never be seen here-their eyes shall
never behold this wonderful place
where the nations walk amidst the
+, light thereof and the kings of the eartl
, do bring their glory into it. They ar,
dead-lost Messages go forth from
this place continually into all the land
saying to those that remain behind
"COme, by all means. Make every eff
: fort, any sacrifice. You cannot affOrC
to lose what is here" So our friends
gone before us to heaven would tele
graph us if they could, to break up i
possible our indifference and induce IL
l to come. Alas there is another plac,
5 from which they who are there woul,
1 perhaps as eagerly telegraph thei
friends on earth, if they could, by al
means not to come
] Is it so, that in little time sue
greetings as these are to he ours
BE-. Friends of our childhood, whose faith
e fulness perhaps turned our feet fror
y the downward path and guided us int
: the way of life ; companions of on
} youth or maturer years, who share
|. our joys and sorrows till death divide
It them and us this one or that on
' whose love was more than life itsel
Il torn away by a terrible stroke as of a