Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1895-11-08

nacherib'5 living hosts into nedp y.
$4,000 corpses. Those yonder chanted
the Christmas carol over Betnie-
hem until the chant awoke the
shenherds. These. at creation. stood in the
balcony of heaven and serenaded the new.
born world wrapped in swaddling clothes OF
light. And there, holier and mighter than
alI. is Michael. the archangel. To command
an earthly host gives dignity. but this one Is
leader of the 900 charlots OF Goi ana OF
the ten thousand times ten thousand Angels.
I think God gives command to the arch
angel. and the archangel to the serapnlm,
and the seraphim to the cherublm, until all
the lower orders OF heaven hear the COM
mand aud 90 forth on the high behesf.
Now bring on your lions! VINO can learI
All the spectators in the angelic galery are
our friends. "He shall give HIS angels
charge over thee to keep thee in al thy
wavs They shall bear thee UP in their
hands. lest thou dash thy foot against
stone. Though shalt tread upon the lion
md adder: the young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trampe un1erfoot.
Though the arena be crowded with tempta-
Hons we shall. with the angelic help, strike
them down in the name Of our God and lean
nm their fallen carcaeses Oh. bending
thronc Of bright. angelic faces and swift
wings and lightning foot. I hail you today
from the dust and struggle OF the arena
I look again, and sec the gallery OF the
prophets and apostles. Who are those mighty
ones nm wonder? Hosea and Jeremiah and
Daniel ana Isaiah and Paul and Peter and
John and James. There sits Nolh. waiting
for all the world to come into the ark, and
Moses. waiting till tie Last Red Sea SHALL di-
vide. and Jeremiah. waiting for the Jews to
return. and John OF the Apocalypse. waiting
for the swearing Of the angel that time shall
be no longer Glorious spirits! Ye were
howled at: We were stoned; ye were spit
uponl They have been in the fight them
selves, and they ars all with us. Daniel
knows all about lions. Paul fought with
beasts at Ephesus
Ia the ancient amphitheatre The people
got so excited that they would shout from
the galleries TO The men in the ARENA AZ
IT. againi" 'Forwardl' Zone more strole.
'I.ook out!7 "Fall back!" "Huzza! Hu2za'
So In that gallery. prophetic and ap 'stolic.
they cannot keep their peace. Daniel cries
out; "Thy God will deliver thee from the
month Of the lonsr' David excaims. "He
will not suffer thy foot to be moved!' Isaiah
calls out: "Fear nol an with thee! Be
not dismaved" Paul exclaims: "Victory
through our Lord Jesus Christi" That
thronc If prophets and apostles cannot keep
sill THY make the welkia ring with
shouting and halleIuiahs.
I look again AMI see the gallery OF tho
martyrs. Who is hat? Hugh Lqtimer, sure
enough! He would not apologize for tho
truth preached, and so he died. the night
before swinging from the bedpOst in perfect
g!es at the thought OF emancipation. Who
are that army of $685.? They are the
Thehan legion who died for the faith. Here
is a larger host in magnificent array-SS4,~
O0J-who persisted for Christ in the perse-
cution of Diocletian. Yonder is family
prOup-Felctas, of Rome. and her chill
dren. While they were dying for the faith
she stood encouraging them. One son was
whipped to death by thorns, another was
flung from rock, another was beheGded.
At last the mother became martyr. There
they are, together-a family group in heav-
EN- Yonder is John Bra1forl, who said in
the Ere. eve shall have merry supper With
the Lord tonight" Yonder is Henry Woes.
who exclaimed az he died. eff L had
ten heads they should all fall oil
for Christ" The great thron2 OF tho
martyrs! They had hot lead poured down
their throats horses were fastened to their
hands and other horses to their feet. and
thus they were pulled apart. They had their
tongues pulled out by redhot piAchers; they
were sewed up in the SKINS OF animals and
then thrown to the dogs; they were daubed
with combustibles and set on fire. II all the
martyrs stakes that have been kindled
could be set at proper distances, tney
would make the midnight all the world
over bright as MONDAY And now they
slt yonder in the martyrs gallery. For them
the fires Of persecution have gone out. me
swords are sheathe aud the mob hushed.
Now they watch us with an all ooservlnS
sympathy. They know all the pain, all the
hu~ oil ha the
all the privation. They cannot keep Sill.
They cry: "Courage! The fire will not con-
sumo. 9'he floods cannot drown The lions
cannot devour Courage, down there in tho
arena"
What are they all looking? This night
we answer back the salutaton they give an l
cry, HAL. sons and daughters OF tho ireF
| look again, and / see another gallery,
that of eminent Christians. What Strikes
me strangely is the mixing in companio,nnshlp
of those who on earth could not agree. Tner5
I see Martin Luther, and beside him Roman
Catholic who looked beyond the supersti-
lions of his church and is saved. There
is Albert Barnes and around him the presOy-
terv which tried him for heterodoxy
Yonder is Lyman Beecher and the church
court that denounced him. Stranger than
all there are John Calvin and James Ar
minus! Who would have thought they
would sit so lovingly together? There arc
George Whitefeld and the BISHOPS VINO
would not let him come into their pulplts De-
cause they thought him fanatic. There are
the sweet singers-Top'ady, Montgomery,
Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts and FRS.
Sigourney. Ifheaven had had no music pc
fore they went up, they would have started
the singing. And there the band oil mission
aries David Abee. talking OF China re-
dcamed. and John Scudder Of India save,
and David Brainerd of the aborgineS evan
cclizeI. and Mrs. Adoniram Judson. whose
PRAYERS for Burma took heaven by vioenre'
All these Christians are looking into tho
arena. Our struggle is nothing to theirs.
DO We in Christ's cause. suffer from tu'
cold? They walked Greenland icy m0uu-
tains. Do we suffer from the heat? Ihey
swelterel in the tropics. Do we geS
Taligued? They tainted with none TO cara
for them but cannibals. Are we persecutei'
They were mathematical. Aud as they loo;
from their gallery and see US falter IN the
presence of The lions l seem to hear lsaa'
Watts addressing us in his old hymn, only
little changed:
Must YOU be carried TO tie skies
On flowery beds Of ease,
While others fought to win the pr,zc,
Or sailed through bloody s as!
Toplady shouts in his Old hymn.
Your harps, We trembling saints,
Down from the willows take,
Loud to the praise Of love divine,
Bid every string awake.
While Charles Wesley, the Methods, breaks
forth in his fayorite words, little varied:
A charge to keep you have,
A God to glorify,
never dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky