Connecticut western news., 1900-04-12

when lauy Jane Grey Heau fOlieG from the eXecutioners block, when Calvin was imprisoned in the castle. when John Knox died for the truth, when John Bunyan lay rotting in Bed ford 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 Wurt- temberg castles, falling back from the Brussels market place, yet all the time | triumphing. Notwithstanding all the | reverses which the church of Christ suffers, what do we see today? | Twelve thousand missionaries of the cross on heather grounds; eighty thou sand ministers of Jesus Christ in this land; at least four hundred millions of | ShIlSllduS Oh lllc Sdl II pd(h5 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 more marked illustra- ! 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 | leys, from throne to manager; yet that did not seem to suffice him as re- treat. Falling back still farther from Bethlehem to Nazareth, from Nazareth | to Jerusalem, back from Jerusalem to | Golgotha, back from Golgotha to the | mausoleum in the rock, back down | over the precipices of perdition until he | walked amid the cavernS of the eter- | nal captives and drank of the wine | of the wrath of Almighty God, amid | the Ahabs and the JeZebels and the | Belshazzars. Oh, men of the pulpit
 and men of the pew, Christ's descent from heaven to earth does not measure
 half the distance! It was from glory to perdition. He descended into hell. | All the records of earthly retreat are | dS nOllluS WILL thiS ldhlhS back. Santa Anna, with the fragments
 of his army flying over the plateaus of
 Mexico, and Napoleon and his army re-
 treating from Moscow into the awful
 snows of Russia are not worthy to be
 mentioned with this retreat, when all
 the powers of darkness seemed 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 Ali
 was not so emptied of its 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
 below pit, until he seemed to strike the
 bottom of objurgation and scorn and
 torture. Oh, the long, loud, jubilant
 shout of he'll at the defeat of the Lord
 God Almighty!
 | Triumph of the Wicked Is Short.
 But let not the powers of darkness
 rejoice quite so soon. Do you hear
 that disturbance in the tomb of Arima
 thea? 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 1 stalk in this open sunlight. Oh, 1t 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 ' tha Ofh yf1 Ind hn If
 darkness being caught between these
 ranks of celestial and terrestrial valor
 nothing is left of them save just
 enough to Illustrate the direful over
 throw of hell and our Joshuas 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.
 Lesson the second: The triumph of
 the wicked is short. Did you ever see
 an army in a panic? There is nothing 1 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 Ali looked
 out and saw those men of Joshua in a | SLdulpeuC they cApcClSu easy "Oi h. They would scatter them as the
 equinox the leaves. Oh, the gleeful
 and jubilant descent of the men of Al
 upon the men of Joshua! But their
 exhilaration was brief, for the tide of
 battle turned, and these quondam COD.
 querors left their miserable carcasses
 in the wilderness of Bethaven. So 1t always is. The triumph of the wicked
 is short. You make S20,0O0 at the gam
 ing table. Do you expect to keep it
 You will die in the penthouse. You make a fortune by iniquitous traffic | Do you expect to keep it? Your mon , | ey will scatter, or it will stay long
 enough to curse your children after . 1 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 Ali, they went from ; | conquest to conquest, but after 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. I am always , interested in the building of palaces 5 of dissipation. I like to have them = built of the best granite and have the 3 rooms made large and to have the pill ? lars made very firm. God is going tC l conquer them, and they will be turned t into asylums and art galleries ant r churches. The stores in which fraud ? ulent men do business, the splendid - banking institutions where the presi s dent and cashier put all their property : in their wives hands and then fail fol g S5OO,000, all these institutions are tt
 become the places where honest Chris r tian men do business.
 How long will it take your boys tC