Nebraska Newspapers

    t - 1 1 . "
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The Sioux Cot-jnty Journal
VOLUME VI.
HAItKISOX, NEBRASKA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1804.
NUMBER 24.
TALM AGE'S SERMON.
A MOST ELOQUENT DISCOURSE
AT THE TABERNACLE.
B Dreanis m Manelou. Drram of liraven
mud lM'ril hut lit hui There '1 hi
feitlnU Wl.o are Great la Heaven Name
Mot In the Dictionary.
A VLlnn of Heaven.
Itev. Dr. Talmat! took for his fiub
ioct "A Vision of iluaven." tho text
being Kzukicl i, I, "Now it mme to
pahs ax I warf among tho captives ly
the river of Chi-har that the heaveim
were oKine(J and 1 i-aw vinions of iod."
repatriated and in far exile on the
banks of the Kiver Cheburf an alllin'nt
of the KtiphraUiH, But K.ekial. It wan
there ho hud an immortal dream, and
it in given to uh in the Holy Scriptures.
He dreamed of Tyre and Kgyj't. He
dreamed of Christ and the coming
Heaven. Thin exile Heated by that
Liver Chebar had a mine wonderful
dream than you or I ever had or ever
will have Heated on the banks of the
Hudson or Alabama or Oregon or
Thames or Tiber or Dunulx-.
lint we all huve ir.nl moinor.Uile
droums, Borne of them when we, were
half asleep and half awake, bo that we
did not know whether they were born
Of shadow or sunlight, whether they
were thoughts let loose and disar
ranged an in slumlier. or the imagina
tion of faculties awake.
Such a dream I hail this morning. It
wan alout half-past 5, and the day was
breaking. It was a dream of (iod, a
dream of Heaven. K.ekiel had his
dream on tho bunks of tho Chebar: I
had my dream not, fur from the bunks
ofthelludson. Themost of the stories
of Heaven were written many cen
turies ago, and they t-ll us how the
place looked then, or how it will look
centuries ahead. Would you not like
to know how it looks now' That is
what I am going to tell you. I was
there this morning. I have just got
back. How I got into that city of tho
sun I know not. Which of the 12 gates
I entered is to mo uncertain. Hut my
first remembrance of the scene is that
I stood on one of the main avenues,
looking this way and that, lost in raj
turcs, and the air so full of music and
redolence and laughter and light that
I know not which street t) take, when
an angel of (iod accosted mo and ollered
to show mo tho objects of greatest in
terest, and to conduct me from street
to street, and from mansion to mansion,
and from temple to temple, and from
wall to wall. 1 said to tho angel, "How
long hast thou been in Heaven?" and
according to tho earthly calendar.
There was aHecret almut this angel's
name that was not given me, but from
the tenderness and sweetness and alTee
tlon and interest taken in my walk
through Heaven, and more than all In
the fact of thirty-two years' residence,
the number of years since she as
cended, I think it was my mother. Old
age and decrepitude and the tired look
were all gone, but I think it was she.
You Bee, I was only on a visit to the
city and had not yet taken up resi
dence, and I could know only in part.
The Church In Heaven.
I looked In for a few moments at tho
(Treat templo. Otir brilliuntand lovely
bcotch essayist, Mr. Drummond, says
there Us no church In Heaven, but he
did not look for it on the right street,
bt. John wao right when in his I'at
mosic vision, recorded in the third
chapter of Revelation, he speaka of
"the temple of my God." I saw it this
morning, tho largest church I ever
Haw, as big as all the churches and ca
thedrals of the earth put together, and
it was thronged. Oh, what a multi
tude; I hud never seen so many peo
ple together. All the audiences of all
the churches of all tho earth put to
gether would mako a poor attendance
compared with that assemblage. There
was a fas lion in attire and headdress
that immediately took my attention
The fashion was white. AH in white,
gave one. And tho headdress was a
garland of rose and lily and mignon
ette, mingled with green leaves culled
from the royal gardens and bound to-,
gother with bands of gold.
And I Haw some young men with a
ring on tho finger of tho right hand
and said to my accompanying angel,
"Why those rings on the lingers of
the right hands'" and I was told that
those who wore them were prodigal
nuns and once fed swine in the wilder
ness and lived on husks, but they came
.home, and the rejoicing father said,
"I'ut a ring on his hand.''
Hut I said there was one exception
to this fashion of white pervading all
tho auditorium and clear up through
all the galleries. It was the attire of
one who presided in that immense
temple-the chiefest, tho mightiest,
the loveliest person in all the place.
