The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-01-25

know them. I remember one Sabbath af-
! ternoon, borne down with the sense of my
| sins and knowing not God, took up bod
( bridges Rise and Progress" On, what
dark afternoon it was, and I read the
chapters and I read the prayers, and
tried TO make the prayers my own. Oh, /
I must see Philip Doddridge. A glorious old
book ne wrote 1t is out of fashion now.
There is a mother before the throne of
God. You say her joy is full. Is it? You
say there can be no augmentation OF IL.
Cannot there be? Her son was wander
er and Vagabond on the earth when that
good mother died. He broke her old heart.
She died leaving him in the wilderness of
sin. She is before the throne of God now.
Years pass and that son repents of his
crimes and gives his heart to God and be-
comes a useful Christian. and dies and
enters the gates of heaven. You tell me
that that mothers JOY cannot be augment
ed. Let them confront each other, the
son and the mother. oh" she says TO
the angels of God, ''rejoice with mel The
dead is alive again, and the lost is found.
Halelujah! / never expected to see this
lost one come back" The Bible says ma
tons are to be born in day. When Chi
ma comes to God will it not know DR..
Abeel? When India comes. will it not
know Dr. John Scudder? When the In
dams come to God will they not know
David Brainerd?
see a soul entering heaven at last,
with covered face at the idea it has done
so little for Christ, and feeling borne down
with unworthiness. and it says to itself,
Il have no right to be here" A voice
from a throne says, "oh, you forget that
Sunday school class you invited to Christ!
l was one of them" And another voice
says you forget that poor man to whom
you gave a loaf of bread, and told OF the
heavenly bread. / was that man" And
another saws, 'you forget that sick one
70 medicine the hOdV
and the soul. l was that one" And then
Christ, from a throne overlapping all the
rest will say, "inasmuch as We did it to
one of the least of these, you did 1t to
me" And then the seraphs will take their
harps from the side of the throne, and
cry what song shall it be?" And Christ
bending over the harpers, shall say, 1t
shall be the Harvest Home!
one more reason why l am disposed to
accept this doctrine of future recognition
is that 50 many in their last hour on earth
have confirmed this theory. 1 speak not
of persons who have been delirious in their
last moment and knew not what they were
about, but of persons who died in calm
ness and placidity, and who were not nat
uraIly superstitious. Often the glories of
heaven have struck the dying pillow, and
the departing man has said he saw and
heard those who had gone away from
him. How often it is in the dying mo-
ments parents see their departed children
and children see their departed parents. /
came down to the banks of the Mohawk
river. 1t was evening, and l wanted to
go over the river, and~so waved my hat
and shouted and after awhile saw some
one waving on the opposite bank, and l
heard him shout, and the boat came
across and | got in and was transported.
And so l suppose it will be in the evening
of our life. We will come down to the
river of death and give a signal to our
/ TI,.a fI,ar a1,T mr.
give a signal back to us, and the boat
| comes. and our departed kindred are the
oarsmen, the fires of the setting day ting
ing the tops of the paddles.
OH have you never sat by such a death
| bed? In that hour you hear the departing
soul cry: ''Hark lookr' You hearkened
and you looked. little child pining
away because of the death of its mother,
| getting weaker and weaker every day, was
| taken into the room where hung the pic
| ture of her mother She seemed to enjoy
| looking at it, and then she was taken
| away. and after awhile died. In the last
moment that wan and wasted little one
! lifted her hands, while her face lghted
IN with the glory of the next world and
! cried out, "Mother!' Do you tell me she
! did not see her mother? She did. 50 in
my first settlement at Belleville plan
| man said to me: What do you think
! heard last night? was in the room
/ where one of my neighbors was dying.
! He was good man, ana he said he heard
! the angels of God singing before the
| throne. | haven't much poetry about me,
| but l listened and 1 heard them, too.
! Said l. Il have no doubt of it, why, we
are to be taken up to heaven at last by
| ministering spirits Who are they TO be?
| Souls that went up from Madras, or An
tioch. or Jerusalem? oh, no! our glorified
kindred are going to troop around us.
| Heaven is not stately, FORMAL pldce'
| frigidity of splendor, where people stahu
| on cold formalities and go around ABOUT
with heavy crowns of gold on their heads.
| No that is not my idea of heaven. My
| idea of heaven is more like this: You are
| seated i'm the evening tide by the fireplace,
| your whole family there or nearly all OF
| them there While you are seated talking
and enjoying the evening hour, there is a
| knock at the door and the door opens ana
| there comes in a brother that has oeeh
! long absent He has been absent, Tor
| wears Won have not seen him, and no
| sooner do YOU make up your mind that II
| is certainly he than you leap up, ana the
! question is who shall give him the first
| embrace That is my idea of heaven-a
| great home circle where they are waiting
for us Oh, will you not know your moth
| ars voice there? She who always called
/ ,,ou nv your first name long after others
| had given YOU the formal "Mister?' You
were never anything but James, or John,
or George or Thomas, or Mary, or Flor
ence TO her VIII you not know your
child's voice? She of the bright eye ana
The ruddv cheek. and the quiet step, who
came in from play and flung herself into
vcur lap, very shower of mirth and
beauty? Why, the picture is craven in
your soul 1t cannot wear out. If that
little one should stand on the other side
| of some heavenly hill and call to you, you
would hear her voice above the burst of
heavens great orchestra. Know it! You
| could not help but know it.
Now bring you this glorious consola-
tion of future recognition. If you could get
this theory into your heart it would lift
a great many shadows that are stretching
across It. When | was lad used to go
out to the railroad track and put my ear
down on the track and l could hear the
express train rumbling miles away, and
coming on; and to-day, my friends, if we
only had faith enough we could put our
ear down to the grave of our dead, and
I hon In hA afet he