Semi-weekly independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1895-1897, 1896-04-18

SltlOns through misrepresentation. Pub
lie abuse is all that some of our public
men have had to rely upon for their eleva-
ton. II 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
coed. just because they are not of enough
Importance to be abused. II is the nature
of 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 attempt-
ing to drive back the slandererS. Perse-
cution is elevation. Helen Stirk. the
Scotch martyr. standing with her hus-
band at the place of execution. said:
Husband let us rejoice to-day. 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. l viii not say
Good night, to you, for we shall soon be
in the kingdom of our Father together"
Persecution shows the heroes and hero
ines. ! 90 into another department. and
| find that those great denominations of
Christians which have been most abused
have ..pread the most rapidly.
No good man was ever more violently
maltreated than John Wesley-bcled and
caricatured and slandered. until one day
he stood in 4 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 cv-
erythiny but that His followers were
hootcd 1T and maligned and called by ev-
cry deteStable name that internal in@e-
nuity could invent. but the hotter the per-
secution the more rapidly they spread. I'M
Ill You know what 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 Prcsbyterianism. II
WAS persecution that gave our land first
II civil liberty and afterWard to religious
freedom. Yea, | might 20 farther back
and say il was persecution that gave the
world the great salvation of the gospel
The ribald moczery. the hungering and
thirsting. the unjust charge. the ignomini-
Gus death. when all the force of helrs
fury was hurled against the cross. was
the Introduction of that religion which is
yet to be the earth's delivcrance and our
eternal salvation. The state sometimes
said to the church, Come. take my hand.
and l VIII help YOU" What was the re-
suit: The church went back. and it lost
its estate of holiness. and it became in
effective. At other times the state said
to the church. Il will crush YOU" What
has been the result? After the storms
hav no: no rnr
from having lost any of its force, has in
creased and is worth infinitely more after
the assault than before. Read all his
tory, and you will find that true. The
church is far more indebted 10 the OPPOSE
ton of civil government than to It's ap-
proval. 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 the rumbling 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 favorite child was dead. They had
suppressed the crime, and it was pro-
found secret well kept by the brothers.
But suddenly the secret is out. The old
father hears that his son is in Egypt, hav-
ing 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 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 toward 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 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 cattle?'' Ain, my hearer, you cannot
keep an iniluity STILL At just the wrong
time the Sneep VIII peat ana the oxen
will below. Achan cannot steal the Bah
ylonish garment without being stoned to
dea til nor Arnold betray his country with
out having his neck stretched Look
over the police arrests. These thieves.
these burglars, these countcrfeiters, these
highwaymen, these assassins. they all
thought they could bury their iniquity SO
deep down it would never come to rcsur-
rection, but there was some shoe that
answered to the print in the soil, some
false keys found in their possession. some
bloody knife that whispered of the death
ard the public Indignation and the ana tn
ema of outraged law hurled them into the
dungeon or hoisted them on the galows.
Francis L., king of France, stood coun-
selling with his officers how he could take
his army into Italy, when Ameril, the fool
of the court, leaped out from a corner of
the room and said, You had better be
consulting how you will get your army
back" and it was found that Francis L.
and not Amcril, was the fool Instead of
consulting rs 10 the best way of getting
into sin, you had better consult as to
whether you will be able to get out of it,