Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1893-03-13

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to take all your family into that blessed
country if you could all go together?
[ remember my mother in her dy-
ing hour said to my father, Father,
wouldn't it be pleasant if we could all
go together?" But we cannot all go to-
gether. We must go one by one, and
we must be grateful if we get there at
ALL What heaven it will be if we
have all our families there to look
around and see all the children are pres
ent! You would rather have them all
there, and you go with bare brow for
ever, than that one should be missing
to complete the garlands of heaven for
your coronal. The Lord God of Joshua,
give them safe Jordanic passage!
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 de-
hcious sensation of the cool grass when
we put our uncovered foot on it.
And the time will come when these
sharp places of this world, shall be taken
off, and with unsandaled foot we will
step into the bed of the river; with feet
untrammeled, free from pain and ia
tigue, 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 struggle 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: GLOW the candle f1ickers,
Nellie! Put it out. shall sleep well to-
night and wake in the morning"
COMFORT FOR THE BEREAvED.
One word of comfort on this subject
for all the bereaved. You see, our de-
parted friends have not been submerged,
have not been swamped in the waters.
They have only crossed over. These
Israelites were just as thoroughly 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 extin-
guished, not blotted out, but with
healthier respiration, and stouter pulses,
and keener eyesight, and better prospects
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
1 shake hands of congratulation with
all the bereaved in the consideration that
our departed Christian friends are safe!
Why was there so much joy in certain
l.
from the friends who were on board that
belated steamer? 1t was feared that YES
sci had gone to the bottom of the sea,
and when the friends on this side heard
that the steamer had arrived safely in
Liverpool, had we not right to congrat-
ulate the people in New York that their
friends had got safely across? And is it
not right this morning that I congratu-
late 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 stifed 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 lack again? Would
you have them take the risks of tempta-
ton which throng every human path
! way? Would you have them cross the
Jordan three times? In addition to eros
/ ing it already, cross it again to greet you
now and then cross back afterward? FOl
certainly you would not want to keef
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 tx
come back the answer in heavenly echo
"What, will you never be sick again
MISUNDERSTANDING What, will you
never be tired again. "Never-tired-
again" What, will you never wecI
again?" ''Never-weep-aga What
will you never die again?" ''Never-die
again"
Oh, we army Of departed kindred, we
hail you from bank to bank! Wait fol
US when the Jordan Of death shall par
for us. Come down and meet us hal
way between the widowed banks d
earth and the palm groves Of heaven
May our great High Priest go ahead o.
us, and with bruised feet touch the We
ter, and then shall be fulfilled the words
of my text, ''All Israel went over on dry
ground until all the people were gone
clear through Jordan.
IF I ask you what shall be the gleC
hymn of this morning, | think ther;
would be,a thousand voices that wouI(
choose the same hymn-the hymn tina
illumines so many death chambers-th'
hymn that has been the parting hymn
in many an instance-the old hymn:
On Jordan's stormy banks / stand
And cast q wistful eye
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
Oh the transporting, rapturous scene
That rises my sight
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And rixa of dol orht