The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-08-08

nents of his army flying over the plateaux
of Mexico, and Napoleon and his army re-
treating from Moscow in the awful
Slows of Russia are not worthy to
be mer toned with this retreat, when
all the powers Of darkness seemed to be pur-
suing Christ as he fell back. until the body
Of him who came to do such wonderful
things lay pulseless and stripped. Methinks
that the city of Al was not so emptied Of its
inhabitants 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 no
seemed to strike the bottom Of obJurgatlon
and scorn and torture. Oh! the long, loud,
iubilant shout of hell at the defeat OF the
Lord God Almighty!
But let not the powers Of darkness rejoice
quite so soon. Doyou hear that disturbance
in the tomb of Arimathea? I hear the sheet
rending! What means that stone hurled
down the side of the hlll2 Who is this COM
ing out9 Push him back! the dead must not
stalk in this open sunlight Oh, 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 up on one side and
the church triumphant marches down
darkness being caught between these ranks
of celestial and terrestrial valor. nothing
is left of them save just enough to illus
trate the dreful overthrow of hell and our
Joshua's eternal vitory. 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 panic? There is nothing 50 uucontrol-
liable. 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 a
stampede, they expected easy work. They
would scatter them as the equinox the
leaves. O. the gleeful and jubllant de-
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, ,0c0 at the
gaming table. Do you expect to keep it! You
will die in the poorhouse. You made fortune
by iniquitous traffic. Do you expect to keep It'll
Your money will scatter, or it will stay long
enough to curse your children after you are
dead Call over the roll of bad men who
and see how short was their pros.
perity. For a while like the men Of Al
they went from conquest to conquest,
but after a whole disaster rolled back upon
them and they were divided into three
grave took their body, and the lost
world took their soul. l am always inter-
ested in the building of theatres and the
building Of dissipating saloons l 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 WI ich fraudulent men do business, the
splendid banking institutions, where the
president and cashier put all their property
in their wives names and then fail for
$500 000-all these institutions are to be-
come to places where honest Christian men
do business.
How long will it take your boys to get
through your ill-gotten gains9 The wicked
do not live out half their days. For while
they swagger and strut and make great
splash in the newspapers, but after a while
it all dwindles down into .6g brief paragraph:
age. Relatives and friends of the family are
invited to attend the funeral, on Wednesday,
at 9 O'Clock. from his late residence on Madi-
son 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 a Derringer pistol. Some OF
them spent their last days in q lunatic asy-
lum. Where are William Tweed and his
associates! Where are Ketcham and Swart
wout, absconding swindlersl Where is
James Fisk, the libertine? Where is John
Wilkes Booth, the assassin and all the other
misdemeanants2 The wicked do not live out
half their days. Disembogue, o world Of
darkness Come up Hildebrand and Henry
II. and Robespierre, and with blistering and
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.
Lesson the third: How much may be &C
complished by lying in ambush for oppor-
tunities- Are you hypercritical Of Joshua's
Do you say that it was cheating
for him to take that city by ambuscade?
Was it wrong for Washington to kndle
camp fires on New Jersey Heights, giving
the impression to the opposing force that
great army was encamped there when there
was none at alls 1 answer, if the war was
He violated no flag Of truce He broke no
treaty, but by lawful ambuscade captured
the city of Al. Oh, that we all knew how to
lie in ambush for opportunities to serve God
The best of our opportunities do not lie on the
surface, but are secreted; by tact, by strata
gem, by Christian ambuscade, you may take
almost any castle Of sin for Christ. Come up
toward men with a regular besiegement OF
argument, and you will be defeated; but Just
wait until the door Of their hearts is set aJar,
or they are off their guard, or their severe
caution is away from home, and then drop in
on them from Christian ambuscade. There
has teen many man up to his chin in scien-
tifc portfolios which proved there was no
Christ and no divine revelation, his pen
scimetar flung into the heart OF theological
opponents, who, nevertheless, has been dis
c0mfited and captured for God by some little
three year-ol child who has got up and put
asked some simple question about God and
heaven.
Oh, make a flank movement; steal march
on the devil; cheat that man into heaven
A five dollar treatise that will stand all tbs
laws of homiletcs may fail to do that which
penny tract of Christian entreaty may &C.
complish. Oh, for more Christians in am
buscade, not lying in idleness, but waiting
for quick spring, waiting until just tha
right time comes. Do not talk to man
about the vanity Of this world on the day
when he has bought something at stwelve"
and is going to sell it at "fiftaen." But talk
to him about the vanity Of the world
on the day when he has bought something
at Fifteen" and is compelled to sell at
twelve" Do not rub a mans disposition
the wrong way. Do not take the imperative
mood when the subjunctive mood will do
just as we'll. Do not talk in perfervid style
to phlegmatic, nor try to tickle torrid
temperament with an icicle. You can take
any man for Christ if you know how to get
at him. Do not send word to him that to-
morrow at 10 o'clock you propose to open
your batteries upon him, but come on him
by skillful, psrseyering, God directed am
buscade
Lesson the fourth: The Importance Of talk
ing good aim. There is Joshua, but how are
these people in ambush up yonder to know