The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-09-22

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, 30
easily approached on north and south
and from both oceans, might have on
hand at once more hostilities than
were ever arrayed against any n
power. I hope no such combination
against us will ever be formed, but I
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 a speedy and
worldwide coming to God hinder on
both sides the sea all national calam-
ity. But do not let us as a nation
either by unrighteous law at Wash
ington or 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 nowf
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 q
pardoning God rather than depend on
former successes for immunity! Out
of 10 of the greatest battles Of the
world Napoleon had lost but n be-
fore Waterloo. Pride and destruction
often ride in the same saddle.
But notice once more, and more thar
all. in nv text, that God is so kind and
loving that when It is necessary foi
Him to cut He has to go TO others fol
the sharp-edged weapon. SIN the same
day shall the Lord shave with a razor
that is hired" God is love. God Il
pity. God is help. God is shelter
God is rescue. There are no sharI
edges about Him, no thrusting points
no instruments Of liberation. If yor
want balm for wounds, He has that
II you want Divine saive for eyesight
| He has that. But If there is sharI
and cutting work to do. which re
| quires a razor, that He hires. Goo
| has nothing about Him that hurts
| save when dire necessity demands, ant
then He has to go clear of to SOM
| 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 a servants garb and wait
ed, he, the king, at the sons table, t,
| the astonishment of all the princes
But we know of a more wondrou'
scene-the King Of Heaven and eartl
offering to put on you, His child, tn,
crown Of life and in the form of a serv
ant waiting on you with blessing
Extol that love, all painting, all sculp
ture, all music, all architecture, al
worship! In Dresdenian gallery le'
Raphael hold Him up as a child, and II
Antwerp cathedral let Rubens hant
Him down from the cross as a mar
tyr, and Handel make all his oratoriol
vibrate around that one chord: "H,
was wounded for our transgressions
bruised for our ~iniquities." But no
until all the redeemed get home, ant
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 ant
length and breadth Of the love o
God.
At our national capital a monumen'
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 discourage.
and said it never would be completed
And how glad we all were when in tn,
presence Of the highest officials of tn,
nation the work was donel But will