Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-11-22

| For months after Jacob had completed the
well people went by, and out of respect for
the deiuded old man put their hand over
their mouth to hide a sucker, and the well
remained as dry as the bottom of a kettle
| that had been hanging over the fire for three
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, and the
heavens opened their reservoir and the rainy
season poured its floods for six weeks AMI
there came maidens to the well with empty
pals and carried them away full, and the
camels thrust their mouths into the troughs
and were satisfied, and toe water was in the
well three feet deep, and fifty feet deep, aud
two hundred feet deep, and all the Bedouins
| OF the neighborhood and all the passersby
realized that Jacob was wise in having his
own well. My hearer, il is your part to dig
/ your own well, and it is Gods part to fill it.
You do your part and He will do His part
Much is said about good 1uckn but PEG
| 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
1 well dug and filed it viii be your turn to
1 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 Gerzim about eight hundred feet
high, on one side, aud on the other Mount
Eeal, the former called the Mount OF Bless
ing and the latter called the Mount of
! Cursing. At Joshuas command six tribes
, stood on Mount Garizim 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
t hundred thousand people on the plain cried
I - IL 4
| made the earth tremble. II do not believe
that" says some one, "for those mountain
| tops are two miles apart, and how could
voice be heard from top to topg' My answer
| is that while the tops are two miles apart,
ths 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 and
the acoustic qualities of this great natural
amphitheatre SO perfect that voices can rs
distinctly heard from mountain to mount
ain, as has been demonstrated by travellers
fifty timesin the last fifty years.
Can you imagine anything more thrilling
AMI sublime and overwhelming than what
transplred on those two mountain sides, and
in the plain between when the responsive
service went on and thousands of voices on
Mount Gerlzim cried, BLESSED shalt thou be
III the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the
fields, blessed shall be thy basket and thy
store" and then from Mount Ebal, thousands
that removeth his neighbor's landmark
| Cursel be he that malsetn the blind to wan
der out OF the way and then there rolled up
from all the spaces between the mountains
that one word with which the devout of earth
close their prayers and the glorifed of heaven
finish their doxologies, Amen! Amen"-
that scene only to be surpassed by tae
tines which are coming when the Churches
and the academies of music and the audi
forums of earth, no longer large enough to
hold the worshipers of God; the parks, the
mountain sides, the great natural amphithe-
atresof the valleys, shall be filled with the
outpouring populations of the earth and
mountain shall reply to mountain. as Mount
Gerizim to Mount Ebal and all the people
between shall ascribe riches and honor and
glory and dominion and victory to God the
Lamb, and there shall arise an amen like the
booming of the heavens mingling with tho
thunder of the seas.
On and on we ride until now We have
come to Shiloh, dead city on hill sur
rounded by rocks, sheep, goats. olive gardens
AM vineyards Here good Eli fell ba ekwarI
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 It'd
ings. than those parents who, their children
recreant and profigate live on with broken
:
and deeper plunge. There are fathers and
mothers here to-day to whom death would be
happy release because of their reereant sons.
And il 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 go to the telegraph Office and put
1t on the wing OF tue lightning that you have
turned from your evil ways? Before another
twenty four hours have pass ed take your feet
off the sad b ,arts of the old homestead.
Home to thy God, o prodigall
Many, many letters do / get in purport say
ing; My son is in your cities; we have not
| heard from him for some time; we fear some.
thing is wrong; hunt him up and say good
word to him his motheris almost crazy about
him; he is child of many prayers. But how
can hunt him up unless he be in this audi.
enceg Where are you, my boy2 On the main
floor, or on this platform, or in these boxes,
or in these great galleries? Where are your
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 foryou Or will you wait until Eli
falls back lifeiess, and the heart against which
you lay in infancy ceases to beat? What
story to tell in eternity that you killed herr
NV Godl Avert that cauastrophel
But l 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 "Nea-
dow of the Feast there was an annual ball,
where the maidens of the city amid caoping
cymbas and blare of tsumpets danced in
glee, upon which thousands of spectators
gazed But TO dance since the world stood ever
broke up in such a 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, " 10 hal
been hidden behind tie rocks and among the
trees, dashed upon the scene. They came
not to ln1ure or destroy, but wishing to set
up household of their own the women o,
their own land having been slain in battl",
by preconcerted arran cement each one of ths
two hundred Beniamites seized the ons
whom he chose for the queen of his homs
and carried her away TO large estate and
beautiful residence, for these two hundred
Benjamites had inherited the wealth Of
nation
As to-day near Shiloh we look at the
Meadow OF the Feast where the maidens
danced that night, AM at the moun7ain
gorge up which thu 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, AMI breath of orange blossoms,
and the roll Of the wedding march, marriage
Is soiemnized md 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 Him ''who setteth the
solitary in familiesm Side by side on ths
path of lfei Side by side in their gravesi
| Side by side in heaven!
But we must this ternoon our last day
before reaching Nazareth, pitch our tent on
the most famous battlefield of oil tima-ths
| plain OF Esdrae,on. What must have been thu
feelings 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 Inherited blood of flowers that drank the
! blood OF fallen armies. Hardly a foot of
ground that has not at some time been gull
! lied with war chariots or trampled with the
hooss OF cavalry.
1t is plain reaching from the Meditsr-
ranean to the Jordan. Upon 1t look down
| the mountains of Tabor and Gilboa and Car
mel Through its RACES at certain seasons
the river Kishon, which swept down the
ermies of Sisera the battle occurring in No
vemher when thereis almost always shower
D meteors SO that the stars in their courses
were said to have fought against Sisera.
| Through this plain drove Jehu, and the iron
chariots of the Canaanites, scythed at the
hubs of the wheels, hewing down their awful
swathes OF death, thousands in d minute.
! The Syrian armies, the Turkish armies, the
Egyptian armies again and again trampled
it There they career across it. David and
Joshua and Godfrey and Richard Coeur de
Lion and Baldwin 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
nageddon.
| To me the plain was the more absorbing
because of the desperate battles here and in