The morning news., 1891-10-12

has so long clutched the sword in Christian
conflict be cannot drop 1t. "His hand clave
unto the sword"
had in my parish in Philadelphia a very
aged man who in his early life had been the
companion and adviser OF the early Presi
de0ts, Madison and Monroe. He had welded
vast influence, but only knew him as a
very aged man. The most remarkable thing
about him was his ardor Or.Christ. When
he could not stand up in the meetings with
ou5 proppiug, he would throw his arm
around pillar of the church, aud though
his mind was partially gone, his love for
/ Christ was so great that all
were in deep respect and profound
a imiratiou, and were moved when
be spoke. l was called to see him
die | entered the room, and be said: "Mr.
/ Talmage, l cannot speak 10 you now" lie
was in very pleasant dehrlum, as be
imagined be had an audience before him.
/ He said: Il must tell these people to come
| to Christ and prepare for heaven" And
| then IN this pleasant deliTium, both arms
/ lifted, this octogenarian preached Christ
and told of the glories of the world to come.
There, lying on his dying pillow, his dying
hand clsve to mis- sword.
o, if there ever was any one who had
right TO retire from the conflict it was old
Joshua. Soldiers come back from battle
| have the names of the battles on their flags,
showing where they distinguished them
selves, and it is a very appropriate iu-
scriptioa. Look at the flag of old General
Josnua. On it, Jericho, Gibeon. Hazar
| City OF Al, and instead of the stars sprinkled
on the flag, the sun ana the moon which
| stood still. There he is a hundred and ten
year old. He is lying fiat on his back, but
ne is preaching. His dying words are a
| battle-charge against idolatry, aad a rally
| ing cry for the Lord of Hosts as ne says:
Behold, this day l go the way of all the
lTA I. =. .l-l f.,ffH 4 fg
promise concerning Israel" His dying
| hand clave unto the sword.
There is the headless body of Paul on the
road to Ostea. His great brain and MS great
heart have been severed. The eimwood
rods had stung him fearfully. When the
corn ship broke he swan ashore, coming
up drenched with the brine. Every day
since that day when the horse reared under
MIN in the suburbs of Damascus, as the
super atural light fell. down to this day
when he is sixty-eight years OF age and old
and decrepit from the prison Cell of the
Namertine, he has been outrageously
treated, and he is waiting to die. How does
J be spend his last hours! Telling the world
how badly he feels, and describing the rheu-
lnatisIn that he got in prison, the rheu-
matism afflicLiug his limbs, or the neur lgs
piercing his { mples. or the thirst THAI
fevers ais tongus9 0. no. His last words
are the battle-s1out for Christendom: II
am now ready to be offered, and the tlme of
my departure is at hand; have fought the
good fig tn And so his dying hand clave
unto the sword.
1t was in the front room on the second
floor that my father lay a-dying. 1t was
Saturday morning. four O'clock. Just three
years before that day, my mother
had left him for the skies. and he
had been home>sick to join her
company He was eightY-thres years
of age. Miaisters If the gospel came in to
comfort him, but he comforted them. How
wonderf lly the words sounded out from
bis dyi G pillow: 81 have been young and
now am Id, yet have ! never seen the
righteous forsaksn, or his seed beggin ?
bread" They bathed his brow. and they
| bathed his hands, and they bathed his feet,
and they succeeded in straig ghtening out he
feet; but they did not succeed in bathing
| open the hand so it would stay open. They
hathed the hand open, but it came shut.
They bathed it open again, out it came
shut. What was the matter with the
| thumb and the fingers OF that old handl
Ahl it had so long clutched the sword of
Christian coafict that ''hls hand clave unto
the sword
preach this sermon as tonic. l want
you to hold the truth with ineradicable
grip, and want you to strike so hard for
God that il will react, and while you take
the sword, the sword will take you.
You noticed that the officers of the north
ern army few years ago assembled at
| Denver, and you noticed that that the Off
GERS OF the southern army assembled at
| Lexington. Soldiers coming together are
very apt to recount their experiences and
| to show their scars. Here is a soldier who
pulls up his sleeve, and says, "There, was
wounded in the arm,n and shows the scar.
And another soldier pulls own his collar,
| II Id =. 49,
neck" And another soldier says, ~ have
had no use of that limb since the gunshot
| fracture" . my friends, when the battle
of life Is over, and the resurrection has come,
| and our bodies rise from the dead, will
! we have on us any scars of bravery for
Code Christ will be there all covered with
scars. Scars on the brow, scars on tue
| feet, scars all over the heart won in the
battle OF redemption. Aud all heaven will
sob aloud with emotion as they look at
| those scars Ignatius will be there and he
| will point out the place where the tooth
and the paw OF the lion seized him in the
| Coliseum, and John Huss will be there, and
he will snow where the coal first scorched
| the foot on that day when his spirit took
wing OF flame from Constance. MMillan,
and Campbell, and Freeman, American
| missionaries in India, will be there--the
men who with their wives and children went
down in the awful massacre at Cawnpore,
and they Will show where the daggers of
the Sepoys struck then The Waldenses
will be there, aud they will show where
| their bones were broken on that day when
the Piedmontese soldiery pitched them over
the rocks. And there will be those there
who took care of the sick and who looked
after the poor, and they will have evidence
of earthly exhaustion. And Christ, with
his Scared hand waving over the SCARED
multitude, will Jay: "You suffered with
me on earth; now be glorified with me ir
heaven" And thea the great organs o.
eternity will take up the chant, aud St
John will play: These are they who came
out of great tribulation and had their robe
washed and made white i'll the blood of tht
Lamb"
But what will your chagrin and mine b.
, if it shall be told that day on the streets Of
heaven that on earth we shrank back from
all toll and sacrifice and hardship? N
! scars to show the heavenly soldiery. Not s.
much as one ridge on the palm OF the haut
TO show that just once in the battle for Go,
ana the truth, we just once grasped tn
sword 30 firmly, and struck so hard tina
3 the sword and the hand stuck together, ant
the hand cleve to the sword. o, my Lort
/ Jesus, rouse us to thy service.
, Thy saints in all this glorious var
! SnaN conquer though they die
They see the triumph from 9fsr
I And seize it with the eye.
When that iustrious day shall Viss,
And oil thy armies shine
o In robes of victory through the skies,
= The glory shall be thine.
Il