The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-02-05

| us positive assurance that the marriage | ceremony of the Divine Bridegroom anu of the church. his bride, is 10 be a begin ming of never ending joy, not to the mere end of sorrow or pain or suffering or l death. Prove this, you say l will. lilo 1 Nicodemus," l cry, whittier art thou going? Friend why is thy countenanee so sad? Why dost thou hug thy side thai great burden of q hundred pound weight At once Nieodemus the same Nieodemus I who came to Jesus by night, looks up, and 1 see that his eyes are filled with i tears and his face drawn down by great sorrow. "I am going says he, with his hundred pound weight of myrrh and aloes to embalm the body of Jesus Christ, who has just been crucihed. We are going to l bury the Savior's body in the tomb of l Joseph of Arimathea. | wish his body to be preserved by these spices as long as possible. "Why Nieodemus. will those spices of myrrh and aloes pre- i serve the body of Jesus Christ? Yes" answered the rule- ot the Jews, l they will. If you will examine the dummies preserved for thousands of years in the Egyptian tombs you will find l that these spices were the chief carse5 of their preservation" Herodotus, the fath- CT of history, nearly 300 years before Christ was crucifed, records that the 1 Egyptians always preserved the bodies of their dead with these spices. "They then l fill the body with powder myrrh and aloes and cassia and other perfumes except franllincense." Thus we find by these two statements that the wedding garments of Christ not only have q cura- 1 tive, but also a presefvative quality l That means carrying the figure up to it's acme of symbol that the wedding garments of Christ will never fade or i grow old
 Garments Will Never Fade.
 No they will never become yellow and worn, as are some of the bridal dresses l that were worn many years ago. They will never be Tut aside as useless. The wedding songs that we shall sing at the marriage of the Lamb shall never have an end. The rapturous joy with which We greet our dear ones on the other side of l Jordan shall never grow monotonous. The l loving kiss which the Divine Bridegroom 1 places upon the lips of his bride shall never become cold and indifferent. The myrrh and the aloes and cassia shall pre- serve and increase joy even as the we'd l ding garment of Christ shall halt and cure and kill sorrows. Oh yes, these wedding robes of Christ are to be aro- matte robes, symbolical of never ending peace. The ever increasing joy O. earth 1 shall roll and swell and continue to in- crease through all the coming ages. "Hosanna. blessed is the king of Israel that eometh in the name of the Lord! l Hosannai"
 From whence comes these airs laden with odor of the myrrh and the aloos and the cassla? They come from the ivory l palaces of heaven" Mark you well my answer. Not from one ivory palace, but 1 from many. That means that when we as part of the church are to be united to l Christ we are going to keep our own individualities Had my text said In the ivory temple o1 heaven" I might have 1 had my doubts about it. but there is no l doubt here. Just as you and l, perhaps, 1 have been married in our own homes sur l rounded by our fathers and mothers and l brothers and siaters and dear friends, so in that ivory palace of heaven We are 1 going to have a "home wedding" Yes they are all going to be there to meet us. l just as they were when here That little curly headed daughter who slipped out of 1 your embrace long years aga will be there l just as she was when here. That dear old mother who lived for you and died for l you, she will be there Not in q celes- tial temple" but in celestial home"- the ivory palaces! Do yoG not how l near and familiar are the old home 1 steads of heaven" glistening under the 1 celestial sun2 White they are. but they are the same kind of gospel firesides about 1 which we have gathered while upon 1 earth.
 But, though there may be many ivory l palaces in heaven odorous with, the | myrrh and the aloes and the cassia, I l fear that some of us who are invited 10 i be at the wedding ceremony may not be 1 present It is one thing to get an invi- 1 tation to the marriage ceremony; it is l another to be there. Shall we at this moment say to our Divine Bridegroom: l Jesus. thou Prince. we will not love l thee We will not unite with thee; we shall not live with thee in an ivory palace of heaven since We have not lived with thee on earth" Shall it he that all our dear ones who have gone beyond who are waiting to listen to our nuptial vows with 1 Christ in the ivory palace of heaven, shall have to walt for us in vain?
 Supposing you refuse to meet the Di- 1 vine Bridegroom at the marriage alter of l heaven what will Jesus do? What will your loved ones your wife and mother and father and little child. who have 1 gone beyond-what will they do? Sup posing when you were about to be mar ried your financee had refused to appear. l What would you have done? "Oh." you say, that was impossible She loved me l too much not to have met me there" Can it be- O would be bride of Christ. that you love Jesus any less than your 1 loved one loved you?
 owed el ztdrtto.oe. grdisgf aetaoin Sqi Lead on, Savior, Lead on Even now we may hear the wedding chimes ring ing for the nuptials in the ivory palaces l of heaven.
 l How long dost thou delay? l And yet how few are grieving 1 That thou dost absent stay!
 Thy very bride her portion
 And calling hath forgot
 1 And seeks for ease and pleasure Where thou, her Lord art not
  1 Awake, we slitnbering virgins Send forth the solemn cry. l Let all the saints repeat it.
 The Bridegroom draweth nigh. 1 Let all our lamps be burning,
 Our Joins well girded be,
 Each eager heart expecting
 1 With joy thy face to see.
 l Copyright, 1905, by Louis klopsch) AU6TrrrU xEHr1-N