The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-09

age by his malicious brothers, and his false i'm
ar1sonment Joseph never would have become
Governor Everybody accepts the promise.
s'blessed ara they that are prosecuted for
righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven, but they do not realize the fact that
this principle applies to worldly as well as spir-
ltua success. 1t is true in all departments
Men rise to high official positions through mis-
representation. Public abuse is all that some
Of our public men have had to rely upon, Tor
their elevation. 1t has brought to them
what talent and executive force could
not have achieved Many OF those
who arc making great effort for place and power
will never succeed, just because they are not of
enough Importance to abuse 1t is the nature of
men-that is of ali generous aud reasonable
men-to gather about those who are prosecuted.
and defend them; and they are apt to forget the
fault of those who are the subjects of attack
while attempting to drive back the slanderers.
Persecution is elevation Helen Stirk, the
Scotch martyr, standing with her husband at
the place of execution, said Husband, let US
rejoice today; we have lived together great
many happy years; this is the happiest time of
all our life; you see we are to be happy together
forever. Re brave now; be brave. / will not
say Good night to you. for we shall soon be
in the kingdom of our Father together Perse-
cution shows the heroes and the heroines go
into another department, and find that those
great denominations of Christians which have
No good man was ever more violently maltreated
than John Wesley-beiied. and caricatured and
Elandered UNTIL one day, he stood in pulpit IN
London, and man arose in the audience and
said, "You were drunk last night" and John
Wesley said: THANK God. the whole catalogue
is now complete. / have been charged with ev-
erything but THAR His followers were hooted
at, and maligned, and called by every detestable
name that internal ingenuity could invent but
the hotter the persecution the more rapidly they
spread, until-you know what great host
they have become, and what tre-
mendous force for God and the truth they
are welding all the world overl / do not
wonder they celebrate their centennial in Balti-
more. 1t was persecution that gave Scotland to
Presbyterianism. 1t was persecution that gave
our lard first to civil liberty and afterward to
religious freedom. Yea, | might GO farther
back and say it was persecution that gave the
world the great salvation of the gospel The
ribald mockery, the hungering and thirsting,
the unjust charge the ignomnous death, when
all the force of hells fury hurled against the
cross, was the Introduction Of that religion
which is yet to be the earth's delSerance and
our eternal salvation. The state sometimes
said to the church. Come, take my hand and
will help you" What was the result? The
church went back, and it lost its estate of holt
ness, and it became ineffective At other
times the state said to the church, II
will crush you.' What has been the re-
suit! After the storms have spent their fury,
the church, SO far from having lost any of
5ts force has increased and is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before. Read all
history, and You will find that true. The church
is far more indebted to the opposition of civil
government than to its approval. The fires of
the stake have only been the torches which
Christ held in His hand. by the light of which
the church has marched to her present glorious
position. In the sound of racks and implements
of torture hear the rumbllng of the gospel
chariot. The scaffolds of martyrdom have been
the stairs by which the church mounted
Learn also from our subject that sins will
come to exposure Long, long ago had those
brothers sold Joseph into Egypt They had
made the old father believe that his favorite
child was dead. They had suppressed the
crime, and it was profound secret we'll kept
by the brothers But suddenly the secret is
out. The old father hears that his son is in
Egypt having been sold there by the malice of
his own brothers. How their cheeks must have
burned and their hearts sunk at the flaming out
OF this long suppressed crime The smallest
iniquity has thousand tongues, and they will
blab out exposure. Saul was sent to destroy the
Canaanites, their sheep and their oxen; but
when he got down there among the pastures he
4aw some fine sheep and oxen too fat to kill,
he thought he would steal them. Nobody would
know it, He drove these stolen sheep and oxen
towards home but stopped to report to the
prophet how he had executed his mission, when
In the distance the sheep began to bleat and the
oxen to below. The secret was out, and Samuel
said to the hlushing and confused Saul: what
meaneth the bleating of sheep that hear,
and the believing of the cattel' All my
nearer, you cannot keep an iniquity still. At
iust the wrong time the sheep will bleat and the
oxen will below. Achan cannot steal the Baby
lonish garments without being stoned to death,
nor Arnold betray his country without having
his neck stretched Look over the police arrests.
These thieves, these burglars these counter
feiters, these hghwaymen, these assassns, they
all thought they could bury their iniquity so
deep down it would never come to resurrection:
but there some shoe that answered to the
print in the SOIL some false keys found in their
buff hot rs
the death, and the public indignation and the
anathema of outraged law hurled them into the
dungeon or hoisted them on the gallows.
Francis L., King. of France, stood coun-
Seling with his officers how he
could take his army into ITALY, when
Ameril, the fool of the court leaped out from
corner of the room and said: You had better be
consulting how you will get your army back"
and it was found that Francis and not Ameril
was the fool. Instead of consulting as to the
best way of getting into SIM you had better con-
suit as to whether you will be able to get out Of
it. If the world does not expose you, you will
tell it yourself There is an awful power in an
aroused conscience. highwayman plunged
out upon Whitefiefd as he rode along on horse
back, sack of money the horse, money that
he had raised for orphan asylums and the high
wayman put his hand on the gold, and White
field turned to him and said: Touch that If
you dare. That belongs to the Lord
Jesus Christ" And the ruffan skunk into
the forest. Conscience The rufian had pis-
tol, but Whitehead shook at him the finger of
DOOM Do not think you can hide any great
and protracted sin in your heart, my brother In
aulunguarded moment it will slip off the lin. or
some slight action may for the moment set ajar
this door that you wanted to keep closed. But
suppose that in this life you hide it, and you get
along with this transgression burning in your
heart, as a ship on fire within for days binders
the flames from bursting out by keeping down
the hatches yet at last in the judgment that in
iquity will blaze out before God and the uni
verse.
HOW EVENTS ARE LINKED TOGETHER
Learn also from this subject that there is an
2nseparable connection between all events, how
aver remote Tho universe is only one thought
OF God Those thinos which sanmad frnnrnon4nr,.