Woodruff County news., 1901-10-12

that light falls upon ,he soul, then you will see the crystals. What a magnificent setting for these jewels of eternity! l sometimes hear people representing Heaven in a way that is far from attractive to me. It seems almost a vulgar Heaven as they represent it, with great blotches of color and bands of music making deafening racket. John represents Three crystals! In one place he says: 'Her light was like precious stone, clear as crystal" In another place he says: "I saw pure river from under the throne, clear as crystal" In another place he says: Before the throne there was a sea of glass clear as crystal" Three crystals! John says crystal atmosphere. That means health. Balm of eternal June. wind! No rack of stormclouds. One breath of that air will cure the worst tubercle. Crystal light on all the leaves. Crystal light shimmering on the topaz of the temples. Crystal light tossing in the plumes of the equestrians of Heaven on white horses. But "the crystal cannot equal it." John says crystal river. That means joy. Deep and ever roll ing. Not one drop of the Potomac or the Hudson or the Rhine to soil it. Not one tear of human sorrow to embitter it. Crystal, the rain out of which it was made. Crystal, the bed over which it shall roll and rip pie. Crystal, it's infinite surface. But 'the crystal cannot equal it." John says crystal sea. That means multi tudinously vast. Vast in rapture. Rapture vast as the sea, deep as the sea, strong as the sea, ever changing as the sea. Pillows of light. Pillows of beauty, blue with skies that were never clouded and green with depths that were never fathomed. Arctics and antarctics and Mediterraneans and Atlantics and Pacifics in crystal line magnifcence. Three crystals! Crystal light falling on a crystal river. Crystal river rolling into a crystal sea- But "the crystal cannot equal it."
 "Oh," says some one, putting his hand over his eyes, "can it be that l who have been in so much sin and trouble will ever come to those crys. tals?" Yes, it may belt will be. Heaven we must have, whatever we have or have not, and we come here to get it. "How much must l pay for it p you say. You will pay for it just as much as the coal pays to become the diamond. In other words, nothing. The same Almighty power that makes the crystal in the mountain will change your heart which is harder than stone, for the promise is: "I will take away your stony heart, and l will give you heart of fiesh."
 "Oh,' says some one, Cit is just the doctrine l want. God is to do every thing, and I am to do nothing" My brother, it is not the doctrine you want. The coal makes no resistance. It hears the resurrection voice in the mountain and it comes to crystalliza. tion; but your heart resists. The trouble with you, my brother, is the coal wants to stay coal.
 I do not ask you to throw open the door and let Christ in. I only ask that you stop bolting and barring it. My friends, we will have to get rid of our sins. 1 will have to get rid of my sins, and you will have to get rid of your sins. What will we do with our sins among the three crystals? The crys- tai atmosphere would display our pol lution. The crystal river would be be. fouled with our touch. Transforma. tion must take place now or no trans formation at all. Give sin full chance in your heart and the transformation will be downward instead of upward. Instead of crystal it will be cinder.
 In the days of Carthage, Christian girl was condemned to die for her faith, and a boat was bedaubed with tar and pitch and filled with combustibles and set on fire, and the Christian girl was placed in the boat, and the wind was off the shore, and the boat foated away with its precious treasure. No one can doubt that boat landed at the shore of Heaven. Sin wants to put you in fiery boat and shove you off in an opposite direction-off from peace, off from God, off from Heaven, ever lastingly off, and the port toward which you would sail would be port of darkness, and the guns that would greet you would be the guns of despair, and the flags that would wave at your arrival would be the black flags of death. Oh, my brother, you must either kill sin or sin will kill you! It is no aggeration when say that any h