The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-12-11

who rode in high places, and gave
sumptuous entertainments; but pauper
children will sing it, beggars will sing
it, redeemed hod carriers will sing it,
those who were once the offscouring of
earth will sing it. The hallelujah will
be all the grander for earth's weeping
eyes, and aching heads, and exhausted
hands, and scOurged backs, and mar
tyred sgonies.
Again: The thought of my text is
true when applied to the enjoyment of
the righteous in Heaven. l think we
have but little idea of the number of
righteous in Heaven. Infidels say:
"Your heaven will be very small place
compared with the world of the lost;
for, according to your teaching, the ma
jority of men will be destroyed" deny
the charge. suppose that the multi
tude of the finally lost, as compared with
the multitude of the finally saved, will
be handful. / suppose that few sick
people in the hospitals of our great
cities, as compared with the hundreds Of
thousands of well people, would not be
smaller than the number of those who
shall be cast out in suffering, compared
with those who shall have upon them
the health of Heaven. For we are
to remember that we are living in only
the beginning of the Christian dispense
ton, and that this whole world is to be
populated and redeemed, and that ages
of light and love are to flow on. If this
be SO, the multitudes of the saved will
be in vast majority. Take all the con-
gregations that have assembled for wor-
ship throughout Christendom. Put them
together, and they would make but
small audience compared with the thou
sands and tens of thousands, and ten
thousand times ten Thousand, and the
hundred and forty-f0ur thousand that
shall stand around the throne. Those
flashed up to Heaven In martyr fires;
those tossed for many years upon the in
valid couch; those fought in the armies
of liberty, and rose as they fell; those
tumbled from high scaffoldings, or
slipped from the mast, or were washed
of, into the sea. They came up from
Corinth, from ,Laodicea, from the Red
Sea bank and from Gennesaret's wave,
from Egyptian ibrickyards and Gideon's
threshing floor. Those thousandsof years
ago slept the. last sleep, and these are
this moment having their eyes closed,
and their limbs stretched out for
the sepulcher. A General expecting
an attack from the enemy stands on q
hill and looks through field glass and
sees in the great distance multitudes
approaching. He says: II can not tell
any thing about them. merely know
that there are q great number" And
SO John, without attempting to count,
says: "a great multitude that no man
can number" We are told that Heaven
is place Of happiness. but what do we
| know about happiness? Happiness in
this world is only half-hedged thing; .
fowery path, with a serpent kissing
across it; q broken pitcher, from which
the water has dropped before we could
drink it; thrill rehabilitation, followed
by disastrous reactions. To help us un-
derstand the Joy of Heaven, the Bible
takes us to a river. We stand on she
grassy bank We see the waters fow on
with ceaseless wave. But the filth Of
the city is emptied into it, and the
banks are torn, and unhealthy exhala-
tions spring up from it, and we fail to got
An idea of the River of Life In Heaven.
We get very imperfect ideas Of the
reunions of heaven. We think Of some
festal day on earth, when father and
mother were yet living, and the chill
dren came home. A good time, that
But it had this drawback-all were not
I there. That brother went of to sea, and
never was heard from. That sister-did
we not lay her away in the freshness OF
her young life, never more in this world
to look upon her? All! there was Q
skeleton at the feast; and tears mingled
with our laughter on that Christmas
day. Not SO with Heavens reunions. It
will be an uninterrupted gladness.
Many Q Christian parent will look
around and find all his children there.
"Ah!" he says, "can it be possible that
we are all here-lifes perils over? the
Jordan passed and not one wanting?
Why, even the prodigal is here. l al
most gave him up. How long he de-
spised my counsels! but grace hath
triumphed. All here! all here! Tell
the mighty Joy through the city. Let
tho bells ring, and the angels mention
it in their song. Wave It from the top
of the walls All herev' 49,.
No more breaking of heartstrings, but
face to face. The orphans that were
left poor, and in q merciless world,
kicked and cuffed of many hardships,
shall join their parents over whose
graves they so long wept, and gaze into
their glorified countenances, face to
face. We may come up from different
parts OF the world, one from the land
and another from the depths of the sea;
from lives afiuent and prosperous, or
from scenes of ragged distress; but we
shall all meet in rapture and jubilee,
face to face. .l
Many of our friends have entered
upon that Joy. A few days ago they sat
with us studying these gospel themes;
but they only saw dimly-now revelation
hath come. Your time will also come.
God will not leave you foundering
in the darkness. You stand wonder
struck and amazed. You feel as if
,, all the loveliness of life were dashed
out. You stand gazing into the
!, open chasm of the grave. Wait a
little. In the presence of your de-
parted, and of Him who carries them
in His bosom, you shall soon stand face
to face. Oh! that our last hour may
kindle up with this promised Joy! May
we be able to say, like the Christian not
long ago, departing: "Though a pilgrim
walking through the valley, the noun
tain tops are cleaning from peak to
peak" or, like my dear friend and
brother, Alfred Goodman, who took his
fight to the throne of God, saying in
! his last moment that which has already
.. gone into Christian classics: 81 am
sweeping through the pearly gate,
washed in the blood of the Lamb"
d Local Popular Sentiment.
Local popular sentiment may be right.
: II is so in some instances. But local
popular sentiment is more likely to be
, wrong than to be right, especially on
| questions of morals and manliness. If
local nonular sentiment be known to be