Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-03-31

vina CommetIa," ana out or Jonn-Urtors
blindness came Paradise Lost" and out
Of miserable infdel attack came the
"Bridgewater Treatise" in favor Of Chris
tianity, and out Of Davidis exile came the
songs Of consolation, and out Of the suffer
ings Of Christ come the possibility of the
worlds redemption, and out Of your be-
reayement, your persecution, your power
ties, your misfortunes may yet come an
eternal heaven.
THE BOILING 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: "Worlds worlds! worlds! Get
ready for themp 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 world. We are
afraid that some meteoric .Gonoclast will
some night smash it, and we want every
thing to revolye around it, and are disap-
pointed when we find that It revolves
around the sun instead of the sur revolv-
ing around it. What 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 it's demo
lition.
And am glad that so many texts call
US to look off to other worlds, many of
them larger and grander and more re-
splendent Look there" says Job, '.at
Nazareth and Arcturus and his sons!"
Look there" says St. John, "at the moon
under Christ's feetr' Look there" saws
Joshua, "at the sun standing still above
Gibeonp Look there" says Moses, "at
the sparkling firmamentl" "Look there"
says Amos, the herdsman, "at the Seven
Stars and OrionP' Don't let us be SO sad
about those who shove off from this world
under Christly piiotage. 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 read, ''In my Fathers house are
many mansions" do not know but that
each world is 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 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 cheru
bic, seraphic, archangelic. A mansion
with as many rooms as worlds, and all
their win99ws illuminated for festivity.
THE STIMULUS TO CHRISTIAN THOUGHT.
Oh how this 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 mansionsl Oh, Lord God of the
Seven Stars and Orion, how can l endure
the transport, the ecstasy of such vision!
must obey my text and seek him. will
seek him. I 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 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 Cathe-
dral of Cologne, Germany, never i'm
pressed me as it did the last time | saw IL.
1t is admittedly the grandest gothic struc-
ture in the world, its foundation laid in
l24S, only eight or nine years ago COM
pleted. More than six hundred years in
building. All Europe taxed for it's con,
struction. Its chapel of the Magi with
precious stones enough to purchase king.
dom. Its chapel 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 akeve 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. |
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 diz-
ziness, | exclaimed: "Great doXology in
stonel Frozen prayer of many nationsl"
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 l said to my
self: "There is 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 a
Lazarus in rags and poverty and weari-
ness, but immortal and 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
5he surrounding inches he will at last be
lifted, and into the presence of that Christ
whose sufferings are represented by the
,rucifiX before which he bows, and be
'aised in due time out of all his poverties
nto the glorious hnme built for him and
Quilt for us by him who maketh the
Seven Stars and Orion"
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Amusing Answers.
Some answers to two questions pro-