Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1893-01-26

plexy and dementia. The 40O,000,000
victims of opium come out to meet the
$50, ,0o0. 900 victims Of alcohol, and the
two agents take the contract for tum-
bling the human race into perdition, but
whether they will succeed in fulfilling
the contract depends on the action OF
the amethystine cups, the amethystine
demijohns, the amethystine ale pitchers,
the amethystine fagons, the amethystine
wine cellars. Oh, Persians! Oh, Assyr-
ians! Oh, Greeks. Oh. Egyptians! you
were wrong in thinking that a cup OF
amethyst would prevent inebriation.
THE HEBREW SUPERSTITION.
But standing on the top of this anne
thystine layer of the foundation of the
wall of heaven bethink myself of the
mistake that many of the anci Mt He-
brews made when they thought hat the
amethyst was a producer Of pleas
dreams. Just wear piece of amethyst
over your heart or put it under your
pillow, and you would have your dreams
filed with everything beautiful and en-
trancing. No, no. The style OF pillow Will
not decide the character Of the dream.
The only recipe for pleasant dreams
is to do right aud think right when
YOU are wide awake. Conditions of phys
ical disease may give good man night
mare, but man physically well, If he
behave himself Alright, will not be trou-
bled with bad dreams.
Northumberland, with eagles down
under his head and Tyrian purple over
It, struggled with bad dream that made
him shrek out for the soothsayers and
astrologers 10 come and interpret 1t.
Pharaoh, amid the marble palaces OF
Memphis, was confounded by a dream
in which lean COWS ate up the fat COWS
and the small ears of corn devoured the
seven large ears, and awful famine was
prefgured. Pilates wife, amid clouds
Of richest upholstery, had a startling
dream. because of which she sent a mes
sage in hot haste to a courtroom to keep
her husband from enacting a judicial
outrage. But Jacob, at Bethel, with a
pillow of mountain rock, had blissful
dream of the ladder angel blossoming.
Bunyan, with his head on a hard
plank of Bedford Jail, saw the gates OF
the celestial city. st. John, on the bar
renest island of the Egean sea, in his
dream heard trumpets and saw cavalry
men on white horses and a new heaven
and q new earth. No amount of rough
pillow can disturb the night vision of
saint, and no amount of amethySt,ne
charm can delectate the dream of mis-
creant.
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 are not able to accept the theory
of the ancient Greeks, who said that the
amethyst was a charm against lntoxlca-
ton, 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, l have brought
YOU to the top row, the twelfth layer OF
the foundation Of the heavenly wall OF
1900 miles of circling amethyst. to put
YOU in position where you can get
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 en-
chantment of soul, look far down and
look far up. and to force upon you the
conclusion that if all our climbing has
only shown Us the foundations 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 fig-
urative, what must the reality be: Oh,
this piled up magnifcence of the heav-
enly wall. Oh. this eternity Of decora-
ton. Oh. this opalescent, forescent,
prismatic miracle of architecture. What
enthronement Of all colors! a minglng
of the blue OF skies, and the surf of seas.
and the green Of meadows, and the up
holstery Of autumnal forests, and the fire
of Al.3nst sunsets. All the splendors of
earth and heaven dashed into those
twelve rows of foundation wall. All
that. mark you, only typical of the spir-
itual glories that roll over heaven like
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans swung
in one billow.
Do you not see that it was impossible
that you understand a-nundredth part
of the sugsestiveness OF that twenty
irst chapter Of Revelation without go
ing 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 It's wondrous crystal
hzationS. and examining some of the
frozen light in its turquoise. and feeling
with Your own finger the hardness of Its
sapphire. and shielding your eyes against
the shimmering brilliance in its beryl,
and studying the 1900 miles of emerald
withouta flaw? Yet all this only the ont
side 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
foundations of the wall Of the city were
garnished with all manner Of precious
stones Oh, get down your harp il You
can play one. Get down a palm branch
if YOU can reach one. Why, it makes Us
all feel Ike crying out with James Mont
gomery:
When shall these eyes thy heaven built walls
And pearly gates behold
Oh. my soul. If my text shows us only
the outside what must the inside be:
While riding last summer through the
emperor's park. near st. Petersburg |
was captivated with the groves. trans
planted from all zones. and the flower
beds-miles this way and miles that way
-incrnadined with beauty, and the
fountains bounding in such revel with
the sunlight as nowhere else is seen, l
said: This is beautiful. l never saw
ANYTHING like this before"
But when l 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
palace were swung back by the cham
berlain, and l saw the emperor and en-
press and princes and princesses, and
they greeted me with cordially Of old
acquaintanceship. forget al the groves
and floral bewitchment had seen out
side before entrance. And now ask, If
the outside of heaven attracts our souls
today, how much more will be the up
lifting when we get inside and see the
King in his beauty and all the princes
and princesses of the palaces Of anne
thyst:
Are you not glad that we did not stop
in our ascent this morning until we got