Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-04-16

the corridors and show us the RuDens,
and the Raphaels, and the Michael Ange-
los? When we asked him, What is the art
OF paintingP he would point to the works
OF those great masters and say That Is
painting Now, you propose to find the
mere caricature Of religion, to seek after
that which Is the nero pretonsion Of a holy
life, and you call that religion. Ipoint you
to the splendid men and women whom
this gospel has blessed and lifted and
crowned. Look at the masterpieces of d.
vine grace If you want to know what re-
ligion is"
Persecution Reveals Heroism.
We learn also from this story of Joseph
that the result Of persecution is elevation.
Had it not been for his being sold into
Egyptian bondage by his malicious BROTH
ers and his false Imprisonment Joseph
never would have become a governor.
Everybody accepts the promise, "Blessed
are they that are prosecuted for righteous
ness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven, but they do not realize the fact
that this principle applies TO worldly as
well as spiritual success. It is true in all
departments. Men rise to high official
positions through misrepresentation Pub
Lie abuse is all that some of our public
men have had to rely upon for their eleva-
tion. 1t has brought to them what talent
and executive force could not have achiev-
ed. Many of those who are making great
effort for place and power will never sue.
ceed, just because they are not of enough
Importance to be abused. 1t is tho nature
or men-that Is, of all generous and rea-
sonable men-to gather about those who
are prosecuted and defend them, and they
are apt to forget the fault of those who are
the subjects of attack while attempting to
drive back the slanderers. Persecution is
elevation. Helen Stirk, the Scotch mar
tyr, standing with her husband at the
place Of execution, said Husband, let us
rejoice today. We have lived together many
happy years. This is the happiest time of
all our life. You see we are to be happy
together forever Be brave now-be brave.
will not say Good night!' to you, for we
shall soon be In the kingdom Of our Father
together" Persecution shows the heroes
and heroines. go into another depart
ment, and l find that those great denomi-
nations of Christians which have been
most abused have spread the most rapidly.
No good man was ever moro violently
maltreated than John Wesley-belied and
caricatured and slandered, until one day
he stood in pulpit in London and man
arose in the audience and said, "You were
drunk last night" and John Wesley said:
Thank God, the whole catalogue Is now
complete! have been charged with ev-
erything but that" His followers were
hooted at and maligned and called by ev-
cry detestable name that internal ingenuity
could invent, but the hotter the persecu-
tion the more rapidly they spread, until
you know what great host they have be-
come and what tremendous force for
God and the truth they are welding all
the world over. 1t was persecution that
gave Scotland to Presbytorianism. 1t was
persecution that gave our land first to civil
liberty and afterward to religious freedom.
Yea, might go farther back and say it
was persecution that gave the world the
great salvation of the gospel. The ribald
mockery, the hungering and thirsting,
the unjust charge, the ignominious death,
when all the force of hell's fury was hurled
against the cross, was the introduction of
that religion which is yet to be the earth's
deliverance and our eternal salvation The
state sometimes said to the church, Come
take my hand, and 1 will help you"
What was the result? The church went
back, and it lost its estate of holiness, and
it became ineffective. At other times the
state said to the church, II will crush
you" What has been the rcsult2 After
the storms have spent their fury the
church, SO far from having lost any of it's
force, has increased and Is worth infinitely |
more after the assault than before Read
all history, and you will find that true
The church is far more indebted to the op-
position of civil government than to it's
The fires of the stake have only |
been the torches which Christ held in his |
hand, by the light of which the church has
to her present glorious position. |
In the sound of racks and implements of |
torture hear the rumblng of the gospel |
chariot. The scaffolds of martyrdom have
been the stairs by which the church !
mounted.
Sin Exposes Itself.
Learn also from our subject that sin will |
come to exposure. Long, long ago had |
those brothers sold Joseph into Egypt. |
They had made the old father believe that |
his fayorite child was dead They had sup
pressed the crime, and it was a 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
BIS. How their cheeks must have burned |
and their hearts sunk at the flaming out of |
this long suppressed crime. The smallest
,nin1Iitu hoG thpncanI tny,o |
will blab out exposure. Saul was sent to
destroy the Canaanites, their sheep and
their oxen, but when he got down there
among the pastures he saw some fine sheep
and oxen too fat to kill so he thought he
would steal them. Nobody would know it.
He drove these stolen sheep and oxen to-
ward home, but stopped to report to the
prophet how he had executed his mission,
when in the distance the sheep began to
bleat and the oxen to below The secret
WIS out, and Samuel said to the blushing
and confused Saul, "What meaneth the
bleating of the sheep that hear and the
of tho catte?" All, my hearer,
you cannot keep an iniquity still. At just
jhe wrong time the sheep will bleat and
Jhe oxen will below. Achan cannot steal
the Baby1onish garment without being
stoned to death nor Arnold betray his
country without having his neck stretched
Look over the police arrests. These thieves
;hese burglars, these counterfeiters, these
these assassns, they all
thought they could bury their iniquity SO
leep down it would never come to resur-
'ection, but there was some shoe that
to the print in the soil, some
false keys found in their possession, somo
bloody knife that whispered of the death,
and the public Indignation and the anath-
sma Of outraged law hurled them into the
dungeon or hoisted them on the gallows.
Francis I, king of France, stood counsel
ing with his officers how he could tako his
army into Italy, when Ameril, tho fool OF