The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-11-05

though the lips that sang them forty years
| ago became 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 thump Of harps the
sweep of the bow across bass viois, the song
Of Sabbath schools storming the heavens, the
doxology of great assemblages-why, thou
sand Jerichos Of sin have by them all been
| brought down.
Seated by the warmth of our campfres
that evening of December 9, amid the bricks
and debris Of Jericho, and thinking what poor
music has done and what mightier things
could be accomplished by the blessings Of
God OIL good music, I said to myself: Min
isters have been doing q grand work, and
sermons have been blessed, but would it
not be we'll for US TO put mora emphasis on
music2 Oh, for a campaign Of 'Old Hun
dredm Oh. for a brigade of Mount Pts
gahs Oh. for cavalry charge OF Corona
! tions!" Oh, for an army Of Antiochs and
| st. Martins and Arielsi Oh, for enough
orchestral batons lifted to marshal all na-
| tionsl As Jericho was surrounded by poor
music for seven days, and was conquered,
so let our earth be surrounded seven days
by good gospel music, and the round planet
will be taken for God. Not wall Of oppo-
sition, not a throne of tyranny, rot pal
ace Of sin, not an enterprise Of unrighteous-
ness, could stand the mighty throb Of such
atmospheric pulsation. Music! 1t sounded
at the laying of creations corner stone
when the morning stars sang together.
Music! 1t will be the last reverberation,
when the archangels trumpet shall wake
the dead. Nusic Let its full power be
now tested to comfort and bless and arouse
and save.
| While our evening meal is being prepared
in the tents we walk out for a moment to
the Fountain Of Elisha" the one into which
the prophet threw the salt because the
waters were poisonous and bitter, and 10!
/ they became sweet and healthy; and ever
since with gurgle and laughter, they have
rushed down the hill and leaped from the
rocks, the only cheerful object in all chat
region being these waters
Nowon this plain of Jericho the sun is set
ting, making the mountains look like balus-
| trades and battlements Of amber and dmaroon
and gold; and the moon, just above the crests,
seems to be O window Of heaven through
which immortals might be looking down ul-
on the scene. Three Arabs as watchmen sit
beside the camp fire at the door Of
a strange language all night long
soothing rather than an interruption.
I had dream that night never to be for
gotten, that dream amid the complete ruins
of Jericho. Its past grandeur returned, and
saw the city as it was when Marx Antony
gave it to Cleopatra and Herod bought it
from her. And heard the hoof5 Of its swift
steeds and the rumbliug Of its chariots and
the shouts of excited spectators in its amphi-
theatre.
And there was white marble amid green
groves of palm and balsam; cold Stone
warmed with sculptured foliage; hard pillars
cut into soft lace; Iliads and Odysseys in
granite; basalt jet as the night mounted by
carbuncle flaming as the morning; upholstery
dyed as though dipped in the blood OF battle
fields: robes encruste1 with diamond; mo-
salcS white as sea foam flashed on by auroras;
gayeties which the sun saw by day riyaled by
revels the moon saw by night; blashphemy
built against the sky; ceilings stellar as the
midnight heavens; grandeurs turreted,
archivolted and intercoiumnar; wickeaness
so appalling that established vocabulary fails,
and we must make cn adjective 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 pomegranates, and redo
lent with such fora as can only grow where
q tropical sun kisses the earth. And the hour
came back to ME when in the midst of all
that splendor Herod died, commanding his
sister Salome Immediately after his death to
secure the assassination Of all the chief Jews
whom he had brought to the city and shut
1p in a circus for that purpose, and the news
.anle to the audience IN the theatre as some
one took the stage and announced to the ex-
:ited multitude: "Herod is dead! Herod is
ieadW
Then in my dream all the pomp Of
Jericho vanished, and gloon was added to
gloom, and desolaton to desolation, and woe
20 woe, until, perhaps the ripping waters
If the fountain OF Elisha suggesting it-as
ouuds will someti mss give direction to
lream-I thought that the waters OF Christ's
Aviation AMI the fountains ''open for sin
md uncleanness" were rolling through that
,lain and across the continent, and rolling
ound the earth, until on either side of their
banks oil the thorns became flowers, and
III the deserts gardens, and all the
lovals mansions, and all the fu-
lerals bridal professions, AMI all the blood OF
war was turned into dahliaS, and all the
yroans became anthems. and Dante's I'm.
ferno" baclms Dante's ':Divina Commedia,"
md paradise Lost" was submerged by
Paradise Regained." and tears became
crystals, cruel swords came out OF foundrieS
glistening plowshares, and in my dream at
the blast Of a trumpet the prostrated walls
Of Jericho rose again.
And some one told me that as these walls
in Joshua's time at the sounding trumpets
of doom went down, now at the sounding
trumpet Of the gospel they come up
again And thought man appeared at
tho door Of my tent, and said, "Who are
you and from whence have you Gomez
and he said, II am the Samaritan you heard
OF at the tavern on the road from Jerusalem
to Jericho, as taking care Of the man
who fell among thieves, and have
just come from healing the last wound of the
and my dream broke and I realized it was
only dream, but dream which shall be-
como glorious reality as surely as God is
true and Christ's gospel is the worlds Ca
thoIicon. GLORY be to the Father, and to
the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was at
the beginning, IS now and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen"