The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-11-04
Tho City or God.

Wy lIlttluS, ~ ID q oWocu ouu AoA'y
thought that, If we are Christian dis;
ciples, sons and daughters of the Lord
Almighty, we need not fear lest the
good promised for US in the Scripture
should not be realized. l think we do
fear it.. We believe that there may be
advancement there to the society OF
elect spirits, and larger knowledge and,
sweeter purity, but when we read OF
the wonders of the heavenly city, it
seems impossible that they can be for
U.S.. Unreal they seem; fantastic, fan
ciful, a poetic dream, and not descrlp-
tions of a transcendent and tangible.
fact. We sometimes see some image
of the city Of God in the splendor OF
the sunset. We sometimes seem to
catch just a glimpse, but it disappears,
and we come back to the thought that
it is too vast and too glorious to be-
such > that. . my friends, but re-
membel. that it is the city which God
hath prepared for them that love
him. And then let the energy of human
action encourage us. How men pre-
pare their cities! With what lavish
expenditure of thought, and labor and
treasure, and life, to build the piers
and palaces along the shores and the
great streets Of warehouses, and tenn
Piles for their worship, and the libra
ries, and the galleries, and the public
halls, till at last you have Venice on
her lagoons, Queen Of the Adriatie,
beautiful as a dream, solid as noun
tains; Naples along her placid bay,
Rome along her seven hills, Florence
on the Arno, Vienna on the Danube,
Paris, London, the great metropolis Of
the English-speaking peoples Of the
world, with treasure boards immeasur-
able. How mel have prepared this
city we are now in. After the great
fire what sumptuous and splendid resi-
dences, what rehabitations for your
traffic! Shall God, then, not adorn a
city by his omnipotence? With the in
strumentalities at his command what
shall it not bel / do not marvel that
all conceivable beauties are there
blended and combined.
l do not marvel at any description
of the palaces, since it Is he that
buildeth the city. The texts which
seems to have fallen from the sky like
fragments from the jasper walls and
the golden pavements, and that flash
before mo as I read them with
almost binding refulgence, do not tell
me too much of that city
of God. No, rather l get my bright
est visions of it not from any texts,
but from the cross of Christ. know
the glory above is to be measured by
the gloom of Calvary. I know that
that transcendent sacrifice was for an
end 80 august and immortal that it
passes all computation and transcsnds
all human thought. They have the
gates Of pearl aud the streets of trans
lucert gold, and the sea OF glass
mingled with fire, and the rainbow
like a halo roundabout the throne.
They are all real to me because God
has built them. My friends, the ex-
pectation of that, let it be the inspira-
ton of our life; the fulfillment of that
trust, let it be the glory of our i'm.
mortality. Let every n Of US be so
earnest and alivein Gods service in the
earth that we may join in the worship
and the songs of that immortal city,
and forever and forever more as we
enter into it's berfect blessedness u
words shall he in that heavenly con
summation, the words Of him who
spake in the Hebrew tongue, "This is
the Lords doing; it is marvellous in
our eyes."-Rer. Dr. StorTs.