Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-11-24

| Christian invitation? What a memory yoI
| have! Why, that must have been down Their
} | In BROOKLYN or New Orleans at least tel
thousand million years ago." And the an
I swer will be. ayes, it was as long as that
but remember it as we'll as though it wer'
yesterday"
Oh, this character building The structure
/ lasting independent OF passing centuries, in
dependent of crumbling mausoleums, indie
pendent of the whole planetary system. Aye
II the material universe, which seems al
bound together like one piece OF machinery
should some day meet with an accident that
should send worlds crashing into each other
like telescoped railway trains, and all the
wheels Of consultations and galaxes should
STOP and down into one chasm OF immensely
all the suns and moons and stars should
tumble like the midnight express at Ashta-
bula, that would not touch us and would not
hurt God, for God IS spirit, and character
and memory are immortal, and over that
grave OF wrecked material universe might
truthfully be written, "The righteous shall
be held in everlasting remembrance.
0, Time. we defy thee O, Death, we
stamp thee in the'dust OF thine own sepul-
cheers o, Eternity, roll on till the last star
has stopped rotating, and the last sun is ex-
tinguished on the sapphire pathway, and
the last moon has illumined the last night,
and as many years have passed as all the
scribes that ever took pen could describe by
as many figures as they could write in all the
centuries of all time, but thou shalt have no
power to efface from any soul in glory the
memory of anything we have done to bring
1t to God and heaven
There Is another and a more complete de-
| feat for oblivion. and that is in the heart OF
God himself You have seen a sailor roll up
his sleeve and show you his arm tattooed
with the figure of q favorite ship-perhap,
the first one in which he ever sailed. You
have seen soldier roll up his sleeve and
! show you his arm tattooed with the figure
Of "a fortress which he was garrisoned, or
the face OF a great general under whom he
| fought. You have seen many hand tat
| tooed with the face OF loved one before or
after marriage.
This tattooing is almost as old as the world.
1t Is some colored liquid punctured into the
| flesh 80 indelibly that nothing can wash H.
out. 1t may have been there fifty years, but
when the man goes into his coffin that pic
ture will go with him on hand or arm. Now,
God says that he has tattooed us upon his
hands. There can be no other meaning in
the forty ninth chap ter Of Isaiah, where God
says, "Behold, have craven thee on the
palms of my hands ~
1t was as much as to say: ~ cannot open
My hand to help, but think OF you. can
not spread abroad My hands to bless, but
think of you. Wherever go up and down
the heavens take these two pictures of YOU
with Ne. They are so inwrought into My
being that cannot lose them. AS long as
My hands last the memory of yon will last.
Not on the back of My hands, as though to
announce you to others, but on the palms OF
My hands for Myself to look at and study
and love. Not on the palm Of one hand
alone, but on the palms Of both hands, for
while am looking upon one hand and think
ing OF you, | must have the other hand free
to protect you, free to strike back your
enemy free to lift if you fall. Palms of NV
hands indelibly tattooed And though I
hold the winds in My first no cyclone shall
uproot the inscription of your name and
your face, and though L hold the ocean in
the hollow of My hand its billowing shall not
wash out the record OF My remembrance.
Behold, have craven thee on the palms Of
My hands,"
What joy, what honor can there be CON-
parable to that of being remembered by the
mightiest and kindest and loveliest and ten
derest and most affectionate being in the
universe? Think OF it, to hold an everlasting
place in the heart OF God. The heart of God |
The most beautiful palace In the universe.
Let the archangel build some palace as
grand as that IL he can. Let him crumble up
all the stars OF Yesternight and tomorrow |
night and put them together as mosaics for
such palace floor. Let him take all the sun
rises and sunsets of all the days and the |
auroras of all the nights and hang them as
upholstery at its window VS..
Let him take all the rivers, and all the
lakes. and all the oceans, and toss them into
the fountains of this palace court. Let him
take all the gold ofall the hills and hang it in
its chandeliers, and all the pearls of all the
seas, and all the diamonds Of all the fields,
and with them arch the doorways OF that
palace and then invite into 1t all the glorles
that Esther ever saw at Persian banquet, or
Daniel ever walked among in Babylonian
castles, or Joseph ever witnessed in Pharaoh's
throneroom. and then yourself enter this
castle OF archangelic construction, and see
how poor a palace it is compared with the
greater palace that some Of you have already
found in the heart OF a loving and pardoning
God, and into which all the music, and all
the prayers, and all the sermonic consdera-
tions of this day are trying to introduce you
through the blood of the slain lamb.
Oh. where is oblivion now? From the
dark and oyershadowing word that it seemed
when l began, it has become something
which no man or woman or child who loves
he Lord need ever fear. Oblivion defeated.
Oblivion dead. Oblivion sepulchered. But
I must not be so hard on that devouring
monster, for into its grave go all our sins
when the Lord for Christ's sake has forgiven
hem. Just blow resurrection trumpet
over them when once oblivion has snapped
hem down. Not one of them rises. Blow
again. Not a stir amid all the pardoned in
quities of lifetime. Blow again. Not one
)t them moves in the deep grave trenches
But to this powerless resurrection trumpet
voice responds, half human, half divine, ,
md it must be part man and part God, say
ng "Their sins and their iniquities will re-
member no more"
Thank God for this blessed oblivion SO
you see did not invite you down into cell
ar, but upon throne not into the grave
1ard to which all materialism is destined.
,ut into a garden all abloom with everlasting |
The frown of my first text
las become the kiss of the second text. An
has become coronation. The wiring c
ng hands of great agony have become the =
,lapping hands of a great JOY The requiem I
With which we began has become the grand
march with which we close. The tear of c
sadness that rolled down our cheek has 8
struck the lin on which sits the Laughter OF