Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-01-26

mol, ana the TWO agents take tne CONTRACT
for tumbling the human race into perdi
ton, but whether they will succeed in full
filling the contract depends on the action
of the amethystine cups, the amethystine
dcmiiohns, the amethystine ale pitchers,
the amethystine fagons, the amethystine
wine cellars. Oh, Persians! Oh, Assyransl
Oh, Greeks Oh, Egyptiansl You were
wrong in thinking that cup of amethyst
would prevent inebriation.
But standing on the top of this amethys-
tine layer of the foundation of the wall Of
heaven | bethnk myself of the mistake
that many of the ancient Hebrews made
when they thought that the amethyst was
n producer of pleasant dreams just wear
u piece of amethyst over your heart or put
it under your pillow, and you would have
your dreams filled with everything beauti
full and enhancing. No, no. The style of
pillow will not decide the character of the
dream. The only recipe for pleasant dreams
is to do right and think right when you are
wide awake. Conditions of physical disease
may give n good nan n nightmare, but n
man physically well, if he behave himself
Alright, will not he troubled with bad
dreams.
Nebuchadnezzar, with eagles down I'M
der his head and Tyrian purple over it,
struggled with a bad dream that made him
shrek out for the soothsayers and astrolo-
gers to come and interpret it. Pharaoh,
amid the marble palaces of Memphis, was
COMPOUNDED by dream in which lean cows
ate up the fat cows, and the small ears of
corn devoureG the seven large ears, and
awful famine was prefgurcd. Pilates
wife, amid clouds of richest upholstery,
had startling dream, because of which
she sent Il message in hot haste to a court
room to keep her husband from enacting a
judicial outrage. But Jacob, at Bethel,
with pillow of mountain rock, had a
blissful dream of the ladder angel blossom
ing.
Bunyan, with his head on hard plank of
Bedford Jail, saw the gates of the celestial
city. St. John, on the barrenest island of
the 4Egean sea, i'll his dream heard trum-
pets and saw cavalrymen on white horses
aud a new heaven and new earth. No
amount Of rough pillow can disturb the
night vision of saint and no amount Of
amethystine charm can delectate the dream
of miscreant.
ONLY THE BEGINNING.
But, some one will say, why have you
brought us to this amethyst, the top row of
the foundation of the heavenly wall, if you
cient Greeks, who said that the amethyst
was charm against intoXication, or if you
are not willing to accept the theory of the
ancient Hebrews that the amethyst was
producer of pleasant dreams? My answer
is, have brought you to the top row, the
twelfth layer of the foundation of the heav-
emily wall of 1,5O0 miles of circling amethyst,
to put you in a position where you can get
a new idea of heaven; to let you see
that after you have climbed up twelve
strata of glory you are only at the base
of the eternal grandeurs; to let you, with
enchantment of soul, look far down and
look far up; and to force upon you the con-
clusion that if ali our climbing has only
shown us the foundation of the wall, what
must the wall itself be; and if this is the
outside of heaven, what must the inside
be; and if all this is tigurative, what must
the reality be? Oh, this piled up mag
nificence of the heavenly WALL Oh, this
eternity of decoration! Oh, this opalescent,
forescent, prismatic miracle of architec-
ture! What enthronement of all colorsl
A mingling of the blue of skies, and the
surf of seas, and the green of meadows, and
the upholstery of autumnal forests, and
the fire of August sunsets! All the splen-
doris of earth and heaven dashed into those
twelve rows of foundation wall! All that,
mark you, only typical of the spiritual
glories that roll over heaven like the At
lantic and Pacific oceans swung in one bill
low.
Do you not see that it was impossible that
you understand hundrcdth part of the
suggestiveness of that twenty-first chapter
of Revelation without going into some of
the particulars of the wall of heaven, and
dipping up some of its dripping colors, and
running your eye along some of its Won
drous crystallizations, and examining some
OF the frozen light in its turquoise, and feel
ing with your own finger the hardness of
its sapphire, and shielding your eyes against
the shimmering brilliance in its beryl, and
studying the 800 miles of emerald without
n flaw? Yet all this only the outside of
heaven and the poorest part of the outside
not the wall itself, but only the foot of
the wall, for my text says, THE founda-
tions Of the wall of the city were garnished
with all manner of precious stones" Oh,
get down your harp, il you can play onel
Get down palm branch, if you can reach
one. Why, it makes us all feel like crying
out with James Montgomery:
When shall these eyes thy heaven built walls
And pearly gates behold?
THE HEAVENLY PALACE.
Oh, my SOUL If my text shows us only
the outside, what must the inside bep
While riding last summer through the
emperor's park, near St. Petersburg,
was captivatod with the groves, trans
planted from all zones, and the flower
beds, miles this way and miles that way,
incarnadined with beauty, and the foun-
tains bounding in such revel with the sun
light as nowhere else is seen. l said: "This
is beautiful. l never saw anything like
this before"
But when / entered the palace and saw
the pictured walls, and the long line of
statuary, and aquariums afoat with all
bright scales, and aviaries a-chant with
bird voices, and the inner doors of the pal
ace were swung back by the chamberlain,
and | saw the emperor and empress and
princes and princesses, and they greeted me
with cordiality of old acquaintanceship,
j forgot all the groves and floral bewitch-
ment had seen outside before entrance.
And now ! ask, if the outside of heaven
attracts our souls today, how much more
will be the uplifting when we get inside
and see the King in his beauty and all the
princes and princesses of the palaces of