Newspaper Page Text
8
(Continued from page 2.)
they say, is pictured in the Scriptures
as too big. And I grant that heaven
is big, and if you are at all In any
doubt about the size of it you read
John’s description of it. There we
find John, banished on the Island of
Patmos, with the finger of inspiration
touching his heart, and his brain, and
his eyes, and he sees beyond the cur
tain that divides the mainland of time
from the great surging sea of Eter
nity, the only man that ever has, and
he has been privileged to see heaven.
And in his apocalyptic letter he gives
us some faint hint concerning it. You
will remember that he describes it as
to size like tljis: “Thousands and
thousands.” That is his first glimpse
of it; then he is taken a little higher
up, and he gets his second glimpse
of it, and he says no longer “thou
sands and thousands,” but now it is
“ten thousand times ten thousand;”
and then he is taken a little higher
up and he is given another view of
it, and he speaks no longer of “thou
sand times ten thousand,” but he
speaks of a hundred and forty-four
thousand, and thousands of thousands.
And then he goes on up a little high
er and is given another view of heav
en. time he speaks of it as “a
great multitude that no man could
number.” Oh, John starts out to de
scribe the bigness of heaven, he be
gins with “thousands” and ends with
“a countless multitude.” Oh, I am
sorry for the man, with all my heart
I am, who thinks of heaven as only
a place where he and his little Church
will get in, or where he and his little
(Continued from Page 3.)
brave,” she said. “My observation
has learned me this. That -reckless
ness is not true courage. They quail
before righteous indigination, and any
kind of weapon in a determined hand
will make them falter. All the same,
you must not take your walks alone,
Maybeth. I will go with you. Devon
has made some of these men believe
that you are his wife, that you tried
to run away from him, and he follow
ed you. The native men, and some
of the others would think it was in
fringing on a husband’s rightdto pro
tect <ou against him.”
“I would not be so much afraid* of
him if he were himself,” Maybeth
said, “for he has had the training of a
gentleman but drink brings out every
evil instinct in him.”
Being well supplied with money to
pay for liquor, Sydney Devon contin
ued to be in a half intoxicated state,
and to annoy Maybeth beyond endur
ance. He intruded upon her wher
ever she went, but as she never went
without Mary, who he feared
as well as hated, he had no opportu
nity to do her harm.
One day when he had gone fishing
in the boat, she and Mary, with
Antonio, walked to the farther end of
the island and sat down on a flat rock
on the shore. They looked wistfully
across the expanse of calm water. Al
ways their eyes searched the sea In
the hope of seeing the smoke, or the
sail of a vessel. They had begun to
fear that they must stay on this lone
ly island forever. The prospect was
more miserable to Maybeth than to
her girl companion, who was happier
RECOGNITION IN HEAVEN
TWO WRECKS AND THEIR DRIFTWOOD
coterie or circle will get in. “Thou
sands and thousands and thousands,”
beyond the possibility of numbering;
but, my friends, is the bigness of
heaven any barrier to recognition in
heaven? To me not the slightest, and
for this reason: in heaven God is in
charge of all the natural and spir
itual forces that exist, and that being
true, all distance and all difficulties
in the way of communication are ab
solutely and forever removed.
Why, think of it, even now, with
Imperfect man, and a very imperfect
science, the Titanic the other day
struck an iceberg, and the wireless
operator sent out his C Q D —come
quick, danger —and it struck the Car
pathia and she went to the relief of
the Titanic and saved a number of
her passengers. But think you what
way that CQ D travelled. Do you
suppose that it struck out in a bee
line for the Carpathia? It knew no
Carpathia. Do you suppose that it
merely circulated around the region
of the Titanic that sent it out? Ah,
no. Verily that call for help traverse
ed the whole space above us. It cir
cled every star that twinkles in the
heavens, and touched the border of
all countries and all planets and all
lands. All this it did the moment it
struck the Carpathia. /Mars receiv
ed it as early as the Carpathia receiv
ed it. There is no space with refer
ence to a matter of that sort. We are
all in a whisper’s nearness. Yes, we
are in the limits of breathing. What,
then, like is the grace of God when
all these forces of nature are equip
ped by the hand of perfection? That
if God can do all this with the im
perfect fingers of man and operating
through the imperfect brain of man,
what can He do when all things are
perfect and that which is Imperfect,
is done away?
on the island than she had ever been
before. But Maybeth had dear ties
drawing her to the land she had left.
Though the fate of Earl was unknown
to her, she had strong hopes that he
was living, and she believed that he
deeply lamented Tier loss and would
do all in his power to find her.
If as was probable, the life boat
which the natives had set adrift,
should be picked up by some vessel
and the finding of it come to the
knowledge of Earl, he might well be
lieve that all on the boat were lost
and give up his search for her.
“Oh!” she cried, as she looked long
ingly out to sea. “If I had the wings
of that sea bird or of your pigeon,
Antonio, how quickly I would try to
reach the shore of my home once
more.”
Mary turned quickly to the boy who
sat with his pigeon perched on his
shoulder, “Is Lyt a homing pigeon,
Antonio,” she asked.
“A homing pigeon! I don’t know
what that means,” replied the boy.
“The friend who gave her to me said
she came from a famous stock of
homing pigeons.”
“A homing pigeon is one whose in
stinct it is to fly straight to its old
home whenever it is let loose and
thrown out to fly, no matter if many
miles of sea and land intervened. If
Lyt is a homing pigeon, she will fly
to your home in Florida—when you
fling her loose on the winds, and she
will carry any message you can write,
and tie about her neck “A message?”
The boy looked eagerly at Maybeth
to whom he was devoted.
