The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-03-30

ties, your misfortunes may yet come an
eternal heaven
THE ROLLING WORLDS on HIGH.
Oh, what mercy it is that in the text
and all up and down the Bible God induces
us to look out toward other worldsl Bible
astronomy in Genesis, in Joshua, in Job, in
the Psalms, in the prophets, major and
minor, in St. Johns Apocalypse, practical
ly saying: "Worldsi worldsl worldsl Get
ready for them" We have a nice little
world here that we stick to, as though los
ing that we lose all. We are afraid of fall
ing off this little raft of a world. We are
afraid that some meteoric iconoclast will
some night smash it, and we want every
thing to revolve around it, and are disap-
pointed when we find that it revolves
around the sun instead of the sun revolv-
ing around it. What a fuss we make about
this little bit of world, its existence only
a short time between two spasms, the par
oxysm by which it was hurled from chaos
into order, and the paroxysm of its demo
lition.
And / am glad that so many texts call
US to look off 20 other worlds, many of
them larger ana grander and more re-
splendent. Look there" says Job, 'at
Nazareth and Arcturus and his sonst''
"Look there" says St. John, ''at the moon
under Christ's feetp Look there" says
Joshua, Eat the sun standing still above
Gibeonw Look there" says Moses, lat
the sparkling firmamentr' Look there"
says Amos, the herdsman, 'at the seven
Stars and Orionr' Don't let Us be so sad
about those who shove off from this world
under Christly pilotage. Don't let us be
so agitated about our own going off this
little barge or sloop or canal boat of a
world to get on some Great Eastern of
the heavens. Don't let us persist in want
ing to stay in this barn, this shed, this out
house of world when all the kings palaces
already occupied by many of our best
friends are swinging wide open their gates
to let US in.
When l read an my Fathers house are
many mansions" do not know but that
each world is a ROOM and as many rooms
as there are worlds, stellar stairs, stellar
galleries, stellar Railways, stellar windows,
stellar domes. How our departed friends
must pity US shut up in these cramped
apartments, tired if we walk fifteen miles,
when they some morning, by one stroke of
wing, can make circuit OF the whole stellar
system and be back in time for matinsl
Perhaps yonder twinkling constellation is
the residence of the martyrs; that group
of twelve luminaries is the celestial home
of the apostles. Perhaps that steep of
light is the dwelling place of angels cheru-
bic, seraphic, archangelic. y mansion
with as many rooms as worlds, and all
their windows illuminated for festivity.
THE STIMULUS TO CHRISTIAN THOUGHT.
Oh. how tLis widens and lifts and stim-
ulates our expectations! How little it
makes the present and how stupendous it
makes the future! How it consoles us
about our pious dead, who, instead of be-
ing boxed up and under the ground, have
the range of as many rooms as there are
worlds, and welcome everywhere, for it is
the Fathers house, in which there are
many mansionsi Oh, Lord God of the
Seven Stars and Orion, how can endure
the transport, the ecstasy of such a vision!
l must obey my text and seek him. | will
seek him. l seek him now, for call to
mind that it is not the material universe
that is most valuable, but the spiritual,
and that each of us has soul worth more
than all the worlds which the inspired
herdsman saw from his booth on the hills
OF Tekoa.
had studied it before, hut the Cathe-
dral of Cologne, Germany, never i'm
pressed me as it did the last time / saw it.
1t is admittedly the grandest gothic struc-
ture in the world, its foundation laid in
124S, only eight or nine years ago COM
pleted. More than six hundred years in
building. Al Europe taxed for its con-
struction. Its chapel of the Magi with
precious stones enough to purchase a king
dom. Its cha. ] of st. Agnes with master
pieces of painting. It's spire springing five
hundred and eleven feet into the heavens.
Its stained glass the chorus of all rich
cOlors. Statues encircling the pillars and
encircling all. Statues above statues until
sculpture can do no more, but faintS and
falls back against carved stalls and down
on pavements over which the kings and
queens of the earth have walked to con-
feSsion. Nave and aisles and transept and
portals combining the splendors of sunrise.
1nterlaced, interfoliated, intercOlumned
grandeur. As | stood outside looking at
the double range of flying buttresses and
the forest OF pinnacles, higher and higher
and higher, until almost reeled from dir
illness, / exclaimed: Great doXology in
stoneI Frozen prayer of many nationsf'
But while standing there l saw a poor
man enter and put down his pack and
kneel beside his burden on the hard floor
of that cathedral And tears of deep
emotion came into my eyes as l said to my
self: There s a soul worth more than all
the material surroundings. That man will
live after the last pinnacle has fallen and
not one stone Of all that cathedral glory
shall remain uncrumbled He is now
Lazarus in rags and poverty and weari-
ness but immortal and a son of the Lord
God Almighty, and the prayer he now
offers, though amid many superstitions,
believe God will hear and among the
apostles whose sculptured forms stand in
the surrounding inches he will at last be
lifted, and into the presence of that Christ
whose sufferings are represented by the
crucifx before which he bows, and be
raised in due time out of all his poverties
into the glorious home built for him and
built for us by hiEn who maketh the
Seven Stars and Orion"