Sharp County record., 1890-11-06

AlilA bAiNAAN "hANht NSAAN'N
of the leader of the flock OF sheep, IS
perforated and prepared to be fingered
by the musical performer, and Dlowt
upon when pressed to the lips. As IN
another sermon | have fully described
that scene, l will only say that every
day for seven days the ministers OF re-
liSion went round the city of Jericho
blowing upon those rams horns, and on
the seventh day, without the roll OF a
war-chariot, or the stroke OF catapuit
or tho swing of ballista, crash! crash!
crashl went the walls of that magnificent
capital.
On the evening of December 6 we
walked amid the brick and mortar OF
that shattered city, and l said to my
self: All this done by poor music blest
of God, for it was not a harp or fute'
or clapping cymbal, or an organ
played, at the sound of which the city
surrendered to destruction, but a rude.
instrument making rude music blest OF
God, to the demolition of that wicked
place which had for centuries defed the
Almighty. And said, if all this was by
tne blessing of God on poor music, what
mightier things could be done by tie
blessing of God on good music, skllliul
music, Gospel music. If all the gocd
that has already been done by music
were subtracted from the world, be-
lieve three-fourths of its religion would
be gone. The lullabys of mothers
which keep sounding on, though the
lips that sang them forty years ago be-
came ashes, the old hymns in log-cabin
churches, and country meeting-houses'
and psalms IN Rouse's version in Scotch
kinks, the anthem in English cathedrals'
the roll of organs that will never let
Handel or Haydn or Beethoven die, the
kthrumb of harps, the sweep OF the bow
across bass viols, the song OF Sabbath
schools storming the heavens, the
doxology of great assemblages-why
7 thousand Jerichos Of sin have by them
all been brought down.
Now on this plain Of Jericho the sun
setting, making the mountains look
like balustrades and battlements of
amber and maroon and gold; and the
moon, just above the crest, seems to be
a window Of Heaven through which i'm
mortals might be. looking down upon
the scene. Three Arabs, as watchmen,
sit beside the campfire at the door of
my tent, their low conversation in
strange language all night long, a
soothing rather than interruption. |
had dream that night never TO be
forgotten, that dream amid the COM
plete ruins of Jericho. Its past grand
| eur returned, and l saw the city as it
Twas when Mark Antony gave it
to Cleopatra, and Herod bought it from
her. And l heard the hoofs Of its
swift steeds, and the rumbling Of its
ehariots and the shouts of excited
spectators in its amphitheater.
And there was white marble amid
green groves Of palm and balsam; cold
stone warmed with sculptured foliago
hard pillars cut into soft lace; Iliads
and Odysseys in granite, basalt jet as
a.. night mounted by carbuncle fam
fng as the morning; upholstery dyed as
though dipped in the blood of battle
fields; robes encrusted with diamonds;
mosaics white as sea-foam flashed on by
auroras gayeties which the sun saw by
day, rivaled by revels the moon saw by
night; blasphemy built against the sky;
ceilings stellar as the midnight heavens;
grandeurs turreted, archiovolted and in.
tercolumnar; wickedness so appalling
that established vocabulary fails, and
we must make an ad djectiye and call it
Herodic.
The region round about the city walls
seemed to me white with cotton such
as Thenius describes as once growing
there, and sweet with sugar cane, and
luscious with orange and figs and pomo-
granates, and redolent with such fora
as can only grow whore tropical sun
kisses the earth. And the hour came
back to mo when in the midst of all
that splendor Horod died, COM
manding his sister Salome i'm.
mediately after his death to Sc.
cure tho assassination of all tho
chief Jews whom ho had brought
to the city, and shut up in circus for
that purpose, and tho news came to the
audience in the theatcr as some one
took the stage and announced to tho
excited multitude "lerod is dead!
Herod Is deadl' Then, in my dream,
all the pomp Of Jericho vanished, and
gloom was added to gloom, and desola-
ton to desolation, and woe to woe,
until, perhaps, the rippling waters OF
tho Fountain OF Elisha suggesting IT.
as sounds will sometimes give direc.
tion to u droam-.l thought that the
waters Of Christs salvation and
tho fountains "opon for sin and
uncleanliness," were rolling through
that plain and rolling across that cont.
nent, and rolling round the earth, until
on other side OF their banks all the
thorns became flowers, and oil tho
deserts gardens, and all tho novels
mansions, and all tho funerals bridal
professions, and the blood OF war was
turned into dahlas, and all the groans
became anthoms, and Danto's "!nrerno"
became Dantos "Dlyina Commedia,"
and paradise LoN" was submerged by
paradise Regained," and tears bo.