Democratic messenger., 1894-07-21

my sacrifice | will cover up all your
sins; with my dying groan l will swal-
low up all your groans. Look! Live.'
But a thousand of you turn your back on
that. and then this voice of invitation
turns to u tone divinely ominous. that
sobs like u Simoom through the first
chapter of Proverbs. Because l have
called and We refused, have stretched
ont my right hand. and no man regard
ed, but yc have set at naught all my
counsel and would none of my reproof.
I. also, will laugh at your calamity"
Oh, what laugh that is-a deep laugh.
long. reverberating laugh. an over
whclming laugh. God grant we may
never hear il. But in this day of merci-
full visitation yield your heart TO Christ,
that you may spend all your life OH
earth under his smile and escape forever
the thunder of tile laugh of Gods indig-
nation.
The Laugh of Triumph.
The other laughter mentioned in the
Bible, the only one shall speak of. is
heavens laughter. or the expression of
eternal triumph. Christ said to his dis
ciplcs, Blessed are ye that weep now,
for We shall laugh. That makes me
know positively that we are not to spend
our days i'll heaven singing long meter
psalms The formalistic and stiff nc
tions of heaven that some people have
would make me miserable. am
glad to know that the heaven of the
Bible is not only - place of holy wor
Ship but of magnificent sociality.
what" say you. will tho ringing
laugh 20 around the circles of the
savcd:" ! say yes-pure laughter,
cheering laughter. holy laughter. 1t
| will be u laugh Of congratulation. When
we meet friend who has suddenly
come to a fortune, or who has got over
some dire sickness. do we not shake
hands, do we not laugh with him? And
when we get TO heaven and see our
| friends there, some Cf them having come
up ont of great tribulation, why, we
will say to one of them. The last time
saw you You had been suffering for
six weeks under low intermittent
fever" or to another we will say: "You
for 10 years were limping with tho
rheumatism, and you We're full of COM
plants when we saw you last. con-
gratulate you OIL this eternal recovery.
We shall laugh. Yes. we shall congrat-
ulatc all those who have come out of
great financial embarrassments in this
| world because they have become mil
lionaires i'll heaven. Yc shall laugh. 1t
shall be a laugh of rcassociation. II is
,,af.,r.,l 20 xx-ln,,
meet a friend we have not seen for 10
years as anything is possible to he nat
| ural.
When we meet our friends from whom
we have been parted 10 or 90 or 80
years, will it not be with infinite con-
graduation: Our perception Quickcned.
our knowledge improved, we will know
each other at flash. We will have to
talk over all that has happened since
we have been separated. the one that
has been 10 years i'll heaven telling us
all that has happened i'll the 10 years Of
| his heavenly residence, and we telling
him in return all that has happened
| during the 10 years of his absence from
earth. Ye shall laugh. i think George
Whiteficld and John Wesley will have
| laugh of contempt for their earthly
collisions, and Toplady and Charles
| Wesley will have laugh of contempt
| for their earthly misunderstanding
and the two farmers who were in law
suit all their days will have laugh of
contempt over their earthly disturbance
about line fence. Exemption from all
annoyance. Immersion i'll all gladness.
Ye shall laugh. Christ says so. Ye shall
laugh. Yes, it will be laugh of tri-
umph. Oh, what II pleasant thing it
will be to stand on the wall of heaven
and look down at satan and hurl at him
defiance and see him Gagged and chained
and we forever free from his clutches!
Aha! Yes, il will bc laugh of royal
greeting.
| Five Prayerful Wishes.
You know how the Frenchmen chccrcd
when Napoleon came back from Elba;
| you know how the English cheered
when Wellington came back from Wa
terloo; you know how Americans
chcercd when Kossuth arrived from
Hungary; you remember how Rome
cheered when Pompey came back VIC
| tor over 800 cities. Every cheer was u
laugh. But. oh, the mightier greeting.
the gladder greeting, when the snow
white cavalry troop Of heaven shall go
through the streets, and. according to
the book of Revelation. Christ in the
red coat, the crimson coat, OH white
horse, and all the armies of heaven fol-
lowing him on white horses! Oh, when
VIC see and hear that cavalcade we shall
cheer, we shall laugh! Does not your
heart beat quickly at the thought Of the
great jubilee upon which we are soon
to enter? pray God that when we get
through with this world and are going
ont of it we may have some such vision
as the dying Christian had when he
saw written all over the clouds III the
sky the letter ''W," and they asked
him, standing by his side, what he
Thought that letter wv" meant. "Oh, ="
ne said, THAT stands for welcome. :"
And so may it he when we quit this
world. wv" on the gate, wv" on the
door of the mansion. ''W'' OH the
throne. Welcome! WELCOMED! We'll
come! have preached this sermon with
five prayerful wishes-that you might
see what mean thing is the laugh Of
skepticisn. what a bright thing is the
laugh of spiritual exultation, what u
hollow thing is the laugh of sinful mer-
rimcnt, what an awful thing is the
laugh of condemnation, what radiant,
rubicund thing is the laugh of eternal
triumph. Avoid the i'll; choose the
right BE comforted Blessed are ye
that weep row-ye shall laugh; We shall
laugh"
The Royal Historical society has de-
eided TO commemorate the centenary Of
the death of Gibbon i'll suitable man
ner in the fall. There will be an address
and an exhibition of portraits. manu-
scripts and other relics of the great his
torian.