The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-01-18

houses We have eight or ten, and We pile
them up in the corners Of our Sabbath school
rooms, and send great boxes Of them every.
now going on III the work Of determination,
l do not know but that our children hay
live to see the millennium! Yea, here
should come q time Of prosecution in which
all the known Bibles OF the earth should be
destroyed, all these lamps Of light that blaze
in our pulpits and in our families extinguish-
ed-in the very day that inidelity and sin
should be holding q jubilee over the tlniver-
sal extinction, there would be in some closet
OF q backwoods church q secreted o p of the
Bible. and this Joash of eternal literature
would come out and come up and take the
throne; and the Athaliah Of inadelity and
door Of the palace, and drop her miserable
carcass under the hoofs of the horses Of the
Kings stables. You cannot exterminate
Christianity You canno kill JoashI
The second thought that I hand you from
my subject is, that there are opportunities in
which we may save royal life. You know
that profane history is replete with stories
OF strangled monarchs and Of young princes
who have been put out of the way. Here 10
the story of a young King saved. How
she hushed him, lest by his cry he hinder es-
cape. Fly with him! Jehosheba, you hold in
your arms the cause OF God and good
government. Fail, and he is slain.
worlds history in the right direction. It
seems as if between that young king and
his assassins there is nothing but the trail
arm of a woman. But why should we spend
our time in praising this bravery Of pedi-
ton when God asks the same thing Of you
and me? All around us are the imperiled
children OF 9 great hing:
Thov ovo horn If X1miohtv narontaoa and
will come to q throne or a crown, If permit
ted. But sin, the old Athaliah, goes forth
to tho massacre. Murderous temptations
are out for the assassination. Valens. the
emperor, was told that there was somebody
in his realm who would usurp his throne,
the usurper would begin with the letters T.
II. E. o. D., and the edicts went forth from
the emperor's throne: "Kill everybody whose
name begins with T. Fl. E. o. D." And
hundreds and thousands were slain, hoping
by that massacre to put IN end to that one
usurper. But sin is more terrific in it's de-
nunciation. 1t matters not how you spell
your name, you come under it's knife, under
it's sword, under it's doom, unless there be
some omnipotent relief brought to the rescue.
But, blessed be God, there in such q thing as
delivering a royal soul. Who will snatch
way Joash?
This afternoon, in your Sabbath school
class. there will be a prince of God-sone one
who may yet reign as king forever before the
throne; there will be some one in your class
who has a corrupt physical Inheritance;
there will be some one in -FOUR class who has
y father and mother who does not know how
to pray; there will be some one in your class
who is destined to command in church or
state-some Cromwell to dissolve a parlia-
ment, some Beethoven to touch the worlds
harp strings, some John Howard to pour
fresh air into the lazaretto, some Florence
Nightingale to bandage the battle wounds,
some Miss Dix to soothe the crazed brain,
some John Frederick Oberlin to educate the
besottsd, some David Brainard to change
the Indians war whoop to q Sabbath song,
some John Wesley to marshal three-fourths
of Christiandom, some John Knox to make
queens turn pale, some Joash TO demolish
idolatary and strike for the kingdom ofheav-
en-.
There are sleeping in your cradles by night,
there are praying in your nurseries by day.
imperial souls waiting for dominion, and
decide the destiny of empires. For each one
of those children sin and holiness contend
Athaliah On the one side and Jehosheba on
the other. But / hear people say: What's
the use of bothering children with religious
instruction? Let them grow up and choose
for themselves. Don't interfere with their
volition." Suppose some one had said to
Jehoseba: Don't interfere with that young
Joash. Let him grow up and decide whether
he likes the palace or not, whether he wants
to be King or not. Don't disturb his Volt
tion." Jehosheba knew right well that unless
that day the young King was rescued, he
would never be rescued at oil.
tell you, my friends, the reason we don't
reclaim all our children from worldliness is
because we begin too late. Parents wait
until their children lie before they teach
them the value of truth. They wait uutil
their children swear before they teach them
the Importance of righteous conversation.
They wait until their children are all wrap
ped up in this world before they tell them of
q better world. Too late with your prayers.
Too late with your discipline. Too late
with you benediction. You put all care
upon your children between II and IS.
Why do you not put the chief care between
4 and 8? 1t is too late to repair q vessel
when it has got out Of the dry dock. 1t is
have broken in. MAY God arm US all for
this work of snatching royal souls from
death to coronation. Can you imagine sub.
liner work than this soul saying? That
was what flushed Paul's cheek with enthusi.
asm; that was what led Munson to risk his
life amid Bornesian cannibals; that was
what sent DR.. Abselto preach under the con-
courage to Phocus in the third century.
When the military officers came to put him
to death for Christ's sake; he put them
to bed that they might rest, while he
himself went ont, and in his OWE garden dug
his grave, and then came back and said, II
am ready" but they were shocked at the
idea of taking the life oftheir host. He said,
1T is the will of God that l should de-" and
he stood N the margin Of his own grave and
they heheadsd him. You say it is q mania.
o foolhardiness, q fanaticism. Rather would
I call it q glorious self abnegation, the thrill
of eternal satisfaction, the plucking of Joash
from death, and raising him to coronation.