News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-06-23

hood rushing out and stretching forth
hands of welcome, for do really think
that as on the right hand of God is
Christ, so on the right hand of Christ is
Paul, the second great in heaven.
He changed kings likewise. Before
the hour of death, and up to the last
moment, he was under Nero, the thick
necked, the cruel eyed, the filthy Tipped,
the sculptured features of that man
bringing down to us this very day the
horrible possibilities of his nature
seated as he was amid pictured mar
bles of Egypt, under roof adorned
with mother-of-pearl, in dining room
which by machinery was kept whirling
day and night with most bewitching
magnifcence; his horses standing in
stalls of solid gold, and the grounds
around his palace lighted at night by
its victims, who had been bedaubed
with tar and pitch and then set on fire
to illumine the darkness. That was
Paul's king.
But the next moment he goes into the
realm of him whose reign is love, and
whose courts are paved with love, and
whose throne is set on pillars of love,
and whose scepter is adorned with jew
els of love, and whose palace is lighted
with love, and whose lifetime is an eter-
nity of love. When Paul was leaving
so much on this side the pillar of mar
tyrdom to gain so much on the other
side, do you wonder at the cheerful vale
dictory of the text, 'The time of my
departure is at hand?"
Now, why cannot all the old people
have the same holy glee as that aged
man had? Charles I, when he was comb
ing his head, found a gray hair, and he
sent it to the queen as great joke; but
! old age is really no joke at all. For the
| last forty years you have been dreading
that which ought to have been an ex-
| hilaration. You say you most fear the
struggle at the moment the soul and
body part. But millions have endured
| that moment, and may not we as well?
They got through with it and so can we.
Besides this, all medical men agree in
saying that there is probably no struggle
at the last moment-not so much pain
as the prick of a pin, the seeming signs
of distress being altogether involuntary
But you say, ''It is the uncertainty of
the future" Now, child of God, do not
play the infdel. After God has filled
the Bible till it can hold no more with
stories of the good things ahead, better
not talk about uncertainties.
THE GLORIOUS COMPANY.
But you say, 81 cannot bear to think
of parting from friends here" If you
are old, you have more friends in heaven
than here. Just take the census. Take
some large sheet of paper and begin to
record the names of those who have emil |
grated to the other shore; the compan-
ions of your school days, your carly |
business associates, the friends of mid |
life, and those who moro recently went |
away. Can it be that they have been
gone so long you DO not care any more
about them, and you do not want their
society? Oh, no. There have been days
when you have feltsthat you could not
endure another moment away from their
blessed companionship. They have gone.
You say you would not like to bring
them back to this world of trouble, even
if You had the power. 1t would not do
to trust you. God would not give you
resurrection power.
Before tomorrow morning you would
be rattlieg at the gates of the cemetery
crying to the departed: Come back to
the cradle where you slept! Come back
to the hall where you used to play
Come back to the table where you used
to stir and there would be great bur-
glary in heaven. No, no. God will not
trust you with resurrection power; but
he compromises the matter and says,
''You cannot bring them where you are,
but you can go where they are" They
are more lovely now than ever. Were
they beautiful here, they are more beau
tiful there.
Besides that, it is more healthy there
for you than here, aged man; better
climate there than these hot summers
and cold winters and late springs; bet
ter hearing, better eyesight, more tonic
in the air, more perfume in the bloom,
more sweetness in the song. Do you
not feel, aged lnan, sometimes as though
you would like to get your arm and foot
free? Do you not feel as though you
would like 10 throw away spectacles
md canes and crutches? Would you :
lot like to feel the spring and elasticity
md mirth of an eternal boyhood? When
he point at which you start from this
world is old age, and the point to which s
-ou go Is eternal juvenescence, aged
nan, clap your hands at the anticipa- /
ion and say, in perfect rapture of soul, '
The time of my departure is at hand" L
THAT WONDERFUL WORLD. q
| remark again, all those ought to |
eel this joy OF the text who have holy /
to know what is beyond this +
arthly terminus. And who has not t
ny curiosity about it? Paul, suppose, S
lad the most satisfactory view of t
heaven, and he says, "It doth not vet t
.ppear what we shall be-" It is like t
ook1ng through a broken telescope, s
Now we see through a glass darkly."
Jan you tell me anything about that &
place? You ask me a thou s
and questions about it that | cannot i,
answer. ask you thousand questions | +
Ibout 1t that you cannot answer. And s
10 you wonder that Paul was so glad d
when martyrdom gave him chance to t
20 over and make discoveries in that k
blessed country? h
hope some day, by the grace of God. b
o go over and see for myself, but not v
low. No well man, no prospered man. a
think, wants to go now. But the time d
Will come, think, when shall go over. o
want to see what they do there and | b
want to see how they do it. do not h
want to be looking through the gates
jar forever. | want them to swing
vide open. There are ten thousand
hings l want explained-about you, a
bout myself, about the government of d
his world, about God, about everything. d
We start in plain path of what we u
now and in minute come up against t.
|. high wall of what we do not know. | l
Wonder how it looks over there. Some q
'ody tells me it is like paved city II
'aved with gold-and another man tells C
ne it is like fountain, and it is like a s.
rec, and it is like a triumphal process Il
ion, and the next man | meet tells me Il
is all fgurative. l really want to e
now, after the body is resurrected, Il
THAT they wear and what they eat, and h
have an immeasurable curiosity to h
now what it is, and how it is and n
there it is.
Columbus risked his life to find this n
ointment, and shall we shudder to go n
ut on voyage of discovery which shall b
7veal vaster and more brilliant coun- IL
y? John Franklin risked his life to 81
nd passage between icebergs, and u
nall we dread to find passage to eter- IL
al summer? Men in Switzerland travel
p the heights of the Matterhorn with
lpenstock and guides and rockets and
opes, and getting half way up stumble a,
nd fall down in horrible massacre. r;
hey inst wantad to GOV, +1o,, bo5 hoo,