Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1899-04-20

people now who do not know. You ask
them II the soul Is immortal, and they
say: II guess II Is; don't know. Per-
haps 1t is; perhaps 1t isn't Is the Bible
true? well, perhaps II is, and perhaps
II isn't. Perhaps II may be, tigurative.
ly, and perhaps it may be partly, and
perhaps II may not be ut All They
despisc what they call the apostolic
creed, but IL their own creed were writ
ten out 1t would read like this: ~
believe in nothing, the maker of heaven
and earth, and in nothing which 1t 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 assembled to
nothing and now stitch at the right
hand of nothing, from which it will
come TO Judge nothing. believe in the
holy agnostic church and in the COM
munion of nothingarians 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. Ifyou have mind to adopt
such theory, will not. ~ believe in
God the Father Almighty, Maker OF
heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ
and I'm the holy Catholic church and
In the communion OF saints and in the
life everlasting. Amen" Oh, whep J
see Eleazar taking such stout grI2
of the sword in the battle againxt sin
and for righteousness, | come to the
conclusion that we ought to take
stouter grip of Gods eternal truth"
the sword OF righteousness.
As look at Eleazar's hand also no.
tice his spirit Of self forgetfulness. 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 cut into the conflict he was
80 anxious for the victory he forgot
himself, and that hilt might go never
10 deeply into the palm OF his hand,
II could not disturb him. His 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 n canflict like this?
Let us forget ourselves. That man
who Is afraid Of getting his hand hurt
will never kill a Philistine. Who cares
whether you get hurt or not If yon get
the victory? Oh how many Christians
there are who are nll the time worry
ing about the way the world treats
them. They are 30 tired, and they are
40 abused, and they are so tempted,
when Eleaznr did not think whether
he had II hand or IN 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
staclc. jus. after the battle OF York
town, I'm the American revolution, n
musician. wounded, was told he must
have his limbs amputated, and they
were about to fnsten him to the sur
geon's table, for IL was long before the
mcrciful discovery of anaesthetics. lie
said, NO don't fasten me to that table;
get me violin" violin was brought
to him, and he said, Now go to work
ns | begin to play" and for 40 minutes,
during the awful pangs of ampu'ation,
he moved not II muscle nor dropped
note, while he played some sweet tune.
Oh, Is II not strange that with the music
of the gospel Of Jesus Christ and with
this grand march OF the church mill
tnnt ON the way to become the church
triumphant we cannot forget ourselves
and forget all pang and nll sorrow and
nll 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 prcscott's
Conquest of Mexico" MS brilliant and
beautiful history MS was ever writ
ten, but some Of You may not know
under what disadvantages ii was writ
ten-that Conquest Of McNico"-~for
Prescott was totally blind, and he had
two pieces of wood parallel to each
other fastened, and, totally blind, with
his pen between those pieces of wood,
he wrote, the stroke against one piece
&C wood telling how far the pen must
go in one why, the stroke against the
other piece of wood telling how far the
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 Jesus
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 the
hand, and there is blood on the sword?"
while EleaZar, with the hilt Embedded
in the flesh OF his right hand, does not
know IL.
What have we suffered in COMPARE
son with those who expired with suf-
location or were burned or were
chopped to pieces for the truths saker
We talk Of the persecution of olden
times. There is just MS much persecu-
tion going ON now in various ways,
In 1870 in MuduuuSrur is men were