Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-08-08


How many heavens there are know
not, but there are at least three, for
Paul was caught up into the third
Heaven"
Christ came down from the highest
Heaven to the second Heaven, and
down from second Heaven to first
Heaven, down swifter than meteors
ever fell, down amidst stellar splendors
that himself eclipsed, down through
clouds, THROUGH atmospheres, through
appalling space, down to where there
was no lower depth. From being
waited on at the banquet of the skies,
to the broiling of fish for His own
breakfast, on the banks of the lake.
From emblazoned chariots of eternity
to the saddle of mules back.
From the homage cherublc, SER
aphic, archangelic, to the paying
of 621S cents of tax to Cesar.
From the deathless country to a tomb
built to hide human dissolution. The
uplifted wave of Galilee was high, but
He had to come down before, with His
feet, He could touch it, and the whirl-
higher yet, but He had to come down
before with His lip He could kiss it
into quiet Bethlehem STOPPING
down. Nazareth a STOPPING down.
Death between two burglars stoop-
ing down. Yes, it was in consonance
with humiliations that went before
and self-abnegations that came after,
when on that memorable day in Herod's
temple He stopped down and wrote on
the ground.
Whether the words He was writing
were in Greek or Latin or Hebrew,
can not say, for He knew all those lam
guages But He is still STOPPING down,
and with His finger writing on the
ground; in the winter in letters of
crystal, in the spring in letters of
flowers, in summer in golden letters of
harvest, in autumn in letters of fire on
fallen leaves. How it would sweeten
up and enrich and emblazon this world,
could we see Christ's caligraphy all
over it. This world was not flung out
into space thousands of years ago, and
then left to look out for itself. It is
still under the Divine care. Christ
never for half second takes His
hand off of it, or it would soon be a
shipwrecked world. defunct world,
an obsolete world an abandoned
world, a dead world. ''Let there be
light" was said at the beginning. And
Christ stands under the wintry skies
and says, let there be snow axes to
enrich the earth; and under the clouds
of spring and says, come We blossoms
and make redolent the orchards; and
in September, dips the branches in the
vat of beautiful colors, and swings
them into the hazy air. No within of
mine is this. without Him was not
anything made that was made" Christ
writing on the ground.
If you could see His hand in all the
passing seasons, how it would illumine
the world! All verdure and foliage
would be allegoric, and again we would
hear Him say, as of old: Consider the
lilies of the field, how they grow and
we would not hear in the whistle of a
quail or the cawing of a raven or the
roundelay of brown-thresher, with
out saying: Behold the fowls of the
air, they gather not in barns, yet your
Heavenly Father feedeth Them and
Dominic hen Of the barnyard could not
cluck for her brood, but we would hear
Christ saying, as Of old: "How often
would have gathered thy children to-
gether, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings;' and
through the redolent hedges we would
hear Christ saying: II am the rose of
Sharon" we could not dip the season.
ing from the salt-cellar without think
ing of the Divine suggestion: "Ye are.
the salt of the earth, but if the salt
hath lost it's SAVIOR, it is fit for nothing
but to be cast out and trodden under
foot of men,"
Let us wake from our stupidity and
take the whole world as a parable.
Then, if with gun and pack of hounds
we start off before dawn, and see the
morning coming down off the hills to
meet us, we would cry out with the
evangelist: ''The day spring from on
high hath visited US; or caught in a
snow storm, while struggling home,
eyebrows and beard and apparel all
covered with the whirling flakes, we
would cry out with David: "Wash me
and / shall be whittier than snow" In
picture gallery Of Europe there is on
the ceiling an exquisite fresco, but the
people having to look straight up, it
wearied and dizzied them and bent
their necks almost beyond endurance;
so great looking-glass was put near
the floor, and now visitors only need
to look easily down into the mirror,
and they see the fresco at their feet.
And so, much of the high Heaven of
Gods truth is reflected in this world as
in mirror, and things that are above
are copied by things that are around
us.
What right have we to throw away
one of Gods Bibles-aye, the first Bible
He ever gave the race? We talk about
the Old Testament and the New Tesla
ment, but the oldest Testament con-
tains the lessons of the natural world.
Some people like the New Testament SO
well they discard the Old Testament.
Shall we like the New Testament and