The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-11-21

Phineas and Hophni; and life is not
worth living after ones children have
turned out badly, and more fortunate
was ELI. instantly expiring under such
It'd ings. than those parents who. their
children recreant and profiiQate, live os
with broken hearts to see them go.nA
down into deeper and deeper plunge.
! There are fathers and mothers hero to-
day to whom death would be happy
release because OF their recreant sons.
But turn from this Shiloh of Ellis
sudden decesse under bad news from
his boys and ind close by what is called
the Meadow of the Feast" While
this ancient city was in the height of
is prosperity OF this Meadow OF the
Feast" there was an annual ball, where
the maidens of the city zps lid clapping
cymbAls and biare of trunpets daneed
in giee, upon which thousands of
spectators gazed- But no dance since
the world stood ever broke up in such :
strange way as the one the b BILE de-
scribes. One night while by the light
OF the lamps and torches these gayeties
went on, 200 Ben jamites, who had been
hidden behind the rocks and among the
trees, dashed upon the scene. They
came not TO injure or destroy but
wishing to set up households
of their own, the women OF their
own land having been slain in battle,
and by preconcerted arrangement each
one of the 200 Benjami ties Sc zed the one
whom he chose for the queen of his
home and carried her away to large
estate and beautiful residence. for these
200 BenjaIlites had Inherited the wealth
of a nation.
AS to-daJ near Shiloh we look at the
Meadow OF tue Felst" where the
maidens danced that night and at the
mountain gorge up which she Ben Jam
ties carried their brides, we bethink
ourselves of the better land and the bet
ter times in which we live. when such
scenes are an impossiSilIty. and amid
orderly groups and with prayer and
benediction, and breath of orange bios
SONS and the roll of the wedding march,
marriage is solemnized, aPI with oath
recorded in Heaven. two immortals start
arm in arm on journey to last until
death do them part
But we must this afternoon, our last
day before reaching Nazareth, pitch our
tent on the most famous battlefield of
all time-the plain of Esdraclon- What
must have been the feelings of the
Prince of Peace as he crossed it on the
way from Jerusalem to Nazare thi Not
u flower blooms there but has in its
veins the inherited blood of flowers
that drank the blood of fallen armies
Hardly foot of the ground that has
not at some time been quilted with war
chariots or trampled with the hoofS of
cavalry. 1t is plain reach ng from
the Mediterranean to the Jordan. Upon
it look down the mountains of Tabor
and Gilboa and Carmel Through 1t
RACES at certain seasons the river
kishoB, which swept down the armies
of Sisera, the battle occurring in
November, when there is almost
always Il shower of ueteors, so that
the stars in their course" were said to
have fought aga INST Sisera- Through
this plain drove Jehu and the iron char
lots of the CGnaanites scythed at the
hubs of the wheels, hewing down their
awful swaths of death, thousands in a
minute. The Syrian armies, the Turk
ish armies the Egyptian armies agaln
and again tramp!ed it. There they ca
reer across it. David and Joshua and
Godfrey and Z ichard Coeur de Lion and
Baldwin and Salad IA plain not only
famous for the past, but famous because
the Bible says the great decisive battle
of the world will be fought there-the
battle of Armageddon.
To me tho plain was more absorbing
because of the desperate battles here
and in regions round in which the holy
cross, the very two pieces of wood on
which Jesus was supposed to have been
crucitied, was carried a standard at
the head of the Christian host; and that
night closing my eyes in my tent on
the pla of Esdraeion-fOr there are
some things We can sec better with eyes
Snub tDdn ODell- inc scenes OF tA9 an
Client war came before me- ! he twelfth
century was closing and Salidin at the
head OF so, 600 mounted troops was cry
ing "fio for Jerusalem! Ho for all
Palestine!" and before them every thing
went down, but not withoutunparaliele
resistance In one place $50 Christians
were surrounded by many thousands of
furious Mohammedaus- For one whole
day the 100 held out against these
thousands Tennyson's GOO" when
some one had blundered." were
eclipsed by these $50 fighting for the
holy cross. They took hold of the lances
which had pierced them with death
wounds and, pulling them out OF their
own breasts and side, hurled them back
again at tho enemy On went the fight
until all but one Christian had fallen
and he, mounted on the last horse,
welded his battle axe right and left till
his horse fell under the plunge of the
javelins aud the rider, making the sign
of the cross toward the sky gave up his
life on the point of score of spears
But soon after the last battle came.
History portrays it, poetry chants it,
painting Colors it and all ages adm re
that last struggle to keep n possession
that wooden cross on which Jesus was
said to have expired. Now the wooden
cross on which the armies of the
Christians had kept their eye began to
WAIVER. begins to descend. 1t falls! and
the waiIinS of the Christian host at its
disappearance browns the huzzah of the
victorious Moslems
But that standard OF the cross only
seemed TO fall. IL rides the sky to-day
in triumph Five hundred million souls
the nigh tiest army of the ages are fol-
lowing 1t and where that goes they will
go, across the earth and up tho mighty
sleeps of the heavens In the twelfth
century it seemed 20 go down, but in the
nineteenth century ii is the mightiest
sym Dol of glory and triumph. and means
more than any other standard whe Their
inscribed with eagle, or lion, or bear, or
star or crescent. That which Sal adm
trsmpled on the plain of E>draeion
lift to-day for your marshelllng. The
cross! the cross! The foot of it planted
in the earth it saves, tho top of it
pointing in the Heavens to which it
will take you, and the outspread beam
of it like outstFetc bed arms OF invita-
on to all nations Kneel 1T its foot
Lift your eye to its victim. Swear etsr-
nal allegiance to its power And as