The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-02-05


mon that am now preaching believes
in God of loving. kindly warning,
the God Of spring and winter, the God
of the Pleiades and Orion.
You must remember that the winter
is just as important as the spring. Let
one winter pass without frost to kill
vegetation and ice to bind the rivers
and snow to enrich our fields. and then
you will have to enlarge your hospitals
and your cemeteries. "A green Christ
mas makes a fat graveyard" was the
proverb. Storms to purify the air.
/ Thermometer at three degrees below
zero to tone up the system December
and January just as important as May
and June. | tell you We need the
storms of life as much as we do the
sunshine. There are more men ruined
I by prosperity than by adversely. If
we had our own way in life before this
we would have been representations OF
/ Seltishness and wOrldlineSS and dis
/ gushing sin. and pulled up until we
would have been like Julius Cesar.
/ who was made by sycOphants to believe
I that he was divine. and the freckles on
+ his face were said to be as the stars OF
/ the armament.
| Oh. what a mercy it is that in the
/ text and all up and down the Bible
( God induces US to look out toward
other worlds, Bible astronomy IN
/ Genesis. in Joshua. in job. in the
Psalms. in the prophets. major and
minor, in st. Johns Apocalypse. prac-
tically saying: Worlds. wOrldsi
worlds. Get ready for them" We
have a nice little world here that we
stick to. as though losing that we lose
all. We are afraid of falling off this
little raft of a world. We are afraid
that some meteOric iconoclast viii
some night smash il. and we want
everything to revOlve around IL. and
are disappointed when we find that it
revOlves around the sun instead of the
sun revolving around il. What a fuss
we make about this little bit of a
world. its existence only short time
between two spasms, the parOxysm by
which it was hurled from chaos into
order, and the paroxysm of its demOh-
ton.
When l read. I'm my Fathers house
dI L1AaLlN LldAi>lOA~- L tAO lAtl hlAON UuS
that each world is a room. and as many
rooms as there are worlds, stellar
stairs, stellar galleries, stellar hall
ways, stellar windows. stellar dOmeS.
How our departed friends must pity us
shut up in these cramped apartments.
tired if we walk - miles, when they
some morning. by one stroke of wing,
can Inske circuit of the whole stellar
system and be back in time for matinsl
Perhaps yOnder twinkling cOnstella-
ton is the residence of the martyrs,
that group of II luminaries may be the
celestial home of the apostles. Per
haps that steep of light is the dwell
ing-place of angels cherubic, seraphic,
archangelic. A mansion with as many
rooms as worlds, and all their windows
illuminated for festivitv.
o, how this widens and lifts and
stimulates our expectation. How little
it makes the present, and how stupen-
dous it makes the future. How it con-
soles US about our pious dead. that in
stead of being boxed up and under the
ground have the range of as many
rooms as there are worlds. and welcome
everywhere. for it is the Fathers house,
in which there are many mansions. o,
Lord God of the Seven Stars and Orion.
how can | endure the transport. the
ecstacy, of such a vision, | must obey
my text and seek Him. will seek Him.
| seek Him now, for / call to mind that
it is not the material universe that is
most valuable, but the spiritual, and
4hof aaoh Of hoo l,rr1
than all the worlds which the inspired
herdsman saw from his booth on the
hills of Tekoa.
had studied it before. but the Cathe-
dral of Cologne. Germany. never i'm
pressed me as it did one summer. 1t is
admittedly the grandest Gothic struc-
ture in the world. its foundation laid
in 124s, only few years ago completed.
More than 600 years in building. All
Europe taxed for its construction. It's
chapel of the Magi with precious
dom. Its chapel Of st. Agnes with
masterpieces of painting. Its spire
springing Sill feet into the Heavens
Its stained glass the chorus of all
rich cOlOrs. Statues encircling the pill
lars and encircling all. Statues above
statues, until sculpture can do no more,
but faints and falls back against
carved stalls and down on pavements
over which the kings and queens of the
earth have walked to confessional.
Nave and sisles and transept and pOr-
tails combining the splendOrs of sun
rise and sunset. Interlaced. interfoli-
ated, intercolumned grandeur. As I
stood outside, looking at the double
range of flying buttresses and the
forest of pinnacles, higher and higher
and higher, until l almost reeled from
dizziness: l exclaimed: Great dOx-
Ology in stone, Frozen prayers Of
many nationsr
But while standing there I saw a
poor man enter and put down his pack
and kneel beside his burden on the
hard floor Of that cathedral And tears
Of deep emotion came into nv eyes as
l said TO myself. There Is a soul worth
more than all the material surround
l.