Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-07-24


and they will give signal back 10 us and
! the boat comes and our departed kindred
are the oarsmen the fires Of the setting day
tingeing the tops of the paddles.
Oh, have you never sat by such DEATH
beds In that hour you hear the departing
soul cry, 'Harkl Lookw You hearkened
and you looked. A little child pining 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 looking at it,
and then she was taken away and after
awhile died In the last moment that wan
and wasted little one lifted her hands, while
her face lighted up with the glory Of the next
world and cried out Mother You tell
me she did not see her mother? She did. So
in my first settlement at Belleville a plain
man said to me: what do you think
heard last night 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 before the throne. haven't
much poetry about me, but / listened and l
heard them, too" Said /, II have no doubt
| of it." Why, we are TO be taken up to
heaven at last by ministering spirits. Who
are they to beg Souls that went up from
Madras, or Antioch, or jerusalem oh, no;
our glorifed kindred are going to troop
around them.
Heaven is not a stately, formal place. as
sometimes hear it described, a very frigidity
of splendor, where people stand on cold for
malities and 90 around about with heavy
crowns of gold ON their heads. No, that is
not my idea of heaven My idea Of heaven
is more like this: You are seated in the
eveningtide 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 knock at the door
and the door opens and there comes IN
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
there2 She who always called you by your
first name long after others had given you
the formal "Misterp You were never any
thing but James or John, or George, or
Thomas or Mary, or Florence 10 her. Win
you not know your child's voicei She Of the
bright eye and the ruddy cheek and the quiet
step, who came in from play and flung her
self into your lap a very shower of mirth
and beauty Why, the picture is craven in
your soul. IL cannot wear out. II that little
one should stand or the other side OF some
heavenly hill and call TO you, you would hear
her voice above the burst of heavens great
orchestra. Know iti You could not help
but know it.
Now bring you this glorious consolation
OF future recognition. II you could get this
theory into your heart it would lift a great
many shadows that are stretching across It,
When | was a lad | used 10 60 out TO the
railroad track and put my ear down on the
track, and / 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 rambling on of the chariots of resurrec-
ton victory. o heaven. sweet heavenl You
do not spell heaven as you used 10 spell it.
You used TO spell it h-e-a-v-e-n-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 and joy you spell
IL as never before in songs and hallelujahs.
Oh We whose hearts are down under the sod
of the cemetery, cheer up at the thought of
this reunion. oh, how much you will have
TO tell them when once you meet theml
How much you have been through since
you saw them last. On the shining shore
you will talk it all over. The heartaches,
the Loneliness, the sleepless nights the weep
ing until you had no more power 10 weep,
because the heart was withered and dried
up. Story of vacant chair and empty era
die, and little shoe only half worn out, never
TO be worn again, Just the shape OF the foot
that once pressed it. And dreams when you
thought that the departed had come back
again, and the room seemed bright with
their faces and you started up to
greet them, and in the effort the dream
broke and you found yourself standing amid
room in the Neutrality-suspicious.. Talking il all
over and then hand in hand walking up and
down in the light No sorrow, no tears. no
death a hqaxaft haanffftt1 he H.a.
where our friends are. Heaven where we
expect TO be- In the east they take a cage Of
birds and bring it 10 the tomb of the dead,
aud then they open the door OF the cage and
the BIRDS nying out, sing. Ana would to-
day bring a cage of Christian consultations TO
the grave Of your loved ones, and / 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 thronel Some shout with gladness, some
break forth into uncomfortable weeping for
JOY, some stand specifies in their shock OF
delight They sing, they culver with exces-
siye gladness they gaze on the temples. ON
the 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, mothers. brothers sisters,
sons and daughters, lovers and friends, hand
to hand around about the throne of Cod
the circle ever widening hand to hand, joy
TO JOY, Jubilee to jubilee, victory to victory
until the day break and the shadows flee
away. Turn thou. my beloved. and be like
a roe or a young hart upon the mountains Of
Bether."
Oh, how different it is on earth from the
way it is in heaven when Christian diesl
We saw, "Close his eyes" Ii heaven they
say, "Give him palm" On earth we say.
Let him down in the ground" In heaven
thew say, ''Raise him on a throne On
earth it is Farewell. farewell" In heaven
il is WELCOME, welcome" And see
Christian soul coming down to the river OF |
death, and he steps into the river and the i
water comes to the ankle. He saws. Lord /
Jesus, is this deaths" NO." says Christ. |
this is not DEATH And he wades still |
deeper down into the waters until the flood |
comes to the knee, and he says Lord 1
Jesus tell me, tell me- ie this /
deathy' And Christ says, mo, no; this is
not death" And he wades stiI farther
down until the wave comes to the girdle.
and the soul says Lord Jesus is this /
deathy no" says Christ this is not"
And deeper in wades the soul till the billow
strikes the lip, and the departing one cries.
81 ord Iacr1a is This IN