Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-07-26

these ranks of glory. Watch how their
palms wave, and hear how their voices ringi
Floods clapping their hands, streets gleaIn-
ing with gold, uncounted multitudes ever
accommodating in number and ever rising up
into gladder hosannas. Ii you cannot stand
to look upon that joy for at least one hour
how could you endure to dwell among it tor
ever? You would wish yourself out Of it in
three days, and choose the earth again or
any other place where it was not always
Sunday
My hearer in worldly prosperity, affluent,
honoret, healthy and happy look in uoon
that company OF the redeemed, and see how
the poor soul in heaven is better off than
you are, brighter in apparel, richer in estate,
higher in power. Hearers, afflicted and
tried, look in through that open door, that
you may see to what gladness and glory you
are coming, to what life, to what royalty.
Hearers pleased to fascination with this
world, gather up your souls for one app.e-
ciative look upon riches than never fly away,
upon health that never sichens, upoa scepters
that never break, upon expectations that are
never disappointed. Look in AMI seq if
there are not enough crowns to pay us for
oil our battles, enough rest to relieve all our
fatigues, enough living fountains to quench
all our thirst, enough glory to dash ont for
ever and ever all earths signing and restless
ness ald darkness Battles ende !, tears
wiped away, thrones pluckel from the
bosoms, stabs healed, the tomb riyen-what
a scene to look uponl
Again, the door of heaven stlnds open for
the Christians final entrance. Death to the
righteous is not climbing high walls or forll-
ing deep rivers, but it is entering an open
door. II you ever visit the old homestead
where you were born, and while father aud
mother are yet alive, as you go up the lane
in front of the farm house. and put your
hand on the door and lift the latch. do you
shudder with fears No, you are glad to Ell
ter. So your last sickness will be only the
lane in front of your Fathers house, from
which you hear the voice Of singing before
you reach the door. And death, that is the
lifting of the latch before you enter, the
greetings and embraces of the sinnumerable
family of the righteous. Nay, there is no
latch, for John says the door is already open.
What company of spirits have already en-
tered those portals, bright AMI shining;
Souls released from the earthly prison house
how they shouted as thew went through!
Spirits that spoil up from tho flames of mar
tyrdom, making heaven richer as they went
in, pouring their notes into the celestial har-
mony.
And that door has not begun to shut. If
redeemed by grace we all shall enter it. This
side OF it we have wept, but on the other side
of it we shall never weep. On this side we
may have grown sick with WEAKNESS, but
on the other side of it we shall be without
fatigue. On this side we bleed with the war
rior's wounds, on the other side we shall wave
the victor's palm. When you think of dying
what makes your brow contract, what makes
you breathe so deep a sigh? What makes
you gloomy in passing graveyard? Fol-
lower Of Christ you have been thinking
that death is something terrible, the measur-
ing of lauces with a powerful antagonist.
the closing in of conflict which NAV be your
everlasting defeat. You do not want much
to think of dying. The step beyond this
life seems so mysterious you dread the taking
of it. Why, who taught you this lesson
of horrors? Heavens door is wide open,
and you step out of your sick room into those
portals.
Not as long as minute will elapse between
your departure and your arrival there. Not
half so long as the twinkling of an eye. Not
the millionth part of an instant. There is no
stumbling into darkness. There is no plung-
ing down into mysterious depths. The door
is open. This instant you are here the next
you are there. When vessel struck the
rocks of the French coast, while the crew
were clambering up the beach cage of birds
in tie ships cabin awakened, began to sing
most sweetly, and when the last man left the
vessel they were singing yet Even so in the
last hour of our dissolution, when driven on
| the coast of the other world, may our disem-
barkation from this rough, tossing life be
amid the eternal singing of thousand prom
ises OF deliverance and victory!
For all repenting AMI believing souls the
door of heaven is now wide open, the door
of mercy, the door of comfort, for the poor
est as well as for the wealthast, for the out
law as well as for the morslist, for Chinese
coole as well as his Emp ,ror, for the Rus
sian boor as well as the Gar, for the Turk
as well as the Sultan. Richer than all
wealth, more refreshing than all fountains,
deeper than all depths higher than all
| heights and broader than all breadths i,
the salvation of Jesus Christ which press
upon your consideration Com, all We trav-
elerS of the desert under these palm trees.
Oh, il | could gather before you that ire
mendous future upon which you are
invited to enter-dominions and princi-
palities, day without night martyrs
under the throne and the four-and-
twenty elders falling before it, stretching off
in great distances the hundred AMI forty and
four thousand AMI thousands of thousands
host beside host rank beyond rank, in inf
mite distance nations of the saved beyond
nations of the save1 until angelic visions
cease to catch anything more than the faint
outline of whole empires yet outstretching
beyond the apacity of any vision save the
eye of God Almighty. Then, after l had
finished the SKETCH | would like to ask you
if that place is not grand enough aud high
enough, and if anything could be added,
any purity to the whiteness of the robes, any
power to tls ae,lamin5 thunders of its
IVorShin An oil RI, ot ha