The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-03-09


straits, the eternal shore on which they
landed
Ay, it win be the childrens song. You
know very well that the vast majority
Of our race die In infancy, and II Is estimated
that eighteen thousand millions Of the little
ones are standing before God. When they
shall rise up about the throne to sing, the
millions and the millions Of the little ones
ahl that win be music for you'll These played
In the streets Of Babylon and Thebes; these
picked lilies from the foot Of Olivet while
Christ spreading about them; these waded
in Sloan; these were victims Of Herods
massacre; these were thrown to crocodiIes or
into the fire; these came up from Christian
homes, and these were foundlings on the city
commons-children everywhere in all that
land; children In the towers, children on the
seas Of glass, children on the battIements
All, IL you do not like children, do not go
there. They are in vast ma ority, and what
a song when they lift it around about the
thronel
The Christian singers and composers OF all
ages will be there TO join In the song. Thomas
Hastings viii be there Lowell Mason viii
be there. Bradbury win be there Beefho-
ven and Mozart will be there. They who
sounded the cymbals and the trumpets in the
ancient temples will be there. The forty
thousand harpers that stood at the ancient
dedication will be there The two hundred
singers that assisted on that day win be there.
Patriarchs who lived amidst tfreshing
floors, shepherds who watched amidst Chal-
dean hills, prophets who walked, with long
boards and coarse apparel, pronouncing woe
against ancient denominations, win meet the
more recent martyrs who went up with leap
ing cohorts of fire: and some viii speak of
the Jesus of whom they prophesied, and
others of the Jesus for whom they died. Oh,
what song! 1t came to John upon Patmos:
it came to Calvin in the prison; it dropped
to John Knox In the fire; and sometimes
that song has come to your ear, perhaps, for
/ really do think it sometimes breaks over
the battlenents of heaven.
A Christian woman, the wife of minister
of the gospel, was dying in the parsonage
near the old church, where on Saturday
night the choir used to assemble and rehearse
for the following Sabbath, and she said:
SLOW strangely sweet the choir rehearses
tonight; they have been rehearsing there for
an hour" "No," said some one about her,
''the choir is not rehearsing tonight" "Yes,"
she said, 81 know they are, hear them sing;
how very sweetly they singl' Now it was
not choir of earth that she heard, but the
choir of heaven. l think that Jesus some
times sets ajar the door of heaven, and q
passage of that rapture greets our ears. The
minstrels of heaven strike such tremendous
strain, the walls of jasper cannot hold it.
wonder, will you sing that song? Win
sing it2 Not unless our sins are pardoned,
and we learn now to sing the praise o. Christ,
will we ever sing it there. The first great
concert that / ever attended was in New
York, when Julien, in the Crystal Palace,
stood before hundreds of singers and hundreds
of players upon instruments. Some of You
may remember that occasion; it was the first
one of that kind at which was present, and
shall never forget it. l saw that one man
standing, and with the hand and foot WELD
that great harmony, beating the time. 1t was
to me overwhelming. But oh, the grander
scene when they shall come from the east,
and from the west, and from the north,
and from the south, ga great multitude that
no man can number, a." into the temple of the
skies, host beyond host, rank beyond rank,
gallery above gallery, and Jesus shall stand
before that great host to conduct the har-
mony, with his wounded hands and his
wounded feet. Like the voice of many
waters, like the voice of mighty thunderings,
they shall cry, worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive blessings, and riches, and
honor, and glory, and power, world without
end. Amen and amenp Oh, if my ear shall
hear no other sweet sounds, may hear thati
If join no other glad assemblage, may I
join that.
Twas reading of the battle of Agincourt,
in which Henry V figured; and it is said
after the battle was won, gloriously won, the
king wanted to acknowledge the divine in
terposition, and he ordered the chaplain to
read the Psalm Of David; and when he came
to the word, "Not unto us, o, Lord, but
unto thy name be the praise" the king dis
mounted, and all the cavalry dismounted,
and all the great host, officers and men,
threw themselves on their faces. Oh, at the
story of the Savior's love and the Savior's
deliverance, shall we not PROSTATE ourselves
before him now, hosts Of earth and hosts Of
heaven, falling upon our faces, and crying,
'Not unto us, not unto Us, but unto thy
name be the glorVTn