News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-03-17

iron bedstead.
WE WILL HAVE TO FIGHT ALL THE WAY.
Brethren, I have made up my mind
that we will have to fight all the way
up to the Promised Land. used to
think that after awhile | would get
into time where it would be smooth
and easy, but the time does not come,
and it will never come in this world.
By the time King Og is used up so
that he cannot get into his iron bed
stead, some other giant of opposition
looms up to dispute our way. Let us
I. stop looking for an easy time and
make it a thirty years war, or sixty
years war, or a hundred years war,
if we live so long.
Must l be carried to the skies
On fiowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
And sailed through bloody seas2
Do you know the name of the big
gest giant that you can possibly
meet-and you will meet him9 He
is not eleven feet high, but one hun
bred feet high. His bedstead is as
long as the continent. His name Is
| Doubt. His common food is intidel
books and skeptical lectures and min
listers 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 I'M
less you slay that giant. Kill Doubt
or Doubt will kill you. How to over
come this giant? Pray for faith, go
with people who have faith, read
everything that encourages 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 limp
ing 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 sword log, "
and it is just as big giant. IF" the
Bible be true. eff" the soul be i'm
mortal. ''If' Christ be God. ''F'
our belief and behavior here decide
our future destiny. eff" eff. " eff"
I hate that word eff" Noah Webster
says it is a conjunction; I say it is an
armed giant. Satan breathed upon
it a curse when he said to Christ: If
thou be the Son of God" What
dastardly and infamous If" Against
that giant IF hurl Jobs Il know"
and Paul's II know" Il know that
my Redeemer Eveth." 81 know in
whom 1 have believed" Down with
the ''If'' and up with Il know"
Oh, that giant Doubt is such
cruel giant! 1t attacks many in the
last hour. 1t could not let my mother
Elone even in her dying moments.
After a life of holiness and consecra-
| ton such as l 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 be-
reavements of long life and the in
firmities of old age, be allowed to go
without such a cruel stroke from
Doubt, the giant? Do you wonder |
have a grudge against the monster?
If I could l would give him bigger
bounce than satan got when, hurled
out of heaven, the first thing he
struck was the bottom of perditiOn.
! OPPOSITION CANNOT HINDER THE
CHURCH.
Another impression from my sub
! ject-the march of the church can
not be impeded by gigantic opposi-
ton That Israelitish host led on by
Moses was the church, and when Og
| the giant, him of the iron bedstead,
came out against him with another
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 ex-
cept that one in which he first slept
the cradle of aquatic vegetation on
the Nile, where the wife of Che
nephres, ths king, found the floating
babe, and having no child of her
own adopted him. Moses of ordi-
nary size against Og of extraordi-
nary 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 undisci-
plined and exhausted stragglers. But
the Israelites triumphed If you spell
the name of Og backward you turn
it into the word Go" and Og was
turned backward and made to go.
With Og's downfall all the sixty cities
surrendered Nothing was left of
the giant except his iron bedstead,
which was kept in a museum at Rab-
bath 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 cit
les. Not only ON one side of Jordan,
but on both sides of all the rivers.
The day is coming. Hear it all ye
who are doing something for the con-
quest of the world for God and the
truth, the time will come when, as
there was nothing left of Og the
giant, but the iron bedstead kept at
Rabbath as curiosity, there will b.
nothing left of the giants of iniquity
except something for the relic hunt
ers to examine.
Which of the giants will be the last
slain | know not, but there will be a
museum somewhere to hold the relics
of what they once were. A rusted
sword will be hung up-the only relic
of the giant of war. A demijohn-
the only relic of the giant of Inebria-
ton. A roulette ball-the only relic
of the giant of Hazard A pictured
certificate of watered stock-the only
relic of the giant of Stock Gambling
A broken knife-the only relic of the
giant of Assassination. A yellow
copy of Tom Paine-the only relic of
the giant of Unbelief. And that mu-
scum will do for the later ages of the
world what the iron bedstead at Rab-
bath did for the earlier ages.
Do you not see it makes all the diff
ference in the world whether we are
fighting on toward miserable defeat
or toward a final victory2 All the
Bible promises prophesy the latter,
and so l cheer you who are the troops
of God, and though many things are
dark now, like Alexander l review
the army by torchlight, and l give
you the watchword which Martin
Luther proclaimed, THE Lord of
Hosts!' ''The Lord of Hostsr' and