Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-01-25

we are about to die the boat will come
from the same direction. God forbid that
I should ever trust to anything that
starts from this side. H.,
Again, my subject suggests that "he mel,
we cross over at the last the hlng VIII
be ON board the boat. Ship carpentry IN
Bible times was in its infancy. The boats
were not skillfully made, and L can very
easily imagine that the women and chli-
dren of the kings household might have
been nervous about going on that Doar,
afraid that the oarsman OF the helmsman
might give out and that the boat might
be dashed on the rocks, as sometimes
boats were dashed in the Jordan, ana
then I could have imagined the boat
starting and rocking and they crying out,
ooh, we are going to be lost; we are go
ING DOWN. Not SO. The king was on
hoard the boat, and those women and
children and all the household of the king
knew that every care was taken to nave
the king, the head Of the empire, pass I'D
safety. ~.
Blessed be God that when we leave TINS
world we are not to have a great and
perilous enterprise of getting into heaven;
not dangerous Franklin expedition TO
find the northwest passage among ice
bergs: only ferry. That accounts Tor
something YOU have never been able to
understand: You never supposed that
very nervous and timid Christian people
could be SO unexcited and placid in the
last hour. The fact Isl they were clear
down on the bank, and they saw there
was nothing to be frightened about, such
a short distance-only ferry. With one
ear they heard the funeral psalm IN tneI
memory, and with the other ear they
heard the song of heavenly SANITATION;
The willows on this side the Jordan and
the Lebanon cedars on the other almost
interlocked their branches-only ferry.
NV 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
start from and place to land. David ana
his people did not find the eastern shore
of the Jordan any more solld than the
western shore where he landed, and YET
to great many heaven is not a real place
10 YOU heaven is a fog bank in the dis
lance After the resurrection has come
YOU will have resurrected foot and some
thing to tread on and resurrectcd eye
and colors to see with 1T and resurrecteo
ear and music to regale it.
Smart men in this day are making
great deal of fun about st. Johns mate
rialistic descriptions of heaven. Well
now, my friends, if you will tell me what
will be the use of a resurrected body IN
heaven with nothing to tread on and noth
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 indiscrimnately y, one
moment swetering in the centre OF the sun
and the next moment shlverlng III the
mountains of the moon? ,
That is not my heaven. Dissatisfied
with Johns materialistic heaven, theology
cal thinkers are trying to patch up heav
en- that will do for them at last. never
heard of any heaven l want to go to ex
cept st. Johns heaven.
/ believe | shall hear Mr. Toplady sing
yet and Isaac Watts recite hymns
and Mozart play. "Oh," you say, where
would You get the organ? The, Lord
will provide the organ. Don't YOU bother
about the organ. | believe | shall yet see
David with harp, and | will ask him to
sing one of the songs of Zion. -,
l believe after the resurrection | shall
see AldSSlllOu, bHc EttdI PuiPi" "a
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 paroxysm OF grlei
and solemnity.
And so you and / will be met at the
landing. Our arrival will not be like STEP
ping ashore at Antwerp OF Constantinople
among a crowd of strangers. it will be
l.. ox1oI fpiap1o fboen WhO
are warm hearted friends, and all thelr
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, l 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 u.s. 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. | 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 / do know that you will be met
at the landing. The poet Southey said he
thought he should know Bishop Heber in
heaven by the portraits he had seen Of
him in London, and DR.. Randolph said he
thought he would know William Cowper
the poet, in heaven from the pictures he
had seen of him in England, but we will
know our departed kindred by the por
traits hung in the throne room of ouI
hearts.
On starlight nights you look up--and
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 | suppose they
| look down and cannot help but think Of
us. But they have the advantage of us
| We know not just where their world oi
joy is. They know where we are.
But there is thought that comes over
me like an electric shock Do belong tc
the Kings household? Mark you, the
text says, "And there went over ferry
boat to carry over the kings household,
and none but the kings household. Their
| I ask, Do l belong to the household? Dc
you? If you do not, come to-day and be
adopted into that household. "Oh," says
some soul here, 81 do not know whether
the King wants me-" He does; He does
Hear the voice from the throne, II will bt
father to them, and they shall be My
sons and daughters, saith the Lord AL
mighty" Him that cometh unto Me,
Christ says, II will in nowise cast out.
Come into the Kings household. Sit
down at the Kings table. Come in ant
take your apparel from the Kings ward
robe, even the wedding garment of Christ
Righteousness. Come in and inherit the
Kings wealth. Come in and cross in the
Kings ferryboat.
Navigation on Illinois River.
Although there are many steamer