The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1901-01-12

everything about this gospel from the oth
CT shore; pardon from the other shore
mercy from the other shore; pity from the
other shore; ministry of angels from the
other shore; power to work miracles IRON
| the other shore; Jesus Christ from the
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sin
| ners," and from foreign shore | see the
| ferryboat coming, and it rolls with the
surges of a Saviours suffering, but as II
strikes the earth the mountains rock and
the dead adjust their apparel so that they
may be fit to come out That beat touches
the earth, and glorious Thomas Walsh
| gets into it in his expiring moment, say
ing: He has come. He has come. My
beloved is mine and | am His" Good
Sarah Wesley got into that boat, and as
she showed off from the shore she cried
open the gates" l bless God that as
the boat came from the other shore to
take David and his men across so when
we are about to die the boat will come
from the same direction. God forbid that
| should ever trust to anything that
starts from this side.
Again, my subject suggests that when
we cross over at the last the King will
be on board the boat. Ship carpentry in
Bible times was in its infancy. The boats
were not skillfully made, and | can very
easily imagine that the women and chill
dren of the Rings household might have
been nervous about going on that boat,
afraid that the oarsman or the helmsman
might give out and that the boat might
be dashed on the rocks. as sometimes
boats were dashed in the Jordan, and
then l could have imagined the boat
starting and rocking and they crying out,
ooh, We are going to be lost; we are 60
ing down." Not So The king was on
board the boat, and those women and
children and all the household OF the king
knew that every care was taken to have
the king, the head of the empire, pass IN
safety.
Blessed be God that when we leave this
world we are not to have a great and
perilous enterprise of getting into heaven;
not a dangerous Franklin expedition to
find the northwest passage among ice
bergs; only a ferry. That accounts tor
something you have never been able to
understand You never supposed that
very nervous and timd Christian people
could be SO unexcited and placid in the
last hour The fact is, they were clear
down on the bank, and they saw there
was nothing to be frightened about, such
short distance-only ferry. With one
ear they heard the funeral psalm in their
memory, and with the other ear they
heard the song of heavenly salutation.
The willows on this side the Jordan and
the Lebanon cedars on the other almost
interlocked their branches ferry.
My subject also suggests the fact that
when we cross over at the last we shall
find solid landing. The ferryboat, as
spoken of in my text, means place to
,,1ooo - Ia Nd n,,-iI n
his people did not find the eastern shore
Of the Jordan any more solid than the
western shore where he landed, and yet
to great many heaven is not a real place.
TO you heaven is fog bank in the dis
lance. After the resurrection has come
you will have resurrected foot and some
thing to tread on and a resurrected eye
and colors to see with it and resurrected
ear and music to regale it.
Smart men in this day are making a
great deal of fun about St. Johns mate
REALISTIC descriptions of heaven. Well,
now, my friends, if you will tell me what
will be the use of resurrected body in
heaven with nothing to tread on and moth
ing to hear and nothing to handle and
nothing to taste then | will laugh, too.
Are you going to float about in ether
forever, swinging about your hands and
feet through the air Unfortunately, one
moment sweltering in the centre of the sun
and the next moment shlverlng in the
mountains of the moon?
That is not my heaven. Dissatisfied
with Johns materialistic heaven, theologi-
cal thinkers are trying to patch up heav-
en- that will do for them at last. | never
heard Of any heaven l want to 60 to ex-
cept st. Johns heaven.
1 believe / shall hear Mr. Topsdy sing
yet and Isaac Watts recite hymns
and Mozart play. ooh" you say, where
would you get the organ?" The Lord
will provide the organ. Don't you bother
about the organ. l believe I shall yet see
David with a harp, and l will ask him to
sing one of the songs of Zion.
l believe after the resurrection l shall
see Massillon, the great French pulpit or
ator, and shall hear from his own lips
how he felt on that day when he preached
the kings funeral sermon and flung his
whole audience into a paroxysm of grief
and solemnity
And so you and I will be met at the
landing Our arrival will not be like step
ping ashore at Antwerp or Constantinople
among crowd Of strangers. 1t will be
among friends, good friends, those who
are warm hearted friends, and all their
friends. We know people whom we have
never seen by hearing somebody talk about
them very much We know them almost
as well as if we had seen them.
And do you not suppose that our par
ents and brothers and sisters and children
in heaven have been talking about us all
these years and talking to their friends?
So that, | suppose, when we cross the
river at the last we shall not only be met
by all those Christian friends whom we
knew on earth, but by all their friends.
They will come down to the landing to
meet us. Your departed friends love you
now more than they ever did.
You will be surprised at the last to find
how they know about all the affairs of
your life. Why, they are only across the
ferry, and the boat is coming this way,
and the boat is going that way. 1 do not
know but they have already asked the
Lord the day, the hour, the moment when
you are coming across. and that they know
now, but l do know that you will be met
at the landing. The poet Southey said he
thought he should know Bishop IIeber in
heaven by the portraits he had seen of
him in London, and DR.. Randolph said he
thought he would know William Cowper,
had seen of him in England, but we will
know our departed kindred by the por-
traits hung in the throne room of our
hearts.
On starlight nights you look up-and l
suppose it is so with any one who has
friends in heaven--on starlight nights you
look up, and you cannot help but think of
those who have gone and I suppose they