The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-01
It is a bad thing to have storm ahead,

pushing us back; but il we be Gods
children and aiming toward Heaven,
the storms of life will only chase us
the sooner into the harbor 1 am so
glad to believe that the monsoons, and
typhoons, and mistrals and siroccos of
the land and sea are not unclaimed
maniacs let loose upon the earth, but
are under divine supervision
am so glad that the God of seven
stars is also the God of Orionl 1t was
out of Dante's suffering came the
sublime Divina Commedia, and out of
John Millions blindness came Paradise
Lost, and out of a miserable infde1 at
tack came the Bridgewater Treatise in
favor of Christianity and out of David's
exile came the songs of consolation,
and out of the sufferings of Christ came
the possibility of the worlds redemp-
ton, and out of your bereavement your
persecution, your poverties, your mis-
fortunes, may yet come an external
heaven.
o, what a mercy it is that in the text
and all up and down the Bible God in
duces us to look out toward other
worlds! Bible astronomy 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 off
this little raft of world. We are
afraid that some meteoric iconoclast
will some night smash around it and
are disappointed when we find 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 spasms, the paroxysm by
which it was hurled from chaos into
order, and the paroxysm of its demo
lition.
And 1 am so glad that so many texts
call us to look off to other worlds.
many of them larger and grauder and
more Respondent Look there" says
Job, ''at Nazareth and Arcturus and
his sonsr Look there" says St
John, "at the moon under Christ's
feetl" Look there" says Joshua, lat
the sun standing still above Gibeonw
Look there" says Amos. the herds.
man, '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 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
clubhouse of a 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 1 read, SIN my Fathers house
are many mansions" do not know
but that each world is a room, and as
many rooms as there are worlds, stel-
lar stairs stellar galleries, stellar hall
ways. 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
mathis! Perhaps yonder twinl1ling
constellation is the residence of the
martyrs; that group of twelve lumi-
naries is the celestial home of the
apostles. Perhaps that steep of light
is the dwelling place of angels cher
ubic, seraphic, archangelic. A man
sion with as many rooms as worlds,
and all their windows illuminated for
festivity.
o, how this widens and lifts and
stimulates our expectation! How lit
tie 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 under the
ground have the range of as many
rooms as there are worlds, and well
come everywhere, for it is the Fathers
house, in which there are many man.
sions! On, Lord God of the seven stars
and Orion, how can l endure the trans
port, the ecstasy, of such vision! l
must obey my text and seek Him.
will seek Him. seek Him now, for
call to mini 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 herdsmau 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
saw il. It is admittedly the grandest
Gothic structure in the world, its
foundation laid in 124s, only eight or
nine years ago completed. More than
600 years in building All Europe
taxed for its construction. Its chapel
of the Magi with precious stones
enough to purchase a kingdom. As
stood outside, looking at the double
range of flying buttresses aud the
forest of pinnacles, higher and higher
and higher, until 1 almost reeled from
dizziness, / exclaimed: "Great dox-
ology in stone! Frozen prayer of many
nations"
But while standing there 1 saw
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: There is soul worth
more than all the material surround
inps. That man will live after the last
pinnacle has fallen, and not one stone
of all that cathedral glory shall remain
uncrumb led. He is now a Lazarus
in rags and poverty and WEAKNESS, but
immortal, and son of the Lord God
Almighty; end the prayer he now
o ffers, though amid many supertitions
| 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