The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-12-18
The DIVINE SYMBOL.
PILLARS OF SMOKE TyPiFY oop's
POWER AND MERCY.

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umphantly strusgiee-The Chusch
to he the Arbiter Of Nations.
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.n'oasn "n,.n tue .iu'A has siuss,eu
are Dy d. Iaimage mere SET ioftn undef
Bible symbol Of great suggestiveness
and power; text, Solomon's Song Ill, g.
"Who is this that cometh out Of the will
derness like pillars Of smoke"
The architecture OF the smoke Is won
drous. whether God with his finger
curves 1t into cloud, or rounds it into a
dome, or points 1t in spire, or spreads
It in wing. or, as in the text, hoists 1t
In pillar. Watch 1t winding up from the
country farmhouse In the early morning,
showing that the pastoral Industries have
begun, or see 1t ascending from the chin
neys Of the city, telling Of the homes fed.
the factories turning ont valuable fabrics,
the printing presses preparing book and
newspaper, and oil the ten thousand
wheels Of work In motion. On clear
day this vapor spoken of mounts with
such buoyancy and spreads such deli
cate veil across the sky and traces such
graceful lines Of circle and semicircle
and waves and losses and sinks and scars
and scatters with such affiuence OF shape
and color and suggestiyeness that II 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 recog-
nizing this strange, weird, beautiful, elias
tic, 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 cut Of the will
derness 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 l
mean by the church! mean not a build
Ing, not a sect, but those who In all 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. 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 smithheld' John Hooper burned ut
gloucester John Huss burned at Con.
stance, Lawrence saunders burned Ut
coventry Joan or Arc burned at houen.
irotcstants nave Represented Catnoncs
as having monopoly OF prosecutors pue
Doth Protestant ana Catholic nave prae-
tlced infamous crueities. Inc Cathoiics
during the reign OF Hunnefic were py
Protestants put to the worst tortures'
stripped OF their clothing, holsted IN the
air by pulleys with weights suspended
from their feet, then let down, and ears
and eyes, nose and tongue were amputat-
ed, 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: 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 voice OF persuasion, no Catholic
might teach the young. If Maynard
child OF papist would but become an
apostate, the law wrested for him from
his parents a share of their property.
Such were the methods adopted to pre-.
vent the growth Of popery.'
Martyrs to Faith.
Catholicism as well as Professionalism
has had its martyrs. 1t does seem as If
when any one sect got complete dominan-
cy in any land the devil of persecution
and cruelty took possession Of that sect.
Then see the Catholics after the Hugue-
not,, See the gentiles after the Jews in
Touraine, where great pit was dug and
fire lighted Mt the bottom of the pit, and
100 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 Pndo-B aptists. Persecution of the
Established church against the Methodist
church. Persecution against the Presby-
tcrians. Under Emperor Docetian H4,-
900 Christians were massacrcd, and 7OO,-
900 more of them died from Punishment
and exposure.
Witness the sufferngs of the Wal
denses, of the Albigenses, of the Nesto-
rians. Witness st. Bartholomew mas
sacre. Witness the Duke of Alya driving
out of life $4,000 Christians. Witness
Herod and Nero and Decius and Hide
brand and Torquemada and Earl of
Montfort and Lord Caverhouse, who,
when told that he must give account for
his cruelties, said, 81 have no need to ac-
count to man, and, as for God, will take
him in my own hands" A red line runs
through the church history of 1000 years,
n line of blood. Not by the hundreds 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:
Avence, O Lord. thy Slaughtered saints, whose |
bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold.
The smoke of martyrs homes and mar
tyrs' bodies il rolling up all at once
would have eclipsed the MONDAY sun and |
turned the brightest day the world ever |,
saw into a midnight. "Who is this that |
cometh up out OF the wilderness like Pill
lars OF smoker
has persecution ceased! ASK tnat /