Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-10-20

coming kiss. That was religionl Yes,
that was religion Good Samaritans
along every street and along every
road. as well as this one on the road to
Jericho.
THE RAVENS OF CHERTTH
But our procession of sightseers is
again In line, and here we pass through
a deep ravine and | cry to the drago-
man, David, what place do you call
this?n and he replied, This is the
brook Cherith, where Elijah was fed by
the ravens And in that answer he
overthrow my life long notions of the
place where Elijah was waited on by
the black servants of the sky. A brook
to me had meant slight depression of
ground and a stream fordable, and
perhaps fifteen feet wide But here
was a chasm that an earthquake must
have scooped out with its biggest shovel
or split with its mightiest battle AK
Six hundred feet deep is it, and the
brook Cherith is river, which, when
in full force, is a silver wedge, splitting
the mountains into precipices. The
feathered descendants of Elijah's ravens
still wing their way across this ravine,
but are not like the crows we supposed
them to be. They are as large as eagles,
and one of them could carry in its beak
and clinched claw at once enough food
for half dozen Elijahs. No thanks
to the ravens; they are carnivorous,
and would rather have picked out the
eyes of Elijah, whom they found at
the mouth of his cave On the side of
Chefith waiting for his breakfast, hav-
ing drunk his morning beverage from
the rushing stream beneath, than have
been bis buffers and purveyors.
'EBut God compelled them, as he al
ways has compelled and always will
compel black and cruel and overshad
owing providences TO carry help to his
children if they only have faith enough
to catch the blessing as it drops from
the seeming adversely, the greatest
blessing always coming not with white
wings but black wings. Black wings
of conviction, bringing pardon to the
sinner Black wings of crucifxion
over Calvary, bringing redemption for
the world Black wings of American
revolution, bringing free institutions to
a continent. Black wings of American
civil war, bringing unification and soil
darity to the republic. Black wings of
the Judgment day, bringing resurrec-
ton to an entombed human race. And
in the last day, when all your life and
mi will no will fin
that the greatest blessings we ever re-
ceived came on the wings of the black
ravens of disaster Bless God for trou-
blel Bless God for sickness Bless
God for persecution Bless God for
poverty! You never heard of any man
or woman of great use to the world
who had not had lots of trouble The
diamond must be cut; the wheat
must be threshed; the black ravens
must fly Who are these nearest the
throne? These are they who come out
of great tribulation, and had their
robes washed and made white in the
blood of the Lamb"
FIRST VIEW OF JORDAN
But lookl Look what at o'clock
in the afternoon bursts upon our vision
the plain of Jericho, and the valley
of Jordan, and the Dead Sea. We
have come to place where the horses
not so much walk as slide up on their
launches, and we all dismount, for the
steep descent is simply terrific, though
a princess of Wallachia who fell here
and was dangerously wounded, after
IT
money in trying to make the road passa-
BILE. Down and down. till we saw the
white tents pitched for us by our mule
teers amid the ruins of ancient Jericho,
which fell at the sound of poor music
played on ''ram's horn" that ancient
instrument which, taken from the head
of the leader of the flock of sheep, is
by the musical performer, and blown
upon when pressed to the lips. As in
another sermon l have fully described
that scene, I will only say that every
day for seven days the ministers of re-
ligion 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 a cata-
pult, or the swing of ballista, crashi
crash crashl went the walls of that
magnificent capital.
On the evening of Dec. we walked
amid the brick and mortar of that
shattered city, and | said to myself:
All this done by poor music blest
of God; for it was not harp or a
flute or a clapping cymbal or an organ
played, at the sound of which the city
surrendered to destruction, but rude