The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-11-28

feaSt" there was an annual ball, where
the msidens Of the city amid clspping
cymbals and blare of trumpets danced
in glee, upon which thousands oil
spectators gazed. But no dance since
the world stood ever broke up in such a
strange way as the one the Bible de-
scribes. One night while by the light
OF the lamps and torches these gayeties
went on, 200 Benjamites who had been
hidden behind the rocks and among she
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 Benjamites seized the one
whom he chose for the queen Of his
home and carried her away to large
estate and beautiful residence, for these
200 Benjamites had inherited the wealth
of a nation.
As to-day near Shiloh we look at the
Meadow of the Feast" where the
maidens danced that night and at the
mountain gorge up which the Bepiam-
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 impossibility, and amid
orderly groups and with prayer and
benediction, and breath of orange bios
SONS and the roll OF the wedding march,
marriages is solemnized, and 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 Esdraelon. What
must have been the feelings of the
Prince of Peace as he crossed it on the
way from Jerusalem to Nazareth! Not
flower blooms there but has in it's
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 a plain reaching from
the Mediterranean to the Jordan. Upon
1t look down the mountains of Tabor
and Gilboa and Carmel Through it
RACES at certain seasons the river
Kishon, which swept down the armies
of Sisera the battle occurring in
November, when there Is almost
always a shower of meteors, so that
'the stars in their course" were said to
have fought against Sisera Through
this plain drove Jehu and the iron char
lots of the Canaanites scythed at the
hubs of the wheels, hewing down their
awful swaths of death, thousands in q
minute. The Syrian armies the Turk
ish armies, the Egyptian armies again
and again trampled it There they ca
reer across it, David and Joshua and
Godfrey and Richard Ceur de Lion and
Baldwin and Saladin-a 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 the 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
crucified, was carried as standard at
the head of the Christian host; and that
night closing my eyes in my tent on
the plain of Esdraelon-for there are
some things we can see better with eyes
shut than open-the scenes of the an
Gent war came before me. The twelfth
century was closing and Salidin at the
haaI <.fQ toI
ing "Ho for jerusalem! Ho for all
Palestiner' and before them every thing
went down, but not without unparalleled
resistance. In one place 100 Christians
we're surrounded by many thousands Of
furious Mohammedans. For one whole
lay the 100 held out against these
thousands Tennyson's 900" when
some one had blundered," were
,clipsed by these 100 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 the enemy. On went the fight
Until all but one Christian had fallen
md he, mounted on the last horse,
Welded his battle axe right and left till
ais horse fell under the plunge of the
avelins and the rider, making the sign
If 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 admire
hat last struggle to keep in possession
hat wooden cross on which Jesus was
aid to have expired. Now the wooden
ross on which the armies of the
Christians had kept their eye began to
vsver, begins to descend. It fallsl and
be wsiling Of the Christian host at its
browns the huzzah of the
victorious Moslems ra
But that standard Of the cross only
eemed to fall 1t rides the sky to-day
n triumph Five hundred million souls
he mightiest army of the ages are fol-
owing it and where that goes they will
70, across the earth and up the mighty
teeps of the heavens In the twelfth
century it seemed to go down, but in the
nineteenth century it is the mightiest
ymbol Of glory and triumph, and means
nore than any other standard whether |
Inscribed with eagle, or lion, or bear. or
tar, or crescent. That which Saladin |
on the plain of Esdraelon |
lift to-day for your marshalling. The
ross! the cross! The foot of 1t planted
n the earth it saves, the top of 1t |
ointing in the Heavens to which 1t |
'ill take you, and the outspread beam
( it like outstretched arms of invita-
ion to all nations Kneel at its foot |
lift your eye to its victim. Swear eter-
al allegiance to its power. And as
hat mighty symbol Of pain and triumph
, kept before US we will realize how
are the little crosses we
re called upon to bear, and will more