Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-12-25
and the soul is about to be floated away

t1ei1t sleeve, and you put your niger
on tne pulse, and it 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
calmly. Perhaps it is o'clock in the
morning, and you have the bed wheel
ed around to the window, and the dy
ing ore looks out into the night sky,
and she sees something that attracts her
attention, and you wonder what it is.
Why, it is a star. It is a star that
out of its silver rim is pouring super
natural light into that dying expert
ence. And you say. "aVhat is it that
you are looking at?" She says, cit is
a star" You say, "Whsa star is it that
seems SO we'll to please your "Oh,"
Jesus!" I would like to have my death
bed under that evangsistic start
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-the
light that falls from the scroll of fame,
the light that flashes from the gem in
che beautiful apparel the light that
flames from the burning lamps of
banquet-but this light burns on and
burns on. Paul kept his eye on that
morning star, until he could say: Il
am now ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at hand. have
fought the good fight. I have finished
my course. I have kept the faith. "
Edward Payson kept his eye on that
star until he could say, 1.-The breezes of
heaven fan me-" DR.. Goodwin kept
his eye on that evangelistic star until
he could say, Il am swallowed up in
God" John Tenant kept his eye on
that evangelistic star until he could
say, Welcome, sweet Lord Jesus
welcome, eternity No other star ever
pointed a mariner into so safe a harbor.
No other star ever sunk its silvered an
Choir into the waters. No other star
ever pierced such accumulated cloud,
or beckoned with such holy luster.
With lanterns and torches and a
guide, we went down in the Mammoth
cave of Kentucky. You may walk II
miles and see no sunlight. 1t is stu
pendous place. Some places the roof of
the cave hundred feet high. The grot-
toes filled with weird echoes, cascades
falling from invisible height to invisible
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 AL
-l,N4,
Of amethyst in halls of gypsum. AS
the guide carries his lantern ahead of
you, the shadows have an appearance
supernatural and spectral. The dark
ness is fearful. Two people, getting
lost from their guide only for few
hours, years ago, were demented, and
for years sat in their insanity. You
feel like holding your breath as you
walk across the bridges that seem to
span the bottomless abyss. The guide
throws his calcium light down into the
caverns, and the light rolls and losses
from rock to rock and from depth to
depth, making at every plunge new
rev .ation Of the awful power that could
have made such place as that.
A sense Of suffocation comes upon
you as you think that you are $50 feet
in straight line from the sunlit sur
face of the earth. The guide after
awhile takes you into what is called
the Star Chamber, and then he says
to you, sit here and then he takes
the lantern and goes down under the
r p ks, and it gets darker and darker,
until the night is SO thick that the hand
an inch from the eye is undesirable.
= Ii Of ha
terms and placing it in q cleft of the
rock, there is reflection cast on the
dome of the cave, and there are stars
coming out in constellatiOns-a bril-
liant night heavens-and you involun-
tarily exciaim: Beautiful! beautifully
Then he takes the lantern down in other
depths of the cavern, 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 and brighter The guide
is skilled ventriloquist, and he imi-
tates the voices of the morning, and
soon the gloom is all gone, and you
stand congratulating yourself over the
wonderful spectacle. Well, there are
great many people who look down into
the grave as great cavern. They
think it is a thousand miles subterran-
eous, and all the echoes seem to be the
voices of despair, and the cascades seem
to be the falling tears that always fall,
and the gloom of earth seems coming
up in stalagmite, and the gloom of the
eternal world seems descending in the
sta1acite, making pillars of indescri ba-
BILE horror. The grave is no such place
of ~, 70 mo fboplx God
Our divine Guide takes us down into
the great caverns, and we have the lamp
to our feet and the light to our path,
and all the echoes in the riffs of the
rock are anthems, and all the falling
waters are fountains of salvation, and