Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1890-01-17

Washington is pusianimous Christian, but |
| am the foe Of Bibles and of churches" o, |
| how many assaults upon that World All the |
/ hostiIies that have ever been created on |
earth are not to be compared with the hos
| tilities against that one book Said one man,
! in his inlidel desperation, to his wife: You
must not be reading that Bible" and he
snatched it away from her. And though in
that Bible was a loci, of hair of the dead
child--the only child that God had ever given
tben--he pitched the book with its contents
into the fire. and stirred it with the tonCs,
and spat on it, and cursed it, and said
"Susan, never have any more of that damna-
BILE stuff herel'
How many individual and organized at
| tenpts have been made TO exterminate that
Biblel Have they done itt Have they ex-
terminated the American Bible socetyi Have
they exterminated the British and Foreign
Bible society," Have they exterminated the
thousands of Christian institutions, whose
only object it is to multiply copies of the
Scriptures, and throw them broadcast around
the world? They have exterminated until in
stead of one or two copies of the Bible in our
houses we have eight or ten, and we pile
| them up in the corners of our Sabbath school
/ rooms, and send great boxes of them every
where If they get on as well as they are now
| going on in the work of determination,
| do not know but that our children
may live to see the millennium Yea,
if there should come a time of persecution in
which all the known Bibles of the earth
should be destroyed, all these lamps of life
that blaze in our pulpits and in our families
extineuished-in the very day that infidelty
and sin should be holding jubilee over
the universal extinction there would be in
some closet of a bacllwoods church a
secreted copy of the Bible and this Joash
of eternal literature would come out and
come up and take the throne, and the Atha-
lah OF infidelity and persecution would fly
out the back door of the palace and drop her
miserable carcass under the hoofs of the
horses of the kings stables. You cannot ex-
terminate Christianity! You cannot kill
Joash
The second thought hand you from my
subject is, that there are opportunities in
which we may save royal life You know
| that profane history is replete with stories of
! strangled monarchs and of young princes
I who have been put out of the way. Here is
q the story of young king saved. How Je-
hosheba, the clergyman's wife, must have
! trembled she rushed into the imperial
nursery and snatched up Joash. How she
! hushed him, lest by his cry he hinder the es-
l cape. Fly with him! JehoSheba, you hold
, in your arms the cause of God and good gov
eminent. Fail, and he is slain. Succeed,
and you turn the tide of the worlds history
, in the right direction. 1t seems as if between
! that young king and his assassins there is
nothing but the frail arm of a woman. But
. why should we spend our timo in praising
. this bravery of expedition when God asks
q the same thing of you and mel All around
;, us are the imperiled children of great King.
: They are born of Almighty parentage, and
e will come to a throne or a crown if permit
. ted But sin, the old Athaliah goes forth to
;, the massacre Murderous temptations are
', out for the assassination. Vaens. the en-
peror, was told that there was somebody in
p his realm who would usurp his throne, and
q that the name of the man who should be the
4 usurper would begin with the letters 7. H
q f. o. D., and the edict went forth from the
! emperor's throne: xii everybody whose
name begins with T. II. Z. o. D." And hun
4 dredsand thousands weres slain, hoping by that
4 massacre to put end to that one usurper.
: But sin is more terrific in its denunciation.
Il 1t matters not how you spell your name, you
4 come under its knife, under its sword, under
= its DOOM unless there be some omnipotent re-
', lief brought to the resoie. But blessed be
= God, there is such thing delivering a
ia royal soul. Who will snatch away Joashi
=, This afternoon, in your Sabbath school
class there will be prince of God-some
~ one VINO may yen reign do hll5 forever De
v fore the throne; there will be some one i'll
+ your class who has corrupt physical inner
n itance there will be some one in your class
- who has a father and mother who do not
10 know how to pray; there will be some one
. in your class who is destined to command il
"a church or state-some Cromwell TO dissolve
" parliament, some Beethoven to touch the
70 worlds harp strings some John Howard to
~ pour fresh air into the laZaretto, some Flor
a. ence Nightingale to bandage the battle
q wounds, some Miss Dix to soothe the crazet
- brain, some John Frederick Oberlin to edu
9. cate the besotted, some David Brainard Il
ar change the Indians war whoop to a Sabbath
- song, some John Wesley to marshal three
r. fourths of Christendom, some John Knox t
" make queens turn pale, some Joash to de
a moish idolatry and strike for the kingdom
of heaven.
!, There are sleeping in your cradles by night
- there playing in your nurseries by day
:. imperial souls waiting for dominion, an'
- whichever side the cradle they get out vii
10 decide the destiny of empires For each on
~ of those children sin and holiness contend
60 Athalah on the one side, Jehoahcba on tn
a other But / hear people say: whats tn
-, use of bothering children with religious in
~ struction! Let them grow up and choose TO
Ha themselves. Don't interfere with their voli
~ tion.n Suppose some one had said TO Jehoshe
-, ba: Don't interfere with that young Joash
no Let him grow up and decide whether he like
~, the palace or not, whether he wants to be kin
NJ, or not. Don't disturb his volition." JehoShe
u ba knew right well that unless that day til
i, young king was rescued, he would never b
4, rescued at all.
-, tell you, my friends, the reason we dom
IL. reclaim all our children from worldliness
-, because we begin too late. Parents wait ur
49, til their children lie before they teach ther
~ the value of truth. They wait until thei
~. ~ children swear before they teach them tn
~, Importance Of righteous conversation. The
m wait until their children all wrapped u
= =, in this world before they tell them Of Il bet
-, ter world. Too late with your prayers. To
t t late with your discipline Too late with you
Va benediction. You put all care upon you
100 children between twelve and eighteen. VII
- do you not put the chief care between fou
- and ninei 1t is too late to repair a vess,
-, when it has got out Of the dry docks Ii