His cheeks seemed to Is; Mushed w ith
infinite beauty, und His .forehead was
a morningsky, and Ills lips were elo
quence omnipotent. Hut His attire
was of deep colors. They suggested
the carnage through which He had
passed, and I said to my attending
angel, "What is that crim-mn rolie that
lie wears'" and I was told, "They are
dyed garments from Horah," and "He
trod the wine press alone."
Koon after I entered this temple they
begun to chant the celestial litany It
was unlike anything I had ever heard
for sweetness or power, and I have
heard tho most of tho great organs and
the most of tho great oratorios. 1 said
to my accompanying angel, "Who is
that standing yonder with tho harp?"
and the answer was, "David." And I
said, "Who is that sounding that
trumpet?" and t he answer was, "Ga
briel!" An.' I said, "Who Is that at
tho organ?" and the answer was,
"Handel!" And tho music rolled on
till it came to a doxology extolling
Christ himself, when all the worship
ers, lower down and higher up, a thou
sand galleries of them, suddenly
dropped on their knees and chanted,
"Worthy Is the Lamb that wan slain."
UmU U overpowering harmony I
fell back. I said: "Let us go. This
is too much for mortal ears. I cannot
bear tfte overwhelming symphony."
Hut I noticed as 1 was aliout to turn
away that on the steps of the altar was
something like the lacbyrmal. or tear
lxttle, as 1 had seen it in the earthly
museums, the lachrymals, or tear bot
tles, into which the orientals used to
weep their griefs and set them away
us sacred Hut this lac hyrmal, or tear
Isittle, instead of earthenware, as those
the orientals used, was lustrous and
fiery with many splendors, and it was
towering und of great capacity. And
I said to my attending angel, "What is
tbut great lachrymal, or tear bottle,
standing on the slep of the aitar'" and
I the angel said: "Why, don't you
know That is the bottle to which
! David, the psalmist, referred in this
' fifty-sixth psalm w len he said, 'I'ut
thou my tears into tny Ifottle.' It is
i full of tears from earth-tears of re
i jientancc, tears ol bereavement, tears
of joy, teais of many centuries." And
then I saw how suci-ed to the sympa
thetic God are earth iy sorrows.
As I wuh coming out of the templo I
saw all along the pictured walls there
were shelves, and golden vials were
being set up on all those shelves. And
I said: "Why the setting up of those
' vials at this time? They seem just now
J to have been tilled," and the attending
, angel said, "The week of prayer all
around tho earth has just closed, and
i more supplications have been made
, than have been made for a long while,
j and thi'Su new vials, newly set up, are
1 what the Bible speaks of us "golden
j vials full of odors, which are the
I prayers of saints." And I said to the
1 accompanying angel, "Can it be possi-
bio that the prayers of the earth are
: worthy of being kept In such heavenly
shape'" "Why." r.aid the angel,
"there is nothing thatsomoves Heaven
1 as the prayers of earth, and they are
set up in signt of these infinite iiiulli
I tunes, and. more than all, in the sight
! of Christ, and He cannot forget them,
and they are lie fore Him world without
end."
The. tret Christian Meen.
Then we came out. and us tho tem
ple is always open and some worship at
one hour and others at other hours we
passed down the street amid the
throngs coming to and going from the
great temple. And we passed along
through a street called Martyr place,
and we met there or saw sitting at the
windows, the souls of those who on
earth went through fire and blood and
under sword and rack. We saw John
WyclifT, whose ashes were by
decree of the Council of Constance
thrown into the river, and Hog-ei-s,
who bathed his hands in
the (ire as though it had been
water, and Hishop Hooper and McKail
nd LaUutar wwi kid 1 ?y MwLAUilxrjUfi,
whom the tlarnes refused to destroy as
they lient outward till a spear did the
work, and some of the Albigenses und
Huguenots and consecrated yuakerw
who were slain for their religion.
They had on them many scars, but
their scars were illumined, and they
had on their faces a look of especial
triumph.
Then we passed along Song row, and
we met some of the old gospel singers.
"That is Isaac Watts," said my attend
ant. As we came up to him, he asked
me if the churches on earth were still
singing the hymns he composed at the
house of Lord and Ijtdy Abney, to
whom he paid a visit 6f thirty-six
years, and I told him that many of the
churches opened their sabbath morn
ing services with his old h,ymn, "Wel
come, Sweet Day of Kest," und cele
brated their gospel triumphs with his
hymn, "Salvation, Oh, the Joyful
Song!" and often roused their devo
tions by his hymn, "Come, We That
Ixive the Lord."
