Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1895-04-26

the last vcstigc Of hope is taken from
them. Thus those who ought to go ant
lift and save them are guilty Of stripping
the slain
The point want to make is this; Sir
is hard, cruel and merciless Instead Of
helping a man up it helps him down, and
when like Saul and his comrades. You lie
on the field, it viii come and steal your
sword and helmet and shield, leaving you
to the iackal and crow.
satan's Work.
But the world and satan do not do all
their work with the outcast and abandon
ed A respectable impenitent man comes
to die He is fat on his back. He could
not get up if the house was on fire. Adroit-
est medical skill and gentlest nursing
have been a failure He has come 10 his
last hour What does satan do for such
a man? Why, he fetehes up all the inapt,
disagreeable and narrowing things in his
life. He says: "Do you remember those
chances you had for heaven and missed
themY Do you remember all those lapses
in conduct? Do you remember all those
Opprobrious words and thoughts and ac-
tions? Don't remember them, ell? III
make you remember them. " And then
he takes all the past and empties it on
that deathbed, as the mailbags are emp
tied on the postofiice floor. Theman is sick
He cannot get away from them
Then the man says to satan: "You
have deceived me. You told me that all
would be well. You said there would be
no trouble at the last You told me if /
did so and so you would do so and so.
Now you corner me, and hedge me up,
and submerge me in everything evil.
Ha ha" says satan. Il was only fooling
you. It is mirth for me to see you suffer
I have been for 30 years plotting to get you
just where you are. 1t is hard for you now
1t will be worse for you after awhile It
pleases me. Lie still, sir. Don't finch or
shudder Come now, I VIII tear off from
] you the last rag Of expectation I win
. rend away from your soul the last hope
will leave you bare for the beating of the
/ storm. 1t is my business to strip the slain "
While men are in robust health, and
/ their digestion is good, and their nerves
are strong, they think their physical
strength will get them safely through the
last exigency. They say it is only coward
~ women who are a raid az the last and
cry out for God. "Wait till come to die
will show you. You won't hear me pray,
nor call for a minister, nor want chapter
read me from the Bible But after the
man has been three weeks in a sicllroOm
his nerves are not so steady, and his world
ly companions are not anywhere near to
cheer him up, and he is persuaded that he
must quit life His physical courage is |
all gone
Too Late.
He jumps at the fall of a teaspoon in a
saucer He shivers at the idea of going
away. He says; "Wife, 1 don't think my
infldelity is going to take me through For |
81 ..T,sT
to do as / have done. If you feel like it, |
wish you would read a verse or two out /
of Fannies Sabbath school hymnbook or
New Testament" But satan breaks in
and says: You have always thought re-
ligion trash and lie. Don't give up at
the last. Besides that you cannot, in the
hour you have to live, get of on that
track. Die as you lived. With my great
black wings I shut out that light Die In
darkness. I rend away from you that last
vestige Of hope. 1t is my business to strip
the Slain. "
A man who had rejected Christianity
and thought it all trash came to die He
was in the sweat of "a great agony, and his
wife said, 1--WE had better have some
prayer. Mary, not a breath of that, -
he said. "The lightest word of prayer
would roll back on me like rocks on
drowning man. 1 have come to the hour
Of test. had chance, but forfeited it
I believed in "A liar, and he has left me in
the lurch. Mary, bring me Tom Paine
that book that I swore by and lived by,
and pitch it into the fire and let it burn
and burn as I myself shall soon burn "
And then, with the foam on his lip and
his hands tossing wildly in the air, he
cried out: "Blackness Of darknessl Oh,
my God, too latel" And the spirits of
darkness whistled up from the depth and
wheeled around and round him, stripping
the slain.
Sin is a luxury now. 1t is exhilaration
now. 1t is victory now. But after awhile
it is collision. 1t is defeat 1t is exter-
mination. It is iackalism It is robbing
the dead. 1t is stripping the slain. Give
it up today-give it up Oh, how you have
been cheated on, my brother, from one
thing to anotherl All these years you
have been under an evil mastery that you
understood not. What have your co1npan
ions done for your What have they done
for your health? Nearly ruined it by ca
rousal. What have they done for your for
tuner Almost scattered it by spendthFft
behavior. What have they done for your
Almost ruined it with good
men. What have they done for your inn 1
mortal soul? Almost insured its over
throw.
On to shipwreck.
You are fastening on toward the CON :
Of all that is sad. Today you :
stop and think but it is only for mo- :
ment, and then you will tramp on, and at :,
the close of this service you will go out 4
and the question win be, 'HOw did you
like the sermong" And one man will 3,
say, II liked it very well, - and another \
man will say, i didn't like it at ALL " but :
neither Of the answers will touch the tire I
mendOus fact, that, if impenitent, you are 4
going at 30 knots an hour toward ship r
wreck. Yea, you are in a battle where you !.
will fall, and while your surviving rela- !,
lives viii take your remaining estate and =
5he cemetery will take your body, the mes
sengers of darkness will take your soul h
Ind come and 60 about you stripping the -
lain. i
Many are crying out, II admit am n
ilain-I admit it. " On what battlefield, n
ny brothers2 By what weapon? pol :,
uted imagination, - says one man. I'm -
0xicating liquor, says another man :,
My own hard heart, " says another man =,
Do you realize this? Then l come to tell Il
-ou that the omnipotent Christ is ready to -
walk across this battlefield and revive and =.
and resurrect your dead soul a.
let him take your hand and rub away =,
he numbness; your head and battle off Z
he aching; your heart and stop its wild
hrob. He brought Lazarus to life; he Sc
rought Jairus daughter to life; he Il
rought the young man Of Main to life, Of
nd these are three proofs anyhow that he N
an bring you to life. Il
When the Philistines came down on the d;
ED, they stepped between the corpses, d
nd they rolled over the dead, and they Il
1ok away everything that was valuable, Il
nd so it was with the people that follow al
after the armies at Charlottesville, OF
nd at Pittsburg Landing, and at Stone be
liver and at Atlanta, stripping the slain, ii