Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1890-01-18


frmed 1t with visions Of glory, ana
ministers Of religion have sounded 1t
through the lanes, and the highways,
and the chapels, and the c~athedrals. 1t
has been cut into stone with chisel, and
spread on the n with pencil; and
1t has beed recited in the doxology of
great congregations. And yet when a
man first comes to look on the palace Of
Gods mercy, and TO SEQ the royalty OF
Christ, and the wealth Of this banquet,
and the luxuriance OF his attendants,
and the loneliness Of his face, and the
JOY of his service, he exclaims with
tears, with signs, with triumphs: THE
half-the half was not told mel
appeal to those who are Christians.
Compare the idea you had OF the JOY OF
the Christian life before you became q
Christian with the appreciation of that
JOY you have now since you have be-
come a Christian, and you are willing
to attest before angels and men that
you never, in the days OF your spiritual
bondage, had any appreciation of what
was to come. You are ready today to
answer and say in regard to the discov-
cries you have made of the mercy and
the grace and the goodness of God:
''The half-the half was not told met
Well, we hear q great deal about the
good time that is coming to this world
when it is to be girded with salvation.
Holiness on the bells Of the horses.
The lions name patted by the hand Of
a babe. Ships of Tarshish bringing
cargoes for Jesus, and the hard, dry,
barren, winter bleached, storm SCARED.
thunder split rock breaking into floods
OF bright water. Deserts into which
dromedaries thrust their nostrils, be-
cause they were afraid OF the SIMEON
deserts blooming into carnation roses
and silver tipped lilies.
1t is the old story. Everybody tells ii.
Isaiah told ii, John told it, Paul told it.,
Ezekiel told it, Luther told IL, Calvin
told it, John Milton told it-everybody
tells It; and yet-and yet when the
midnight shall fly the hills, and Christ
shall marshal his great army, and
China, dashing her idols into the dust,
shall hear the voice of God and wheel
into line: and India, destroying
her Juggernaut and snatching
up her little children from the
Gauges. shall heal the voice of God and
wheel into line: and vine covered Italy,
and wheat crowned Russia, and all the
nations of the earth shall hear the
voice of God and fall into line; then the
church, which has been tojling and
struggling through the centuries, robed
and ~garlanded like a bride adorned for
her husband, shall put aside her veil
and look up into the face OF her Lord
and King and say: THE half-the
half was not told mel"
Well, there is coming a greater sur
prise to every Christian greater sur
prise han anything / have depicted.
Heaven is an old story. Everybody
talks about it. There is hardly a hymn
in the hymn book that does not refer to
it. Children read about it in their Sab
bath school books. Aged men put On
their spectacles TO study 1t. We say it
is a harbor from the storm. We call IL
home. We say it is the house of many
mansions. We e a together all
sweet, beautiful, delicate. ~exhilarant
woods: we weave them into letters, and
then we spell it out in rose and lily and
amaranth. And yet that place is going
TO be a surprise to the most intelligent
Christian. Like the queen OF Sheba,
the report has come to us from the far
country, and many of us have started.
Ii is a desert march, but we urge on
the camels. What though our feet be
blistered with the way? We are hasten
ing to the palace. We take all our
loves and hopes and Christian ambitions,
as frankincense and myrrh and ~cassia,
TO the great King. We must not rest.
We must not halt. The night is com
ing on and ii is not safe put here in the
desert. Urge on the camels. ] see the
domes against the sky, and the honses
Of Lebanon and the temples and the
gardens. See the fountains dance in
the sun and the gates fash as they open
TO let in the poor pilgrims.
Send the word up to the palace that
we are coming, and that we are weary
Of the march of the desert. The King
will come out and say; "Welcome 70
the palace; battle in these waters, re-
cline on these banks. Take this cinna-
mon and frankincense and myrrh and
put it upon q censer and ing 1t before
the altar" And yet, my friends, when
heaven bursts upon US it will be .
greater surprise than that-Jesns on the
throne, and we made like himl All our
Christian friends surrounding US in
glory! All our sorrows and tears and
sins gons forever! Tho thousands Of
thousands, the 144.00O, the great multi
tudes that no man can number, will cry,
world without end: 1.-THE half-ths half
was not told me-"