The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-12-21

! "'"'r oA DaNiu. IL ID JOdsn, the 10
worshiping reformer. 1t is Joash. tn
friend Of God. 1t is Joash, the demoral
izer Of Baalitish idolatry. Rock hin
tenderly, nurse him gently. Athaliah
you may kill all the other children, bu
you cannot kill him. Eternal defense
are thrown all around him, and thil
clergyman's wife, Jehosheba, will
snatch him up from the palace nursery
and will run down with him into the
house OF the Lord, and there she will
hide him for six years, and at the end
of that time he will come forth for
your dethronement and obllteration.
Well, my friends. just as poor botch
does the world always make of extin-
gushing righteousness. Superstition
rises up and says: II will just put an
end to pure religion" Domitian slew
10000 Christians, Diocletian slew s44,-
600 Christians. And the scythe of per-
secuion has been swung through all
ages, and the flames hiSsed, and the
guillotine chopped, and the Bastile
groaned, but did the foes Of Christian
ity exterminate it2 Did they ex-
terminate Alban, the first British sac
rifice, or Zwingn, the Swiss reformer,
or John Oldcastle. the Christian no
bleman, or Abdallah, the Arabian mar
tyr, or Anne Askew or Sanders or Gran
mer2 Great work of determination
they made of 1t. Just at the time when
they thought they had slain all the
royal family of Jesus some Joash would
spring up and out and take the throne
of power and WELD very scepter of
Christian dominion.
Infdelity says: 81 will exterminate
the Bible" and the Scriptures were
thrown into the street for the mob 10
trample on, and they were piled up in
the public squares and set on fire, and
mountains of indignant contempt were
hurled on them. and learned universi-
ties decreed the Bible out Of existence.
Thomas Paine said: "In my Age OF
Reason / have annihilated the Scrip
lures. Your Washington ia a pusil-
luminous Christian. but l am the foe
OF Bibles and churches" Oh, how
many assaults upon that word! All
the hostilities that have ever been ere
ated on earth are not 10 be compared
with the hostilities against that book.
Said one man In his infdel desperation
to his wife: "You must not be read
ng that Bible" and he snatched It
away from her. And though In that
Bible was lock Of hair Of the dead
child-the only child that God had
'ver given them-he pitched the book
with it's contents into the fire and
stirred It with the tongs and spat on
i and cursed II and said: Susan, never
have any more Of that damnable stuff |
lere."
How many individual and organized |
attempts have been made 10 exter-
innate that Bible7 Have It's enemies 1
lone it9 Have they exterminated the I
american Bible society," Have they .
the British and Foreign
Bible society," Have they exterminsted
he thousands Of Christian institutions
whose only object is TO multiply copies
T the Scriptures and spread them
broadcast around the world9 They
ave exterminated until instead Of one
r two copies of the Bible In our houses
'e have eight or ten, and we pile them
p in the corners of our Sabbath-school
ooms and send great boxes Of them
verywhere. II they get on as well as
hey are now going on In the work OF
I do not know but that
ur children may live TO see the mil
.nnium. Yea, II there should come
time OF persecution In which all the
nown Bibles Of the earth should be
estroyed, all these lamps Of life that
.aze in our pulpits and in our fam
les extingulshed. In the very day that
fidelity and sin should be holding ju-
lee over the universal extinction there
ould be in some secret closet of a
ackwoods church a secreted Bible,
nd this Joash of eternal literature
ould come out and come up and take
le throne, and the Atha.iah OF infdel-
y and persecution would hy out OF
le back door Of the palace and drop
,r miserable carcass under the hoofs
the horses Of the kings stables. You
lnnot extermlnate Christianity You
nnot kill Joash!
The second thought hand you from
y subject IS that there are opportu-
ties in which we may save royal life.
ou know that profane history is re-
etc with stories of strangled mon
chs and Of young princes who have
'en put out OF the way. Here Is the
ory of young king saved. How
hosheba, the clergynan's wife, must
I'VE trembled as she rushed into the
lperal nursery and snatched up
ashl How she hushed him lest by
S cry he hinder the escspel Fly with
N, Jehoshebal You hold in your
ms the cause OF God and good gov
nment Fail, and he is slain. Sue
ed. and you turn the tide Of the
,rld's history in the right direction.
seems as II between that young
lg and his assassins there is nothing
t the frail arm OF a woman. But
~ should we spend our time In prais-
Z this bravery Of expedition when
d asks the same thing of you and
!? All around us the imperial chill
IN of a great King. They are born :
Almighty parentage and will come
throne II permitted. But sin. the !,
Athaliah, goes forth TO the mas =
re. Murderous temptations are out
the assassination. Vslens, the en-
-or, was told that there was some
iY IN bis realm who would usurp his