The Red Cloud chief., 1892-04-29

him into the brilliant reception? Whst
would your departed do with their
bodies If they had to be encu1n-
bered with them in the Kings draw
ing room? Gone into the lightf Gone into
the musici aune into tho tkstivity!
Gune among kings and queenb and con-
querors! Gone to meet Elijah md hear
him tell Of the chariot of fire drawn by
horses Of fire and the senSation of
mounting the sapphire steps! phone to
meet with Moses and hear himAEescribe
the pile of black Sasalt THAI hook
when the law was givenl Gonetopeet
Paul and hear him tell hov4 Felix
trembled, and how the ship vent to
pieces in the breakers, and how thick
was the darkness in the Aan1krtine
dungeon! Gone to meet John kugbc Snd
John Wesley and Hannah Mofe and
Frances Havergal. Gone to mett the
kindred who preceded them! .Mv,I
should not wonder if they had ieger
family group there than they ever had
here. o, how many of them can beA.ot
together again?
I was told at Johnstown, after 4sle'
food, that many people who had bSan'
for months and years bereft, for tie
time, got comfort when the awful f0p1,
came, to think that their departed oneR
were not present to see the catastrophe
AS the people were floating down %
the house tops, they said: 20, hot
glad I am that father and mother arr
not here" or chow glad 1 am that tha
children are not alive to see this hor-!
ror!" And ought not we who are down
here amid the upturnings of this life be
glad that none of the troubles which
submerge us can ever alright III
friends assembled? Before this Ifwar-
rant u departed ones have been intro
duced to all the celebrities of Heaven.
Some one has said to them: "Let me
introduce you to Joshua, the man who
by prayer stopped two worlds for several
hours. Let me make. You acquainted
with this group of three herOescOhn
Huss, Philip Melancthon and Martin
Luther. Aha! here is Fenelon! Here
is Archbishop Leighton! Here are Lat
inner and Ridley. Here is Matthew
Simpson! Here is poets row-James
Montgomery and Anna Barbauld and
Horatius Bonar and Phoebe Palmer and
Lowell Mason" Were your departed
ones fond of music? What oratorios
led on by Handel and Haydn. Were
they fond of pictures? What Raphaels
pointing out skies with all colors
wrought into chariot wheels, wings
'of seraphim and coronations.
Were they fond of poetry? What
eternal rythms led on by John
Milton. Shall we pity our glOrified
3indred? No, they had better pity us
Ne, the shipwrecked, and on a raft in
the hurricane, looking up at them sail
ing on over calm seas, under skies that
never frowned with tempests, we hop
Piled by chains, they lifted by wings
"S&rely the bitterness of death ispast."
further, if what l have been saying
is tue, we should trust the Lord and be
thrilled with the fact that our own day
of escape cometh. If our lives were go
ing ID end when our heart ceased to
pulsa.A and our lungs to breathe I
would want to take ten million years OF
life hee for the first instalment. But,
my Christian friends, we cannot afford
always to stay down in the cellar Of
| our Fathers house. We cannot be al
ways pstponing the best things We
cannot always be tuning N viOlins for
the celestial orchestra We must get u
wings out We must mount. We cannot
afford always to stand out here in the
vhstibule Il the house of many man
sions while the windows are illuminated
with the letee angelic and We can hear
| the laughter of those forever free, and
the ground quakes with the bounding
| feet of those who have entered upon
eternal play Ushers of Heaven! Open
the gates! Swing them clear back on
their pearly hinges! Let the celestial
music rain on us its cadences. Let the
hanging gardens of the king breathe on
us their aromatics. Let our redeemed
ones just look out and give us one glance
of their glorifed faces. Yes!there they
are now! I see them. But I cannot
stand the vision. Close the gates, or
our eyes will be quenched with the
overpowering brightness. Hold back
the song, or our ears will never again
care for earthly anthem. Withdraw the
perfume or we shall swoon in the fra
GRANGE that human nostril was lever
made to breathe.
All these things are suggested as we
stand this Easter morn amid the broken
rocks of the Saviours tomb. Indeed /
know that tomb has not been rebuilt,
for l stood in December of 1889 amid the
ruins of that, the most famous sepul-
cher of all time. There are thousands
of tombs in our Greenwood and Laurel
Hill and Mount Auburn with more pol
ished stone and more elaborate masonry
and more foliaged surroundings, but as
I went down the steps O. the supposed
tomb of Christ on my return from
Mount Calvary I said to sRsshs This
is the tomhsssza t6mbs. around this
4 xts1d more ~stupendous Incidents than
around any grave of all tie world since
death entered it." 1 could not breathe
easily for overmastering enotion as L
walked down the four crunbling steps
till we came abreast of tie niche in
which 1 think Christ was buried. 1