Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1890-11-01


Black wings of crucifxion over Calvary;
| bringing redemption for the world
| Black wings of American revolution,
bringing free institutions to continent
Black wings of American civil war,
bringing unification and solidarity to the
republic. Black wings of the Judgment
day, bringing resurrection to an en-
! tombed human race. 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
come out Of great tribulation. and had
/ their robes washed and made white in
the blood of the Lamb
| But look. Look what at 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 a place where the horses not SO
much walk as slide up on their launches,
and we all dismount, for the steep de-
scent is simply terrific. 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
''ram's horn 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 war chariot or the
stroke Of catapult, OF the swing of a
ballista, crash! crash crash! went the
walls of that magnificent capital.
On the evening of December 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 harp or flute or clap
| ping cymbal Or all organ played, at the
sound of which the city surrendered to
destruction, but rude instrument MAX
ing rude music blest of God, to the de-
molition of that wicked place which had
for centuries defed the Almighty. And
| said, if all this was by the bl ossing OF
God on poor music, what mightier things
could be done by the blessing of God on
good music. The lullabys 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 country 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 yiols, the song of Sabbath
| schools storming the heavens, the dOX-
/ Ology of great assembages-Why, a thou
/ sand Jerichos Of sin have by them all
| been brought down.
| While our evening meal is being pre-
/ pared in the tents we walk out for q
| moment to the ''FOuntain of Elisha the
! one into which the prophet threw the salt
because the waters We're poisonous and
! bitter.
Now on this plain of Jericho the sun
! is setting, making the mountains look
/ like balustradeS and battlementS OF am
Der and maroon and gold; and the moon,
! just above the crests, seems to be a win
| dow of Heaven through which immortals
might be looking down upon the scene.
| had dream that night never to be
! forgotten, that dream amid the complete
| ruins of Jericho. Its past grandeur re-
turned, and l saw the city as it was when
| Mark Antony gave it to Cleopatra and
| Herod bought it from her. And | heard
| the hoofs Of it's swift steeds, and the
! rumbling OF its chariots and the shouts
! of excited spectators in its amphitheatre.
/ The region round about the city walls
| seemed to me white with cotton such as
! Thenius describes as once grOwingthere,
and sweet with sugar cane and luscious
with orange and figs and pomegranates,
! ana ItuOlHHb Will Slltil lloltt GS CdH OHlS
! grow where Il tropical sun kisses the
earth. And the hour came back to me
when in the midst Of all that Splendor
/ Herod died, commanding 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 up in a circus for that purpose,
! and the news came to the audience III
/ the theater as some one took the stage
/ and announced to the excited multitude:
''Herod is dead. lierOd is dead.''
! Then in my dream all the pomp of Jer-
/ icho vanished and gloom was added to
! gloom, and desolation to desolation, and
woe to woe, until perhaps the ripping
/ waters OF the fountain of Elisha suggest
ing t-as sounds will sometimes give di-
recton to Il dream-I thought that the
waters of Christ's salvation and the
/ fountains ''open for sin and unclean-
ness were rolling through that plain
! and rolling across that continent. and
/ rolling round the earth, until on either
+ side of their banks all the thorns be-
| came flowers, and III my dream at the
! blast of a trumpet the Frustrated walls
/ of Jericho rose again.
| i realized it was only a dream, but o
! dream which shall become glorious
reality as surely as God is true and
| Christ's Gospel is the worlds Catholicon.
| '.Glory be to the father, and to the Son.
and to the Holy Ghost, us it was in the
| beginning, is now, and ever shall be.
/ world without end. Amen