The Penn's Grove record., 1893-05-19

ei"lh anu uD.lkFu lH5 Temperatures. we nave
hlgh exa' Jle Of the fact that sometimes a man
will serve God best by disappearing from this
or that place, this or that environment.
A mob brought Christ to the top of the
rocks back Of Nazarrah. They did not like
HIS preaching, and they proposed to hurI
Him dow the precipice. But while they
were getting ready for the massacre Christ
darted into the crowi and en%' the confu-
sion escaped 10 CapernaN ,utinued
exercising devils and coollnA and I'LL
ing fish nets and giving hea oculation
OF blood to paralysis and curih entia and
turning corpses into living meh and women
and doing His chief work.
What u good thing He lodged the crowd on
the rocks back Of Nazareth Likewise at
Jerusalem one day, while He was sauntering
up and down in Solomon's porch waiting for
IAN opportunity to say kind words or do q
useful deed, the people proposed to pay Him
for His self sacrifices by stoning Himto death,
but the record is, He escaped out OF their
hands,
See also in my subject the unreasonable
attitude Of javelin toward harp. What had
that harp i'll David's hand done to the iayelin
In Sauls hand? Had the vibrating strings of
the one hurt the keen edge of the other? Was
there an Old grldSe between the two fam
lilies of sweet sound and sharp cut2 Had the
triangle ever insulted the polished SHAFT?
Why the deadly aim of the destroying
weapon against the instrument OF soothing,
calming, healing sound2
Well, l will answer that II you will tell me
why the hostility of so many to the Gospel,
why the ylrulent attacks against Christian
religion. Why the angry a%ntipathy of SO
many to the most genial, most inviting, most
salutary influence under all the heavens.
Why will men give their lives to writing and
speaking AMI warning against Christ and
the Gospel Why the ~iayelin of the worlds
hatred and age against the harp of heavenly
lover You know and / know men who get
wrathtully red II the face and foamiDg at
the mouth and AZ The gesture ofthe clinched
fist and pat DOWN their feet with indignant
emphasis and invoke all sarcasm and irony
and vItuperation and srorn and spite at the
CHRISTIAN religion. What has the Christian
religion done that it SHOULD be so assailed2
Whom hath 1t bitten and left with hydro
phobia virus in their veins that it should
so netimes be chased as though it were o
naddened anime
To head of and trip up and push down
and corner our religion was the dominant
thought in the life of David Hume and VOL
taire and Shaftesbury and even the Earl of
Rochester, until one day in a princely house,
in which they blasphenously put God on
trial, and the Earl OF Rochester was the attor-
ney against God and religion and received
the applause of the whole company, when
suddenly the earl was struck under convic-
ton and cried "GOod God, that a man who
walks uprightly, who sees the wonderful
works OF God and has the use of his senses
ahd reason, should use them in deiying his
Creator! 1 wish l had been q crawling leper
in a ditch rather than have acted toward God
as | have done
Javelin, OF wit, ~javelin Of irony, %javelin OF
scurrility, ~jayelin OF sophistry, javelin of hui
man anu diaOolical hostility nave been flying
for hundreds Of years and are flying now.
But aimed at WHAT AT something that has
come to devastate the wOrld2 At something
that Stays nations2 AT something that would
maui and trample under foot II excrueiate
and crush the human race?
No, aimed at the gospel harp-harp on
which prophets played with somewhat linger-
ing 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 heartstrings the
harp was chorded and from whose dying
groan the strings were keyed. Oh, gospel
harp! ALI thy nerves a-trenble with stories
Of self sacrifice. Harp thrumned by fingers
long ago turned to dust. Harp that made
HEAVIER listen and will yet make all the earth
hear. Harp that sounded pardon to my sinful
soul and peace over the grave where my dead
sleep. Harp that will lead the chant of the
blood washed throng redeemed around the
tErone. May a javelin Stay me before fling
a javelin at that. Harp which it seems al
most too sacred for me to touch, and so I
call down from their thrones those who used
to finger it and usS them to touch 1t now.
''Cone down, William Cooper, and run your
fingers over the strings oil this harp He
'ays, Il will, " and he plays:
There Is a fountain ti1ad with blood
Drawn from lmmsuueis veins.
"Come down, Charles Wesley, and touch the
strings" He says, II will, -" n he plays:
Jesu-, lover OF my soul,
Let me TO thy bosom ny.
sCome down, Augustus Toplady, and sweep
your fingers across this gospel harp" de
says, 81 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, II will, " and he plays:
Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
And did my Sovereign die7
sP. P. Bliss, come down and thrum this gos-
Del harp" He says, II will" and he playSi
Halleluish, It's donei
l believe on the Son.
Ineffable harp Transporting hap! Harp
of earth! Harp OF heaven! Harp sanity
and ~seraphic! Harp Of God Oh, 1 like the
IDEA of that old monument In the ancient
church at Ulard, near Kilkenny, Ireland.
The sculpture on that monument, though
more than a thousand years ago, as
appropriate to-day as then, the sculpture
representing a harp upon a 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 eyentide, and the shepherd among the
ALPS puts the horn to his lips and blows n
blast and says: "Glory be to God" and all
the shepherds on the Alpine heights or down
the deep valleys respond with other blasts Of
horns, saying, "Glory be to God" and then
all the shepherds uncover their heads and
kneel in worship, and after a few moments of
silence some shepherd rises from his knees and
another blast Of the horn and says.
s.rhanks DO TO God, and all through tho
mountains tue response comes from other
shepherds, Thanks be to God" SO this mo-
ment let all the valleys of the earth respond
to the hills OF heaven, with sounds OF glory
and thanks, and it be harp Of earthly worship
to harp of heavenly worship, and the words
of ST, John in the Apocalypse be fulfilled, y
heard a voice from heaven as the voice OF
many waters and as the voice OF a great
thunder, and as the voice OF harpers harpinE
81 t-s- 49, ~