Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-17


on which gathered the largest religious
| audience that ever assembled on earth. about
| sU0.OO0 people. Mount Gerizim, about 500 feet
! high on one side, and on the other Mount
| Ebal, the former called the Mount of Blessing
| and the latter the Mount of Cursng. At JOSH
| mas command six tribes stood on Mount
| Gerizim and read the blessings Tor keeping the
law, and six tribes stood on Mount Ebal read
| ing the curses for breaking the law, while the
| 500, 600 people on the plain cried Amen with an
| emphasis that must have made the earth
| trcmble. Il do not believe that" says some
| one ''for those mountain tops are two miles
| apart, and how could a voice be heard from top
to top?' My answer is that while the tops are
| two miles apart, the bases of the mountains are
| only half mile apart. and the tribes stood on
| the sides OF the mountains, and the air is so
| clear, and the acoustic qualities of this great
| natural amphitheater SO perfect that voices can
| be distinctly heard from mountain to mountain
as has been demonstrated by travellers 30 times
| in the last 30 years.
SORROwING PARENTS.
On and on we ride until now, we have come
to Shiloh dead city on a hill surrounded by
rocks sheep, goats, olive gardens and vine
! yards Here good Eli fell backward and broke
his neck, and lay dead at the news from his bad
| boys 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 tidinGs. than those parents
who, their children recreant and profligate,
| live on with broken hearts to see them going
| down into deeper and deeper plunge. There
are fathers and mothers here to-day to whom
| death would be happy release because of their
| recreant sons. And if there be recreant sons
here present, and your parents be far away,
| why not bow your head in repentance, and at
! the close of this service 60 to the telegraph
| office and put it on the wing of the Lightning
| that you have turned from your evil ways?
| Before another "A hours have PASSED take YOUR
| feet off the sad hearts at the old homestead.
Home to thy God, o prodigall
Letters i v.
ing: My sou is in your cities, we have not heard
from him for some time; We fear something is
| wrong: hunt him up and say good word to
| him; his mother is almost crazy about him: he
| is child of many prayers But how can hunt
him up unless he be in this audiencef Where
are you, my boy? On the main floor. or on this
platform or in these boxes, or in these great
galleries? Where are you? Lift your right
hand. have a message from home. Your
father is anxious about you, your mother is
praying for you. Your God is calling for you.
Or will you wait until Eli falls back lIfeless,
and the heart against which you lay in infancy
ceases to beat? What a story to tell in eternity
that you killed her? My Godi Avert that catas-
trophe.
WELCOME CHANGE.
But turn from this Shiloh of Elrs sudden
decease under bad news from his boys, and find
close by what is called the Meadow of the
Feast" While this ancient city was in the
height of its prosperity, on this Meadow of
the FEAST there was an annual ball, where
the maidens of the city amid clapping cymbals
and blare of trumpets danced in a glee, upon
which thousands of 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 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 Benjamites seized the one
whom be chose for the queen Of his home and
carried her away to large estate and beautiful
residence, for these 200 Benjamites had inher-
tied 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
Benjamites carried their brides, we bethink
ourselves of the better land and the better
times in which we live, when such scenes are
an impossibility and amid orderly groups and
with prayer and benediction, and breath Of
orange blossoms and the roll of the wedding
march, marriage is solemnized, and with oath
recorded in heaven, two mortals start arm in
arm on a journey, to last until death do them
there come the blessing of Him ''who setteth
the solitary in families" Side by side on the
path of life! Side by side in their gravesl Side
by side in heaveni
But we must this afternoon, our last day be-
fore reaching Nazareth, pitch our tent on the
most famous battlefield of all time-the plain
of Esdraelon. What must have been the feel
ings of the Prince of Peace as he crossed it on
the way from Jerusalem TO NAZARETH Not
flower blooms there but has in its veins the in
herited blood of flowers that drank the blood of
fallen armies. .-.----.
AN ABSORBING SCENE.
To me the plain was the more absorbing be-
cause of the desperate battles here and in re-
gions round iu which the Holy Cross the very
two pieces of wood on which Jesus was sup
posed to have been crucified. was carried as a
standard at the head of the Christian host: and
that night, closing my eyes in my tent on the
plains of Esdraelon-for there are some things
we can see better with eyes shut than open
the scenes of that ancient war come before me.
The twelfth century was closing, and SaIadin
at the head of $1,000 mounted troops was cry
ing: do for Jerusalem! Ho for all Palest1ner'
and before them everything went down, but
not without unparalleled resistance. In one
place $50 Christians were surrounded by many
thousands of furious Mohamnedans. For one
whole day the $50 held out against these
thousands. Tennysons six hundred" when
some one had blundered" were eclipsed by
these lS0 fighting for the Holy Cross. They
took hold the lances which had pierced them
with death wounds, and. pulling them out of
their own breasts and Sides hurled them back
again at the enemy.
On went the fight until all but one Christian
had fallen and he, mounted on the last horse
welded his battle-ax right and left till his
horse fell under the plunge of the javelins and
the sky gave up his life on the point of a score
of spears. But soon after, the last battle came.
History portrays il. poetry chants il, painting
colors il, and all ages admire that last struggle
to keep in possession the wooden cross on
which Jesus was said to have expired. 1t was
battle in which mingled the fury of devils
and the grandeur of angels. Thousands of
dead Christians this side. Thousands of
dead Mohammedans on the other side. The
battle hottest close around the wooden
cross upheld by the Bishop of Ptolemals. him
self wounded and dying. And when the Bishop
of Ptolemais dropped dead, the Bishop of
LYDIA seized the cross and again lifted it, car
rying it onward INTO a wilder and fercer hight,
and with sword against javelin and batte-ax
upon helmet. and piercing spear against spllnt-
erlng shield. horses and men tumbled into het-
erogeneous death.
ONLY A SEEMING DEFEAT
Now, the wooden cross, on which the armies
of Christians had kept their eye, begins to
waver. begins to descend. It fallsi and the
waIlng of the Christian host at its disappear
ance browns the huzzah of the victorious Mos
lens. But that standard of the cross only
seemed to fall 1t rides the sky to-day in tri-
umph. Five hundred million souls, the might
lest army of the ages, are following 1t, and
where that goes they will go, across the earth
and up the mighty sleeps of the heavens. In
the twelfth century it seemed to go down, but
in the nineteenth century it is the mightiest
symbol of glory and triumph. and means more
than any other standard, whether inscribed
with eagle, or ion or bear, or star, or crescent.
That which Saladin trampled on the plain of
Esdraelon. lift to-day for your marshalling.
The cross! The cross! The foot OF 1t planted
in the earth il saves, the top of It pointing to
the heavens TO which il will take you and the
outspread beam of it like outstretched arms
of invitation to all nations. kneel at its foot.