The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1899-12-20

text, SOlOmon'S Song i'll, q, VINO Is tnls
that cometh out of the wilderness IKE
pillars of smoker
The architecture of the smoke is Won
drous, whether God with his niger
curves it into a cloud, or rounds 1t into
dome, or points it in spire, or spreaos
it i'll a wing, or, as in the text, noists II
in a pillar. Watch it winding up from
the country farmhouse in the early morn
ing, showing that the pastoral industries
have begun or see it ascending from
the chimneys of the city, telling OF the
homes fed, the factories turning out val
liable fabrics, the printing presses pre-
pairing book and newspaper, and all the
ten thousand wheels of work IN motion.
On q 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 losses ana
sinks and scars and scatters with such
Aftiucnce of shape and color and sug-
gestiveness that if you have never no.
ticed it you are like 4 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 Mag
ara. Forty-four times the Bible spaks
of the smoke, and it is about time that
somebody preached a sermon recognlz-
Ing 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
IL, inv hn ole
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 Il
mean by the church? | mean not build
inc, not sect, but those who in all ages
aud 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. II set
side by side, you could girdle the earth
with the fires of Observation-Disclosures
Taylor burned at Hadleigh, Latimer
burned at Oxford, John Rogers burned
at Smithfield, John Hooper burned at
Gloucester, John Huss burned at Con-
stance, Lawrence Saunders burned at
Coventry, Joan Of Arc burned at Rouen.
Protestants have represented Catholics
as having monopoly Of prosecutors, but
both Protestant and Catholic have prac-
t;ced infamous cruelties. The Catholics
during the reign of Hunneric We're by
Protestants put to the worst fortunes,
stripped of their clothing. hoisted in the
air by puileys with weights suspended
from their feet. then let down, and ears
and eyes, nose and tongue were ampu-
tated, and red hot plates of iron were
nut against the tenderest part of their
bodies.
George Bancroft, the historian, says OF
the state of Maryland: In the land
which Catholics had opened to Protes-
tants mass might not be said publicly, no
Catholic priest or bishop might utter his
faith in q voice of persuasion, no Catholic
might teach the young. II a maynard
child of Il papist would but become an
apOstate, the law wrested for him from
his parents a share of their property.
Such We're the methods adopted to pre-
vent the growth of popery.'
Martyrs to Faith.
Catholicism as we'll as Professionalism
has had its martyrs. It does seem as if
when any one sect got complete dominan-
cy III any land the devil of persecution
and cruelty took possession of that sect.
Then see the Catholics after the Hugue-
nots. See the gentiies after the Jews in
TOuraine, where great pit was dug and
fire lighted at the bottom OF the pit, and
1tiO Jewish victims were consumed. See
the Presbyterian parliament of England,
more tyrannical in their treatment Of OPP
ponents than had been the criminal
courts. Persecution against the Baptists
by Paedo-Baptists. Persecution of the
Established Church against the Method
list Church. Persecution against the
Presbyterians. Under Emperor Diocle-
tan 144,000 Christians were massacred,
and 100000 more of them died from
Punishment and exposure.
Witness the sufferings of the Wal
denses, of the Albigenses, Of the Nesto-
rians Witness ST. Bartholomew mas
sacre. Witness the Duke of Alva driy-
ing out of life $4,000 Christians. Witness
Herod and Nero and Decius and Hide
brand and Torquemada and Earl of
Montfort and Lord Clayerhouse, who.
when told that he must give account for
his cruelties, said, Il have no need TO oc
count to man, and, as for God, | will
take him in my own hands," A red line
runs through the church history OF 1900
years, line of blood. Not by the hun
dreds of thousands, but by the millions
must we count those slain for Christ's
sake. No wonder John Milton put the
groans of the martyrs to an immortal
tune, writing:
'Avenge, o Lord, thy slaughtered saints,
whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains
cold"
The smoke OF martyrs homes and mar
tyrs' oadies if rolling up all at once
would have eclipsed the MONDAY sun
and turned the brightest day the world
ever saw into midnight "Who is this
that cometh up out OF the wilderness
like pillars of smoke?"
Has persecution ceased? Ask that
young man who is trying to be a Chris
tian in a store or factory, where from
morning to night he is the butt of all the
mean witticisms OF unbelieving employ
es. Ask that wife whose husband makes
her fondness for the house OF God and
even her kneeling prayer by the bedside
Il derision and is no more fit for her holy
eompanionship than filthy crow would
be fit companion for a robin or golden