Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-12-05

the jasper wall or sounded In the TOM
pie anthem. Bartimeus viii thank God
that he was blind; and Lazarus that he
was covered with sores; and Joseph that
he was cast into the pit; and Daniel
that he was denned with lions; and Paul
that he was humpbacked; and David
that he was driven from Jerusalem; and
and the sewing woman that she could
get only few pence for making gar
ment; and that invalid that for twenty
years he could not lift his head from
the pillow; and that widow that she had
such hard work to earn bread for her
children. You know that in song diff
ferent voices carry different parts The
sweet and overwhelming part of the
hallelujah of Heaven will not be carried
by those who rode in high places and
and give sumptuous entertainments. but
pauper children will sing it, beggars
will sing it, redeemed bod carriers will
sing it, those who were once the ofScour-
ing of earth will sing it. The hallelu-
jan will be all the grander for earth's
weeping eyes, and aching heads, and
exhausted hands, and scourged backs,
and martyred agonies.
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 the
righteous in Heaven. Infidels say:
''Your Heaven will be 3 very small
place compared with the world of the
lost; for, according to your teaching, the
majority of men will be destroyed" I
deny the charge. 1 suppose that the
multitude of the finally lost, as COM
pared with the multitude of the finally
saved, will be a handful. l suppose
that the 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 suffer
ing, 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 dis
pens1tion, and that this whole world is
to be populated redeemed, and that ages
of light and love are to flow on. II this
be so, the multitudes of the saved will
be in vast majority.
Take all the congregations that have
assembled for worship throughout Chris
tendon. Put them together, and they
would make but a small audience COM
pared with the thousands and tens of
thousands, and ten thousand times ten
thousand, and the hundred and forty
and four thousand that shall stand
around the throne. Those flashed up to
Heaven in martyr fires; those tossed for
many years upon the invalid 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
Gennesaret's wave, from Egyptian brick
yards and Gideon's threshing floor.
Those thousands of 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 the hill and looks
through field-glass and sees in the
great distance multitudes approaching,
but has no idea of their numbers. He
says: Il can not tell any thing about
them. merely know that there are a
great number" And so John, without
attempting to count says: "a great
multitude that no man can number"
We are told that Heaven is a
place of happiness; but what do
we know about happiness? Happi
ness in this world is only half-hedged
thing; a flowery path, with a serpent
kissing across it; broken pitcher, from
which the water was dropped before we
could drink it; thrill of eXhilaration,
followed by disastrous reactions. To
help understand the JOY of Heaven, the
Bible takes US to river. We stand on
the grassy bank. We see the waters
flow on with ceaseless wave. But the
filth of the cities is emptied into it, and
the banks are torn, and unhealthy ex-
halations spring up from it, and we
fail to get an idea of the River of Life
in Heaven.
We get very imperfect ideas of the re-
unions of Heaven. We think of some
festal day on earth, when father and
mother were yet living, and the chill
dren come home. A good time, that!
But it had this drawback-all were not
there. That brother went off to sea,
and never was heard from. That sister
did we not lay her away in the fresh
ness of her young life, never more in
this world to look upon her? All!
there was a skeleton at the feast; and
tears mingled with our laughter on
that Christmas Day. Not so with
Heavens reunions. 1t will be an uninter
rupted gladness. Many Christian par
ent will look around and find all his
children there. 'Ahr' he says, ''can it
be possible that we are all here-life's
perils over, the Jordan passed and not
one wanting? Why, even the prOdigal is
here. 1 almost gave him up. How long
he despised my counsels! But grace hath
triumphed. All here! All here! Tell
the mighty Joy through the city. Let
the bells ring, and the angels mention
it in their song. Wave it from the top
of the walls. All here"
No more breaking of heart strings,
but face to face. The orphans that were
left poor, and in a merciless world,
kicked and cuffed Of many hardships,
shall join. their parents over whose
graves they so long wept, and gaze into
their glorified countenance forever, 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 affiuent and prosperous, or
from scenes of ragged distress; but we
shall all meet in rapture and jubilee,
e.oo - fooo