Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1901-02-08
never realized until last summer wha.

caprice, or Identification, or when
climbing the ladder of the light, or
when skillful workmen took hold of it
to toss it, or whirl it, or shape it into
crowns, or hoist it into columns, or
spring it into arches, or lift it into
stars, or turn it into crescents, or build
it into temples. You forget you ever
saw the less glorious waters at Chats
worth, England, or Versailles. France,
as you stand in the balcony of the pal
ace overlooking the Finland gulf, be-
wildered and transported as you look
at the one display called the Golden
Stairway fountain. The water rolls
down over "a steps one foot high and
20 feet long. All of these "a steps are
covered with sheets of FURNISHED gold.
Silver step of the water on stairs CT
gold! What a glee of liquids! Rolling,
dashing, foaming, enrapturing splen-
doris! Chorus of floods! Poetry of wa
tiers! Doxology of torrents! But that
which most impressed me there and
! elsewhere is the abundance of water,
| the fact that there are so many waters
| that the continents can afford to throw
| them away into the sea, Hudsons and
! Ohios, Oregons and Amazons, Rhines
and Danubes and Volgas, and so album
| dant that the earth can afford to have
| its oceans evaporate into the heavens,
| Mediterraneans and Atlantics and Pa
cities. How rich the earth is with wa
tiers! Best beverage of all the nations,
for after the richest banquet with the
richest beverages everyone wants at
least sip of it-water, cool water,
| God descended water!
With still more abundance is the air
distributed. An earth full of it. A sky
| FILL Of Sxxiff nd Sfr oil
cannot fly so high as not to have it in
the nostril or under the wing. And
what affluence of sunlight! No one but
| the infinite God could dispense so much
of it. The golden candlestick set on
| the blue mantel of the heavens! So
| great that the Almighty is compared to
| it, the psalmist crying out: "The Lord
| God is a sum- 1t is high time that we
recognize in our iturgies and. in our
formulas of prayer the three most
| abundant blessings of the universe
| which come to all.
Some scientists are now discussing
| the opening of communication be-
tween our earth and the planet Mars.
Experiments are being made, but they
will not succeed. We cannot build
fire large enough to attract the at
| tention of that world or lift lens
powerful enough to see any response
interstellar. We do not positively
know that that world is occupied by
living beings, or that if it is occupied
communication with them would be
desirable. It might not be so good a
world as this, and thus communica-
ton with it would be debasing. But
rejoice to know that Heaven is in
touch with other worlds, for their
| for crJ0
arrivals. It is thoroughfare between
this world and that world and COM
ing and going perpetual. Going out of
this world is as natural as coming in
to- it, but the one is with pang and
the other is with rapture If we are
fitted for the uplifting process. 1t
shall be we'll with you. Now, do not
get so frightened about that asthma
or that cough or that influenza or
that threatened pneumonia. The
worst thing that fatal disease can
do is to usher you into coronation and
enforcement. It shall be we'll with
you. Take as good care of your health
as you can, have all the sanitary laws,
keep in this world as long as you
are permitted to stay and then when
the heavenly call comes be glad to go.
do not care much about what your
"last words are going to be. People
put too much emphasis on "last
words" I would rather know what
your words are now, in days of health
and with mental faculties in full play
, your words of kindness, your words
of sympathy, your words of helpful
ness, your words of prayer. So live
that if you do not say word during
the last day of your life there will be
no doubt here about the place of your
destination. You will go right into
sanity, prophetic, evangelistic, apos-
tolic, cherubic, seraphic, archangelic.
deific presence.
It shall be well with you. Mother,
you will go right up into the posses
sion Of the babe that the scarlet fever
or Group took out of your arms, q
sorrow that still stings you, and you
often say she would now be so many
: years old if she had lived. You will
go into the presence of the old folks,
for I hope you are of Christian an
cestry, and you will find that they
have no dimness of sight or hating
gait that requires a staff, for they
have taken a draught from the foun-
; tain of perpetual youth that springs
from under the throne of God. Oh,
the blissful companionship of Heaven
in which you shall enter! It shall be
well with you. I ring this bell of
emancipation and triumph. I like the
way the sexton rings the bell of the
old country meeting house. used to
. stand and admire him pulling the
! rope OF that bell. He rings it good
!. while, SO that every farmhouse within
He ho1 a