Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-04-27
the battle of Yo,A,o~n In tn. American

the battle OF YoSAtoWA In fis American
Revolution a musician, wounded, was told
he must have his limbs amputated. and
they were about to fasten him to
the surgeons table, for it was
long before the merciful discovery OF
an@sthetics. He said: 'No; don't fasten
me to that table. Get me a violin.' :. A
violin was brought to him, and he said,
"Now, go to work as begin to play" and
for forty minutes, during the awful pangs
OF amputation, he moved not muscle nor
dropped a note, while he played some
sweet tune. Oh, is it not strange that with
the music Of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
and with this grand march OF the church
militant on the way to become the church
triumphant, we cannot forget ourselves
and forget all rang and all sorrow and all
persecution and all perturbation?
We know what men accomplish under
worldly opposition. Men do not shrink back
for antagonism or for hardship. YOU have
admired Pre-cott's Conquest of Mexico"
as brilliant and beautiful history us was
ever written, but some of you may not
know under what disadvantages it was
written-that Conquest of Mexico'-for
Prescott was totally blind, and he had two
pieces of wood parallel to each other fast
ened, and totally blind, with his pen be-
tween those pieces OF wood, he wrote the
stroke against one piece of wood telling
how far the Pen must go in one way, the
stroke against the other piece of wood tell.
ing how far the pen must go the other way.
Oh, how much men will endure for worldly
knowledge and for worldly success, and yet
how little we endure for Jesus Christi How
many Christians there are that go around
saying, "Oh, my hand; oh, my hand, my
hurt hand! Don't you sea there is blood on
the sword?" while Eleazar, with the bilt i'm
bedded in the flesh of his right hand, does
not know 1t.
Must be carried to the skies
On fiowery beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize
Or sailed through bloody seas?
What have we suffered in comparison with
those who expired with suffocation or were
burned or were chopped to pieces for the
truths sake? We talk of the persecution
Of olden times. There is just as much per-
secution going on now in various ways. In
1849, in Madagascar, eighteen men were put
to death for Christ's sake. They were to
be hurled over the rocks, and before they
were hurled over the rocks, in order tC
| make their death the more dreadful in an.
| ticipation, they were put in baskets and
| swung to and fro over the precipice that
| they might see how many hundred feet they
would have to be dashed down, and while
they were swinging in these baskets over
the rocks they sang:
| Jesus, lover of my soul.
Let me to Thy bosom fly.
| While the billows near me roll,
While the tempest still is high.
Then they were dashed down to death.
! Oh how much others have endured for
Christ and how little we endure for
Christi We want to ride to heaven in n
Pullman sleeping car. our feet on soft
plush, the bed made up early, 50 we can
| sleep all the way, the black porter of death
to wake us up only in time to enter the
| golden city. We want all the surgeons to
fix our hand up. Let them bring on all the
lint and all the bandases and all the save,
for our hand is hurt, while Eleazar does
not know his hand is hurt. His hand
clave unto the sword
As / look at Eleazar's hand I come to the
| conclusion that he has done great deal OF
hard hitting. am not surprised when l
see that these four men-Eleazar and his
| three companions drove back the army OF
Philistines-that Eleazar's sword clave to
his hand, for every time he struck an enemy
with one end OF the sword the other end oi
the sword wounded him. When he took
hold of the sword, the sword took hold oil
| him.
Oh we have found an enemy who cannot
be conquered by rosewater and soft
speeches. 1t must be sharp stroke and
straight thrust. There is intemperance,
and there is fraud. and there is gambling.
and there is lust, and there are 10. 900 bat
talions of iniquity, armed Philistine in
iquity. How are they to be captured and
| overthrown? Soft sermons in morocco
cases laid down in front of an exquisite au.
dience will not do it. You have got to call
things by their right name. You have got
to expel from our churches Christians who
eat the sacrement on Sunday and devour
| widows houses all the week. We have
got to stop our indignation against the
| Hittites and the Jebusites and the Cir.
| gashites and let those poor wretches &c
| and apply our Indignation to the mod.
ern transgressions which need to be
dragged out and slain. Ahabs here,
Herods here, Jezebels here, the massacre
Of the infants here. Strike for God SO hard
that while you slay the sin the sword will
adhere to your own hand. 1 tell you, my
friends, we want few John Knoxes and
John Wesleys in the Christian church to.
day The whole tendency is to refine on
Christian work. We keep on refining on it
until we send apologetic word to iniquity
we are about to capture it. And we must
go with sword silver chased and presented
by the ladies, and we must ride on
white palfrey under embroidered hous-
enough to make the charger dance
gracefully, and then we must send
missive, delicate as Il wedding card, to
ask the old black giant OF sin If he will
not surrender. Women saved by the
| grace of God and on glorious mission
sent, detained from Sabbath classes be-
cause their new hat is not done. Churches
that shook our cities with great revivals
sending around to ask some demonstrative
worshiper il he will not please to say
| amen" and "haleluiah" little softer. 1t
seems as il in our churches we wanted
baptism of cologne and balm of thousand
flowers when we actually need a baptism
| of fire from the Lord God OF Pentecost.
But we are so afraid somebody will crlti-
else our ermons CT criticise our prayers
or criticise our religious work that our
anxiety for the worlds redemption is lost
in the fear we will get our hand hurt,
| while Eleazar went into the confict, "and
his hand clave unto the sword''
But see in the next place what a hard
thing it was for Eleazar to get his hand and
his sword parted The muscles and the
sinews had been so long Grasped around
the sword he could not drop it when he
proposed to drop it, and his three COM
| rades, SUPP rose, came up and tried to help
| him. and they bathed the back part OF his
hand, hoping the sinews and muscles would
| relax. But no. 'His hand clave unto the
sword Then they tried to pull open the
fingers and to pull back the thumb, but no
sooner were they pulled back than they
closed again, "and his hand clave unto the
sword.' But after awhile they were sue
cessful. and then they noticed that the
| In th.ap i'm = tho bap nd