The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-07-31

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NO. They went q from -ons they loved
well to one whom they loved better, II
] should take your little child and press
its soft face against my rough cheek, I
might keep 1t 4 little while: but when
you, the mother. came along It would
struggle to 70 with you. And 20 you
stood holding your dying child when
Jesus passed BY in the room and the
little one sprang out to greet him. That
Ia all. Your Christian dead did not 60
down into the dust and4the gravel and
the mud. Though 1t rained all that
funeral day and the water came up to
the wheels hub as you drove out to the
cemetery, 1t made no difference to them,
for they stepped from the home here to
the home there, right into the ivory pal
aces. All is well with them. All Is well.
1t is not a dead weight that you lift
when you carry Christian out. Jesus
makes the bed up soft with velvet prom
ises, and he says: "Put her down here
very gently. Put that head which 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, We ivory palaces" And
SO your loved ones are there. They are
just as certainly there, having died In
Christ, as that you are here. There Is
only one thing more they want. Indeed,
there Is one thing In heaven they have
not got. They want 1t. What is 1T
Your company! But, oh. my brother. I'M
less you change your tack you cannot
reach that .harbor You might as well
take the Southern Pacific railroad, ex-
pecting in that direction to reach Toron-
to, as to 90 on in the way some Of you
are going and yet expect to reach the
ivory palaces. Your loved ones are look
ing out Of the windows Of heaven now,
and yet you seem to turn your back upon
them. You do not seem 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 louder, ye departed
ones! Coll louder from the ivory pal
acesi
When think of that place and think
of my entering 1t, feel awkward. I feel
as sometimes when have been exposed
to the weather, and my shoes have been
bemired, and my cont is soiled, and my
hair Is disheveled, and stop In front Of
some fine residence where l have an err
rand. l feel not fit to 90 in as l am and
nit among the guests. So some of US
feel about heaven. We need to be wash
ed, we need to be rehabilitated before
we go into the ivory palaces. Eternal
God, let the surges of thy pardoning
mercy roll over us! want not only to
wash my hands and my feet, but, like
some skilled diver standing on the pier
head, who leaps into the wave and comes
up at far distant point from where he
went in, SO want to go down, and SO
want to come up. o Jesus, wash me in
the waves of thy salvation!
And here ask you to solve mystery
that has been expressing me for 30 years.
I have been asking 1t of doctors Of d.
vinity who have been studying theology
half a century, and they have given me
no satisfactory answer. | have turned
over all the books in my library, but got
no solution to the question, and today
come and ask you for an explanation.
BY what logic was Christ induced to ex-
change the ivory palaces of heaven for
the crucitixion agonies of earth? l shall
take the first thousand million years in
heaven to study out that problem, mean
while and now, taking it as the tender
est, mightiest of all facts that Christ did
come, that he came with spikes in his
feet, came with thorns in his brow, came
with spears in his heart, to save you and
to save me. "God SO loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whatsoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life" oh,
Christ, whelm all our souls with thy COM
passion! Now them down like summer
grain With the harvesting sickle Of thy
grace! Ride through today the conquer
Or, thy garments smelling "of myrrh and
aloes and cassia out Of the ivory pal
aces!'