'‘jVonld you consent to let your pet
The Golden Age for July 18,1912.
The Beauty of Heaven.
Then, again, there are those who
say they can not accept heavenly rec
ognition, though they believe in heav
en, because it is too beautiful, as de
scribed in the Scriptures, and they
fancy, of course, we shall be lost in
the beauty, in the magnificence of
heaven, and will not think to look
for those that we have known on
earth. Here again I admit that heav
en is pictured in the Scriptures as
the most beautiful sight that the eye
of man ever looked upon. And if you
don’t think it read again the apocalyp
tic letter; see what John says after
he has had a peep into it. Here is
what he says—and oh, I fancy when
he got through saying all this he felt
that the picture was so imperfect that
he flung his pen away and said, “It’s
no use,” for here is what he said:
“The city was pure gold, like unto
clear glass, and the foundations of
the walls were garnished with all
manner of precious stones. The first
foundation was jasper, the second
sapphire”—oh, you women who love
jewelry, just listen —“the third a
chalcedony, the fourth an emerald, the
fifth a sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the
seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl,
the ninth a topaz, the tenth a chryso
prasus. the eleventh a jacinth, the
twelfth an amethyst;’* and then he
describes the gates: “The twelve gates
were twelve pearls, every several
gate was of one pearl, and the streets
of the city were pure gold, as it were
transparent glass.” Can you imagine
anything more beautiful than that? 1
like beautiful jewelry. Some people
think it is a sin to wear a diamond.
I don’t think so, and if you want to
test me you can. I don’t think that
God Almighty ever made a thing that
could flash the light as
from its facets and then regard it as
leave you and go on this mission of
hope. Antonio?” she asked. He hesi
tated and looked wistfully at his pig
eon, then at Maybeth.
“Would I ever see her again?” “I
believe you would, if she is a true
homing pigeon. Can you make the
sacrifice, dear?”
“Yes,” he answered bravely, though
tears rushed to his eyes.
“We will send our little messenger
now, from this rock. We will try her
at least,” Maybeth said.
She took from the pocket of her
dress a letter she had begun to write
to her grandmother when on board
the West Indian. It was thin, but
strong paper. With her fountain pen
she printed on a blank page in small,
clear letters a message, telling that
the survivors of the West Indian were
on a small island whose geographical
whereabouts she gave according to
an observation taken by the mate with
his compass and quadrant. The cast
aways begged to be rescued at once,
as they were in peril. She signed her
name and gave the name of Mrs. Ham
ilton, and several of the others who
would be apt to have friends who were
anxious about their fate. She folded
the written slip as small as possible
and enclosed it securely in the finger
of a kid glove, sewing it to a piece of
narrow silk tape drawn from the neck
of her underbodice. The tape was
then fastened to the pigeon. The oth
ers anxiously watched the prepara
tions for sending the message, and
when they were finished Maybeth took
the bird and holding it in her folded
hands prayed earnestly that the mes
sage might be safely carried and
a sin to use it. I like jewelry; I like
some sense in the use of it, but I like
it, and in my travels through Europe
at different times I have often been
greatly interested in another exer
cise. I have found myself greatly in
terested in the exercise of looking
upon the crowns worn at different,
times by the crowned heads. Os
course, these jewels that now sparkle
in these old crowns all may be made
up and the real thing taken away; I
am not sufficient judge to know, but
I like them. But oh, my friends, lis
ten—all this is nothing in compari
son with John’s description of the
beauty of heaven. “Oh,” you say,
“it is figurative language.” Let it
be figurative; if it is figurative it is
only so because John could not find
any way to express the thing that he
saw without using a figure, and he
uses the sublimest figures that you
can possibly imagine in order to de
scribe it. Think of its light, each
of these jewels flashing its light on
to the face of the other, the emerald
on to the topaz, the amethyst on the
beryl, light exchanging light one from
the other, until, as the result of that
exchange the whole horizon is light
ed up with a light that outrivals the
glories of ten thousand sunsets. That
is heaven in its beauty. But oh, does
the beauty stand in any way as a bar
rier to recognition? To me not at all.
What is beauty without somebody to
enjoy it? What is beauty in com
parison with love? One look in the
face of my sainted mother will reveal
more light and love and beauty than
all the sparkling gems that John ever
saw.
And again there are those that say
to us, “Recognition in heaven is not
possible, because heaven is a place
of spirits, and spirits are not recog
(Continued on Page 14.)
might reach those who would come to
their rescue. Then she gave the pig
eon to Antonio. The boy hugged his
beloved pet to his breast, kissed it
and standing up flung it out on the
breeze. Lyt had never been loosed
in this way before. She fluttered un
certainly, circled around, then came
back and perched on Antonio’s shoul
der.
He took her once more and after
caressing her, threw her out with the
words, “Go Lyt, Go home; go home
and take the message you bear.”
It was as if she understood. She
no longer fluttered aimlessly. She
rose in the air, circled around once
as if to get her course, and then flew
straight eastward, and ke'pt a steady
flight, as long as they who watched,
could see the little messenger sent
with earnest prayers for her safe pas
sage, and for the prompt response to
the appeal for help. What they had
done seemed to these three almost a
sacred thing. They decided at first,
not to tell any one except Mrs. Hamil
ton, but at the Sunday service, it
seemed best to let all who were pres
ent know of it and to make it the
subject of a special prayer, in which
all joined but Sydney Devon, and one
other.
Devon seemed in these days to be
possessed of an evil spirit. His ex
pression changed. There was some
thing sinister and diabolic in his once
beautiful eyes. Maybeth felt that he
was passing through some terrible or
deal, and that if the good in him
was overcome this time, it would
never struggle with him again.
(To Be Continued.)
