The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-07-15


nightshade, that would have meont sin
Eut IL Is a palm branch they carry, and
that is victory. When the people came
home from war in olden times the CON
queror rode at the head of his troops,
and there were triumphal arches, and
the people would come out with branch
es OF the palm tree and wave them all
along the host. What significant type
tins OF the greeting and of the joy of the
redeemed in heaven! On earth they
were condemned, and were put out of
polite circles. They had infamous hands
strike them on both cheeks. Internal
spite spat in their faces. Their back
ached with sorrow.
Their brow reeked with unalleviated
toll. How weary they were Sometimes
they broke the heart of the midnight in
the midst of all their anguish, crying
out, 20 God! But bark now to the
shout of the delivered captives, as they
lift their arms from the shackles and
they cry out, "Free! freer' They look
back upon all the trials through which
they have passed, the battles they have
fought, the burdens they carried, the
Misrepresentation they suffered, and
because they are delivered from all these
they stand before God waving their
palms. They come to the feet of Christ,
and they look up into his face, and they
remember his sorrows, and they remem-
Der his pain, and they remember his
groans, and they say: why, l was
saved by that Christ He pardoned my
sins, he soothed my sorrows,' and stand
ing there they shall be exultant, waving
their palms.
NO MORE TOLL OR SORROW.
That hand once held the implement of
toll or welded the sword of war, but
row it plucks down branches from the
tree of life as they stand before the
throne waving their palms. Once he
was pilgrim on earth; he crunched the
hard crusts-he walked the weary way;
but it is all gone now; the sin gone, the
WEAKNESS gone, the sickness gone, the
sorrow gone. AS Christ stands up be-
fore the great array of the saved and re-
counts his victories it will be like the
rocking and tossing of forest in tenn
pest, as all the redeemed rise up, host
beyond host, rank beyond rank, waving
their palms.
My subject makes another advance
ment, and speaks of the song they sing
DR.. Dick, in very learned work,
says that among other things in heaven
he thinks they will give great deal of
time to the study of arithmetic and the
higher branches Of mathematics. do |
not believe it. 1t would upset my idea
of heaven if thought so; | never liked |
mathematics; and | would rather take |
the representation of my text which de-
scribes the occupation of heaven us be-
ing joyful psalmody. They cried with
a loud voice, saying, Salvation unto our
God" In this world we have secular
songs, nursery songs, boatmens songs,
harvest songs, sentimental songs; but in
heaven we will have taste for only one
song, and that will be the song of saliva
ton from an eternal death to an eternal
heaven through the blood of the Lamb
that was slain.
| see soul coming up to joinWhe re-
deemed in heaven. AS it goes through
the gates the old friends of that spirit
come around it and say, ''What shall
we sing?" and the newly arrived soul
says, Sing salvation;" and after awhile
an earthly despotism falls and a scepter
of iniquity is snapped, and churches are
built where once there were supersti-
tious mosques, and angel cries to angel,
Let us sing, and the answer is, "What
shall we singY and another voice says,
LET us sing salvation" And after
awhile all the church on earth will rush
into the outspread arms of the church of
heaven, and while the righteous are as
cending and the world is burning and
all things are being wound up, the ques-
ton will be asked, "What shall we
sing?" and there will be voice "like
the voice of many waters, like the voice
of mighty thunderings," that will re-
spond, Sing salvation"
In this world we have plaintive songs
songs tremulous with sorrow, songs
dirgeful for the dead; but in heaven
there will be no signing of winds, no
wailing of anguish, no weeping sym
phony. The tamest song will be hal
leluiah-the dullest tune a triumphal
march. Joy among the cherubim! Joy
among the seraphim! Joy among the
Joy forever!
On earth the music in churches is
often poor, because there is no interest
in it or because there is no harmony.
Some would not sing, some could not
sing, some sang too high, some sang too
low, some sang by fits and starts, but in
the great audience of the redeemed on
high all voices will be accordant, and
the man who ON earth could not tell a
plantation melody from the dead
March in Saul" will lift an anthem that
the Memberships and Beethovens and
the Schumanns of earth never imagined,
and you may stand through all eternity
and listen and there will not be one dis
cord in that great anthem that forever
rolls up against the great heart of God.
1t will not be a solo, it will not be duet.
it will not be quintet, but an in
host before the throne, cry
ing, Salvation unto our God and unto
I IL /