The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1892-06-21
,che. From shipwreck, from dungeon,

the SalnthOOd 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
cruel-eyed, the tilthy-lipped; the sculptured
features of that man bringing down to us to
this very day the horrible possibilities of
his nature-seated as he was amidst pict-
ured marbles of Egypt, under a roof adorn-
Ed with mother of pearl, in dining room
which by machinery was kept whrling day
and night with most bewitching magnif-
cence; his horses standing in stalls of solid
gold, and the grounds around his palace
lighted at night by it's victims, who had
Deen bedaubed with tar and pitch and
then set on fire to illumine the darkness
That was PauPs king. But the next mo-
ment 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 jewels OF love, and whose palace is
lighted with love, and whose lifetime is an
eternity of love. When Paul was leaving
SO much on this side the pillar of martydom
to gain so much on the other side, do you
wonder at the cheerful valedictory 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 l, when he was combing his head,
found gray hair and he sent it to the
queen as great joke; but old age is real
~ no Joke at all. For the last forty years
you have been dreading that which ought
to have been an eXhiaration. You say you
most fear the struggle at the moment the
soul and body part. But millions have ell
dured 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-no so much pain as
the prick of a pin, the seeming signs of
distress being altogether involuntary. But
you say, 1T is the uncertainty of the
future" Now, child of God, do not play the
infidel. After God has filled the Bible till
1T can hold no more with stories of the
good things ahead, better not talk about
uncertainties.
But you say, IT 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 emigrated to the
other shore; the companions of your school
days, your early business associates, the
friends of midlife, and those who more
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
days when you felt that 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 resur-
rection power. Before tomorrow morning
you would be rafting 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 pay!
Come back to the table where you used to
sit!' and there would be Il great burglary
i'll heaven. No, no. God will not trust you
with resurrection power, but He compro-
misses 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 more beautiful there.
Besides that, is is more healthy there
for you than here, aged man: better climate
there than these hot summers and cold
winters and late springs; better hearing;
better eye-sight; more tonic in the air; more
perfume in the bloom: more sweetness in
the song. Do you not feel, aged man, some
times as though you would like to get your
arm and foot free? Do you not feel as
though you would like to throw away spec
tacles and canes and crutchcs? Would you
not like to feel the spring and elasticity
and mirth of an eternal boyhood? When
the point at which you start from this world
is old age, and the point to which you go is
eterllal JuveneScence, aged man, clap your
hands at the anticipation, and say in perfect
rapture of soul, The time of my departure
is at hand
| remark, again, all those ought to feel
this JOY of the text who have a holy curios-
ity to know what is beyond this earthly
terminus. And who has not any curiosity
about 1T! Paul, L suppose, had the most
satisfactory view of heaven and he saws
1T doth not yet appear what we shall be-"
~ Is IKE looking through Il broken
telescope: Nov we see through a glass
darby" Can you tell me anything about
that heavenly place? You ask me a thou
sand questions about it that | cannot ans
wer; L ask you thousand questions about
IL tnat you cannot answer. And do Won
wonder mat iaul was so glad when mar
tyrdom, gave him chance to 20 over and
make discoveries in that blessed country?
nope some day, by the grace of God.
10 go over and see for myself, but not
now: NO well man, no prospered man,
L think, wants to go now. Bit The timo
will come, l think when | shall 20 over
L want to see what they do there. and |
want TO see how they do it, | do not
want to be looking through the gates aiar
forever. L want them to swing wide
open mere are 10000 things | want ex-
pialned-about you, about myself, about
the government of this world, about God.
about everything. We start in q plain
path of what we know, and in a minute
come up against high wall of what we
DO not know. l wonder how it looks over
there. Somebody tells me it is like n
paved city-paved with gold; and another
man tells me it is like a fountain. and it
is like tree, and it is like a triumphaI
procession; and the next man / meet tells
me it is all tigurative. / really want to
know, after the body is resurrected. what
they. wear and what they eat; and + have
an unreasonable curiosity to know what
it Is, and how it is, and where it is. Co
lurnbus risked his life to find this CONT
nent, and shall we shudder to go out ON
voyage of discovery which shall reveal
vaster and more brilliant country? John
Franklin risked his life to find a passage
between icebergs, and shall we dread to
md a passage to eternal summer? Men
in Switzerland travel up the heights of
the Matterhorn with alpenstock and guides,
and rockets, and ropes, and, getting half
way up, stumble and fall down in a horri-
pie massacre. They just wanted to say
they had been on the tops of those high
peaks. And shall we fear to go out for
the ascent of the eternal hills which start
a thousand miles beyond where stop the
highest peaks of the Alps, when in that
ascent there is no peril? man doomed
TO die stepped on the scaffold, and said in
JOY: NOW, III ten minutes [ will know
the great secret" One minute after the
vital functions ceased, the little child that
died last night knew more than Jonathan
Edwards, or St Paul himself, before he
died. Friends, the exit from this world