The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1885-11-19
NO. 81

AS-S sAAo No "Ouiu have Oeen lmp6fSOud-
lions Of selfshness and worldliness and
disgusting sin, and pulled up until we
would have been like Julius Cesar, who
was made by sycophants to believe that be
was divine and the freckles on his face
were as the stars of the armament. One
OF the sWiftest transatlantic voyoges made
last summer by the Etruria was because
she had stormy wind abaft, chasing her
from New York to Liverpool. Bur TO
those going in opposite direction the
storm was buffeting and hindrance. 1t
is bad thing to have storm ahead push
ing us back. but if we are Gods childreh
and aiming toward Heaven the storms Of
life will only chase US the sooner into the
harbor. | am so glad to believe that the
monsoons and typhoons and mistrals and
sIroccos Of land and sea are not unclaimed
maniacs let loose upon the earth, but I'm.
der divine supervision l am so glad that
the good of the Seven Stars is also the God
OF Orion. 1t was out of Dante's suffering
came the sublime ''Divina Commedia,''
and out Of John Millions blindness came
Paradise Lost, y and out of miserable in.
1idel attack came the 'Bridgewater Treat
Use" in favor of Christianity, and OUT Of
Dayid's exile came the songs of consola.
ton, and out of the sufferings of Christ
came the possibility of the world 8 redenp-
ton, and out of your bereavement, yoar
persecution, your poyerties. your misfor-
tunes may yet come an eternal Heaven.
Oh what mercy it is that in the text
and all up and down the Bible God induces
US to look out toward other worldsl b.
BILE astronomy in Genesis, in Joshua, in
Job, In the Psalms, in the prophets, major
and minor, in st. Johns Apocalypse, prae.
tically saying Worlds worlds worldsi
Get ready for them We have q nice
little world here that we stick to as though
losing that we lost all. We are afraid Of
falling off this little raft of world. We
are afraid that some meteoric iconoclast
will some night smash it, and we want
everything to revolve around it, and are
disappointed when we find that it reyolyes
around the sun instead Of the sun revolv-
ing around it, What fuss we make about
this little bit Of a world, it's existence only
a short time between two spasms, the par
oxysm by which it was hurled from chaos
into order and the paroxysn of its demoli-
ton. And / am glad that so many texts
call us to look off to other worlds, many of
them larger and costlier and more re-
splendent. look there says Job, lat
Mazzaroth and Arcturus and his sons!''
Look there, " says st. John, ''at the moon
under Christs feet. ~ Look there, says
Joshua, lat the sun standing still above
Gideon p look there, y says Moses, ''at
the sparkling armament !" Look there,f
says Amos, the herdsman, sat the Seven
Stars and OrioE,n Don't let US be 50 sad
about those who shove off from this world
under Christly pilotage. Don't let us be
so agitated about our own going off this
little barge or sloop or canal.boat of a
world to set on some Great Eastern of the
heavens. Don't let us persist in wanting
to stay in this barn, this shed. this out
house of world when all the kings
palaces already occupied by many of our
best friends are swinging wide open their
gates to let us in. When I read I'm my
Father s house are many mansions, l do
not know but that each world is a room
and as many rooms as there are worlds
stellar stairs, stellar galleries, stellar hall
ways, stellar windows, stellar domes. How
UT departed friends must pity us shut I'D
IN these cramped apartments, tired If we
walk Is miles, when they soma morning
by one stroke of wing can make circuit of
the whole stellar system and be back in
time for mathis Perhaps yonder twink
ling constellation is the residence of the
martyrs, that group of II luminaries is the
home of the Apostles. Perhaps that steep
OF light is the dwelling-place of angels
cherubic, seraphic, archangelic. A man.
sion with as many rooms as worlds and all
their windows illuminated for festiyity.
Oh how this widens and lifts and stimu-
lates our expectation How little it
makes the present and how stupendous it
makes the future How it consoles us
about our pious dead that instead Of being
boxed up and under ground they have the
range OF as many rooms as there are worlds
and welcome everywhere, for it is the
Fathers house in which there are many
mansions O, Lord God of the Seven
stars and Orion, how can endure the
transport, the ecstasy of such vision?
must obey my text and seek Him. I will
seek him. seek Him now, for call to
mind that it is not the material universe
that is most valuable, but the spiritual,
and that each of US has soul worth more
than all the world which the inspired
herdsman saw from his booth Oh the hills
of Tekoa. | had studied it before, but
the cathedral of Cologne, Germany never
impressed me as it did this summer. 1t Is
admittedly the grandest Gothic structure
in the world. Its foundation laid in 1888 !;
only two or three years ago completed
More than 600 years in building All Eu-
rope taxed for its construction. Its chapel
of the Magi with precious stones enough
to purchase kingdom. It's chapel of ST.
Agnes with masterpieces of painting. Its
spire springing 511 feet into the heavens.
Its stained glass, the chorus of all rich
colors. Statues encircling the pillars and
encircling all. Statues upon statues, until
sculpture can do no more, but faints and
falls back upon carved stalls, and down on
pavements over which the kings and
Queens of earth have walked to confess
sion. Nave and aisle and transept and
portals combining the splendors Of sun
rise. Inter-laced, intsr-foliated, inter-
columned grandeur. AS stood outside.
looking at the double ranges of flying but
tresses and the forest of pinnacles, higher
and higher and higher, until I almosr
reeled from dizziness, exclaimed Great
doxology in stone Frozen prayer Of many
nations.' But while standing there saw
a poor man enter and put down his pack
and kneel beside his burden on the hard
floor of that cathedral. And tears of deep
emotion came into my eyes as 1 said to
myself There is soul worth more than
all the material surroundings. That man
will live after the last pinnacle has fallen
and not one stone of all that cathedral
glory shall remain uncrumpled. He is nov