, 1886-04-25

city councils some way, and In ten years
stole SIS, 900. 900 from the city government
Fifteen million dollars. Hs held the legisla-
ture OF the state OF New York in the grip of
his right hand Suspicious were aroused.
The grand jury presented Indictments. The
whole land stood aghast. The man who ex-
pected to put half the city in his vest pocket
goes to BlackwelIs Island, goes to Ludlow
street jail, breaks prison and goes across the
sea, Is rearrested aud brought back and
again remanded to jail and died there. Whyi
"He that sitteth in the heavens laughed.
Rome was a great empire; she had Horace
and Virgil among her poets. She had Au-
gustus and Constantine among her emperors-
But what mean the defaced Pantheon and
the Forum turned into a cattle market, and
the broken walled Coliseum and the archi-
%tectural skeleton of her great a~queducti
What was that thunderi 'O,n you say,
that was the roar Of the .battering rams
against her walls" No. What was that
quiveri 20" you say, that was the tramp
of hostile legionsr No The culver and the
roar were the outbursto OF O~mnipotent laugh
ter from the defed and insulted heavens.
Rome defied God, and He laughed her down
Thebes defied God, and He laughed her down.
Babylon defied God, and He laughed her
down.
There is a great difference between Gods
laugh and His smile. His smile is eternal
beatitude. He smiled when David sang and
Miriam clapped the cymbals, and Hannah
made garments for her son, and Paul
preached and John kindled with Apocalyptic
vision, and when any mar has anything to
do and does it well His smilel Why, it is
the 18th OF May, the apple orchards in full
bloom; 1t Is heaven at high noon, all the
bells beating the marriage peal But His
laughter-may it never fall on usl 1t is a
condemnation for our sin; it is a
wasting away. We may let the satirist
laugh at us and all our compan-
ions may laugh at us. and we may
DO the target for the merriment of earth and
hell; but God forbid that we should ever
come to the fulfllment of the prophecy
against the rejectors of the truth. II 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
bombardment God wants us all TO repent.
He ~counsels, He coaxes, He importunes and
He 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 thai Alp
ON one side and that Himalaya on the other,
He starts up the hill back OF Jeru-
salem to achieve our salvation He
puts the palm OF His right foot on
one long spike, and He puts the palm of his
left foot on another long spike, and then with
hands spotted with his own blood He gesticu-
lates, saying: Look, look, and hvel With
the crimson veil OF my sacrifice | will cover
up all your sins; with my dying groan l will
swallow up all your groans. Look, livei"
But some OF you this morning turn your
back on that, and then this voice OF invita-
ton turns to a tone divinely ominous that
- Ill - I " a.
chapter of Proverbs: Because l have
called, and ye refused; / have stretched
out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye
have set at nought all my counsel, and would
none of my r~eproof; / also will laugh at your
calamity Oh, what a laugh that isl a deep
laugh; a long reverberating laugh; an over
whelming laugh God grant we may never
hear It'll but in this day OF merciful visitation
yield your heart 10 Christ that you may spend
all your life on earth under his smile and
escape 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 disciples blessed are We
that weep now, for ye shall laugh" That
makes me know positively that we are not to
spend our days in heaven singing long-meter
psalms. The journalistic and stiff notions of
heaven that some people have would make
me miserable. l am glad to know that the
heaven OF the Bible is not only a place of holy
worship but magnificent sociability. What
say you, Twill the ringing laugh go around
the circles of the savedf' l say, yes; pure
laughter; cheering laughter; holy laughter.
1t will be a laugh Of congratulation. When
we meet a friend who has suddenly come to
a fortune, or who has got over some dire
sickness, do we not shake hands, do we not
laugh with himi And when we get to
heaven and see our friends there,
some Of them having come up out of
great tribulations, why we will say to
one Of them: THE last time l saw you,
you had been suffering for six weeks under a
low, intermittent fever;" or, to another we
will say; You for ten years were limping
with the rheumatism and you were full OF
complaints when we saw you last / con
gratulate you on this eternal recovery We
shall laugh; yes, We shall congratulate all
those who have come up out of great financial
embarrassments in this world because they
have become millionaires in heaven
We shall laugh. 1t shall be a laugh of reas-
ISOLATION. 1t is just as natural for us to laugh
when we meet a friend we nave not seen for
ten years, as anything is possible to be
natural. When we meet our friends from
whom we have been parted ten. twenty or
thirty years, will 1t not be with infinite con
gratulationi Our perception quickened, our
knowledge improved, we will know each
other at a fash We will have to talk over
all that has happened since we have been
separated, the one that has been ten years in
heaven telling US all that has happened in the
ten years of his heavenly residence, and we
telling him In return all that has happened
during the ton years of his absence from
earth
Ya, Il will be a laugh Of triumph. o.
what a pleasant thing It will be to stand on
the wall of heaven and look Town at Satan
and hurl at him defiance, and see him Gagged
and chained and we forever free from his
clutchesi Ahal Yes, II viii be a laugh OF
royal greeting. You know how the French
men choered when Napoleon came back
from Elba; you know how the English
checred when Wellington came back
from Waterloo; you know how Americans
cheered when Kossuth arrived from Hungary;
you remember how Rome cheered when
Pompey came back victor over 800 cities.
Every cheer was a laugh But oh, the
mightier greeting, the gladder greeting, when
the snow white cavalry troop OF heaven shall
20 through the streets and, according 10 the
book OF Revelations, Christ in the red coat
In the crimson coat, on a white horse,
and all the armies OF heaven follow
ing ON white horsesl Oh, when we see
and hear that cavalcade we shall cheer,
we shall laugh.
Does not your heart beat quickly this
morning at the thought OF the great jubilee
upon which we are soon 70 enteri l pray
God that when we get through with this
world and are going out OF it we may have
some such vision as tho dying Christian had
when be saw written all over the clouds In
the sky the letter w. and they asked him,
standing by his side, what he thought that
letter W. meantH "Oh," he said, that
stands for welcome And so may 1t be
when we quit this world ''Wn on the gate,
wv ON liz door Of Tho mansion .NYn on the