The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-05-17

have been destroyed if he had
not lodged. He lodged on Long
Island, he lodged on New Jersey
Heights. Lincoln on his way to In
auguration at Washington was waited
for by assassins, but he took another
train and lodged the desperadoes. We
have high example of the fact that
sometimes 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 Nazareth. They did not like
his preaching and they proposed ito
hurl him down the precipice. But
while they were getting ready for the
massacre, Christ darted into the crowd,
and amid the confusion escaped to
Capernaum, and continued exercising
devils and cooling fevers and filing
fish nets and giving healthy circula-
tion of blood to paralysis and curing
dementia, and turning corpses into
living men and women, and doing his
chief work. What good thing he
lodged the crowd on the rocks back Of
Nazarethl Likewise at Jerusalem one
day, while he was sauntering up and
down in Solomon's porch waiting for
an opportunity to say kind words or do
useful deed, the people proposed to
pay him for his self-sacrifices by stoning
him to death, but the record is "he
escaped out of their hands,"
See also in my subject the unreason-
able attitude of javelin toward harp.
What had that harp in Dsvid's hand
done to the javelin in Saul's head? Had
the vibrating strings of the one hurt
the keen edge of the other? Was there
IN old grudge between the two families
Of sweet sound and sharp cut? Had
The triangle ever insulted the polished
shaft? Why the deadly aim of the de-
stroying weapon against the instru-
ment of soothing, calming, healing
sound? Well, 1 will answer 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
writing and speaking and warning
against Christ and the Gospel? Why
the javelin of the worlds hatred and
rage against the harp Of heavenly loveP
You know and know men who get
wrathfully red in the face and foaming
ut the mouth and use the gesture OF
the clenched fists and put down their
feet with indignant emphasis and
invoke all sarcasm and irony and vitu-
peration and scorn and spite at the
Christian religion. What has the
Christian 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 dominant thought in the life OF
David Hume and Voltaire and Shaftes-
bury, 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 reli.
gion 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 wonder
full works of God and has the use of his
senses and reason, should use them In
defying his Creator! Iwish had been
crawling leper in ditch rather than
have acted toward God as have done"
Javelin of wit, javeGn of irony, javelln
of scurrility, javelin Of sophistry, jave'
lin of human and diabolic hostility
have been flying for hundreds Of years
and are flying now. But aim at what
At something that has come TO devas.
tate the world? At something that
slays 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 lingering and uncertain fin.
gers, 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 groan the strings were
keyed. o, gospel harp! All thy nerves
a-tremble with stories of self-sacrifice.
Harp thrummed by fingers long age
turned to dust. Harp that made heaven
listeth and will 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 throne.
May javelin slay me before / fling
javelin at that. Harp which 1t seems
almost too sacred for me to touch, and
80 / call down from their thrones
those who used to finger it, and ask
them TO touch 1t now. "Come down
William Cowper, and run your fingers
over the strings OF this harp" He says,
twill" and he plays;
There Is q fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins.
"Come down, Charles Wesley, and touch
the strings" He says, 81 will," and
he plays:
Jesus, lover OF my soul,
Let me 10 Thy bosom iy.
Come down, Augustus Toplady, and
sweep your fingers across the gospel
harp" He says, II will," and he plays
Rock Of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself In Thee.
"come down, Isaac Watts, and take thi,
harp" He says, ~ will, /" and he plays
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