The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-07-23


| will stay here until the moss grows on my
eyebrows rather than give up my faith
tie days of retreat for the church were
days of victory
The pilgrim fathers fell back from the
other side Of the sea to Plymouth Rock, but
now are marshaling a continent for the
christianization of the world. The church
of Christ falling brck from Piedmont fall
ing back from Rue st. Jacques, falling
back from st. Denis, falling back from
Wurtemburg castles, falling back from the
Brussels market place, yet all the time
triumphing. Not outstanding all the shock
ing reverseS which the church of Christ
suffers, what do we see to-day: Three
thcus nd missionaries of the cross on
heatueu ground; sixty thousand ministers
of Jesus Christ in this land; at least two
hundred millions of christians on the earth.
All nations to-day kindling in blaze of
revival. Falling back, yet advancing, until
the old Wesleyan hymn will prove true:
The lion of Judah shall break the chain,
And kive us the victory again and again.
But there is more marked illustration
OF victorious retreat in the lie of our
Joshua, the Jesus of the ages. First falling
back from an appalling height TO an appail-
ing depth, falling from celestial hills to ter
reStrial valleys, from thrope to manger;
vet that did not seem to suffice him as re-
TO Nazareth, from Nazareth to Jerusalem,
back from Jerusalem to Golgotha, back
from Golgotha to the mauSoleum In the
rock, back down over the preciplces of per-
dition until he walked amid the caverns of
the eternal captives and drank Of the wine
of the wrath of the Almighty God amid the
Ahabs and the Jezebels and the Belshazzars.
O men of the pulpit and men of the pew,
Christ's descent from heaven to earth does
not measure half the distance. 1t was from
glory to perdition. He descended into
hell. All the records of earthly
retreat are as nothing com
pared with this falling back. Santa Anna,
with the fragments of his army flying over
the plateaux of Mexico, and Napoleon and
his army retreating from Moscow into the
awful SHOWS of Russia are not worthy to be
mentioned with this retreat, when all the
powers of darkness seem TO be pursuing
Christ as he fell back, until the body of him
who came to do such wonderful things lay
puseless and stripped. Methinks that the
city of All was not so emptied of its inhqbi-
tauts when they went to pursue Joshua, as
perdItion was emptied of devils when they
started for the pursuit of Christ and he fell
back and back down lower, down lower,
chasm below chasm, pit below pit, until he
seemed to strike the bottom Of objurgation
and scorn and torture. Oh, the long loud,
iubilant shout of hell at the defeat of the
Lord God Almighty!
But let not the power of darkness rejoice
quite so soon. Do you hear that distur-
bance III the tomb of Arimatheal | hear
the sheet rending! What means that stone
hurled down the side Of the
hill Who is this coming out'
Push him backi the dead must not stalk
in this open sunlight o, it is our joshua.
Let him come out. He comes forth and
starts for the city. He takes the spear of
the Roman guard and points that way.
Church militant marches uD on one side
and the church triumphant marches down on
the other side. And the powers of darkness
being caught between these ranks of
celestial and terrestrial valor, nothing is
left of them save just enough to illustrate
the direful overthrow of hell and our
Joshua's eternal victory. On his head be
all the crowns. In his hand be all the
scepters AT his feet be all the human
hearts; and here, Lord, is one of them
Lesson the second: The triumph of the
wicked is short. Did you ever see an army
in panicl There is nothing so uncontrol-
able If you had stood at Long Bridge,
Washington, during the opening of our sad
civil war; you would know what it is TO see
an army run. And when those mon of All
looked out and saw those men of Joshua in
a stampede, they expected easy work. They
would scatter them as the equinox the
leaves. o, the gleeful and jubilant descent
of the men Of All upon the men of Joshua!
But their exhilaration was brief, for the
tide of battle turned and these quondam
conquerers left their miserable carcasses in
the Wilderness of Bethaven. So it always
is. The triumph of the wicked is short.
You make $50, 900 at the gaming table Do
you expect to keep ite You will die in the
poor house. You made fortune by iniqui-
tous traffic. Do you expect to keep it!
Your money will scatter, or it will stay
long enough to curse your children after
you are dead. Call over tho roll of bad
men who have prospcred, and see
how short was their prosperity
For a while, like the men OF All,
they went from conquest TO conquest, but
Rfter awhile disaster rolled back upon
them and they were divided into three
parts: misfortune took their property, the
grave took their body, and the lost world
took their soul am always interested in
the building Of theaters and the building Of
disspat ting saloons. like to have them
built of the best granite and have the rooms
made large and TO have the pillars made
very firm. God is going to conquer them
and they will be turned into asylums and
art galleries and churches. The stores in
which fraudulent men do business, the
splendid banking institutions where the
president and cashier put all their property
hundred thousand dolars--all these institu-
tions are to become the places where honest
christian men do business.
How long will it take your boys to get
through your ill-gotten gainsi The wicked
do not live out half their days. For awhile
the swagger and strut and make "A great
splash in the newspapers, but after awhile
it all dwindes down into brief paragraph: /:
"Died, suddenly, July 22l 1888, at thirty
five years Of age. Relatives aud friends OF
the family are invited 20 attend the funeral
on Wednesday, at 2 o'clock, from his late
residence on Madison square. Internent at
Greenwood" Some OF them jumped Off
the docks. Some Of them took prussic
acid. Some Of them fell under the snap Of
a derringer pistol Some OF them spent
their last days in lunatic asylum Where
are William Tweed and his assocatesl
Where a Kotcham and Swartwout alb
sconding swindersl Where is James Fisk,
the libertne, Where is John Wilkes Booth,
the assassin, and all the other mis1emean
antsi The wicked do not live out half their
days. Disembogue, O world of darkness
Come up, Hildebrand and Henry | l. and
Robespierre. and with blistering and bias
pheming and ashen lips hiss out: "The
triumph Of the wicked is short" Alas for
the men Of Al when Joshua stretches out
his spear toward the city
Lessen the third: How much may be ao-
complished by lying in ambnsh for opportu-
pities. Are you hypercritical of Joshua's
maneuveri Do you say that II was cheat
ing for him 10 take that city by am ptisradsl