The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1900-11-02

grave, and they beheaded him You
say it. is mania. a foolhardiness. a
fanaticism. Rather would l call it a
glorious self-abnegation, the thrill of
eternal satisfaction. the plucking of
Joash from death and raising him to
coronation.
The third thought I hand to you is
that the church of God is good hid
ing place. When Jehosheba rushes in-
to the nursery of the king and picks
up Joash, what shall she do with him.
Shall she take him to some room in
the palace? No, for the official des-
peradoes will hunt through every
nook and corner of that building.
Shall she take him to the residence
of some wealthy citizen? No; that
citizen would not dare to harbor the
fugitive. But she has to take him
somewhere. She hears the cry of the
mob in the streets; she hears the
shrek of the dying nobility; SO she
rushes with Joash unto the room of
the temple, into the house of God,
and there she puts him down. She
knows that Athaliah and her wicked
assassins will not bother the temple
great deal. They are not apt to go
very much to church, and SO she sets
down. Joash in the temple. There he
will be hearing the songs of the wor-
shippers year after year; there he will
breathe the odor of the golden CEN
sers; in that sacred spot he will tarry,
| fnI he CT
passed and he come to enforcement.
| Would God that we were all as wise
as Jehosheba and knew that the
church of God is the best hiding place!
Perhaps our parents took us there in
early days. They snatched us away
from the world and hid us behind the
baptismal fonts and amid the Bibles
and psalm books. o glorious in
closure! We have been breathing the
breath of the golden censers all the
time, and we have seen the Lamb OH
the altar, and we have handled the
walls in which are the prayers of all
saints, and we have dwelt under the
wings of the cherubim. Glorious in
closure! When my father and mother
died and the property was settled up,
there was hardly anything left. But
they endowed us with a property
worth more than any earthly possess
sion because they hid us in the temple.
And when days of temptation have
come upon my soul I have gone there
for shelter, and when assaulted Of
sorrows 1 have gone there for COM
fort, and there l mean to live. want,
like Joash, to stay until coronation.
o men of the world outside there,
betrayed, caricatured and cheated OF
the world, why do you not come in
through the broad, wide-open door of
Christian communion? I wish l could
act the part of Jehosheba to-day and
steal you away from your perils and
hide you in the temple. How few of
US appreciate the fact that the church
of God is hiding place! There are
may people who put the church at so
low mark that they begrudge it
everything, even the few dollars they
give toward it. They make no sacri-
fees. They dole little out of their
surplusage. They pay their butchers
bill, and they pay their doctors bill,
and they pay their landlord, and they
pay everybody but the Lord, and they
come in at the last to pay the Lord
in His church, and frown as they say:
"There, Lord, it is. Send me re-
ceipt in full and don't bother me soon
again." There is not more than one
man out of thousand that appreci-
ates what the church is. Where are
the souls that put aside one-tenth for
Christian institutions-one-tenth OF
their income? Where are those who,
having put aside that one-tenth, draw
upon it cheerfully? Why, it is pull |
and drag and hold on and grab and |
clutch, and giving is an affection to
most people, when it ought to be an
exhilaration and rapture. Oh, that |
God would remodel our souls on this |
subject and that we might appreciate
the house of God as the great refuge! |
If your children are to come up to |
lives of virtue and happiness, they |
will come up under the shadow of the
church. If the church does not get |
them, the world will.
Church of God, be hiding place to
all these people! Give them seat
where they can rest their weary souls.
Flash some light from your chandeliers
upon their darkness. With some sooth-
ing hymn hush their griefs. Oh. church
of God. gate of Heaven, let me go
through it! All other institutions are
going to fail, but the church of Cod
its foundation is the Rock of Ages, its
charter is for everlasting years. its