The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-04-18

fetal positions through misrepre-
sentation. Public abuse Is all
that some of our public men
have had to rely upon for their eleva-
ton. 1t has brought to 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 becaus
they are not of enough Importance to
be abused. 1t 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 at
tempting to drive back the slanderers-
Persecution is elevation. Helen Stark,
the Scotch martyr, standing with her
husband 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. 1 will not say Good
night to you for we shall soon be in
the kingdom of our Father together"
Persecution shows the heroes and
beroines. I go into another depart
ment and find that those great denom-
nations of Christians which have been
most abused have spread the most rap
idly. Nc good man vas ever more vi
olently maltreated than John Wesley
-belied and caricatured and ~slandered
until one day he stood in a pulpit in
London and a man arose in the audi
ence and said: "You were drunk
last night" and John Wesley
said: THANK God, the whole cat
alogue is now complete. 1 AVE been
charged with everything but thatl"
His followers were hooted at and
maligned and called by every detest-
able name that Internal ingenuity
could invent, but the hotter the perse-
cution the more rapidly they spread,
until you know what a great host they
have become and what a tremendous
force for God and the truth they are
welding all the world over. 1t was
persecution that gave Scotland to Pres
bvterianism. 1t was persecution that
gave our land first to civil liberty and
afterward to religious freedom. Yea,
I might go further back and say it was
persecution that gave the world the
great salvation of the gospel. The
ribald mockery, the h~ungering and
thirsting, the unjust charge, the igno-
minious death, when all the force of
hell's fury was hurled against the
cross, was the introduction of that re-
ligion which is yet to be the earth's
deliverance n our eternal salvation.
The state sometimes said to the
church: "Come take my hand and
will help you" What was the result?
The church went back and 1t lost its
estate of holiness, and it became inef-
feotive. At other times the state said
to the church: 81 will crush you?'
What was the result? 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 opposition of civil gov
eminent than to its approval 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 posi-
ton. In the sound of racks and i'm
plements of torture I hear the rumble
of the gospel chariot. The scaffolds
of m~artyrdom have been the stairs by
which the church mounted.
Learn also from our subject that sin
will come to exposure. Long, long
ago had those brothers sold Joseph in
to Egypt. They had made the old
father believe that his favorite child
was dead. They had suppressed the
crime, and 1t was a profound secret
well 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 sup
pressed crime. The smallest inquiry
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. No
body would know 1t. he drove these
stolen sheep and oxen toward home,
but stopped to report to the prophet
how he had executed his mission, when
In h distance the sheep began to
bleat and h oxen to below. The Sc
cret was out, and Samuel said to the
blushing and confused Saul: what
meaneth the bleating of the sheep hat
1 hear and the believing of the cat
tleP"
Ali my hearer, you cannot keep an
iniquity still. At just the wrong time
tho sheep will bleat and the oxen will
below. Aohan cannot steal the Baby
lonish garment without being stoned
to death, nor Arnold betray his coun-
try without having his neck stretched.
Look over the police arrests. These
thieves. these burglars, these counter
fsiters, these highwaymen,. these as
sassins. they ali thought they could
bury their iniquity SO deep down, it
would come to resurrection; 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, and
the public indignation and the anathe-
ma of outraged law hurled them into
the dungeon OF hoisted them IN the
gallows.
Francis l., king of France, stood
with his officers. how he
would take his army into Italy, when
Ameril, the fool Of the court, leaped
out from the corner of the room and
said: You had better be consulting
how you will get your army back"
and it was found hat Francis l., and
not Ameril, was the fool Instead of
as to the best way of get
ting into sin, you had better consult
Is to whether you will be able to get
out of it. If the world does
moi expose you. you will tell it
yourself. There is an awful power
in an aroused conscience. A highway
plunged out upon Whitefeld as he
along on horseback, a sack of
money On the horse-money hat he
had raised for orphan asylums, and
the highwayman put his hand on the
gold and Whiteield turned to him and
said: Touch hat If you dare; that
belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ
And the ruffian skunk into the forest,
Conscience! Consciencei The ruff
fan had a pistol, but Whitefield
shook at him the finger of doom.
Do not think hat you can hide
any great and p~rotracted sin in your
heart, my brother. In an unguarded
it will slip off the lip, or some
action may for the moment set
this door that you wanted to keep