Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-05-19


done to the javel,n in Sauls hand?
Had the vibrating strings of the one
hurt the keen edge of the other? Was
there an old grudgs between the two
families of sweet solnd and sharp cut?
Had the triangle ever insulted the pol
ished shaft? Why the deadly
aim of the destroying weapon
against the instrument of sooth-
ing, calming, healing sound? Well,
will answ err that if you will tell me
why the hostility of so many to the
Gospel, why the virulent attacks
against Christian religion, why the
! angry antipathy Of so many to the
most genial, most inviting, most salu-
tary influence under all the heavens?
| Why will men give their lives to writ
| ing and speaking and warning against
| Christ and the Gospel? Why the iave-
lin of the world $ hatred and rage
against the harp of heavenly love?
| You know and / know men who get
wrathfully red in the face and foam
| ing at the mouth and use the gesture
! of the clenched fist and put down their
| feet with indignant emphasis and in
woke all sarcasm and irony and vitu-
/ peration and scorn and spite at the
/ Christian religion. What has the Chris
tian religion done that it should be SO
assailed? Whom hath it bitten and
! left with hydrophobiac virus in their
veins that it should sometimes
be chased as though it were
| a maddened canine. To head off
and trip up and push down and
corner our religion was the domi-
nant thought in the life Of David Hume
and Voltaire and Shaftcsbury. and
| even the Earl of Rochester until one
| day in princely house, in which they
/ blasphemously put God on trial, and
! the Earl of Rochester was the attorney
| against God and religion and received
/ the applause of the whole company,
when suddenly the Earl was struck
/ under conviction. and cried: Good
! God that man who walks uprightly,
/ who sees the wonderful works of God
! and has the use of his senses and
reason, should use them in defying
/ his Gre tor! " sh had been a crawl
( ing lCper in a ditch rather than have
/ acted toward God as | have done"
! Iavelin of wit, javelin of irony, javelin
of scurrlity, iave in of sophstry,
/ javelin of human and diabolic hostility,
! have been flying for hundreds of years,
! and are flying now. But aimed at
what? AT something that has come to
! devastate the world? At something
/ that slavs nations? At something
that would maui and trample under
foot and eXcruciate and crush
/ the human rae? No, aimed at the
Gospel harp. Harp on which prop
hets played with somewhat lingering
and uncertain fingers. but harp on
which apostles played with sublime
certainty, and martyrs played while
/ their fingers were on fire. Harp that
! was dripping with the blood of the
/ Christ, out of whose heart strings the
harp was chorded and from whose
| dying groln the strings were keyed.
| Oh, gospel harp! All thy nerves a-trem-
bic with stories of self.sacrifce Harp
! thrummed by fingers long ago turned
! to dust. Harp that made heaven listen
and will yet make all the earth hear.
/ Harp that sounded pardon to my sim
| full soul and peace over the grave where
my dead sleep. Harp that will lead
! the chant OF the blood.washed thronQ
| redeemed around the throne. May a
/ javelin Stay me before fling javelin
at that. Harp which it seems almost
/ too sacred for me to touch, and 50
/ call down from their thrones those who
used to finger it, and ask them 70 touch
! it now. Come down, William Cooper,
and run your fingers over the strings
of this harp lie says, Il WILL and
he plays.
There is a fountain filed with blood,
Drawn from Immanuels veins.
"Come down, Charles Wesley. and touch
the strings" He says, 81 will, and he
plays:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.
! Come down Augustus Toplady, and
( sweep your fingers across this Gospel
harp" lie says, Il will, and he plays:
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
"Come down, Isaac Watts, and take
this harp" He says, Il will" and he
! plays:
Alas and did my Savior bleed,
And did my Sovereign die.
'P. j. Bliss, come down, and thrum
this Gospel harp" He says, Il will, I"
and lie plays:
Hallelujah, tits done,
believe on the Son.
! Ineffable harp! Transporting harp!
Harp of earth! Harp of heaven! Harp
sanity and seraphic! Harp of Godl
Oh, like the idea of that old monu-
ment in the ancient church at Ullard-
near Kilkenny, Ireland. The sculp-
ture on that monument, though CHS,
elled more than 200 years ago, as APP
propriate to-day as then, the sculpture
representing harp upon cross.
That is where hang it now, that is
where you had better hang it. Let
the javelin be forever buried, the sharp
edge down, but hang the harp upon
! the cross.
And now upon our souls let the
harps of heaven rain music, and as,
when the suns rays fall aslant in
Switzerland, at the approach of even
tide, and the shepherd among the Alps
puts the horn to his lips and blows a
blast, and says, GLORY be TO God"
and all the shepherds on the
Alpine heights or down in
the deep valleys respond with
other blast of horns, saying, "tilory
be to God" and then all the shepherds
uncover their heads and kneel in wor-
ship, and after few moments of ST.
lence some shepherd rises from his
knees and blows another blast of the
horn, and says. Thanks be to God"
and all through the mountains the re-
Spouse comes from other shepherds,
Thanks be to Cod" so this moment
! LOT oil tho ~, 1lovc Of auth raernnH IN