Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-10-06


the singular saying, No man having
put his hand to the pillow and looking
back is fit for the kingdom" The OK
is urged on by a wooden stick pointed
| with sharp iron, and the OK knows
enough not to kick, for he would only
hurt himself instead of breaking the
| goad And the Bible refers to that
when it says to Saul, 1T is hard for
thee to kick against the goads.
THE VALLEY OF AVALON.
Here is the valley of Ajalon, famous
for Joshua's pursuit of the five kings
and the lunar arrest. And in magma
ton see the moon in daytime halt.
| Who has not sometimes seen the moon
dispute the throne with the sun? But
when the king of day and the queen of
night, who never before Joshua's time
nor since then stopped moment in
their march, halted at Joshua's com
mand, it was a scene enough to make
the universe shiver. Moon! stand thou
still in the valley of Ajalon!" At an
other time we will see the sun stop
above Gideon, but now we have only
to do with the moon, and you must re-
member that it was more of an orb
than it is now. 1t is burnt out world
now. dead world now, an extinct
world nov, a corpse laid out in state in
the heavens, waiting for the Judgment
day to bury it. But on the day of
which | speak the moon was probably
a living world, yet it halted at the
wave of Joshua's finger, Stand thou
stillI' Do not bulge an inch until
Joshua finishes those five kings, who
are there tumbling over the rocks,
sword of man slashing them, hailstones
out OF the sky pelting them.
And there is the cavern of Make
dab where they fled for safety, and
where they were afterward locked in,
and from which they were taken out
to be slain, and in which they were af-
terward buried; and you do well to ex-
anime that cavern, for within a few
hours it became three things which no
other cave ever was-fortress, prison,
sepulcher.
Now we pass the place where once
lived one of the greatest robbers of the
century, Abou Gosh by name. From
this point you see he could look over
all the surrounding country, and long
before the travellers came up to him
the plan for the taking of their money
or their life or both was contaminated.
He one day found company of
monks who would not pay, and he
smothered them to death in hot oven.
In his last days he lived here like an
oriental prince, and had his attendants
and admirers, to \, HON he told the sto-
ries of brigandage and assassination.
So late as when our eminent and be-
loved American William @. Prime
passed through Abou Gosh, the scoun-
drelly Bedouin, sat at his doorway smok-
ing his pipe His descendants live in
this village, and probably are no more
honest than their distinguished ances-
tor, but marauding and murder are not
as safe business now as when all this
route to Jerusalem was subject to out
RACES pandemoniac.
Here we pass the village of Latrun,
home of the penitent thief; the village,
a few struggling houses on steep hills,
rising from the valley of Ajalon.
Up these steep hills in his earlier days
the thief had carried the spoils of arson
and burglary, and down them he had
borne the heavier burden of a guilty
heart. But higher than these hills he
mounted, after he had repented, from
the transfixed posture on the cross to
the bosom of a forgiving God.
SCENES OF BIBLE HISTORY.
Now we come to the brook Elah,
from which little David took the
smooth stones with which he pros
trated Goliath. There is a bridge
spanning the ravine, but at the season
we crossed there is not a drop of water
in the brook. We went down into the
ravine and walked amid the pebbles
that had been washed smooth, very
smooth, by the rush of the waters
through all the ages. There is where
David armed himself He walked
around and picked up five of these
polished pebbles. He got them of just
the right size. He prepared himself for
five volleys, so that if the giant escapes
the first he will not escape the whole
five. The topography of the place SO
corresponds with the Bible story that I
could see the memorable fight go on.
1t is the only fight ever did watch.
Pugilism I abhor, but here were two
championships one God appointed,
the other Satan appointed, and decid-
ing the destiny of a nation, the destiny
of a world. 1t was a Marathon, an
Arbela, a Waterloo, a Blenheim, a
Sedan, concentered into two right arms.
Here are two ridges of mountains five
hundred feet high, the Philistines on
one ridge, the Israelites on the other
ridge The fight is in the valley be-
tween, at that season shaded, and
sweet with terebinth and acacia. David
the champion for the Israelites; Go
Hath the champion for the Philistines.
David, understood and almost effem-
mate, only a mouthful for Goliath, who
was nearly ten feet high.
They advance to meet each other,
but the Bible says that David made
the first step forward Nearer and
nearer they come, but I do not think
David will wait until he comes within
reach of Goliaths sword, for that would
ne IdUdl, anu DdNIO 1ldS ID WGdpOn WILL
which he can fight at long range.
Closer and closer they come, but David
advances the more rapidly. ''Come to
me-" said the giant, ''and I will give
thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and
to the beasts of the field" You see
Goliath going to give David for ban
quet to the vulture and jackal. He,
| the mountain of flesh, will fall over on
that little hillock. [ hear him laugh
through the mouthpiece of his helmet.
He will toast the little whiffet on the
top of his long sword. He will call all
the crows for breakfast. "Come to
me, you contemplate little fellow, and
will make quick work with you. The
| idea that a five-footer should come out
against a ten-footerl Let the two ar
mics looking down from the ridges
watch men' David responded, leone
to thee in the name of the Lord of
Hosts" Aha, that is the right kind of
battle shout. In the name of the
| Lord of Hostsl''
How that cry rings through the
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