The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-09-08

'sOh, : you say. 'sthet was 't1le ronr d
the battering-rams against her wulis 3
No. What WAS that qulver? Oh.
you say, that MAS the tramp Of
hostile 1egiois No. The quivet
and the roar we're the 6utbufsts oi
Omnipotent laughter from the defled
and insulted heavens. Rome defied
Goo, and He laughed her down. Thebes
defied God, and He laughed her down.
Nineveh defied God, and He laughed
her down. Babylon defied God, and he
laughed her down. There is . great
difference between Gods laugh and His
smile. His smile is eternal beatitude.
He smiled when David sang, and
Miriam elapsed the cymbals, and
Hannah made GARMENTS for hen;
son, and Paul preached, and
John kindled with apocalytic
vision, and when any man
has anything to do and does
it well. His smile Why, it is
the 18th 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 mar
rage peal. but His laughter-may it
never fall on us. II is condemna-
ton for our sin; it is . wasting away.
We may let the satirist laugh at Ms,
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 fulfillment of the prophecy
against the rejectors of the truth:
II 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 bonn
bardment. God wants as all to repent.
The other laughter mentioned in the
Bible. the only one I shall speak Of, is
Heavens laughter, or the expression OF
eternal triumph. Christ said to His
disciples: 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
meter 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
place of holy worship, but of mag
nificent sociality. What" say you,
Twill the ringing laugh go around the
circles of the saved?" say, yes; pure
laughter, cheering laughter, holy
laughter. 1t will be laugh of con-
graduation. When we meet a friend
who has suddenly come to fortune,
or who has got over some dire sickness,
do you not shake hands, 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 tribulatfon. why we will
say to one of them: 1.-THE last
time saw you you had been suffering
for six weeks under low intermittent
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, l
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 be-
come millionaircs in Heaven. Ye shall
laugh. 1t shall be laugh of reassoci-
ton 1t is just Us natural for MS to
laugh when we meet a friend we
have not seen for ten years as
anything is possible to be natural
When we meet.our friends from whom
we have been parted ten, or twenty,
or thirty years, it will not be with in
finite congratulation? Our perception
quickened, our knowledge improved,
we will know each other at a fash. We
pcned 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. think George White
field and John Wesley will have a
laugh of contempt for their earthly
collisions; and Toplady and Charles
Wesley will have a laugh of contempt
for their earthly misunderstanding
and the two farmers who were in law
suit all their days will have a laugh of
contempt over their earthly disturb
ance about line fence Exemption
from all annoyance. Immersion in all
gladness. Ye shall laugh. Christ says
so. Ye 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 at 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 English cheered when Wellington
came back from Waterloo; you know
how Americans cheered when Kossuth
arrived from Hungary; you remember
how Rome cheered when Pompey came
back victor over nine hundred cities.
Every cheer was laugh. But, OH!
the mightier greeting, the glad
der 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, ON a
white horse. and all the armies of
Heaven following ON white horses.
Oh. when we see and hear that caval-
cade. we shall cheer, we shall laugh.