Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1900-04-27
poisonous gases, and the gases say,

Don't come here or you will be as
phyxiated." And, crossing 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 fiocks. in droves.
in herds, and it is world Of equinoxes
and cyclones and graves. Yet we are
under the delusion that 1t 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 &C.
lestial line, goes sailing past and
would gladly take us up in a lifeboat.
Ny Christian friends. let me tear off
your dependencies and rights about
dissolution. My Lord commands me
regarding you, saying, Loose him,
and let him co."
Heaven is 50 per cent better than
this world, a thousand per cent better,
a 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 a requiem, fast day,
gloom, a 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. oh" you say, that may be
true, but l am so afraid Of crossing
over from this world to the next. and
1 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 a door on
easy hinges, and when that door of
the physical cage opens the soul SIM
ply puts out it's wings and scars.
Getting Into the Light
But" you say, Il fear to go because
the future is so full of mystery" Well.
1 will tell you how to treat the mys-
teries The mysteries have ceased
bothering me, for I do as the judges
Of your courts often do. They hear all
the arguments in the case and they
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 1 can there study all the mys-
teries to better advantage, for the light
will be better and my faculties strong
er, and 1 will ask the Christian philos-
ophers, who have had all the advan-
tages Of heaven for centuries,
to help me, and 1 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 myself got into such an
enraptured place. Come up out of the
sepulchral shadows. If you are not
Christians by faith in Christ, come up
into the light; and if you are already
lilo o1oruc raopir,afod hut cti11 no vo
your grave clothes on, get rid of them.
The command is, Loose him, and let
him 60"
The only part of the journey I 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 l 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 il you
reach Canaan at all, it will be a 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 az
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" It's fruits are waving
Ger the hill of fadeless green
And the living waters LAYING
Shores where heavenly forms are
seen.
Rocks and storms I'll fear no mora