Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-10-26
NUMBER ~.
Then the sharp instrument was In

Then the sharp instrument was IN
cased and put away.
Never in the history OF the ages was
any land more thoroughly shaved than
during those four years of civil COM
bat, and, my brethren, If we do not
quit some of our individual and ma
tional sins the Lord will again take
us IN hand. He has other razors with
in reach besides war - epidemics,
droughts, deluges, plaques - grass
hopper and locust-or our overtower-
ing success may so far excite the Jeal-
ousy of other lands that under some
pretext the great nations may COM
bine to put us down, Our nation, SO
easily approached on north and south
and from both oceans, might have on
hand at once more hostilities than
were ever arrayed against any one
power. l hope no such combination
against us will ever be formed, but /
want to show that, as Assyria was the
hired razor against Babylon, and the
Huns the hired razor against the
Goths, there are now many razors
that the Lord could hire II, because OF
our national sins, He should under
take to shave us. In 1870 Germany
was the razor with which the Lord
shaved France. Japan was the razor
with which He shaved China, and
America the razor with which He
shaved arrogant, oppressive and Bible
hating Spain. But nations are to re-
pent in a day. May speedy and
worldwide coming to God hinder on
both sides the sea all national calam-
ity. But do not let us as nation
either by unrighteous law at Wash
ington OF bad lives among ourselves
defy the Almighty.
One would think that our national
symbol of the eagle might sometimes
suggest another eagle-that which an
cient Rome carried. In the talons OF
that eagle were clutched at one time
Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Dalma-
tia, Rhaetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Moe
STA, Dacia, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece,
Asia Minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Pales-
tine, Egypt and all northern Africa
and all the islands of the Mediterra-
nean-indeed, all the world that was
worth having, a hundred and twenty
millions of people under the wings OF
that one eagle. Where is she nowY
Ask Gibbon, the historian, in his prose
poem, "The Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire" Ask her gigantic
ruins, bemoaning their sadness
through the ages, the screech owl at
windows out of which worldwide con-
querors looked. Ask the day of judg-
ment, when her crowned debauchees,
Commodus and Pertinax. and Caligula
and Diocletian, shall answer for their
infamy. AS men and as nations let
us repent and have our trust in .
pardoning God rather than depend on
former successes for immunity! Out
of 10 of the greatest battles of the
world Napoleon had lost but one be-
fore Waterloo. Pride and destruction
often ride in the same saddle.
But notice once more, and more than
all. in my text, that God is so kind and
loving that when it Is necessary for
Him to cut He has to go to others for
the sharp-edged weapon. "In the same
day shall the Lord shave with razor
that is hired" God is love. God 10
pity. God is help. God is shelter.
God is rescue. There are no sharp
edges about Him, no thrusting points,
no instruments of liberation. If you
want balm for wounds, He has that.
If YOU want Divine salve for eyesight,
He has that, But II there is sharp
and cutting work to do. which re-
ouires a razor, that He hires. God
has nothing about Him that hurts,
save when dire necessity demands, and
then He has to go clear off to some
one else to get the instrument.
King Henry II. of England crowned
his son as king and on the day of coro-
nation put on servants garb and wait
ed, he, the king, at the sons table, to
the establishment of all the princes.
But we know of more wondrous
scene-the King of Heaven and earth
offering to put on you, His child, the
crown of life andin the form of serv-
ant waiting on you with blessing.
Extol that love, all painting, all sculp.
ture, all music, all architecture, all
worship! In Dresdenian gallery let
Raphael hold Him up as child, and in
Antwerp cathedral let Rubens hand
Him down from the cross as a mar
tyr, and Handel make all his oratorios
vibrate around that one chord: "He
was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities." But not
until all the redeemed get home, and
from the countenances in all the gal
leries of the ransomed shall be re.
vealed the wonders OF redemption,
shall either man or seraph or arch
angel know the height and depth and
length and breadth OF the love oil
God.
At our national capital monument
in honor of him who did more than any
one to achieve our American independ-
ence was for scores of years in build.
ing, and most Of us were discouraged
and said it never would be completed
And how glad we all were when in the
presence Of the highest officials of the
nation the work was done! But will
the monument to Him who died for the
eternal liberation of the human race
ever be completed? For ages the work
has been going up. Evangelists and
apostles and martyrs have been add,
ing to the heavenly pile, and every
one OF the millions Of redeemed going
up from earth has made to 1t contribu.
ton of gladness, and weight of glory
is swung to the top of other weight OF
glory, higher and higher as the centu
ries go by, higher and higher as the
whole millenniums roll, sapphire on
the top of jasper, sardonyx on the
top of chalcedony and chrysoprasu,
above topaz, until far beneath shall
be the walls and towers and domes Of