Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1891-01-31

least ''Ohl the grandeur OF beishazzars
feastI" you would have said; but you look in
at the close of the banquet and your blood
curdles with horror. The King of Terrors
has there ghastlier banquet; human blood
is the wine, and dying groans are the music.
Sin has made itself king in the earth. 1t
has crowned itself. 1t has spread banquet
It invites all the world to come to it. It has
hung in its banqueting hall the spoiIs of all
kingdoms and the banners of all nations. 1t
has gathered from all music 1t has strewn
from its wealth the tables and the floors and
arches. And yet how often is that banquet
broken up, and how horrible is its endi
Ever and anon there is handwriting on the
wall A king falls. A great culprit is ar
rested. The knees Of wickedness knocked to-
gether. Gods Judgment, ike an armed host,
breaks in upon the banquet. and that night
is Belshazzar, the king of the Chaideans
slain.
Here is young man who says: 81 cannot
see why they make such fuss about the in
toxicating cup. Why, it is celebrating 1t
makes me feel well. ! can talk better, think
better, feel better. cannot ses why people
have such prejudice against it." A few
years pass ON. and he wakes up and finds
himself in the clutches of an evil habit
which be tries to break, but cannot; and he
cries out: 'Oh. Lord God, help mew 1t
seems as though God would not bear his
prayer, and in an agony of body and soul he
stngeth like an ADDER How bright it was
ut the starti How black it was al the last
Here is a man who begins to read corrupt
novels. They are so charming says he,
81 will go out and see for myself whether all
these things are So" He opens the gate Of
q sinful life. He GOES in. A sinful sprite
meets him with her wand. She waves her
wand. and it is all enchantment. Why, it
seams as if the angels OF God had poured out
phials of perfume in the atmosphere. As he
walks on he finds the hills becoming more
radiant with foliage and the ravines more
resonant with the falling water. OH what
a charming landscape he seesl But that
sinful sprite with her wand meets him again;
but now she reverses the wand, and all the
enchantment is gone The cup Is full OF
poison. The fruit turns to ashes.
All the leaves of the bower are forked
tongues of Kissing serpents. The flowing
fountains fall back in a dead pool, stenchful
with corruption. The Turing songs become
laughter. Lost spirits gather about him and
feel for his heart and beckon him on with
''Hail, brother Hail, blasted spirit, hailr' Hs
tries to get out. He comes to the front door
where he entered, and tries to push it back,
but the door turns against him, and In the
jar of that shutting door he hears the words,
''This night is Belshazzar, the king of Chal-
deans, slain" Sin may open bright as thu
morning. 1t ends dark as the night
learn further from this subject that Death
sometimes breaks in upon a banquet. Why
did he not go down to the prisons in Babylon?
There were people there that would like to
have died. | suppose there were men and
women in torture in that city who would
have welcomed Death But he comes to the
palace and just at the time when the mirth
Is dashing to the tip-top pitch Death breaks
in at the banquet. We have often seen the
same thing illustrated. Here is young man
just come from college. He is kind. He is
3 H. l. nth 10 Ha 10 sl0
By one spring he may bound to heights
toward which many men have been strug-
Cling for years. A profession opens before
him. He is established in the law. His
friends cheer him. Eminent men encourage
him.
After a while you may see him standing
in the United States senate, or moving
popular assembage by his eloquence as
4 trees are moved in whirlwiud Some night
he retires early. A fever is on hun. Delirium,
like reckless charioteer seizes the reins Of
his intellect. Father and mother stand by
and see the tides of his life going out to tbs
great ocean. The banquet is coming TO an
end. The lights of thought and mirth and
eloQuence are being extin yuished. The gar
lands are suatched from the brow. The
vision is gone. Dsath at the banquet!
We saw the same thing on a larger scale
illustrated at the last war in this country.
Our whole nation had been sitting at q ma
tional hsnquet-north south, east and west.
