Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-09-30

palace. The King of heaven and earth lives /
in il. According to the Bible, her beams
are of cedar and her rafters of fir, and her
windows of agate, and the fountains OF sal
vation dash a rain OF light. It is a glorious |
paIace-the church OF God is and yet some
times unseemiy and lOathsOne things creep |
I'D into ;t-eyh speaking and rarcor and |
SANDER and backbiting and abuse, crawling |
up on the walls of the church, spinning a |
web from arch to arch, and from the top of |
one communion tankard to the top of an |
other communion tankard. Glorious pal |
ace in which there ought only to be light |
and love and pardon auu grace; yet spluer
in the palace!
Home ought to be castle. It ought to be
the residence of everything royal. Kind
ness, love. peace, patience aud toroearance
ought to be the princes residing tnere, ana
vet sometimes dissipation crdwS up into
that home, and the jealous eye comes up,
and the scene of peace and plenty becomes
the scene of domestic jargon and dissonance.
You say, "What is the matter with the
house." will tell you what Is the matter
with it. A spider in the palace.
A well developed Christian character is
grand thing to look at. You see some ma
with great intellectual and spiritual pro
portions. You say, How useful that M"
must beP' But you find amid all his spla
dor Of faculties there Is some prejuiic
some whirn, some evil habit that gra4
many people do not notice. but that -
have happened 70 notice. and it is gradual;
SDOllnR LS1aU mans CQaTaEC6r-IE Is graz
uaily going to injure his entire influence.
Others may not see 1t, but you are anxiou'
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 will mount into the kings palace. 1t
must have seemed a long distance for that
spider to climb in Solomon's splendid resi-
dence, but it started at the very foot OF the
wall and went UP over the panels OF l'eoa-
Vfrpho 1r0fi
higher than the highest throne in all the ma
ti6ns-the throne Of Solomon. And so God
has decreed it that many of those who are
down in the dust Of sin and dtshonor shall
gradually attain to the Kings palace. we
sac it in worldly things.
Who is that banker in Philadelphia?
WhY he used to be the boy that held the
horses of Stephen Girard while tie million
aire went in to collect his dividends. Ark
wright tolls up from a barber shop I'M
| til he gets into the palace OF invention.
Sextus V tolls up from the office of
swineherd until he gets into the palace OF
| Rome. Fletcher tolls on up from the most
! Insignificant family position until he gets
into the palace of Christian eloquence: do-
garth, engraving pewter. pots Tor living,
| tolls on up until he reaches the palace OF
| world renowned art.
| The spider crawling up the wall OF Solo
mons palace was not worth looking after or
| considering as compared with the fact that
we, VINO ara WOfIIlS OL UHo OuoC, 1O Ae%'O
ascend into the palace of the King lmmor-
tai. By the grace OF God may we all reach
| it. Oh heaven is not a dull place. 1t Is
not WORKOUT mansion, with faded curtains
and outlandish chairs and cracked ware
No, it is as fresh and fair and beautiful as
though it were completed but yesterday.
The kings Of the earth shall bring their honoE
and glory into it.
do not know but that Christ referred to
the real Juice of the grape when He said that
-nk~@,n IA IrS-1 Afr1n fAoTG
kingdom, but not the Intoxicating stuff Of
this worlds brewing. do not say it is so
bat have as much right for thinking it Il
80 as you have for thinking the other way
ct any rate, it Will be glorious banquet.
Hark the chariots rumbling in the distance,
really believe the guests are coming now.
The gates swing open, the guests d1smount
the palace Is filing, and all the chaiices
buncle, are lifted to the lips Of the myriad
banQueters, while standing in robes Of snow
white they drink to che honor of our glori
GUS King,
Oh. you say that is too grand place
for YOU and me-" No, it is not. 1t a spider,
according to the text, could crawl up on the
wall of Solomons 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
nng?
Years ago, with lanterns and torches and
a guide went down in the Mammoth
cave of Kentucky. You may walk
fourteen miles and see no sunlight. 1t
is a stupendous place. Some places the
roof of the cave is hundred feet
high. The grottoes filed with weird
echoes: cascades falling from invisible height
to invisible death. Stalagmites rising W
from the floor of the cave; salactites de
scending from the roof Of the cave, joining
each other and making pillars Of the AL
mighty's sculpturing. 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 spec
trial. The darkness is fearful
, Two people, getting lost from their guide
}. only for d few hours, years ago. were de
| mented, and for years sat in their insanity.
You feel like holding your breath as yol
, | walk across the bridges that seem to spar
, the bottomless abyss The guide throws hi!
, | calcium light down into the caverns, anc
, the light rolls and losses from rock to rocl
t and from depth to depth, making at every
, | plunge new revelation of the awful power
} | that could have made such place that
t A sense of suffocation comes upon you a.
D you think that you are two hundred anc
q fifty feet in straight line from the summit
t surface of the earth.
The guide after awhile takes you into wha1
q is called the ''star chamber" and then hs
!. saws to YOU ''Sit here" and then he takes
q the lantern and goes down under the rocks
8 and it gets darker and darker until tht
night is so thick that the hand an inch from
a the eye is undesirable. And then, BY
}. kindIing one of the lanterns and placing i
70 in cleft of the rock there, Is a reflection
," cast on the dome OF the cave, and there arr
IS stars coming out in consteliations-a bril-
| liant night heavers-and YOU Involuntary
o exciaim, Beautiful! beautiful
q Then ne takes the lantern down in Othe
&c depths of the cavern and wanders ON ant