The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1892-09-23


mansion, with faded curtains and out
landish chairs and cracked ware. No
it is as fresh and fair and beautiful a,
though it were completed but yesterday
The kings of the earth shall bring theil
honor and glory into it.
A palace means splendor of apart
ments, Now, do not know where
heaven is, and l do not know how il
looks, but if our bodies are to be resur.
rected in the last day l think heaven
must have material splendor 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 residence!
THE PALACES OF GOD.
A palace also means splendor of asso-
Citations. The poor man, the outcast
cannot get into Windsor castle. The
sentinel of the queen stands there and
cries "Haltw as he tries to enter But
in the palace of which speak we may
all become residents, and we shall all 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 Wilberforce and Oliver
Cromwell and Philip Doddridge and Ed
ward Payson and John Milton and Eliza
beth Fry and Hannah More and Char
lotte Elizabeth, and all the other kings
and queens Of heaven. Oh, my soul,
what a companionshipl
A palace means splendor of banquet.
There will be no common ware on that
table. There will be no unskilled mu.
sicians at that entertainment. There
will be no scanty supply of fruit or bev-
erage. 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 it is literal or figurative.
A great many wise people tell me it is
figurative; but prove it! l do not know
but that it may be literal. lido not know
but that there may be real fruits plucked
from the tree of life.
do not know but that Christ referred
to the real juice of the grape when he
said that we should drink new wine in
our Fathers kingdom, but not the in
toxicating stuff Of this worlds brewing.
l do not say it is so; but have as much
right for thinking it is so as you have
for thinking the other way. At any rate,
1t will be glorious banquet. Harkl
the chariots rumbling in the distance.
| really believe the guests are coming
now. The gates swing open, the guests
dismount, the palace is filling, and all
the chalices, flashing with pearl and
and carbuncle, are lifted to the
lips of the myriad banqueters, while
in robes Of snowy white they
drink to the honor of our glorious King.
"Oh,' you say, "that is too grand
place for you and me-" No, it is not.
If spider, according to the text, could
crawl up on the wall of Solomon's pal
ace, shall not our poor souls, through
The blood of Christ, mount up from the
lepths of their sin and shame, and finally
reach the palace of the eternal King2
Where sin abounded, grace shall much
more abound, that whereas sin reigned
into death, even~so may grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life
~ Jesus Christ our Lord" One flash
# that coming glory obliterates the
epulcher.
Years ago, with lanterns and torches
and guide, we went down in the Nam
moth 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 filled with weird
echoes; cascades falling from invisible
height to invisible depth. Stalagmites
rising up from the floor of the cave;
salactites descending from the roof of
The cave, joining each other and max
Ing pillars of the Almighty's sculptur-
ing. 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
spectral. The darkness is fearful.
Two people, getting lost from their
guide only for few hours, years ago,
were demented, and for years sat in
their insanity. You feel like holding
your breath as you walk across the
bridges that seem to span the bottom
less abyss. The guide throws bis cal
,ium light down into the caverns, and
the light rolls and losses from rock to
rock and from depth to depth, making
1T every plunge new revelation Of the
awful power that could have made
such place as that. A sense Of suf-
location comes upon you as you think
hat you are two hundred and fifty feet
n a straight line from the summit sur
lace Of the earth.
The guide after awhile takes you into
what is called the "star chambers" and
hen he says to you, "Sit here;" and then
le takes the lantern and goes down I'M
Ter the rocks, and it gets darker and
larker until the night is so thick that
he hand an inch from the eye is unob-
'ervable. And then, by kindling one Of
he lanterns and placing it In CLEFT Of
he rock there, is reflection cast on the
lone of the cave, and there are stars
coming out in constellations-a brilliant
light heavens-and you involuntarily
Beautiful beautiful"
Then he takes the lantern down in
'ther depths Of the cavern and wanders
N and wanders off until he comes up
rom behind the rocks gradually, and It
GEMS like the dawn OF the morning and
t gets bright@ and brighter. The guide
s skilled ventriloquist, and heimitates
he voices Of the morning, and soon the
loom is all gone and you stand con-
yourself over the wonderful
pectacle.
FROM THE GRAVE TO GLORY.