The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-23


we can touchi Dear Lord, send us all out
on thy mission. All around us embittered
lives, embittered by persecution en-
/ blttered by nypocriticism, embittered by
| poverty, embttered by pain, embittered
| by injustice, embittered by sin. Why not
! go forth and sweeten them by smile, by in
| spring words, by beaetactons by hearty
counsel, by PRAYER, by gospelized behavior
! Let us remember that ii we are wormwood
| to others we are wormwood to ourselves,
! and our life viii be bitter and our eternity
bitter. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the
only sweetening power that is sufficient. 1t
sweetens the disposition. 1t sweetonS the
manners. ltsweetens life. ltsweetens myste
rious Providences. it sWeetenS Affections.
Its sweetens death. ltsweetens everything.
| have heard people asked in social COM
pany: 'If you could have three wishes
gratitied, what would your three wishes
! be!' If | could have three wishes met this
morning | tell you what they woult be.
First: More of the grace of God. Second
More of the grace OF God. Third: More of
the grace Of God. In the door-yafd of my
brother John, missionary in Annoy, China,
there is tree called the emperor tree the
two characteristics of which are that it
always grows higher than its sur
roundings and its leaves take the form
of crown. If this emperor tree be
planted by rose bush it grows little
higher than the bush. and spreads out
above it a crown. If it be planted by the
side of another tree, it grows a little higher
than that tree and spreads above it a
crown. Would God that this religion of
Christ, a more wonderful emperor tree,
might overshadow all your lives; are you
lowly in ambition or circumstance, putting
over you Its crown. Are you high in tai
ent and position, putting over you It's
crown. Oh. for more of the saccharine in
our lives and less of the wormwoodl
What is true of individuals is true of ma
tions God sets them up to revolve as stars
but they may fall wormwood.
Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert fra
grant with spices coming in caravans to
her fairs; all seas cleft into foam by the
keels of her laden merchantmen; her mar
kets rich with horses and camels from
Togarmah her baz ars filled with uphols-
terry from Dedan, with emeralds and coral
and agate from Syria, with wines from
Helbon, with embroidered work from
Ashur and Chilmad. Where now the CLEAN
of her towers, where the roar of her char
lots, where the masts Of her ships Let the
fishermen who dry. their nets where once
she stood, let the sea that rushes upon the
barrenness where once she challenged the
admiration of all nations, let the barbarians
who set their rude tents where once her
palaces glittered, answer the question. She
was a star but by her own sin turned to
wormwood and has fallen.
Hundred-gated Thebes-for all time to be
the study of antiquarian and hieroglyphst;
her Stupendous ruins spread over twenty
| seven miles; her sculptures presenting in
figures of warrior and chariot the victories
with which the now forgotten kings of
Egypt shook the nations; her obelsks and
columns; Carnac and Luxor, the stupend
Gus temples of her pride. Who can imag
| I'M lrrp al in Ia "
when the hippodrome rang with her sports
and foreign royalty bowed at her shrines
and her avenues roared with the wheels of
| professions in the wake of returning con-
querorsl What dashed down the vision of
| chariots and temples and thronesl What
hands pulled upon the columns of
| her glory? What ruthleSsness defaced
her sculptured wall and broke obelisks aud
left her indescribable temples great skele
| tons of granted What spirit of destruction
| spread the lair Of wild beasts in her royal
sepulchres, and taught the miserable cot
tagers of to-day to build huts in the courts
of her temples and sent de ISOLATION and ruin
skulking behind the obelsks aud lodging
among the sarcophagi and leaning against
| the columns and stopping under the arches
and weeping in the waters which go mourn
fully by as though they were carrying the
| tears of all ages9 Let the mummes break
| their long silence and come up to .shiver in
the desolaton, and point to fallen gates and
| shattered statues and defaced sculpture, re-
spending: "Thebes built not one temple to
God. Thebes hated righteousness and loved
| sin. Thebes was a star, but she turned to
wormwood and has fallen"
Babylon-with her two hundred and fifty
| towers and her braZen gates and her embat-
| tied walls, the splendor of the earth gath
| cred within her palaces, her hanging gar
| dens built by Nebuchadnezzar to please his
| bride Amyittis who had been brought up
| in a mountainous country and could not en-
dure the fiat country round Babylon, these
hanging gardens built, terrace above ter
| race, till at the height of -four hundred feet
! there were woods waving and foun-
tains playing, the verdure, the foliage, the
| 81 ry looking as if mountains were on the
wing. On the tip-top king walking with
| his queen, among the statues snowy white,
| looking up at birds brought from distant
lands, and drinking out Of tankards Of solid
| gold, or looking off over rivers and lakes
upon nations suudued and tributary, cry
| ing: as not this great Babylon which |
have builtY What battering ram smote
the walls! What ploughshare upturned the
! gardensl What army shattered the brazen
| gates! What long, fierce blast
OF storm put out this light which illumined
| the worldl What crasn of discOrd drove
down the music that poured from palace
| WINDOW And garden grove ana called tne
banqueters 30 their revel and the dancers TO
their feetl / walk upon the scene Of desc
lation to find an answer and pick up pieces
| of bitunen and brick and broken pottery,
the remains OF Babylon, and as in the silence
of the night hear the surgng of that bill
low of desolation which rolls over the scsne,
| | hear the wild waves saying: babylon
was proud Babylon was impure. Babylon
was n star, but by sin she turned TO worm
wood aud has fallen"
From the prosecutions Of the Pilgrim
Fathers and the Huguenots in other lands
God set upon these shores a nation. The
couuc fires Of the aborigines went out in
the greater light of a free government.
The sound of the war whoop was exchanged
for the thousand wheels Of enterprise and
progress The mild winters, the fruitful
summers, the healthfll skies charmed from
other lands a race Of hardy men who loved
God and wanted TO be free. Before the
wo dman's AK forests fell and rose again
into ships masfs and churches pillars.
Cities on the banks of lakes Begin 10 rival
cities 10y the sea. The land qIakes with
the rush of the rail car and the waters are
churned white with the steamers wheel.
Fabulous bushels # Western wheat meet
on the way fabulous tons Of Eastern coal.
Furs from tho North pass on the rivers
fruits from the South. And trading in the
sumo market is Maine lumbermen and