Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-12-18

Rev. DIR. TnlmnSe sets Forth the SUI
fering of the Church of God In n
Powerful Sermon-A Plea For Unity
J of Endeavor.
copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1881
WASHINGTON, Dec. II. - The trials
through which the truth has struggled
are by Dr. Talmage here set forth I'M
der Bible symbol of great suggestive
ness and power; text, Solomon's Song,
Iii, 6, who is this that cometh out of
the wilderness like pillars of smoker
The architecture of the smoke is Won
drous, whether God with his finger
curves it into a cloud, or rounds it into
q dome. or points it in a spire, or
spreads it in wing, or, as IN the text,
hoists it in pillar. Watch it winding
up from the country farmhouse in the
early morning, showing that the pas
toral 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 10000 wheels
of work in motion. On clear day this
Yapor spoken of mounts with such
buoyancy, and spreads such delicate
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 aft1uence
of shape and color and SuggeStiveneSS
that, if you have never noticed it, you
are like q man who has all his life liv
ed in Paris and yet never seen the
Luxembourg, or all his life in Rome and
at Lockport and never seen Niagara
Forty-four times the Bible speaks of
the smoke, and it is about time that
somebody preached a sermon re Agniz-
ing this strange, weird. beautiful. elias
tic, charming, terrific and fascinating
yapor. Across the Bible sky floats the
smoke of Sinai, the smoke of SOdom,
the smoke of Al, 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 suffer-
ing the church of God has endured.
What do l mean by the church? l
mean not building, not 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. If set side by
side, you could girdle the earth with
the fires of observation-disclosures Tay-
lor burned at Hadleigh, Latimer burn
ed 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.
Catholics and Protestants.
Protestants have represented Cath
o1ics as having a monopoly of perse-
cutors, but both Protestant and Cath
Ollie 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 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 Prot
estants mass might not be said public
ly, no Catholic priest or bishop might
utter his faith in voice of persuasion,
no Catholic might teach the young. If
Il hayward child of a papist would
but become an apostate, the law wrest-
ed for him from his parents share Of
their property. Such were the meth
nd TO hn of
pOpery.'
Catholicism as well as Professionalism
has had it's martyrs. 1t does seem as
If when any one sect got complete
ilominancy in any land the devil of per-
secution and cruelty took possession
of that sect. Then see the Catholics
after the Huguenots. See the gentiles
after the Jews in Touraine, where a
great pit was dug and fire lighted at
the bottom of the pit, and 16O Jewish
victims were consumed. See the Pres
byterian parliament of England, more
tyrannical in their treatment of Op-
ponentS than had been the criminal
courts. Persecution against the Bap-
lists by Pado-Baptists, persecution of
the Established church against the
Methodist church, persecution against
the QuakerS, persecution against the
PreSbyterians. Under Emperor Diocle-
tan $4,000 Christians were massa-
cred, and 100000 more of them died
from Punishment and exposure.
Witness the sufferings of the Wal
denses, of the Albigenses, of the Mes
torians. Witness st. Bartholomew
massacre. Witness the Duke of Alva
driving out of life $4,000 Christians.
Witness Herod and Nero and DeciIts
and Hildebrand and Torquemada and
Earl of Mnntfnrt and / ord Ola