The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1890-07-23

u OGQef says, lou 1OiSeG IllaUS SlCh Out
/ to whom you gave medicine for the
t body and the soul. I was that one. ,
i And then Christ, from throne over
S topping all the rest, will say, ''Inas-
t much as ye did it to one of the least
: of these, you did it to me" And
. then the seraphs will take their harps
. from the side of the throne and cry,
I :What song shall it be-" And Christ
: bending over the harpers. shall say,
3 'tIt Shall be the Harvest Homc!'
| One more reason why I am dlspos
ed to accept this doctrine of the flu
ture recognition is that so many in
their last hour on earth have confirm
ed this theory. I speak not of per-
sons who have been delirious in their
last moments and knew not what
they were about, but Of persons who
died in calmness and placidity, and
who We're not naturally superstitious.
often the glories of heaven have
/ struck the dying pillow, and the de-
parting man has said he saw and
heard those who had gone away from
him How often it is in the dying
moments parents see their departed
children and children see their de-
parted parents! I came down to the
banks of the Mohawk river. It was
evening and I wanted to go over the
river, and so I waved my hat and
shouted, and after awhile I saw some
one waving on the opposite bank,
and I heard him shout, and the boat
came across. and I got in and was
transported. And so I suppose it
will be in the evening of OR life.
| We will come down to the river of
death and give a signal to our friends
on the other shore, and they will
give a signal back to us, and the boat
comes, and our departed kindred are
the oarsmen, the fires of the setting
day tinging the tops of the paddles.
Oh, have you never sat by such a
deathbed? In that hour you hear
the departing soul cry, "Hark! look!
You hearkened and you looked. A
little child spining away because OF the
death of its mother, getting weaker
and weaker every day, was taken into
the room where hung the picture OF
| her mother. She seemed to enjoy
locking at it, and then she was taken
away, and after awhile died. In the
last moment that wan and wasted lit
| tie one lifted her hands, while her
face lighted up with the glory of the
next world, and cried out, s'Mother"
You tell me she did not see her
| mother7 She did. So in my first
| settlement at Beleville plain man
| said to me, "What do you think I
heard last night? I was in the room
| where one Of my neighbors was dying.
He was a good man, and he said he
heard the angels Of God singing be-
fore the throne. I haven't much
poetry about me, but listened and
I heard them too Said I, Il have no
doubt of it. Why, we are to be taken
up to heaven at last by ministering
spirits. Who are they to be? souls
that went up from Madras, or Antioch,
| or Jerusalem? Oh, no; our glorifed
kindred are going to troop around us.
Heaven is not a stately, formal
place, asI sometimes hear it described,
| very frigidity of splendor, where
people stand on cold folmalities and
go round about with heavy crowns Of
gold on their heads. No, that is not
my idea of heaven. My idea ofheaven
in more like this: You are seated IN
the evening-tide by the fireplace, your
whole family there, or nearly all of
them there. While you are seated
talking and enjoying the evening hour
there is a knock at the door and the
door opens, and there comes in a
brother that has been long absent.
He has been absent for years, you
have not seen him, and no sooner do
you make up your mind that it is
certainly he, than you leap up, and
the question is who shall give him the
first embrace. That is my idea of
heaven-a great home circle where
they are waiting for US. Oh, will you
not know your mothers voice there?
She who always called you by your
first name long after others had given |
you the formal 'mister?" You were
never anything but James, or John,
or George, or Thomas, or Mary, or
Florence to her. VIII you not know
your child's voice? She of the bright |
eye, and the ruddy cheek, and the
quiet step, who came in from play
and flung herself into your lap, very
shower of mirth and beauty? Why, |
the picture is craven in your soul. 1t
cannot wear out. If that little one
should stand on the other side of
some heavenly hill and call to you,
you would hear her voice above the
burst of heavens great orchestra.
Know it? You could not help butt
know it.
Now I bring you this glorious con-
| ISOLATION Of futurerecognition. Ifyou
could get this theory into your heart
it would lift q great many shadows
that are stretching across it. When
I was lad I used to go out to the
railroad track and put my ear down
on the track. and T could hear the e1-
press train rumbling miles away, and
coming on; and today, 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 dis
tance the runbling on of the chariots
of resurrection victory. 0 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 ilridiation of light and love,
and beauty and Joy you spell it outas
never before, in songs and hallelujahs.
Oh, ye whose hearts are down un-
der the sod of the cemetery, cheer up