The Brookhaven leader., 1890-07-24

. great awakening in Scmerville, and
one Sabbath two hundred souls stoo5 up
at the Christian altar espousing the cause
Of Christ among them my own father and
mother. And what was peculiar in re-
gard to nearly all Of those two hundred
souls was that they dated their re-
ligious impressions from the ministry
of John Vredenburgh. Will that good
Christian man before tho throne of
God never meet those souls
brought to Christ through his
instrumentality3 Oh, of course he
will know them. remember one
Sabbath afternoon, borne down with a
sense OF my sins, and knowing not God,
l took up Doddridge's Rise and Prog
ress." Oh, what a dark afternoon Ii
was, and | read the chapters, and read
the prayers, and tried to make tho
prayers my own. o, must see Philip
Doddridge. A glorious old book he
wrote! 1t is out Of fashion now.
There is a mother before the throne
of God. You say her JOY is full. Is IT'D
You say there can be no augmentation
Of it. Can not there be? Her son was
a wanderer and vagabond on the
earth when that good mother died. He
broke her old heart. She died leaving
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 to God and becomes a useful
Christian, and dies and enters the gates
of Heaven. You tell me that that moth
er's Joy can not be augmented. Let
confront each other. The son and tho
mother. "Oh." she says to the angels Of
God, rejoice with me! The dead is
alive again, and the lost is found. Hal
lelujah! l never expected to see this
lost one come back"
l see soul entering Heaven at last,
with covered face at the idea that it has
done so little for Christ, and feeling
borne down with unworthiness, and
it says to itself: II have no right
to be here" A voice from a throne
says: 'Oh, you forget that Sunday
school class you invited to Christ; l
was one of them" And another voice
says; "You forget that poor man to
whom you gave a loaf of bread, and
told of the heavenly bread. ] was that
man" And another says: You for
get that sick one to whom you gave
medicine for the body and the soul.
was that one." And then Christ,
from a throne overlapping the rest
we'll say: "Inasmuch as ye did it to one
of the least of these, ye did it to me-"
And then the seraphs will take their
harps from the side of the throne and
cry: what song shall it be?" And
Christ bending over the harpers shall
say: 1T shall be Harvest Home"
Again, l adopt this theory because
there are features of moral tempera-
ment and features of the soul that will
distinguish us forever. How do wa
know each other in this world? Is it
merely by the color of the eye, or tho
length of the hair, or the facial proper
tions? Oh, no. 1t is by the disposition
as well, by natural affinity, using
the word in the very best sense
and not in the bad sense; and
if in the dust our body should
perish and lie there forever, and there
should be no resurrection, still the
soul has enough features and the dis
US distinguishable. | can understand
how in sickness man will become so
delirious that he will not know his
own friends, but will we be blasted
with such insufferable idiocy that,
standing beside our best friends for all
eternity, we will never guess who they
are?
Now l bring you this glorious conso-
lation OF future recognition. If you
could get this theory into your heart it
would lift a great many shadows that
are sire tching across it. When | was
a lad l used to go out to the railroad
track and put my ear down on tho
track, and l could hear the express
train rumbling miles away, and coming
on; and to-day, my friends, if we only
had faith enough we could put our ear
down to the grave of our dead and
listen and hear in the distance
the rumbling on of the chariots Of res
direction victory. o, Heaven! Sweet
Heaven! You do not spell Heaven as
you used to spell it. You used to spell
it Heaven, Heaven. But now when
you want to spell that word you place
side by side the faces of the loved ones
who are gone, and in that irradiation of
light and love, and beauty apd JOY, you
spell it out as never be fore, in songs and
hallelujahs.
In the East they take cage of birds
and bring it to the tomb of the dead,
and then they open the door of the
cage, and the birds, flying out, sing.
And / would to-day bring a cage Of
Christian consultations to the grave Of
your loved ones, and l would open
the door and let them fill all the air
with the music of their voices. Oh,
how they bound in these spirits before
the throne! Some shout with gladness.
Some break forth into uncomfortable
weeping for joy. Some stand speech
less in their shock of delight They
sing. They CULVER with excessive glad
ness. They gaze on the temples, on tho
palaces, on the waters, on each other.
They weave their joy into garlands,
they spring it into triumphal arches,
they strike it on timbrels, and then all
the loved ones gather in a great circle
around the throne OF God-fathers, moth
ers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters,
lovers and friends, hand to hand around
about the throne of God-the circle
over widening hand to hand, JOY to joy
jubilee to jubilee, victory to victory
until the day break and the shadows