Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-05-25

who went into the battle. Some mean
fellows objected to the sick ones hav-
ing any of the spoils The directors
said, "These men did not fight
David, with magnanimous heart, re-
plies "As his part is that goeth down
to the battle, SO shall his part be that
tarrieth by the stuff"
This subject is practically suggestive
to me. Thank God, in these times a
man can go off on journey and be
gone weeks and months, and come
back and see his house untouched of
incendiary, and have his family on the
step to greet him if by telegram he
has foretold the moment of his COM
ing. But there are Amalekitish disas-
tiers, there are Amalekitish diseases,
that sometimes come down upon ones
home, making as devastating work as
the day when Ziklag took fire. There
are families you represent broken up.
No battering-ram smote in the door,
no icon oclast crumbled the statues,
no flame leaped amidst the cur
tains; but so far as all the
Joy and merriment that once be-
longed to that house are concerned,
the home has departed. Armed dis.
eases came down upon the quietness
of the scene-scarlet fevers, or pleuri-
sizes, or consumptions, or underlined
disorders came and seized upon some
members of that family and carried
them away. Zil1lag in ashes! And
you go about sometimes weeping and
sometimes enraged, wanting to get
back your loved ones as much as David
and his men wanted TO reconstruct
their despoiled households. Ziklag in
ashes! Some of you went off from
home. You counted the days of your
absence. Every day seemed as long
as 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 the street where your
dwelling was, and in the night
you put your hand on the door
bell. and, behold! it was wrapped
with the signal of bereavement, and
you found that Amalekitish Death,
which has devastated a thousand other
households, had blasted yours You
go about weeping amidst the desola-
tion of your once happy home, think
ing of the bright eyes closed, and the
noble hearts stopped, and the gentle
hands folded, and you weep until you
have no 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
a consulship TO some foreign port. My
! friend said TO him, What do you
want TO go away from your beautiful
home for, into foreign port?' "Oh,"
he replied, my home is gone! My
six children are dead. l must get
away, sir. l can't stand ii in this
country any longer" Zillag in ashes!
Why these long shadows of bereave-
ment across this audience? Why is it
that in almost every assemblage black
| is the predominant color of the APP
parel? Is it because you do not like
saffron or brown or violet? Oh no!
! You say, The world is not so bright
| TO us as once it was" and there is a
story of silent voices and of still feet,
and of loved ones gone, and when you
look over the hills, expecting only
| beauty and loneliness, you find only
! devastation and woe. Ziklag in ashes!
One day. in Ulster county, New
York, the village church was deco
rated until the fragrance of the
flowers was almost bewildering. The
maidens of the village had emptied
the place of flowers upon one
marriage altar One of their
own number was afiianced to a
minister of Christ, who had come
to take her to his own home. With
hands joined, amidst congratulatory
audience, the vows were taken In
three days from that time one of those
who stood at the altar exchanged
earth for heaven. The wedding march
broke down irto the funeral dirge
| There were not enough flowers now
for the coffin lid, because they had all
been taken for the bridal hour. The
dead minister of Christ is brought to
another village.
He had gone out from them less
than week before in his strength;
now he comes home lifeless The
WllOAS OGNdlltu lt
solemn procession moved around to
look upon the still face that once had
beamed the messages of salvation.
Little children were lifted up to look
at him. And some Of those whom he
had cornforted in tie days of sorrow,
when they passed that silent form,
made the place dreadful with their
weeping. Another village emptied of
its howers--some Of them put in the
shape OF cross to symbolize his hope,
others put in the shape OF n crown to
symbolic his triumph A hundred
| lights blown out in one strong gust
from the open door Of sepulchre.
Zil<lag in pshes
preach this sermon to-day. because
l want to rally you, as David rallied
his men, for the recovery of the loved
and the lost. want not only to win
heaven, but l want all this congrega-
ton 10 90 along with me. feel that
somehow l have responsibility in
your arriving at that great city. Do
you really want to join the compan-
| 4. e