The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-07-12

ry1ng cypress branches, that would have /
meant sorrow. If my text had repre-
sented the good in heaven as carrying
that would have meant sin.
But it is 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 triumphsl arches, and
the people would come out with branch
es of the palm tree and wave them all
along the host What significant type
this Of the greeting and of the joy of the
redeemed in heaveni On earth they
We're 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 rocked with unalleviated
toll. How weary they werei Sometimes
they broke the heart of the midnight in
the midst of all their anguish, crying
out, 30 God!7 But bark now to the
shout Of the delivered capti1es, as they
lift their arms from the shackles and
they cry out, Free! free!" 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 has face, and they
re1nem Der his sOrroW,s, and they TemeIn-
Der his pain, and they remember his
groans. and they say: Why, I was
~ h. o. ITfr apdn my
sins, he soothed my sorrows,7 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 a 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 greet 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
their palms.
Ny subject makes another advance
ment, and speaks of the song they sing.
DR.. Dick, in very learned work,
saws that among other things III heaven
| he thinks they will give a great deal of
time to the study of arithmetic and the
higher branches of mathematics. do
not believe it. It would upset my idea
of heaven if thought SO; never liked
| mathematics; and l would rather take
the representation of my text, which de-
scribes the occupation of heaven as be-
ing joyful psalmody. They cried with
a loud voice, saying. Salvation unto our
God" In this world we have secular
songs, nursery songs, boatmen's 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 Lamt
that was slain.
1 see a soul coming up to join the 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 sou
says, Sing salvation;" and after awhile
an earthly despotjsm falls and a sceptei
of iniQuity is snapped, and churches art
built where once there We're supersu
tious mosques, and angel cries to angel
Let us sing and the answer Is. ''What
shall we sing?7 and another voice says
Let us sing salvation. And afte1
awhile all the church on earth will rlsl
into the outsprsad arms Of the church o
heaven. and while the righteous are as
cendinq and the world Is burning anC
ali things ara being wound up, the Ques
ton viii be asked, What shall w
sing" and there VIII be q voice Ink
the voice of many waters, like tie volc
OF mighty thunderluss,~ that viii re
spond. Sing salvation.
In this world we have plantive song
songs tremulous with sorrow, song
! dirgeful for the dead: but IL heavr,
there will be no signing oS winds, "a
wailing of anguish. no weeping SYN
phonv. The tamez5t song VIII be hal
ieluiah-the dullest tune triumph
march. Joy among the cheTublm! 30
among the seraphiTn! Joy among IN
. ransomed. JOY forever.
On earth the music IN churches
. often poor, because there Is no lnteres
t in it or because there is no harmony
j Some would not sing, some could nc
sing, some sang too high, some sang TO
4 low, some sang by fits and starts, but
the great audience of the redeemed o
= high all voices will be accordant, an
I the man who on earth could not tell
plantation melody from the "Dea
= March in Saul" will lift an anthem ths
= the Memberships and Beethovens al
} the Schumanns Of earth never imagtne'
and you may stand through all eternit
and listen and there will not be one di
u cord in that great anthem that forev'
= rolls up against the great heart of Go
y u 1t will not be a solo, it will not be due
II it will not be a quintet, but an i
,; Vulnerable host before the throne, CT,
II ing, Salvation unto our God and I'M
o the Lamb They crowd all the ter
!, pies. they bend over the battlement
II +ba,, 6ll oil the heiphts and depths az