The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-05-25

lows 0DJecteu TO the SICK ones having
any of the spoils. The DIRECTORS said,
''These men did not fight. !" David,
with a magnanimous heart, replies,
"As his part is that goeth down to the
battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth
by the stuff. F"
Ziklag In Ashesi
This subject is practically suggestive
to me. Thank God, in these times
man can 60 off on q journey and DO
gone weeks and months and come back
and see his house untouched of incen-
diary and have his family ON the step
TO greet him if by telegram he has fore
told the moment of his coming. But
there are Amalekitish disasters, there
are Amalelitish diseases that some
times 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
iconoclast crumbled the statues, no
flame leaped amid the curtains, but so
far as all the joy and merriment that
once belonged to that house are con-
cerned the home has departed
Armed diseases came down upon the
quietness of the scene-scarlet fevers or
pleurisies or consumptions or underlined
disorders came and seized 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
spoiled 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 doorbell and, behold!
it was wrapped with the signal of be-
reavement, and you found that Amale
kitish death, which has devastated a
thousand other households, had blasted
yours. You go about weeping amid
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 a 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?" "Oh, he replied, my
home is gone! My six children are dead.
must get away, sir. can t stand it in
this country any longer" Ziklag in
hes!
Shadows of Bereavement.
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 apparel?
Is it because you do not like saffron or
brown or violet? Oh, no! You say, 1.-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 lowell
ness you find only devastation and woe.
Ziklag in ashes!
One day, in Ulster county, N. Y, the
village church was decorated until the
fragrance Of the flowers was almost be-
wildering. The maidens of the village
had emptied the place Of flowers upon
one marriage altar. One of their own
number was affianced to minister of
Christ, who had come to take her to his
own home. With hands joined amid a
congratulatory audience, the vows were
taken. In three days from that time one
of those who stood at the altar ex-
changed earth for heaven. The wedding
march broke down into 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 hfeless. The whole church
bewailed him. The solemn procession
moved around to look upon the still
of salvation Little children were lifted
up to look at him. And some of those
| whom he had comforted in days of sor-
row, when they passed that silent form,
made the place dreadful with their
weeping. Another village emptied of
its fowers-some of them put in the
shape Of cross to symbolic his hope,
others put in the shape of crown to
symbolic his triumph. A hundred
| lights blown out in one strong gust from
the open door of sepulcher Ziklag in
| ashes!
| Heaven to Win.
l preach this sermon today because /
want to rally you. as David rallied his
men, for the recovery of the loved and
the lost. want not only to win heav
en-, but want all this congregation to
go along with me. feel that somehow
l have responsibility in your arriving
at that great city. Do you really want
to join the companionship of your loved
ones who have gone? Are you as anxious
to join them as David and his men were
to Join their families? Then / am here,
in the name of God, to say that you
may and to tell you how.
Iremark. in the first place, if you want
to join your loved ones in glory, you
f! must travel the same way they went
| No sooner had the half dead Egyptian
been resuscitated than he pointed the
way the cap.ors and the captives had
gone, and David and his men followed
after. So our Christian friends have
gone into another country, and if we
want to reach their companionship we
must take the same road. They repent
ed We must repent. They prayed. We
must pray They trusted in Christ. We
must trust in Christ. They lived a re-
ligious life We must live a religious
life. They were in some things like our
selves. know, now they are gone, there
is halo around their names, but they
had their faults. They said and did
things they ought never to have said or
done. They were sometimes rebellious,