Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-07-18

blade heW away this faculty OF memory
Abraham said 10 Dives: ''SOn, remember"
III the exiled, and lost remember, Will not
| the enthrOnedf You know very well that
our Joy In any circumstance Is augmented
| by the companionship OF our friends. We
cannot see IA picture with less than four eyes
| or hear song with less than four ears. We
want someone beside us with whom TO eX-
change glances and sympathies; and L sup
! pose the JOY Of heaven Is To be augmented
by the fact that we are TO have our friends
| with us when there rises before us the
thrones OF the blessed, and when there sur
| ges up in our ears the jubilate OF the saved.
Heaven Is not contraction, IL is an expan-
| sion. III / know you here, / VIII know you
better there. Here 1 see you with only two
| eyes, bnt there the soul shall have a million
eyes. IL will be Immortality gazing on i'm
mortaiity-ransomed spirit In colloquy with
ransomed spirit-victor beside victor. When
John Evans, the Scotch minister, was seated
! in his study, his wife came I'm and said to him.
my dear, do you think we will know each
other I'm heavenf" lie turned TO her and
replied, my dear. do you think we will be
bigger fools In heaven than we are here?"
Again: 1 accept this doctrine OF future
recognition because the worlds expectancy
affirms IT,. In all lands and ages this theory
is received. What form OF religion planted
III No form OF religion. for II Is received
under all forms OF religion. Then. argue
sentiment. "a feeling an anticipation. uni
versally planted must have been GOd-im-
planted, and II God-implanted, IL Is right
fully implanted Socrates writes: "Who
would not part with great deal TO purchase
a meeting with Orpheus and Homer? III IL
be true that this Is TO be the consequence OF
death, could even die often" Among the
Danes, when master dies his servant some
times stalls himself that he may serve his
master ia the future world. Cicero, living
before Christs coming said: "Oh, glorious
day. when i shall retire from this low and
sordid scene, to associate with the divine as
semblage OF departed spirits, and not only
with the one have just now mentioned, but
with my dear Cato, the best OF sons and most
faithful of men. III / seemed to bear his
death with fortitude, it was by no means
that did not most sensibly feel the loss L
ported by the consoling reflection that we
could not long be separated" The Norwe-
gian believes it. The Swiss believes 1t. The
Turk believes It.. Under every sky, by every
river, In every zone, the theory Is adopted;
and so l say principle universally implant-
ed must be God-implanted, and hence right
belief. The argument Is irresistible.
Again: adopt this theory because there
are features of moral temperament and fea-
lures of the soul that will distinguish us for
ever. How do we know each other in this
world? Is II merely by the color OF the eye,
or the length OF the hair, or the facial pro-
portionsf Oh, no. IL Is by the disposition
as well, by natural affinity, using the word
Ia the very best sense and not in the bad
sense; and IL In the dust our body should per-
ish and lie there forever, and there shall be
no resurrection, still the soul has enough
features and the disposition has enough fea-
lures to make us distngulshablc. i can UNI
derstand how In sickness man will become
so delirious that he will not know his own
friends; but will we be blasted with such in
sufferable idiocy. that. standing beside our
best friends Tor all eternity, we Will never
guess who they arcY
Again: think one reason why we ought
20 accept this doctrine is because we never
in this world have an opportunity to give
thanks to those TO whom we are spiritually
indebted. The JOY OF heaven, we are told, is
to be inaugurated by review Of LIES work.
The Christian men and women who have
been toiling for Christ, have they seen the
full result of their work? Oh, no. In the
church Of Somerville, New Jersey John Vre-
denburgh preached for good many years.
lie felt that his ministry was failure. and
Others felt so. although he was n faithful
minister preaching the Gospel all the time.
He died. and died amid discOuragements,
and went home To God; for no one ever
doubted that John Nrcdenburgh was good
Christian minister. A little while after his
death there came great awakening in
SOmerVille, and one Sabbath two hundred
souls stood up at the Christian altar espous-
ing the cause of Chrst,among them my own
father and mother. And what was peculiar
in regard TO nearly all of those two hundred
souls was that they dated their religious inn
presstons from the ministry of John Nreden-
burgh. Will that good Christian man before
the throne OF God never meet those souls
brought To Christ through his Instrument
atty? Oh, OF course he will know them.
! remember one Sabbath afternoon, borne
down with sense of my sins and knowing
not God, took up Doddrdgc's h.Se and ~ o.
gJeSS. Oh, what dark afternoon IL was, and
l read the chapters, and read the prayers,
and | tried To make the prayers my own.
oh, must see Philip DoddridGe. A glorious
old book he wrote. IT Is out of fashion now.
lnefc Is Il nOtner DeIOfc tnc throne or GOu.
Yousay her JOY is full. Is III You say there
can be no augmentation Oft. Cannot there
beT Her son was wandercr and vagabond
on the i earth when that good mother 5 died.
him in the wilderness OF sin. She Is before
the throne of God now. Years pass and that
son repents OF his crimes and gives his heart
70 God and becomes n useful Christian, and
dies and enters the gates Of heaven. You
tell me that that mothers JOY cannot he
augmented. Let them confront each other.
mother IN
the angels OF God, rejoice with me! The
dead is alive again, and the lost is found
IIallelujah! | never expected To see this
lost one Gene back"
The bible SAYS nations are to be born In n
day. When China comes to God will IL not
know DIR. Abeel? When India comes will IL
not know John Scudder? When the Indians
come TO God will they not know David
Brainard?
covered face at the idea that IL has done so |
little for Christ, and feeling borne down with |
unworthiness. aud u says 10 ITSELF have no |
right To be here" a voice from the throne |
says, "Oh, you forget that Sunday-school |
class you invited to Christ! was one OF /
them" And another voice says, You for
get that poor man to whom you gave loaf ]
of bread, and told Of the heavenly bread. /
was that man." And another says, You
forget that sick one to whom you gave medi-
cine for the body and soul: was that one"
And then Christ, from throne overlapping |
all the rest, will say. "Inasmuch as we did Il |
TO one of the least OF these, ye did IL TO me-"
from the side OF the throne, and cry. What
song shall II be?" And Christ, bending over
the harpers; shall cry, 1T shall be the Har-
vest Home"
One more reason why I am disposed to ac-
cept this doctrine OF the future recognition |
Is that so many in their last hour on earth |
persons who have been delirious In their last |
moment and knew not what they were about, |
but OF persons who died In calmness and pla- !
cidity, and who were not naturally supersti- |
tious. Often the glories OF heaven have |
struck the dying pillow. and the departing |
man has said he saw and heard those who |
had gone away from him. How often IL Is in |
the dying moment parents see their departed |
children and children see their departed |
parentsl ] came down to the banks of the |
Mohawk River. II was evening, and want |
ed to go over the river. and SO / waved my |
hat and shouted, and after awhile 1 saw |
someone waving on the opposite bank, and 1 |
heard him shout, and the boat came across. |
and got In and was transported. And so l
suppose IL will be In the evening Of our life. |
We will come down 20 the river of death and
give a signal To our friends on the other |
shore, and they will give q signal back TO us,
and the boat comes, and our departed kim
dred are the oarsmen, the fires OF the setting |
day tingeing the tops OF the paddles.
Oh, have you never sat Dy such n DEATH /
bcdi In that hour you hear the departing |
soul cry. "Harki look!' You hardened and
you looked. A little child pining away be-
cause of the death OF It's mother, getting |
weaker and weaker every day, was taken |
into the room where hung the picture OF her |
n .N.kwW l...xl -.