Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1897-01-21

gaze upon us complete prostration, for
what is the use Of my keeping back any
longer the full statement Of the fact,
which have somewhat delayed through
lawful sermonic strategy, the fact that the
Lord God Almighty, in the full play of
his omnipotence, win accomplish this su-
pernal work. II God can build noun
tain, guess he can remove mountain.
After God has given full opportunity for
the shoyels he will come In with his thun-
derbolts We have amplifed the idea Of
the Lamb of God. / tell you now of the
lion. Here is thought that have never
seen projected, and yet it is tine most cheer
ing of all considerations and plainly Scrip
tural, the thought that as at the opening
of the gospel dispensation In the Christly
and Jobanian and Pauline days the ma
chinery of the natural world was brought
into service, the shadow of eclipses and
the agitation of earthquakes, tempests put
to sleep under the voice of divine lullaby,
iron bolts of prisons showed back by invisi-
BILE muscle, kindling of flame on heads Of
worshipers, by instantaneous pharmacy
blasted vision given full eyesight, and the
dead returned from the eternal world,
mingling amid earthly scenes, so it will be
again.
As I read my Bible, these supernaturals
are to return. Again the eclipses, as at the
destruction of Jerusalem, will put red
wing under the moon and black wing un-
der the sun, and the mountain will shake
with ague of excitement and hospital cots
be emptied as their patients bound into
sudden health and the gospel of mercy
emphasized by most tremendous specta-
cles "And beheld Nhen 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 shovels now dig
ging away at the mountains to be re-en-
forced by thunderbolts. The gospel is on
ly partially successful because we preach
it amid all placidities, the hearers having
heard the invitation thousand times be-
fore and expect to hear it, 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. l say then the gospel will be
universally accepted. There is the pro-
gramme. First the shovels, then the thun-
derbolts. Ours the shovels, God 8 the thun-
derbolts. The text, which before we utter
ed with something of trepidation, now we
utter in laugh of triumph, "Who art thou,
o great mountain9 Before Zerubbabel
thou shalt become plain.
Cheer For Christian Workers.
Sometimes general begins battle be-
fore he is ready, because the enemy forces
it on him. The general says: "The enemy
are pushing u.s. and SO open battle. We
are not sufficient to cope with them, but I
hope the reserve forces will come up in
| time" The battle RACES, and the general
looks through his fleldglass at the troops
| but ever and anon he sweeps his fleldglass
| backward and upward toward the hill to
see if the reserve forces are coming. "Hard
| pushed are we" says the general II do
wish those re-enforcements would come
| up" After awhile the plumes of the ad-
vancing cavalry are seen tossing on the
ridge of the hill, and then the flash of
swords and then the long lines of mount
ed troops, their horses in full gallop, and
| the general says: "All is we'll. Hold out,
my men, a little longer. Let the sergeants
ride along the lines and cheer the men and
tell them re-enforcements are coming. I"
| 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, a
little while before SO jubilant, fall back in
wild retreat, their way strewn with can
| teens and knapsacks and ammunition, that
the defeated may be unhindered in their
flight.
| That is just the way now. In this great
battle against sin and crime and moral
death the enemy seem too much for us.
More grogshops than churches. More bad
men than good men, and they come up
with bravado and the force of great num-
bers. They have opened battle upon us be-
fore we are in our strength ready to meet
| them, and great are the disoouragements.
But steady therel Hold onl Re-enforce-
ments are comingl Through the glass Of
inspiration look and see the flash of the
sword of "him who hath ON his vesture
and ON his thigh a name written, King OF
kings and Lord of lords.'' All heaven Is
on our side and is coming to the rescue.
hear the rumbling of the King artillery,
louder than any thunder that ever shook
the earth, and with every roll of the pom
derous wheels our courage augments, and
when these re-enforoements 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
fight and nothing be left Of them save
here and there, strewn by the wayside, ar
agnostic's pen, or broken deoanter, or q
torn playbill Of debasing amusement, OF
blasphemous paragraph, or leper't
scale, or dragons tooth, to show they ev
er existed. Let there be cheering all along
the lines of Christian workers over tht
fact that what the shovels fail to do will
be accomplished by the thunderbolts
"Who art thou, o great mountain Be
fore Zerubbabel thou shalt become plain. >
Il The mountains look on Marathon.
And Marathon looks on the sea.
Shrine of the mighty, can it be
That this Is all remains of thee?