Democratic messenger., 1892-09-24

of alabaster and thrones Of ivory and
fagons of FURNISHED gold-but palace
i'll which God is the King and the angels
OF heaven are the cupbearers.
The spider crawling up the wall Of
| Solomon's palace was not worth looking
after or considering az compared with
the fact that we, who are worms Of the
dust may at last ascend into the palace
of the King Immortal. BY the grace Of
| God may we all reach it. Oh, heaven is
not dull place. Ii is not a wornout
mansion. with faded curtains and out
landish chairs and cracked ware No:
1t is as fresh and fair and beautiful as
though it We're completed but yesterday
/ The kings of the earth shall bring their
honor and glory into it.
A palace means splendor of apart
ments. Now, | do not know where
heaven is. and do not know how it
| looks, but if our bodies are to be resur-
rected i'll the last day | think heaven
must have material splendor rs well
/ as spiritual grandeur. Oh, what
I grandeur of apartments when that
divine hand which plunges the sea into
/ blue, and the foliage into green, and
sets the sunset on fire, shall gather all
the beautiful colors of earth around his
throne, and when that arm which lifted
the pillars of Alpine rock, and bent the
arch of the sky. shall raise before our
soul the eternal architecture. and that
hand which hung with loops of fire the
curtains of morning shall prepare the
upholstery of our kingly residence.
THE PALACES OF GOD.
a palace also means splcndor Of asso-
Citations. The poor man, the outcast
cannot get into Windsor castle. The
sentinel of the queen stands there and
cries "IIalt- as he tries to enter. But
in the palace of which speak we may
all become residents, and we shall all be
princes and kings. We may have been
beggars. we may have been outcasts, we
may have been wandering and lost as
we all have been. but there we shall take
our regal power. What companionship
in heaven. To walk side by side with
John and James and Peter and Paul
and Moses and Joshua and Caleb and
Ezekiel and jeremiah and Micah and
Zechariah and Wilberforce and Oliver
Cromwell and Philip Doddridge and Ed
ward Payson and John Milton and Eliza
beth Fry and Hannah More and Char
lotte Elizabeth, and all the other kings
and queens OF heaven. Oh, my soul.
what II companionship.
\ palace means splendor of banquet
There will he no common ware on that
table. There will be no unskilled mu-
NJ hat ~ INN
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 figurative.
A great many wise people tell me it is
fgurativa; but prove it. do not know
but that it may be literal. do not know
but that there may he 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
toxicating stuff of this worlds brewing
do not say il is so but have as much
right for thinking it is SO rs YOU have
for thinking the other way. At any rate,
it will be n glorious banquet. Hark.
the chariots rumbling i'll the distance.
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 banqucters. while
standing in robes of snowy white they
drink To the honor Of our glorious King.
"Oh, yon say, THAT is too grand "a
place for you and me- No. it is not
If Il spider, according 10 the text, could
crawl up on the wall of Solomons pal
nee, 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 King:
Where sin abounded. grace shall much
more abound. that whereas sin reigned
unto death. even so may grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal Ike
by Jesus Christ our Lord" One flash
of that coming glory Obliterates the
sepulcher.
Years ago, with lanterns and torches
and guide, we went down in the Mann
moth cave of Kentucky. You may
walk fourteen miles and see no sunlight.
1t is stupendous place. Some places
the roof of the cave is hundred feet |
high. The grottoes filled with weird |
echoes: cascades falling from invisible
height TO invisible depth. Stalagmites |
rising up from the floor of the cave; |
salactites descending from the roof Of
the cave. joining each other and max
ing pillars of the Almighty's sculptur- !
ing. There are rosettes of amethyst in
halls of gypsum. As the Guide carries !
his lantern ahead of you, the shadows |
have an appearance supernatural and I
spectral. The darkness is fearful.
Two people, getting lost from their
guide only for few hours. years ago, |
were demcnted. and for years sat in
their insanity. You feel like holding |
your breath as you walk across the |
bridges that seem to span the bottom
less abyss The guide throws his cal |
cium light down into the caverns, and |
the light rolls and losses from rock to /
rock and from depth to depth. making .
at every plunge Il new revelation Of the /
awful power that could lave made !
such place as that. a sense of suf- |
location comes upon you as you think
that you are two hundred and fifty feet
in straight line from the summit sur
face 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 nm
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 cleft Of
the rock there. is n reflection cast on the
dnmn If the cuyn nnd thnre arn - mrs