The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-08-01


your victory. Here is converted infidel.
He is so strong now in his faith in the
gospel he says he can read anything
What are you reading?., Bolingbroke?
Andrew Jackson Davis tracts? Tyndall's
Glasgow university address? Drop them
and run. You will be an infidel before
you die unless you quit that. These men
OF Al 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 iavelins.
There are people who have been we'll
nigh ruined because they risked a 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 Highlands, when
the Vaudois of France chose extermina-
ton rather than make anunchristian sur
render, when on st. Bartholomew Day
mounted assassins rode through the streets
of Paris crying: "Kill! .Blood-letting is
good in August! Kill Death to Hugue-
nots! 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 the Bedford
Jail saving:
"If God will help me and my physical
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 Characterization of the world. The
church OF Christ falling back from Pied
mont, falling back from. Rue st. Jacques,
falling back from st. Denis, falling back
Wurtemburg castles, falling back from
Brussels market-plac yet all the time
triumphing. Notwithstanding all the
shocking reverses which the church of
Christ suffers, what do we see to-day?
Three thousand missionaries of the cross
on heather ground; $4,000 ministers of
Jesus Christ in this land at least 100000
600 OF Christians on the earth. AL ma
tions to-day kindling in blaze of revival
Falling 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 a more marked illustration
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 man
ger; yet that did not seem TO suffice him
as a retreat. Falling back still further
from Bethlehem TO Nazareth, frOm Naza-
raeth to Jerusalem, back, back from Jeru-
salem 10 Golgatha, back back from Col
gatha to the mausOlcum in the rock, back
down over the precipices OF perdition UNI
til he walked amid the cavers of the eter-
nal captives, and drank of the wine of the
wrath of Almighty God amid the Arabs
and the Jazebels and Belchazzars. Omen of
the pulpit and men of the pew, Christ's de-
scent from heaven to earth does not meas
urc bali the distance. 1t was from glory
to perdition. He descended into hell All
the records of earthly retreat are as moth
ing compared with this falling back. Santa
Anna, with the fragments of his army, fly
ing over the plateaux OF Mexico, and Ma
poleon and his army retreating from Mos
COW into the awful SHOWS OF Russia, are
not worthy to be mentioned with this re-
| treat, 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 out 70 pursue Joshua as
as perdition was emptied OF devils when
| they started for the pursuit of Christ, and
| he fell back and back, down lower, down
| lower, cham below chasm, pit below pit,
until he seemed to strike the objurgation
and scorn and torture. Oh, the long, loud,
| jubilant shout of hell at the defeat Of the
Lord God Almighty!
Rrrt OF not Tho r,o..-oro ~ Jorl-,,asa 20
ioice quite so soon. Do YOU hear that dis
turbance in the tomb OF Arimathea? /
hear the sheet rending What means that
| stone hurled down the side of the hill i?
Who is this coming out? 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 on the other side. And 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 overthrown OF hell
and our Joshuas eternal victory. On
his head be all the crowns his hand
be all the scepters. At his De all the
h0iAeAA liCSi SAAAO LNAS3 -OAtA; ID OlAO VI
them.
Lesson the second The triumph of the
wicked is short. Did you ever see an
army in a panic? There is nothing so
uncomfortable. If you had stood at Long
Bridge, Washington, during the opening
of our civil war, you would know what it
is to see an army run. And when those
menIof 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 jubilant descent of the men of Al upon
the men of Joshua But their exhilara-
ton was brief, for the tide of battle turned
and these quondam conauerors left their
miserable carcasses in the wilderness of
Bethaven. So it always is. The triumph
of the wicked is short. You make $50, Geo
at the gaming table. Do you expect TO
keep it? You will die in the poor house.
You made fortune by Ubiquitous traffic.
Do you expect to keep it? 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 prospered and
see how short was their prosperity. For
awhile, like the men OF Al, they went
from conquest to conquest, but after
awhile disaster rolled back upon them and
they were divided into three parts Mis-
fortune took their property, the grave
took their body and the lost world took
their soul. / am always interested in the
building of theaters and the building of