Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1899-05-19


ten out it would read like this; 81
believe in nothing, the maker of heaven
and earth, and in nothing which il hath
sent, which nothing was born of moth.
ing and which nothing was dead and
buried and descended into nothing and
arose from nothing and ascepded TO
nothing and now sitteth at the right
hand of nothing, from which it will
come to judge nothing, ! believe in the
holy agnostic church ana in the com
munon of nothingnrians and in the
forgiveness of nothing, and the resur-
rection of nothing and in the life that
never shall be. Amen!" That is the
creed of tens of thousands of people
in this day. lfyou have a mind to adopt
such theory, will not. 81 believe in
God the Father Almighty, Maker OF
heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ
and in the holy Catholic church and
in the communion of saints and in the
life everlasting. Amen" Oh, when
see Eleazar taking such n stout grip
of the sword in the battle against sin
and for Righteousness, come TO the
conclusion that we ought to take a
stouter grip of Gods eternal truth
the sword of Righteousness.
As look at EleaZar's hand also no.
tce his spirit of self forgetfulncss. lie
did not notice that the hilt of the sword
was eating through the palm of his
hand. He did not know it hurt him.
AS he went out into the conflict he was
so anxious for the victory he forgot
himself, and that hit might go never
so deeply into the palm of his hand,
it could not disturb him. Ills hand
clave unto the sword" Oh, my brothers
and sisters, let us go into the Christian
conflict with the spirit of self abnega-
ton. Who cares whether the world
praises us or denounces us? What do
we care for misrepresentation or abuse
or persecution in Il cantlict like this?
Let us forget ourselves. That man
who Is afraid of getting his hand hurt
will never kill Philistinc. Who cares
whether you get hurt or not if you get
the victory? Oh, how many Christians
there are who are all the time worry
ing about the way the world treats
them. They are so tired, and they are
so abused, and they are so tempted,
when Eleazar did not think whether
he had hand or an arm or foot. All
he wanted was victory.
We see how men forget themselves in
worldly achievement. We have often
seen men who, in order to achieve
worldly success, will forget all physical
fatigue and all annoyance and all OBJ
stacle. Just after the battle of York
town, in the American revolution, a
musician. wounded was told he must
have his limbs amputated, and they
were about to fasten him to the sur
| geon's table, for it was long before the
merciful discovery of anaesthetics. lie
said, "No, don't fasten me to that table =;
get me violin" A violin was brought
TO him, and he said, Now 20 to work
rs ! begin to play" and for 40 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 mill
tant on the way TO become the church
triumphant we cannot forget ourselves
and forget all pang and all sorrow and
all persecution and all perturbation
We know what men accomplish un-
der worldly opposition. Men do not
shrink back for antagonism or for hard
ship. You have admired Prescott's
Conquest of Mexico" as brilliant and
beautiful history as was ever writ
ten, but some of you may not know
under what disadvantages it was writ
ten-that Conquest of MeXico"-fol
Prescott was totally blind, and he haC
two pieces of wood parallel to eacl
other fastened, and, totally blind, will
his pen between those pieces of wood
lie wrote, the stroke against ono piec,
Of wood telling how far the pen mus
go in one way, the stroke against thu
other piece of wood telling how far th,
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 Jesui
Christ! How many Christians there
are that go around saying: "Oh, my
hand; Oh, my hand my hurt hand
Don't you see there is blood on tht
hand, and there is blood on the sword? .
while Eleazar, with the hilt imbedder
in the flesh of his right hand, does no
know it.
What have we suffered in compari
son with those who expired with sui
location or were burned or wer
chopped to pieces for the truths sake
We talk of the persecution of oldel
times. There is just as much persecu
ton going on nov in various ways
In 1s4o, in Madagascar, IS men wer
put to death for Christ's sake. The
were to be hurled over the rocks, am
before they were hurled over the rocks
in order to make their death the NOR
dreadful in anticipation, they were pu
in baskets and swung to and fro owe
the precipice that they might sec hoy
many hundred feet they would hav
to be dashed down, and while they wer
swinging in these baskets over tn
rocks they sang:
JESUS, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly
While the bllows near me roll,
Wlile the tempest still Is high.
Then they were dashed down I
death. Oh, how much others have en
durcd for Christ, and how little we CT
, dure for Christ! We want to ride
; Heaven in Pullman sleeping car, on
, feet on soft plush, the bed made Il
early, so we can sleep all the way, tn
, black porter of death to wake us II
only in time to enter the golden cit
We want all the surgeons to fix on
| hand up. Let them bring on all the lin