While we were, talking he intro
duced me to another of the song writ
ers and said, "This is Charles Wesley,
who belonged on earth to a different
church from mine, but we are all now
members of the same church, tho tem
ple of God and the Lamb." And I told
Charles Wesley that almost every
Sabbath we sang one of his old
hymns, "Arm of the Lord, Awake!"
or, "Come. Let l's .Join Our Friends
AlK)ve!''or, "Love Divine, All Love
Kxcelling." And while we were talk
ing on that street called Song row,
Kirk White, the consumptive college
student, now everlastingly well, came
up, and we talked over his old Christ
mas hymn, "When Marshaled on the
Nightly I'lain." And William Cow
per came up, now entirely recovered
from his religious melancholy and not
looking us if lie had ever in dementia
attempted suicide, and we talked over
the wide earthly celebrity and
Heavenly power of his old hymns,
"When I Can Head My Title Clear,''
and "There Is a Fountain Filled With
Blood."
And there we met George W. I)e
thuno of wondrous Brooklyn pastorate,
and 1 told him of how his comforting
hymn hud been sung at obsequies all
around the world "It Is Not Death to
Die." And Toplady came up und asked
about whether the church was still
making use of his old hymn, "Hock of
Ages, ('left for Me." And we met
also on Song row Newton and Hastings
and Montgomery and Horatio lionar,
and we heard floating from window to
window snatches of the old hymns
which they started on earth and
started never to die.
"Hut," say some of my hearers,
"did you see'anything of our friends
In Heaven" Oh, yes, I did. "Did
you see my children there?" says some
one, "und are there any marks of their
last sickness still UKn them'.'" I did
see them, but there was nopallor.no
cough, no fever, no languor, alsiut
them. They are all well und ruddy
and songful and Isiunding with eternal
mirth. They told mo to give t heir
love to you: that they thought of you
hour by hour, and that when they
could Ihi excused from the heavenly
playgrounds they came down, and hov
ered over you, and kissed your cheek,
and tilled your dream with their gliul
face, and that they would be at the
gate to greet you when you ascended
to bo with them forever.
"Hut," say other voices, "did von
boo our glorified friends?" Yes, I saw
them, and they are well in the land
across which no pneumonias or palsies
or dropsies or typhoids ever sweep.
The aroma blows over from orchards
with trees bearing twelve manner of
fruits, and gardens compmed with
which Chatsworth is a desert. The
tlirnuto is a mingling of an earthly
June and Octolxir the balm of the one
and the tonic of the other. The social
life in that realm where they aio is
superb and perfect. No controversies
or jealousies or hates, but love, uni
versal love, everlasting love. And
they told me to tell you not to weep
for them, for their happiness knows
no hound, and it is only a question of
time when you shall reign with them
in the same palace and join wilh them
in the same exploration of planets and
the same tour of worlds.
Hut yonder in this assembly is an
unturned face that seems to ask how
afxilt the ages of those in Heaven.
"Do my departed children remain
children, or huve they lost their child
ish vivacity Do my departed parents
remain aged, or have they lost the
venerable out of their nature'' Well,
from whut I saw I think childhood hhs
advanced to full maturity of faculty,
retaining all the resilience of child
hood, and that th aged had retreated
to midlife, freed from all decadence
but still retaining the charm of the
venerable. In other words, it wo
fully developed and complete life of alf
souls, whether young or old. j
Chunked Condition.
Some one says, "Will you tell us
what most impressed you in Heaven'1'
1 will. I was most impressed with the
reversal of earthly conditions. I knew,
of course, that there would be differ
eneesof attire and residence in Heaven,
for 1'aul had deduced long ugo thai
souls would then dill'or "as one star
differed from another," as Mars from
Mercury, us Saturn from Jupiter. Hut
at every step in my dream in Heaves
1 was amazed to see thut some who
were expected to be high in Heaven
were low down, and some who expected
to be low down were high up. Yon
thought, for instance, that those borS
of pious parentage, and of naturally
good disposition, and of brilliant facul
ties, and o( all styles of aUractivenej
will move in the highest range at
celestial splendor and iMimp. No, DO,
I found the highest thrones, tba
brightest coronets, the richest mM
sions, were occupied by those who had
reprobate futher or bad mother, and
who inherited the twisted natures of
ten generations of miscreants, and wto
had compressed in their liody all Jfc
praved apfietites and all evil propeM&t
ties, but they had laid hold of Gtd'f
arm, they cried for especial niofc",
they conquered seven devils wisbla
and seventy devils without andfeve
HvawrHwftn t1i Monti f Mic Lamrvi
by so much as theircontestwas terrific
and awful and prolix their victory was
consummate and resplendent, and they
have taken places Immeasurably higher
than those of good parentago, who
could hardly help being goo i, because
they had ten generations of preceding
piety to aid them. The steps by which
many have mounted to the highest
places in Heaven were made out of tho
cradles of a corrupt parentage. When
I saw that, I said to my atten lingangei:
"That is fuir; that is right. Tho
harder tho struggle the more glorious
the reward."
