The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1896-07-24

] upon our lips as q sacrament ana upon
our forehead as crown, and that is
) the name of Jesus, our divine Jona-
} than, who stripped Himself OF HIS
: robe and put on our rags, and gave us
, His sword and took our broken reed.
so that now, whether we are well or
! sick, whether we are living or dying,
, If we speak that name it moves Heaven
to the center, and God says: Let the
poor soul come in. Carry him up into
the throne room of the palace. Though
he may have been in exile, though sin
may have crippled him on this side,
and sorrow may have crippled him on
the other side, and he is lame in both
his feet, bring him up into the palace,
for 1 want to show him everlasting
kindness for Jonathan's sake.
! Again: Mephibosheth in my text
stands for the disabled human soul
lifted to the Kings table. 1t was more
difficult in those times even than it is
now for common men to get into a
royal dining room. The subjects might
have come around the rail of the PAL
ace and might have seen the lights
kindled, and might have heard the clash
of the knives and the rattle of the gold
en- goblets, but not get in. Stout men
with stout feet could not get in all
their lives to one banquet. yet poor
Mephibosheth goes in, lives there, and
is every day at the table. Oh, what
getting up in the world it was for poor
Mephibosheth! Well, though you and
| 1 may be woefully famed with sin, for
our divine Jonathan's sake, hope we
will all get in to dine with the King.
Before dining we must be intro
duced. If you are invited to COM
pany of persons where there are dis
tinguished people present, you are in
troduced: ''This is the senator" This
is the governor" "This is the presi-
dent" Before we sit down ut the
Kings table in Heaven think we will
want to be introduced. Oh, what
time that will be, when you and l, by
grace of God, get into Heaven,
and are introduced to the mighty
spirits there, and some one will say:
"This is Joshua" "This is Paul. ""This
is Moses. "This is John Knox" ..This
is John Milton" This is Martin Luz
Their" This is George Whitefeld."
Oh, shall we have any strength left
after such a round of celestial intro-
duction? Yea! We shall be potentates
ourselves. Then we shall sit down at
the Kings table with the sons
and daughters of God, and one
will whisper across the table to-
us and say: "Behold what mani
,f ha Eo% haf ho-
slowed upon us that we should be-
called the sons of God!' and someone
at the table will say: How long will
it last? All other banquets at which
sat ended. How long will this last?"
and Paul will answer "Forever!" and
Joshua will say "Forever!" and John
Knox will say "Foreverl" and George
Whitefield will say "Forever!"
And the wine at that banquet will be
old wine; it will be very old wine; it
will be the oldest wine of Heaven; it
will be the wine that was trodden out
from the red clusters on the day when
Jesus trod the wine press alone. Wine
already more than eighteen centuries
old. And no one will deride us as to
what we were in this world. No one
will bring up our imperfections
here, our sins here. All our earthI
ly imperfections completely covered up
and hidden. Mephibosbeth's feet un-
der the table. Kingly fare. Kingly
vesture. Kingly companionship. We,
shall reign forever and ever. think
that banquet will mean more to those
who had it hard in this world than to
those who had it easy. That banI
quet in David's palace meant more
to Mephibosheth than to anyone
else, because he had been poor
and crippled, and despised, and re-
iected And that man who in this
world is blind will better appreciate
the light of Heaven than we who in |
this world had good eyesight. And
that man who in this world was deaf
will better appreciateothe music of
Heaven than we who in this world had
good hearing. And those will have q
higher appreciation of the easy locomo-
ton of that land who in this world |
were pMephibosheths.
o my soul, what magnificent Gcs-
pell 1t takes a man SO low down and |
raises him SO high. What a Gospel |
Come now, who wants to be banqueted |
and empalaced? AS when Wilberforce
was trying to get the emancipation
bill" through the British parliament,
and all the British isles were |
anxious to hear of the passage of the |
emancipation bill, when vessel was
coming into port and the captain of
the vessel knew that the people were |
SO anxious to get the tidings, he step-
ped out on the prov of the ship and
shouted to the people, long before he
got mp to the dock: "Freer' and they |