The Opelousas courier., 1892-11-19

nave happened TO notice, ana it's gradually
spelling that mans character-it is grad
ually going to inJure his entire inhuencs.
Others may not sseit, but you are anxious
in regard to his welfare, and now you dis
cover it. A dead fly in the ointment. A
spider in the palace.
Again, my text teaches me that perseve-
rance viii mount into the kings palace. 1t
must nave seemed a long distance for That
spider to climb in Solonlon's splendid resi-
dence, but it started at the very foot of the
wall and went up over the panels OF i.eba-
non cedar, higher and higher, until it stood
higher than the highest throne in all the ma
tions-the throne OF Solomon. AMI SO God
has decreed it that many OF those who are
down in the dust of sin and dishonor shall
gradually attain to the Kings palace. We
see it in worldly things.
Who is that banker in Philadelphia?
Why, he used to be the boy that held the
horses of Stephen Girari while tie million
aire went in TO collect his d~ividenis. Ark
wright tolls on up from q barber shop I'm
til he gets into the palace Of invention.
Sextus V tolls on up from the office OF a
swineherd until he gets into the palace OF
Rome. Fletcher tolls on up from the most
insignificant family position until ne gets
into the palace of Christian eloquence. Ho-
garth, engraving pewter pots tor a living,
tolls on up until he reaches the palace OF
world renowned art.
The spider crawling up the wall of 500
mons palace was not worth looking after or
considering as compared with the fac5 thab
we. who are worms of the dust, may at last
ascend into the palace of the King imnor-
tai. By the grace of God may we all reach
it, Oh heaven is not a dull place. 1t Is
not a WORKOUT mansion, with faded curtains
and outlandish chairs and cracked ware.
No, it is as fresh and fair and beautiful as
4k-.--l - rrouo 1oyo1lo%al hyt rac&ardor
The kings of the earth shall bring their honor
and glory into it.
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 intoxicating stuff Of
this worlds brewing. | do not say it is SO;
but I have as much right for thinking it is
so as you have for thinking tn. other way.
At any rate, it will be a glorious banquet.
Hark! the chariots rumbling in the distance,
/ really believe the guests are coming now.
The gates swing open, the guests dismount.
the palace is filing, and all the chg Ices,
flashing with pearl and amethyst and car
buncle, are lifted to the lips of the myriad
banqueters, while standing in robes of snowy
| white they drink to the honor Of our glori-
Gus King
'tOh," you say. 'sthat is too grand a place
for you and me.' No, it is not. If a spider,
according to the text, could crawl up on the
| wall of Solomon's palace, 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?
a guide, we went down in the Mammoth
cave of Kentucky. You may walk
fourteen miles and see no sunlight. 1t
! is a s%tupendous place. Some places the
roof of tie cave is a hundred feet
! high. The grottoes filed with weird
/ echoes: cas- AIDES falling from invisible height
to invisibkt death. S~talagmites rising up
from thefsSoor Of the cave; salactites de-
scending from the roof d the cave, Joining
each other and making pillars of the Al
mighty's ~sculpturing. There are rosettes OF
amethyst jim halls of gypsum. As the guide
carries hisaantern ahead of you the shadows
have an appearance supernatural and spec
trial. The darkness is fearful.
Two people, getting lostfrom their guido
only for a few hours, years ago, were de-
mented, and for years sat in their insanity.
You feel like holding your breath as you
walk across the bridges that seem to span
the bottomless abyss. The guide throws his
calcium light down into the caverns, and
the lightroiIs 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 suffocation comes upon o as
YOU think that you are two hundred ami
fifty feet in a straight Inns from the summit
surface of the earth.
The guide after awhile takes you into what
is called the ~star chamber" and then he
saws to you, s'Sit here" and then he takes
the lantern and goes down under the rocks,
and il gets darker and darker until the
night is so thick tina the land an inch from
the eye is UNDESIRABLE. And then, by
kindling one of the lanterns and placing 1t
in a cleft of the rock there, is a reflection
cast on the dome Of the cave, and there are
stars coming out in constellations-a bril-
liant night heavens-and you ~involuntarily
exclaim, beautiful! beautiful!'
Then he takes the lantern down in other
depths of the cavern and wanders on and
wanders off until he cones up from behind
the rocks gradually, and it seems ike the
dawn of the morning until it gets brighter
and brighter. The guide is a skilled ven
t~riIouuist, and he initiates the voices OF the
morning, and soon the gloom is all gone ant
YOU stand congratutating yourself over the
wonderful spectacle.
Well, there are a great many people who
look down into the grave as a great cavern.
They think it is a thousand miles subterran
eous. and all the echoes seem to be the Voice;
OF despair, and the cascades seem to be ths
falling tears that always fall, and the gloon
OF earth seems coming up in stalagmlte
and the gloom of the eternal world seem:
descending 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 tn
great caverns, and we have the lamp to on
feet and the light to our path, and all TIT
echoes in the riffs of the rock are an6nems
and all the falling waters are fountains o
salvation, and after awhile we look up, an;
behold! the cavern of the tomb has become
a kings star chamber.
And while we are looking at the pomp o
it an everlasting morning begins to rise, an
all the tears of earth crystallizs into stalag
mite, rising up in a pillar on the one side
and all the glories of heaven seem to ba de
scending in a stalactite. making a pillar o.
the other side, AMI you push against tn
gate that swings between the two pillar.
and as that gate flashes open you fna it a
one of the tweive> gates which are lively
pearls. Blessed be God that through TIL
Gospel the mammot cave of the sepulchs
has become the illuminated star chamber G
the Kiugi Oh, the palaces! the eternf
uaiaeest fha Kings DalaceSi