The Iola register., 1899-12-22
PILLARS OF SMOKE
The Divine Symbol That Typifies
Gods Power and Mercy.
Or. Tnlmnge Speaks of the Trials
Through which Truth Has Tri-
umphantly Struggled
Martyrs to Faith.
Copyright. 1899. by Louis Klopsch.l

set forth under a Bible symbol OF great
suggestiveness and power, text, Solo
mons Song $50: who is this that
cometh out of the wilderness like pill
lars of smoker"
The architecture of the smoke is won
drous, whether God with His finger
curves it into a cloud, or rounds it into
dome, or points it in a spire, or spreads
il in wing, or, as in the text, hoists it
in a pillar. Watch ii winding up from
the country farmhouse in the early
morning, showing that the pastoral in
dustries have begun, or see it ascending
from the chimneys of the city, telling
of the homes fed, the factories turning
out valuable fabrics, the printing
presses preparing book and newspaper,
and all the ten thousand wheels of work
in motion. On a clear day this vapor
spoken of mounts with such buoyancy
and spreads such a delicate veil across
the sky and traces such graceful lines
of circle and semicircle and waves and
tosses and sinks and scars and scatters
with such afiluence of shape and color
and suggestiveness that il you have
never noticed it you are like man who
has all his life lived in Paris and yet
never seen the Luxembourg, or all his
life in Rome and never seen the vatican,
or all his life at Lockport and never
seen Niagara. Forty-four times the
Bible speaks of the smoke, and it is
about time that somebody preached
sermon recognizing this strange, weird,
beautiful, elastic, charming, terrific and
fascinating vapor. Across the Bible
sky floats the smoke of Sinai, the smoke
of Sodom, the smoke of All, the smoke of
the pit, the smoke of the volcanic hills
when God touches them, and in my text
the glorious church of God coming up
out Of the wilderness like pillars of
smoke
In the first place, these pillars of
smoke in my text indicate the suffering
the church of God has endured. What
do ! mean by the church? mean not
building, not sect, but those who in
al ages and all lands and Of all beliefs
love God and are trying to do right. For
many centuries the Heavens have been
black with the smoke OF martyrdom. If
set side by side, you could girdIe the
earth with the fires of persecution
Rowland Taylor, burned at Hadleigh;
Latimer, burned at Oxford John Eog
ers, burned at Smithfeld; John Hooper
burned at Gloucester; John Huss,
burned at Constance; Lawrence Saun-
ders, burned at Coventry; Joan of Arc,
burned at Rouen.
Protestants have represented Catho-
lies as having a monopoly of persecut-
ors, but both Protestant and Catholic
have practiced cruelties. The Catholics
during the reign of Hunneric were by
Protestants put to the worst tortures,
stripped Of their clothing, hoisted in the
air by pulleys with weights suspended
from their feet, then let down, and ears
and eyes, and nose and tongue were
amputated, and red hot plates of iron
were put against the tenderest part of
their bodies.
George Bancroft, the historian, says
Of the state OF Maryland; "ln the land
which Catholics had opened to Protes-
tants mass might not be said publicly,
no Catholic priest or bishop might ut
ter his faith in a voice of persuasion, no
Catholic might teach the young. If a
wayward child of Il papist would but be-
come an apostate, the law wrested for
him from his parents a share of their
property. Such were the methods
adopted to prevent the growth of po-
perry"
Catholicism as well as Professionalism
has had its martyrs. Ii does seem as
if when any one sect got complete DOM
nancy in any land the devil of persecu-
tion and cruelty took possession Of that
sect. Then see the Catholics after the
lluguenots. See the Gentiles after the
Jews in Touraine, where great pit was
dug and fire lighted at the bottom of
the pit, and 100 Jewish victims were
consumed. See the Presbyterian parlia-
ment of England, more tyrannical in
their treatment of opponents than had
been the criminal courts. Persecution
against the Baptists by Paedo-Baptists
Persecution of the Established church
against the Methodist church. Perse-
cution against the Pres sbyterians. I'm
der Emperor Diocletian l44, 900 Chris
tians were massacred, and 100000 more
of them died from Punishment and ex-
posure.
Witness the sufferings of the Wal
denses, of the Albigenses, of the Nesto-
rians. Witness ST. Bartholomew
massacre. Witness the duke of Alva
driving out of life $4,000 Christians.
Witness Herod and Nero and Decius and
Hildebrand and Torquemada and earl
of Montford and Lord Claverhouse, who,
when told that he must give account for
his crueltes, said: 81 have no need to
account to man, and, as for God, | will
take Him in my own hands" A red line
runs through the church history of 900
years, line of blood. Not by hundreds
Of thousands, but by millions must we
count those slain for Christ's sake. No
wonder John Milton put the groans Of
the martyrs to an immortal tune, writ
ing:
Avenge, o Lord, thy slaughtered saints,