Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-02-11

Father and mother, with interlocked arms,
like INTERVENING branches of trees, max
ing perpetual arbor of love and peace and
kindness, then 1 will forget thee; then,
and only then. You know, my brother,
that 100 times you have been kept out of
sin by the memory Of such a scene as
have been describing. You have often had
raging temptations, but you know what
has held you with supernatural grasp.
tell you n man who has had such a good
home as that never gets over it, and man
who has had bad early home never gets
over that.
Home and Heaven.
Again, remark that home Is type of
heaven. To bring us to that home Christ
left his home. Far up and far back in the
history of heaven there came period when
its most illustrious citizen was about to
absent himself. He was not going to sail
from beach to beach. We have often done
that. He was not going to put out from
one hemisphere to another hemisphere.
Many of us have done that. But he was
to sail from world to world, the spaces un-
explored and immensities untraveled No
world had ever hailed heaven, and heaven
had never hailed any other world. think
that the windows and the balconies were
thronged and that the pearly beach was
crowded with those who had come to see
him sail out of the harbor of light into the
oceans beyond. Out and out and out, and
on and on and on, and down and down
and down he sped, until one night, with
only one to greet him, he arrived. His
Decentralization so unpretending, SO
| quiet, that it was not known on earth un-
til the excitement in the cloud gave init
nation that something grand and glorious
had happened. Who comes thereP From
what port did he sail? Why was this the
place of his destination? I question the
] shepherds. I question the camel drivers.
l question the angels. 1 have found out.
| He was an exile. But the world has had
plenty of exiles. Abraham, an exile from
Ur Of the Chaldees; John, an exile from
| Ephesus; Kosciusko, an exile from Po-
land; Mazzini, an exile from Rome; En-
met, an exile from Ireland; Victor Hugo,
an exile from France; Kossuth, an exile
from Hungary. But this one of whom
speak today had such resounding farewell
and came into such chilling reception-for
not even a hostler went out with his Ian
tern to help him in-that he is more to be
celebrated than any other expatriated one
of earth or heaven.
1t is $4,000, 900 miles from here to the
sun, and all astronomers agree in saying
that our solar system is only one of the
small wheels of the great machinery of the
universe, turning round some great center
SO far distant it is beyond all imagination
and calculation, and if, as some think,
that great center in the distance is heaven
Christ came far from home when he came
here Have you ever thought of the home
sickness of Christi Some of you know
what homesickness is when you have been
only few weeks absent from the domes-
tic circle Christ was 33 years away from
home. Some of you feel homesickness when
you are 100 or 1000 miles away from the
domestic circle Christ was more millions
of miles away from home than you could
calculate if all your life you did nothing
but calculate You know what it is to be
homesick even amid pleasurable surround
| ings, but Christ slept in huts, and he was
athirst, and he was a-hungered, and he
was on the way from being born in one
mans barn to being buried in another
mans grave. I have read how the Swiss,
when they are far away from their native
country, at the sound of their national air
| get so homesick that they fall into melan-
choly, and sometimes they die under the
homesickness. But, oh, the homesickness
of Christi Poverty, homesick for celestial
| riches Persecution, homesick for hosanna.
WEAKNESS, homesick for rest Homesick
for angelic and archangelic companion
ship. Homesick to go out of the night and
out of the storm and the worlds execra-
tion, and all that homesickness suffered to
get us home.
At our best estate we are only pilgrims
and strangers here Heaven is our home. :"
Death will never knock at the door of that
mansion, and in all that country there is
not q single grave. How glad parents are
in holiday time to gather their children
home again. But / have noticed that al
most always there is son or a daughter
absent-absent from home, perhaps absent
from the country, perhaps absent from the
world. Oh, how glad our heavenly Father
will be when he gets all his children home
with him in heayen And how delightful
it will be for brothers and sisters to meet
after long separation! Once they parted at
the door of Immortality. Once they saw
only Through a glass darkly;" now it is
'face to face" corruption, interruption;
mortality, Immortality. Where are now
all their sins and sorrows and troublesp
Overwhelmed in the Red sea of death
while they passed through dry shod.
The Final Welcome.
Gates of pearl capstones of amethyst,
| thrones of dominion do not stir my soul SO
much as the thought of home Once there,
let earthly sorrows howl like storms and
roll like seas. Homel Let thrones rot and
empires wither. Home! Let the world die
in an earthquake struggle and be buried
amid procession of planets and dirge of
spheres. Home! Let everlasting ages roll
In irresistible sweep. Home No sorrow,
no crying, no tears, no death, but home,
sweet home; home, beautiful home, ever
lasting home, home with each other, home
with angels, home with God
One night, lying on my lounge when
very tired, my children all around about
me in full romp and hilarity and laughter
on the lounge, half awake and half
asleep, dreamed this dream: was in
far country. 1t was not Persia, although
more than oriental luxuriance crowned the
cities. 1t was not the tropics, although
more than tropical fruitfulness filled the
gardens. 1t was not Italy, although more
than Italian softness filed the air. And 1
wandered around looking for thorns and
nettles, but I found that none of them
grew there, and l saw the sun rise, and
watched to see it set, but it sank not.
And 1 saw the people in holiday attire,
and 1 said, "When will they put off this
and put on workmen's garb and again
delve in the mine or swelter at the forge?"
But they never put off the holiday attire.
And wandered in the suburbs of the
| city to find the place where the dead sleep,
and looked all along the line of the beau
tiful hills, the place where the dead might
most blissfully sleep, and I saw towers
and castles. but not mausoleum Or O
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