The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-11-15

what we have to contend with. the
most OF the reformers do not z
the biggest opposers. They talk about
the agnosticisn, and the atheism. and
the materialisn, and the nihilism. and
the ~pantheism. and the Branmauism,
and the A0hammedaniSm as well as
the more agile and organized and en-
dowed wickeiness Of our day. But
these are only a part Of the hostiliGies
arrayed against God and the best in
terests Of humanity. The invisible
hosts are far more numerous than the
visible. IL is not so much the bottle:
il Is the demon Of the bottle. Il is not
So much the roulette table: il Is the
demon Of the roulette table. Ii is not
- much the act OF stock gambling as
il is the demon Of stock gambling. 1t
Is the great host Of spiritual antagon-
lists led on by AZiel or Lucifer or Beel-
Zebub or Asmodeus or Ahrimanes or
AbaddOn. just as yOu please to call
the leader infernalistic. Can b doubt
that the human agencies Of evil are
backed up by Plutonic agencies? II if
We're only a Common war steed. with
painting nostril and Haunting name and
Gathering hOOf. rushing Upon US. per-
haps we might clutch him by the bit
and hurl him back upon his launches.
but il is the black horse cavalry Of per-
dition who dash down and their riders
swing swords which. though invisible.
cleave individuals and homes and ma
tons. ! tell you. Paul was right when
he suggested that we wrestle. not with
pygmies. but with giants that will
down US. unless the Lord Almighty is
our c~OadjutOr. Blessed by God tina we
have now. and further on will have in
mightier degree. that divine help,
THE OVERTHROW OF EVIL.
The time is coming-I know it will
n l. -l,.
when the last mighty evil of the
world will be grappled by righteous
ness and thrown, Which of the great
evils will survive all the others know
not, whether war, or revenge, or fraud,
or lust, or intemperance, or gambling,
or Sabbath dissertation. 1t will not be
the survival of the fittest,' but the
survival of the worst. 1t will be the
evil the most thoroughly intrenched,
most completely REINFORCED, most pat
ronized by wealth and fashion and
pomp, most applauded by all the prin-
cipalitleS n powers and rulers of
darkness. 1t will stand with grim Wis
g looking down upon the graves of
all the other slain denominations
graves dug by the hot shovels of des-
pair and surmounted by such epitaph-
iOlogy as this, 1T biteth like a ser
pent and Stingeth like an adder" THE
wages of sin is DEATH" Her house in
clineth unto death and her paths I'M
to the dead" There is a way that
seemeth right to a man, but the end
thereof is DEATH Yes, l imagine we
have arrived at the time when we may
say, YOnder stands the last and only
great evil of all the world to be wres-
tied down. 1t stands not only looking
upon the graves of all the entombed
and epitaphed iniquities of the world,
but ever and anon gazing upward in
defiance of the heavens and shaking
it's fist at the Almighty, saying:
Nothing can put me down. I have
seen all the other enemies of the hu-
man race wrestled down and destroy
ed, but there is no arm or foot, human
or angelic or deific that can throw me.
l have ruined whole generations, and
I swear by all the thrones of diabolism
that l will ruin this generation. Come
on, all We churches and all We reform
atory Institutions and all We legisla-
lures and all We hrones. I challenge
you. I plant my feet on this red hot
rock of the worlds woe. I stretch forth
my arms for the mightiest wrestle any
world has ever seen. Come on. Come
on"
Then righteousness VIII accept the
challenge, and the two mighty wres-
tiers will grapple, while all the gall
leries of earth and heaven look down
from one side and all the fiery chasms
Of perdition look up from the other.
side. The two wrestlers sway to and
fro n turn this way and that, and
now the monster, evil, seems the
mightier Of the two, and now light
CUISINES seems about to triumph. The
prize is worth a struggle, for it is not
a chaplet Of laurel or palm, but the
rescue Of a world, and a wreath put
on the brow by him who promised,
B thou faithful unto death, and I
will give thee a CROWN Three worlds
earth, heaven and hell-hold their
breath while waiting for the result of
this struggle, when with one mighty
swing of an arm muscled with OmnipO-
tence righteousness hurls the last evil,
first on it's knees and then on its face,
and then rolling off and down, with a
crash wilder than that with which
Samson hurled the temple Of Dagon
when he got hold of it's two chief pill
lars, but more like the throwing of
satan out of heaven, as described by
John Milton:
Him the Almighty power flung
HeadlOng flaming from the etherel sky
With hideOus ruin and combustion,
down
To bOttOmleSs perdition, there to dwell
In adamantine chains and penal fire
Who burst defy the Omnipotent to
arms.
Nine times the space that measures
day and night
To mortal man he, with his horrid
crew,
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery
gulf,
COMPOUNDED, though immortal.
THE STRENGTH OF RIGHT.
Aye, that suggests a cheering
thought-that if all the realms of de-
mOlOgy are on the other side. all the
realms of angelology are on our side,
among them Gabriel, and Michael the
archangel, and the angel of the new
covenant, and they are now talking
Over the present awful struggle and
final glorious triumph, talking amid
the alabaster pillars and in the ivory
palaces, and along the broad ways n
grand venue of the great capital Of
the universe, and amid the spray Of
fountains with rainbOws like the