The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-03-16
FORWARD.
Continued from Page 3.


ever" 1t shall Oh..y you.
1t is not yet quite sundOwn in Josh
ua's day and we Will have time for five
Royal funerals. Where are these five
Kings that Joshua took? They are
there in that caYe-the cave of Make
dah-hiding. Joshua has rolled a stone
against it. But before night these five
men are brought out, and the Major
Generals of Joshua now come up and
put their foot on the neck of the terri
bic old Kings, and they are beheaded
and their bodies are put back into the
same cave, and the stone is rolled
against it again; so that cave has
been to them headquarters first, prison
second, sepulcher last-and all on the
same day. Who will preach the funeral
sermon of these five bad Kings? Josh
ua. And what shall be his text? And
what shall be the epitaph chiseled on
the rock in front of the cave at Make
dah?
Joshua l., 3: "There shall not any
man be able to stand before thee all the
days of thy life" Before that rock is
sealed up l want to put in five more
Kings, first having them beheaded-
King Alcohol, King Fraud, King Lust,
King Superstition, King BigOtry. Have
them all in! Cover them over with
mound of broken decanters and the de-
bris of their miserable dOings. Roll
rock against that cave so they never can
get out. Then chisel for these last
five kings the same epitaph you had for
the other five Kings, and let all the
Christian refOrmers and philanthTO-
pists before the sun of their protracted
day of usefulness is ended come up and
read 1t. Joshua l., >: "TheTe shall not
any man be able to stand before thee
all the days of thy life"
Now it is time for Joshua to 90 home.
He Is an old man. He is a hundred and
ten. Washington went down to Mount
Vernon and spent the evening of his
day. Wellington died peacefully at
Nalmer Castle. Now give Joshua, the
Oldest warrior of the ages, a chance to
rest. No! The greatest battle of all his
against the spring fTeshet-mightie
than the one against the stone wall
mightier than the one in which he led
the regiment of whipped cOwards-
mlghtier than the one in which he
fought back the darkness, maTshaling
the sun and moon in his battalion. He
comes out now against the greatest
King of eaTth-a King who has more
subjects than all the present population
of the earth. His throne is a pyramid
of skulls. His chariot is the worlds
around his palace is the worlds grave
yard. All the sicknesses of the world
are marshaled on his side. 1t is the
King of TerrOrs, the cOnquerer of six
thousand years. Now, Joshua, you have
your match. No! For if this is Josh
ua's greatest battle it is JOshua's great
est victory. He gathers his friends
around him; and he gives his valedic-
tory. 1t is full of an old mans remi-
niscences. Young men tell what they
are going to do. Old men tell what
they have done. And as sometimes by
the winter fire you have heard your
grandfather or great-grandfather talk
of Monmouth, or Yorktown, or Bunker
Hill-shOuldering his staff as though it
were musket to show you how the
field was WOn-sO Joshua fights all his
battles over again in the last days of
his life. AS 1 stand looking at the old
man, and see his white hair over his
wrinkled brow, and his upper lip com
| pressed against his sunken gum, | won
| der II God has fulfilled the entire prom
ise of the text: There shall not any
man be able to stand before thee all the
days of thy life" And while am won
dering the old man tells the same story
twice and in the same breath, as some
| times you know old people forget and
will tell the same story twice. He says
This day go the way of all the EARTH
and not one thing of all the good things
that God has promised concerning you
has failed. All have come to pass. Not
one thing thereof has failed" And
then in his dying moments he says to the
people: "NOw make your choice.
Which God are you going to have, the
God of the AmmOnites or the God of Is
rael? As for me and my house, | will
serve the Lord" Oh, how natural that
was. When a good man dies his chief
anxiety is about his family. We want
our children saved. Joshua wanted all
his family saved. Living, dying, be that
| our prayer. Consent to every thing else
we can, but consent to eternal parting
| at the tomb we never can. By the era
die in which their infancy was rocked,
by the bosom on which they first lay, by
the burning prayers we have offered for
their salvation, by the blood of the new
Covenant, by the Lord God of Joshua, it
shall not be Jehovah. Jirah, we take
Thee at Thy oath: 81 will be a God to
thee and thy seed after thee" Dead.
The old chieftain must be laid out. He
is hundred and ten years old Touch
him very gently. Stretch out those old
feet that once walked the dry path of
the parted Jordan. Close those lips
which blew the blast that dropped the
walls of Jericho. Fold that arm which
stretched out the spear against the
doomed city of All. Fold it across the
heart that exulted when the five Kings
fell. But where will we get the burn
ished granite fit to be the headstOne
and the fOOtstOne of this greatest of
warriors. Oh, bethink myself now. |
imagine at his head it shall be the sun
that stood still above Gideon, and at the
foot of it shall be the moon that stood
still over the Valley of AjalOn.