The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-05-31

| sion escaped to Cepernaum and continued
| exercising devils and cooling fevers and fill
ing fish nets and giving healthy circulation
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 tho 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
an opportunity to say kind words or do O
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 unreasonable
| attitude Of javeln toward harp. What had
| that harp In David's hand done to the javelin
In Sauls hand2 Had the vibrating strings Of
the one hurt tho keen edge Of the other2 Was
there an old grudge between the two fam
| lilies Of sweet sound and sharp cut? Had tho
triangle ever insulted the polished shsft2
Why the deadly aim of the destroying
weapon against the instrument OF soothing,
calming, healing sound?
Well, will answer that If you will tell me
why the hostility OF 80 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
salutary influence under all the heavens.
Why will men give their lives to writing and
speaking and warring against Christ and
the Gospel2 Why the javelin Of the worlds
hatred and rage against the harp OF heavenly
love? You know and 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 vituperation and scorn and spite at the
Christian religion. What has the Christian
religion done that It should be- 80 assailed?
Whom hath it bitten and left with hydro
phobia virus In their veins that 1t should
sometimes be chased as though It were
maddened canine?
To head of and trip up and pGsh down
and corner our religion was the dominant
taire and Shaftesbury 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 attor-
ney against God and religion and received
the applause of the whole company, when
suddenly the earl was struck under convic-
tion and cried: "Good God, that 4 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! wish had been crawling leper
In ditch rather than have acted toward God
as have DONE
Javelin, of wit, iavelin OF irony, iavelin OF
scurrility, javelin of sophistry, iavelin Of hu-
man and diabolical hostility have been flying
for hundreds Of years and are flying now.
But aimed at what2 At something that has
come to devastate the world2 At something
that slays nations? At something tina. would
maui and trample under foot and excruciate
and crush the human racer
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! All thy nerves artremble with stories
OF self sacrifice. 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 sinful
soul and peace over the grave whcro my dead
sleep. Harp that will lead the chant OF tse
blood washed throng redeemed around the
throne. May javelin slay me before fling
a jsvelin at that. Harp which 1t seems al
most too sacred for me to touch, and 80 I
call down from their thrones those who used
to finger 1t and ask them to touch 1t now.
"Come down, William Cooper, and run your
fingers over the strings OF this harp" He
says, II will, )" and he plays:
There Ia fountain flied With blood
Drawn from Immanuel's veins.
"Come down, Charles Wesley. and touch the
strings" he says, "I 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" He
says, ~ will" and he plays:
Rock Of Ages, cleft for me.
Let me hide myself in thee.
"Come down, Isaac Watts, and take this
harp" Hs says, "I will, /" and he plays:
Alas. and did my Savior bleed.
And did my Sovereign die2
"P. P. Bliss, come down and thrum this gos-
pei harp" He says, 81 will" and he plays:
Hallelujsh. tits donel
believe on the Son.
Inefable harp! Transporting harp! Harp
of earth! Harp Of heaven! Harp sanity
and seraphic! Harp OF God! Oh, I like the
idea OF that old monument In the ancient
church at Ullard, near Kilkenny, Ireland.
The sculpture on that monument, though
chiseled more than thousand years ago, as
appropriate 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 tho suns
rays fall aslant in Switzerland at the approach
Of eventide, and the shepherd among the
Alps puts the horn to his lips and blows
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 aftera few moments OF
silence some shepherd rises from his knees and
blows another blast of tho horn and. says,
"Thanks be to God," and all through the
mountains the response comes from other
shepherds, "Thanks be to God" 80 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, II
heard voice from heaven rs the voice OF
many waters and as the voice Of great
thunder, and as the voice Of harpers harping
with their harps."