The Russellville Democrat., 1888-12-13

made TO difference 10 them, for they stepned from the home here 10 the home
 there. right into the ivory palaces All IS
 well with shern. All Is well.
 It is not dead weight that you lift when
 VOL carry a Christian out. Jesus makes ths bed up soft with velvet promises, and
 H. says: @Put her down here very gently.
 Put that head. which will never ache
 again, on this pillow 0f hallelU ahs. Send up word that the procession is coming.
 Ring the bells. Ringl Open your gates,
 ye ivory palacesin And so your loved
 ones are there. They are just as certain-
 ly there, having died in Jesns, as that you
 are here. There is only one thing more
 they want. Indeed, there is one thing in
 Heaven they have not got. They want t;
 what Is it? Your company. But, oh, my
 brother, unless you change your track you
 can not reach that harbor. Yon might as
 we'll take the Baltimore & Ohio railroad,
 expecting in that direction fo reach Toron-
 to, as to go on in the way some Of you are
 going, and yet you expect to reach tho
 ivory palaces. Your loved ones are
 looking out of the windows of Heaven
 now. and yet you seem to turn your back
 upon them. you do not seem to know
 the sound of their voices as we'll as you
 used to, or to De moved by the. sight of
 their dear faces. Call louder. ye de-
 parted ones. Call louder from tAe ivory
 palaces When think of that place. and think of my entering it, feel awkward; feel as sometimes when l have been 4ex-
 posed to the weather, and my shoes have
 been bemired, and my coat is soiled, and
 my hair is disheveled, and stop in front
 of some fine residence where l have an
 errand. feel not fl to go in as am and
 sar anong 2 polished guests. Sosone of sis
 feel about HeaFen. We need tosbe washed,
 we need to be rehabilitated before we go
 into the ivory palaces. Eternal God, let
 the surges of Thy pardouing mercy roll over us. l want not only to wash my
 hands and my feet, bur. like some skilled diver standing on the picrhead, who leaps
 into the wave and comes up at far-dis- tant point from where he went in. so want to go down and so l want to come
 up. On. Jesus, wash me in the sTaves of Thy salvation.
 And here l ask you 10 solve mystery that has been expressing me for thirty years. I have asked of doctors of divinity who have been studying theology half a ! century, and they have given me no satis- l factory answer. have turned over all the books in my library. but got no solu- tion to the question, and to-day I come and ask you for aR explanation. By what 1 logic was Christ induced to exchange the i ivory palaces of Heaven for the crueiiX- 1 ion agonies of earthg I shall take the 1 first thousand million years in Heaven to ! study out that problem. Meanwhile and now, taking it as the tenderest and might 1 fest of all facts that Christ did come, that ! He came with spikes in His feet, came with thorns in His brow, came with spears ! in His heart, 10 save you and to save me.
 "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that wh0soever be- l Iieveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" o, Christ, whelm this
 audience with Thy compassion. Mow | them down like summer grain with the l harvesting sickle of Thy grace. Ride l through to-day the conqueror, Thy gar ments smelling "of murrh, and al0es, and 1 cassia, out of the ivory palaces"
 1 0, sinner, fling every thing else away and take Christ! Take Him now, not to- morrow. During the night following this very day there may be an excitement in
 your dwelling, and tremulous pouring l out Of drops from an unsteady and af- 1 frighted hand, and before tomorrow
 morning your chance may be gone.