Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-07-21

hundredssof thousands Of m les long, and at
the bottom of the chains basins on either side
hundreds of thousands OF miles wide, and
that then omnipotence alone could put the
mountains into the scales and the hills into the
balance. But puny man has been equal to the
undertaking, and has set a little balance on
his geometry, and weighed world against
world. Yea, he has pulled out his measur
ing line, and announced that Hers,hel is
thirty six thousand miles in diameter. Saturn
seventy-nine thousand miles in diameter
and Jupiter eighty-n thousand miles in
diameter, and that the smallest pearl on the
beach OF heaven is immense beyond all i'm
agination. So all they who have toiled for
Christ on earth shall rise up to magnitude
of privilege, AMI magnitude of strength.
and a magnitude of holiness, and a mag
nitude of joy and the weakest saint in
glory becomes greater than all that we can
now imagine of an archangel.
Brethren. it doth not yet appear what we
shall be. Wisdom that shall know every
thing; wealth that shall possess everything;
strength that shall do everything; glory that
shall circumscribe everythingl We shall
not be like taper set in a sick mans win
dow. or bundle of sticks kindled ON the
beach to warm a shivering crew; but you
must take the diameter and the circumfer-
ence OF the world if you will get any idea
of the greatness of our estate when we shall
shine as the stars forever and ever.
Lastiy-and coming to this point my mind
almost breaks down under the contemplation
like The stars all Christian workers shall
shine in duration. The same stars that look
down upon us looked down upon the Chal-
dean shepherds. The meteor that i saw flash
ing across the sky the other night, wonder
if it was not the same one that pointed down
to where Jesus lay IN the Munger, and If.
having pointed out his birthplace. it haseTer
since been wandering through the heavens,
n ha world WOIlll
him. When Adam awoke IN the garden in
the cool of the day he saw coming out
through the dusk of the evening the same
worlds that greeted us on our way to church
tonight
In Independence Hall is an old cracked beIl
that sounded the signature of the Declare
ton Of Independence You cannot ring it
now: but this great chime of silver bells that
strike in the dome of night ring out with as
sweet a tone as when God swung them at the
creation. Look up at night, and know that
the white lilies that bloom in all the hanging
gardens of our King are century plants-not
blooming once in a hundred years, but
through all the centuries.
The star at which the mariner looks to
night was the light by which the ships of
TarShish were guided across the Meditsrra-
mean and the Venetian flotilla found its way
into Lepanto Their armor is as bright to
night rs when, in ancient battle, the stars in
their courses fought against Sisera. To the
ancients the stars were symbols of eternity.
But here the figure Of my text breaks
down-not in defeit, but in the maiesties OF
the JUDGMENT. The stars shall not shine Tor
ever. The Bible says they shall fail like
autumnal leaves 1t is almost impossible for
a man to take in n courser going a mile in
three minutes; but God shall take in the
worlds, flying hundred Thousand miles an
hour, by one pull of his little finger. As,
when the factory band slips at nightfall
from the main wheel, all the smaller wheels
slacken their speed, and with slower and
slower motion they turn until they
come to q full stop. SO this great
machinery of the universe, wheel within
wheel, making revolution OF appalling speed,
shall by the touch OF Gods hand slip the band
of present law and slacken and stop. That
is what will be the matter with the mount
tains. The chariot in which they ride shall
halt so suddenly that the Kings shall be
thrown ont. Star after star shall be carried
out to burial amid funeral torches and burn
ing worlds. Consultations shall throw ashes
on their heads, and all up and down the
mourning. mourning. because the worlds are
dead. But the Christian workers shall
never quit their thrones-they shall reign
forever and ever. If. by some invasion
from hell, the attempt were made to carry
them off into captivity from heaven, the
souls they have saved would rally for
their defense, and all the angels of God
would strike with their scepters and the re-
deeme |, on white horses OF victory, would
ride down the foe, and all the steep of the
sky would resound with the crash of the
overwhe med cohorts tumbled headong out
of haaven.