The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-03-17

sometimes staying home from the SAD
bath-school class because their fall hal
is not done! And Methodist churches
that once shook our cities with powerful
revivals, sending around q committee to
ask demonstrative worshippers If they
will not please say "Amen" and Halle
luiah" little softly. We are trying ia
baptize the church Of God in this day
with cologne and balm of thousand
flowers, when it wants o baptism from
the Lord God of Pentecost. Oh, we are
80 afraid somebody will CritiCise our ser
mons, or our prayers, and our exhorta'
tions, that we forget our desire for the
worlds conquest in the fear we will gel
hurt; while Eleazsr goes into the conflict
so enthusiastically he does not care
whether he is hurt or not, His hand
Clave unto his sword"
"Thy saints In all this glorious war,
Shall conquer though they diet
They see the triumph from afar,
And seize 1t with their eye"
Again, I notice how hard it was fol
Eleazar TO get his hand and his sword
parted. He had been fighting against
the Philistines 80 lorg the sinews had
Clutched around the sword and it became
rigid, and when he gets through with
the conflict, he cannot drop it. The
sword sticks fast. His hand clave unto
the sword" You and l have seen the
same thing many time. There are in
the United States a great many aged
ministers; they are to old and infrm to
take parishes. They fought mighty
battle for God in other days. Their
names are in the church records styled
Emeritus" or the words are put down,
a minister withouta charge. They have
taken off the heads of more PhiIiqine
iniquities than you could count from
noon until sundown. They were self
denying ministers; they had few looks
and small salaries; and they swan esh-
cts to meet their appointments, and,
having no police when anyone diss rbed
the meeting, they would just ia of
their coat and 90 down into the audi
ence to thrash into silence the dis Urber
of the peace, and then 60 back az in t.
the pulpit and put on their Coar, and
pray the Lord that he would by hi9 Grace
complete the work Of sunjugation 80
vigorously begunl Put that old, worn
out preacher into prayer meeting, or
in some Sunday ay-sChool, or in sick.room
where a dying man wants consolation,
and it is the same old ring Of admoni-
ton and petition. The sword which for
half century has been welded against
the Philistines is so imbedded in the old
mans hand he cannot drop it. If any
man bad right to quit earthly conflict
it was Joshua. You know when soldiers
come home from battle they sometimes
have on their flags the names Of the
battle fields where they have distin.
guished themhelves, and that is appro.
pirate. I see inscribed on he flag of old
Joshua, Jordan, Jericho, Gibeon, Hszar,
City of Al, and instead # having the flag
sprinkled with stars, it has on it the
sun and moon that stood still. He is a
hundred and ten years old. He is fiat on
his back, but he is preaching. His dying
words are battle against IdolRtry, and
the rallying of the hosts of Israel: Be-
hold I go this day the way of all the
earth, and God hath not failed to per
form anything He hath promised con.
cerning Israeli The old mans hand
'clave to his sword There lies the
headless body of Paul on the road to
Ostea. His great brain and his great
heart have been severed. His last days
we're full of triumph. OBJ you cav, 'he
is Emeritus he ought to stop preaching
His back has been stung with the mer-
Ciless elm-wood rods. When the corn
ship broke up he swan ashore, coming
up in the brine. He is an old man, worn
out and deer 'pid with the damp cells of
the Marmartine. Ever since the days
when his morse reared under him in the
suburbs of Damascus, as the supernat-
ural light fell, until now in his sixty.
eighth year, he has been outrageously
abused, and he is waiting to die. Does
he spend his last days in telling people
how badly he feels, in describing the
rheumatism in the limbs, or the neural.
gia in the temples, or the feverith thirst
on his tongue2 Oh, mol He spends his
last days in giving the battle shout to all
Christian ages / am now ready to be
offered up, and the time of my departure
is at hand, have fought the good
fight You see the old mans hand
Clave to the sword.
On the second floor, in the front room,
my father lay a.dying. 1t was Saturday
morning, about four o'clock. Just three
years that day my mother left him for
the skies, and he had been homesiCk to
join her society ever after. He was 83
years Of age. Ministers Of the Gospel
came in to comfort him in his last hours,
but he Comforted them. He knew more
Scripture than any Of them. Oh, how
wonderfully the words sounded, out from
his dying pillow: I have been young,
and now am l old, yet have | never
seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed
begging Bread He was full of the good.
ness of God and the mercy of Christ
They bathed his brow, and they bathed
bis hands, and they bsthed his feet, and
tEey succeeded in Strengthening out the
limbs, and they succeeded in brushing
back the white hair from the temlpes
but they did not succeed in bathing open
The right hand, so 1t would stay open.
They batbed II open, and it came shut
What was the matter with the thumb
Anu uuBoE VI buhb uo6E ulu uhuu " LILO
TACT was, that Eleazar's sword had 30
ong been clutched by the fingers that
The sinews would keep bending that
way. His dying hand Clave unto the
sword. n. e. 9l
I preach this sermon this morning as
/ tonic. l want you TO take hold Of Gods
ruth with such an ineradicable grip that
Ill the forces Of earth and hell cannot
oosen it, and want you to strike 30
hard for God that 1t will react, and
while you take the sword, the sword of
5od's truth will take you. After the
battle is over, and the war has ceased,
soldiers gather together, and they show
their scars. One soldier rolls up bis
sleeve, and he says, There was wound
ed in the arm; and another soldier pulls
down his collar, and he says, There /
was wounded in the neck; another sol
dier says. l have never had the use of
that limb since the gun shot fracture
Oh, my Christian friends, when we get
back our bodies on the resurrection day,
| wonder IL we will have lnv acara fo