Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-02-16

years, and | told him that nanv of the
churches opened the Sabbath morning ser
wees with ms Old hymn, ''Welcome, Swee
Day OF Rest" and celebrated their gospe
triumphs with his hymn, Salvation, oh tn,
Joyful Song - and often reused their devo.
lions by his hymn, "Come, We That Love
the Lord"
While We We're talking he introduced me
10 another of the song writer's and said
This is Charles Wesley. who belonged on
earth to a different church from mine, but
we afe all now members Of the same church
the temple Of God and the Lamb" And
told Charles Weelev that almost every Sab
batn we sang one of his old hymns. "Arm OF
the Lord, Awake" or, Come Let Us Join
Our Friends Above" or, Glove Divine All
Love ExceIling." And while we were talk
ing on that street called Song fow, Kirk
White, the consumptive college student now
everlastingy well, came up, and we talked
over his old Christmas hymn, 'tWhen Mar
shaled on the Nightly Plain" And William
Cowpet came up, now entirely recovered
from his religious melancholy and not look
ing as il he had ever in dementia attempted
suicide, and we talked over the wide earthly
celebrity and heavenly power of his old
hymns, when Can Read Ny Title Clear.
and "There Is Fountain Filled With
Blood"
And there we met George ". Bethune of
wOndrous Brooklyn pastorate. and | told him
OF how his comforting hymn had been sung
Ht Obsequies all around the wOrld--"It Is
Not Death to Die" And Toplady came up
and asked about whether the church was
still making use of his old hymn, Rock OF
Ages, Cleft For Me-" And we also met on
Song row Newton and Hastings and Mont
gOmery and HOratiO Bonar and we heard
floating from window to window snatches of
the old hymns whichthey started on earth
and started never to die.
"But, " say some of my hearers, "did you
sec anything of our friends in heaven" Oh.
yes, did. ''Did you see my children there?'
says some one, land are there any marks of
their last sickness still upon themY did
see them but there was no paIlOr, no cough.
no fever, no languOr, about them. They are
all we'll and ruddy and songful and bound
ing with eternal nirtb. They told me to give
their love to you; that they thought of you
hour by hour, and that when they could be
excused from the heavenly Fairgrounds they
came down, and lowered over you. AMI
kissed your cheek, and filed your dream
with their glad faces, and that they would be
at the gate to greet you when you ascended
to he with them forever.
but" say other voices. did you see our
glorified friends?" Yes. [ saw them and
they are well in the land across which no
pneumOniaS or patSieS or drOpSies Of tYphOidS
ever sweep. The aroma blows over from or
chards with trees bearing twelve manner of
fruits, and gardens compared with which
ChatswOrth is a desert. The climate is a
mingling of an earthly June and October
the balm of the one and the tonic of the
other. The social life in that realm where
they are is superb and perfect. No contro-
Versies or jealOusies or hates, but love- uni
versal love, everlasting love. And they told
metO tell you not to weep for them. fortheir
happiness knows no bound, and it is only a
question of time when you shall reign with
them in the same palace and Join with them
in the same exploration of planets and the
same tour of worlds.
But yOnder in this assembly is an up
turned face that seems to ask how about the
ages of those in heaven. "DO my departed
children remain children. or have they lost
their childish vivacity? Do nv departed
parents remain aged, or have hey lost the
venerable out of their nature?" Well, from
what I saw 1 think childhood has advanced
to full maturity of faculty, retaining all the
resilience of childhoOd, ani that the aged
had retreated to midlife, freed from all de-
cadence. but still retaining the charm of the
venerable. In other words. it was fully de-
velOped and complete life of all souls,
whether young or old.
Some one says. ''Will yOutelI US what most
impressed you in heaven?' | will. / was
most impressed with the reversal of earthly
conditions. [ knew. Of course, that there
would be differences of attire and residence
in heaven. for Paul had declared long ago
fered from another" as Mars from Mercury,
as Saturn frOmJupiter. But at every step in
my dream in heaven | was amazed to see
that some who were expected to be high in
heaven were low down, and some who Were
expected to be low down were high up. You
thought, for instance, that those born Of
pious parentage, and of naturally good dis
position. and of brilliant faculties, and of all
styles of attractiveneSS will move in the high
est range of celestial sIlenior and pomp.
No, no. l found the highest thrones, the
brightest cOrOnets, the richest mansions,
were occupied by those who had repro
bate father or bad mother, and who
inherited the twisted natures OF
ten generations of miscreants, and who
had compressed in their body all the de-
PRAYED appetites and all evil propensities,
but they laid hold of Gods arm, they criei
for especial mercy, they conquered seven
devils within and seventy devils without an
were washed in the blood OF the Lamb, and
by so much as their contest was terrific and
awful and prOlix their victory was consum-
mate and resplendent, and they have taken
places immeasurabiy higher than those of
good parentage. who could hardly help be-
ing good. because they had ten generations
of preceding piety to aid them. Tue steps by
which many have mounted to the highest
places in heaven were made out of the era
dies of corrupt parentage. When l saw that,
said to my attending angel THAT is fair
lnaI Is right. Inc naru6r I2S struggle llS
more glorious the reward
Then | pointed to one OF the most colon
nadei and grandly domed residences in all
the city and said. ''Who lives there?' AMI
the answer was, 1.-The widow who gave two
mites" ''And who lives there?" and the
answer was, ''The penitent thief to whom
Christ said, This day shalt thou be with Nc
in paradise. And who lives there?1 [
said, and the answer was, ''The blind beggar
who prayed, Lord that my eyes may be
opened.
Some of those professors of religion who
were famous on earth I asked about, but no
one could tell me anything concerning them.
Their names were not even in the city dircc-
tory Of the New Jerusalem. The fact is that
suspected some of them had not got there at
all. Many who had ten talents were living
on the back streets of heaven, while many
with one talent had residences fronting on
the Kings park. and a back lawn stoping to
the river clear as crystal. aud the highest no.
bility of heaven were guests at their table,
and often the white horse OF Him who hath
the moon under His feet champed its bit at
their doorway. Infinite capsize of earthly
cOnditions All social life in heaven graded
according to earthly struggle and usefulness
as proportioned to talents given!
Aa | walked through those streets ] ap-
preciated for the first time what Paul said to
Timothy. 'If we suffer. we shall also reign
with Him." 1t surprised me beyond descrip-
tion that all the great Of heaven we're great
sufferers. ''Not all?' Yes, all. Moses, him
OF the Red Sea, a great sufferer. David. him
of Absalom's sunfilial behavior, and Ahitho-
phel's betrayal, and a Nations dethronement,
a great sufferer. Ezekiel, him of the captiv-
ity, who had the dream on the banks Of the
Chebar, great sufferer. Paul, him Of the
diseased eyes. and the Mediterranean ship
wreck. and the Mars Hill derision, and the
Mamertine endungeonmens, andthe whipped
back and the headsman's ak on the road to
Ostia, a great sufferer.
Yea. all the apostles after lives of suffering
died by violence, beaten to death with full
er's club, or dragged to death by mobs. or
from the thrust of sword. or by exposure
on a barren island. or by decapitation. All
the high up in heaven great sufferers. and
women more than men, Felicitas and ST. Ce-
celia and st. Agnes and St. Agatha and st.
Lucia and women never heard of out
side their own neighborhood. queens OF the
needle, and the broom, and the scrubbing
brush, and the washtub. and the dairy. re-