The Penn's Grove record., 1893-12-29

tered under tropical suns. These shivered
| under Icelandie temperature. These piucked
the vineyards in Italy. These packed the
| teaboxes in China. These were aborigines
| lifting up their dusky faces in the Ana
| the wind shall wait it, and every mountain
| shall become a TRANSPORTATION, and the sea
| will become the walking place OF htm who
| rod the wave cliffs OF stormy Ttberias, II
The song Of Joy shall rise toward heIven, and
| The great sky will become a sounding board
| which shall strike back the shout OF salvation
to the earth until it rebounds again to the
throne of the Almighty, and the morning
star of Christian hope will become the full
sunburst OF miilennial glory.
Again, Christ herasts the dawn OF heaven
upon every Christian dying pillow. l sup
pose you have no iced that the character
lstics of people in their healthy days are
very apt to be their characteristic in their
| diving days, The dying words of am 'iiinus
| Napoleon we're, srHead of the army" i'he
| lying words of poetic Lori Byron were, Il
must sleep now" The dying wor Is Of
| afrectionate Lord Nelson were, Kiss me,
Hardy" The dying words OF Voltaire were,
as he saw one whom he supposed 10 Oe
| Jesus in the room, "Crush that wretch"
But | have noticed that the dying words OF
Christians always mean peace. Generally
the pain is all gone, and there is great
uuietude through the room. As one OF
| these brothers told me of his mother IN the
last moment: ''She looked up an sad,
pointing to some supernatural being that
seemed TO be- in the room, Look at that
bright form. Why, they have come Tor me
now"
The lattice is turned so that the light is
very pleasant. 1t is peace all around. You
ask yourself: "why, can this be a dying
room? II Is so different from anything ]
ever expected" And you walk the floor,
and you look out OF the window, and you
azrna ha nh and Innt- NJ tNur uyofah md son
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 scans coming up higher
and higher, until 1t has ton she'd the ankle,
then it comes on up until 1t touches the
1t reaches the girdle, and then 1t comes
on up until it reaches tho lip,
and the soul is about to.be foated away into
glory, and you roll back the patients sleeve,
and you put your finger on the pulse, and II
is getting weaker and weaker. and the pulse
stops, and you hardly know whether the life
has gone or not. Indeed, you cannot tell
when she goes away, she goes away so calm.
ly. Perhaps 1t is 4 o'clock in the morning,
and you have the bed wheeled around to
the window, and the dying n looks out
into the night sky, and she sees something
that attracts her attention, and you wonder
| what II Is.
! Why, it is a star. 1t is a star that out OF
its silver rim is pouring a supernatural light
into that dying experience. And you say,
''What Is 1t that you are looking atY' She
says, ''It is n star" You say. 'What star Is
il that seems so wellto please you?' "Oh,'
she slys, ''that is the morning star-Jesus -
| would like 10 have my death bed under
that evangelistic star-I would like to have
my eye on that star, so I could be assured of
the morning. Then the. dash of the surf of
the sea of death would only be the billowing
up of the promise, "When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee, and
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee"
All other lights will fail tho light hat 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
a ~banquet-but this light burns on and burns
on. Paul kept his eye on that morning star,
until he could say 81 am now ready to be
offered, and the time of my departure is at
hand. 1 have fought the good fight. I have
finished my course. l have kept the faith. -"
Edward Payson kept his eye on that star
until he could say, 'The breezes Of heaven
fan me-" DR.. Good win kept his eye on that
evangelistic star until he could say, 81 am
swallowed up in God" o. Tennant kept
his eye IN that e~vangelistic star until he
could say, "Welcome, sweet Lord Jesus
welcome, eternity" Nc other star ever
pointed a mariner into so safe a harbor. No
other star ever sunk its silvered anchor into
kao 1 NJ othCL 5Ih ONSlD icANJu Sutn
accumulated cloud, or beckoned with such a
holy luster.
With lanterns and torches and a guide, we
went down in the Mammoth cave of Ken
lucky. 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 in
visible 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 amethyst
in halls of gypsum. As the guide carries his
lantern ahead Of you, the shadows have an
appearance supernatural and spectral. The
darkness is fearful. Two people, getting
lost from their guide only for a few hours,
years 90, were demented, and for years sat
in their insfnity. You feel like holding
your breath rs you walk across the bridges
that seem to span the bottomless
abyss. The guide throws his calcium light
down into the caverns, and tho light rolls
and losses from rock to rock and from depth
to depth making at every plunge a new rev.
elation Of the awful power that could have
made such a place as that.
A sense of suffocarion ONE upon you as
you think that you are $50 feet in a straight
line from the suniit surface of the earth. The
guide after awhile takes yon into what Is
called the 'Star Chamber" and then he
says 10 YOU, oit uHFt, anu Inen ne lakes
the lantern and goes down under the rocks,
and 1t gets darker and darker, until the night
Is so thick that the hand an incl from tho
eye Is undesirable. And then, by kindling
one of the lanterns and placing 1t i'll a cleft
of the rock, there is a reflection cast on the
dome o; the cave, an | there are stars COM
ing out in constellations-a brilliant night
heavens-ant You inyoluntarily exclaim !:
beautiful! beautiful p Then he takes the
Il lnnfArn inyVU in Dtbar Jppfha If tha aoparn
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 an | brighter. The guide
is 4 skilled vantr .loqutst and he initiates the
voices OF the morning, and soon the gloom
il NIL zone, and you stand congratulating
yourself over the wonderful spectacle. We'll,
there ARE a great many people who look down
into the grave as a great cavern. They think
1t is IA thousand miIes s~ubterraneous, M all
eclops seen to be the voices of despair, and
the cascades seem to be the falling tears that
always fall, andthe gloom Of earth seems COM
ing up in s~talagmits, and the gloom OF tho
eternal world seems descending in the stalac-
title, making pillars OF iniescribable horror.
The grave is no such place at that to me,
thank God.
Our Divine Guide takes US down into the
great cayerns. and we have the lamp to our
feet and the light to our path, and all the
echoes in the riffs o. the rock are anthems,
and all the falling waters are fountains OF
salvation, and after awhile we look up and,
behold the cavern of the tomb has become
a kings star chamber. u while we are
looking at the pomp of it an everlasting
morning begins to rise, and all the tears OF
eartn crystalline into stalagmite, rising up
in IA pillar on the one side, and all the slo-
rles of heaven seom to DO descending in
statistic, making a pillar on the
ot"er side, and you push against
the gate that swings between
the two pillars, an | as the gate flashes open
you find it is one ofthe twelve gates which
are twelve pearls. Blessed be- God that
through this gospel the mammoth cave OF
the sepulchre has become the illumined Star
hamne of the KingI
would Col tbat II my sermon to-day
does not lead you to Christ, that before
morning, looking out OF the window, the
-s'ronon ny OF the night heavens might lead
you 10 the feet of Jesus.
Hark! Hank! To God the eh orus breaks
From every host, from every gem;
But one alone, the Savior speaks
Is tEe Star OF Bethlehem.