Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-19

/ Now. L do not know where heaven is, and l
/ do not know how it looks, but, If our bodies
are to be resurrected in the last day, think
heaven must have n material splendor as
| well as spiritual grandeur. "A palace also
/ means splvndor of associations. The poor
man, the outcast cannot get into Windsor
! Castle. But in the palace of which / speak
We may all become residents, and we shall
all be Princes and kin:s. We may have
been beggars, we may have been outcasts. we
may have been wandering and lost as we all
nave been, but there We snail take our regal
| power.
The Splendor of the Banquet Board.
A palace means splendor of banquet.
| There will be no common ware on that table.
There will be no unskilied musicians at that
entertainments. There will be no scanty
| supply OF fruit or beverage; but who can
tell the untold wealth of that banquet?
do not know whether Johns description OF
| 1t Is literal or figurative A great many wise
people tell me it is f.urative; but prove IL.
l do not know but that it may be literal. l
do not know but that there may be real
fruits plucked from the tree OF life. do
not know but that Christ referred to the
real juice of the grape when He said that
we should drink new wine in our Fathers
Kingdom, hut not the intoxicating stun OF
this worlds brewing. do not say 1t is SO;
but have as much right for thinking tits
so as you have 1or thinking the other way.
AZ any rate it will be glorious banquet
Years ago, with lanterns and torches, ana
guide, we went down in the Mammoth
Cave OF Kentucky. You may walk IA miles
and see no sunlight. 1t is stupendous
place. Some places the roof of the cave Is lOO
feet high. the grottoes filled with weird
echoes, cascades falling from Invisible
height to invisible depth. Stalagmites rising
up from the floor oi the cave-stalactltes
descending from the roof of the cave. JOIN
ing each other. and making pillars OF the
Almfghty's sculpturing. There are rosettes
of amethyst in halls OF gypsum:
As the guide carries his lantern aneao OF
you, the shadows have an appearance su
peTnatural and spectral. The darkness Is
fearful Two people, getting lost IRON their
guide only for a lew hours, years ago, were
demented, and for years sat in their insanity
Death Compared to 4 Vast Cavern.
Then, by kindling one of the lanterns and
placing it in u cleft of the rock, there is a re-
Election cast Oh the dome of the cave, and
there are stars coming out in consultations
"a brilliant night heavens-and you invol-
unfairly excaim: Beautiful beautifulr'
Then he takes the lantern down in other
depths OF the cavern and wnnders of, until
he comes up from behind tie rocks gradu- |
ally, and it seems like the dawn of the morn |
ing and IL gets brighter and brighter. The |
guide is q skilled venUriloquist, and he imi- |
tates the voices of the morning, and soon |
graduating yourself over the wonderful |
spectacle.
Well, there are a great many people who |
look down into the grave as a great cavern. |
neOus and all the echoes seem to be the |
voices of despair, and the cascades seem to |
be the falling tears that always TALL, and the |
gloom of earth seems coming up in stalag- |
mite, and the gloom of the eternal world |
seems descending in the staactite, making |
pillars of indescribable horror. The grave
Is no such place as that to me, thank God!
Our divine guide takes us down into the
great caverns and we have the lamp to our
feet and the light to our path, and all the
echoes in the rilts of the rock are anthems,
and all the falling waters are fountains OF
and, after awhile, we look up, and
behold! the cavern of the tomb has become
Kings star chamber
And. while We are looking at the pomp of
e, an everlasting morning begins to rise,
md all the tears of earth crystalline into
'talag mite, rising up in a pillar on the one
side, and all the giories of heaven seem to
De descending in a stalactite, making a
pillar on the other side, and you push
against the gate that swings between the
pillars, and, as that gate flashes open, you
ind it is one of the u gates which are IL
pearls. Blessed be GOD, that through this
gospel the mammoth cave of the sepulcher |
las become the illumined star chamber of
The King! Oh, the palaces! the eternal
1alacesi the Kings palaces!