Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-02-16


mantel and the ruby on the wasted
finger of the departing one say moth
ing of the ransoming blood which they
so nightly typify. So far as giving
solace or illumination to a departing
spirit, they are a dead failure. Midnight
of utter hopelessness drops on all the
scene
Another room of mortal exit Re-
ligion and no rubies- She never
had money enough to buy one
of these exquisites. Sometimes
she stopped at a jewellers showwindow
and saw row of them incarnadining
the velvet. She had keen taste enough
to appreciate those gems, but she
never owned one of them. She was
not jealous or unhappy because others
! had rubies while she had none. But
she had a richer treasure, and that was
the grace of God that had comforted
her along the way amid bereave-
ments, and temptations, and persecu-
tions, and sicknesses, and privations,
and trials of all sorts. Now she is GO
ing out of life. The room is bright,
not with pictures or statues, not
with upholstery, not with any of
the gems of mountain or of sea, but
there is a strange ana vivid glow in the
room; not the light of the chandelier,
or star, or MONDAY sun, but something
| that outshines all of them. 1t must
| be the presence of supernaturals.
| From her illumined face 1 think she
| must hear sweet voices Yea, she does
hear sweet voices-voices of departed
kindred; voices apostolic and pro-
phetic, and evangelic, but all of them
overpowed by the voice of Christ, say
ing, Come, we blessed of my Father,
! inherit the kingdom" From her IL
lumined face, think she must hear
! rapturous music. Yea, she does hear
rapturous music, now soft as solos,
now thunderous as orchcstras; now
sanity voice alone, now the hundred
and forty and four thousand in con-
cert From her illumined face, think
| she must breathe redolence. Yea,
she does inhale aroma from off the
| gardens whose flowers never wither,
and from the blossoms OF orchards,
every tree of which bears twelve man
ner of fruit From her illumined face
! think she must see a glorious sight.
! Yes, she sees the wall that has jasper
at the base, and amethyst at the top.
and blood-red rubies between. Good
by, sweet soul! Why should you
longer stay? Your work all done;
your burdens all carried your tears
all wept! Forward into the light! Up
into the joy Out into the grandeurs!
And after you have saluted Christ. and
your kindred, search out him of the
palaces of Lebanon cedar, and tell
him that you have found to be glori-
ously true what thousands of years
ago he asserted in this morn
ings text: "Wisdom is better
than rubies." In those FURNISHED
palaces of our God may we all meet.
For l confess to you that my chief
desire for heaven is not the radiance,
or to take the suggestion of the text,
not the rubescence of the scene. My
one idea of heaven is the place to meet
old friends, God our best friend, and
our earthly friends already trans
ported. Aye! to meet the millions
I Il
/ have administered in the gospel week
by week through journalism on both
sides of the sea, and throughout
Christendom, and through many LANDS
yet semi barbaric. For the last twenty
three years every blast OF injustice
against me has multiplied my readers
all the world over, and the present
malignancy printed and uttered be-
cause our church is in financial strug-
gle after having two great structures
destroyed by fire, and we compelled to
build three large churches-I say the
present outrageous injustice in
come quarters will multiply my audi
ence in all lands if can keep in good
humor aud not fight back. A gentle
man tapped me on the shoulder sum-
mer before last on street in Edin-
burgh, Scotland, and said II live in
the shetland islands, North Scotland,
and read your sermons evcrys Sab
bath to an audience of neighbors and
my brother lives in Cape Town, South
Africa, and he reads them every Sab
bath to an audience of his neighbors.
And here and now say to the forty
millions OF the earth to whose eyes
these words will come, that one of nv
dearest anticipations is to meet them
in heaven. Ali that will be better
than rubies. Coming up from differ
emit continents, from different hemis-
pheres, from opposite sides of the
earth to greet each other in holy love
in the presence of the glorious
Christ who made it possible for
us to get there. Our sins all
pardoned, our sorrows all banished,
never to weep never to part never to
del l tell you that will be better than
rubies. Others may have the crowns,
and the thrones, and the scepters; give
us our old friends back again, Christ,
"the friend who sticketh closer than
O brother" and all the kindred who
have gone up from our bereft house
holds, and all our frien1s whom we
have never yet seen, and you may
have all the rubies, for that will be
better than rubies." Instead of the
dying kiss when they looked so pale
and wan and sick, il will be the kiss