Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-05-13

yether 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 a 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 mortuary disintegra-
tion; the man who, thousands OF years
after, was called out of the eternities to
stand beside Jesus Christ on Mount Ia
Dor when it was ablaZe with the splen-
doris Of transfguration-this man could
look back to the time when voracious
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 a public discourse at Edinburgh and
telling the French ambassador TO go
home and call his king a murderer,
John Knox making all Christendom feel
his moral power and at his burial the
Earl Of Morton saying, Here lieth a
man who in his life 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 oar in French captivity. So the
priyations and hardships Of your life
may on a smaller scale be the preface
and introduction to usefulness and VIC
tory.
See also in this call Of Moses that
God has great memory. -Four hundred
years before be had promised the deliy-
erance of the oppressed lsraelites OF
Egypt. The clock Of 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 see God
can remember a promise 400 years as
we'll as you can remember 400 minutes.
Four hundred years include all your
ancestry that you know anything about
and all the promises made to them, and
we may expect fulfllment in our heart
and life blessings that were predicted
to our Christian ancestry centuries ago.
/ You have a dim remem mbrance, II any
remembrance at all, Of your great-grand-
father, but God sees those who were on
their knees in 1898 as we'll as those on
their knees in 1885, and the blessings
he promised the former and their de-
scendants have arrived or will arrive.
While piety is not hereditary it is a
grand thing to have had pious ances-
trv. So God in this chapter calls up
the pedigree Of the people whom Moses
was to deliver, and Moses is ordered to
say to them, 1.-THE Lord God Of your IA
theirs. the God Of Abraham, the God OF
Isaac and the God Of Jacob, hath SEM
me unto you" If that thought be dI-
yipely accurate, let me 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 OF
the latter part Of the nineteenth century
but with those in the closing Of the
twentieth century and the closing OF
the twenty first century and the clos
ing Of the twenty-second century ana
the closing Of the twenty.third century.
For 400 years, if the world continues TO
swing until that time, or If 1t drops,
then notwithstanding the influence VIII
90 on in other latitudes and longitudes
Of Gods universe.
No one realizes how great he is for
good or for evil There are branchings
out and rebounds and reverberations
and Celebrations of influence that can
not be estimated. The 80 or 100 years
of our earthly stay is only small part
Of our sphere. The flap of the wing OF
the destroying angel that smote the
Egyptian oppressors, the wash OF the
Red sea over the heads Of the drowned
Egyptians, were all fulillments Of prom
ises four centuries old. And things
occur in your life and in mine that we
cannot account for. They may be the
echoes of what was promised in the six
teenth or seventeenth century. Oh, the
prolongation of the divine memory
Work For the Aged.
Notice also that Moses was so years
of age when he got this call to become
the Israelitish deliverer. Forty years he
had lived in palaces as prince; another
40 wears he had lived in the wilderness
of Arabia. / should not wonder II he
had said: Take a younger man Tor
this work. Eighty winters have exposed
nv health; so summers have poured
, their heats upon my head. There are
, 40 years that l spent among the ener-
, waiting luxuries Of a palace, and then
. follow the 40 years Of wilderness hard
, ship am too old. Let me of. Better
call man in the forties or hfties and
, not one who has entered upon the
\ eighties" Nevertheless, he undertook
the work, aud if we want to know
whether he succeeded, ask the abandon
ed brick kilns Of Egyptian taskmasters'
4 and the splintered chariot wheels strewn
Z ON the beach Of the Red sea, and the
B.. timbrels which Miriam clapped for the
+ Israelites passed over and the Egyptians
r gone under.
n Do not retire too early. Like Moses
V you may have your chief work to dC
h after so. 1t ma not be in the higf
K places Of the field; it may not be where
y strong arm and an athletic foot and
!. clear vision are required, but there II
d something for you yet to do Perhaps
0 NAV be to roond off the work you hav
D already done; to demonstrate the rl
q tience you have been recommending III
d YOUR lifetime; perhaps to stand light
q house at the mouth of the bay to ligh
70 others into harbor; perhaps to sho'
d how glorious a sunset may come after
: stormy day.
: If aged men do not feel strong enoug
q = for anything else, let them sit aroun
il in our churches and pray, and perhaT
n in that way they may accomplish NOR
,t good than they ever did in the merida
r. of their life. 1t makes us feel strong
ia see aged men and women all up an
" down the pews, their faces shown
n they have been on mountains OF tram
ir figuration. We want in all our churcht
ID more men like Moses men who haN
IL IL =