Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-03-07


deny the charge. I suppose that the
multitude of the finally lost, as COM
pared with the multitude Of the finally
saved, will be handful. Isuppose that
the few sick people in the hospital today
as compared with the hundreds of thou
sands of well people in the city would
not be smaller than the number Of those
who shall be cast out IN suffering COM
pared with those who shall have upon
them the health of heaven. For we are
to remember that we are living in COM
paratively the beginning of the Chris
tian dispensation, and that this world
is to be populated and redeemed, and
that ages of light and love are to flow
on. If this be so, the multitudes Of the
saved will be in vast majority.
Take all the congregations that have
today assem- bled for worship. Put them
together and they would make but
small audience compared with the thou
sands, and tens of thousands, and ten
thousand times ten thousand, and the
that shall stand around the throne.
Those flashed up to heaven in martyr
fires; those tossed for many years upon
the invalid couch; those fought in the
armies of liberty and rose as they fell
those tumbled from high scaffoldings or
slipped from the mast or were washed
off into the sea. They came up from
Corinth, from Laodicea, from the Red
sea bank and Genesareth' IS wave, from
Egyptian brickyards and Gideon's
thrashing floor Those, thousands of
years ago, slept the last sleep, and these
are this moment having their eyes clos
ed and their limbs stretched out for the
sepulcher.
A general expecting an attack from
the enemy stands on hill and looks
through fieldglass and sees in the
great distance multitudes approaching,
but has no idea of their numbe He
says: "I cannot tell anything about
them. I merely know that there are a
great number And so John, without
attempting to count, says, ga great
multitude that no man can number. -
JOY of Heaven.
We are told that heaven is place of
happiness, but what do we know about
happiness? Happiness in this world is
only half fedged thing, fowery path
with serpent kissing across it, a bro
ken pitcher from which the water has
dropped before we could drink it, thrill
of exhilaration, followed by disastrous
reactions. To help us understand the
Joy Of heaven the Bible takes us to o
river. We stand on the grassy bank.
We see the waters flow on with cease
less wave. But the filth of the cities is
emptied into it, and the banks are torn,
and unhealthy ezhalations spring up
from it, and we fail to get an idea of
the river of life in heaven.
We get very imperfect ideas of the
reunions of heaven. We think of some
festal day on earth when father and
mother were yet living and the children
came home. A good time that! But
it had this draw back-all were not
there. That brother went off to sea and
never was heard from. That sister-did
we not lay her away in the freshness Of
her young life, never more in this world
to look upon her? All, there was skel-
eton at the feast, and tears mingled
with our laughter on that Christmas
day. Not SO with heaven reunions It
will be an uninterrupted gladness.
Many a Christian parent will look
around and find all his children there.
"Ah," he says, ''can it be possible that
we are all here-life's perils over? The
Jordan passed and not one wanting?
Why, even the prodigal is here. I al
spised my counsels! But grace hath tri
umphed. All here, all here! Tell the
mighty joy through the city. Let the
bells ring and the angels mention it in
their song. Wave it from the top of the
walls. All here!"
Face to Face.
No more breaking of heartstrings,
but face to face. The orphans that were
left poor and in a merciless world,
kicked and cuffed of many hardships,
shall join their parents, over whose
graves they SO long wept. and gaze into
their glorified countenances forever, face
to face. We may come up from differ
ent parts of the world, one from the
land and another from the depths of
the sea, from lives af1uent and prosper
Gus, Or from scenes of ragged distress,
but we shall all meet in rapture and
jubilee, face to face.
Many of our friends have entered
upon that joy. A few days ago they sat
with us studying these gospel themes,
but they only saw through glass, dark
ly. Now revelation hath come. Your
time will also come. God will not
leave you foundering in the darkness
You stand wonder struck and amazed
Y on feel as if all the loneliness of life
were dashed out. You stand gazing into
the open chasm of the grave. Wait
little. In the presence of your departed
and of him who carries them in his
bosom you shall soon stand face to face
Oh, that our last hour may kindle up
with this promised joy! May we be
able to say, like the Christian not long
ago denartiI1g. "ThOugh a pilgrim