Connecticut western news., 1905-02-02

| do you part never tldG SnCn SOlpmnllI | for me as at that service. Even then
 death was saying to tie couple being
 wed: You must part You must part at once. am death and am coming : to court your bride" But at the heav- | enly marriage of the Divine Bride 1 groom there shall Ge no pain on any { face, no heartachc i'll any breast, no 1 hacking cough. no fearful eye. The
 garments that smc! of the myrrh and the aloes and the Cassia are curative { robes. They are wedding garments scented with myrrh, medicine. and with aloes, d medicine, and with cas- sia, medicine.
 Joy In Suffering.
 But have the royal robes of Christ no higher purpose than the mere proven ton of pain or of heartaches? If that be all the efficacy of these wedding garments of the Divine Bridegroom, then 1 say let me have my pain and heartacheS. There is sometimes a joy
 in suffering. There is sometimes peace in pain. As Tennyson writes, Ut is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" That we'd ding ring upon your hand-would you wish never to have had it placed there? It may be many years ago since the hand that put it upon your finger was laid in the grave. Would you like to i blot out all the memories you have had with that earthly life? "Oh, no," you answer. No, no! My joy today is In living in the beautiful halls of memo f,, l,f, oil happy days we spent together. I would sooner have had dear husband as he was and have had him taken away than never to have known what the companionship of such q husband meant to a wife" If you have an in curable physical pain. would you have the physician give to you an opiate to deaden your sensibilities and your mind for years to come? "Oh, no" you answer, then I would be nothing more than hibernating creature or log or q stone. Better my thinking mind with pain than continual unconsciousness without pain. " Well, then, the we'd ding robes of Christ must do more for us than merely alleviate suffering, else we would want none of them. I would not wish to live a thousand years or earth if to do 1t would have to endup the mere animal existence of an Austra- liam aborigine. even though then might not know physical or mental suf- fering.
 Thus I come to the climax of my subject. The royal robes of Christ give to us positive assurance that the marriage ceremony of the Divine Bridegroom and of the church, his bride, Is to be beginning of never ending joy, not the mere end of sor- row or pain or suffering or death. Prove this, you say. I will. "Ho, Me odemus," I cry, "whither art thou go- ing? Friend, why is thy countenance so sad? Why dost thou hug to thy side that great burden of a hundred pound weightW At once Nicodemus, the same Nicodemus who came to Jesus by night, looks up, and I see that his eyes are filled with tears and his face drawn down by great sorrow. 'I am going" says he with this hundred pound weight of myrrh and aloes to embalm the body of Jesus Christ, who has just been crucified. We are going to bury the Saviour's body In the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. I wish his body to be preserved by these spices as long as possible" What. Nicode mus, will these spices of myrrh and aloes preserve the hndy of Jesus| "Yes," answered the ruler of the Jews, they will. If you will examine the Nf years In the Egyptian tombs you will find that these spices were the chief causes of their preservation" Herod otus, the father of history" nearly 600 years before Christ was crucified records that the Egyptians always preserved the bodies of their dead with these spices. They then fill the body with powder of myrrh and aloes and cassia and other perfumes, except frankincense." Thus we find by these two statements that the wedding gar ments of Christ not only have a cura- tive, but also a preservative, quality. That means. carrying the figure up to its acme of symbol, that the wedding garments of Christ will never fade or grow old.
 Garments Will Never Fade.
 No, they will never become yellow and worn, as are some of the bridal dresses that were worn many years ago. They will never be put aside as useless. The wedding songs that we shall sing at the marriage of the Lamb shall never have an end. The raptur- ous joy with which we greet our dear ones on the other side of the Jordan shall never grow monOtonous. The loving kiss which the Divine Bride groom places upon the lips of his bride shall never become cold and indiffer- ent. The myrrh and the aloes and cas- sia shall preserve and increase joy, even as the wedding garment of Christ shall halt and cure and kill sorrows. Oh, yes these wedding robes of Christ are to be aromatic robes, symbolical of never ending peace. The ever increas- ing joy of earth shall roll and swell and continue to increase through all the coming ages. 'HOsanna, blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna"'
 From whence come these airs laden with odor of the myrrh and the aloes and the cassia of Christ's wedding gar ments? They come from the ''ivory palaces of heaven" Mark you well my answer. Not from one ivory palace. but from many. That means that when we as part of the church are to be united to Christ we are going to keep our own individualities. Had my text said, Tn the ivory temple of heaven" I might hou ho1 f is no doubt here. Just as you and I. perhaps, have been married in our own homes surrounded by our fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and dear friends, so in that ''ivory palace of heaven we are going to have q home wedding" Yes, they are all go- ing to be there to meet us, just as they were when here That little curly head