The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-06-01

garland upon discipline. With the SOL
diers of the late war, as we'll as the sol
diers of David, in the text, it was drill,
drin, drill. They did not keep rank
without practice. When they first be-
gan they excited the merriment of old
soldiers, and in aftertime they drew
forth impatient reprOOfs from the drill
master; but after great many blunders
and after blistered hands and exhausted
bodies, they knew so much about mill
tary discipline that they could keep
rank. So it is, my friends, in all our
work in the Church and in the world.
1t is drill, drill, drill, or no success.
How many men, not willing to submit
to this drudgery, are absolutely worth
less to the Church and State? Because
they can not be preachers or orators or
Christian workers, they are discOuTag-
ed. 1t seems so easy to preach, so easy
to edit, so easy to bargain, so easy to
sculpture the statue and draught house
and execute a picture and medicate
wound that they will try it; but after
they find out that 1t is only by cOntinu-
GUS toll and practice that they can come
to be an expert or to be anything worthy
of the name of success, they surrender.
1t is through Oft-repeated drill, or never
at all, we learn in all our Christian, as
we'll as worldly work to keep rank.
Again we in our national observance,
like the text, put a garland on prOweSs
in battle. 1t is comparatively easy to
keep rank on parade, amid a shower of
bOquets and hand-clapping, and the
whole street full of enthusiastic huZ-
Zahs, but it is not so easy to keep rank
in the din of battle, the face blackened
with smoke, the uniform covered with
the earth plOwed up by whizzing bullets
and bursting shells, half the regiment
cut to pieces, and yet the commander
crying, Forward, marchp' Then it re-
quires Old-fashiOned valOr. My friends,
the great trouble of the Church of God
splendidly on parade-day and at the
communion, when they have on their
clothes of Christian profession; but put
them out in the great battle of life, at
the first sharp-ShOOting of skepticism
they dodge, they fall back-they break
ranks. We confront the enemy; we open
the battle against frand, and lOl we find
on our side great many people who do
not try to pay their debts. And we open
the battle against intemperance, and
we find on our side great many people
who drink too much. And we open the
battle against profanity, and we find on
our own side great many people who
make hard speeches. And we open the
battle against infidelity, and lO we find
on our own side great many men who
are not quite sure about the book of JO-
nah. And while we ought to be mass
ing our troops and bringing forth more
than the united courage of AusteTlitZ
and Waterloo and Gettysburg, we have
| to be spending our time in hunting up
ambulances. There are a great many
| in the Lords army who would like to go
| out on campaign with satin slippers
| and holding umbrellas over their heads
to keep off the heavy dew, and having
TatiOns of canyas-back ducks and lemon
| custards. If they can not have them
they want to go home. They think it is
unhealthy among so many bullets. Oh,
for fifty thousand men, heroic men, self
denying men, who can go forth in the
strength of the Lord God Almighty to do
| battle, able to keep rankl Men like
Paul, who could say: "none of these
things move me. Neither count l my
life dear unto myself so may finish my
course with joy and the ministry.
have received of the Lord Jesus to testify
of the Gospel, of the grace of God" Men
| like John Bunyan, who, after lying years
in a lOathsOme prison, said: 81 am deter
mined, God being nay helper and shield,
to stay here until the moss grows over
my eyebrows rather than surrender
my faith and my principles" Men
like Thomas Chalmers, who, not
places at his theory of reform and ele-
vatiOn of the poor, went right on to do
his whole work, until Thomas Carlyle,
then a boy, wrote of him: "What
glorious old man Thomas Chalmers is!
While we stand wringing our hands
about the filth and the wretchedness of
our great cities, see that old man coming
out with shovel into the dirtiest puddles
of the black port of Edinburgh and
ditPhnd hn
sewers with living water. What glOTi-
GUS old manp Men who are willing to
endure for Christ as much as Massena
was willing to do for Napoleon. Mas
sena, after forty hours in continuous
battle, blOOdshOt and almOstinsane from
fatigue, was visited by messenger from
headquarters, who said to him: "HOw
long can you hold Out?" Turning around
he replied: Tell the Emperor l can
hold out two hours, or six hours, or
twenty-fOur, or until France s.victOry."
Oh, that the Lords army might be de-
pleted of the towards and the sluggards,
and that the Lord would take the cOur-
age of the military companies of this
country, and convert it, and bring it
into our churches. We want in all
Christian departments men who can
stand amid all discOuragements, and
amid all obstacles and in front of all
human and satanic assault-men who
can, in the strength of the Lord God Al
mighty, under all circumstances keep
rank. So to-day l make this church
recruiting station, where 1 want to
marshal men for this war, in which on
one side all the powers of darkness have
unlimbered their batteries, while on the
other side the rider on the white horse
is gathering his troops.
This annual decoration of graves finds
US in more thorough peace than in any
previous year. This last week the GEN
eral Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church, South, has made overtures to
the General Assembly of tie Presby-
terian Church, North, and that closes
the last gap ecclesiastical and the last
gap national. This year the graves Of
Northern and Southern dead are alike
covered, and without any protest. Time
has come to cover up all the scars of
battle. The dead are at peace. Why
not the liyingP They suffered more
than we; cannot we, who suffered less,
be at peacep The bows in blue and those