The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-11-17

God, o prodigal
Many, many letters do / get in purpor
saying: Ny son IS in your cities; we have
not heard from him for some time; we fear
something is wrong; hunt him up and
/ say a good word to him; his mother is
almost crazy about him; he is child OF
many prayers. But how eau hunt him up
unless he lie in this audience! Where are
you, my boyf Ga the main floor, or on this
platform, or in these boxes, or in these
great galIeriess Where are you! Lift your
| right hand. l 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, aud the heart against
which you lay in infancy ceases to beat!
/ " nat story 70 tell in eternity that YOU
/ killed herl Ny God. Avert that catss-
! trophel
/ But turn from this Shiloh of Els sud-
! den decease under bad news from his boys,
and find close by what is called the MEAD
ow Of the Feast" While this ancient city
was In the hight of its prosperity, on this
Meadow Of the Feast there was an ann ual
ball where the maldens of the city, amid
clapping cymbals and blare of trumpets,
danced In glee, upon which thousands Of
spectators gazed. But no dance since the
world stood ever broke up ia such a strange
way as the one the Bible describes. One
night. while b. the light of the lamps
and torches these gaieries went on, two
hundred Ben jamites, VINO had been hidden
behind the rocks and among the trees,
dashed upon the scene. They came not to
lnjure OF 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 two hundred 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 two hundred
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 Benjamites carried
their brides, we bethink ourselves of the
better land and the better times in which
we live, when such scenes are an impossi-
blllty, and amid orderly groups and with
prayer and bsnediction, aad breath of
orange blossoms and the roll OF the wedding
march, marriage is solemnized, and with
oath recorded in heaven, two immortals
start arm in arm on Journey, to last until
death do them part. Upon every such
marriage altar may there come the blessing
of h m who setteth the solitary in fami-
lies" Side by side on the path of life! Side
by side in their graves! Side by side in
heavenl
But we must this afternoon, our last day
before reaching Nazareth, pitch our tent
on the most famous battlefield of ell time
the plain OF Esdraelon. What must have
been the feelings of the Prince of Peace as
he crossed it on the wayfrom Jerusalem to
Nazareth Not flower blooms there but
has In its veins the Inherited blood of flow
ers 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, reaching from the
Mediterranean to the Jordan Upon it
look down the mountains of Tabor and
certain seasons the river Kishon,
which swept down the armies
of Sisera, the battle occurring
in November, when there is almost always
shower of meteors, so that 1.-THE stars in
their courses" we're said to have fought
against Sisera. Through this plain drove
Jehu, and the iron chariots of the Canaan
ties, scythed at the hubs of the wheels,
hewing down their awful swathes of death,
thousands in a minute. The Syrian armies.
the turkish armies, the Egyptian armies,
again and again trampled it. There they
career across it, David and Joshua aud God
frey and Richard Occur de Lion and Bald
win 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 Ar
mageddon.
To me tho plain was the 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 crucfed, was
carried as standard at the head of ths
christian host; and that night closing my
eyes In my tent OF the plaiu of Esdraelon-
for there are some things we can see better
with eyes shut than open-the scenes of that
ancient war came before ne. The twelfth
century was closing, and Saladin at the
head of eighty thousand mounted troops
was crying, "Ho for Jerusalem! Ho for
all Palestinew and before them everything
went down, but not without unparal-
leled resistance. In one place, 100 chris
tlans were surrounded by many thousands
OF furious Mohammedaus. For one whole
day the 80 held out against these thou
| sands. Tennyson's six hundred" when
some one had Numbered, nwere eclipsed by
these 100 fighting for the holy cross They
| took hold the lauces 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, and he, mounted on the last horse,
| welded his battle ak right and left
till bis 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 points of a sore of spears. But
soon after the last battle came. History
portrays it, poetry chants it, painting color:
it, and all ages admire that last struggle tc
keep in possession the wooden cross on which
Jesus was said to have expired, It was &
battle in which mingled the fury of devil
and the grandeur Of angels. Thousands Of
dead christians on this side. Thousands OF
dead Mohammedans on the other side. The
| battle was hottest close around the wooden
cross upheld by the bishop of Ptolemais, him.
self wounded and dying. And when the
Bishop of Ptolemais dropped dead, the
Bishop OF LYDIA seized the cross and agaiu
lifted it, carrying it onward into a wilder
aud tiercer fight, and sword against jave-
lin, andy battle-ax upon helmet, and pierre
ing spear against splintering shield.
Horses and mon tumbled into heterogeneous
death. Now the wooden cross on which the
armies of christians had kept their eye
begins to waver, begins to descend. Il
falls! and the waiing of the christian hos
at its disappearance browns the huzzah Of
the victorious Mosle,ns. But that standard
of the cross only seemed to fall 1t ride:
the sky to-day in triumph. Five
hundred million souls, the mightiest
army OF the ages, are following 1t, anc
where that goes they Will go. across the
earth and up the mighty Sleeps of the heav.
ems. IL the twelfth ce ltury it SO smed to e.
dow but fWxN -