Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-04-06
vears there are foes within and foes with.

enough in number tc go round
and round the EARTH Disoouragements,
jealousies. revenges, malevolences, disap-
pointments, swindles, arsons, conhagra-
tions and cruelties, which make continued
existence of the human race a woAder-
ment. Was ever any valuable bundle ever
so imperlled as this bundle of life? Oh,
look at the address and get that bundle 60
ing in the right way! "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul
and mind and strength"
Know also that bundle may have in 1t
more than one invaluable. There may be
in it photograph OF loved one and
jewel for a carcanet. 1t may contain an
embroidered robe and a Dore's illustrated
Bible. A bundle may have two treasures.
she said to David, "The soul of my lord is
bound in the bundle of life with the Lord
thy God" And Abigail was right. We
may be bound up with a loving and sympa-
thetic God. We may be as near to Him as
ever were emerald and ruby united in one
age, as ever were two vases on the same
shelf, as ever were two valuables in the
same bundle. Together in time of sorrow.
Together in time of joy. Together on
earth. Together in heaven. Close COM
panionship of God. Hear Him, II will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee" "For
the mountains shall depart and the hills be
removed, but My kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant OF
My peace be removed, saith the Lord that
hath mercy on thee" And when those
Bible authors compared Gods friend
frmness they knew what they were
writing about; for they we'll knew what
mountains are. All those lands are noun
famous. Mount Hermon, Mount Gilboa,
Mount Gerizim, Mount Engedi, Mount
Horeb, Mount Nebo, Mount Pisgah, Mount
Lebanon. Mount Sinai, Mount Golgotha.
Yes, we have the divine promise that all
those mountains shall weigh their anchor
age of rocks and move away from the
earth before a loving and sympathetic God
will move away from us IL we love and
trust Him. Oh, il we could realize that
according to my text we may bound up
with that God how independent it would
make US of things that now harass aud an
noy and discompose and torment us! In
stead of a grasshopper being burden,
world OF care would be as light as a
feather and tombstones would be marble
stairs to the Kings palace, and all the
giants Of opposition we would smite down
hip and thigh with great slaughter.
Know, also, that this bundle of life will
be gladly received when it comes to the
door OF the mansion for which it was bound
and plainly directed. With what alacrity
and glee we await some package that has
been foretold by letter, some holiday pre-
something that will enrich and
ornament our home, some testimony of ad-
and affection! With what glow
of expectation we unite the knot and take
off the cord that holds it together in safety,
and with what glad exclamation we un-
roll the covering and see the gift or pur-
chase in all its beauty of color and proper
tion. Well, what day it will be when
your precious bundle OIL life shall be opened
in the "house of many mansions" amid
sanity and angelic and divine inspection
The bundle may be spotted with ths marks
of much exposure, it may bear inscription
after inscription to tell through what or
deal 1t has passed, perhaps splashed OF
wave and scorched of flame, but all it has
within undamaged of the journey, And
with what shouts of JOY the bundle of life
will be greeted by all the voices of the
home circle.
In our anxiety at last to reach heaven
we are apt to lose sight Of the glee or well
come that awaits US IL we get in at all. We
all have friends up there. They will some
how hear that we are coming. Such close
and swift and constant communication is
there between those uplands and these
lowlands that we will not surprise them by
sudden arrival. If loved ones on earth ex-
pect our coming visit and are at the depot
with carriage to meet us, surely We will
be met at the shining gate by old friends
now sainted and kindred now glorified. If
show US the palaces and guide US to our
everlasting residence, these kindred would
show us the way and point out the
splendors and guide US to our celes-
tial home, powered and fountained and
arched and illumined by sun that never
sets. Will it not be glorious, the going in
and the settling down after all the moving
about and upsettings ofearthly experience?
We will soon know all our neighbors, king
ly, queenly, prophetic, apostolic, seraphic.
archangelic. The precious bundle OF life
opened amid palaces and grand marches
and acclamations. They will all be so glad
we have got safely through. They saw US
down here in the struggle. They saw us
when we lost our way. They knew when
we got off the right course. None of 1.-THE
thirty-two ships that were overdue at New
York harbor in the storm of week before
last was greeted so heartily by friends on
the dock or the steam tugs that went out
will be greeted in the heavenly
world If by the pardoning and pro-
tecting grace OF God we come to celestial
wharfage. We shall have to tell them of
the many wrecks that we have passed on
the way across wild seas and amid Carib-
bean cyclones. 1t will be like our arrival
some years ago from New Zealand at Sgd
ney, people surprised that we got In at all,
because we were two days late and some
of the ships expected had gone to the bot
tom, and We had passed derelictS AMI
abandoned crafts all up and down that aw-
ful channel-our arrival in heaven all the
more rapturously welcomed because OF the
doubt as to whether we would ever get
there at all.
Once there it will be found that the
safety of that precious bundle of life was
assured because 1t was bound up with the
life OF God in Jesus Christ. Heaven could
not afford to have that bundle lost because
1t had been said in regard to its transporta-
tion and safe arrival, "Kept by the power
of God through faith unto complete saliva
tion." The veracity Of the heavens is in
volved in its arrival. If God should fail
to keep His promise to just one ransomed
soul, the pillars Of Jehovah's throne
would fall, and the foundations OF the
eternal city would crumble, and infinite
poverties would dash down all the
chalices, and close all the banqueting halls,
and the river of life would change its
course, sweeping everything with desoia-
tion, and frost would blast all the gardens,
and immeasurable sickness slay the i'm
mortals, and the new Jerusalem become
an abandoned city. with no chariot wheel
on the streets and no worshippers in the
temple-a dead Pompeii of the skies,
buried Herculaneum Of the heavens. Lest
any one should doubt, the God who cannot