The Forrest City times., 1890-03-08

clfmOo0 10 the top 0I Golg0tnA And td the top of the hills and the mountains of your transgression hc ia ready to climb with pardon for every ons of you. The eroan of Calvary is mig htior than the thunder of Sinai Full receipt Is of- one throw . stone ct midnight into bush where tho hedge bird roosts, it immediately begins to sing. and into the midnight hedges of your despondency these words hurl, hoping to awaken you to anthem. Drop the tunes in the minor key and take the major. Do you think it pleases the Lord for you to be carrying around with you the debris and carcasses of old transgressions! You make me think of some ship that has had a tempestuous time at sea, and now that it proposes another voyage, keeps on it's davits the damaged life- boats, and the splinters of shivered mast aad the broken glass of smashed skylirht My advice is. clear the decks, overheard with the damaged rigging, brighten up the salted smokestack, open a new log book, haul in the blanks, lay out a new course and set sail for heaven. You have had spiritual dumps long enough. You will please the Lord mora by being happy than by being miserable. Have you not sometimes started out in the rain with your umbrella and you were busy thinking and you did not notice that the rain had stopped and though it had cleared of you still had your umbrella up, and when you discovered what yoa were doing you felt silly euoughi That is what some of you are doing in religious things You have got so used to sadness that though the rain has stopped you still have your umbrella mn pntn nf be. ahn Ia tw hn stairs of your sepulchre Step out nto tho broad light of monday. We como around you to help remove your grave clothes, and voice from the heavens, tremuious but omnipotent commands: Loose him, and let him go.''
 Heaven is ninety-fve per cent better than this world, a thousand per cent. bet ter, million per cont better. Take the gladdest brightest most jubilant days yoa ever had on earth and compress them all into one hour, and that hour would be a requiem, fast day, n gloom, Il horror. as compared with the poorest hour they have had in heaven since it's first tower was built or it's first gates swung or it's first song caroled. Oh" you say, "that may be true, but 1 am so afraid of crossing over from this world to the next, and fear the snapping of the cord between soul and body" Well all the surgeons and phy sicans and scientists declare that there IS no pang at the parting Of the body and soul, ard all the seeming restiessness at tho closing hour Of lie Is involuntary aud no distress at all And l agree with the doc tors, for what they say is confirmed by the fact that persons who were drowned or were submerged until all consciousness depar- ted and were afterwards resueitated declare that the sensation of passing into unconsciousness was pleasurable rather than distressfnl Tho cage of tho body has door on easy hinges, and when that door Of the physical cage opens tho soul simply puts out it's wings and soars But" you say, II fear to go because the future is so full of mystery We'll, l will tell you how to treat the mysteries Tho mysteries have ceased bothering mo, for do us the judges of your courts often do. They hear all tho arguments in the case and then say: T will take these papers aud give you my decision mex. week. So have heard all tn, arguments in regard to tho next world and some things are uncertain and full of mystery, and so l fold up tho papers and reserve until the next world my decision about them. l can there study
 
 the light will be better and my faculties stronger, and l will ask tho Christian philosophers, who have had all the ad. vantages of heaven for centuries. to help mo, and l may be permitted myself humbiy to ask the Lord, and l think there wll be only one mystery left and that will Do how ono so unworthy as myself got into such an enraptared place Como up out of the sepulchrM shadows If you arc not Christians by faith in Christ come up into the light; and If you are already like Lazarus, reanimatod, but sun have your grave clothes on get rid of them. The command is: Loose him, and let him 20" The only part Of my reeoat journey that really dreaded although did not say much about 1t beforehand, WAS tho landing at Joppa. That is the port of entrance for the Holy Land, and there arc many rocks, and in rough weather people cannot land ay all. The boats taking the people from the steamer 10 the docks must run between reefs that looked to me to be about fifty feet apart, and one nis-stroke Of au oars man or an unexpected wave has sometimes been fatal, and hundreds have perished along those reefs. Besides that as we left Port Said tho evening before an old travel CT said; "'rhe wind is just right to give you rough landing at Joppa; indeol, think you will not be able to land at sll. ," Tho fact was that when our Mediterranean s;eamer dropped anchor near Joppa and we put out for shore in the suiall boat the water WAS as stil as thonSh it had been sound asleep hundred years and we landed AS easily as 1 came on thls platform. ell, your fears have pictured for you an appalling arrival at the end of your voyage of life and they say that tho seas will run high and that the breakers will swallow you up, or that II you reach Canaan at all 1t will ne n very rough landing. The worry opposite wilt ee true If you have the eternal God for your portion. Your dlsembaf l1ation for the promised land will b. as smoota as was ours at Palestine last December Christ will meet you far out at sea and pilot you into complete safety, and you will land with hosanna on one side of you and a halleluiah on the other,
 I and ahead " it's fruits are waving
 Der the hills of fadeless green,
 And the living waters laving
 Shores where heavenly forms nrc seen. Rocks and storms I'll fear no more
 When on that eternal shore;
 Drop the anchor furl the sail;
 1 am safe within tho veil