Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1892-09-22

lotte Elizabeth, and all the other kings
and Queens of Heaven. Oh, my soul,
what a companionship!
A palace means splendor of banquet.
There will be no common ware on that
table. There will be no unskilled mu-
scians at that entertainments There
will be no scanty supply of fruit or bev-
erage. There have been banquets spread
that cost million of dollars each; but
who can tell the untold wealth of that
banquet? / do not know whether Johns
description of it is literal or fgurative.
A great many wise people tell me it is
tiguratve; but prove it! / do not know
but that it may tie literal. 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, but not the in
toNicatng stuff Of this worlds brewing.
[ do not say it is so; but have as much
right tor thinking it is so as you have
for thinking the other way. At any rate,
it will be glorious banquet Hark!
the chariotS rumbling in the distance.
l really believe the guests are coming
now. The gates swing open, the guests
dismount the palace is filling, and all
the chalices flashing with pearl and
amethyst and carbuncle, are lifted to the
lips of the myriad banqueters, while
standing in robes of snowy white they
drink to the honor of our glorious King.
"Oh. you say, 'that is too grand q
place for you and me-" No, it is not.
Ii a spider, according to the text, could
crawl up on the wall Of Solomon's pal
ace shall not our poor souls, through
h1nnH nf brs
depths of their sin and shame, and finally
reach the palace of the eternal King?
''Nhere sin atounded, grace shall much
more abound, that whereas sin reigned
unto death, even so may grace reign
through Righteousness into eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord" One flash
Of that coming glory obliterates the
sepulcher.
Years ago, with lanterns and torches
and a guide, we went down in the Mann
moth cave of Kentucky. You may walk
fourteen miles and see no sunlight. 1t
is q stupendous place. Some places the
roof of the cave is q hundred feet high.
The grottoes filled with wicrd echoes;
cascades falling from invisible height to
invisible depth. StaIagmites rising up
from the floor of the cave; salactites de-
scending from the roof of the cave, join
ing each other and making pillars of the
Almighty sculpturing. There are ro-
settles Of amethyst in halls Of gypsum.
AS the guide carries his lantern ahead Of
you, the shadows have an appearance
supernatural and spectral. The dark
ness is fearful
Two people, getting lost from their
guide only for a few hours, years ago,
were dementcd, and for years sat in their
| fon1 hn1I
breath as YOU walk across the bridges
that seem to span the bottomless abyss.
The guide throws his calcium light down
into the cavers, 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 a place as that. A sense
of sutfocaton comes upon you as you
think that you are $50 feet in a straight
line from the summit surface of the
earth.
The guide after awhile takes you into
what is called the star chamber" and
then he says to you, "Sit here" and then
he takes the lantern and goes down un-
der the rocks, and it gets darker and
darker until the night is SO thick that
the hand an inch from the eye is unob-
servable. And then, by kindling one Of
the lanterns and placing it in a cleft of
the rock there, there is a reflection cast
on the dome of the cave, and there are
stars coming out in constelations-a
brilliant night heavens-and you involun-
tariIY eXclaim, 'Bcautiful! beautifuln'
Then he takes the lantern down in
other depths of the cavern and wanders
on and wanderS off until he comes up
from behind the rocks gradually, and it
lyn fhn IoU of ,ipsr nd
gets brighter and brighter The guide
is skilled ventriloquest, and he initiates
the voices of the morning, and soon the
gloom is all gone and yod stand con-
graduating yourself over the wonderful
spectacle.
Well. there are a great many people
who look down into the grave as great
cavern. They think it is a thousand
miles subterraneous, and all the echoes
seem to lie 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 stalagmite, and the
gloom OF the eternal world seems de-
scendlng in the stalactite, making pill
lars 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 riffs of
the rock are anthems, and all the fall
ing waters are fountains of salvation,
and after awhile we look up, and behold!
the cavern of the tomb has become a
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 crystal
lie into stalagmite, rising up in pillar
on the one side and all the glories Of
heaven seem to be descending in a Sta
Iactite. making q pillar on the other side,
and you push against the gate that
swings between the two pillars and as
that gate flashes open you find it as one
of the twelve gates which are twelve
pearls. Blessed be God that through
this Gospel the mammoth cave Of the
Sepulcher has become the illumined star
oh n, har of tho KjnU' Oh Tho 9lacpS