The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-11-27

BenlamiteS seized the one whom he
chose for the queen of bis home, and
carried her away to large estate and
beautiful residence, for these two hun
dred Benjamites had inherited the
wealth of a nation.
But we must this afternoon, our last
day before reaching Nazareth, pitch our
tent on the most famous battlefield Of
all time-the Plain Of Esdraelon. What
must have been the feelings OF the
Prince of Peace as lie crossed 1t on tho
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. Hard
ly a foot of the ground that has
not at some time been quilted
with war-chariots or trampled with
the hoofs of cavalry. 1t is a plain
reaching from the Mediterranean to
the Jordan. Upon it look down the
mountains of Tabor and Gilboa and
Carmel Through it RACES at certain
seasons the River Kishon, which sweps
down the armies of Sisera, the battle
occurring in November, when there is
almost always q shower of 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, hew-
ing down their awful swathes of death,
thousands in minute. The Syrian
armies, the Turkish armies the Egyp-
tian armies again and again trampled
it There they career acrossit David
and Joshua, and Godfrey, and Richard
Ceur de Lion, and Baldwin, and Sala-
dina 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.
mageddon.
To me the plain was the more absorb
ing because of the desperate battles
hero and in regions round in which the
Holy Cross, the very two pieces of wood
on which Jesus was supposed to have
been crucifed, was carried as a stand
ard at the head of the Christian host;
and that night, closing my eyes in my
tent on the Plain OF Esdraelon-for
there are some things we can see bet
ter with eyes shut than open-the
scenes of that ancient war came before
me. The twelfth century was clos,
ing, and Saladin at the head
of eighty thousand mounted troops,
was crying "Ho for Jerusa-
lem, Ho for all Palestine!" and
before them every thing went down, but
not without unparalleled resistance. In
one place one hundred and thirty Chris
tians were surrounded by many thou
~ Mnba Eny
one whole day the one hundred and
thirty held out against these thousands
Tennyson's "Six Hundred" when some
one had blundered," were eclipsed by
these one hundred and thirty fighting
for the Holy Cross. They took hold the
lances which had pierced them with
death wounds, and pulling them out OF
their own breasts and sides, hurled them
back again at the enemy. On went the
fight until all but one Christian had
fallen, and he, mounted on the last
horse, welded his battle axe right and
left till his horse fell under the plunge
of the juvelins. and the rider, making
the sign OF the cross toward the sky:
gave up his life on the point of score
of spears. But soon after, the last bat
chants it. painting colors it, and all
ages admire that last struggle to
keep in possession the wooden
cross on which Jesus was said
to have expired. 1t was battle
in which mingled the fury of devils and
the grandeur of angels. Thousands OF
dead Christians on this side. Thou
sands of dead Mohammedans on the
other side. The battle was hottest
close around the wooden cross upheld
by the Bishop of Ptolemai8, himself
wounded and dying. And when the
Bishop of Ptolemais dropped dead, the
Bishop of LYDIA seized the cross and
again lifted it carrying it onward into
wilder and fiercer fight and sword
against javelin, and battle-axe upon
helmet, and piercing spear against
splintering shield. Horses and men
tumbled into Heterogeneous death. Now
the wooden cross on which the armies
of Christians had kept their eye begins
to waver, begins to descend 1t fallsi
and the wailing of the Christian host at
its disappearance browns the huzzah of
the victorious Moslems.
But that standard of the cross only
seemed to fall. 1t rides the sky to-day
in triumph. Five hundred million souls,
the mightiest army of the ages, are
following it, and where that goes they
will go, across tho earth and up tha
mighty sleeps of the heavens. In the
twelfth century it seemed IT, go down,
but in the nineteenth century it Is
the mightiest symbol of glory and tri-
umph, and means more than any other
standard, whether inscribed with eagle,
or lion, or bear, or star, or crescent.
That which Saladin trampled on the
plain of Esdraelon lift to-iay for your
marshaling. The crossi The crossl The
foot of it planted in the earth it saves,
the top of it pointing to the heavens
to which it will take you, and the
outspread beam of it like outstretched
arms of invitation to all nations.
Kneel at its foot Lift your eye to its
victim. Swear eternal allegiance 20
its power. And as that mighty symbol
of pain and triumph is kept before us,
we will realize how Insignificant are
the little crosses we are called to bear.
and will the more cheerfuliy carry
them.
Must Jesus bear the cross alone
And all the world go freer
No; there's cross for every one
And there's a cross for me.