The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1896-04-22

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this gospel has blessed aud lifted I and
crowned. Look at the masterpieces
Of divine grace if you want to know
what religion is.n t
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 brothers and his falsn
imprisonment Joseph never would
have become governor. Every body
accepts the promise, BLESSED are they
| that are prosecuted for Righteousness
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heay.
en-" but they do not realize tho fact
that this principle applies to worldly as
we'll as spiritual success. It is true in
all departments. Men rise to high Of
acial positions through misrepresenta
ton. Public abuse is all that some OF
our public men have had to RELY upon
for their elevation. It has brought 10
them what talent and executive force
could not have achieved. Many of
those who are making great effort for
place and power will never succeed,
just because they are not of enough
importance to be abused. It is the
nature Of men-that is, of all generous
and reasonable 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 eleva-
ton. Helen Stirk, the Scotcn mar
tyr, standing with her husband at the
let us rejoice today. We have lived
En hor H. - e.
the happiest time Of ali our life. You
see we are to be happy together for.
eyer. %;1 ~ Be ss brave noa no%pe oIht brave
we shall soon be in the kingdom of our
Father together" Persecution shows
the heroes and heroines. I go into
another department.. and I find those
great denominations of Christians
spread the most rapidly.
No good man was ever moro violent
" maltreated than John Wesley--be-
lied and caricatured and slandered,
until one day he stood in o pulpit in
London, and man arose In the audi
ence and said, 'You were drunk last
night, and ohm Wesley said "Thank
God, the whole catalogue is now com.
plete have been charged with ev-
erything but that" His followers
were hooted at and maligned and call
ed by every detestable name that infer
nal ingenuity could invent, but the
hotter the persecution the more rapid
ly they spread, until you know what a
great host they have become and what
tremendous force for God and the
truth they are welding all the world
over. 1t was persecution that gave
Scotland to Presbyterianism. 1t was
persecution that gave our land first to
civil liberty and afterward to religious
freedom. Yea, I might GO farther
back and say it was persecution that
gave the world the great salvation of
the gospel. The ribald mockcry, the
hungering and thirsting, the unjust
charge, the lgnominious 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 d3liverance and our eternal
salvation. The fsate sometimes said
to the church, Come, take my hand,
and will help you" What was the
result9 The church went back, and it
lost it's estate of holiness, and it be-
came ineffective. at other times the
state said to the church. II will crush
you.' What has been the result2 AZ
ter the storms have spent their fury
the church, so far from having lost
any Of its 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 opposition
of civil government than to its appro-
val. The fires of the stake have only
been the torches which Christ held in
his hand, by the 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 scafolds of martyrdom have been
the stairs by which the church mount
ed.
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 favorite child
was dead. They had suppressed the
crime, and it was 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 brothers. How their cheeks must
have burned and their hearts sunk at
the flaming out of this long suppressed
crime. The smallest iniquity has a
thousand tongues, and they will blab
out exposure. Saul was sent to destroy
the Canaanites, their sheep and their
oxen, but when he got down there
amOnp the oost,lras ha saw soma fina
sheep and oxen too fat to kill, SO he
thought he would steal them. No
body would know it. He drove these
stolen sheep and oxen toward home,
but stopped to report to the prophet
how he had executed his mission,
whom 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
meaneth the bleating of the sheep that
! hear and the believing of the cattle9"
An, my hearer, you cannot keep an
the sheep will bleat and the oxen will
below. Achan cannot steal the Baby
lonish garment without being stoned
to death nor Arnold betray his county
without having his neck stretched.
Look over the police arrests. These
thieves, these burglars, these counter
feiters, these highwaymen, these assas.
sins, they all thought they could bury
their iniquity so deep down it would
never come TO resurrection, but there
was some shoe that answered to the
print in the soil, some fale keys found
ia their possession, some bloody knife
hat L Il i ~. y ~ :