The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-07-26

Drop them and run. You will be an in
| fdel before you die unless you quit
that. These men of All will be too much
for you. Turn your back on the rank
and file of unbelief Fly before they cut
you with their swords and transfix you
with their javelins.
There are people who have been well
nigh ruined because they risked fool
hardy expedition in the presence of
mighty and overwhelming temptations,
and the men of Al made morning meal
of them So also there is such thing
as victorious retreat In the religious
world. Thousands of times the kingdom
of Christ has seemed to fall back. When
the blood of the Scotch Covenanters gave
a deeper dye to the heather of the high
lands, when the Vaudois of France chose
determination rather than make an I'M
christian surrender, when on St. Bar
tholomew's day mounted assassins rode
through the streets of Paris crying: '.Killl
Blood letting is good in August! Kill!
Death to the Huguenots! Kill" when
Lady Jane Grey's head rolled from the
executioner's block; when Calvin was
imprisoned in the castle; when John
Knox died for the truth; when John
Bunyan lay rotting in Bedford jail, say
ing: '.If God will help me and my phys
icai life continues will stay here until the
moss grows on my eyebrows rather than
give up my faith,'' the 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
| q IF fl1ox oh,
of Christ falling back from Piedmont,
falling back from Rue st. Jacques, fall
ing back from st. Denis, falling back
form Wurtemburg castles, falling back
from the Brussels market place. yet all
the time triumphing. Notwithstanding
all the shocking reverses which the
church of Christ suffers, what do we see
today? Three thousand missionaries of
the cross on heather ground; sixty thou
sand 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. Fall
ing back, yet advancing until the old
Wesleyan hymn will prove true:
The Lion of Judah shall break the chain,
And give us the victory again and again
| But there is more marked illustration
of victorious retreat in the life of our
Joshua, the Jesus of the ages. Fifst fall
ing back from an appalling height to an
appalling depth, falling from celestial
hills to terrestrial valleys. from throne to
manger; yet that did not seem to suffice
him as a retreat. Falling back still
further from Bethlehem to Nazareth,
| from Nazareth 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
captives, and drank of the wine 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 distance. 1t
was from glory to perdition. He de-
scended 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 plateaux of Mexico, and Ma
poleon 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
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 he seemed to strike
the bottom of objurgation and scorn and
torture. Oh, the long, loud, jubilant shout
of hell at the defeat of the Lord God
Almighty!
But let not the power of darkness re-
| joice quite so soon. Do you hear that
disturbance in the tomb of Arimathea?
1 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 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 up on
one side and the church triumphant
marches down on the other side And
the powers Of darkness being caught be-
tween these ranks of celestial and ter
restrial 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 a panic9 There is nothing SO
uncomfortable. 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 stam-
pede, they expected easy work. They
would scatter them as the equinox the
leaves. Oh, the gleeful and jubilant de-
scent Of the men of Al upon the men of
Joshua! But their eXhilaration was
brief, for the tide of battle turned and
these quondam conquerers left their mis-
cradle carcases in the wilderness of Beth
avep. So 1t always is. The triumph of the
wicked is short. You make $4,000 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? Your money
will scatter. OF it will stay long enough
to curse your children after you arc
dead. Call over the roll of bad men who
prospered and see how short was their
prosperity. For while, like the meu Of
Al, they went from conquest to cen
quest, but after while 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. I am al
ways interested in the building of the
atres and the building of dis
sipating saloons. ] like to have them
built of the best granite and have the
rooms made large and to have the pillars