Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1893-06-03

David lodged if. or the chief work Of his life
would never have been done. What @ lesson |
This IS to those who 90 into useless danger
and expose their lives or their regulations 81 |
their usefulness unnecessarily. When duty
demands. go ahead. though all earth and hell
oppose. Dodge not one inch from the right
position. But when nothing is involved step
back Or step aside.
Why stati II the way Of periis that you
ran avoids Ga not into q~uixotie battles IN
fight windmilis. Ion viii be Of more use -
the world and the church as an active Chris
tan nan than as a target for ~iayelins. There
are Christians always in q flight, Ii they go
into churches. they fight there. Il they so
into presbyteries or coafereuces or eonsoeia-
tons. they fight there. Ny advice 70 YOU is,
truth. stand out Of the way OF the iaselin-
/ Samuel. xviii. II. David avoided out Of
lis presence twice
Washington was as mighty In his retreats
rs II bis advances. His army would several
times have been destroyed If he had not
lodged. He lodged on Long Island he
lodged on New Jersey heights. Lincoln on
Lis way to inauguration at Washington was
waited for by as.assins, but he took another
rain and atdrhd the aespafadoes. We have
high example Il the fact that pnetlnes a man
VIII serve God best h~ysdisappearing from this
OF lual place. tIlS or t1al uVIrCILucIt.
A mob brought Christ TO the top Of the
rocks back Of Nazarrah. They did not like
Ills preaching, and they proposed 10 hurl
Him down the preciplce. But while they
we're getting ready for the massacre Chris.
darted into the crowd and amid the confu-
sion escaped to c~apernaun and conti1ced
exercising devils and cooling fevers and I'LL
ing fish nets and giving healthy circulation
Of blood to paralysis and curing dementia and
turning corpses into living men and women
aud doing His chief work.
What a good thing He lodged the crowd on
The rocks beck Of Nazareth! likewise II
| Jerusalem one day. while He was sauntering
up and Down in Solomon's porch waiting for
an opportunity to say kind words or DO a
useful deed; the people proposed to pay Him
Tor His self eacritices By stoning Him to 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 in David's hand done to the jayelin
in Sauls hand? Had the vibrating strings OF
the one hurt the keen edge Of the other? Was
there an old grudge between the two FAM
lilies of sweet sound and sharp cut? Had the
triangle ever inSulted the polished shaft?
Why the deadly aim of the destroying
weapon against the instrument Of soothing,
calming. healing sound?
Well. | will answer that If you will tell NE
why the hostility Of SO many to the Gospel,
WHY lie NlIuitLA dttdckS against CuIISt1dI
religion. why the angry antipathy of SO
many to the most genial, most inviting, most
. saiutary influence under ell the heavens.
Why will men give their lives to writing and
speaking and warning against Christ and
the Gospel? Why the javelin Of the worlds
hatred and rage against the harp of heavenly
love? You know and l know men who get
Wrathfully red in the face and foaming at
the mouth and use the gesture Of the clinched
fist and put down their feet with indignant
emphasis and invoke all sarcasm and irony
and vltuperation and scorn and spite at the
Christian religion. What has the Christian
religion lone that it should be 50 assailed?
Whom hath it bitten and left with hydro
J phobia 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 was1 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,
i'll which@they blasphemously put God on
trial, andthe Earl Of Rochester was the attor-
Ley 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
and reason. should use them in defying his
Creator l wish I had been a crawling leper
in a ditch rather than have acted toward God
as I have done
J~avelin. OF Wit, ~javelin Of irony, jayelin of
scurrility. %javelin Of sophistry. javelin Of hA-
man and diabolical 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 Stays nations? At something that would
maui and trample under foot and excruciate
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 We're 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. gospe
harp, All thy nerves a-tremble with stories
of self sacrifice. Harp thrummed by fingers
long ago turned to dust. Harp that made
heaven listen and will ,et make all the earth
hear. Harp that sounded pardon to my slnfui
soul and peace over the grave where my dead
sleep. Harp that will lead the chant of the
blood washed throng redeemed around the
throne. 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 !
call down from their thrones those who used
to finger it and ask them to touch it now.
Come down. William Cooper, and run your
fingers over the strings OF this harp 1t
says, I will. and be play:
4here = Il fountain flied with blood
Drawn from Immauuels veins.
"'Come down, Charles Wesley. and touch the
strings" He says, Il WILL" and be plays:
Jesus, lover Of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fY.