The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-10-22

more lovely and bright they are, the more
fit they are to hold the light. But Christ
less church is a damage TO the world rather
than good. Cromwell stabbed his cavalry
horses in st. Paul's cathedral, and many
now use the church as place in which to
stable their vanities and worldlineSs. A
worldly church is a candleStick without the
candle, and it had its prototype III st.
Sophia, in Constantinople, built to the glory
of God by Constantine, but transformed to
base uses by Mohammed the Secogd. Built
out of coiored marble; a cupola with TWEEN
to-four windows soaring to the hight OF
1S0 feet: the ceiling one great bewillerment
of mosaic; galleries supported by eight col
umNs of porphyfy and SIX y-seven columns
OF erpen jasper; nine brouze doors with
v-releve-woTk fascinating to the eye of
any artist; vases and vestments encrusted
with all manner of precious stones. Four
walls on fire with indeScribable splendor.
THOUGH labor was cheap the building cost
one million five hundred thousand dollars.
Ecclesiastical structure alms supernatural
In pomp and ma iesty. But Mohammedan-
ism t1re down from the walls of uhat build
ing all the sanity and Christly images, and
Eigh up in the dome the figure of the cross
was rubbed out that the crescent OF the
harbarous Turk might be substituted. A
great church but no Christ! A gorgeous
candleStck but no candle! len thousand
such churches would not give the world as
much light as ono homemade tallow ca de
by which last night some grandmother IL
the eighties put on her Spectacles and read
the psalms of David in large type. Up
with the churches by all means! Hundred
of tarn, thousands of them, and tie more
tie letter But let each one be bsza I
heavenly light making the world brighter
and brighter till the last shadow has dlsap-
Deared and the last of the suffering chill lreI
of God shall have reached the land where
they have no need of cand 'estick Or ''of
caudle, neither light of the sun. for the
Lord God Giveth them light and they shall
reign forever and ever"
Turn now in your Bible to the seven stars.
We are plainly told that they are tie min
listers of religion. Some of them are la"ge
stars, some of them small stars, some of
them sweep 4 wide cil ciiit and some of them
mall circuit, but so far as they are gen
uine they get their lght from the great cen
tral sun around whom tAey make revOiu-
tion Let each one keep lii his own sphere.
The solar system would soon be wrecked il
the stars in ,tead of keeping their own orbit,
should go TO hunting down other stars.
Ministers of religion should never clash.
But in all the centuries of the Christian
church some Of these stars have been hunt
ing an Edward Irving, or a Horace Bus1-
nell, or an Albert Barnes, and the stars
that were in pursuit of the other stars lost
their own orbit and so lie of them could
never again find it. Alas for the heresy
hunters! The best way to destroy error is TO
preach the truth. Tie best way to scatter
daTkness is to strike light. There is in
immensely room enough for all the stars,
and III the chul cb room enough for all the
ministers. The minister who give w
righteousness and the truth will get
punishment enough anyhow, for they are
1.-THE wandering stars for whom is reserved
the hlackness OF darkness forever But
should like as a minister when / am dying
TO be able truthfully to say what captain
of the English army fallen at the head of
his column and dying on the Egyptian bat
tlefield said to Gen. Wellesley. who came to
condale with him: II led them strairht;
didn't | lead them straight, generalF God
has put us ministers as iptains in this bat
tlefield OF truth against error. Great at last
will be our chagrin if we fall leading the
people the wrong way; but great VIII be
our gladness if, when the battle Is over, we
can hand our sword back TO our great COM
mander, saying: Lord Jesus we led the
people straight; -, didn't we lead
20 off a. a tangent and preach some other
gospel are not stars. but comets, and they
flash across the heavens a little while and
make people stare and throw down few
meteoric stones, and then go out of sight if
not out of existence. oh, bre hren in the
ministry, let us remember that God calls us
stars, and our business is to shine and to
keep our own sphere, and then when we get
done trying to light up the darkness of this
world, we will wheel into higher spheres
and IN US shall be fulfilled tue promise
''they tlat turn many to righteousness shall
shine as the stars forever and ever" All
the ministers are not all Peckniffs and
canting hypocriteS, as some would have you
think Forgive me, if having in your
presence at other times goriled the
medical profession and the legal pro-
fsssion and the literary profession
glorify my own. / have seen them in
their homes and heard them in their pull
pits, and a grander array of men never
breathed, and the Bible figure is not
strained when it calls them stars; and whole
consultations of glorious ministers have al
ready taken their places on high where they
shine even brighter than they shone on
earth; Edward N. Kirk of the Congrega-
ticnal church, Stephen H. Tying of the
Episcopal church, Matthew Simpson of the
Methodist church, John Bowling of the
Baptist church, Samuel X. Talmage of the
Presbyterian church, Dr. Dewitt of the
Reformed church, John Chambers of the
Independent church, and there l stop, for
it so happens that | have mentioned the
seven stars of the seven churches.
pass on to another mighty Bible seven,
and they are the seven seals. St John in
vision saw a scroll with seven seals, and he
heard an angel cry: "Who is worthy to
loose the seals thereof?" Take eight or ten
sheets of fooscap paper, paste them
together aud roll them into a scroll, aud
have the scroll at seven different places
sealed with sealing wax You unroll the
scroll till you come TO one of these seals
and then you can go no farther until you
break that seal; then unroll again until you
come to another seal and you can go no
farther until you break that seal; then you
20 on until all the seven seals are broken,
and the contents of the entire scroll is re-
vealed. Now, that scroll with seven seals
held by the angel was the prophecy of what
was to come on the earth; it meant that the
knowledge of the future was with God, and
no man aud no angel was worthy to open
it; but the Bible says Christ opened it and
broke all the seven seals. He broke the
first seal aud unrolled the scroll, and there
was a painting of a white horse, aud that
meant prosperity and triumph for the
Roman empire, and so it really came TO pass
that for ninety years virtuous emperors sue
ceeded each other, Nerva, Trajan and Anto-
minus. Christ in the vision broke the second
seal and unrolled again and there was a
painting of red horse, and that meant
bloodshed, and so 1t really came to pass,
and the next ninety years were red with
assassinations and wars Then Christ broke
the third seal and unrolled it, and there
was painting of a black horse, which in
all literature means famine, oppression and