The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-11-09
most ALWAYS and IN St.ost evervthin

the way .bror"h the Bible, IL .-ich
and pigeon on the altar, the p.'ar oil
fire poised above the wilderness, peace
offering, sin Offering, trespass offering,
fingers of Joseph and Isaac and Joshua
and David and Isaiah and Micah and
Ezekiel, all together made the ono
finger of God pointing TO the human,
the divine, the gracious, the glorious,
the omnipotent, the gentle, the pardon
ing and suffering and atoning Christ
And now the same finger of God is
pointing the world upward to the same
Redeemer and forward to the time OF His
universal domination. My hearers, get
out of the habit of looking back and
looking down, and look up and 10 'iI for
ward. 1t is useful once in awhile to look
back, but you had better, for the most
part of your time, stop reminiscence
and begin anticipation. We have, none
of us, hardly begun yet. If we love the
Lord and trust Him-and you may all
| love Him and trust Him from this mo-
ment on-we no more understand the
good things ahead of us than child at
school studying his A b c can under
stand what that has to do with his
reading John Ruskin's 'Seven Lamps
of Architecture, or Dante's "Diyina
| Commedia" The satisfactions and joys
we have as yet had are like the music a
boy makes with his first lesson on the
violin compared with what was evoked
from his great orchestra by my dear
and illustrious and transcendent, but
now departed friend, Patrick g lmore,
when he lifted his baton and all the
strings vibrated, and all the trumpets
pealed forth and all the flutes caroled,
and all the drums rolled, and all the
hoofs of the cavalry charge, which he
| initiated, were in full beat. Look
ahead. The finger of God points for
ward.
80, but" says some one, 81 am get.
ting old and have touch of rheumatism
in that foot, and believe something is
the matter with my heart, and cannot
stand as much as / used to-" Well, j
congratulate you, for that shows you
are gett ng nearer to the time when
you are going to enter immortal youth
and be strong enough to hurl off the
battlements of Heaven any bandit who,
by unheard of burglary, might break
into the Golden City. "But" says some
one, 81 feel so lonely. The most OF
my friends are gone, and the bereave.
ments of life have multiplied until
this world that was once SO bright to
me has lost it's charm" congratulate
you, for, when you go, there will be
fewer here to hold you back and more
there to pull you in. Look ahead! The
finger of God is pointing forward. We
sit here in church. and by hymn and
prayer and sermon and Christian asso-
citation we try to get into frame OF
mind that will be acceptable to God
. and pleasant to ourselves. But what a
, stupid thing it all is compared with
, what it will be when we have gone
beyond psalm book and sermon and
Bible, and we stand, our last imperfec'
ton gone, in the presence of that charm
of the universe-the blessed Christ
and have him look in our face and say
81 have been watching you and sym
pathizing with you and helping you al
t these years, and now you are here. Gt
where you please and never know {
, sorrow and never shed a tear. There II
your mother now-she is coming tC
greet you-and there is your father
and there are your children. Sit dowr
under this tree of life, and on the banks
of this river and talk it all over" | tel
r you there will be more joy in one min
| ute of that than in fifty years of earth
ly exultation. Look ahead! Look a
the finest house on earth and know
|. that you will have finer one in Heaven.
Look up the healthiest person you car
find and know you will yet be healthier
7 Look up the one who has the best eye
= sight of anyone you have ever heard of
1 and know you will have better vision
I Listen to the sweetest prima donna tina
ever trod the platform, and know tina
in Heaven you will lift more enrapt
!, uring song than ever enchanted earthly
, auditorium.
1 NV friends, / do not know how we
S are going to stand i'll mean the full
g thrush of that splendor. Last summe,
0 | saw Moscow, in some respects tn,
I most splendid city under the sun. Th,
), emperor afterward asked me if | hat
seen it, for Moscow is the pride o
Russia. l told him yes, and that | hat
L seen Moscow burn. | will tell 20,
: what | mean. After examining min
l. hundred brass cannons which wer
S picked out of the snow afte
: Napoleon retreated from Moscow
+ each cannon deep cut with tn
;, letter IN" | assembled tower O
:, some two hundred and fifty feet, jus
before sunset, and on each platforr
$ there were bells, large and small, and
e climbed up among the bells and the
J. as | reached the top, all the bells ur
derneath me began to ring, and the
l. were Joined by the bells of fou tee
@ hundred towers and domes and turret:
@ Some of the bells sent out faint tinkl
of sound, sweet naturalization tina
} seemed TO bubble in the air, and other
Z Numbered forth boom after boom, boor
> after boom, until it seemed to shake tn
IL earth and fill the heavens-sounds S
IS weird, so sweet, so awful, so grand, S
l. charming, so tremendous, so soft, so riI
A pling, so reverberating--and they SCENE
= to wreathe, and whirl, and rise, and sinh
= and burst, and roll, and mount and die
Z When Napoleon saw Moscow burn,
l. could not have been more brilliant tina
n when / saw all the fourteen hundre
l. turrets afame with the sunset, roofs c
d gold and walls of malachite, and arch
,. lecture of all colors mingling with tn
brown of autumnal forests and the blu
= of summer heavens, and the con flagra
=, ton of morning skies, and the green c
II rich meadows, and the foam of tossin
l. seas. The mingling of so many color
re with so many sounds was an entrances
IS ment almost too much for human nerve
lie or human eyes or human ears. | expeC
he to see nothing to equal it until you an
70 / see Heaven, But that will surpass
and make the memory of what | saw tina
Il