The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-11-07

his old habit comes back. He says he ha
been belated and could not get back unit
midnight He had to see some western
merchant that had arrived and talk Q
business with him before he got out Q
town. Kindness and geniality again qui
tho disposition of that husband and father
The wifes heart breaks in new place
That man goes into second wrestle witt
evil habit and is flung and all hell cackle
at the moral defeat. II told you sol" 50,
many good people who have no faith II
the reformation Of fallen man. II toll,
you sol You made great fuss about hi
restored home, but I knew 1t would no
last You can't trust these fellows VIII,
have once gone wrong" So with this I'm
fortunate, things get worse and worse
and his family have to give up the house
and the last valuable goes to the pawn
brokers' shop. But that unfortunate mar
is sauntering along the street one Sunday
night and he goes up to a church door
and the congregation are singing the sec
ond hymn, the one just before sermon, and
1t is William Cowper's glorious hymn:
There is fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Emmanuels veins
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
Lose all their guilty stains.
Victory Through Christ.
He goes Into the vestibule Of the church
and stops there, not feeling well enough
dressed to 60 among tho worshipers, and
he hears the minister say, "You will find
the words Of my text In Luke, the nine
tenth chapter and tenth verse, The Son
Of Man Is come to seek and save that which
was lost. The listener In the vestibule
says: "If any man was ever lost, I am
lost, and the Son Of Man came to save
that which is lost, and he has found me,
and he will take me out Of this lost con.
dition. Oh, Christ, have mercy on me"
The poor man has courage now to enter
the main audience room, and he sits down
on the first seat by the door, and when at
the close Of the service the minister comes
down the aisle the poor man tells his
story, and he is encouraged and invited to
come again, and the way is cleared for
him for membership in Christian church,
and he feels the omnipotence of what
Peter the apostle said when he spoke Of
those "kept by the power Of God through
faith unto complete salvation" Yet he
Is to have one more wrestle before he il
free from evil habits, and he goes into it
not in his own strength, for that has fail
ed him twice, but In the strength Of tho
Lord God Almighty. The old habit seizes
him, and he seizes 1t, and the wrestlers
bend backward and forward and from side
to side In awful struggle until tho mo-
Ment comes for his liberation, and with
both arms infused with strength from
God he lifts that habit, swings 1t In air
and hurls 1t into the perdition from which
1t came and from which 1t never again
will rise. Victory, victory, through our
Lord Jesus Christ Hear 1t, all 70 wres-
tlersl 1t threw him twice, but the third
time he threw 1t, and by the grace of God
threw 1t so hard he Is as safe now as II he
had been ten years in heaven. Oh, am
so glad that Paul in my text suggests the
wrestler and the power Of the third throw.
But notice that my text suggests that
the wrestlers on the other side In the great
struggle for the world g redemption have
all the forces Of demonology to help them,
'We wrestlo not against flesh and blood
but against municipalities, against powers,
against the rulers Of the darkness Of this
world, against spiritual wiokedness in
high places"
All military men will tell you that there
Is nothing more unwise than to under
an army. In estimating what
We have to contend with the most of the
reforlners do not recognize the biggest op-
posers. They talk about the agnosticism,
and the atheism, and tho materialism, and
the Nihilisn, and the Pantheism, and the
and the Mohammedanism,
As we'll as the more agile and organized
and endowed wickednessss of our day.
But these are only part of the hostili-
lies arrayed against God and the best in
erests Of humanity. The invisible hosts
Are far more numerous than tho visible.
II is not 80 much the bottle; 1t is the de-
non Of the BOTTLE It 10 not 20 much the
oulette table; IL is the demon Of the rou.
cite table. 1t Is not 20 much the act Of
took gambling as 1t 10 the demon Of stock
rambling. 1t ID the great host Of spiritual
antagonists led on by Aziel or Luoifer or
3eelzebub or Asmodeus or Ahrimanes or
Abaddon, just % you please to call the
eader infernalistio. Can you doubt that
he human agencies Of evil are backed up
" Plutonio agenoiesp II 1T were only
ommon war steed, with painting nostril
nd Haunting name and Gathering hoof,
ushing upon u.s. perhaps we might clutch
i'm by the bit and hurl him back upon
is launches, but 1t Is the black horse
avalry Of perdition who dash down, and
heir riders swing swords which, though
INVISIBLE, oleave individuals and homes
nd nations. tell you Paul was right
Then he suggested that we wrestle not with
Too butt mt 'rvfn &c hat |
8 unless the Lord Almighty 10 our ooad-
ltor. Blessed be God that we have now
nd further on will have In mightier de.
roe that divine helpl
Triumph of Rfghteousness.
The timo is coming-I know 1t will
uicken your pulses when mention it
hen the last mighty evil Of the world
ill be grappled by Righteousness and
lrown. Which Of the great evils will
lrvive all the others I know not, whether
ar or revenge or fraud Or lust or intern
erance or gambling or Sabbath desecra-
on. 1t will not be "the survival Of the
ttest, " but the survival of the worst. 1t
Ill be the evil the most thoroughly in
enched, most completely REINFORCED,
ost patronized by wealth and fashion
I'd pomp, most applauded by all the prin-
palities and powers and rulers Of dark
sss. 1t will stand, with grim visage
oking down upon the graves Of all the
her slain bominations-graves dug by
10 hot shovels Of despair and surmounted
, such epitaphiology as this: lit biteth
ke serpent and stingeth like an adder"
The wages Of sin is DEATH" "Her house
clineth unto death and her paths unto
% Dead" "There is way that seemeth
ght to a man, but the end thereof IL
ath." Yes imagine We have arrived
the time when we may say, Yonder
ands the last and only great evil Of all
o world to be wrestled down. 1t stands,
Vt only looking upon the graves Of all
Q entombed and epitaphed iniquities Of
Q world but ever and anon gazing up
ard in defiance of the heavens and shak-
E Its fist at the Almighty, saying:
Nothing can put me down. I have seen
the other enemies of the human race
estled down and destroyed, but there Is
arm or foot, human or angelic or de-
, that can throw me. have ruined
lole generations, and swear by all the
ronos Of diabolism that I will ruin this
Como on, all ye churches and
70 reformatory institutions and all 70
,islatures and all ye thronesl I ohal-
,ge you'll plant my feet on this redhot