Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-04-10

y
lying fat on his back, but he is preach
ing. His dying words are a battle
charge against idolatry and rallying
cry for the Lord of Hosts as he says,
''Behold, this day go the way of all
the earth, and God hath not failed to
fulfill his promise concerning Israel"
His dying hand clave unto the sword.
There is the headless body of Paul on
the road to Ostea. His great brain and
his great heart have been severed. The
elmwood rods had stung him fearful1y.
When the cornship broke up, he swan
ashore, coming up drenched with the
brine. Every day since that day when
the horse reared under him in the sub
urbs OF Damascus, as the supernatural
light fell, down to this day, when he is
IS years of age and i'll from the prison
cell OF the Mamartine, he has been out
rageously treated, and he is waiting to
die How does he spend his last hours?
Telling the world how badly he feels
and describing the rheumatism that he
got IN prison, the rheumatism affecting
his limbs or the neuralgia piercing his
temples or the thirst that fevers his
tongue? Oh, mol His last words are the
battle shout for Christendom, 81 am
now ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand; I have
fought the good fight" And so his dy-
ing hand clave unto the sword.
It was in the front room on the Sec
ond floor that my father lay a-dying.
1t was Saturday morning, O'Clock.
just three years before that day my
mother had left him for the skies, and
he had been homesick to join her COM
pany. He was SO years of age. Minis
tiers of the gospel came in to comfort
him, but he comforted them. How
wonderfully the words sounded out
from his dying pillow, 'I have been
young and now am old, yet have 1
never seen the righteous forsaken or
his seed begging bread" They bathed
his brow and they bathed his hands and
they bathed his feet and they succeeded
in Strengthening out the feet, but they
did not succeed in bathing open the
hand so it would stay open. They
bathed the hand open, but it came shut.
They bathed it open again, but it came
shut. What was the matter with the
thumb and the fingers of that old hand
All, it had SO long touched the sword |
of Christian conflict that ''his hand !
clave unto the sword.''
The Grip of Truth.
/ intend this sermon as a tonic. T |
want you to hold the truth with in |
eradicable grip, and I want you to |
strike so hard for God that it will react |
and while you take the sword the sword |
will take you. You notice that the off |
GERS of the northern army every year |
occ h1o IL
GERS of the southern army every year
assemble. Soldiers coming together are
very apt to recount their experiences
and to show their scars. Here is a SOL
der who pulls up his sleeve and says,
'There; 1 was wounded in that ARM"
and shows the scar. And another sol
der pulls down his collar and saws
''There; was wounded on the neck"
And another soldier says, 81 have had
no use of that limb since the gunshot
fracture. !" Oh, my friends, when the
battle of life is over and the resurrec-
ton has come and our bodies rise from
the dead, will we have on us any scars
showing our bravery for God2 Christ
will be there all covered with scars.
Scars on the brow, scars on the hand,
scars on the feet, scars all over the heart
won in the battle of redemption. And
all heaven will sob aloud with emotion
as they look at those scars. Ignatius
will be there, and he will point out the
place where the tooth and paw of the
lion seized him in the Coliseum, and
John Huss will be there and he will
show where the coal first scorched the
foot on that day when his spirit took
wing of flame from Constance. M'Mil-
an and Campbell and Freeman, Amer
can missionaries in India, will be
5here-the men who with their wives {
md children went down in the awful {
massacre at Cawnpur, and they will j
show where the daggers of the sepoys ,
struck them. The Waldenses will be
here, and they will show where their
bones were broken on that day when
he Piedmontese soldiery pitched them
,ver the rocks. And there will be those 6
here who took care of the sick and who g
ooked after the poor, and they will I
lave evidences of earthly exhaustion. 9
And Christ, with his SCARED hand wav- r
ng over the SCARED multitude, will
ay: "You suffered with me on earth. I.
Now be gloriied with me in heaven"
And then the great organs of eternity {
will take up the chant, and st. John b
will play, ''These are they who came
ut of great tribulation and had their
obes washed and made white in the 4
lood of the Lamb" q
But what will your chagrin and mine
e>& it shall be told that day on the v
treets of heaven that on earth we q
hrank back from all toll and sacrifice b
nd hardship No scars to show the d
eavenly soldiery. Not so much as one g
idge on the palm of the hand to show r
hat just once in all this battle for God
nd the truth we grasped the sword so
rmly and struck so hard that the