The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-19
queen. Of heaven. o. my soul, whs.

oompanionship.
A palace means splendor Of banquet.
There will be no common ware on that
table, There will be no unskilled must =
clans at the entertainment. There will be
no scanty supply OF fruit or bever-
age. There have been banquets
spread that cost a million Of dollars
each but who can tell the untold wealth of
that banquet l do not know whether
Johns description OF IL Is literal OF fgur-
alive. A great many wise people tell me it is
figurative; but prove it. do not know but
that there may be real fruits plucked from
the tree Of life. l do not know but that
Christ referred to the real juice Of the grape
when be said that we should drink new
wine In our Fathers kingdom, but not the
intoxicating stuff Of this worlds brewing
l do not say 1t lie so; but have as much
right for thinking it 80 as you have for
thinking the other way. At an, rate
it will be glorious banquet. Hark!
the chsriots rumbling in the distance. L
really believe the guests are coming
now. The gates swing open, the guests
dismount. the palace is filing, and all
the chAlioes flashing with pearl and
amethyst, and oarbuncle are lifted 10 the
lips OF the myriad banQu ters, while stand
ing in robes Of snowy white they drink TO
the honor of our glorious King. 30, you
say: That is too grand place for you and
for me-" No, 1t 10 not. II spider, accord
ing TO the text, could crawl up on the wall
OF Solomon's palace. shall not our poor
souls, through the blood of Christ, mount up
from the depths of their sin and shame, and
finally reach the palace Of the eternal kingf
''Wbere sin nbounded, grace shall much
more abound, that whereas sin reigned unto
death, even so may grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal lie by Jesus
Christ our Lordn One flash OF that coming
glory obliterates the sepulcheT.
Years ago, with lanterns aud torcnes' anu
a guide, we wSnt down in the Nam noth
cave of Kentucky. You may walk four
teen miles and see no sunlight. IL ia a
stupendous place. Some places the roof Of
the cave is a hundred feet high. The Rrot-
toes filed with weird echoes, cascades fall
ing from invisible hight to invisible depth.
Stalagnites rising up from the floor of the
cave-stalactites descending from the roof
OF the ca Ve. joining each other and making
pillars Of the Almighty's sculpturing.
There are rosettes Of amethyst in halls of
gypsum. AS the guide carries his lantern
ahead Of you. the shadows have an appear
ance supernatural and spectral The dark
uess is fearful. Two people, getting
lost from their guide only for a few
hours, years ago, were demented, and
for years sat in their insanity. You feel
like holding your breath as you walk
bottomless abyss. The guide throws his
calcium light down into the caverns, and
the light rolls and losses from rock to rock
and from depth TO depth, making at every
plunge a new revelation OF the awful power
that could have made such place as that.
A sense of awful sufocation comes upon
you as you think that you are two hundred
and ffty feet 10 a straight line from the
sunllt surface Of the earth. The guide,
after awhile, takes you into what rs called
the "Star Chamber" and then he says ~
yon: "Sit here" and then he takes the lam
tern and goes down under the rocks, and 1t
gets darker and darker. until tho night
IL so thioK that the hand an inch from the
eve is undesirable. And then, by kind
ling one Of the lanterns, and placing 1t In
cleft of the rock, there is q reflection cast
on the dome OF the cave, and there are stars
coming out IN oonstellAtions-a brilliant
night heavens-and you involuntarily ex-
claim: beautiful beautifuln Then he
takes the lantern down in other depths of
the cavern and wanders on. and wanders
of. until he comes up from behind the
rocks gradually, and it seems like the dawn
OF the morning and 1t gets brighter and
aud brighter. The guide is a skilled ven
triloquist. anG he initiates the voices OF the
morning, and soon the gloom is all gone,
and you stand congratulntinR yourself over
the wonderful spectacle.
Well, there are q great many people who
look down into the grave as a great cavern.
They think it is q thousand miles subterra-
neous, and all the echoes seem to be the
voices of despair, and the cascades seem to
be the falling tears that always fall, and
the gloom of earth seems coming up in
sbaiagmite, and the gloom of the eternal
world seems descending In the stalactite,
making pillars OF undesirable horror.
The grave is no such place as that 10 me,
thank Godl 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
riffs of the rock are anthems, and al
the falling waters are fountains of sal
walton, and after awhile we look up and
behold! the cavern Of the tomb has become
q kings star chamber. And. while we are
looking at the pomp Of it, an everlasting
morning begins TO rise and all the tears OF
earth crysbnlize into stalagmite. rising VI
In a pillar on the one side aud all th,
glories OF heaven seem to be descending II
a stalacttte, making q pillar on the oGhe
side, and you push against the gate tina
swings between the two pillars, and, Al
that gate flashes open, you and 1t is one OF
the twelve gates which are twelve pearls
Blessed be God. that through this gospel tn
mammoth cave Of the sepulcher has beoomr
the illumined star chamber of the kingl o
the palaces the eternal palaces the king'l
palaces