The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-05-11


Arabia was the law school, the theolog-
ical seminary, the university Of rock
and sand, from which be graduated for
mission that will ba!k seas and drown
| armies and follow the cloud Of fire by
night and start the workmen with
bleeding backs among Egyptian brick
kilns toward the pasture lands that flow
with milk and the trees of Canaan drip
ming with honey. Gracious God, teach
ali the people this lesson. You must 60
into humiliation and retreat and hidden
closets of prayer if you are to he fitted
for special usefulness. How did John
the Baptist get prepared to become
forerunner of Christ? Show me his
wardrobe. 1t will be hung with silken
socks and embroidered robes and attire
Of Syrian purple. Show me his dining
table. On it the tankarGs aElush with
the richest wines of the vineyards Of
Engedi and rarcst birds that were ever
caught in net and sweetest venison that
ever dropped antlers tcfor" the hunter.
No; we are directly told 1.-The Same
John had bis Taiment Of camel S hair
bot the fine hair CT the camel which
we call camlet, but the lCng, coarse hair
such as begSars in the cast wear-and
bis only meat was Of insects, the green
locust, about two inches long. roasted,
disgusting food. Thr>a Insects were
caught and the wings and legs torn OFT,
and they were stuck on wooden sp;tS
and turned before the fire. The Bedoulns
pack them in salt ana carry them III
sacks. What menu for John the Bap:
tist! Through what deprivation be came
to what exultation
And you will have to go down before
you 60 up. From the pit into which his
brothers threw him and the prison IN
which his enepies incarcerated him
Joseph rose to be Egyptian prime min
lister. Elijah, who was 70 be the great
est Of all the ancient prophets; Elijah,
who made King Ahab's knees knock to-
gether with the prophecy that the dogs
would be his only undertakers; Elijah,
whose one prayer brought more than
three years of drought and whose other
prayer brought drenching showers; the
man who wrapped up his cape OF sheep
skin into a roll and with it cut path
through raging Jordan for just two men
to pass over; the man who with Wheel
Of fire rode over death and escaped into
the skies without lnortuary disln1esra-
tion; the man who, thousands or years
after, was called out Of the etern!tles to
stand beside Jesus Christ en- Mount Ia
bor when it was ablaZe with the splen-
dors of transfguration-this man could
look back to the time when voracicus
and filthy ravens were his only caterers.
You see John Knox preaching the
coronation sermon of James VI and ar
raigning Queen Mary and Lord Darnley
in public discourse at Edinburgh and
telling the French ennassador to 60
home and call his king murderer,
JOHN Knox making all Christendcm feel
his moral power and at his burial the
Earl of Morton saying, "Here lieth
man who in his lifo never feared the
face of man. Where did John Knox
get much Of his schooling for such re-
sounding and everlasting achievement:
He got it while in chains pulling at the
boats car in French captivity. So the
privatious and hardsbips Of your life
may on smaller scale to the preface
and introduction to usefulness aud VIC
tory.
See also in this call Ct Moses that
God has great memcry. -Four hundred
years before he had promised the deliv-
erance of the oppressed Isr.. ,lites OF
Esypt. The clock CT time has struck
the hour, and now Moses is called to
the work of rescue" Four hundred years
is a very long time, but you sre God
can remember promise 400 years as
well as YOU can remember 400 minutes.
-Four hundred years include all your
ancestry that you knew anything about
and all the promises made 20 them, and
we may expect fulfi!lment in our heart
and life blessings llIat we're predicted
to our Christian ancestry centuries ago.
You have q dim remembrance. If any
remembrance at all, CT your great t-srand-
father but God sees those who were on
their knees in 1898 as we'll us those Oh
their knees in 1888, and tie blessings
he promised the former and their de-
scepdants have arrived or will arrive.
While piety is not hereditary it is
grand tning to have had piOus ances-
try. So God in this chapter calls up
the pedigree of the people whom Moses
was to deliver, aud Moses is ordered to
cav to them, "The Lord God Of your ia.
theirs, the God of Abraham. the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob, hath sent
NE unto you If that thUCgh5 bc dl.
yinelv accurate, let NE ask, What are
we doing by prayer and by holy life
! for the REDEMPTION of the next 400 years:
! Our work is not only with the people CT
the latter part of the nineteenth century,
! but with those in the closing of the
! twentieth century and the closing OF
! the twenty-frst century and the clci-
ing Of the twenty-second century and
the closing of the twenty third century.
! For 400 wears, if the world continues to
! swing until that time, or if it drops,
then Notwithstanding the influence will
! 20 On in other latitudes and lcngitudes
! of Gods universe.
No one realizes how great be is for
good or for evil. There are branchlngs
out and rebounds and reverberations
and Celebrations of influence that can
not be estimated The 80 or 100 years