The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-03-18

out of which legislatures and congresses
drink before and after they make the
laws. Amethystine chalices have been
| the friends of intoxication instead OF
| il. foes. Over the fiery lips of the
amethystine chalices is thrust the
tongue of that which biteth like SER
pent and stingeth like an adder.
Drunkenness is combination OF appo-
plexy and dementia. The four hum
bred millions victims of opium come
out to meet the one hundred and fifty
million victims of alcohol. and the two
agents take the contract for tumbling
the human race into perdition; but
whether they will succeed in fulfilling
the contract depends on the action OF
the amethystine cups, the amethystine
demiiohs, the amethystine ale pitchers,
the amethystine fagons, the amethys-
| tine wine cellars. Oh, Persians! Oh,
Assyrians! Oh, Greeks! Oh, Egyp-
tians! you were wrong in thinking
that cup of amethyst would prevent
inebriat ton! But standing on the top
of this amethystine layer OF the founda-
ton of the wall of Heaven, bethink
myself of the mistake that many of the
ancient Hebrews made when they
thought that the amethyst was a pro-
Queer of pleasant dreams just wear
a piece of amethyst over your heart, or
put it under your pillow, and You
would have your dreams filed with
everything beautiful 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. Con-
ditions of physical disease may give
good man nightmare, but man
physically well, if he behave himself
Alright, with not be troubled with bad
Dreams Nebucha dnezzer, with eagles
down under his head and Tyrian pur-
pie over it. struggled with a bad dream
that made him shrek out for the
soothsayers and astrologersto 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
devoured the several large ones,
and awful famine was prefigured.
Pilates wife, amid clouds OF
| richest upholstery, had q start
ling dream, because of which
she sent message in not
haste to court room to keep her hus-
band from enacting judicial outrage.
But Jacob, at Bethel, with pillow OF
mountain rock, had blissful dream Of
the ladder angel-blossoming. Bunyan,
| with his head on hard plank of Bed
ford Jail, saw the gates of the celestial
city. st. John on the barrenest island
| of the Egean sea, in his dream heard
| trumpets and saw cavalrymen on white
| horses and a new Heaven and a new
earth. Noamount of rough pillow can
disturb the night vision of saint. and
no amount of amethystine charm can
delectate the dream of miscreant.
But, some 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 charm against
| intoxication. or If you are not willing
to accept the theory of the ancient He
brews that the amethyst was a pro-
Queer of pleasant dreams? My answer
is, have brought You to the top row,
| the twelfth layer of the foundation OF
| the Heavenly wall of one thousand five
| hundred miles of circling amethyst, to
| put you in 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 conclusion that il our
climbing has only shown US the founda,
ton 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 be figurative, what must the
reality be? Oh, this piled-up magnifi-
cence of the heavenly wall! Oh, this
eternity of decorationi Oh, this opales-
cent, fiorescent, prismatic miracle of
architecturel What enthroncment of
all colorsl A mingling of blue skies,
and the surf of seas. and the green of
meadows, and the upholstery of au-
tumnal forests, and the fire OF August
sunsets. All the splendors of earth
and Heaven dashed into those twelve
rows of foundation wall. All that,
mark you. only typical of the spiritual
glor;es that roll over Heaven like the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans swung in
one billow.
Do you not see that it WINS impossi'
BILE that you understand hundredtb
part of the suggestiveness of that
twenty first chapter of Revelation with.
out going into some Of the Particular
of the wall of Heaven, and dipping up
some of its dripping colors, and run
ming you eye along some its won
drous crystallizations, and exam
ming some of the frozen light in its
turquois, and feeling with your OWL
finger the hardness of its sapphire, ann
shielding your eyes against the SHIN
mering brilliance of its beryl, and
studying the one thousand FIVE hum
dred miles of emerald without flaw?
Yet all this only the outside of Heaven,
and the poorest part of the outside; not
the wall itself, but only foot of the
wall, for my text says: THE founda'
tions of the wall of the city were gar
nished with all manner of precious
stones" Oh. get down your harp, if
you can play one. Get ndown q palm
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