Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-10-23

| have the names Of the battles on their hags
showing where they distinguished them
selves, AMI 1t is a very appropriate inscrip-
ton. Look at the fisg of old General
Joshua! On IL Jericho, Gibeon, Hazar, City
OF ii, and instead OF the stars spriukled on
the flag the sun and the moon which stood
still There he is one hundred and ten years
old. He is lying fat on his back but he is
preaching. His dying words are a battle
charge against idolatry and rallying cry
for the Lord OF Hosts as he says "Behold,
this day 20 the way OF all the earth and
God hath not failed t. fulfll his promise
concerning Israel" His dying hand clave
unto tue sword.
There is tho headless boiy OF Paul on the
road to Ostea. His great brain and bis great
heart have heen severed. The elmwood rods
had stunz 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-eight years OF age and old and decrepit
from the prison cell of the Mamertine he has
been outrageolsly treated, and he Is waiting
10 die. How does he spend his last hoursf
Telling the world how badly he feels, and de-
scribing the rheumatism that he got in
prison, tho rheumatism affecting his limbs,
or the neuralgia piercing his temples, or the
last words are the battle shout for Christen-
dom: al am now ready to be offered, and
the time OF my departure is at hand; have
fought the COOL fight" And 50 his dying
hand clave unto the sword.
Ii was in the front room on the second
floor that my father lay a-dying Il was
Saturday morning, four O'Clock Just three
years before that day my mother had left
him for the skies, and he had been homesck
to join her company. He was eighty.three
years of age. Ministers OF the Gospel came
in to comfort him, but he comforted them.
How wonderfully the words sounded out
from his dying pillow, II have been young
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 II would stay open. They bathed
the hand open. but 1t came shut. They
bathed It open again, but 1t came shut.
What was the matter with the thumb and
tho fingers OF that old handf Ahl 1t had
so long clutchei the sword of Christian con.
hict that "his hand clave unto the sword"
preach this sermon as a tonic. l want
you to hold the truth with ineradicable grip,
and want you to strike so hard for God
that II will react and while you take the
sword, tho 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 ara very apt to re-
count their experiences and to show their
scars. Hero Is soldier who pulls up his
sleeve and says There I was wounded In
that arm" aud shows the scar. And an
other soldier pulls down his collar. and says,
There, was wounded In the neck" And
another soldier says, II have had no use OF
that limb since the gun-shot fracture oh,
my friends when the battle Of life Is over
aud the resurrection has come and our
SV'''' %o haro s' on 'OW Us any any sSa scars " Of
bravery for GodP 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-
ton. 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
his spirit took wing Of fame from Constance.
NMillan and Campbell and Freeman,
American missionaries in Indin, will be
there-the men who with their wives and
children went down In the awful massacre at
CawnporeL and they Will snow whefe the
daggers OF the Sepoys struck them.
The Waldenses will be there, and th,y will
show where their bones were broken on that
day when the Peimontese 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 glorifed with Me
in 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 tribulation and had their robes washed
and made white in the blood of the Lamb ~
But what will your chagrin and mine be
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 No scars
TO show the heavenly soldiery. Not so much
as one ridge on the palm OF the hand TO show
that just once in the battle for God and the
truth, we just once grasped the sword 50
firmly, and struck so hard that the sword
and the hand stuck together, and the hand
clave to the sword. o my Lord Jesus, rouss
us to Thy service.
Thy saints in all this glorious war
Shall conquer though they die,
They see the triumph from afar.
And seize 1t with the eye.
When that illustrous day shall rise.
And all Thy arnlics shine
In robes of victory through the skies,
The glory shall be Thine