News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-08-11


like some baleful comet shooting across
the sky, scattering terror and dismay
among the nations, but above the long
bowling night of the worlds wretched-
ness the Christian church has made her
mild way, Fair as the MOON"
take a step further in my subject
'Clear as the sun" After q season of
storm OF fog, how you are thrilled when
the sun comes out at noondayI The
mists travel up hill above hill, mountain
above mountain, until they are sky lost.
The forests are full of chirp and buzz
and song; honey makers on the log,
birds beak pounding the bark, the chat
ter of the squirrel ON the rail, the call of
hawk out of a clear sky makes you
thankful for the sunshine which makes
all the world SO busy and so glad. The
same sun which in the morning kindled
confagrations among the castles of
cloud scoops down to paint the lily
white and the buttercup yellow and the
forgetmenot blue.
WHAT CAN RESIST THE SUN?
What can resist the sun? Light for
voyager on the deep, light for shepherds
guarding the focks afeld, light for the
poor who have no lamps to burn, light
for the downcast and the weary, light
for aching eyes and burning brain and
consuming captive, light for the smooth
brow of childhood and the dim vision of
the octogenarian, light for queens
coronet and sewing girls needle. "Let
there be light"
Now, says my text, "Who is she that
looketh forth clear as the sum-" Our an
swer is, the church. You have been 60
ing along a road before daybreak, and
on one side you thought you saw a lion,
and on the other side you thought you
saw a goblin of the darkness, but when
the sun came out you found these were
harmless apparitions. And it is the
great mission of the church of Jesus
Christ to come forth "clear as the SUM-"
to illumine all early darkness, to ex-
plain, as far as possible, all mystery, and
to make the world radiant in its bright
ness; and that which you thought was
an aroused lion is found out to be
slumbering lamb; and the sepulchral
gates of your dead turn out to be the
opening gates of heaven; and that which
you supposed was flaming sword TO
keep you out of paradise is an angel of
| light to beckon you in.
The lamps on her affairs will cast their
| glow on your darkest pathway and cheer
you until, far beyond the need of Ian
tern or lighthouse, you are safely an
| chored within the veil. Oh, sun of the
| church, shine on until there is no sor-
row to sOothe, no tears to wipe away,
| no shackles to break, no more souls to
be redeemed! Ten thousand hands of
sin have attempted to extinguish the
lamps on her affairs, but they are quench-
less, and to silence her pulpits, but the
| thunder would leap and the lightning
would flame.
The church of God will yet come to
full meridian, and in that day all the
mountains of the world will be sacred
mountains, touched with the glory of
Calvary, and all streams will flow by
the mount of God like cool Sloan, and
all lakes be radiant with Gospel memories
like Gennesaret, and all islands of the
sea be crowned with apocalyptic vision
like Patmos, and all cities be sacred as
Jerusalem, and all gardens luxuriant as
paradise, with God walking in the cool
of the day. Then the chorals of grace
will drown out all the anthems of earth.
Then the throne of Christ will overtop
| all earthly authority. Then the crown
! of Jesus will Outhame all other coronets.
| Sin destroyed. Death dead. He'll de-
| feated. The church triumphant. All
| the darknesses of sin, all the darknesses
of trouble, eli the darknesses of earthly
mystery hieing themselves to their
dens. CLEAR as the sun! Clear as the
sum-
FT,r5her, Terrible as an army with
banners" l take one more step in this
subject and say that if you were placed
for the defense of feeble town, and a |
gteat army were seen coming over the |
hills with flying ensigns, then you would |
be able to get some idea of the terror
that will strike the hearts of the enemies |
of God when the church at last marches |
on like ''an army with banners"
You know there is nothing that ex-
cites soldiers enthusiasm so much as
an old flag. Many man almost dead, |
catching a glimpse of the national en-
sign, has sprung to his feet and started |
again into the battle. Now, my friends, |
| don't want you to think of the church |
of Jesus Christ as a defeated institu- |
ton, as the victim of infidel sarcasm
something to be kicked and cuffcd and |
trampled on through all the ages of the
world. 1t is ''an army with banners"
1t has an inscription and colors such as
never stirred the hearts of an earthly |
soldiery.
We have our banner of recruit, and |
on it is inscribed, "Who is ON the Lords !
| side?" Our banner of defiance, and on
it is inscribed, 'FThe gates of hell shall |
not prevail against u.s." Our banner of |
triumph, and on it is inscribed, ''Vic- |
| tory through our Lord Jesus Christi |
and we mean to plant that banner on
every hilltop and wave it at the gate of |
heaven.
With Christ to lead us we need not |
fear. | will not underrate the enemy. |
They are a tremendous host They come |
on with acutest strategy. Their weapons |
by all the inhabitants of darkness have |
been forged in furnaces of everlasting
fire. We contend not with flesh and |
blood, but with principalities and powers
and spiritual wickedness in high places;
but if God be for us who can be against
us? Come on, ye troops of the Lord
Fall into line! Close up the ranks! On,
through burning sands and over frozen
mountain tops, until the whole earth
surrenders to God! He made it; he re-
deemed it; he shall have it, They shall
not be trampled with hoofs, they shall
not be cut with sabers, they shall not be
crushed with wheels, they shall not be
cloven with battle axes, but the march
ing, and the onset, and the victory will
be none the less decisive for that
With Christ to lead us, and heaven to
look down upon US, and angels to guard
us, and martyr spirits to bend from their
thrones, and the voice of God to bid us
forward into the combat, our enemies
shall fly like chaff in the whirlwind.
and all the towers of heaven ring be-
cause the day is ours. l divide this
army with banners into two winps-tbe
American wing and the European wing.
The American wing will march on across
the wllds Of the west, over the table,
lands, and come to the ocean, no more
stopped by the Pacific than the Israelites
were stopped by the Red sea, marching
on until the remaining walls of China
will fall before this army with banners
and cold Siberia will be turned to the
warm heart of Christ, and over lofty
Himalayan peaks shall go this army
with banners until it halts at Palestine
The European wing will march out TO
meet 1t, and Spanish superstition shall
be overcome, and French infdelity shall
be conquered, and over the Alps. with
more than Hannibals courage. shall
march that army with banners, and mn
through the SHOWS of Russia. yaster i, !