The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-12

image or Christ, as did the icOnOclasts
lin York minister; or hurl against it an.
gust literary antipathies, as did Glib
bon; or plot it's overthrow, as do SOM
in every community whose pride an
hate and d~ebauchery are reproved ny
the Ten Commandments which it tn, u
ders and the sermon on the mo- [
which 1t breathes. But it will ST. ID
as long as the earth stands, the 3 he
unique and wonder working !
beatific and miraculous thing or
which God decreed it. Small wits TAX
their brain to say things that will put
her at disadvantage, but many of them
will send for its coincidence when dy-
ing, and their children will be gathered
up under it's benedictions after the pa
rental curse has been removed. Through
her gates will march all the influences
for good that shall ever reach our
world. Take her membership as a
mass, not speaking of the acknowl-
edged exceptions. they are the noblest,
grandest. kindest, best men and wo-
men Of the ages. But for them the
earth would long ago have been a
burned out volcano. They ave been
the salt that has kept the human race
to human or angelic factories.
You lying and hypocriEical world,
shut up those slander about the
church of Christ an institution which,
far from being what 1t ought to be and
never pretending to be perfect. is 500
times better than any other institution
that the world ever saw or ever dream
ID of. The highest honor 1 ever had
and the highest honor 1 shall ever re-
ceive and the higest hor0- J Ger
want is to have my name on her rec
ord as a member. At her affairs / re-
pented. At her sacraments l believed.
In her service let me die. From her
1 lo4-- - 49, ~ h,,-:ad n nhr Of
Cod Thou home of the righteous,
Thou harbor from tempest, Thou
refuge for the weary! Thou lighthouse
of many nations! Thou type of heaven!
I could kiss thy very dust with ecstacy
of affection.
For her my tears shall fall,
For her my rayers ascend,
To her my tolls and cares be given
Till tolls and cares shall end.
"Perfumed smoke" says Solomon
in the words following my text. Not
like the fumes coughed up from the
throat of a steam pipe, or prisoned
with the gases of chemical factories,
or floating in black wrath from the
conf1agration of homesteads, or sui
phurous from blazing batteries, but
sweet as a burning grove of CHINA
mon, or jungle Of ~sassafas, or the
odors of a temple censor. WHO is this
that cometh out Of the wilderness like
pillars cf smoke, perfumed with myrrh
and frankincense?" Hear it, men and
women everywhere, that the advance
of the genuine church of Christ means
peace for all nations.
Victor Hugo, in his book entitled
"Ninety-three," says: Nothing calmer|
than smoke, bur nothing more start
ling. There are peaceful smokes, and
there are evil ones. The thickness and
color of a line of smoke make the
whole difference between war and
peace, between fraternity and hatred.
The whole happiness of man or his
complete misery is sometimes EXPRESS
ed in this thin vapor which the wind
scatters at will" The great French
man was right. but 1 go further and
say that as the kingdom of God adj
vances like pillars of smoke the black
volumes belching from batteries of war
and pouring out from portfolios of shipsI
will vanish.
distinguished general of our civil
war told me that Abraham LincolnI
proposed to avoid our civil conflict by
purchase of all the slaves of the SOUTH
and setting them free. He calculatedl
what would be a reasonable price forI
them, and when the number OF mill
lions of dollars that would be requir-l
ed for such a purchase was announced
LII piOpoolllol was ooIS oA0 tHOI
north would not la made the offer,
and the south would not have accept
ed it if made. But" said the military
friend, "the war went on, and just thel
number of millions Of dollars that Mr..
Lincoln calculated would have been|
enough to make a reasonable purchasel
of all the slaves was spent in war, be-
sides all the precious lives that were
hurled away in the $50 battles. In 9TH
er words, there ought to be some otherl
way for men to settle their cOntrover-
sizes without butchery.
The church Of God will yet becomeI
the arbiter Of nations. If the worldI
would allow it, it could today step in
between Germany and France n set
tie the trouble about Alsace and Lor-
raine, n between England and her
antagonists, and between all the other
nations that are flying ait ach other'sI
threats, and command peace and dis
band armies, and harness for the plow
the war horses Oh saddle for cavalry
charge. That time must come or
through the increased facility for
shooting men and blowing up cities
and whelming hosts ito instant death,
so that we "a kill a regiment easierI
than we could nee kill a company and
kill a brigade easier than we could
kill a regiment, the patent Offices
of the world more busy than ver in
recognizing new enginery of destruc-l
ton, the human race will after awhile
go fighting with one arm, n %hobblingl
with one foot, and stumbling along
with n eye, n some ingenious in
ventor, inspired of the arohangel of all
will contrive a machine THAI
will bore a hole to the earth's center,
and some desperate nation will throw
that hole enough dynamite to blow
this hulk of a planet into fragments,
n r0 4 ~ r All -anNao-,a --
rounding stellar habitations.
COLUMN OF PEACE.
But this shat! net be, for whatever
let go L hang On to my Bible, which
me that the blacksmith's shop
shall yet come to its grandest use whenI
the warrior and the hu~sbandman shall
enter it side by side. and the soldier
shall throw into its ban of fires his
sword, and the farmer shall pick it up
a p~lowshare, and the straightest spear
shall be bent into a crook at each end,
then cut in two. and what was one
spear shall be two pruning hooks.i
with Moloch and up with Christi
no more war horses eat out of the