Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-09-29

the queen stands there and cries "Haltp'
as he tries TO enter. But in the palace OF
which | speak we may all become resi-
dents, 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 Wilberforca and
Oliver Cromwell and Philip Doddridge
and Edward Payson and John Milton and
Elizabeth Fry and Hannah More and Char
lotte Elizabeth, and all the other kings
and queens of heaven. Oh, my soul, what
companionshipl
A palace means splendor Of banquet.
There will be no common ware on that Ia
BILE. There will be no unskilled musicians
| at that entertainment. There will be no
scanty supply of fruit or beverage 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 flgurative. A great many
wise people tell me it is figurative; but
prove it'll l do not know but that it may
be literal. l do 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 intoxicating
stuff of this worlds brewing. do not say
it is so, but have as much right for
thinking 1t is SO as you have for thinking
the other way. At any rate, it will be a
glorious banquet. Harki the chariots
rumbling in the distance, really believe
the guests are coming now. The gates
swing open, the guests dismount the pal
ace is filling, and all the chalices, flashing
with pearl and amethyst and carbuncle
are lifted to the lips of the myriad ban.
queters, while standing in robes of snowy
white they drink to the honor Of the glo
rious King.
"Oh," you say, "that is too grand a place
for you and for me-" No, it is not If
spider according to the text, could crawl
up on the wall of Solomon's palace, shall
not our poor souls, through the blood of
Christ, mount up from the depths of their
sin and shame and finally reach the palace
Of the eternal KingP Where sin abound
ed, grace shall much more abound, that
whereas sin reigned unto death, even so
may grace reign through Righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our
Lord" One flash of that coming glory
obliterates the sepulcher.
IN THE MAMMOTH CAyR.
Years ago, with lanterns and torches and
guide, we went down in the Mammoth
cave of Kentucky. You may walk four.
teen miles and see no sunlight It is a
stupendous place. Some places the roof of
the cave hundred feet high. The grot.
toes filled with weird echoes; cascades fall
ing from invisible height to invisible
depth. Stalagmites rising up from the
floor Of the cave; stalactites descending
from the roof Of the cave, joining each
other and making pillars of the Almighty's
sculpturing. There are rosettes of anne
thyst in halls Of gypsum. As the guide
carries his lantern ahead Of you the shad-
ows have an appearance supernatural anc
spectral The darkness is fearful.
Two people, getting lost from their guide
only for a few hours, years ago. were de.
mented, and for years sat in their insanity
You feel like holding your breath as you
walk across the bridges that seem to spap
the bottomless abyss The guide throws
his calcium light down into the caverns.
and the light rolls and tosses from rock to
rock and from depth to depth, making at
every plunge new revelation of the awful
power that could have made such a place
as that. A sense of suffocation comes upon
you as you think that you are two hundred
and fifty feet in a straight line from the
sunlit surface of the earth.
The guide after awhile takes you into
what is called the "star chamber" and
then he says to you. "Sit here;" and then
he takes the lantern and goes down under
the rocks, and it gets darker and darker
until the night is SO thick that the hand
an inch from the eye is undesirable. And
then, by kindling one of the lanterns and
placing it in a cleft of the rock. there is a
reflection cast on the dome of the cave, and
there are stars coming out in constella-
tions-a brilliant night heavens-and you
involuntary exclaim, Beautiful beauti-
full"
Then he takes the lantern down in other
depths Of the cavern and wanders on and
wanders off until he comes up from behind
the rocks gradually, and it seems like the
dawn of the morning and it gets brighter
and brighter. The guide is skilled ven
triloquist, and he initiates the voices Of the
morning, and soon the gloom is all gone,
and you stand congratulating yourself
over the wonderful spectacle.
Well, there are great many people who
look down into the grave as great cavern.
They think it is thousand miles subter-
raneous, and all the echoes seem to be the
voices Of despair, and the cascades seem to
be the falling tears that always fall, and
the gloom of earth seems coming up in
stalagmite, and the gloom of the eternal
world seems descending In the stalactite,
making pillars of indescribable horror
The grave is no such place as that to me,
thank Godl Our divine Guide takes us
down into the great cavern, and we have
the lamp to our feet, and the light to our
path, and all the echoes in the riffs of the
rock are anthems, and all the falling
waters are fountains of salvation, aud
after awhile we look up, and behold the
cavern of the tomb has become Kings
star chamber.
And while we are looking at the pomp of
it an everlasting morning begins to rise,
and all the tears of the earth crystalize
into stalagmite, rising up in pillar on the
one side, and all the glories Of heaven seem
to be descending in stalactite, making a
pillar on the other side, and you push
against the gate that swings between the
two pillars, and as that gate flashes open
you find it is one of the twelve gates
which are twelve pearls. Blessed be God
that through this Gospel the mammoth
cave of the sepulcher has become the
llumined star chamber of the Kingi Oh,
the palacesl the eternal palaces. the Kings
palacesI