What grain was there but we grew it on our
hills. What invention was there but our
rivers must turn the new wheel and rattle
the strange shuttle. What warm furs but
our traders must bring them from the Arc
tic. What fish but our nets must sweep
them for the markets What music but it
must sing in our halls. What eloquenee but
it must speak in our senates. Ho! to the ma
tional banquet. reaching from mountain to
mountain, and from sea to seal To prepare
that banquet the sheepfolas and the aviarieS
of the country sent their best treasures The
orchards piled up on the table their sweetest
fruits. The presses burst out with new wines.
To sit at that table came the yeomanry of
! sw Hampshire, and the luInberman OF
hlaine, and the Carolinian from the rice
fields, and the western emigrant from the
pines of Oregon, and we were all brothers
brothers at a banquet. Suddenly the feast
ended.
Whatmean those mounds thrown IN at
Chickamauga, Shiloh, Atlanta, Gettysburg,
South Mountain? What meant those golden
grain fields turned into pasturing ground
for cavalry horses? What meant the corn
fields quilted with the wheels of the heavy
supply train? Why those rivers of tears
those lakes of blood? God was angry Jus
tice must come. A handwriting on the wall
The nation had been weighed and found
wanting. Darknessl Darknessi Woe to
the north Woe to the SOUTH Woe to the
east Woe to the west! Death at the BAN
quet!
| have also to learn from the subject that
/ the destruction of the vicious. and of those
/ who despise God, will be very sudden. The
wave Of mirth had dashed to the highest
1 point when that Assyrian army broke
| through. 1t was unexpected. Suddenly,
almost always, comes the doom of those
who despise God aud defy the laws of men.
How was it at the deluge? Do you suppose
urNA thrptt eVh ,,y-fhe Oh
that people for days before were sure it was
coming? No; l suppose the morning was
bright, that calmueSs broode1 on the waters;
that beauty sat enthrone1 on the hills, when
suddenly the heavens burst. and the mount
ans sank like anchors into the sea that
dashed clear over the Andes and the
di,nalayas.
The Red Sea was divided. The Egyptians
tried TO cross it. There could be no danger.
The lSraelites had Just gone through. Where
| they had gone, why not the Egyptians? Obi
it was such beautiful walking place!
pavement OF tinged shells and pearls; and on
either side two great walls OF water-solid.
There can be no danger. Forward great
hosts of the Egyptians? Clap the cymbais.
and blow the trumpets of victory After
them We will catch them yet, and they
siall be destroyed. But the walls begin to
tremble. They rock They fall! The rush
I ing waters The shrek of drowning men!
the shore! The strewins of the great host
on the bottom of the sea, or pitched by the
angry wave on the beach-a battered, bruised
and loathsome wreck Suddenly destruction
came 0ne-half hour before they could not
have believed it. Destroyed, and without
remedy.
am just setting forth a fact. which you
have noticed as well as |. Ananias comes to
the apostle. The apostle SAYS "Did you
sell the land for so much" He says. eyes"
1t was a lie. Dead as quick as that Sap
phira, his wife, comes in. Did you sell the
land for so muchs" YES" It was a lie;
and quick as that she was dead. Gods judg-
ments are upon those who despise Him and
DEFY Him. They come suddenly.
The destroying angel went through Egypt.
Do you suppose that any of the people knew
that he was comings Did they hear the flap
of his great wingg No! no! Suddenly, I'M
expectedly, he came.
Skilled sportsmen do not like to shoot
bird standing on sprig near by. If they
are skilled they pride themselves on taking
it on the wing, and they wait till it starts.
/ Death is ar old sportsman and he loves to
take men flying under the very sun. He
loves to take them on the wing.
Are there any here who are unprepared for
the eternal world? Are there any here who
have been living without God and without
hope? Let me say to you that you had better
accept of the Lord Jesus Christ, lest sud
denly your last chance be gone. The lungs
will cease to breathe, the heart will stop.
The time will come when you shall go no
more to tue Office, or to the store, or to the
shop Nothing will be left but Death and
Judgment and Eternity Oh flee to God
this hourl If there be one in this presence
who has wandered far away from Christ,