Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-10-23

meeting. or occasional pulpit, or a sicl
room where there is some one to be comfort
ed, and it is the same old ring to his voice
and the same old story Of pardon and peace
and Christ and heaven. His hand has SC
long clutched the sword in Christian conflict
he cannot drop it. His hand clave unto
the sword"
had in nv parish in PHILADELPHIA a very
aged man. who in his early life had been the
companion d adviser of the early Presi-
dents, Maa.>on and Monroe. He had
welded vast influence. but I only knew him
as very aged man. The most remarkable
thing about him was his ardor for Christ.
When he could not stand up in the meeting
without propping he would throw his arms
around a pillar Of the church. and though
his mind was partially gone his love for
| Christ was great that all were in deep re-
spect and profound admiration, and were
moved when he spoke. l was called to see
him die. l entered the room, and he said,
Mr.. Talmage, cannot speak to YOU now"
He was in very pleasant delirium, as he
| imagined he had audience before him.
He said, II must tell these people to come
to Christ and prepare for heaven" And
then In this pleasant delirium, 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 clave to his sword
Oh, If there ever was anyone 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
I showing where they distinguished them
| selves, and it is a very appropriate inscrip-
ton. Look at the flag of old General
Joshua! On it Jericho, Gideon, Hazar, City
! Of Al and instead of the stars sprinkled on
the flag the sun and the moon which stood
still. There he is, one hundred and ten years
old. He is lying fiat on his back but he is
preaching. His dying words are battle
charge against idolatry and rallying cry
| for the Lord of Hosts as he says, "Behold,
God hath not failed to fulfill his promise
concerning Israel" His dying hand clave
unto the sword.
There is tho headless body of Paul on the
road to Ostea. His great brain and his great
heart have been severed The elmwood rods
had stung him fearfully. When the corn
ship broke up he swan ashore, coming up
drenched with the brine. Every day since
that day when the horse reared under him
in the suburbs Of Damascus, as the superna-
tural light fell, down to this day when he IS
sixty-eght years Of age and old and decrepit
from the prison cell of the Mamertine, he has
been outrageously treated, and he is waiting
to die. How does he spend his last hours?
Telling the world how badly he feels and de-
scribing the rheumatism that he got in
prison, the rheumatism affecting his limbs,
or the neuralgia piercing his temples, or the
thirst that fevers his tongue? Oh, no. His
last words are the battle shout for Christen-
dom: Il am now ready to be offered, and
fought the good fight" 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. It was
Saturday morning, four O'Clock. just three
years before that day my mother had left
him for the skies, and he had been homesick
to join her company. He was eighty
years of age. Ministers of the Gospel came
in to comfort him. but he comforted them.
How wonderfully the words sounded out
fN0r - Al
and now am old, yet have never seen
the righteous forsaken, or his seed begging
bread" They bathed his brow. they bathed
his hands, and they bathed his feet and they
succeeded in Strengthening out the feet; but
they did not succeed in bathing open the
hand so it would stay open. They bathed
the hand open, but it came shut. They
bathed it open again, but it came shut.
What was the matter with the thumb and
the fingers of that old hand? All! it had
fict that ''his hand clave unto the sword''
preach this sermon as a tonic. I want
you to hold the truth with ineradicable grip
and want you to strike so hard for God
that it 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 the officers Of
the Southern army assembled at Lexington.
Soldiers coming together are very apt to re-
count their experiences and to show their
scars Here is a soldier who pulls I'D his
sleeve and says, There, vas wounded in !
that ARM" and shows the scar. And an |
other soldier pulls down his collar, and says, !
There, l was wounded in the neck" And |
another soldier says AZ have had no use of !
that limb since the gun-shot fracture" Oh, |
my friends, when the battle of life is over |
and the resurrection has come and our
bodies rise from the Head, will |
we haze on us any scars of !
bravery for God? Christ will be there all
covered with scars. Scars on the brow,
scars on the hand, scars on the feet, scars all
over the heart, won in the battle of redemp-
tion. And all heaven will sob aloud with
emotion as they look on those scars. Igna-
thus will be there and he will point out the
places where the tooth and paw of the lion
seized him in the Coliseum; and John Huss
will be there, and he will show where the
coal first scorched the foot on that day when
MS spirit took wing Of flame from Constance.
MMillan and Campbell and Freeman.
American missionaries in India, viii be-
there-the men who with their wives and I
children went down in the awful massacre at
Cawnpore and they viii show where the
1aggers of the Sepoys struck them.
The Waldenses will be there, and they will
show where their bones were broken on that
lay when the Pie lmontese 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
evidences of earthly exhaustion. And Christ.
with His Scared hand waving over the
Scared multitude, will say, You suffered
with Me on earth; now be glorified with Ne
n heaven" And then the great organs of
eternity will take up the chant and st. John
Will play, "These are they who came out of
great tr1buletion and had their robes washed
md made white in the blood of the Lamb"
But what will your chagrin and mine be
Il ia fho cfY.o 81