The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1897-02-13

ever had There are two sermons
never want to preach-the one thai
presents God so kind, SO indulgent, sc
lenient, SO i'm beetle that men may dc
what they will against Him, and frac
ture His every law, and put the pry OF
their impertinence and rebellion under
His throne, and while they are splitting
in His face and stabbing at His heart,
He takes them up in His arms and
kisses their Infatuated brow and cheek,
saving: "Of such is the Kingdom OF
Heaven" The other kind of sermon
never want to preach is the one that
represents God as all fire and torture
and thunder cloud, and with red-hot
pitchfork tossing the human race into
paroxysms of infinite agony. The SER
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 remem Der 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 fat graveyard" was the
old 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
by prosperity than by adversely. Ii we
had our own way in life, before this
we would have been representations
of selfishness and wordliness and dis
gushing sin, and pulled up until we
would have been like julius Caesar,
who was made by sycophants to be-
lieve that he was divine, and the
freckles on his face were said to be as
the stars of the armament
When read I'm my Fathers house
are many mansions" do not know
but that each world is a room, and as
many rooms as there are worlds,
stellar stairs, stellar galleries, stellar
Railways, stellar windows, stellar
domes. How are departed friends
must pity us shut up in these
cramped apartments, tired If we
walk fifteen miles, when they
some mornings by one stroke of
wing, can make circuit of the whole
stellar system and be back in time for
mathis! Perhaps yonder twipkling
constellation is the residence OF the
martyrs: that group of twelve lumi-
naries may be the celestial home of
the apostles. Perhaps that steep of
light is the dwelling place of angels
cherubic, seraphic. archangelic. A
mansion with rs many rooms as worlds,
and all their windows illuminated for
festivity.
Oh, how this widens and lifts and
stimulates our expectation! How little
it makes the present, and how stupen-
dous il 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! Oh, Lord
God of the Seven Stars and Orion,
ecstasy. of such vision. | must obey
my text and seek Him. l will seek
Him. ! seek Him now, for / ca II to
mind that it is not the material uni
verse that is most valuab BILE, b ut the
spiritual, and that each of us has
soul worth more than all the worlds
which the inspired herdsmen saw from
his booth on the hills of Tekoa
had studied it before, but the ca
thedral of Cologne, Germany, never
impressed Inc as it did one summer.
1t is admittedly the grandest Gothic
structure in the world, its foundation
laid in 124s, only a few years ago COM
pleted. More than 600 years in build
ing. All Europe taxed for it's con-
struction. Its chapel of the Magi,
with precious stones enough to
purchase kingdom Its chapel
of st. Agnes with masterpieces
of painting. Its spire springing
81 feet into the heavens. Its stained
glass the chorus of all rich colors.
Statues encircling the pillars and en-
circling 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 aisles and transept and
portals combining the splendors of
sunrise and sunset. Interlaced, inter-
foliated, intercolumned grandeur. As
l stood outside, looking at the dou BILE
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 prayer of
many nationsr'
But while standing there 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 my ewes. as
l said to myself: "There is a soul
worth more than all the mate rial sur
roundings. That man will live after
the last pinnacle has fallen,
and not one stone of all that
cathedral glory shall remain un.