Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-10-24

tnlOmDtu human race anu III ihN iuSA htls
when all your life and mine Will be summed
up, we viii find that the greatest blessing
we ever received came on tho wings
OF the black ravens of disaster Bless God
for trouble Bless God for sickness! Bless
God for persecution Bless God for poverty
You never heard OF any man or woman Of
great use 10 the world who had not had lots
OF trouble. The diamond must be cut. The
wheat must be threshed The black ravens
must fly. Who are these nearest the throne?
"These are they who came out OF great
tribulation and had their robes washed and
III ade white in the tlood Of the Lamb"
But look! Look what at four o'clock In
the afternoon bursts upon our vislon-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 n princess Ct Wallachia, who fell
here and was dangerously injured after
| recovery, spent a large amount OF money in
trying to make the road passable. Down
and down! till we saw the white tents
pitched for us by our muleteers 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 fin
gered by the musical performer, and blown
upon when pressed TO tine lips. As I'm an
other sermon, / have fully described that
scene, will only say that every day for
seven days, the ministers OF religion went
round the city OF Jericho, blowing upon
those rams horns and on the seventh day
without the roll OF n war-chariot, or the
stroke OF catapult, or the swing of IA bal
lista. crash! crash crash, went the walls
of that magnificent capital
On the evening of December the 9Th, we
walked amid the brick and mortar OF that
| al n ~ ~ 1 Cafn N tnUGalf. All
this done by poor music blest of God, for 1t
was not a harp or flute, or clapping
cymbal, or an organ played, at the sound OF
which the city surrendered to destruction,
but a rude instrument making rude music
blest OF God, to the demolition of that
wicked place which had for centuries defed
the Almighty. And | said, If this was by the
blessing of God on poor music, what NIGH
tier things could be done by the blessing OF
God on good music. skillful music, Gospel
music. IL all the good that has already
been done by music were subtracted from
the world, believe three-fourths OF its re-
| ligion would be gone. The lullabys Of
mo hers which keep sounding on, though
| the lips that sang them 40 years ago became
| ashes, the old hymns in log-cabin churches,
| and country citing houses, and psalms in
| Rouse's version in Scottish kinks, the an
| them i'm English cathedras, the roll of or
! gans that will never let Handel or Haydn
or Beethoven die, the thrum of harps, the
sweep Of the bow acr IS bass viols, the
songs OF Sabbath schools storming the
heavens, the doAology OF great assemalages
why, n thousand Jerichocs of sin have
| by them all been brought down.
Seated by the warmth of our camp fires
| that evening OF December 9Th amid the
bricks ana debris OF jericho, and thinking
what poor music has done and what mi III
| tier things could be done by the blessing of
| God on good music, | aid To myself: Min
! .steIs have been doing "A grand work and
| sermons have been blessed, but would ii not
| be well for us TO put more emphasis on
music! oh. Tor a campa gn OF Old Hun
| dred! Oh. for brA ade OF Mount Psgahs,
| Oh for a caya.ry charge of Carnations.
! oh, for an amy OF Antiochs and ~. Mar
| tins and Ariels! Oh, for enough orchestral
! ba.ons lifted, TO marshal all nations! As
Jericho was surrounded by poor music for
| seven days and was conquered, 50 let our
| earth be surrounded for seven days by good
| Gospel music. and the round planet will all
| be taken for God. Not wall OF opposition,
| not a throne OF tyranny, not "A palace of
| sin, not an enterprise Of unrighteousness
| could stand the mighty throb OF such at
| mospheric pulsation. Music! 1t sounded
| at the laying of creations cornerstone
when the morning stars sang together.
| Music! 1t will be the last reverberation,
when the arch-angels trumpet sh all wake
the dead. Muslc Let its full power be
! now tested TO comfort and bless and arouse
| and save.
While our evening meal is being prepared
| In the tents. we walk out for moment TO
the Fountain of Elisha" the one into which
| the prophet threw the salt, because the
waters were poisonous and bitter. and 10!
| they became sweet and healthy; and ever
| since, with gurgie and laughter they have
| rushed down the hill. and leapCd from the
rocks, the only cheerful object in all that
| region being these waters.
And there was white marble amid green
| groves of palm and balsam; cold stone
| warmed with sculpturcd foliage; hard pill
| lars cut into soft lace; lllads and Odysseys
| in GRANTEES basalt Jet as the night mount
ed by carbuncle flaming a the morning; up
| holstery dyed as though dipped In the blood
| OF hattle-helds; robes encrusted with dia-
mond; mosalcs white as seafoam flashed
on by auroras: gayeties which the sun saw
| by day, rivaled by revels the moon saw by
| night; blasphemy built against the sky;
| ceilings stellar as the midnight heavens;
grandeurs turretted, archivolted and inter
| columnar; wickedncss so appalling that es-
tablished vocabulary fails, and we must
| make an adjective and call IL lerodic.
| The region round about the city walls
seemed TO me white with cotton such as
Thenius describes ms once growing there,
| and sweet with sugar cane, and luscious
| wi h orange and figs and pomegrantes, and
| redolent with such fora as can only grow
where tropical sun kisses the earth. And
| the hour came back TO me when in the
midst of all that splendor Herod died. COM
| manding his sister Salome Immediately
| after his death TO secure the assassination
of all the chief Jews whom he had brought
to the city and shut nip in circus for that
purpose, and the news came TO the audience
! in the theatre as some one took the stage
! and announced TO the excited multitude
''Herod is dead Herod Is dead" Then in
my dream all the pomp of Jericho vanished
| and gloom was added to gloom. and desola :
ton TO desolation, and woe to woe, until
perhaps the ripping waters OF the Fountain
of FL sha suggesting il - rs sounds will
| some ines give direction to dream-I
! thought that the waters of Chrlst's salvation
and the fountains "open for sin and un-
| cleanness,' were rolling through that plain
| and rolling across that continent, and roll
| Ing round the earth, until on either side OF
| their banks all the thorns became flowers,
and all the deserts gardens, and all the
novels mansions, and all the funerals
bridal professions and all the blood OF war
| was turned into dahlias. and all the groans
became anthems, and Dante's "Inferno "
become Dantes "Divina Commedia," and
| Paradise Lost" was submerged by " Par
adise Regained, and tears became crystals,
and cruel swords came out OF foundries
gllstening plJup hsharcs. and, In my dream,
at the blast of n trumpet the Frustrated
walls of Jericho rose again. And some one