Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1894-01-04

fnl apparel, the Hight thai @ k II fronss
the blrliing lamps Of q nQuet ut
this light burns on and burns sbih il;;a
kept his eye on that morning stlt,
he could say, u am now ready
offered, and the time Of my depafrdS
IS at hind. I have fought the goo4
kept the faith" Edward PaysOn kep8
II am swallowed up In God. Jonn
Tenant kept his eye on that evangel-
istic star until he could say, Welcome
sweet Lord Jesus welcome eternity"
No other star ever pointed mariner
into SO safe a larbor. No other star
ever sunk Its silvered anchor 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 into the Mammoth cave
Of Kentucky. You may walk fourteen
miles and see no light. 1t is; q stlpen-
dous place. Some places the roof of
the cave is a hundred feet high. The
grottoes filled with wierd echoes, cas-
cadcs falling from invisible height to
invisible depth Stalagmites rising up
from the floor of the cave-stalactite
descending from the roof Of the cave
joining each other and making pillars
of the Almighty's sculpturing. There
are rosettes Of amethyst in halls Of
gypsum. AS the guide carries his Ian
tern ahead of you the shadows have an
appearance supernatural and spectral.
The darkness is fearful. Two people
getting lost from their guide only for a
few hours, years ago, were delnented,
and for years sat in their insanity. You
feel like holding your breath as you
walk across the bridge that seems to
span the bottonless 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
revelation 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 a
straight line from the sunlit surface 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 Ian
tern and goes down under the rocks
and it gets darker and darker, until
the night is so thick that the hand an
inch from the eye is urC bservabie.
And then, by kindling one Of the Ian
terms and placing it in cleft Of the
rock, there is reflection cast on the
dome of the cave, and there are stars
coming out in CONSTITUTIONS brilliant
night heavens-and you involuntarily
exclaim: "Beautiful! beautiful" 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 1t
seems like the dawn of the morning
and it gets brighter and brighter. The
guide is a skilled ventriloquist, and he
initiates the voices Of the morning, and
soon the gloom is all gone, and you
stand congratulating yourself over
the wonderful spectacle. Well,
there are a great many people
who look down into the grave as a
great cavern. They think it is thou
sand miles subterraneous, 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 stalag-
mite, and the gloom Of the eternal
world seems descending in the Stalac-
tite, making pillars Of indescribable
horror. The grave is no such place as
that to me, thank God. Our divine
guide takes us down into the great cav
:, ems, and we have the lamp to our feet
and the light to our path, and all the
echoes in the riffs of the rocks are an
thems, and all the falling waters are
fountains Of salvation, and, after
awhile, we look up, and behold! the
cavern Of the tomb has become a kings
star chamber. And while we are look
ing at the pomp Of it an everlasting
morning begins to rise, and all the
tears of earth crystall1zes into stalag-
mite, rising up in a pillar on the one
side, and all the glories of heaven seem
to be descending in stalactite, making
pillar on the other side, and you push
against the gate that swings between
the two pillars, and, as the gate flashes
open, you find it is one of the twelve
gates which are twelve pearls. Blessed
be God that through this gospel the
mammoth cave Of the sepulchre has
become the illumined star chamber of
the king.
1 would God that if my sermon to-
day does not lead you to Christ, that
before morning, looking out of the
window, the astronomy Of the night
heavens might lead you to the feet of
Jesus. s1
Hank! hark!to God the chorus breaks,
From every host, from every gem;
But one alone, the Savior speaks
Is the Star of Bethlehem.
BELIEFS ABOUT THE MOON.