Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-09-05

Yaer. sire eu-r-al rs wcUld nor apo-o-
aise fsr rhe rilh rrsacae.i. 4ia - Le
eiea the wight before swinging from tie
bodpost II perfect glee ~ the thought q
emancipation. Who are that array Of
sax Thousand SIX hundred and sixty -si2s
They arc the Thehan leglon who died
for the faith. Here is a larger host IA
magnificent array--eight hundred aud
eigbty-four Thousand perlshed for
Christ Ia the prosecutions Of Daoeletian-
Yonder Is family group, FelieltAs, VI
Rome, and her children. While they
were diving for the faith she stood en-
couraging them. one son Was whipped
70 death by thorns, another was tnng
from a rock, another was beheaded- At
last the mother became a martyr. There
they are together-a family group IN
heaven. YOnder is John Bradford, who
said in the fire, we shall have merry
supper with the Lord tonightF' Ionder
is Henry Woes, who exclaimed as no
died, If had ten heads they should al
fall of for Christi"
The great throng Of the martyrs.
They had hot lead poured down their
threats; horses were fastened 10 their
hands, and other horses 10 their feet,
and thus they were pulled apart; they
had their tongues pulled out by red hot
pincers; they were sewed mp in the skins
of animals and then thrown 10 the dogs;
they were daubed with combusnbles
and then set on fret If all the martyrs
stakes that have been kindled could DO
set at proper distances they would make
the midnight all the world over bright
as Ioondayl
And now they sit yonder In the mar
tyrs' gallery. For them the fires OF per-
secution have gone out. The swords
are sheathed and the mob hushed. Now
they watch us with an all observing
sympathy. They know all the pain, all
the hardship, all the anguish, all the in
Justice, all the privation. They cannot
keep still. They cry: "Couragel The
fire will not consume. The floods can
not drown. The lions cannot devour!
Couragel down there ii the arena"
What, are they all looking? This
night we answer back the salutation
they give, and cry, HALL sons and
daughters of the tire!'
ALL BRETHREN IN CHRIST.
/ look again and see another gallery,
that Of eminent Christians. Whatstri
me strangely is the mixing in COM
panionship of those who on earth could
not agree. There is Albert Barnes, and
around him the presbytery who tried
him for heterodoxy! Yonder is Lyman
Beecher and the church court that de-
nounced him. Stranger than all, there
is John Calvin and James Arminius.
Who would have thought that they
would SIT so lovingly together? There is
George Whitefeld and the ministers
who would not let him come into their
pulpits because they thought him ia
matte. There are the sweet singers Top
lady, Montgomery, Charles Wesley,
Isaac Watts and Mrs. Sigourney. If
heaven had had no music before they
went up, they would have started the
singing.
And there the band of missionaries
David Abeel, talking of China redeemed;
and John Scudder, of India saved; and
David Brainard, of the aborigines evan
gelized; and Mrs. Adoniram Judson,
whose prayers for Burmah took heaven
bv violence All these Christians are
looking into the arena. Our struggle is
nothing to theirsl Do we, in Christ's
cause, suffer from the cold? They
walked Greenland's icy mountains. Do
we suffer from the heat? They swell
tered in the tropics. Do we get fatigued?
They tainted, with none TO care for
them but cannibals. Are we perse-
cuted? They were mathematical. And
as they lock from their gallery and see
Us falter in the presence of the lions,
seem to hear Isaac Watts addressing
us in his old hymn, only little changed:
Must you be carried TO the skies
On iowery beds Of ease,
While others fought 70 win the prize
Or sailed through bloody seasi
Toplady shouts in his old hymn:
Your harps, ye trembling saints,
Down from the willows take;
Loud 10 the praise OF love divine,
Bid every string awake.
While Charles Wesley, the Methodist,
breaks forth in his favorite words, a lit
tie varied:
A charge TO keep you have,
A God to glorfy;
never dying soul to save,
And fit it for the skyl
OUR DEPARTED FRIENDS.
l look again and | see the gallery OF
orr departed. Many of those in the
other galleries we have heard of, but
these we knew. Oh, how familiar their
faces. They sat at our tables, and We
walked 10 the house Of God in company.
Have they forgotten us? Those fathers
and mothers started Us on the road OF
life. Are they careless as to what be-
comes of us? And those children-do
they look on with stolid indifference as
10 whether we win or lose this battle for
eternity Nay; see that child running
ITS hand over your brow and saying.
Father, do not fret" Mother, do not