Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1896-04-16


that this principle applies to worldly as
we'll as spiritual success. 1t is truo In all
departments. Men rise to high official
positions through Misrepresentation. Pub.
lie abuse Is all that some of our public
mon have had to rely upon for their eleva-
ton. 1t has brought to them what talent
and executive force could not have achev-
cd. Many Of those who are making great
effort for place and power will never sue
coed, just because they are not Of enough
Importance to be abused. 1t is the nature
Of mon-that is, of all generous and rea-
sonable men--to gather about those who
IRE prosecuted and defend them, and they
are apt to forget the fault OF those who arc
tho subjects of attack while attempting to
drive back the slanderers. Persecution Is
elevation. Helen Stirk, the Scotch mar
tyr, standing with her husband at tho
place of execution, said; Husband, let us
rejoice today. We have lived together many
happy years. This Is tho happiest timo Of
oil our life. You sec we are to DO happy
together forever. Be bravo now-bo brave.
l will not say Good nightN to you, for we
shall soon be in tho kingdom of our Father
together" Persecution shows the heroes
and heroines. go into another depart
ment, and find that those great denomi-
nations of Christians which have been
most abused have spread tho most rapidly.
No good man was ever moro violently
maltreated than John Wesloy-bolied and
caricatured and slandercd, until ono day
he stood in pulpit In London, ard q man
arose in the audience and said, You were
drunk last night" and John Wesley said:
"Thank God the whole catalogue Is now
completed have been charged with ev-
erything but that" His followers were
hooted at and maligned and called by ov.
cry detcstable name that Internal ingenuity
could invent, but the hotter the pcrsecu-
tion the more rapidly they spread, until
you know what great host they have bo-
come and what n tremendous force for
God and tho truth they arc welding all
the world over. 1t was persecution that
gave Scotland to Presbytcrianism. 1t was
persecution that gave our land first to civil
liberty and afterward to religious freedom.
Yea, might go farther back and say 1t
was persecution that gave the world the
great salvation Of the gospel Tho ribald
mockery, tho hungering and thirsting,
tho unjust charge, tho ignomnious death,
whom all tho force Of hells fury was hurled
against tho cross, was the introduction Of
that religion which Is yet to BIO the earth S
deiveranoe and our eternal salvation. The
state sometimes said to the church, "Come,
take my hand, and / will help you"
What was the resnlt9 The church went
back, and 1t lost Its estate OF holiness, and
it became ineffective. At other times the
state said to tho church, II will crush
YOU" What has been tho rcsultp After
the storms have spcnt their fury the
church, so far from having lost any OF its
force, has increased and Is worth infinitely
NOR" after tho assault than before. Read
all history. and you will find that truo.
rho church Is far moro indebted to the op-
position Of civil government thnn TO its
lpi"1vul. Tho fires of the stake have only
brrn he torches which Christ held in his
hand, By tho light of which the church has
MARCHED to her present glorious position.
In the sound of racks and implements of
torture hear tho rumbling of the gospel
chariot. The scatfolds OF martyrdom have
been tho stairs by which tho church
mounted
Sin Exposes Itself.
Learn also from our subject that sin will
como to exposure. Long, long ago had
those brothers sold Joseph into Egypt.
They had made the old father believe that
his favorito child was dead. They had sup
pressed tho crime, and 1t was u profound
secret we'll kept by the brothers. But sud
denly the secret is out. The old father
hears that his son is in Egypt, having been
sold there by the malice of his own broth
ers. How their cheeks must have burned
and their hearts sunk at the flaming out OF
this long suppressed crime. Tho smallest
iniquity has n thousand tongues, and they
will blab out exposure Saul was sent to
destroy the Cannanites, their sheep and
their oxen, but whom no got down there
among the pastures he saw some fine sheep
and oxen too fat to kill, so he thought he
would steal thom. Nobody would know It,.
He drove these stolen sheep and oxen to-
ward home, but stopped to report to tho
prophet how ho had executed his mission,
when In the distance the sheep began To
bleat and the oxen to below. The secret
was out, and Samuel said to the blushing
and confused Saul, what mcaneth the
| blcating Of the sheep that / hear and the
following Of the cattle?' All, my nearer,
you cannot keep an iniquity still. At just
| the wrong time the sheep will bcat and
| the oxen will below. Achan cannot steal
the Babylonish garment without being
stoned to death nor Arnold betray his
country without having his neck stretched
| Look over the police arrests These thieves,
| these burglars these counterfelters, these
| highwaymcn, these assassins, they all
| thought they could bury their iniquity SC
| deep down it would never come to rcsur-
| rcction, but there was somo shoe that
answered to tho print in tho soil, some
false keys found in thor possession, some
bloody knife that whispered Of tho death,
and tho public indignation and the anath-
ema of outraged law hurled them into the