The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-03-15

but little idea of the number Of the
righteous in heaven. Infdels say,
Your heaven will be a very small
place compared with the world of the
lost, for. according TO your teaching.
the majority of men will be destroy
ed" / deny the charge. / suppose
that the multitude of the finally lost,
as compared with the multitude OF the
finally saved. will be a handful. /
suppose that the few sick people in
the hospital today as compared with
the hundreds of thousands Of we'll
people in the city would not be small
er than the number Of those who shall
be cast out in suffering compared
with those who shall have upon them
the health of heaven. For w are TO
remember that We are living in COM
pa~ratively 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. II 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 a small audience compared with
the thousands, 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; those tumbled f'om
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
Cenesareth's waye,s from Egyptian
brickyards and Gideon's t~hrashing
floor. Those. thousands of years ago,
slept the last sleep, and these are this
moment having their eyes closed and
their limbs stretched out for the sep
ulcher.
A general expecting an attack from
the enemy stands on a hill and looks
through a feldglass and sees in the
great distance multitudes approach
ing, but has no idea of their numbers.
He says: Il cannot tell anything
about them. I merely know that there
are a great number" And so John,
without attempting to count says, "A
great multitude that no man can num-
ber."
JOY IN HEAVEN.
We are told that heaven is a place
of happiness, but what do we now
about happiness? Happiness in this
world is only a half fiedged thing, a
1owry path with a serpent Kissing
across it, a broken pitcher from which
the water has dropped before we could
drink it, a thrill of eXhilaration, fol-
lowed by disastrous reactions. To
help us understand the joy of heaven
the Bible takes us to a river. We
stand on the grassy bank. We see the
waters flow on with ceaseless wave.
But the filth of the cities is emptied
into it, and the banks are torn, and
unhealthy eXhalations 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 n
mother were yet living II the chill
dren came home. A good time that!
But it had this drawback-all were
not there. That brothers 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 a skeleton at the feast,
and tears mingled with our laughter
OF that Christmas day. Not so with
heavens reunions. 1t will be an I'M
interrupted gladness. Many a Chris
tan parent will look around and n
all his children there. All" 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. 1 almost
gave him up. How long he despised
my %counsels! But grace hath triumph
ed. 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 heartstriugs,
but face to face. The orphans that
we're left poor and in a merciless
WOrlQ, KICKED ana Guinea OIL Ufduy
hardships, shall join their parents,
over whose graves they SO long wept,
and gaze into their glorified counte-
nances forever, face to face. We may
come up from different parts OF the
world, one from the land and anoth-
er from the depths of the sea, from
lives affluent and prosperous, or from
scenes of ragged distress, but we shall
all meet in rapture and jubilee, face
90 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
a glass, darkly. Now revelation hath
ONE Your time will also come. God
viii not leave you %foundering in the