Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-03-17


away all tears from theic eyes, and
there shall be no more weeping, and
there shall be no more death.
Some of your children have already
gone up the other bank. You let them
down on this side of the bank; they will
be on the other bank TO help you up
with supernatural strength. The other
morning at my table, all my family
present, thought to myself how pleas
ant it would be if l could put all into
boat, and then go in with them, and we
could pull across the river to the next
world, and be there all together. No
family parting, NO gloomy obsequies;
it wouldn't take five minutes to go
from bank to bank, and then in that
better world to be together forever.
Wouldn't il be pleasant for you to take
all your family into that blessed coun-
try, if you could all go together? / re-
member my mother, in her dying hour,
said to my father, Father, wouldn't
it be pleasant if we could all go to-
gether?" But we cannot all go to-
gether. We must go one by one, and
We Ahuob NC abNlui II VIC SCb bhSlC az
all. What a heaven it will be if we
have all our families there, to look
around and see all the children are
present! You would rather have them
all there, and you go with bare brow
forever, than that one should be miss
ing, to complete the garlands of heaven
for your coronal. The Lord God of
Joshua give them safe Jordanic pas
sage"
Even children will go through dry
shod. Those of us who were brought
up in the country remember, when the
summer was coming on in our boyhood
days, we always longed for the day
when we were to go barefooted, and,
after teasing our mothers in regard to
it for good while and they consented
we remember the delicious sensation of
the cool grass when we put our I'M
covered foot on it. And the time will
come when these shoes we wear now,
lest we be cut of the sharp places of
this world, shall be taken off, and with
unsandalled foot we will step into the
bed of the river, with feet untram-
melted, free from pain and fatigue, we
will gain that last journey; when, with
one foot in the bed of the river and the
other foot on the other bank, we strug-
gle upward. That will be Heaven.
Oh, pray for all my dear people safe
Jordanic passage. That is what the
dying Christian husband felt when he
said, "How the candle flickers. Nellie!
Put it out; shall sleep well tonight,
and wake in the morning"
One word of comfort on this subject
for all the bereaved. You see our de-
parted friends have not been sub
merged-have not been swamped in
the waters; they have only crossed
over These Israelites are just as thor
oughly alive on the western banks of
the Jordan, as they had been on the
eastern banks of the Jordan; and our
departed Christian friends have only
crossed over-not sick. not dead, not
exhausted, not blotted out, but with
neutrality-suspicious., and stouter pulses
and keener eyesight, and better pros
poets: crossed over! their sins, their
physical and mental disquiet, all left
clear this side, an eternally-flowing,
impossible obstacle between them and
all human and Satanic pursuit. Crossed
over! Oh, shake hands of congratu-
lation with all the bereaved in the
consideration that our departed Chris
tian friends are safe.
Why was there so much JOY in GER
tain circles in New York when people
heard from the friends who were on
board that belated steamer. 1t was
feared that vessel had gone to the bot
tom of the sea; and when the friends on
this side leard that the steamer had ar
rived safely in Liverpool, had we not a
right to congratulate the people in
New York that their friends had got
safely across? And is il not right this
morning that congratulate you that
your departed friends are safe on the
shore of heaven? Would you have them
back again? Would you have those old
parents back again? You know how
hard it was sometimes for them to get
their breath in the stihed atmosphere
of the summer; would you have them
back in this weather? Didn't they use
their brain long enough? Would you
have your children back again? Would
you have them take the risk of tempta-
tions which throng every human path
way? Would you have them cross the
Jordan three times? In addition to
crossing it already, cross it again to
greet you now, and then cross back
afterward. For certainly you would
not want to keep them forever out Of
| heaven.
Pause and weep, not for the freed from
pain,
But that the sigh of love would bring them
back again.
ask a question, and there seems to
come back the answer in heavenly echo.
What! will you never be sick again?"
ver-sick-again." What! will
you never be tired again?" Never
.ired-again. What! will you never
weep again?' "Never-weep-again I"
What! will you never die again?"
"Never-die-again." Oh, We army Of
departed kindred, we hail you from bank
to bank. Wait for us when the Jordan
of death shall part for us. Come down
and meet us halfway between the will
lowed banks of earth and the palm
groves of heaven Nav our great High