The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-05
CHRISTIAN LIFE A FIGHT.
EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS A LION TO
COMBAT.


tniscences Inspired By Visit to the
Historic Arena at Verona-Celestial
SymDathizers With the Unfortunate
IN the Great struggle For Salvation.
LONDON, Sept. 4.-The great outpourings
TO hear DIR. Talmage preach continue.
Probably the greatest demonstration dur
ing the past month was that at the town
hall, Birmingham, when he delivered three
addresses the same evening, to audiences
agGregating 10000 persons. At Sheffield,
Derby, Leicester, Exeter and Bristol also,
phenomenal audiences assembled, the most
cordial welcome being everywhere accorded
him. The sermon selected for publication
this week is entitled Celestial Sympa-
thizers. the text being taken from I. Cor.
Kv., 80: "I have fought with beasts at
Ephesus,n and Hebrews xii, L: Seeing we
also are compassed about with 30 great a
cloud OF witnesses"
Crossing the Alps by the Mont CenIs pass
OF through the Mont Cents tunnel you are
In a few hours set down at Verona, Italy,
and In few minutes begin examining one
Of the grandest ruins of the world-the
amphttheater. The whole building sweeps
around you in circle. You stand in the
or the race run, and on all sides the seats
rise, tier above tier, until you count forty
elevations, or galleries, as | shall SEQ &c TO
call them, in which sat the senators, the
kings and the twenty-five thousand excited
spectators. AT the sides OF the arena and
under the galleries are the cages In which
the lions and tigers are kept without food
until frenzied with hunger and thirst they
are let ous upon some poor victim, who.
with his sword and alone, is condemned to
meet them. l think Paul himself once
stood In suoh a place, and that It was NOT
only hguratlvely, but literally. that he had
"fought with beasts at Ephesusn
The gala.day has come. From all the
world the people are pouring into Verona.
Men, women, and children, orators and
senator's. great men aud small, thousands
upon Thousands come, until the first gallery
is full, and the second, the third, the fourth,
the htth-all the way No to the twentieth,
all the way up TO the thirtieth all the way
up to the fortieth. Every place ia filed.
Immsnsity OF audience sweeping the great
circle. Silencel The time for the contest
has come. A Roman official leads forth the
v1ctlm into the arena. Let him get his
sword, with firm grip, into his right hand.
The twenty-five thousand sit breashlessly
Watching, l hear the door as the side Of
the arena oreak open. Out pluuges the
half-starved lion, his tongue athirst for
blood, and, with q roar that brings ali the
galleries TO their feet he rushes against the
sword OF the combatant. Do you know
how strong a stroke a man will strike when
his life depends upon the first thrust OF his
bladel The wild beast, lame and bleeding,
sinks back toward the side of the arena;
then, rallying his wasting strength, he
comes up with 6ercer eye and more terri-
BILE roar than ever, only to be driven back
| with fatal wound, while the oomhatant
| comes In with stroke after stroke, until the
/ l. a II
five thousand people clap their hands and
utter a shout that makes the city tremble.
Sometimes the audience came DO see q
race; sometimes TO see gladiators fight each
Other until the people, compassionate for
the fallen, turned their thumbs down as an
appeal shat the vanquished be spared and
sometimes the combat was with wild beasts.
To one OF the Roman amphitheatrical au-
dienoes OF one hundred thousand people Paul
refers when he says: 1--WE ere compassed
about with 30 great crowd OF witnesses"
The direct reference in the last passage is
made 10 o race; but elsewhere, having dis
cussed that. take now PAul's favorite idea
OF the Christian life as q combat.
The fact is, that every Christian man has
lien to nght. Yours 10 a bad temper. fhe
gates OF the arena have been opened, and
this tiger has come out TO destroy your soul
It has ltacerated you with many a wound
You have been thrown by it time and
again. but in the strength Of God you have
arisen to drive 10 back. l verify believe
you will conquer. think that the tempta-
tion is getting weaker and weaker. You
have given i5 so many wounds that the
prospect is that 10 will die. and you shall be
victor. through Christ. Courage, brotheri
Do not Let the sands OF the arena drink the
blood OF your soull
Your lion is the passion for strong drink.
You may have contended against il twenty
AaNN l.. a..
OF tongue. You have tried to fight it back
with broken bottle or empty wine flask
Nayi that is not the weapon. With one
horrible roar he will seize thee by the throau
and rend thee limb from limb. Take this
weapon, sharp and keen-reach up and get
IL from Gods armory-the Sword Of the
Spirit. With that thou mayest drive him
back and conquer.
But why specify, when every man aud
woman has a lion 10 fight. II there be one
hero who has no besetting sin, let him speak
out for him have offended. II you have not
fought the lion il is because you let the lion
eat you up. This very moment the contest
goes on. The Trajan celebration, where
ten thousand gladiators fought and eleven
thousand Wild beasts we're slain, was not SO
terrific struggle as thas which fat this mo-
ment goes on In many a soul The combat
was for the life Of the body; this Is for the
life Of the soul. That was with wild beasts
from the Jungle; this is with the roaring
lion OF hell.
Men think, when they contend against an
evil habit, that they have to fight it all
alone. Mol They stand in the center Of an
immense circle Of sympathy. Paul had
been reciting the names OF Abel, Enoch,
Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Joseph,
Gideon and Barak, and then says: s.Being
compassed ABOUT with so 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 kin
ding eyes and ell the sympathetic hearts OF
the ages; and every victory gained there
comes down the laundering applause OF o
great multitude that no man can number
being compassed about with SO great
cloud Of Witnesses"
On the first elevation OF the ancient am
phitheater. on the day Of a celebration, sat
Tiberius, 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 crownsl The
Roman emperor not his place by cold
blooded conquests; but our King hath come
TO his place by the broken hearts healed,
aud the tears wiped away, and the souls re-
deemed. The Roman emperor sat with