Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1898-01-05

and Society Islands and the Marshall
| and Gilbert groups. But more slowly
and wonderfully accumulative is
grace in the heart. You sometimes
get discouraged because the upbuild-
ing by the soul does not go on more
rapidly. Why, you have all eternity
| to build in! The little annoyances Of
life are zoophyte builders, and there
will be small layer on top Of small lay
er. and fossilized grief on the top Of
fossilized grief. Grace does not go up
rapidly in your soul. but. blessed be
God, 1t goes up. Ten thousand million
ages will not finish you. You will
never be finished. On forever! Up
| forever! Out of the sea of earthly dis
quietude will gradually rise the reefs,
the islands. the continents, the hem
ispheres of grandeur and glory. Men
talk as though in this life we only had
time to build; but what we build in
this life. as compared with what we
shall build in the next life, is as
striped shell to Australia. You go into
an architects study and there you see
the sketch Of temple, the corner
stone OF which has not yet been laid.
| 0, that l could have an architectural
sketch OF what you will be after eter-
nifty has wrought upon you! What
pillars Of strength! What affairs Of SUI
pernal worship! What pinnacles
thrusting their glittering spikes into
the sun that never sets! You do not
scold the corallines because they can
not build an island in day. Why
should you scold yourself because you
cannot complete temple of holiness
FOR the heart in this short lifetime?
you tell me we do not amount to
much now, but try us after a thou
sand million ages of hallelujah. Let
us hear the angels chant for a mil
lion centuries. Give us an eternity
with God. and then see If we do not
amount to something. More slowly
and marvelously accumulative is the
grace in the soul than anything can
think of. "No mention shall be made
of coral"
Again. take your hand, and we
"oAh Oh OuSn tnlS BdIutu VI llS
sea and look more particularly than
we did at the beauty of the coral. The
poets have all been fascinated with it.
One of them wrote:
There. with Sroad and easy motion,
The fan coral sweeps through the
clear deep sea,
And the yellow and scarlet tufts OF the
ocean
Are bent like corn on the uplanl
lea."
One specimen Of coral Is called the
dendrophilia, because it is like tree;
another is called the astrara, because
II Is like star; another Is called the
brain coral, because it is like the con-
yolutions OF the human brain; another
is called the fan coral, because it is
like the instrument with which you
cool yourself on a hot day; another
specimen is called the organ pipe coral.
because 1t resembles the king of mu-
steal instrument. All the flowers and
all the shrubs in the gardens of the
Aoha hoFO thCiA SOilCSPOuQtuCltS III
this garden Of the sea. Corallum: 1t
is synonym for beauty. And yet
there is no beauty in the coral com
pared with our religion. 1t gives
physiognomic beauty. It does not
change the features; 1t does not give
features with which the person was
not originally endowed, but it sets
behind the features of the homeliest
person a heaven that shines clear
through. So that often, on first ac-
Quaintance, you said Of man: "He
is the homeliest person l ever saw"
when, after you come to understand
him and his nobility of soul shining
through his countenance, you said:
'He is the lovel.est person l ever saw"
No one ever had a homely Christian
mother. Whatever the world may
have thought of her. there were two
who thought well-your father, who
had admired her for fifty years, and
you, over whom she bent with so many
tender ministrations. When you think
of the angels Of God, and your mother
among them, she outshines them all.
Oh. that our young people could un-
derstand that so much beauties the
human countenance as the religion CT
Jesus Christ! 1t makes everything
beautiful. Trouble beautiful. Sick
ness beautiful. Disappointment beau
tiful. Everything beautiful.
Near my early home there was a
place called the 1.-TWO Bridges" These
bridges leaped the two streams. Well,
my friends the religion Of Jesus
Christ is two bridges. it bridges all
the past. 1t arches and oyerspans all
the future. 1t makes the dying pill
low the landing place of angels fresh
from glory. 1t turns the sepulchre
into a May-time orchard. 1t catches
up the dying into full orchestra Cor
alum! And yet that does not express
the beauty: mo mention shall he
made of coral"
take your hand again, and walk a
little further on in this garden of the
sea, and l notice the durability of the
work of the coral. Montgomery