The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-02-23

i
The rocking-chairs roll backward and
forward on lullabys. The pillows are ex.
| quisitely embroidered. All the appoint
ments of the room are peroration to
a successful commercial or professional
| life. But the man has no religion
never has had, and never protested to
have. There is not Bible or one re.
| ligious book in the room. The depart
ing man feels that his earthly career
is ended, and nothing opens beyond.
Where he will land stepping off from
/ this life is a mystery, or whether he
will land at all, for it may be ami.
| hilation. He has no prayer to offer,
and he does not know how to pray. No
hope of meeting again in another state
of existence. He is through with this
life, and is sure of no other. The ruby
| on the mantel and the ruby on the
wasted finger of the departing one say
nothing of the ransoming blood which
they SO nightly typifY. So far as Civ
| ing solace or illumination to a depart
ing 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 ex-
! quisites. Sometimes she stopped at a
| jewelers. show window and saw row
of them in carnadining the velvet.
She had keen taste enough to appre-
ciate 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 rich
er treasure, and that was the grace of
God that had comforted her along the
| way amid bereavements. and tempta-
tions, and prosecutions, and sicknesses,
and privations, and trials Ct all sorts
Now she is going 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 and
vivid glow in the room; not the
light of chandelier, or star, or noon
day sun. but sometimes that out
shines all of them. 1t must be the
presence of supernaturals. From her
illumined face | think she must hear
sweet voices. Yea, she does hear
sweet voices-voices of departed kim
dred; voices apostolic and prophetic,
and evangelic, but all of them over
powered by the voice of Christ, saying;
Come, We blessed of my Father, in
herit the kingdom From her
illumined face, I think she must
hear rapturous music. Yea, she
does hear rapturous music, now
soft as solos, now thunderous as or
chestras; now sanity voice alone, now
the one hundred and forty and four
thousand in concert. From her IL
lumined face l think she must breathe
redolencc. 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 manner of fruit. From her IL
lumined face, ! think she must see a
glorious sight. Yes, she sees the wall
that has jasper at the base, and anne
thyst 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 gloriously true
what thousands OF years ago he assert
ed in this mornings text: ''Wisdom is
better than rubies.'
In those FURNISHED palaces of our God
may we all meet. For 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 al
ready transported. Aye! to meet
the millions whom / have never
seen, but to whom l have admins
tered in the Gospel week by week
through journalism on both sides of
the sea, and throughout Christendom,
and through many lands yet semi-bar-
barrie. 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 because our
church is in financial struggle
after having two great structures
destroyed by fire, and we COM
peeled to build three large churches
say the present outrageous injustice
in some quarters, will multiply my au-
dience in all lands if l can keep in
good humor and not fight back. A gen.
tleman tapped me on the shoulder
summer before last on a street of Edin-
burgh, Scotland. and said: 81 live in
the Shetland island, and / read your
sermons every Sa bbath to an audience
of neighbors, and my brother lives in
Cape Town, South Africa, and he reads
them every Sabbath 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 my
dearest anticipations is to meet them
in Heaven. All! that will be better
than rubies. Coming up from different
continents, from different hemispheres,
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 die! / tell
you that will be better than rubies.
Others may have the crowns, and the
thrones, and the scepters; give us our
friends back again, Christ, ''the friend
who sticketh closer than a brother"
and all the kindred who have gone up
from our bereft households, and all our
friends whom we have never yet seen,
III he or