The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-09-06

died the night before swinging from the
bedpost in perfect glee at the thought of
emancipation. Who are that army of
six thousand six hundred and sixty-six!
They are the Theban legion who died
for the faith. Here is a larger host in
magnificent array-eight hundred and
eighty four thousand--who persisted for
Christ in the prosecutions of Diocletian.
Yonder is family group, Felicitas, of
Rome, and her children. While they
were dying for the faith she stood en-
couraging them. One son WAS whipped
to death by tborns, another was flung
from 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, 1--WE shall have a merry
supper with the Lord tonightr' Yonder
Is Henry Woes, who exclaimed as he
died, III had ten heads they should all
fall off for Christi
The great throng of the martyrs!
They had hot lead poured down their
threats; horses were fastened to their
hands, and other horses to their feet,
and thus they were pulled apart; they
had their tongues pulled out by red hot
pincers; they were sewed up in the skins
of animals and then thrown to the dogs;
! they were daubed with combustibles
and then set on fire! If all the martyrs
stakes that have been kindled could be
set at proper distances they would make
the midnight all the world over bright
as noondayi
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: Courage! The
fire will not consume. The floods can
not drown. The lions cannot devour!
Couragel down there in the arena"
What, are they all looking? This
night we answer back the salutatiOn
they give, and cry, HALL sons and
daughters of the fire!''
ALL BRETHREN IN CHRIST.
look again and see another gallery.
that of eminent Christians. What strikes
me strangely is the mixing in com
partnership 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
natic. 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
geli2ed; and Mrs. Adoniran Judsoa.
whose prayers for Bur1nah took heaven
by violence! All these Christians arr
looking into the arena. Our struggle is
nothing to theirs! Do we, in Chrisr'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 look from their gallery and see
US falser 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 flowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
Or sailed through bloody seas:
Toplady shouts in his old hymn:
Your harrs, We tre1r bling saints,
Down from the willows take;
Loud 20 the praise of love divine,
Bid every string awake.
While Charles Wesley, the Methodist. |
breaks forth in his favoIite words, lit |
tie varied:
A charge TO keep you have,
4 God to giorify;
y meyer dying soul to save.
And fit it for the sky!
OUR DEPARTED FRIENDS.
look again and 1 see the gallery of !
our departed. Many of those in the
other galleries we have heard of, but
these we knew Oh, how familiar Their
facesl They sat at our tables, and We
walked to the house of God in company
Have they forgotten US? Those fathers
and mothers started US on the road 0:
life Are they careless as to what be-