News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-10-30

and courage, OF cruelty and kindness
When band of them came down unon
a party in which Miss WhateIy was
travelling, and were about to take
pocket books and perhaps life, this
lady sitting upon her horse took out
her note book and pencil and began to
sketch these brigands, and seeing this
composure the bandits thought it
something supernatural and fled
| Christian womanliness or manliness is
all conquering. When Martin Luther
was told that Duke George would kill
him if he went to Leipsic Luther re-
piled, 81 would go to Leipsic if it
rained Duke Georges nine daysi"
Now we come through regions where
there are hills cut into the shape of Ca
thedrals, with altar and column and
arch and chancel and pulpit and dome
and architecture of the rocks, that
think can hardly just happen SO. Per
haps it is because God loves the church
so we'll he builds in the solitudes of
Yellowstone park and Yosemite and
Switzerland and Palestine these eccle.
siastical piles. And who knows but
that unseen spirits may sometimes wor-
ship there2 ''Dragoman, when shall
we see the Jordan?' / ask All the
time we were on the alert, and looking
through tamarisk and willows for the
greatest river of all the earth. The
Mississippi is wider, the Ohio is deeper,
the Amazon is longer, the Hudson rolls
amid regions more pictuls1Sfs-he' the
Thames has more splendid On It's banks,
| the Tiber suggests NOR --iperia! pro.
-eess;-s-.;;s....>las--4. -!
memories and the Nile feeds greater
populations by its irrigation; but the
Jordan is the queen of rivers and runs
through all the Bible, a silver thread
strung like beads with heroics, and be-
fore night we shall meet on its banks
Elijah and Elisha and David and
Jacob and Joshua and John and Jesus.
A VIEW OF THE RIVER.
At last between two trees I got
glimpse of a river, and said, what is
that2" 1.-The Jordan" was the quick
reply. And all along the line which
had been heightened by other pilgrims,
some from America, and some from
Europe, and some from Asia, the cry
was sounded, THE Jordanl The Jor-
dan" Hundreds of thousands of pill
grims have chanted ON its banks and
bathed in its waters Many of them dip
wet gown in the wave and wiring it
out and carry it home for their own
shroud. 1t is an impetuous stream, and
rushes on as though it were Fastening
to tell its story to the ages. Many an
explorer has it whelmed, and many a
boat has it wrecked Lieut. Molineux
had copper bottomed crafts split upon
its shelvings Only one boat, that of
Lieut.. Lynch, ever lived to sail the
whole length of it. AT the season when
the SHOWS on Lebanon melt the rage
of this stream is like the Conemaugh
when Johnstown persisted, and the wild
beasts that may be near run for the
hills, explaining what jeremiah says,
Behold he shall go up like lion from
the swelling of Jordan" No river so
often changes its mind, for it turns and
twists, travelling two hundred miles to
do that which in a straight line might
be done in sixty miles. Among banks
now low, now high, now of rocks, now
of mud and now of sand, having the
feet of the terebinths and oleanders
and acacias and reeds and pistachios
and silver poplars This river marries
the Dead sea to Lake Galilee, and did
ever so rough a groom take the hand of
so fair a bride?
THE RIVER WHICH PARTED.
This is the river which parted to let
an army of two million Israelites across.
Here the skilled major general of the
Syrian host at the seventh plunge
dropped his leprosy, not only by mirac-
ulous cure, but suggesting to all ages
that water, and plenty of it, has much
to do with the sanitary improvement
of the world. Here is where some theo-
logical students of Elishas time were
cutting trees with which to build a the
illogical seminary, and an ak head not
sufficiently wedged to the handle flew
off into the river and sank, and the
young man deplored not so much the
loss of the ak head as the fact that it
was not his own, and cried, "Alasl it
was borrowed" and the prophet threw
a stick into the river, and in defiance
of the law of gravitation the iron ak
head came to the surface and fioated
like a cork upon the water, and kept
floating until the young man caught it.
A miracle performed to give one an
opportunity to return that which was
borrowed, and rebuke in all ages for
those who borrow and never return,
their bad habit in this respect so estab-
Iished that it would be miracle if they
did return it. Yea, from the bank of
this river Elijah took a team of fire,
showing that the most raging element is
a servant of the good. and that there is
no need that child of God fear any
thing; for if the most destructive of all
elements was that day fashioned into a
vehicle for departing saint, nothing
can ever hurt you who love and trust
the Lord
lam so glad that that chariot of Eli
jah was not made out of wood or crystal
or anything ordinarily pleasant, but out
of fire, and yet he went up without
having so much as to fan himself.
When, stepping from amid the foliage
of these oleanders and tamarisks on
the banks of the Jordan, he put his
foot on the red step of the red equip
age, and took the red reins of vapor in
his hands and spurred the galloping
steeds toward the wide open gate of
heaven, it was a scene forever memor-
able.
So the hottest Affections of your life
may roll you heavenward So the
most burning persecutI y tie most
fiery troubles, may become uplifting.
Only be sure that when you pull on the
bits of fire you drive up toward God.
and not down toward the Dead sea.
When Latimer and Ridley died at the
stake they went up in a chariot of fire
When my friend p p Bliss, the Cos
pei singer, was consumed with the rail
train that broke through Ashtabula
bridge and then took flame, said
Another Elijah gone up in a chariot
of firel''
RIVER OF BAPTISMS.
But this river is river of baptisms
Christ was here baptized and John bap-
TIED many thousands. Whether on
these occasions the candidate for ban
tism and the officer of religion went
into this river, and then, while both |
were standing the water was dipped in
the hand of one and sprinkled upon the
fnrohon1 1,f fhn nthor i.