Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-04-01

of Davifs exile came the songs OF coasola-
ton. and out OF the sufer1ngs of Christ
come the possibility Of the worlds redemp-
ton, and OUT o. your bereavement. your
persecution, your povertieS your mistor-
tunes may yet come an eternal heaven.
Oh, what mercy it is that IN the text and
all up and down the Bible God induces Us 20
look out toward other worlds. Bible astron-
omy in Genesis, in Joshua, in Job. in the
Psalms. in the prophets, major and minor,
in st. Johns Apocalypse, practically saying:
Worlds! worlds! worlds. Get ready for
them We have nice little world here
that we stick to, as though losing that we
lose all, We are afraid of falling of 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 disappointed when we
ind that it revolves around the sun instead
Of the sun revolving around It. What
fuss We make about this little bit OF a world,
its existence only a short time between two
spasnIs. the parOxysm by which 1t was hurried
from chaos into order, and the paroxysm Of
its demolition.
And am glad that so many texts call US
to look off to other worlds, many of them
larger and grander and more Respondent
Look tnere," saws Job, 'tat Nazareth and
Arcturus and his sons :" Look there, says
st. John, lat the moon under Chrlst's feet!
Look there" says Joshua, lat the sun
standing still above Gibeon!' Look there,
says Moses, at the sparkling firma-
ment" Look there" says Amos.
the herdsman. lat the Seven Stars
and Orion 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 going off this little barge
or slooD or canal boat of a world to get on
some Great Eastern of the heavens. Don't
let us persist in wanting to stay in this barn.
this she'd this clubhouse of a world when all
a m
OF our best friends are swinging wide open
their gates to let US in.
When { read, "In Ny Fathers house ara
many mansions" l do not know but that
each world Is a room, and as many rooms
there are worlds, stellar stairs, stellar gal
leries stellar Railways stellar windows,
stellar domes. How our departed friends
must pity U.s. shut up in these cramDed
apartments, tired il 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 mathis,
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 caerubic, sera-
phic, archangelic. A mansion with many
rooms as worlds and all their windows illu-
minated for feSvivity.
Oh, how this widens and lifts and stinu-
lateS our expectations! How little it makes
the present and how stupendous it makes
tie future! How it consoles us about our
piOus dead, who, instead Of being boxe1 up
and under the ground, have the range OF as
many rooms as there are worlds and wei
come everywhere, for it is the Fathers
house, III watch there are many mansions!
On, Lord God OF the Seven Stars and Orion,
how can | endure the transport, the ecstasy
Of such vision! l must obey my text and
seek Him. will seek Him. [ ssek Him now,
for cali to mind that it is not the material
hat iC Int ha
itual 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, but the Cathedral
of Cologne, Germany, never Impressed me-
as it did the last time l saw it. 1t is ad-
mitted the grandest gothic structure n the
world, its foundation laid in 124S, only eight
or nine years ago completed. More than six
hundred years in building. All Europe
taxed for It's construction. ITS chapel of the
Magi with precious stones enough to pur-
chase kingdom. 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 encrciing the pillars
and encrcling all. Statues above statues, I'M
til sculpture can do no more, but Ia1nts and
fails 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 combin-
ing the splendors of sunrise. Interlaced,
interfoHated, inteI'columned grandeur. AS
[ stood outside looking at the double range
Of flying buttresses and the forest of pima
Giles, higher and higher and higher, until [
almost reeIed from dizziness, l exclaimed:
''Great doxology in stone' Frozen prayer Of
many nations"
But while standing there | saw poor man
enter and put down his pack and kneal be-
side 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 mora than all the material sur
roundings. That man will live after the last
pinnacle has fallen, and not one stone of all
that cathedral glory shall remain uncrum-
bled. He is now a L3zaras in rag
and poverty and WEAKNESS, but immor
tai and a OF the Lord Goa
Almighty, and the prayer he now offers
though amid many suparstltiOnS, l
believe God will hear. and among the apos-
ties whose sculpture forms stand in the sur.
rounding inches he will at last be lifted, AMI
into the presence OF that Cnrist whose suf-
ferings are represented By the cruciix be-
fore which he bows, and be RAISED in duo
time out o. all his poverties into the glorious
homo built Tor him and built for us by''Him
who maketh the Seven Stars and Orion"