The Brookhaven leader., 1888-08-02

falling back from the Brussels market
place, yet all the time triumphing. Not
withstauding all the shocking reverses
which the Church of Christ suffers, what
do we see to-dayi Three thousand mis-
sionaries Of the cross on heather ground ;
sixty Thousand ministers OF Jesus Christ
in this land: at lcass two hundred million
of Christians on the earth. All nations
to-day kiudling in b'aze OF revival.
Falling back. yet advancing until the old
rAVeslryau hymn will prove truH:
The lion Of Judah shall break the chain,
And Z We Us the viriory aI:aiu ani aya'n!
Bat there is more marked illustration
Of victorinu, retreat in the life of our
Joshua, the Jesus OF the ages. First fall
ing back from an appalling height TO an
appalling depth, falling from celestial
hills to Terrestrial valleys, from throne to
manager vet that did not seem to suffice
Him as retreat. FSling back still
further from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from
Nazareth TO Jeru salem, back from Jeru-
salem to GOlgotha, back fr I'm Golgotha
to the mausoleum in the rock, back down
over the precipices of perdition until He
walked amid the cavern5 OF the eternal
captives, and drank Of the wine OF the
wrath of Almighty God amid the Arabs
and the JezebelS and the Belshazzars. D
men of the pulpit aud 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-
seconded into hell. All the records of
earthly retreat are rs nothing compared
with this falling back. Santa Ana, with
the fragments OF the army, flying over
the plateaux of Mexico, and Napoleon and
his army retreatiug 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 pur-
suing Christ as He fell back, until the
body of Him who came to do such Won
derful things lay pulseless and stripped.
Methiuks that no City of All was was not
so emptied of its inhabitants when they
went to pursue Joshua as perdition was
emptied of devils when they started for
theIpursuit Of Christ and He fell back and
back, down lower, down lower, chasm be-
low 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 powers of darkness re-
jOice quite so soon. DoyOu hear that dis
turbance in the tomb of Arimathea? l
hear the sheet rending! What means
that stoLe hurled down the side Of the
hill? Push Him back; the dead must not
stalk in this open sunlight Oh, 1t 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. Chur oh militant marches up
on one side and the church triumphant
down on the other side. And 1.-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 thu 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 IL nothing so uncOn-
trolable. II you had stood at Long
Bridge, Washington, during tho opening
of our 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, thoy expected easy
work. They would scatter them as the
equinox the leaves. o, the gleeful and
jubilan II Descent of the men of All upon the
men of Joshua But their exhilaration was
brief for the tide of battle turned and
these quondram conquerors left their
miserable carcasses in the wilderness of
Bethaven. SO it always is. The triumph
of the wicked is short. You make twenty
thousand dollars at the gaming table. Do
you expect to keep it: You will die in
the poor house. You make a fortune
by iniquitouS traffic. Do you expect
to keep itS 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 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 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 in
terested in the building of theaters and
the building of dissipating 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 fraud
ulent men do business, the splendid
banking institutions where the president
and cashier put all their property in their
wives hands and then fail for 5000, 900
all these institutions are to become the
places where honest Christian men do
business.
How lon will tnly g. !
through your ILL gotten gains, The wicked
do not live ont 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 paragraph:
Died suddenly, July %, 1898, at thirty five
years Of age. Relatives and friends OF the fam
fly are invited to attend the funeral on Wednes.
day 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 a Derringer
pistol. Some of them spent their last
days in lunatic asylum. Where are
William Tweed and his associates!
Where are Ketcham and Swartwout, alb
sconding swindlers? Where is James
Fisk, the llibertine? Where is John
Wilkes Booth, the assassin, and all the
other misdemeanants! The wicked dc
not live out half their days. ;Disembogue,
o world of darkness! Come up Hide
brand, and Henry IL, and Robert Robes
pierre, and with blistering and BIAS
pheming and ashen lips hiss out: 1.-THE
triumph of the wicked is short" Alas
for the men of All when Joshua stretches
out his spear toward the ethyl