Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-09-05


80 great cloud Of witnesses"
Before get through will show you
that you fight in an arena around which
circle, in galleries above each other, all
the kindling eyes and all the syinpa-
thetic hearts of the ages: and Mt cvery
victory gained there comes. down the
laundering applause of a great n1lti-
tude that no man can number. az ing
co1npassed about with go great n cloud
Of witnesses"
On the first elevation Of the ancient
amphitl,eater. on the day of celebra-
ton, SIT Jiberius or Augustus, or the
reigning king. SO, in the great arena
| of spectators that watch our struggles,
and in the first divine gallery, as shall
call it. sits our King, one Jesus. On his
head are many crowns! The Roman
emperor got his place by cold bioodcl
conquests; but our King hath come 90
his place by the broken hearts healed,
and tie tears wiped away, and tho souls
redeemed. The Roman emperor sat
with folded arms Indifferent as to
whether the swordsman or the lion beat;
but our Kings sympathies are all with
ns. Nay, unheard of condescensionl
see him come down from the gallery
into The arena to help us in the fight,
shouting until all up and down his voice
is heard: Fear noti will help thee!
will strengthen thee by the right hand
Of my powerr'
They gave to the men in the arena in
the olden time food to thiclfcn their
| blood, 80 that it would 1ow slowly, and
that for longer time the people might
gloat over the scene. But Our King has
no pleasure in our wounds, for we are
bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, blood
of his blood.
In nll the anguish of our heart
The man of sorrows bore part.
Once, in the ancient amphithcater, a
lion with one paw caught the combat
ants sword and with his oshcr paw
caught his shield. The mal took his
knife from his girdle and slew the beast.
The king, sitting in the gallery, said,
"That was not fair; the lion must be
slain by sword" Other lions were
turned out and the poor victim fell.
You cry, "Shamel shamer' at such
meanness. But the king in this case is
our brother. and be will see that we
have fair play. He will forbid the rush
ing out of more lions than we can meet.
He will not suffer us to be tempted above
that we are able. Think God! The
King is in the gallery! His oyes are on
Us. His heart IL with us. His hand
will deliver rts. 'fBlessed are all they
who put their trust in Linn"
THE CELESTIAL GUARDIANS.
look again and see tho angelic
gallery. There they are; the angel that
swung the sword at the gate of Eden,
the same that Ezekiel saw upholding
the throne Of God, and from which
look away, for the splendor is insuffer-
able. Here are the guardian angels
That one watched patriarch; this one
protected child. That ono has been
pulling n soul out of temptation! All
these are messengers of light! Those
drove the Spanish Armada on the rocks.
This turned Sennacherib's living hosts
into heap of one hundred and eighty
five thousand corpses. Those yundrr
chanted the Christmas carol over Beth
lehem until the chant awoke the shep-
herds. These, ut creation, stood in the
balcony of heaven and serenaded the
newborn world wrapped in swaddling
clothes Of light. And there, holier and
mightier than all, is Michael, the arch
angel. To command an earthly hest
gives dignity, but this one is leader OF
the twenty thousand chariots of God, |
and of the ten thousand times ten thou
sand angels. | think God gives CON-
mand to tho archangel, ana the arch.
angel to the seraphim, and tho seraphim |
to the cherubim, until all tie lower
orders Of heaven hear the command |
and go forth on the high behest
Now, bring on your lions! Who can
fear2 All the spectators in the angelic |
gallery are onr friends. "Iie shall give |
his angels charge over thee. to keep the
In all thy ways, They shall bear thee
up in their hands lest thou dasn thy
foot against stone. Thou shalt tread |
upon the lion and adder; the young lion
and the dragon shalt thou trample un-
der foot"
Though the arena be crowded with |
temptations we shall. with the angelic
help, strike them down in tho name of
our God aud leap on their fallen car
caasesl 0 bending tlrong of bright an
gelic faces aud swift wings and lightning
foot! | hail YOU today from the dust
and struggle of tho arena!
look again and see the gallery of
the prophets and apostles. Who are
those mighty ones up yonder2 Hosea
ard jeremiah and Daniel and Isaiah
and Paul and Peter and John and
Games There sits Noah waiting for
III the world 10 come into the ark; uud
Noses, waiting till the last Red sea shall
i.ivide; and Jeremiah, waiting for the
Jews TO return; and John. of the Apoc-
llypse, waiting for the swearing of the
angel that Time shall be no longer.
spiritsl Ye were howled at.
70 We're stoned; ye were spit uponl
They have been in this fight themselves,
and they are all with us. Daniel knows
III about lions, Paul fought with beasts
It Ephesus.
THE INTERESTED WITNESS Es.
In the ancient amph,sheater the peo-
,le got so excited that they would shout
rom the galleries TO the men in the
Irena, "Atit againr Forward" "One
more stfoker Look outw Fall
'ack" "IInzTal Huzxa" So In that
iallery, prophetic and apostolic, the,
annot keep their peace, Daniel cries
MT, "Thy God will deliver thee from
he mouth Il the honsln David ex-
lains, "llo win not suffer thy feat TO