Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-04-19

ItNerDetAJlOO OF GOU 8 lauGnleI.
On Wall street there are great many
good men and great many fraudulent
men. A fraudulent man there says: Il
mean to have nv Million" He goes TO
work reckless Of honesty and he gets his
nrst one hundred thousand dollars. lie
gets after awhile his two hundred thou
sand dollars. After awhile he gets his tye
hundred thousand dollars. "NOw," he
says, II have only one more move to make
and lishall have my million" He gathers
up all his resources; he makes that one
last grand move; he fails and loses all,
and he has not enough money left To pay
the COST OF the car TO his home. People
cannot understand this spasmOdic reVul-
sion. Some said il was a sudden turn IN
Erie railway stock or in Western Union
or IN Illinois Central; some said II was
Jay Gould; some said il was one specu-
lator, some said it was another. They all
guessed wrong. | will tell you what 1t
was: "de that sitteth in the heavens
laughed
A man in New York said he would be
the richest man in the city. He left his
honest work OF chair-makIng and got into
the City Councils some way, and in ten
years stole fifteen million dollars from the
city government. Fifteen million dollars!
He held the Legislature OF the State OF
New York in the grip OF his right hand.
/ Suspicious We're aroused. The grandJury
presented indictments. The whole land
stood agnast. The man who expected TO
put half the city in his vest pocket goes
to Blackwelrs Island, goes to Ludlow
street Jail, breaks prison, and goes across
the sea, is re-arrested and brought back
and again remanded to jail and died there.
| Why! ale that sitteth in the heavens"
laughed.
Rome was a great empire; she had
Horace and Virgil among her poets, she
had Augustus aud Constantine among
her Emperors. But what means the de-
faced Pantheon and the Forum turned
! into a cattle market, and the broken.
| walled Coliseum aud the archi-
! tectural skeleton of her great
/ der? "Oh," you say, "that was the
roar of the baJtering rams against her
| walls" No. What was that quivery
son" you say, "that was the tramp of
/ hostile legiOns. No. The quIVer and the
rear were the outbursts of On
nipotenU laughter from the de1ed
and insulted heavens. Rome
deted God and He laughed her down.
Thebes defed God and He laughed her
down. Babylon defed God and He
! laughed her down.
There is great difference between
! Gods laugh and His smile. His smile is
eternal beatiIude. He smiled when David
sang aud Miriam clapped the cymbals
and Hannah made garments for her son
and Paul preached and John klndled
| with Apocalyptic vision and when any
man has anything to do and does it well.
His smile! Why, it is the fifteenth OF
! MAY, the apple orchards in full bloom; 1t
| is heaven at high noon, ali the bells beat
ing the marriage peal. But His laughter
may 1t never fall on us! 1t is a con-
| demnatiOn for Onr sin; il IS wasting
away. We may let the satirist laugh at
| us, and all our companions may laugh at
US, and we may be the target for the mer-
riment of earth and he'll; but God forbid
that we should ever come to the fulfill
ment OF the prophecy against the re-
iectoTs OF the truth: 81 will laugh at
your calamity" But, my friends, all of
US who reject Christ and the pardon OF the
Gospel must come under that tremendous
bOmbaTdment. God wants us all TO re-
pent. He counsels, He cOaXes, He i'm
Fortunes and lie dies for us. He comes
down out of heaven. He puts all the
worlds sin on one shoulder; He puts all
the worlds sorrow on the other shoulder,
and then with that Alp on one side and
that liimalaya on the other, lie starts up
the hill back Of Jerusalem 10 achieve cur
salvation. He puts the palm OF His right
foot on one long spike, aud He puts the
palm of his lett tOOt on another long spike,
and then, with hands spotted with His
own blood, He gesticulates, saying +:
"LOOk look and live; with the crimson
veil OF my sacrifice / will
cover up all your sins; with my
dying groaE | will swallow up all your
groans. Look, liveW But some Of you
this morning turn your back on that, and
then this voice OF invitation turns TO a
tone divinely ominous that s0bs like a 81
moon through the first chapter OF Pro-
verbs: "Because ] have called and ye
refused, have stretched out my hand
and no man regarded; but We have set at
nOught all my counsel and would none OF
my repr0Of; | also Will laugh at your
calamity" On, what a laugh that is! a
deep laugh; a long, reverberating laugh 4;
an Overwhelming laugh. God grant
we may never hear it! But in
this day of merciiu visitation yield your
heart To Christ that you may spend all
your life on earth under His smile and es-
cape forever the thunder Of the laugh OF
Gods Indignation.
The other laughter mentioned in the
Bible, the only one | shall speak OF, IS
Heavens laughter or the expression OF
eternal triumph. Christ said to His dis
ciples: "Blessed are ye that weep now
for We shall laugh" That makes me
know positively that we are not to spend
our DAYS in heaven singing long metre
Dsalms The fOrmalistic and stiff notions
of heaven that some people have would
make me miserable. ] am glad TO know
that the heaven OF the Bible is not only a
place OF holy worship, but Of magnificent
sociaDiity. "What," say you, 'wiil The
ringing laugh 90 around tue circles O
the saved 2" ! say yes; pure laughter
cheering laughter, holy laughter. II
viii be laugh of cOngratulation
When we meet a friend who has sud
denly come TO a fortune, or who hat
b got over some dire sickness, do we moi
shake hands; do we not laugh with him
And when we get 10 heaven and see Oui
friends there, some Of them having come
, up out Of great tribulatiOns, why we vii
say 10 one OF them: "The last time | saw
} YOU. YOU had been suffering for six weeks
under a low, intermittent fever;" or e
another we will say; "Hou for ten years
were limping with the rheumatism, an6
YOU were lull Of complaints when we saw
, YOU last. congratulate y0u on this
, eternal recovery" We shall laugh; yes
, we shall congratulate all those who have
come up out Of great financial embarrass.
mants in this world because they have be-
: come millionaires Ia heaven.
Ye shall laugh. 1t shall be laugh Of
, reassociation. IL is just as natural for us
, 10 laugh when we meet friend we have
not seen for ten years. as anything IS pos
sibe TO be natural. When we meet our
friends from whom we have been parted