Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1899-12-20
PILLARS OF. SMOKE
The Divine Symbol That Typifies
Gods Power and Mercy.
Ut. Talmage Speaks of the Trials
Through Witch Truth HISS Tri-
umphantly Struggled
Martyrs to Faith.
Copyright. 1899. by Louis Klopsch.l

SET forth under Bible symbol of great
suggestiveness and power, text, Solo
mons Song $50: WHO is this that
cometh out OF the wilderness like pill
lars of smoke?"
The architecture of the smoke is won
drous, whether God with His finger
curves ii into a cloud, or rounds it into
dome, or points il in a spire, or spreads
IL in wing, or, as in the text, hoists it
n pillar. Watch il winding up from
the country farmhouse in the early
morning, showing that the pastoral in
ous;ries have begun, or see it ascending
from the chimneys of the city, telling
OF the homes fed, the factories turning
out valuable fabrics, the printing
presses preparing book and newspaper,
and all the ten thousand wheels OF work
In motion. On a clear day this vapor
spoken or 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 affluence of shape and color
and suggestiveness that if you have
never noticed il you are like a man who
has all his life lived in Paris and vet
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 ii is
ABOUT time that somebody preached a
sermon recognizing this strange, weird,
beautiful, elastic, charming, terrific and
fascinating vapor. Across the Bible
SKY floats the smoke of Sinai, the smoke
or 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
smeke
InSthe first place, these pillars of
smoke, in my text indicate the suffering
the church of God has endured. What
do mean by the church? Imean not a
building, not a sect, but those who in
all ages and all lands and of ali 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 persecution
Rowland Taylor, burned at Hadleigh;
Latimer, burned at Oxford; John Rog
ers, burned at Smithfield; John Hooper,
burned at Gloucester; John Huss,
burned at Constance; Lawrence Saun-
ders, burned at Coventry; Joan of Arc,
burned at Rouen.
Protestants have represented Catho-
lies as having monopoly Of persecut-
ors, but both Protestant and Catholic
have practiced cruelties. The Catholics
during the reign of Hunnerc were by
Protestants put to the worst tortures,
stripped of their clothing, hoisted in the
air by pullcys with weights suspended
from their feet, then let down, and ears
and eyes, and nose and tongue were
smputated, and red hot plates of iron
were put against the tenderest part of
ihcir bodies.
George Bancroft, the historian. SAYS
of the state OF Maryland: In the land
which Catholics had opened to Protes-
tapts mass might not be said publicly,
20 Catholic priest or bishop might ut
ter his faith in voice Of persua sion, no
Catholic might teach the young. If
Maynard child OF papist would but be-
come an apostatc, the law wrested for
him from his parents u share of their
property. Such were the methods
adopted to prevent the growth of po-
perry"
Catholicism as we'll as Professionalism
has had It's martyrs. II does seem as
If when any one sect got complete dom
inancy IL any land the devil OF persecu-
zion and cruelty took possession Of that
sect. Then see the Catholics after the
Hugucnots. See the Genties after the
Jews in Tourainc, where great pit was
dug and fire lighted at the bottom or
the pit. and 1GO Jewish victims were
consumed See the Presbyterian parlia-
ment Of England, more tyrannical in
their treatment Of opponents than had
been the criminal courts. Persecution
against the Baptists by Psedo Baptists.
Persecution Of the Established church
against the Methodist church. Perse-
cution against the Pres byterians. Tn
der Emperor Diocletian IA. 900 Chris
tiaus were massacred. and 100000 more
Of them died from Punishment and ex-
posture.
Witness the suTerings Of the Wal
lenses. OF the Aibigenses, OF the Nesto-
rians. Witness 81. Bartholomew
massacre. Witness the duke OF Alva
driving out 81 life $4,000 Christians.
Witness Herod and Nero and Decius and
Bildebrand and Torquemada and earl
Of Montford and Lord Clayerhouse. who.
when told that he must give account for
\ bis cruelties. said: Il have no need TO
account 10 man, and. as for God. will
take Him in my own hands" a red line
runs through the church history Of 900
years. a line OF blood. Not by hundreds
of thousands but by millions must we
count those slain FOR Christ's sake. no
wonder John Milton put the groans OF
the martyrs 20 an immortal tune, writ
ing;
Avenge o Lord. thy slaughtered saints