The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-26

the one passed, ] would not want to live life
over again, as many wish. We would do no
better next time than we did this. The fact is,
the life we have had was lived over by five hun
dred other people whom we know, and if we did
not improve by those five hundred experiences,
would not improve by our own. If we who
have come to the noontide of life, the IL or /
o'clock, could be put back to o'clock in the
morning, would simply repeat the previous
journey. would not want to go back and pick
up the old burdens and fight the old battles and
weep over the same graves.
But. says someone, you don't know what may
be ahead of misfortune. or trial, or duty. Of
course not. But if / have q rail-
road journey of 1000 miles to travel,
and for the first 500 miles | have
found the tracks solid, and the bridges safe, and
the conductors competent, and the engineers
other 500 miles. For this life | believe have a
through ticket, though the track may wind this
way and that, and there may be dark tunnels to
traverse and we may occasionally switch off to
let some other trains pass, and we may some
times have a hot box. and pass places where the
red flag bids US slow up, we are to come out at
the right place. Whatever our duties and trials
are we shall be able to meet them.
The late Willard Parker, the renowned sur
geon, had case of goitre brought to him for
treatment The patient was several times a
millionaire. A million dollars was offered the
surgeon if he would perform the operation and
warrant the safety of the patient He said: 81
cannot warrant anything, but will do the best
i can" My friend said to him: How did you
feel when you undertook the surgeryP He said:
MY hand trembled fearfuly until my knife
touched the place, and then my nerves were
steel, and without a tremor and without any
excitement went through the successful oper-
alton"
So we may tremble, and feel unfit to meet the
responsibilities of this life, but whom the time
comes God will hold our hand and we shall
come through without perturbation, strong in
the strength of Christ, our Lord
And then, Notwithstanding all the balderdash
of the infidels and free thinkers, and atheists
and nothingists about the great future, still be-
lieve that our life here is only small fragment
of an amending existence. The three miles that
make up this life are not an inch long compared
with what hereafter shall open.
That picture gallery ahead is brighter and
more thrilling than the picture gallery behind
Indeed. we take down the best pictures of the
earthly gallery, and so up on step ladders of am
ethyst and hang them on the FURNISHED walls of
! heaven. Look! There is Christ! For earthly
galleries RubeLs painted Him, and Cuyp and
Corregeio painted Him, and Tintoretto painted
Him, and Benjamin West painted Him, and Dore
painted Him, but this eclipses all, aud is the mas
terpiece Of heaven. Look! There is Paul, the
hero OF Sanhedrim and Agrippas court, and
Mars hill and Neros infamy, and who shook his
chained fist in the face of teeth chattering royal
ty Look! There is Joshua, the man who post
poned shutdown, and Vashti, whose veil the pro-
figacy Of Persian court could not lift or tear.
Behold them all along the corridors-David with
his harp and Miriam with her cymbals. and
Zachariah with his scroll, and ST. John with his
seven Walls, and the resurrection angel with his
trumpet. Yea, there are our transported loved
ones, the cough gone from the throat the weari-
ness from the limbs, the languor from the eye,
the wanness from the cheek. Let us go up and
embrace them Let us go up and live with them
From this hilltop Of my journey I catch a
glimpse of that hilltop where all sorrow and
signing shall be done away with. May God
make that place to US reality.
Full faith in it gave old DR.. Tying the strength
to stand by the casket of his darling son whose
| arm had been torn off by threshing machine
modification and death ensuing, and speak with
supernatural composure that sustained Mar
tin Luther till he buried his favorite child with
out tear; that made one of the old dying saints
say she saw written all over the sky the letter
w, and when asked what she thought it meant
she said: "W stands for welcome" that makes
the plainest shroud the embroidery of kings
palace. y, heaven swing open thy gates! o.
heaven roll this way one of thy anthemS q,
heaven, flash upon us a vision of thy lustre!
A ship from India coming toward the coast of
France had for crew some French sailors who
hal been absent from France for many years.
AS they came in sight they leaped and skipped
the decks with joy, pointing out to each other
the spires OF the churches they had attended in
childhood and the hills on which they had
played and they became quite uncontrollable
and when they entered the port and saw on the
wharves fathers and mothers and wives and
families, calling them by name, the sailors
could oe kept no longer on board but leaped to
the shore, SO that another crew had to be en-
ployed to bring the ship to her moorings. So
heaven, our fatherland will after awhile be so
fully in sight that we can see it's hills, and its
temples and its foliage, and our friends there
shall call to US, and we will spring to the shore
and with them go up the grassy banks. leaving
this old ship of world to other crews, our voy-
aging on the rough seas having ended forever.
Rocks and storms I'll fear more.
When on that eterna shore;
Drop the anchor, furl the sail,
l am safe within the vale