The Penn's Grove record., 1899-08-04

eide. People talk as though God took 0
man and led him out to darkness and
death, as though He brought him up to the
cliffs and then pushed him off. Oh, no
When Il man is lost, 1t Is not because God
pushes him off It is because he jumps on.
In clden times u suicide was buried at the
crossroads, and the people were accus.
toned to throw stones upon his grave.
SO 1t seems to me there may be at this time
n man who is destroying his soul, and as
though the angels of God were here to
bury him ut the point where the roads OF
life and death cross each other, throwing
upon tho grave the broken law n a great
pile of m~isimproved privileges, so that
those going by may look at the fearful
mound and learn what q suicide 1t Is when
mn immortal soul, for which Jesus died,
put itself out OF the way.
According to my text, He comes "out OF
the ivory palaces" Yea know, or II you
do not know l will tell you now, that some
OF the palaces of oil len time were adorned
with ivory. Ahab and Solomon had their
homes furnished with 1t. The tusks OF
African and Asiatic elephants were twisted
into all manner of shapes, and there were
stairs OF ivory, and chairs OF ivory, and
tables Of ivory, and floors OF ivory, and
pillars of ivory, and windows OF ivory, and
fountains that dropped into basins OF
ivory, and rooms that had ceilings OF
ivory, Oh, white and overmastering beau
tyl Green tree branches sweeping the
white curbs. Tapestry trailing the snowy
floors. Brackets OF light flashing on the
lustroas surroundings. Silvery music rip
ping on the beach OF the arches. The
mere thought of it almost stuns my brain,
and you say: ooh, IL / could only have
walked over such hoorsl III could have
thrown myself in such q chairl II l
could have heard the drip and dash of those
fountainsl' You shall have something bet
ter than That II you only let Christ intro
duce you. From that place He came, and
to that place He proposes to transport you,
for His garments smell of myrrh and hloes
md cassia out Of the ivory palaces" What
a place heaven must bel The Tuileries OF
the French, the Windsor Castle OF the Eng
lish, the Spanish Alhambra, the Russian
KremliD, age mere dungeons compared with
It'll Not so many castles on either side the
Rhine as on both sides of tie river OF God
the ivory palacesl One for the angels,
insuffernbly bright, winged, fire eyed, tenn
pest chariotel; one for tho martyrs, with
blood red robes from under the altar; one
for the King, the steps of His palace the
crown OF the church militant; one for the
singers, who lead the IA, 900; one for you,
ransomed from sin; one for me, plueked
from tho burning. Oh, the ivory p%alacesl
To-day it seems to me as IL the windows
of those palaces were illumined for some
great victory, and l look and see, climbing
the stairs OF ivory and walking on 1oors OF
ivory, some whom we knew and loved on
earth. Yes, L KNOW tucm. lHeIo dio
father and mother, not eighty-two years
and seventy-nine years, as when they left
US, but blithe and young as when on their
marriage day. Aud 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 heart break over.
oh, how fair they are in tho ivory palacesl
And your dear little children that went
out from ~you-Christ did not let one OF
them drop as He lifted them. He did
not wrench one of them from you. No
they went as from one they loved well
to one whom theJ loved better. II
should take your little child and press its
soft face against my rough cheek, l might
keep 1t a 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 ono sprang out to
greet Him. That Is all. Tour Christian
dead did not go down into the dust and
the gravel and the mud. Though it
rained all that funeral day, and tNs WRter =
came upto the wheels hub AS yo1 drove
out to the cemetery, it madeAo difference
to them, for they stepped from the home
here TO tho home there, right into tho
ivory palaces. All is well With them. All
Is we'll.
1t is not a dead weight that you lift when
you carry a Christian out. Jesus makes
tho bed up soft with velvet promises, and
He says: ''Put her dow here very gently.
Pat tLut head which will never ache again
on this pillow of hallelujahs. Send up
word that the procession is coming. Ring
the bells. ningl Open your gates, ye
ivory palacesl" 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 it. What is III
Your company. But, oh. my brother, un.
less you change your tack you cannot
reach that harbor. You might as well take
the Southern Pacific Railroad, expectingin
that direction to reach Toronto, as to go
on In the way some OF you are gong, ana
yet expect 10 reach the ivory palaces.
Your loved ones are looking out oil the
windows OF heaven now, and yet you seem
to turn your back upon them.
When 1 think OF that place and think OF
my entering 1t, l feel awkward. L reel as
sometime s when l have been exposed to
the weather, and my shoes have been be-
mired, and my coat Is soiled, ana my hail
is disheveled, and | stop in front of some
nne residence where l have an GRAND.
feel not fit to go in rs l am and sit among
the guests. Sc some OF us feei ABOUT
heaven. We need to be washed; we need
to be rehabilitated before we so into tue
ivory places. Eternal God, let the surges
OF Thy pardoning mercy roll over u.s.
want not only to wash my hands ana my
feet; but, like some skilled diver, standing
on the pier head, who leaps into the wave
and comes up at Il far distant point from
where he went In, SO | want to go down,
and so l want to come up. . Jesus, WASH
me in the waves OF Thy salvation!
And here l ask you to solve a mystery
that has been depressing me for thirty
years. l have been asking 1t of doctors of
divinity who have been studying theology
half n century. and they have given me
no satisfactory answer. nave turned
over all the books in my library, but got
no solution to the question, and to-day L
como and ask you for an explanation. BY
what logic was Christ induced to exchange
the ivory palaces OF heaven for the cruel
nxion agonies OF earth? shall take the
first thousand million years In heaven
to study out that problem; mean
while and now taking 1t as
tho tenderest, 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. s'God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotton son, That
whatsoever eelieveth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life" 0,
Christ, whelm all our souls with Thy COM
passionl Now them down like summe
grain with the harvesting sickle OF Thy
cracel Ride through to-day the conqueror.
2, -..IIG,,, tfof m urrh and alnaq