Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-07-14

OF this world as Paradise Is ahead Of DRY
Tortugas, and yet here we stand trembling
and fearing to go out, and We want to stay
on the dry sand, and amid the stormy
jessamfne, and birds Of paradise.
One season had two springtimes. I
went to New Orleans in April, and marked
the differences between going toward New
Orleans and then coming back. As went
the foliage, became thicker and moro
beautiful. When came back. the further
7 came toward home the less the foliage,
and less 1t became until there was hardly
any. Now, 1t all depends upon the dtrec-
ton in which you travel. Il spirit from
Is travelling from June toward ID december,
from radiance toward darkness, from hang
ing gardens toward tcebergs. And one
would not be very much surprised II
spirit Of God sent forth from heaven to-
ward our world should be slow to come.
But how strange 1t is that we dread going
out toward that world when going Is from
December toward June-from the snow OF
earthly storm TO the snow OF Edentc bios
som-from the arctics Of trouble toward the
tropics Of eternal Joy. - r.. -. .ss'-''s
Oh, what an ado about dyingi We get so
attached to the malarial marsh in which
we live that We are afraid to go up and
live on the hilltop. We are alarmed be-
cause vacation is coming. Best programme
Of celestial minstrels md hallelujah, no In
ducement. Let US stay here and keep ig-
norant and sinful and weak. Do not In
troduce us to Elijah, and John Milton and
Bourdalone. Keep our feet on the sharp
cobblestones of earth instead OF planting
them on the bank of amaranth In heaven.
Give US this small Island Of q leprous world
instead of the immensities of splendor and
delight. Keep our hands full of nettles,
and our shoulder under the burden, and
our neck in the yoke, and hopples on our
ankles, and handouts on our wrists.
Dear Lord" we seen to say, "keep US
down here where we have to suffer, instead
of letting us up where we might live and
reign and rejoice"
We are like persons standing on the cold
steps Of the national picture gallery In
London, under umbrella In the ruin, afraid
to 60 in amid the Turner's and the Titians,
and the Raphaels.--I come to them and
say. why don't you go inside the gal
whether we can get in." I say: "Don't
you see the door is open?" "Yes," they
say; ''but we have been so long on these
cold steps, we are so attached to them we
don't like to leave" "But,"I say, sit is
much brighter and more beautiful in the
gallery, you had better go in.'' no."
they say, 1--WE know exactly how It is out
here, but We don't know exactly how 1t Is
inside.''
So we stick to this world as though we
preferred cold drizzle to warm habitation,
discord to cantata, sackcloth to royal pur-
pleas though we preferred piano with
four or FIVE OF the keys out OF tune to an in
strument fully attuned-as though earth
and heaven had exchanged apparel, and
earth had taken on bridal array and
heaven had gone into deep mourning, all
its waters stagnant, all iits harps broken,
all chalices cracked at the dry wells, all
IN In oil y n ri nj n WI
graves with dead angels under the furrow
am amazed at myself and at yourself
for this infatuation under which we all
rest. Men you would suppose would get
frightened at having to stay in this world
instead OF getting frightened at having to
to me as to any living man, but congrat-
ulate anybody who has right to die. By
that mean through sickness you cannot
| avert, or through accident you cannot
| avoid--your work consummated. where
did they bury Lily?" said one little child
to another. "Oh," she replied, "they
buried her in the ground" "What! in the
cold ground?" "Oh, no, no; not in the cold
| ground, but in the warm ground. where
ugly seeds become beautiful flowers"
But" says some one, lit pains me so
| much to think that l must lose the body
| with which my soul has SO long compan-
| ioned." You do not lose it. You no more
lose your body by death than you lose your
| watch when you send 1t to have 1t repaired,
or your jewel when you send 1t to have it
| reset, or the faded picture when you send
1t to have it touched up, or the photograph
of friend when you have it put In q new
locket. You do not lose your body. Paul
will go to Rome to get his, Payson will go
| to Portland to get his President Edwards
will GO. to Princeton to get his, George
Goodman will go to the bottom Of the At
lantic to get his. and We will go to the vii
lar al, rl.o tI,aA Att -,
| to get ours; and when we have our perfect
spirit rejoined to our perfect body then we
will be the kind Of men and women that
the resurrection morning will make pos
sible.
SO you see you have not made out any
about death? What is the case you have
made out? You have made out just this
that death allows us to have q perfect
body, free of all aches, united forever with
a perfect soul free from all sin. Correct
your theology. What does 1t all mean?
Why, it means that moving-day is coming,
and that you are going to quit cramped
apartments and be mansioned forever.
The horse that stands at the gate will not
be the one lathered and bespattered, car
rying bad news, but 1t will be the horse
that St.pohn saw in Apocalyptic vision
to the banquet. The ground around the
palace will quake with the tires and hoofE
of celestial equipage, and those Christians
who in this wrold lost their friends, and
lost their property, and lost their health,
and lost their life, will find out that God
was always kind, and that all things
worked together for their good, and that
those were the wisest people on earth who
made the best Of everything. See you not
now the bright light in the clouds?
WAR COST TO DATE.