Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-12-29


can this be dying room? 1t is so diff
ferent from anything ever expected"
And you walk the floor, and you look
out of the window, and you come back
and look at your watch, and you look
at the face of the patient again and
there is no change, except that the
face is becoming more radiant, more
illuminated. The wave of death seems
coming up higher and higher, until it
has touched the ankle, then IL
comes on up until it touches.
the knee, and then it comes
on up until il reaches the girdle,
and then it comes on up until it
reaches the lip and the soul is about
to be foated away into glory, and yop
roll back the patients sleeve, and you
put your finger on the pulse, and IL il
getting weaker and weaker, and the
pulse stops, and you hardly know
whether the life has gone or not In
deed, you cannot tell when she goes
away, she goes away so calmly. Per-
haps it is o'clock in the morning, and
you have the bed wheeled around TO
the window, and the dying one looks
out into the night sky, and she sees
something that attracts her attention,
and you wonder what it is.
Why. it is star 1t is star that
out of its silver rim is pouring a super
natural light into that dying expert
ence And you say, What is it that
you are looking at?'' She says, 1T is
a star" You say, What star is il
that seems so well to please you2"
"Oh," she says, that is the morning
star-Jesus" / would like to have my
death bed under that evangelistic star
i would like to have my eye on that
star, so | could be assured oft morn
ing. Then the dash of the surf of the
sea of death would only be the billow-
ing up of the promise, when thou
passest through the waters, will be
with thee, and the rivers, they shall
not overflow thee" All other lights
will fail-the light that falls from
the scroll of fame, the light that
flashes from the gem in the beautiful
apparel, the light that flames from.
the burning lamps of banquet-but
this light burns on and burns on Paul
kept his eye on that morning star
until he could say, Il am now ready to
be offered and the time of my departure
is at hand. / have fought the good
fight, have finished my course.
have kept the faith" Edward Payson,
kept his eye on that star until he could
say, The breezes of heaven fan me-"
DIR. Goodwin kept his eye on that
evangelistic star until he could say, Il
am swallowed up in God" John Ten
nant kept his eye on that evangelistic
star until he could say, Welcome,
sweet Lord Jesus-welcome eternity"
No other star ever pointed a mariner
into so safe harbor. No other star
ever sunk its silvered anchor into the
waters. No other star ever pierced such
accumulated cloud or beckoned with
such holy luster
With lanterns and torches and q
guide, we went down in the Mammoth
cave of Kentucky. You may walk
fourteen miles and see no sunlight 1t
is a stupendous place. Some places
the roof of the cave a hundred feet
high. The grottoes filled with weird
echoes, cascades falling from invisible
height to invisible depth Stalagmites
rising up from the floor of the cave
stalactites descending from the roof OK
the cave, joining each other, and maxi
ing pillars of the Almighty's sculptur-
ing. There are rosettes of amethyst in
halls IF gypsum. AS the guide carries
his lantern ahead of you, the
shadows have an appearance supernat-
ural and spectral. The darkness is
fearful. Two people, getting lost from
their guide only for few hours, years
ago, were demcnted, and for years sat
in their insanity. You feel like hold
ing your breath as you walk across
the bridges that seem to span the bot
tomless abyss. The guide throws his
calcium light down into the caverns,
and the light rolls and losses from rock.
to rock, and from depth to depth, maxi
ing at every plunge a new revelation
of the awful power that could have
made such place rs 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 unob-
servable. And then, by kindling one
of the lanterns, and placing it in a
cleft of the rock, there is reflection
cast on the dome of the cave, and
there are stars coming out in constella-
tions-a brilliant night heavens-and
you involuntarily exclaim; beautiful
beautiful 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 a skilled ventriloquist, and he
initiates the voices of the morning,
4 4 4. Iii