Then I pointed to one of the most
colonnaded and grandly do ned resi
dences in all the city and said, "Who
lives there?" and the answer was,
"The widow who gave two mites."
"And who lives there?" andthoanswer
was, "The penitent tnief to whom
Christ said, 'This day shalt thou be
with me in paradise.' " "And who lives
there'" I said, and the answer was,
"The blind beggar who prayed, 'Lord,
that my eyes may be opened.' "
Nitiueii Not in the Directory.
Some of those professors of religion
who were famous on earth I asked
about, but no one could tell mo any
thing concerning them. Their names
were not even in the city directory of
the New Jerusalem. The fact is that
1 suspected some of them had not got
there at all. Many who had ten tal
ents were living on tho buck streets of
Heaven, while many with one talent
had residences fronting on the King s
park, and u buck lawn sloping to the
river clear as crystal, and tho highest
nobility of Heaven were guests at their
tuble, and often tho white horse of
him who "hath tho moon under his
feet" champed Its bit at their door
way. Infinite capsize of earthly con
ditions! All social life in Heaven
graded according to earthly struggle
and usefulness as proportioned to tal
ents given'
As 1 walked through those streets I
appreciated for tho first timo what
l'aul said to Timothy, "If wo sullor, wo
shall also reign with Him." Jt sur
prised me beyond description that all
the great of lleuven wero great sulTer
ers. "Not all?'' Yes, all. Moses,
him of the Hod Sea. a great sufferer.
David, him of Absalom's unlllial be
havior, and Ahithophel's betrayal, and
a nation's dethronement, a great Hiif
ferer. K.ekiel, him of tho cuptivity,
who had tho dream on tho banks of
tho Chebar, a great sulferer. l'aul,
him of the diseased eyes, and tho
Mediterranean shipwreck, and tho
Mars Hill derision, und the Mamertine
endnngcoiiinent, and the whipped
pack, ami the headman's ux on the
road to Ostai. a great sufferer.
Yea, all tho apostles after lives of
suffering died by violence, beaten to
death with fuller's club, or dragged
to death by mobs, or from the thrust
of a sword, or by exposure on u barren
island, or by decapitation. All tho
high up In Heaven great sufferers, and
women more than men, Kellcltas and
St. Cecelia and St. AgmM and St.
Agatha and Lucia and women nover
heard of outside thoir own neighbor
hood, queens of the noodle, und the
broom, and tho scrubbing brush, and
tho wushtub, and the dairy, rewarded
according to how well they did their
work, whether to set a tea table or
govern a nution, whether empress or
milkmaid.
1 could not get over It, as in my
dream I saw all this, and that some of
the most unknown of earth were the
most lamous in Heaven and that many
who seemed the greatest failures of
earth were the greatest successes of
Heaven. And as we passed along one
' f the grandest Iioulevards of Heaven
there approached us a group of persons
so radiant in countenance and apparel
I had to shade my eyes with both hands
because I could not endure the luster,
and 1 said, "Angel, do tell me who
they are?" and the answer was,
"These are they who came outof great
tribulat ion and had t heir robes washed
and made white in the blood of the
Lamb!"
KqiiHlixed at Last.
My walk through the city explained
a thousand things on eai-th that had
been to me inexplicable. When I saw
up there the superior delight and the
superior Heaven of many who had on
earth had it nurd with cancers and
bankruptcies and persecutions and
trials of all sorts, I said, "God has
equalized it all at last: excess of en
chantment in Heaven has more than
made up for the deficits on earth."
Why may not the Lord bless this as
well as that' Heaven us 1 dreamed
about it, and as I read aUnit it. is so
benign u realm you cunnoi any of you
alToidto miss it. oh. will it not be
transcendontly glorious after the
struggle of this life is over to stand in
that eternal safety? Samuel Ruther
ford, though they viciously burned his
books and unjustly arrested him for
treason, wrote of that celestial
spectacle:
The King ther In hln beauty,
Without a el. la netiu ;
It were a well upent journey.
