Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-05-30

age. Oul yOuCeT tfty nave SlOpDeQ,
thirty miles up yonder they halted. On
this side the waters roll off toward the
salt sea. But as the hand of the Lord
God is taken away from the thus up
lifted waters-waters perhaps uplifted
half mile-as the Almighty hand is
taken away, those waters rush down,
and some Of the unbelieving Israelites
say: Alas, alas, what misfortune!
Why could not those waters have
stayed parted? Because per-
haps we may want to so
back. Oh, Lord, we are engaged
may eat US up. How if we want to go
back? Would it not have been a more
complete miracle if the Lord had part
ed the waters to let us come through
and kept them parted to let us go back
If we are defeated?" My friends, God
makes no provision for a Christians
retreat He clears the path all the way
to Canaan. To go back is to die The
same gatekeepers that swing back the
amethystine and crystalline gate OF the
Jordan to let Israel pass through, now
swing shut the amethystine and crys-
talline gate of the Jordan to keep the
Israelites from going back 1 declare it
water forty feet deep in the rear. Tri-
umph ahead, Canaan ahead; behind
you death and darkness and woe and
hell. But you say: why didn't those
Canaanites, when they had such q
splendid demonstrating on top Of
the bank thirty or forty feet high, COM
pletely demolish those poor Israleites
down in the river. 1 will tell you why.
m
going to keep it. There shall not any
man be able to stand before thee all
the days of thy life
But this Is no place for the host to
stop. Joshua gives the command,
Forward, march!" In the distance
there is long grove of trees, and at
the end Of the grove is a city. 1t is a
city of arbors, city with walls SEEM
ing to reach to the heavens. to buttres
the very sky. 1t is the great metropo-
lis that commands the mountain pass.
1t is Jericho. That city was afterward
captured by Pompey, and it was after
ward captured by Herod the Great,
and 1t was afterward captured by the
Mohammedans; but this campaign the
Lord plans. There shall be no swords,
no shields, no battering ram. There
shall be only one weapon of war, and
that rams horn. The horn of the
slain ram was sometimes taken and
holes were punctured in it, and then
the musician would put the instrument
to his lips, and he would run his fin
gers over this rude musical instrument,
and make great deal of sweet har
mony for the people. That was the
only kind Of weapon. Seven priests
were to take these rude rustic musical
instruments, and they were to go
around the city every day for six days
once a day for six days, and then On
the seventh day they were to go around
blowing these rude musical instruments
seven times, and then at the close Of
the seventh blowing of the rams horns
on the seventh day the peroration of
the whole scene was to be shout at
which those great walls should tumble
from capstone to base.
Joshua's troops may not halt here.
The command is: Forward, march,"
There is the city of All; it must be TAX
en-. How shall it be taken? A scouting
party comes back and says: Joshua,
we can do that without you; it is going
to be very easy job; you just stay
here while we go and capture it," They
of that city. The men of All look at them
and give one yell and the Israelites run
like RENDERS. The northern troops at
Bull Run did not make such rapid time
as these Israelites with the Canaanites
after them. They never cut such a sorry
figure as when they were on the re-
treat. Anybody that goes out in the
battles of God with only half force,
IA z hn Of
the men of All will take you. Look at the
church OF God on the retreat The
Bornesian cannibals ate up Munson,
the missionary. Fall backw said
great many Christian people-"Fall
back, oh church of God! Borneo will
never be taken. Don't you see the Bor-
nesian cannibals have eaten up Mum
son, the missionary" Tyndall delivers
his lecture at the University of Glas-
gov, and a great many good people
say: Fall back, oh church of God!
Don't you see that Christian philosophy
is going to be overcome by worldly phil
osophy? Fall back! Geology plunges
its crowbar into the mountains, and
there are great many people who say:
Scientific investigation is going to
overthrow the Mosaic account of the
creation. Fall backw Friends of God
have never any right to fall back
Joshua falls on his face in chagrin.
1t is the only time you ever see the back
of his head. He falls on his face and
begins to whine, and he says: "Oh, Lord
God, wherefore has thou at all brought
this people over Jordan to deliver us in
to the hand Of the Amorites, to destroy
us? Would to God we had been content
and dwelt on the other side of Jordan!
For the Canaanites and all the inhab-
itants of the land shall hear of it, and
shall environ us round and cut off our
name from the EARTH"
1 am very glad Joshua said that. Be-
fore it seemed as If he were a superna-
tural being, and therefore could not be
an example to us; but / find he is a
man, he is only man. Just as some
times you find a man under severe OPP
position, or in bad state of physical
health, or worn out with overwork, ly
ing down and signing about everything
being defeated. / am encouraged when
I hear this cry of Joshua as he lies in
the dust.
God comes and rouses him. How does
he rouse him? By complimentary apos-
trophe? No. He says: Get thee up.
Wherefore Hest thou upon thy face?"
To-, .,s..z II n.