The Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1885-1886, 1885-12-28

~ llIlUsI lISDLN VI Duli
Faith fled. The gods were poworless, and
suicide was the only avenue of escape,
Nor when Christ came did the fear or
despair cease at once. 1t was never so
great as during these years of invasion by
night of fear drew on, and the
winter of discomfort settled upon
mems hearts, the seeds of truth long
hidden began to root themselves, and when
at last the spring time of a new era was
ushered in, they terminated and grew
The fear had passed. The world had come
out of the terrible nightmare of despair
and doubt. Henceforth history was to
lie no longer in the shadow but he the
development of this new hope IA
A JOY TO ALL PEOPLE
The souls of men were shaken with
emotions new and strange. and creeds and
thoughts were tossing in an agony of
change. The world, that had grown
weary of its pleasures and its gains. felt a
tide of youth and rapture rush throughout
its wasted veins. and lie it never knew be,
fore was stirring TO its core the proud,
prissant empire that was Pagan Rome 10
more" The world had turned from its
despair to this growing hope. Clouds might
rise to eclipse it, darkness enveloD 1t AMI
| storms rage around it. but like a star that
shines on brightly and forever. it could
never he destroyed. The world was to
see it more dimly at times as the mists of
| superstition and darkness gathered. but
| like the star that guides the mariner across
tina deep. it shone and will shine for all
the tempest-tossed till they reach the has
| ven at last. To trace the growth of this
hope TO show thatit is now Joy to all PEG
pie is theme worthy the genius of poet
and historian, yet the rudest outline OF its
progress is revelation of its divine orr
| gin and end Take the Jews. who are
the most unpromising Illustration of this,
| for they rejected Christ, Yet the hope
| of the Messiah has been to them the
cheering assurance of "A bright future,
| which they have never lost. When by
Euphrates stream they sat voiceless while
their harps hung on the willows and taars
chokcd their utterances they had not
lost it. Nor did it fail them when Alex
ander swept over their land like scourge.
when Plotemy carried them by thousands
into exile when Antiochus destcrated
| their temple, when Judea became IL
Roman province subjec to the rapacity
Of the emperors. when in sight NJ the
generations that saw Christ die, ,ietu
salem WAS consumed by fire and de,ugcd
| in blood and when carried away II
wrctched remnant. they were sold into
awful slavery of the mines and ga!lies
| Though broken hated ground to pow der
flung into exile, counted less than the
dust OF the balances wherever this indom
table people survived there was retained
that indeslructable hope which had been
the impulse to life of their Fathers
and it is retained to this day, nor shall it
be disappointed, for this hope OF the
Lords chosen people shall find its rcal-
cation in the returning To nnd accept
aucc of Him who is 1.-THE desire OF all ma
tious." and in whose advent the angel
announced Il Joy to all people.
1t was faith in this universal dominion
that gave impulse to that series OF mis-
sons belonging to the MEDIEVAL ages
and now almost forgotten, when st. Au-
| CUISINE, from the shores of Italy went to
Great Britain to carry the gospel to be.
nighted people when st Honitacc
penetrated the German forests; when
St. Patrick sowed the seed Of truth in
Ireland; when st. Columbia, from the
Island of Iona carried the light to
that northern people; when Ehbo and
and Anschar in the ninth century planted
the gospel among the Danes and Swedes
when Frederick and Thorwald century
later carried it to Iceland, when Adalhut
ministered to the Hungarinns and died
a martyrs death and when otto met his
fate chanting hymn. These are some
of the lights that irradiated that darkness.
One cannot read without vivid, yet ten
der emotions the story of the youthful
| Anschar, in the ecstacy OF dreams, seeing
| visions and hearing voice saying, ''gn
and return crowned with martyrlom.
and later the same voice commanding
"go preach to the heather tribes We
do not wonder at his conservation, nor
the sublmity of his faith when at the SUI
preme moment of martyrdom he cXclalms
| II am sure of my cause; it will conquer;
and it has. 1t was the same hope that
sent the humble monks into the dense.
maiarious woods. journeying by day and
lying at night on the earth with stone
for pillow. No wonder, if, like Jacob,
| they saw visions of ladder with ascend
ing and descending angels, nor that at
terward when they had built their lonely
huts they seemed to hear in the silence of
evening, as Inner did. the ringing of the
mystic monastery bells that were some
day to replace his rude home. The
howl of wolves might respond to
the voice of prayer and song.
| bandits might rob them of the little that
| they had. Cavaliers on their hunting
expedition might scorn and insult them,
and mobiles, like Childebert, order them to
| leave the woods, yet nothing dismayed
them, they Were sure of their cause, and
tainted not. Thus each land had its
heroes that have kept alive this hope in
.bn II lf
easy to show. did time permit. that faith
| in universal dominion has been the hope
| which has inspired the progress of the
| world, 1t was this that sustained the
Huguenots when hunted with fire and
| swords from the Businesses of France. 1t
was this that nerved the Dutch in that
double unparalleled conflict against the
sea on the one hand, and the Spaniard's
on the other. wrestling from one the very
soil of their country, and from the other
| their liberty 1t was this that kept the
pilgrims through the long years of sacr-
flee from those memorable days, when
tossed upon an unknown deep they
sought an unknown country till they
landed on an inhospitable- shore, and in
the trackless wilderness planted, as they
believed and as history has confirmed the
germs of a mighty nation. Thus our
fathers, Dutch English, Hugnenot,
brought hiiher this profound expectation
of future for the world, bright and
great, ample and holy, to be secured by
their religion" We live on the vantage
ground OF later centuries and have seen
this hope fulfilled. and lifting up our
eyes to the distant horizons of the ma
tions we behold, as in u vision, the trans
| figured fares of and thnutrh The.