Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-03-06

ward, march! says joshua, f0r tnere Is
the city of Gibeon: 1t has put itself under
must defend il, and the people send word
from the city to Joshua: 'Come right
away. There are five kings going to de-
stroy u.s. Joshua makes q threed days
march in one night. 1t is double-quick.
When the next morning dawns there is
Joshua and there his troops. Prepare now
TO see the Gettysburg, the Waterloo, the
Sedan Of the Ancients.
Two armies are drawn out in line OF battle
near this city. The conflict opens with
great slaughter. The Cananites look up and
say: "0h, this is Joshua. There is no use.
He is a terrible man. and they sounded
the retreat. And as they started the 1sra.
elites come after them over the rocks, and
those Cananites went tumbling over the
ledges of Beth 0run. And in addition to
en- poured out Yolley of hailstones, pound
ing the retreating army against the rocks.
"Oh," says Joshua, this is victory; but
it is getting towards sundown and those
miserable Cananites are going to get away
from ME, and they will come back some
day and they will besiege US. oh. for
day twice as long as any We have ever
seen" Joshua is in prayer. Look out now,
for when good man makes the
Lord his ally, nothing is i'm
possible. Joshua rises, and he
looks al the descending sun over the hills
OF Gibeon, and he looks at the faint crescent
OF the moon Us YOU sometimes see the queen
of the night lingering round the palace OF
the day. He lifts both hands in sublime
apostrophe, one hand pointing towards the
sun and the other hand pointing toward the
moon and i'll the name of the Lord who
shaped the world into being, he lifts one
hand and says:
s.Sun. stand Thou Still Over Gibeon,"
and pointing the other hand TO the moon,
he saws: "And thou moon, stand still over
the valley of Ajalon." And for twelve
hours there was refraction OF the suns
rays, or, perhaps. the planetary system lit
|. orally halted. Those worlds that had never
stopped an instant since they were created,
stopped then and there. Look at the sun
dial No change honr after hour: The
sublime record is: THE sun stool still In
the midst of heaven" In those
twelve additional hours gained by
that stopping sun there was enough time
| TO demolish, bv the most tremendous bat
| tie ever fought, the King Of jerusalem, the
King of Hebron, the King of Yarmouth,
the King of Lachich and'the King OF Eglon
five kings. oh" you say, the sun and
| the moon didn't stand still One man
says: The sun was still, anyhow, and IT
was no miracle" Another man says: III
YOU stop the sun you upset the whole uni
| verse" But leaving to the Christian SCI
entists and to the intidel scientists the set
tlcment of that question among themselves
and wishing always that the Joshua Of the
| church may'get the victory over the Ann
| monites Of the German universities, | 20
on and tell YOU that have seen the same
miracle. A bad man does not live out halt
| OF his dayS. His sun may set at noon. Hut
good man may prolong his days OF USE
| fulness.
Now it is time for Joshua to go home. He
| is an old man. He is hundred and ten.
Washington went down to Mount Vernon
and spent the evening OF his day. Welling-
ton died peacefully at WalWer oastie'
Now, give joshua the oldest warrior c! lne
ages, a chance to rest. No The greatest
battle of all his lifetime opens-mightier
| than the one against the spring freshet-
| mightier than the one against the stone
.wall-mighticr than the one in which he
| led the regiment Of whipped cowardS-
mighticr than the one in which he fought
back the darkness, marshaIling the sun and
moon in his battalion He comes out now
against the greatest king OF earth-a king
| who has more subjects than all the present
population of the earth. His throne Is q
| pyramid of skulls. His chariot Is the
worlds hearSe. The playground and the
ward All the SickncSScs Of the world are
marshalled on his side 1t is the King Of
| Terrors, the conqucror Of 6,0O0 years. Now,
! Joshua. YOU have your match. No. For
| il this is JoshUaS greatest battle II Is
| Joshua's greatest victory. He gathers his
| friends around him and hc give, his vale
J. dictQry. 1t il iall Of an old mans remin-
| iscences. 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
| stand looking at the old man, and see his
white hair over his wrinkled brow and his
| upper lip compressed against his sunken
gum, l wonder if God has fulfilled the en-
| tire promise 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 tina old man tells the same story
| twice and in the same breath, as sometimes
YOU know old people forget and will tell
| the same story twice. He says: This day
| | 20 the way of all the earth, and not one
| thing of all the good things that God has
promised concernng you has failed
All Have Come To Pass.
Not one thing thereof has failed. And
| then in his dying moment he says to the
beople: "NCw make YOUR choice. Which
| God are YOU going Ia have. the God OF the
| Ammonites or the God oil Israel. AS for
me and my house. | will serve The Lord.
| Oh, how natural that was. When good
| man dies his chief anxiety is about his
| family. We want our children saved.
| Joshua wanted all hi, family saved. Liv-
| ing. diving. be that Our prayer. Consent to
| everything else, We C-n, but consent to
| eternal parting at the tomb we never can.
| By the cradle H. which their infancy was
| rocked, BY the bosom Oh which they first
| lay, by the burning prayers We have
| offered for their salvationi 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: IL 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 Al. Fold
| il across the heart that exulted when the
five kings fell But were will we get the
FURNISHED granite tit TO be- the headstone
and the foOtstonc OF this greatest OF war.
| riors? Oh. bethink myself now. |
imagine at his head it shall be the sun that
stood still above Gibeon, and at his foot 1t
shall be the moon that stood still over the
valley of AialOn.
MARTINS FERRY.