The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-10-22

a VIOLIN A violin was brought to
him and he said: "Now go to work
as I begin to play" and for 40 min
utes, during the awful pangs of ampu-
tation, he moved not a muscle nor
dropped note, while he played some
sweet tune. Oh, isit notstrange that
with the music OF the gospel OF Jesus
christ. and with this grand march Of
the church militant on the way to
become the church triumphant, we
cannot forget ourselves and forget all
pang and all sorrow and all persecu-
ton and all perturbation.
We know what men accomplish I'M
der worldly opposition. Men do not
shrink back for antagonism or for
hardship. You have admired Pres
colts Conquest of Mexico" as bril-
liant and beautiful history as was
ever written; but some OF you may
not know under what disadvantages
IL was written-that Conquest of
Mexico"-for Prescott was totally
blind, and he had two pieces of wood
parallel to each other fastened, and,
totally blind, with pen between those
pieces of wood, he wrote, the stroke
against one piece OF wood telling howfar
the pen must go in one way, the stroke
against the other piece OF wood telling
how far the pen must 60 in the other
| way. Oh, how much men will endure
for worldly knowledge and for worldly
success, and yet how little we endure
for Jesus Christ.
What have we suffered in compari-
son with those who
| -. EXPIRED WITH sUFFoCATIoN,
or We're burned, or were chopped to
pieces for the truths sake? We talk
OF the persecution OF olden times.
there. is just as much persecution going
on now in various ways.
Oh, how much others have endured
| for Christ, and how little we endure
| for Christ. We want to ride to heaven
in Pullman sleeping car, our feet on
soft plush, the bed made up early SO
we can sleep all the way, the black
| porter of death to wake us up only in
time to enter the golden city. We
want all the surgeons to fix our hand
up. Let them bring on all the lint
and all the bandages and all the
salve, for our hand is hurt, while
Eleazer does not know that his hand
is hurt. Ills hand clave unto the
sword"
/ AS l look at Eleazar's hand I come
to the conclusion that he mas done a
great deal ofhard hitting. lam not sur
prised when l see that these four men
-Eleazer and his three companions
drove back the army of the Philis-
tines, that Eleazar's sword clave to
his hand, for every time he struck all
enemy with one end Of the sword, the
other end of the sword wounded him.
When he took hold of the sword, the
sword took hold OF him Oh, we have
| found an enemy who cannot be con-
quered by rosewater and soft speeches.
1t must be sharp stroke and straight
thrust. There is intemperance, and
there is fraud, and there is gambling,
and there is lust, and there are ten
thousand battalions ofiniquity. How
are they to be captured and over
thrown? Soft sermons in morocco
cases laid down in front of an exqui-
site audience will not do it. You have
got to call things by their right name.
We have got to expel from our
| churches Christians who eat the sac
rament on Sunday and devour wild
| Ows' houses all the week We have
got to stop our Indignation against
| the Hittites and the Jebusites and the
Gergishites, and let thosepoor wretch
es go, and apply our indignation to
| I THE MODERN TRANsGREssIONs
which need to be dragged out and
slain. Ahabs here, Herods here, Jeze-
| bells here. The massacre of the infants
| here. Strike for God so hard that
while you slay the sin the sword will
adhere to your own hand. The whole
| tendency is to refine on Christian
work. We keep on refining on it, un-
til we send apologize word to iniqui-
| ty we are about to capture it. And
we must 60 with sword silver-chased
and presented by the ladies, and we
must ride on white palfrey under en-
| broidered housings, putting the spurs
in only just enough to make the charg-
er dance gracefully, and then we must
send a missive,s delicate as a wedding
card, to ask the old black giant OF sin
| If he will not surrender.
& Women saved by the grace OF God
| and on glorious mission sent, de-
| tanned from Sabbath classes because
their new hat is not DONE Churches
that shook our cities with great re-
vivals sending around to ask some
demonstrative worshiper if he would
not please to say 'tamen'' and hallelu-
jah" a little softer. It seems as if in
our churches we wanted a baptism of
cologne and balm OF Thousand
flowers, when we actually need bap-
tism of fire from the Lord God Of
| Pentecost.
But see in the next place what a
hard thing it was for Eleazar to get
his hand and his sword parted. The
muscles and the snews had been so
long grasped around the sword he
could not drop it when he proposed to
drop it, and his three comrades, I
suppose, came up and tried to help
him, and they bathed the back part
OF the hand, hoping the sinews and
muscles would relax. But no bis
hand claye to the Sword" Then they
tried to pull open the fingers and to
pull back the thumb; but no sooner
were they pulled back when they closed
| again, "and his hand clave INTO tha