Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1892-03-26

ITleHuS must pity us smut up IN tneSt
cramped apartments tired if we
walk fifteen miles, when they some
morning, by one stroke of wing, car
make circuit of the whole stellar sys
TEN and be back i'll time for mathis
Perhaps yonder twinkling constella
ton 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 cherubic
seraphic. archangelic A mansion
with as many rooms as worlds, anC
all their windows illuminated for fes
tivity
Oh, how this widens and lifts and
stimulates our expectation How little
it makes the present, and how stu
/ pendous it makes the future. How
it consoles us about our pious dead,
who, instead of being boxed up anG
under the ground, have the range OF
as many rooms as there are worlds,
and welcome everywhere for il il
the Fathers house, in which there
are many mansions. o Lord Coo
of the Seven Stars and Orion. how
can / endure the transport, the &c
stacy, of such a vision! must obey
my text and seek him | will seek
him. / seek him now, for | call td
mind that it Is not the material uni
verse that is most valuable, but the
spiritual, and that each of us has a
soul worth more than all the worlds
which the inspired herdsman saw
from his booth on the hills of Tekoa
had studied it before, but the ca
thedral of Cologne, Germany, never
impressed me as it did the last time
saw it. 1t is admittedly the grandest
Gothic structure in the world; its
foundation laid III l2Is. only eight OF
nine years ago completed More than
six hundred years i'll building. All
Europe taxed for its construction. Its
chapel of the Magi with precious
stones enough to purchase king
dom. Its chapel of St Agnes with
masterpieces of painting Its spire
springing five hundred and eleven
feet into the heavens Its stained
glass the chorus of all rich colors.
Statues encircling the pillars and en-.
circling 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 confession.
Nave and aisles and transept and
portals combining the splendors of
sunrise. Interlaced. 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
dizziness, | exclaimed: Great dox-
ology in stone! Frozen prayer of
many nations"
THE HUMBLE SOUL.
But while standing there | 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 said to myself: There is a
soul worth more than all the mate
rial surroundings. That man will
live after the last pinnacle has fallen
and not one stone of all that cathe-
dral glory shall remain uncrnmbled
He is now Lazarus in rags and pow
erty and WEAKNESS, but immortal,
and a son of the Lord God AL
mighty; and the prayer he now
offers, though amid many supersti-
tions, / believe God will hear: and
among the Apostles whose sculp-
tured forms stand i'll the surrounding
inches he will at last be lifted. and
into the presence of that Christ whose
sufferings are represented by the
ciucifix before which he bows; and
be raised i'll due time out of all his
poverties into the glorious home built
for him and built for us by Him
who maketh the Seven Stars and
Orion. :"