The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1898-03-11

place compared with the world OF the
lost, for, according to your teaching, the
majority of men will be destroyed. F" l
deny the charge. 1 suppose that the
multitude of the finally lost, as COM
pared with the multitude of the finally
saved, will be handful. suppose that
the few sick people in the hospital today
as compared with the hundreds Of thou
sands of we'll 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 assembled 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
hundred and forty and four thousand
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 I;
those tumbled from high scatfoldings 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's 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 a feldglass and sees in the
great distance multitudes approaching,
but has no idea of their numbers. He
says: 81 cannot tell anything about
them. merely know that there are a
great number" And SO John, without
attempting to count, says, "a 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 il
only half f1edged thing, 1owery path
with serpent kissing across it, 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 {
river. We stand on the grassy bank
We see the waters flow on with cease
less wave. But the filth of the cities ii
emptied into it, and the banks are torn
and unhealthy exhalations spring NJ
from it, and we fail to get an idea o
the river of life in heaven.
We get very imperfect ideas of thu
reunions Of heaven. We think of SOM
festal day ON earth when father ant
mother were yet living and the children
came home. A good time that! Blu
it had this draw baok-all were no
there. That brother went off to sea ant
never was heard from. That sister-dit
we not lay her away in the freshness o
her young life, never more in this worlt
to look upon her? All, there was skel
eton at the feast, and tears mingleu
with our laughter ON that Christina
day. Not so with heaven S reunions.
will be an uninterrupted gladness
Many a Christian parent will loo