The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1900-04-11
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Kill! Death to the Ruguenots! Kill.
when Lady Jane Grey's head rolled from
the executioner's block, when Calvin was
imprisoned in the castle, when John
Knox died for the truth, when John Bun
yam lay rotting in Bedford Jail, saying,
IF God will help me and my physical
life continues, l will stay here until the
moss grows on my eyebrows rather than
give up my faith" the days of retreat for
the church were days Of victory.
The pilgrim fathers fell back from the
other side of the sea to Plymouth Rock.
but now are marshaling continent for
the Characterization of the world. The
church of Christ falling back from Pied
mont, falling back from Rue st. Jacques,
falling back from st. Denis, falling back
from Wurttemberg castles, falling back
from the Brussels market place, yet all
the time triumphing. Notwithstanding
all the shocking reverses which the
church of Christ suffers, what do we see
to-day? Twelve thousand missionaries
Of the cross on heather grounds; eighty
thousand ministers of Jesus Christ In
this land; at least four hundred millions
Of Christians on the earth. Failing back,
yet advancing until the old Wesleyan
hymn will prove true:
The Lion of Judah shall break the chain
And give us the victory again and again!
Reasons for Retreat.
But there is more marked Illustration
OF victorious retreat in the life of our
Joshua, the Jesus of the ages. First
falling back from an appalling height to
an appalling depth, falling from celestial
hills to terrestrial valleys, from throne
10 manager; yet that did not seem to suf-
fee him as a retreat. Failing back still
farther from Bethlehem to Nazareth,
from Nazareth to Jerusalem, back from
Jerusalem to Golgotha, back from Col
gotha to the mausoleum in the rock, back
down over the precipices of perdition UNI
til he walked amid the caverns of the
eternal captives and drank of the wine
of the wrath of Almighty God, amid the
Ahabs. and the Jezebels, and the Bel
shazzars. Oh, men of the pulpit and
men of the pew, Christ's descent from
heaven to earth does not measure half
the distance! 1t was from glory to per-
dition. He descended into hell. All the
compared with this falling back. Santa
| Anna, with the fragments of his army
| flying over the plateaus Of Mexico and
Napoleon and his army retreating from
| Moscow into the awful SHOWS of Russia
are not worthy to be mentioned with this
retreat, when all the powers of dark
ness seem to be pursuing Christ as he fell
back, until the body of him who came to
do such wonderful things lay pulseless
and stripped. Methinks that the city of
Al was not so emptied of it's inhabitants
when they went to pursue Joshua as
perdition was emptied Of devils when
| they started for the pursuit of Christ
| and he fell back and back, down lower,
! down lower, chasm below chasm, pit be-
low pit, until he SCENE dto strike the
| bottom of objurgatiOn and scorn and tor
ture. Oh, the long, loud, jubilant shout
of hell at the defeat Of the Lord God
Almighty!
But let not the powers of darkness re-
joice quite so soon. Do you hear that
disturbance in the tomb of Arimathea!
I hear the sheet rending! What means
that stone hurled down the side of the
! hill? Who is this coming out? Push
+, him back! The dead must not stalk in
| this open sunlight. Oh, it is our Joshua.
| Let him come out He comes forth and
starts for the city. He takes the spear
of the Roman guard and points that way.
| Church militant marches up on one side,
and the church triumphant marches down
| on the other side And the powers of
darkness being caught between these
ranks Of celestial and terrestrial valor
nothing is left of them save just enough
to illustrate the direful overthrow of hell
and our Joshua's eternal victory. On
his head be all the crowns. In his hands
be all the scepters. At his feet be all
the human hearts; and here, Lord, is one
of them.
Sins Triumph Brief.
Lesson the second: The triumph OF the
wicked is short Did you ever see an
army in panic? There is nothing so
uncomfortable. If you had stood at Long
bridge, Washington, during the opening
of our sad civil war, you would know
what it is to see an army run. And
when those men of All looked out and
saw those men of Joshua in a stampede
they expected easy work. They would
scatter them as the equinox the leaves.
Oh, the gleeful and jubilant descent Of
: the men of All upon the men of Joshua!
But their exhilaration was brief, for the
tide of battle turned, and these auondam
conqucrors left their miserable carcasses
in the wilderness of Bethayen. So it
always is. The triumph of the wicked
| is short. You make 1000 at the gam
ing table. DO you expect to keep it?
| You will die in the poorhouse. You made
fortune by iniqutous traffic. Do you
expect to keep it? Your money will scat
i ter, or it will stay long enough to curse
your children after you are dead. Call
over the roll Of bad men who prospered
and see how short was their prosperity.
For awhile like the men of Al, they
went from conquest to conquest, but af-
ter awhile disaster rolled back upon
them, and they were divided into three
parts. Misfortune took their property,
the grave took their body and the lost
world took their soul. l am always in
terested III the building of palaces of dis
sipation. / like to have them built of
the best granite and have the rooms made
large and to have the pillars made very
| firm. God is going to conquer them, and