Though seven death lay between,
The T.umb with hi fair army
I)oth on Mont 'Aon stand,
And glory, glory dwulleth
In luuuanuel'8 laud.
lie Was Fond of Tw ins.
! When the car stonned a mm and
a woman came in through the rear
door, each carrying something done
ud in a red shawl. The passengers
moved over and made room for them
! near the stoye. Then they began
j unrolling the shawls and each
; brought to view a fat-faced, brightr
I eyed baby. The hoods were just
' alike. The little jackets wero .,ust
alike and the two babiess were also
Just alike. At once the entire car
became interested. The business
man with the nose glasses stopped
reading his paper and blinked good
naturedly at the baby nearest him.
"Boys or girls?"
"Hoys," answered the. father a
iuild young man. .
How old?"
i"T.5p months."..
; '-Twins, of course?'
Yes."
"Yours?"
"Mine and hers."
The elderly woman across the way
leaned over and addressed the
mother.
"You keep their feet warm, of
course?"
"Oh, yes, ma'am, they're bundled
up good."
"That's right; you can't l e too
carefuL They're as cute as they can
le"
The mother laughed in a gratified
way and the husband blushed. As
the conductor came through he also
asked if they were boys. Over in
the corner was a stout man who had
been drinking. He gazed at the
twins with an expression of rapt de
light. The twins, after taking an
inventory of all the passengers, found
him the most entertaining, and t hey
gazed back at him. He winked at
them and one of them laughed.
"I'd give $100 to be the father of
two bovs like that," said he in a loud
voice.
The father seemed uncomfortable
and shifted his twin to the other
knee, but the twin, by twisting his
neck, was still able to command a
view of the stout gentleman, who
said, after a short pause: "You
ought to be a proud man, sir, and no
mistake. Here's tl, and I want you
to get them two boys a present two
pr sents, 1 mean"
He o'lered the money, holding vig
orously tc a strap with tho other
hand. The father shook his head
meekly.
"Take it," said the passengers in
chorus.
So he took It and then the stout
man got off the car, but everyone
forgave him for drinking. Chicago
Iiecord.
I'oor Dotctf'c!
Many eccentricities arc pardoned
In musical geniuses, especially by
those who do not su er from them.
I nl'ortunately, the object of a musi
cian's wrath is i ulte apt to be unable
to appreciate why he has offended.
One can fancy the possessor of the
untrained voice who figures in the
following story, thinking hard things
of the celebrated composer, Ramcau.
One day Kame in, while calling on
a lady, fixed a stern glance on a little
dog who satin her lap, and was bark
ing good-naturedly. Suddenly b'a
nieau seized the poor little fellow,
and threw him out of the window.
"What Is the matter?" asked his
hostess, much alarmed.
"lie barked false!" said I'.arneau,
indignantly.
Wukn It bocomes a duty for a man
to Vie good to his wile Instead of a
Joy, be Is to longer kind.
Fun everv letter you receive with
money In it, you receive a dozen let
ters offering you bargains.
It's a poor mule that doesn't work
both ways.
THE
COMMERCIAL BANK.
ESTABLISHED 1888.
Harrison,
B. E. Brkwstlr,
President.
D. H. GRISWOLD, Cashiar.
AUTHORIZED CAPITAL. $50 000.
Transacts a General Banking Business.
CORRESPONDENTS:
AHTOI0A.N Exchange National Bank, New York,
U.ted States National Bank, Omaha,
First National Bank, Chadro.
Interest Paid on Time Deposits.
WDRAFTS SOLD ON ALL PARTS OF EUROPE.
THE PIONEER
Pharmacy,
J. E. PHINNEY. Proprietor.
Pure Drugs, Medicines, Paints,
Oils and Varnishes.
W ARTISTS' MATERIAL.
School Supplies.
Prescriptions Carefully Compounded
Day or Night.
SIMMONS & SMILEY,
Harrison, Nebraska,
Real Estate Agents,
Have a number of bargains in
choice land in Sioux county.
Parties desiring to buy or sell real
estate should not fail to
call- on them.
School Lands
leased, taxes paid for
non-residents; farms rented, etc.
CORRESPONDENTS SOLICITED.
Nebraska.
C. F. Corral,
Vic-PrMUt.
VBKUSHES.