The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1899-08-09

you 40 not hnOH, H-4i ~ v" ~"
that some of the palaces of olden time
were adorned with ivory. Ahab and
Solomon had their homes furnished
with it. The tusks Of African and
Asiatic elephants were twisted into al
manners Of shapes, and there were
stairs of ivory and chairs OF ivory and
tables of ivory and floors of ivory and
windows of ivory ard fountains that
dropped into basins of livery and rooms
that had ceilings Of Ivory. Oh, white
and overmastering beauty. Green tree
branches sweeping the curbs. Tapestry
trailing the snowy floors. Brackets of
light flashing On the lustrous surround
Tags. Silvery music ripping on the
beach of the arches. The mere
thought of it almost stuns my brain,
and you say: "Oh, if l could have walk
ed over such floors! If could have
thrown myself in such a chair, If [
could have heard the drip and dash of
those fountains You shall nave some
thing better than that if you only let
Christ introduce yol From that place
he came, aud to that place he proposes
to transport you, for his garments
smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia
out of the ivory palaces. " What
place heaven must be! The Tuiler-
iea of the French, the Windsor castle
Of the English, the Spanish alham-
bra. the Russian kremlin, are mere dun
ceons comnared with it! Not so many
castles on either side the Rhine as on
both sides of the river of God-the ivory
palaces. One for the angels, insuffer
ably bright, winged, fire eyed, tempest
charioted; one for the martyrs, with
bloo6 red robes from under the altar:
one for the King, the steps Of his palace
the crown of the churh militant; one
fol the singers, who lead the one hun
dred and forty and four thousand; one
for you, ransomed from sin; one for me
plucked from the burning. Oh, the
ivory palaces!
Today it seems to me as if the win.
dows of those palaces we're illumlned
for some great victory, and | look and
see climbing the stairs Of ivory and
walking on floors of ivory and looking
from the windows Of ivory some whom
we knew and loved on earth. Yes, |
know them. There are father and
mother, not 81 years and 79 years as
when they left US, but blithe and young
as when on their wedding day. And
there are brothers and sisters, merrier
than when we used to romp across the
meadows together. The cough gone.
The cancer cured. The erysipelas
healed. The heartbreak over. Oh
how fair they are in the ivory palace
And your dear little children that went
out from you-Christ did not let one If
them drop as he lifted them. He did
not wrench one of them from you. NJ
They went as from one they loved well
to one whom they loved letter: If |
should take your little child and press
its soft face against my rough cheek, |
might keep it little while; but when
you, the mother, came along it would
struggle to go with you. And so you
stood holding your dying child when
Jesus passed by in the room and the
little one sprang out to greet him. That
is ell. Your Christian dead did not 60
down into the the dust and the gravel
and the mud. Though it rained all
that funeral day and the water came
up to the wheels hub as you drove cut
to the cemetery, it made no difference
to them, for they stepped from the
home here to the home there, right
into the ivory palaces All is we'll
with them. All is well.
1t is not dead weight that you lift
when you carry Christian out. Jesus
nkaes the bed up soft with velvet prom
ises, and he says: ''Put her down here
very gently. Put tiat head w-lich will
never ache again on this pillow Of halle
luiahs. Send up word that the process
sion is coming. Ring the bells. Ring;
Open your gates, ye ivory palaces"
And so your loved ones ale there. They
are just as certainly there, having died
in Christ, as that you are here. There
is only one thing more they want. In
deed, there is one thing in heaven they
have not got. They want it. What is
it2 Your company! But, oh, my
brother, unless you change your tack
you cannot reach that harbor! You
might as well take the Southern Pacific
railroad, expecting in that direction to
reach Toronto, as to 60 on in the way
some of you are going and yet expect to
reach the ivory palaces. Your loved
ones are looking out Of the windows of
heaven now, and yet you seem to turn
your back upon them. Youdo notseem
to know the sound Of their voices as
well as you used to or to be moved by
the sight of their dear faces. Call lou
der, ye departed ones! Call louder
from the ivory palaces!
When | think of that place and think
of my entering it, l Feel awkward. [
feel as sometimes when | have been ex-
posed to the weather, and my shoes
have been bemired, and my coat is
soiled, and my hair is disheveled, and l
stop in front Of some fine residence
where have an errand. | feel not fit
to 60 in as l am and sit among the
guests. So some Of US feel about hea
ven. We need to be washed, we need
to be rehabilitated before we go into the
ivory palaces. Eternal Goo, let the
surges of thy pardoning mercy roll over
US. I want not only to wash my hands
and my feet, but, like some skilled
diver standing on the pier head, who
| 1aoYc into,fha Uave and comes IN at a
far distant point from where he went
in, so | want to 60 down, and so | want
to come up. 0 Jesus, wash me in the
waves Of thy salvation!
And here | ask you to slove a mys-
terry that has been depressing me for 80
years. l have been asking it of doc
tors Of divinity who have been study
ing theology half a century, and they
have given me no satisfactory answer