Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-07-16

You must give up Agag or give up
Christ Jesus says, "All Of that heart
or none " saul slew the poores; Of the
! sheep and the nleaDest of the oxen and
] kept some Of tie finest and the fattest,
and there are Christians who have slai1
the mcst unpopular Of their tTansgres-
! sions and saved those which are most
respectable. 1t will not do. Eternal
war against all tine Amalekites-nO mer-
cy for Agag
learn further from this subject that
/ it is vain to try 10 defraud God. Here
Saul thought he had cheated God out
of those sheep and oxen, but be lost
his crown, lie lost his empire. You can
not cheat God out Of a single cent.
Here is a man who has made $4,000
in fraud Before he dies every dollar Of
it will be gone, or it viii give him viO-
lent unrest. Here is Christian who
has been largely pTospered. he has not
given 70 God the proportion that is due
in charities and beneyolences. God
comes to the reckoning. and he takes it
all away from you. How often it has
been that Christian men have had
large estate and it is gone The Lord
God came into the counting room and
said: Il have allowed you TO have all
this property for 10, 10 or 20 years, and
you have not done justice 10 my poor
children. When the beggar called upon
you. you hounded him off your steps;
when my suffering children appealed to
you for help, you had 10 mercy. | only
asked for so much or so much, but you
did net give it to me, and now will
ta;e it all
The safe Course.
Gcd asks Of US one-seyenth Of our time
in tie way Of Sabbath. Do you suppose
we can gct an hour Of that time success
fully away from its true object: No, no.
God has demanded one-seyenth of your
time. If you take one hour Of that time
that is 10 be devoted to Gods service
and instead Of keeping his Sabbath use
it for The purpose Of writing up your
accounts or making worldly gains. God
will get that hour from you in some un-
expected way. God says TO Jonah, You
20 to Nineyeh" " He says: mo,
won't III 90 to Tarshish. " He starts
for Tarshish. The sea raves, the winds
blow and the ship rocks. Come, We
whales, aud take this passenger for Tar
shishl No man ever gets to Tarshish
whom God tells to 90 to Nineyeh. The
sea would not carry him; it is Gods
sea. The winds would not watt him;
they are Gods winds Let man at
tempt to do that which God forbids him
to do or to 60 into place where God
tells him not 10 60, the natural world
as well as God il against him. The
lightnings are ready to strike him, the
fires TO bum him, the sun TO smite him,
the waters TO drown him, and the earth
10 swallow him. Those whose prlncely
robes are woven cut Of hoartstrlngs,
those whose fine houses are built out Of
skulls, those whose springing fountains
are the tears Of oppressed nations, have
they successfully cheated God,
The last day will demonstrate. lt
will be found out on that day that God
vindicated not only his goodness and
his mercy, but his power to take care Of
his own rights ard the rights Of his
church and the rights Of bis oppressed
children. Come, We maTtyred dead,
awake and come up from the dungeons
where folded darkness hearsed you and
the chains ike cankers peeled loose the
skin and wore of the flesh and ratified
ON the marrowless bones. Come, ye mar
tyred dead, from the stakes where you
were burned, where the arm uplifted
for mercy fell into the ashes and the
cry Of pain was drowned in the snap
ming of the fame and the bowling Of
the mob; from valleys Of Piedmont and
smithfeld market and London Tower
and the highlands of Scotland. Gather
in great procession and togeths- clap
yCur hOny hands, and together stamp
your moldy feet and let the chains that
bound you TO dungeons all clank at
once and gather all the flames that
burned you in one uplifted arm Of fire
and plead for a judgment. Gather all
the tears ye ever wept into lake and
gather all the sighs ye ever breathed
into tempest until the heaven piercing
chain clank and the tempest sigh and
the thunder groan announce to earth
and hell and heaven judgment. On,
on that day God will yindicate his own
cause and yindicate the cause Of the
troubled and the oppressed 1t will be
seen in that day that though we may
have robbed our fellows, We never have
successfully robbed God.
My Christian friends, as you 60 out
into the world exhibit an open hearted
Christian frankness. Do not be hypo-
critical in anything. You are never safe
if you are. At the most inopportune
moment the sheep will bleat and the
oxen below. Drive out the last Amale-
kite Of sin from your soul. Have no
mercy on Agag. Down with your sins,
down with your pride, down with your
worldliness. know you cannot achieve
this work by your own arm, but al
mighty grace is suflicient-that which
saved Joseph in the pit, that which de-
livered Daniel in the den, that which
shielded Shadrach in the Ere, that which
cheered Paul in the shipwreck.
A NEW DINNER FAD.