News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-10-23

which was lost First to the forlorn
one came the tears of repentance, and
then the smile, as though she had be-
gun to hope for the pardon OF MN VINO
came to save to the armost linen,
inst before she Dreamed her last, she
said to the angel of mercy bending
over her pillow, Would you KISS
meg" Il will said the Christian
woman. as she put upon her cheek the
last saIutation before in the heavenly
world, | think. God gave her the wei
coming kiss. That was religion Yes,
that was religion. Good Samarltans
along every street and along every
road, as well as this one on the road TO
Jericho.
THE RAVENS OF CHERITH.
But our procession of sightseers is
again in line, and here we pass through |
a deep ravine, and cry to the drago-
man, David, what place do you call
thisg' and he replied, This is the
brook Cherith, where Elijah was fed by
the ravens" And in that answer he
overthrow my life long notions OF the
place where Elijah was waited on by
the black servants of the sky. A brook
to me had meant a slight depression OF
ground and a stream fordable, and
perhaps fifteen feet wide. But here
was a chasm that an earthquake must
have scooped out with it's biggest shovel
or split with its mightiest battle AK
Six hundred feet deep is it, and the
brook Cherith is river, which, when
in full force, is a silver wedge, splitting
the mountains into precipices. The
feathered descendants of Elijah's ravens
still wing their way across this ravlne,
but are not like the crows we supposed
them to be. They are as large as eagles,
and one of them could carry in its beak
and clinched claw at once enough food
for half dozen Elijahs. No thanks
I to the ravens; they are carnlvorous'
and would rather have picked out the
eyes of Elijah, whom they found at
| the mouth of his cave on the side OF
| Cherith waiting for his breakfast, hav-
| ing drunk his morning beverage from
! the rushing stream beneath, than have
! been his buffers and purveyors.
But God compelled them, as he al
WAYS has compelled and always will
compel black and cruel and overshad-
/ owing providences to carry help to his
/ children if they only have faith enough
4 to catch the blessing as it drops from
| the seeming adversely, the greatest
4 blessing always coming not with white
wings but black wings. Black wings
4 of conviction, bringing pardon to the
sinner. Black wings of crucifiXion
over Calvary, bringing redemption for
I the world. Black wings of American
revolution bringing free institutions to
4 a continent Black wings of American
civil war, bringing unification and soil
darity to the republic. Black wings of
4 the Judgment day, bringing resurrec-
/ ton to an entombed human race. And
1 in the last day, when all your life and
/ mine will be summed up, we will find
| that the greatest blessings we ever re-
\ ceived came on the wings of the black
ravens of disaster. Bless God for trou-
blel Bless God for sicl>nessl Bless
| God for persecution! Bless God for
poverty You never heard of any man
| or woman of great use to the world
who had not had lots of trouble. The
| diamond must be cut; the wheat
must be threshold; the black ravens
must fly. Who are these nearest the
throne? These are they who come out
of great tribulation, and had their
robes washed and made white in the
blood of the Lamb"
FIRST VIEW OF JORDAN.
But lookl Look what at 4 o'clock
in the afternoon bursts upon our vision
the plain of Jericho, and the valley
of Jordan, and the Dead Sea- We
have come to place where the horses
not so much walk as slide up on their
launches, and we all dismount, for the
steep descent is simply terrific, though
princess of Wallachia who fell here
and was dangerously wounded, after
recovery spent large amount of
money in trying to make the road passa-
BILE Down and down. till we saw the
white tents pitched for us by our mule
teers amid the ruins of ancient Jericho,
which fell at the sound of poor music
played on rams horn" that ancient
instrument which, taken from the head
of the leader of the flock of sheep, is
perforated and prepared to be fingered
by the musical performer, and blown
upon when pressed to the lips. As in
another sermon l have fully described |
that scene, will only say that every
day for seven days the ministers of re-
ligion went round the city of Jericho |
blowing upon those rams horns, and |
on the seventh day, without the roll of |
a war chariot. or the stroke of a cata-
putt, or the swing of ballista, crash! |
crashl crashl went the walls of that |
magnificent capital.
On the evening of Dec. 6 we walked |
amid the brick and mortar of that |
shattered city, and | said to myself: |
All this done by poor music blest |
of God; for it was not a harp or a
flute or clapping cymbal or an organ
played, at the sound of which the city |
surrendered to destruction, but rude |
instrument making rude music blest of |
God, to the demolition of that wicked |
place which had for centuries defied |
the Almighty. And l said, if all this
was by the blessing of God on poor
music, what mightier things could be
done by the blessing of God on good |
music, skillful music, Gospel music |
If all the good that has already been |
done by music were subtracted from
the world, | believe three -fourths of |
its religion would be gone. The lula
bys of mothers which keep sounding
on, though the lips that sang them |
forty years ago became ashes; the old |
hymns in log cabin churches and coun-
try meeting houses and psalms in
Rouse's version in Scotch kinks; the
anthem in English cathedrals; the roll |
of organs that will never let Handel or
Haydn or Beethoven die; the thrum of
harps, the sweep of the bow across
bass viols, the song of Sabbath schools
storming the heavens, the doxology of
great assemblages-why, "a thousand t
Jerichos of sin have by them all been
brought down.
THE POWER OF MUSIC,
Seated by the warmth of our camp
fires that evening of Dec. 6, amid the
bricks and debris of Jericho, and think
ing what poor music has done, and
what mightier things could be accom-
Dlisbed by the BLESSINGS of God On GOOD