The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-07-26

took the spears and the swords, then
they took the blacksmiths. then they
took the grindstones, and they took
everything but file. o, that is the
way sin works; it grabs everything. 1t
begins with robbery, and it ends with
robbery. 1t despoils this faculty and
that faculty, and keeps on until the
whole nature is gone. Was the man
eloquent before, it generally thickens
his tongue. Was he fine in personal
appearance, it mars his visage. Was
he affluent, it sends the sheriff to sell
him out. Was he influential, it de-
stroys his popularity. Was he placid,
and genial, and loving, it makes him
splenetic and cross; and so utterly is he
changed that you can see he is sarcastic
and rasping, and that the Philistines
have left him nothing but file. 0,
''the way of the transgressor is hard"
His cup is bitter. His night is dark.
His pangs are deep. His end is terrific.
Philistine iniquity says to that man;
Nov, surrender to me and will give
you all you want-music for the dance,
swift steeds for the race, imperial couch
to slumber on, and you shall be re-
freshed with the rarest fruits, in bask-
cts of golden flagree" He lies. The
music turns out to be a groan. The
fruits burst the rind with rank poison.
The flagree is made up of twisted
snakes. The couch is a grave. Small
allowance of rest; small allowance of
comfort. Cold, hard rough-nothing
but file. So it was with Voltaire, the
most applauded man of his day.
The Scripture was his jest.book, whence he
drew
Bon mots to gall the Christian and the jew
An inhdcl when we'll hut what when sick?
o, then text would touch him to the quick
Seized with hemorrhage of the lungs
in Paris, where he had gone to be
crowned in the theater as an idol of all
France, he sends messenger to get a
priest that he may be reconciled to the
church before he dies. A great terror
falls upon him. lie makes the place
all around about him so dismal that
the nurse declares that she would not
for all the wealth of Europe see an
other infidel die. Philistine iniquity
had promised him all the worlds gar
lands, but in the last hour of his life
when he needed solacing, sent tearing
across his conscience and his nerves a
file, file. So it was with Lord Byron,
his uncleanliness in England only sur
passed by his uncleanness in Venice,
then going on to end his brilliant
misery at Missolonghi, fretting at his
nurse, Fletcher, fretting at himself,
fretting at the world, fretting at
God; and he7who gave to the world
'Childe Harold" and "Sardanapalus, I"
and "The Prisoner OF Chillon" and
'The Siege of Corinth," reduced 10
nothing but file! o, sin has great
facility for making promises, but it has
just as great facility for breaking them.
A Christian life is the only cheerful
life, while a life Of wicked surrender is
remorse, ruin and death. It's painted
glee is sepulchral ghastliness. In the
brightest days of the Mexican empire,
Montezuma said he felt gnawing at his
heart something like canker. Sin,
like monster wild beast of the forest,
sometimes licks all over its victim in
order that the victim may be more cas-
lily swallowed, but generally rasps, and
gals, and tears, and upbraids, and files.
Is it not so, Herod? Is 1t not so, Hide
brand? Is it not so, Robespierre2 Aye!
aye it is so; it is so. ''The way Of the
wicked he turneth upside down" His
tory tells us that when Rome was
founded, on that day there were twelve
vultures flying through the air, but
when n transgressor dies the sky is
black with whole floclSs OF them. Vul-
turesl When see sin robbing so many
people, and | see them going down day
by day, and week by week, | must give
a plain warning | dare not keep II
back lest risk the salvation Of my
soul Rover the pirate pulled down
the warning bell on Inchcape Rock,
thinking that he would have chance
to despoil vessels that were crushed on
the rocks; but one night his own ship
crashed down on this very rock, and he
went down with all his cargo. God
declares: when say TO the wicked,
thou shalt surely die, and thou givest
him not warning, that same man shall
die in his iniquity; but his blood will
require at thy hands"
learn from this subject, what sad
thing il is when the Church OF God
loses its metal. These Philistines saw
that If they could only get all the me-
tallic weapons out of the hands Of the
Israelites all would be well, and, there.
fore, they took the swords and the
spears. They did not want them to
have a single metallic weapon. When
the metal of the Israelites was gone
their strength was gone. This Is the
trouble with the Church of God to-day.
1t is surrendering its courage. 1t has
not got enough metal. How seldom Il
Is that you see q man taking his posi-,
tion in pew, or in pulpit, or in n relig.
ious society, and holding that position
against all oppression, and all trial,
and all persecution, and all criticism.
The Church of God to-day wants more
backbone, more defiance, more conse.
Grated bravery, more metal. How
often you see man start out
in some good enterprise, and at
the first blast of newspaperdom he
has collapsed, and all his cour.
age gone, forgetful of the fact that II
a man be right, all the newspapers Of
the earth, with all their columns pound
ing away at him, cannot do him any
permanent damage. It is only when a
man is wrong that he can be damaged.
Why, God is going TO vindicate His