Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1890-11-21

per cent. OF 1t, or nifty dollars, III DeneNO-
lence and the other fifty in beginning to
dig your own well. Or if you have thou.
sand dollars n year spend eight hundred
dollars of it in living, ten per cent, or one
hundred dollars in benevolence and the re-
manning one hundred in beginning TO iigy.ur
own we'll The largest bird that ever flew
through the air was Matched out OF one egs,
and the greatest estate was brOoded out Of
one dollar.
suppose when Jacob began to dig this
well. on whose curb we are now seated this
December noon,it was dry season then as
now, and some one comes up and says:
"Now JACOB suppose you get the well fifty
feet deep or two hundred feet deep and there
should be no water to fill it, would you not
feel sillygn People passing along the road
and looking down from Mount Gerizim or
Mount Ebal near by would laugh and say:
THAT is Jacobs well a great hole in the
rock. illustrating the mans folly" jacob
replied: There never has been well in
Palestine or any other country that oncs
thoroughly dug was not sooner or later filed
from the clouds, and this will be no excep-
ton"
For months after jacob had completed tho
we'll people went by, and out of respect for
the deluded old man put their hand over
their mouth to hide n smoker, and the well
remained as dry as the bottom of a kettle
that had been hanging over the fire for thres
hours. But one day the sun was drawing
water, and the wind got round TO the east
and it began to drizzle, and then great drops
splashed all over the well curb aud the
heavens opened their reservoir and the rainy
season poured its floods for six weeks and
there came maidens to the well VITA empty
pals and carried them away full, and the
camels thrust their mouths into the troughs
and were satisfied, and the water was in the
well three feet deep, and fifty feet deep, and
two hundred feet deep, and all the Beiouins
OF the reighborhoOd and all the passersby
realized that Jacob was wise in having his
own we'll. Ny hearer it is your part to dig
your own well, ana it is Gods part to fiji it,
You do your part and He will do His part.
Much is said about good luck" but pso-
pie who are industrious and self denying al
most always have good luck You can af-
ford to be laughed at because of your appli-
cation and economy. for when you get your
well dug and filled it will be your turn to
laugh.
But look up from this famous well and
see two mountains and the plain between
them, on which was gathered the largest
religious audience that ever assembled on
earth, about five hundred thousand people
Mount Gerizim, about eight hundred feot
high. on one side and on the other Mount
Ebal, the former called the Mount Of Bless
ing and the latter called the Mount OF
Cursing. At JoShuas command six tribes
stood on Mount Gerizim and read the
blessings for keeping the law, and six
tribes stood on Mount Ebal reading the.
curses for breaking the law. while the five
hundred thousand people on the plain cried
Amen with an emphasis that must have
made the earth tremble 81 do not believe
that says some one, "for those mountain
tops are two miles apart, and how could
voice be heard from top TO top" Ny answer
is that while the tops are two miles apart
the bases of the mountains are only half a
mile apart, and the tribes stood on the sides
OF the mountains, and the air is so clear AMI
the acoustic qualities of this great natural
amphitheatre so perfect that voices can he
distinctly heard from mountain to mount
ain, as has been demonstrated by travellers
fifty times in the last fifty years.
Can you imagine anything more thrilling
and sublime and overwhelming than what
transpred on those two mountain sides. and
in the plain between, when the responsive
service went on and thousands Of voices OH
Mount Gerizim cried, BLESSED shalt thou be
in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in tn
fields, blessed shall be thy BASKET and thy
store and then from Mount E)al, thousands
Of voices responde ;, crying: "Cursei he he
that removeth his neighbours Landmark,
Cursed be he that maketn the blind % wan
der out OF the way and then there rolled up
from all the spaces between the mountains
that one word with which the deyoui o. eartl
close their prayers AMI the gioriHst Of heaven
finish their doxolOgies, amen Amen. -
that scene only to 10 surpassed by tie
times which are coming, when the churches
q 1T d..
forums Of earth, no longer large enough T.
hold the worshipers OF Coll the PARKS, the
mountain sides, the great natural amp1ithc-
aires Of the valleys shall be filiei with the
outpouring populations OF the earth an
mountain shall reply TO mountain, As Mount
Gerizim u Mount EOal, AMI oil tae people
between shall ascribe riches and honor AMI
glory and dominion and victory TO Col the
Lamb. and there shall arise an amen like the
booming OF the heavens mingiing with the
thunder of the seas
On and on we ride, until now we have
come to Shiloh, a dead city on a hill sur
rounded By rocks. sheen. coats. CO Gardens
and vineyards. Here good Eli fell b1 kwari
and broke his meek, AMI lay dea az the news
from his bad boys. Phineas and Hophnl: and
life is not worth living after ones c1i.dren
have turned out badly, and more fortunate
was I'll. Instantly "a us w fNt otA-A 80
ings. than those parents who, their children
recreant and pro6igate, live on with broken
hearts to see them going down into dee9e.
and deeper plunge. There are father, and
mothers here to-day TO whom death would be
happy release because OF their rscreant sons.
And il there be Tecreant sons here present
and your parents be far away, why not now
your head in repentance. and al the close OF
this service goto the telegraph Office AMI put
it on the wing OF tie lightning that you nave
turned from your evil ways Before another
twenty-four hours have pas: ed take your feet
off the sad hearts Of the old honc-.saI.
Home to thy God, . prodigal.
Many, many letters 10 get IN purport say
ing: My son is in your cities; we nave not
heard from him fOr some time. " Year some
thing is wrong; hunt him up and say good
word to him his mother is almost crazy about
him: he is a child of many prayers. But now
can hunt him up unless he be in this aud =
enceg Where are you, my boy. On the man
floor or on this platform, or in these boxes.
or in these great galleriesf Where are you?
Lift your right hand. have 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 En-
falls back lifeless and the heart against which
YOU lay in infancy ceases to beatf What a
story to tell IN eternity tnaJ you klllth hci Z
NV God Avert that catastrophe
But I turn from this Shiloh of Ellis sud-
den 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 ''Mea-
dow of the Feast there was an annual bali,
where the maidens Of the city amid clapping
cymbals and a blare of trumpefs danced in
glee, upon which thousands of spectators
gazed Butno dance since the world stood ever
broke up in such q strange way as the one the
Bible describes. One night while by the
light Of the lamps and torches these gayieties
went on, two hundred Beniamites. WHO had
been hidden behind the rocks and among the
trees, dashed upon the scene. They came
not to iniure or destroy, but wishing TO set
up household Of their own. the women o.
their own land having been slain in battle,
by pTeconcerted arrangement each one of the
two hundred Benjamites seized the one
whom he chose for the queen Of his homo
and carried her away 10 large estate and
beautiful residence, for These two hundred
Beniamites had inherited the wealth OF
nation.
As today 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
b,.idas va bathinl ourselves of the better