Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-01-12

and sat alone At 1890 man entered
and others came until there were six wor
shippers present. The meeting on the fol
lowing MONDAY numbered 20, and the
next day 40. Then the meeting became
too large for the room, and 1t was taken
into the main auditorium, and for Al
years that service has been the religious
center of Christendom. Requests for prayer
from all parts of the onrth have come
there and tho prayers offered been an
swored sometimes with q resound that was
heard throughout Christendom. Hun
dreds of thousands of souls have stepped
into that Bethesda and been healed. That
meeting started the great revival Of 1868,
in which it is estimated 800, 600 souls were
converted When Monday morning Dec.
26, his soul assembled, think he was met
at the gate of heaven by welcoming
throng as mighty as that which has greet
ed any admitted soul for five centuries.
Humble and without any prctension, and
without anything brilliant in his make up,
through faith in God and concentrated
prayer he shook the earth and enraptured
the heavens. He WAS worth 10000, yea,
| 100 600, ordinary Christian workers Dear
old friend Lanphcr, how l loved you'll
Mosque of st. sophia.
When the consul general came in his
official rowboat to take us off our great
steamer in the harbOr of COnstantinople
there were many things / wanted to see in
that city OF multiform entertainments, nut
most of all ! was anxious to soc that archi
tcctural charm of the ages, the st. Sophia
once "a church, but now mosque. | do
not wonder that when Lamartinc saw it
he thanked God, and pouquevillo felt
J. to-. Il
What pillars of porphyry, and walls of
malachitc, and hovoring arches, and gal
| l9rics which seemed to have alighted from
| heaven instead of being built up from
earth Mosncs and mother of pearl, and
seraphim with wings bediamonded, and
dome which scoops the sky and staggers
with its height and circumference all those
! who gaze into it until they can look no
! more, but each succeeding time you look
! it seems higher and wider and grander,
and moro supernatural. All tho then
/ known world taxed to furnish tho splen
dor of the mosque, and many of the great
/ blocks of stone brought from Alexandria,
/ from Athens, from Thobes, from Baalbec.
Marbles veined, and starred, and striped,
and interlaced and the whole building
| adorned with depths of blue, and wilderness
| of snow, and glow of fire, until all terms
| of magnificence are a depreciation and
years after your most eItravagant dreams
struggle to rebuild 1t. But after all can
not forget that it Is q destroyed church,
and that one day that building, which had
been dedicated to God was transferred t.
that religion which has Mohammed for
its prophet. One day, centuries ago, 100,
900 people had fled between its walls from
the devastating war of the Turk, but al
in vain, for Mohammed II, on horseback
and followed by infuriete mobs, rode int
that church. the hoofs Gathering the sacred
floors, while the conqueror shouted thf
victory of superstition and invoked Allah
tho god of Arabs and Turks, to accept tht
stupendous pile in dedication. What {
dissertation, and what worldwide despair
| But that which the nations now mos;
need is n hero, leader, a champion, al
| incarnated God, to turn all tho mosque.
of superstition and all the basilcas of sin
into temples Of righteousness and to re
dedicate this world, so long given up t
! wickedness and sin, so the God who in the
beginning pronounced 1t very good. Such
hero, such leader, such champion
such an incarnated God we have. H.
comes riding In upon the white horse o
eternal victory, and we can in moro ex
allied sense than that which the soldiers OF
David felt cry out, Thou art worth 10,
900 of us. -