Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-09-29


Immortal. By the grace Of God may we
all reach IL. Oh, heaven is not a dull
PLACED IL is not a wornout mansion, with
faded curtains and outlandish chairs and
cracked ware. Mo- IL is as fresh and fair
and beautiful as though it were completed
but yesterday. The kings OF the earth
shall bring their honor and glory into it.
THE MATERIAL HEAVEN.
A palace means splendor of apartments.
Now, do not know where heaven is and
do not know how it looks, but if our
bodies are to be resurrected in the last day
| think heaven must have a material
| spiendor as well as spiritual grandeur.
Oh, what 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
residencel
A palace also means splendor of associa-
tions. The poor man, the outcast cannot
get into Windsor castle The sentinel of
the queen stands there and cries "Haltf'
as he tries to enter But in the palace of
which | speak we may all become resi-
dents, and we shall 81 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 Wherefore and
Oliver Cromwell and Philip Doddridge
and Edward Payson and John Milton and
Elizabeth Fry and Hannah More and Char
lotte Elizabeth, and all the other kings
and queens Of heaven. Oh. my soul, what
a companionship
A palace means splendor Of banquet.
There will be no common ware on that la
Bile. There win be no unskilled musicians
at that entertainment There will be no
scanty supply of fruit or beverage There
have been banquets spread that cost a
million of dollars each. but who can tell
the untold wealth Of that banquet? | do
not know whether Johns description of il
is literal or igurative. A great many
wise people tell me it is igurative: but
prove i'll do not know but that it mt
be literal | do not know but that there
may be real fruits plucked from the tr' &
of life.
! do not know but that Christ referred
to the real Juice of the grape when he sail
that we should drink new wine in our
Fathers kingdom, but not the intoxicating
stuff Of this worlds brewing. | do not say
il is so, but | have as much right for
/ 81 10 fs haV tbfplriutf
the other way. At any rate, it will be a
glorious banquet. Harkl the ehariots
rumbling in the distance. really believe
the guests are coming now The gates
swing open, the guests dismount, the pal
ace is filling, and all the chalices, flashing
with pearl and amethyst and carbuncle,
are lifted to the lips of the myriad ban
queters while standing in robes Of snowy
white they drink to the honor of the glo-
rious King
"Oh," You say, that is too grand place
for Won and for me-" No, it is not. II 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 Kingf where sin abound
ed. grace shall much more abound, that
whereas sin reigned unto death, even so
may grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our
Lord" One flash Of that coming glory
obliterates the sepulcher.
IN THE MAMMOTH CAVE.
Years ago, with lanterns and torches and
l a guide we went down in the Mammoth
cave of Kentucky. You may walk four
teen miles and see no sunlight. IL is a
stupendous place. Some places the roof of
the cave a hundred feet high. The grot-
toes filled with weird echoes; cascades fall
ing from invisible height to invisible
depth Stalagmites rising up from the
floor of the cave; stalactites descending
from the roof of the cave, joining each
other and making pillars of the Almighty's
sculpturing. There are rosettes of anne
thyst in halls of gypsum. As the guide
carries his lantern ahead of you the shad-
ows have an appearance supernatural and
spectral. The darkness is fearful
Two people, getting lost from their guide
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 light rolls 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 place
as that. A sense Of suffocation comes upon
YOU as you think that you are two hundred
| and fifty feet in a straight line from the
sunlit surface 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 under
the rocks, and it gets darker and darker
until the night is so thick that the hand
an inch from the eye is undesirable. And
then. by kindling one of the lanterns and
placing it in a cleft of the rock. there is a
reflection cast on the dome of the cave, and
there are stars coming out in constella-
tions-a brilliant night heavens-and you
involuntary exclaim. Beautiful beauti-
| full
Then he takes the lantern down in other
depths of the cavern and wanders on and
wanders off until he comes up from behind
the rocks gradually, and it seems like the
dawn OF the morning and it gets brighter
and BRIGHTER. The guide is a skilled ven