The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-05-23


and see his house untouched OF incend-
iary, and have his family on the step to
greet him II by telegram he has fore
told the moment Of his coming. But
there are Amalelitish diseases that
sometimes come down upon ones home,
making as devastating work as the DAY
of the Ziklag fire. There are families
you represent broken up. No battering
ram smote in the door, no iconoclast
crumbled the statues, no flames leaped
amidst the curtains; but so far as all
the Joy and merriment that once be-
| longed to that house are concerned, tine
home has departed. Armed diseases
come down upon the quietness OF the
scene-scarlet fevers, or pleurisies, or
consumption, or underlined disorders
come and seize upon some members OF
that family, and carried them away.
Ziklag in ashes! And you go
about, sometimes weeping and some.
times enraged, wanting to get back
your loved ones as much as David
and his men wanted to reconstruct
their despoiled households. Xix
lag in ashes! Some of you went
off from home. You counted the days
Of your absence. Every day seemed as
long as a week. Oh! how glad you were
when the time came for you to go
aboard the steamboat or rail-car and
start for home! You arrived. You went
up to the street where your dwelling
was, and in the night you put your
hand on the door-bell, and, behold! 1t
was wrapped with the signal OF be-
reavement, and you found that ANA
lekitish Death, which has devastated
thousand other households, had blasted
yours. You go about weeping amidst
the desolation of your once happy
home, thinking of the bright eyes
closed, and the noble hearts stopped,
and the gentle hands folded, and you
!. weep until you have no more power to
, weep. Ziklag in ashes
A gentleman went TO friend OF mine
in the city of Washington, and asked
that through him he might get con-
sulship to some foreign port. My friend
said to him, "What do you want to GO
away from your beautiful home for, into
, foreign port?" 80" he replied, my
,, home is gone! My six childreA are
dead / must get away, sir. l can't
!. stand it in this country any longer"
Ziklag in ashesl
Why, these long shadows Of bereave
!, ment across this audience? Why is II
that in almost every assemblage blacl
is the predominant color of the ap
: parel? Is it because you do not like
saffron or brown or violet? no! fo'
: say, "The world is not SO bright to III
as it once was" and there is story o
: silent voices, and of still feet, and o
> loved ones gone, and when you lool
:" over the hills, expecting only beaut.
and loveliness, you find only devasta
= ton and woe. Ziklag in ashesl
One day in Ulster county, New Yorh
the village church was decorated unit
a the fragrance of the flowers was almos
y bewildering. The maidens of the vii
= lage had emptied the place of flower
= upon one marriage altar. One Of thei
y own number was affianced to minis
;" ter of Christ, who had come to take he
D TO his own home. With hands JOINED
y amidst congratulatory audience, tn
r vows were taken. In three days frol
&c &c that time one of those who stood at tn
- altar exchanged earth for heaven. tn
" wedding march broke down into tn
~ funeral dirge. There were not enoug
" flowers for the coffin lid, because the
III had all been taken for the bridal hou
u The dead minister OF Christ is brougl
.n to another village.
p He had gone out from them less tina
20 a week before in his strength; now
CT comes home lifeless. The whole churC
y bewailed him. The solemn processiC
X moved around to look upon the sti
ce face that once had beamed the messag
nu of salvation. Little children were lift
aI up to look at him. And some of tho
er whom he had comforted in days Of SO
q row, when they passed that silent forl
" made the place dreadful with the
~ weeping. Another village emptied
~, its howers-some of them put in Il
nu shape Of cross to symbolic his hor
'es Others in the shape of crown to syl
! ,u' bolize his triumph. A hundred ligh
nc nc blown out in one strong gust from q
nc open door of the sepulcher. Ziklag
- ashes!
l1i preach this sermon to-day, becau
i's want to rally you, as David ralli
." his men, for the recovery of the lov
iaS and the lost. l want not only to W
nu heaven, but l want all this congrel
ier ton TO 20 along with me. feel tn
Il " in w
'ry arriving at that great city. Do y
gh really want TO join the companionship
ION your loved ones who have have gor
70 Are you as anxious to join them
,uU David and his men were 10 join tn
ID, families? Then am here, in the ma
.no of God, TO say that you may, and TO
; you how.
INC I'M, remark, in the first place, II y
ms ms want to join your loved ones in glo
'ne YOU must travel the same way Il
,er . went. No sooner had the half-dt
.ne EGYPTIAN been resuscitated than
ie' pointed the way the captors and
=. captives had gone, and David and
wa men followed after. So our Christ
ong friends have gone into another count
'en. and II we want to reach their comp
'ith ionship we must take the same 70
ale- They repented; we must repent. II
'on. prayed; we must pray. They trus
OF in Christ; we must trust in Christ IT
'me lived q religious life; we must live q
lere ligious life. They were in some thi
y 10 like ourselves. know, now that q
all are gone, there is halo around u
ong names; but they had their faults. T
'en. said and did things they ought neve