Dodge City times., 1888-07-26

Three thousand missionaries OF the cross
on heather ground; 10000 ministers OF
Jesus in this land: at least aV,V9V.pO
Christians on the earth. All nations TO-
day kindling in blaze of revival FAIL
ing back, yet advancing until the oio
Wesleyan hymn will prove true:
The lion of Judah shall break the chain,
And give us the victory again and again.
But there is a more marked illustration
of victorious retreat in the life OF our
Joshua. the Jesus of the ages. Firstfalling
back from an appalling height to an ap-
palling depth, falling from celestial hills
to terrestrial valleys, from throne 10
manger: vet that did not seem to suffice
Him as retreat. Falling back still further
from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Naz-
areth to Jerusalem, back from Jerusalem
to Golgotha, back from Golgotha to the
mausoleum in the rock, back down over
the precipices of perdition until he walked
amid the caverns of the eternal cap
tives and drank of the wrath
of 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 dis
tance. 1t was from glory to perdition. He
descended into hell. All the records OF
earthly retreat are as nothing compared
with this falling back. Santa Anna, with
the fragments of his army flying over the
plateau of Mexico, and Napoleon and his
army retreating from Moscow into the aw-
full 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 Tho came to do such wonderful things
Law pulseless and stripped. Methnks that
the city of All was not so emptied OF its in
habitants when they went to pursue JOSH
ua, 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. y,
the long, loud, jubilant shout of hell at the
defeat of the Lord God Almighty.
But let not the powers of darkness re-
joice quite so soon. Do you hear that dis
turbance in the tomb of Arimathea! L
hear the sheet rending! What means that
stone hurled down the side of the hill:
Who is this coming out: Push him back !.
The dead must not stalk in this open SUM-
light 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 mil
| liant marches up on one side, and the
| Church triumphant marches down on the
| other side. And the powers of darkness
| being caught between these ranks of celes-
| tiai and terrestrial valor, nothing is left OF
| them save Just enough to illustrate the
| direful overthrow of hell and our Joshua IS
| eternal victory. On His head be all the
| crowns. In His hand be all the scepters.
| At His feet be all the humaL 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 panic. There is nothing so uncon-
| trollable. 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
| men of Al looked out and saw those men
| of Joshua IN stampede they expected
| easy work. They would scatter them as
the equinox the leaves. o, the gleeful and
| iubilant descent of the men of Al upon the
| men of Joshua, But their eXhilaratiOn
was brief, for the tide of battle turned and
| these quOndam conquerors left their miser-
| able carcasses in the wilderness of Beth
| ayen. SO it ALWAYS is. The triumph Of
| the wicked is short. You make 1900 at
the gaming table. Do you expect to keep
| it! You will die in the pOor-house. You
made fortune by iniquitous traffic. Do
| you expect to keep it: Your money will
scatter, or 1t will stay long enough to curse
| your children after you are dead.
Call over the roll of bad men who pros
| pered and see how short was their pros
perity. For awhile, like the men of All,
they went from conquest to conquest, but
| after a while disaster rolled back upon
them and they were divided into three
parts; misfortune took their prosperity,
the grave took their body, and the lost
world took their soul. | am always inter-
ested in the building of the theaters and
the building of dissipatin2 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 in
situations where the president and cashier
put all their property in their wives hands
end then fail for 800, ,000--all these insti-
tutions are to become the places where
honest Christian men do business.
How long will it take your boys to get
through your il-gotten gains: The wicked
do not live out half their days. For awhile
they swagger and strut and make a great
splash in the newspapers, but after awhile
It all dwindles down into a brief para
graph: .'Died suddenly, July ~, 1883, at
thirty-tiv years of age. Relatives and
friends of the family are invited to attend
the funeral on W Wednesday, at two O'Clock
from his late residence on Madison square
Interment at Greenwood" Some of them
jumped off the docks. Some Of them took
prussic acid. Some of them fell under the
snap of Derringer pistol. Some of them
spent their last DAYS in a lunatic asylum
Where are William Tweed and his asso.
ciates: Where are ketcham and Swart.
won't, absconding swindlers: Where is
James Fisk. the libertine: Where is John
Wilkes Booth. thc assassin: and all the
other misdemeanants: The wicked do no,
live ont half their davs. Disembogue. G
world of darkness Come up. Hildebrand
and Henry H., and Robesperre, aud with
blistering and blaspheming and ashen lips
hiss out: 1.-The triumph of the wicked il
short" Alas for the men of All wher
Joshua stretches out bis spear toward the
city.
Lesson the third: How much may be &C.
comp,;shed by lying in ambush for oppor.
tunities. Areyou hypercritical of joshua.
maneuver: Do You say that if was cheat
ing for him to take that city by ambus
cade! Was it wrong for Washington Il
kindle camp fires on New Jersey heights
giving the impression to the opposing fore.
that great army was encamped ther,
when there was none at all. l answer, i
the war was right, then Joshua was righ
in his stratagem. He violated no flag o.