The Monitor-register., 1897-01-22
Total given during u mos. 1897, 100000


of God. l tell you now of the lion.
Here is thought that have never
seen projected, and yet it is the most
cheering of all considerations and plain
ly Scriptural, the thought that as at the
opening of the gospel dispensation in
the Christly and Johanian and Pauline
days the machinery of the natural
world was brought into service, the
shadow OF eclipses and the agitation of
earthquakes, tempests put to sleep un-
der the voice of divine lullaby, iron
bolts of prisons showed back by invisible
muscle, kindling of flame on heads Of
worshlpers, by instantaneous pharmacy
blasted vision given full eyesight, and
the dead returned from the eternal
world, mingiing ansid earthly scenes,
SO it will be again.
Return of tkG Supernatural.
AS l read my Bible, these supernat.
urals are to return. Again the eclipses,
as at the destruction of Jerusalem, will
put red wing under the moon and black
wing under the sun, and the mountain
will shake with ague of excitement and
hospital cots be emptied as their pa
tients bound into sudden health and
the gospel of mercy emphasized by most
tremendous spectacles. "And I beheld
when he had opened the sixth seal,
and, 10, there was great earthquake,
and the sun became black as sackcloth
of hair, and the moon became as blood
and every mountain and island
were moved out of their placesl' There
you have it. The shoYels now digging
away at the mountains to be re-enforced
by thunderbolts. The gospel is only par
TALLY successful because we preach it
amid all placidities, the hearers having
heard the invitation thousand times
before and expect to hear it a thousand
times more, but in coming times to be
preached amid pulverized rocks and
stellar panics and shattered masonry
of cemeteries, from which the pallid
dead will spring into roseate life. say,
then the gospel will be universally &C.
cepted. There is the programme. First
the shovels, then the thunderbolts. Ours
the shovels, Gods the thunderbolts.
The text, which before we uttered with
something of trepidation, now we utter
in laugh of triumph: "Who art thou,
o great mountain? Before zerubbabel
thou shalt become plain" "
Sometimes general begins battle
refore he is ready, because the enemy
forces it on him. The general says:
''The enemy are pushing us, and SO
open battle. We are not sufficient to
cope with them, but | nope the reserve
forces will come up III time." The bat
tie RACES, and the general looks through
his fieldglass at the troops, but ever
and anon he sweeps his fieldglass back.
ward and upward toward the hill, tc
see if the reserve forces are coming.
Hard pushed are we, says the gen
eral. 81 do wish those s-enferoements
would come up" After awhile the
plumes of the advancing cavalry are
seen tossing on the ridge of the Hill,
and then the flash OF swords, and then
the long lines of mounted troops, then
no ses in full gallop. And the general
says: "All is well. Hold out, my men,
little longer. Let the sergeants ride
along the lines and cheer the men and
tell them re-enforcements are coming"
And now the rumbling of the batteries
and gun carriages is distinctly heard,
and soon they are in line, and at the
first roar of the newly arrived artillery
the enemy, little while before so jubi-
liant, fall back in wild retreat, theil
way strewn with canteens and knap.
sacks and ammunition, that the defeat
ed may be unhindered in their flight.
All Heaven to the Rescue.
That is just the way now. In this
great battle against sin and crime and
moral death the enemy seem too much
for u.s. More grogsbops than churches,
more bad men than good men, and they
come up with bravado and the force OF
great numbers. They have opened bat
tie upon us before we are, in our own
strength, ready to meet them, and great
are the. discouragements. But steady,
therel Hold onl Re-enforcemepts are
coming. Through the glass of inspira,
tion look and see the flash of the sword
of "him who hath ON his vesture and
Oh his thigh name written, King OF
kings and Lord Of lords" All heaven
is on our side and is coming to the res
cue. hear the rumbling Of the Kings
artillery, louder than any thunder that
ever shook the earth, and with every
roll of the ponderous wheels our cour-
age augments, and when these re-en-
forcements from heaven get into line
with the forces of God already on earth
all the armies of unrighteousness will
see that their hour of doom has come
and will waver and fall back and take
flight and nothing be left of them save
here and there, strewn by the wayside,
an agnostic's pen, or broken decanter,
or torn play bill of debasjng amuse
ment, or a blasphemous paragraph, or
leper's scale, or dragons tooth, tc
show they ever existed. Let there be
cheering all along the lines of Christian
workers over the fact that what the
shovels fail to do will be accomplished
by the thunderb bolts "Who art thou,
. great mountain? Before Zerubbabe
thou shalt become plain.
The mountains look on Marathon,
And Marathon looks on the sea.
Shrine of the mighty, can it be
1hat tits is al realms u thee?
c!ann0p