The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1900-04-26

phyxiated." And, crossing a track, you
must look out or you will be crushed.
And, standing by steam boiler, you
must look out or you will be blown
up. And pneumonias and pleurisies
and consumptions and apoplexies go
across this earth in flocks. in droves,
In herds, and 1t is q world of equinoxes
and cyclones and graves. Yet we are
under the delusion that it is the only
place fit to stay in. We want to stick
to the wet plank in midocean while the
great ship. the City of God. of the Ce-
lestial line, goes sailing past and
would gladly take us up in lifeboat.
My Christian friends, let me tear of
your dependencies and rights about
dissolution. My Lord commands me
regarding you, saying, Loose him,
and let him go!"
Heaven is 95 per cent better than
this world, thousand per cent better,
million per cent better. Take the
gladdest, brightest, most jubilant days
you ever had on earth and compress
them all into one hour, and that hour
would be requiem, fast day, a
gloom, horror, as compared with the
poorest hour they have had in heaven
since Its first tower was built Or its
first gates swung or its first song
caroled. ooh" you say, chat may be
true, but l am so afraid of crossing
over from this world to the next, and
l fear the swapping Of the cord be-
tween soul and body" Well, all the
surgeons and physicians and scientists
declare that there is no pang at the
parting of the body and soul, and all
the restlessness at the closing hour Of
life is involuntary and no distress at
all. And agree with the doctors, for
what they say is confirmed by the fact
that persons who were drowned or
were submerged until all conscious
ness departed and were afterward re-
suscitated declare that the sensation
of passing into Inconsistencies was
pleasurable rather than distressful.
The cage of the body has door on
easy hinges, and when that door Of
the physical cage opens the soul sim
ply puts out its wings and scars.
Getting Into the Light.
But" you SAY, II fear to go because
the future is so full of mystery" Well.
l will tell you how to treat the mys-
teries. The mysteries have ceased
bothering me, for 1 do as the judges
of your courts often do. They hear all
the arguments in the case and they
say, II will take these papers and give
you my decision next week. So
have heard all the arguments in regard
to the next world, and some things are
uncertain and full of mystery, and SO
fold up the papers and reserve until
the next world my decision about
them. I can there study all the mys-
teries to better advantage, for the light
will be better and my faculties strong
er, and will ask the Christian philos-
ophers, who have had all the advan-
tages of heaven for centuries,
to help me, and may be per-
mitted myself humbly to ask the Lord,
and l think there will be only one
mystery left; that will be how one so
unworthy as >Gpt into such an
enraant,lSd place. Come up GU Of the
sepulchral '-sshhadows. If you are not
Christians by faith~in Christ, come up
into the light; and if you are already
like Lazarus, terminated, but still have
your grave clothes on, get rid of them
The command is, Loose him, and let
him 60"
The only part of the journey l made
years ago to Palestine that l really
dreaded was the landing at Joppa.
That is the port of entrance for the
Holy Land, and there are many rocks
and in rough weather people cannot
land at all. The boats taking the peo-
pie from the steamer to the docks
must run between reefs that looked to
me to be about so feet apart, and one
mistroke of an oarsman or an unex-
pected wave has sometimes been fatal
and hundreds have persisted along
those reefs. Besides that, as we left
Port Said the evening before, an old
traveller said: THE wind is Just right
to give you rough landing at Joppa;
indeed think you will not be able to
land at ALL" The fact was that when
our Mediterranean steamer dropped
anchor near Joppa and we put out for
shore in the small boat. the water was
as still as though it had been sound
asleep hundred years, and we landed
as easily as entered this pulpit. Well,
your fears have pictured for you an
appalling arrival at the end of your
voyage of life, and they say that the
seas will run high and that the break
ers will swallow you up, or that if you
reach Canaan at all, it will be very
rough landing. The very opposite will
be true if you have the eternal God for
your portion. Your Decentralization
for the promised land will be aa
smooth as was ours at Palestine.
Christ will meet you far out at sea and
pilot you into complete safety, and you
will land with hosanna on one side
of you and hallelujah on the other.
Land ahead" Its fruits are waving
Ger the hill of fadeless green
And the living waters having
Shores where heavenly forms are
Rocks and storms I'll fear no more
When on that eternal shore.