The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-16

manded to jail Why, He that Sltteth
in the heavens laughed" Rome was a
great empire, she had Horace and Virgil
among her poets; she had Augustus and
Constantine among her emperors. But
what mean the defaced Pantheon, and
the Forum turned into a cattle market,
and the broken-walled Coliseum, and the
architectural skeleton of her great aque-
ducts. What was that thunder} "Oh! :"
you say, that was the roar of the bat
tering-rams against her walls" No.
What was that quiverl "Ohl" you say,
that was the tramp of hostile
legions.' No. The culver and the
roar were the Outburst of OmnipOtent
laughter from the deied and insulted
heavens. Rome defed God, and he
laughed her down. Thebes defed God,
and he laughed her down. Nineveh de-
fed God, and he laughed her down. Ba-
bylon deied God, and he laughed her
down. There is a great difference be-
tween Gods laugh and his smile. His
smile is eternal beatitude. He smiled
when David sang, and Miriam clapped the
cymbals, and Hannah made garments for
her son, and Paul preached, and John
kindled with apocalpytic vision, and
when any man has anything to do and
does it well. His smile! Why it is the
fifteenth of May, the apple orchards in
full bloom; it is morning breaking on
ripping sea; it is heaven at high noon,
all the bells beating the marriage peal.
But his laughter-may it never fall on US
II is a condemnation for our sin; il is a
wasting away We may let the satirist
laugh at us, and all our companions may
laugh at US, and we may be made
the target for the merriment of
earth and hell; but God forbid
that we should ever come to the fulfil
ment of the prophecy against the reject
ors of the truth: Il will laugh at your
calamity" But, my friends, all of US
who reject Christ and the pardon of the
gospel must come under that tremendous
bombardment. God wants US all to re-
pent. He counsels, he coaxes, he impor-
tunes, and he dies for us. He comes
down out of heaven. He puts all the
worlds sin on one shoulder, he puts all
the worlds sorrow on the other Shout
der, and then with that Alp on one side
and that Himalaya on the other, he
starts up the hill back Of Jerusalem to
achieve our salvation. He puts the
palm of his right foot on one long spike,
and he puts the palm of his left foot on
another long spike, and then, with
his hands spotted with his own
blood, he gesticulates, saying: Look
locke and live With the crimson
veil of my sacrifice will Govern all your
sins; with my dying groan 1 will swallow
up all your groans Look live" But
thousand of you turn your back on that,
and then this voice of invitation turns to
tone divinely ominous that sobs like a
simeon through the first chapter of Pro
verbs Because l have called and ye
refused, l have stretched out my right
hand and no man regarded; but We have
set at naught all my counsel, and would
none OF my reproof; |, also, will laugh at
your calamity" o, what a laugh that is
"a deep laugh; a long, reverberating
laugh; an overwhelming laugh God grant
we may never hear it. But in this day of
merciful visitation yield your heart to
Christ, that you may spend all your life
on earth under his smile, and escape for
ever the thunder Of the laugh of Gods in
dignation.
The other laughter mentioned in the
Bible, the only one 1 shall speak Of is
heavens laughter, or the expression of
eternal triumph. Christ said to his dis
ciples: Blessed are we that weep now,
for We shall laugh" That makes me
know positively that we are not to spend
our days in heaven singing long-m eter
psalms The journalistic and stiff notions
of heaven that some people have would
make me miserable. / am glad to know
that the heaven of the Bible is not only a
place of holy worship, but of magnificent
sociality What" say you, will the
ringing laugh go around the circles of
the sa7ed2" say, yes; pure laughter,
cheering laughter; holy laughter. II will
be laugh of congratulation. When we
meet friend who has sud
denly 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 of
them having come up out of great tribu-
lation, why we will say to one of them:
sFIba Ia tina / ca had
suffering for six weeks under low inter
mittent fever" or, to another, we will
say: You for ten years were limping
with the rheumatism, and you were full
of complaints when we saw you last;
congratulate you on this eternal recov-
cry" We shall laugh. Yes; we shall
congratulate all those who have come out
of great financial embarrasSments in this
world because they have become million
aires in heaven. Ye shall laugh. 1t shall
be laugh of re-association. 1t is Just as
natural for us TO laugh when we meet
friend we have not seen for ten wears, as
anything is possible to be natural. When
we meet our friends from whom we have
been parted ten, or twenty, or thirty
years, will it not be with infinite congrat-
ulation? Our perception quickened, our
knowledge improved, we will know each
other at a fash. We will have to talk over
all that has happened since we have been
separated, the one that has been ten years
in heaven telling us all that has hap
pened in the ten years of his heavenly
residence. and we telling him in return
all that has happened during the ten
years of his absence from earth. Ye shall
laugh. l think George Whltefeld and
John Wesley will have a laugh of con-
tempt for their earthly collisions; and
Toplady and Charles Wesley will have
laugh of contempt for their earthly mis-
understandings; and the two farmers who
were in a lawsuit all their days will have
a laugh of contempt over their earthly
disturbances about line fence Exemp-
ton from all annoyance. Immersion
in all gladness. Ye shall laugh Christ
says so. We shall laugh. Yes, it will be
a laugh of triumph. Oh what a pleas
ant thing it will be to stand on the wall
of heaven and look down at satan, and
hurl him defiance and see HIM Gagged and
chained, and we forever free from his
clutches. Aha! Yes, it will be a laugh
of royal greeting. You know how the
Frenchmen cheered when Napoleon came
back from Elba; you know how the Eng
lish cheered when Wellington came back
from Waterloo you know how Americans
cheered when kossuth arrived from Hun
gary; you remember how Rome cheered
when Pompey came back victor over 900
cities. Every cheer was laugh But, Oh
the mightier greeting, the gladder greet
ing, when the snOw-white cavalry troop of
heaven Sha 90 thrOuph the straete and