Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-03-17
Must I be carried to the skies
On flowery beds of ease,
Whilo OF hnra fo11uht Ia ,r.in iha
While others fought to win tho prize
And sailed through bloody seas?

10 you KNOW the name OF Une DIgBeSU
giant that you can possibly meet-and you
will meet him? lie is not eleven feet high,
but one hundred feet high. His bedstead
is as long rs the continent. His name is
Doubt. His common food is nfidel books
and skeptical lectures and ministers who
do not know whether the Bible is inspired
at all or inspired in spots, and Christians
who are more infdel than Christian. You
will never reach the Promised Land unless
you STAY that giant. Kill Doubt or Doubt
will kill you. How to overcome this
giant? Pray for faith, go with people who
have faith, read everything that encour-
ages faith, avoid as you would ship fever
and smallpox the people who lack faith.
In this battle against King Og use not for
weapons the crutch of a limping Christian
or the sharp pen of a controversialist, but
the sword of truth, which is the word of
God The word "If" is made up of the
same number of letters as the word cog"
and it is just as big a giant. If the Bible
be true. If the soul be immortal. II
Christ be God. If our belief and behavior
here decide our future destiny. If. If. IT,
| hate that word "If" Noah Webster
says it is a conjunction; | say it is an armed
giant. Satan breathcd upon it a curse
when he said to Christ, ''If thou be the
Son of God" What a dastardly and in
famous "If." Against that giant app
hurl Jobs 81 know" and Paul's II know"
Il know that my Redeemer liveth." II
know in whom l have believed" Down
with the off, and up with II know"
Oh, that giant Doubt is such a cruel
giant! 1t attacks many in the last hour
1t could not let my mother alone even in
her dying moments. After n life of Holt
ness and conservation such as never heard
of in any one else, she said to my father,
Father, what if, after all, our prayers
and struggles should go for nothing"
Why could she not, after all the trials and
sicknesses and bereavements of a long life
and the infrmitics of old age, be allowed
TO go without such cruel stroke from
Doubt, the giant? Do you wonder l have
grudge against the old monster? If |
could would give him a bigger bounce
than Satan got when, hurled out of
heaven, the first thing he struck was the
bottom of perdtion.
TIE CHURCH MUST PREVAIL.
Another impression from my subject:
The march of the church cannot be i'm
peded by gigantic opposition. That Israel
itish host led on by Moses was the church,
and when OC, the giant (him of the ir1n
bedstead), came out against him with an
other host-a fresh host against one that
seemed worn out-things must have looked
bad for Israel. No account is given of the
bedstead of Moses, except that one in
which he first slept-thc cradle of aquatic
vegetation on the Nile, where the wife of
Chehephres, the king, found the floating
babe and, having no child of her own,
adopted him. Moses of ordinary size
against Og Of extraordinary dimensions.
Besides that Og WAS backed up by sixty
fortified cities. Moses was backed up
seemingly by nothing but the desert that
had worn him and his army into group
of undisciplined and exhausted stragglers.
But the Israclites triumphed. If you spell
the name of OK backward you turn it into
the word Go" and Og was turned back
ward and made to go.
With Og's downfall all the sixty cities
surrendered. Nothing was left of the giant
except his iron bcdstead, which was kept
in a museum at Rabbath to show how tall
and stout he once was. SO shall the last
giant Of opposition in the church's march
succumb Not sixty cities captured, but
all the cities. Not only on one side of Jor-
dan. but on both sides of all the rivers.
The day is coming. Hear it, all yc who
are doing something for the conquest of
~, iot N'r ".'u .Ne Viuuh' we 'i'i.e
W. eo'.te "neii' 10 'nei1 was hoUni'iB 4e'C
ID 5'.i'' D"O .ne i.oi DeuH'ea',
-. az g ' q tleic wiz
W '.'s ing lt.v % .nV t'"Hta VI iiluit! eN-
a,,1; '''0 ''''0 ii''i''''' ~ eA-
hlch ol 'he giants VIII DE the iaStSiah
mo" ho', puC mere VIII DE a museum
eoine""eie ~ noiu ,le relics Oh Wlat they
oiice were - ruS'eu S"ora viii DE hunS
uP-thH o'iy rene oi 'ne eiant Oh war. a
uthilJ?lin- ','c o'l,E leiIc Oi the giant OF IN
eriiu'ion' y ipu'c'le Da,i-'he only rene
Vi 'ne 9l"nU Vi il'~"r"' y pic1ure'i certih-
'"Oo Va m"'ei.u S'och INC oliiy rellc oil lhe
gam Vi 'o'och "a,ilnlIhS, a broken knile
'no o,Ily Ieiic Vi 'iie Siailo OF AssasSllid-
'lo"' "a Se,'"% COPY VI iUrl Ialhe-the
o .I loi'o W w, - VI onpcllel' Nnt
'H"' ii'uae "iii uo lor the laler ages OF
the word What the IRON Dedstead at ltab-
bath dld tor the earlier ages. Do yOu not
see it makes all the difference in the world
whether we are fighting on toward a mis-
cradle defeat or toward a final victorvs
All the Bible promises pruDhcsv the lat.
ter, and so cheer Won who are the troons
of God. and though many things are dark
now, like Alexander review the army bv