The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1899-12-28
TALMAGE's SERMON.
PILLARS OF SMOKE. LAST SUM-
DAYS SUBJECT.


Text solomon's Song 8: 8: Who IL This
That Cometh Out Of the Wilderness
Like Pillars OF Smoke. - suffering of
Gods Church.
The architecture of the smoke Is
wondrous, whether God with his finger
curves 1t into cloud or rounds 1t into
dome. or points it in spire, or
spreads 1t in a wing, or, as In the text,
hoists 1t in a pillar. Watch it wind
ing up from the country farmhouse in
the early morning, showing that the
pastoral industries have begun; or. see
It ascending from the chimneys of the
city, telling of the homes fed, the fac
tories turning out valuable fabrics, the
printing presses preparing book and
newspaper, and all the ten thousand
wheels of work in motion. On clear
day this vapor spoken of mounts with
such buoyancy and spreads such del
lcate veil across the sky, and traces
such graceful lines of circle and semi
circle and waves and losses and sinks
and scars and scatters with such af-
huence Of shape and color and suggest
iveness, that il you have never no.
ticed it you are like a 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, beau
tiful, 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 Ely 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 all ages, and all lands, and of all be-
llefs, love God, and are trying to do
right. For many centuries the heav-
ems have been black with the smoke
OF martyrdom. If set side by side you
could girdle the earth with the fires
OF persecution. Rowland Taylor burned
at Hadleigh; Latimer burned at OK
ford; John Rogers burned at Smith
field; John Hooper burned at Glouces-
ter; John Huss burned at Constance:
Lawrence Saunders burned at Coven-
try; Joan of Arc burned at Rouen.
Protestants have represented Catho-
lies as having monopoly of persecu-
tors, but both Protestant and Catholic
have practiced infamous cruelties. The
Catholics. during the reign Of Hun
neric, were by Protestants put to the
worst tortures, stripped of their cloth
ing, hoisted in the air by pulleys with
weights suspended from their feet, then
let down. and ears and eyes. nose and
tongue were amputated, and redhot
plates of iron were put against the
tenderest parts Of their bodies.
George Bancroft, the historian, says
of the state Of Maryland: I'm the land
which Catholics had opened to Protest
ants mass might not be said publicly;
no Catholic priest or bishop might ut
ter his faith in voice of persuasion;
no Catholic might teach the young. II
a hayward child of Papist would not
become an apostate, the law wrested
for him from his parents a share OF
their property. Such were the meth
DDS adopted to prevent the growth of
Popery."
Catholicism as well as Professionalism
has had its martyrs. 1t does seem as
II when any one sect got complete dom
NANCY in any land, the devil of perse-
cution and cruelty took possession OF
that sect. Then see the Catholics after
the Huguenots. See the Gentiles after
the Jews in Touraine, where great
pit was dug and fire lighted at the bot
tom of the pit, and one hundred and
sixty Jewish victims were consumed.
See the Presbyterian parliament Of
England, more tyrannical in their
treatment of opponents than had been
the criminal courts. Persecution
against the Baptist by Paedo- Bap-
lists. Persecution of the Established
Church against the Methodist church.
Persecution against the Quakers. Per-
secution against the Presbyterians. I'm
der Emperor Diocletian one hundred
and forty-four thousand Christians
were massacred, and seven hundred
thousand more of them died from ban
ishment and exposure.
Witness the sufferings of the Wal
denses, of the Albigenses. of the Mes
torians. Witness st. Bartholomew
massacre. Witness the Duke of AIva
driving out OF life eighteen thousand
Christians. Witness Herod, and Nero.
and Decius, and Hildebrand. and Tor
quemada. and Earl of Montfort, and
Lord Claverhouse, who when told that
he must give account for his cruelties.
said: Il 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 nineteen
hundred years. 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:
"Avenge, o Lord, thy slaughtered
saints whoco honoo