The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-04-14

are you reading? Bolngbroke? An
drew Jackson Davis tracts? Tyndal's
Glasgow university address? Drop
them and run. You will be an infidel be-
fore you die unless you quit that. These
men of Al will be too much for you.
Turn your back OF the rank and file
of unbelief. Fly before they cut you
with their swords and transfix you
with their javelins. There are people
who have been well-nigh ruined be-
cause they risked a foolhardy expedi-
ton in the presence of mighty and
overwhelming temptations and the
men of All made a morning meal OF
them.
So, also. there is victorious retreat j n
the religious world. Thousands of
times the Kingdom of Christ has
seemed to fall back. When the blood
of the Scotch C~ovenanters gave a deep
dive to the heather of the highlands,
when the Vaudois of France chose ex-
termination rather than make an I'M
christian surrender, when on st. Bar
tholomew's day mounted assassins
rode through the streets of Paris, cry
ing xiii! Bloodletting is good in Au-
gust! Kill! Death to the H~uguenotsi
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 Bunyan 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 a con-
tinent for the Christianization of the
world. The church of Christ falling
back from Piedmont. 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 triumph
ing. 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; $4,000 ministers of
Jesus Christ in this land; at least 400,-
600, 900 of Christians on the earth. Fall
ing 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.
But there is a more marked iliustra-
ton 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 val
legs, from throne to manager; yet that
did not seem to suffice him as a re-
treat. Falling back still farther from
Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Nazareth
to Jerusalem, back from Jerusalem to
Golgotha, back from Golgotha to the
m%ausoleum in the rock, back down
over the precipices of perdition until
he walked amid the caverns of eternal
captives and drank of the wine of the
wrath of Almighty God, amid the
Ahabs, and the Jezekels, 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
records of earthly retreat are as moth
ing compared with this falling back.
Santa Anna, with the fragments of his
army flying over the plateaus of Mex
leo and Napoleon and his army retreat
ing from Moscow into the awful SHOWS
of Russia are not worthy to be men
toned with this retreat, wheu all the
powers of darkness seem to be pursu-
ing 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
All was not so emptied of it's inhabit-
ants 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 below pit, until he seemed
" clilhC hhS cOtbOih VI ODJut s1tlOl
and scorn and torture. Oh, the long,
loud, iubilant shout of hell at the de-
feat of the Lord God Almighty!
But let not the powers of darkness
rejoice quite SO Do You hear
that disturbance in the tomb of
Arimathea? hear the sheet rending!
What means that stone hurled down
the side of the hill? Who is this COM
ing out? Push him back. The dead
must not stalk in this open sunlight.
Oh, it is our Joshua. Let him come out.
He m forth and starts for the city.
He takes the spear of the Roman guard
and points that way. Church militant
marches up on side, and the church
triumphant marches down on tho
other side. And the powers of dark
ness being caught between these ranks
of celestial and terrestrial valor moth
ing is left of them save just enough to
illustrate the direful overthrow of hell
and III Joshua's eternal victory. On
lis 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.