Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-02-12


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 strange and vivid glow in
the room. Not the light Of chandelier
or star or MONDAY sun, but some hing
that outshines all Of them. 1t must be
the presence of supernaturals. From
her illumined face I think she must hear
sweet voices. Yea, she does hear sweet
voices-voices of departed kindred,
voices apostolic and proshetic and evan
gelic, but all of them overpowered by
the voice of Christ, saying, Come, We
blessed of my Father, inherit the king
DOM"
From her illumined face, L think she
must hear rapturous music. Yea. she
does hear rapturous music, now soft as
solos, now thunderouS as OrchestraS;
now saintlyvoice alone, now the hun
dred and forty and four thousand in con-
cert. From her illumined face, think
she must breathe redolence. Yea, she
does inhale aroma from off the gardens
whose flowers never wither and from the
blossoms of orchards, every tree of which
bears 10 manner of fruit. From her
illumined face, think she must see a
glorious sight. Yes, she sees the wall that
has Jasper at the base and amethyst at
the top and blood red rubies between.
Goodby, 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 grandeursl 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 asserted in
this mornings text, wisdom is better
than rubies.''
In those FURNISHED palaces of our God
may we all meet. For I 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.
Ny one idea of heaven is the place to
meet old friends, God, our best friend,
and our earthly friends already trans
ported. Aye, to meet the millions whom
l have never seen, but to whom have
administered in the gospel week by week
through journalism on both sides of the
sea, and throughout Christendom, and
through many lands yet semibarbaric.
A MIGHTY AUDIENCE.
For the last twenty-three years every
blast of injustice against me has multi
piled my readers all the world over, and
the present malignancy printed and ut
tered because our church is in financial
struggle after having two great struc-
lures destroyed by fire and we COM
PEELED to build three large churches-I
say the present outrageous injustice in
some quarters will multiply my audience
in all lands if l can keep in good humor
and not fight back.
A gentleman tapped me on the shoulder
summer before last on a street of Edin-
burgh, Scotland, and said, Il live in the
Shetland islands, North Scotland, and l
read your sermons every Sabbath to an
audience Of neighbors, and my brother
lives in Cape Town, South Africa, and |
he reads them every Sabbath TO an audi |
ence of his neighbors" And / hear and |
now say to the fortTInillions 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 oppo- |
site sides of the earth, to greet each 9TH !
er IN holy love in the presence Of the glo-
rious 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, i
and the scepters; give Us our old friends
back again, Christ, 1.-THE friend who |
sticketh closer than q brother" and all |
the kindred who have gone up from our I
bereft households, and all our friends |
whom we have never yet seen, and you |
may have all the ruDies, for that will be |
''better than rubies."
Instead of the dying kiss when they |
looked SO pale and wan and sick, it |
would be the kiss Of welcome on lips ju- |
bilant with song, while standing on
floors paved with what exquisiteness,
under ceilings hung with what glory, /
bounded by walls facing us with what |
splendor, amid gladness rolling over us
with what doxology-far better, infn- /
itely better, everlastingly better than ru-
bieS!