Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-11-30
wise interfere with her imperial crim-

The work is done. II is completely
DONE" Is it? In the swaddling clothes
Of that church apartment are wrapped
the cause of God and the cause of good
government. That is the scion of the
house of David. II is Joash, the God
worshiping reformer. 1t is Joash, the
friend of God. 1t is Joash, the demoral-
izer of Baalitish idolatry. Rock him
tenderly, nurse him gently. Athaliah,
you may kill all the other children, but
you cannot kill him. Eternal defenses
are thrown all around him, and this
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 obliteration.
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,-
900 Christians. And the scythe OF per-
secution 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 1t? Did they ex-
terminate Alban, the first British sac
rifice, or Zwingli, the Swiss reformer,
or John Oldcastle, the Christian no.
bleman, or Abdallah, the Arabian mar
tyr, or Anne Askew or Sanders or Gran
mer? Great work of determination
they made of it. 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 exterminats
the Bible" and the Scriptures were
thrown into the street for the mob to
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 I have annihilated the Scrip
lures. Your Washington is pusil'
luminous Christian, but 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 to be compared
with the hostilities against that book
Said one man in his infidel desperation
to his wife: "You must not be read
ing that Bible" and he snatched il
away from her. And though in that
Bible was lock Of hair of the dead
child-the only child that God had
ever given them-he pitched the book
with its contents into the fire and
stirred IL with the tongs and spat on
it and cursed it and said: Susan, never
have any more of that damnable stuff
here"
!, How many individual and organized
attempts have been made to exter
inmate that Bible? Have its enemie,
done it? Have they exterminated the
American Bible society? Have they
exterminated the British and Foreign
Bible society? Have they exterminatet
the thousands Of Christian institutions
whose only object is to multiply copies
of the Scriptures and spread then
broadcast around the world? They
have exterminated until instead OF ont
or two copies OF the Bible in our houses
we have eight or ten, and we pile then
up in the corners of our Sabbath-schoo
rooms and send great boxes of then
everywhere. II they get on as well a
they are now going on in the work o
determination, do not know but tina
our children may live to see the mil
lennium. Yea, II there should com,
time of persecution in which all tn,
known Bibles of the earth should b.
destroyed, all these lamps of life tina
blaze in our pulpits and in our fam
lilies extinguished, in the very day tha
infidelity and sin should be holding ju
bilee over the universal extinction ther,
would be in some secret closet of ;
backwoods church a secreted Bible
and this Joash of eternal literatur
would come out and come np and TAX
the throne, and the Athaliah of infidel
ity and persecution would fly out o
the back door of the palace and drol
her miserable carcass under the hoof
of the horses Of the kings stables. Yol
cannot exterminate Christianity! Yol
cannot kill Joash!
The second thought hand you from
my subject is that there are opportu
mites in which we may save royal life
You know that profane history is re
plete with stories of strangled mon
archs and of young princes who hav,
been put out of the way. Here IL tn
story of young king saved. How
Jehosheba, the clergyman's wife, mus
have trembled as she rushed into tn
imperial nursery and snatched VI
Joash! How she hushed him lest b,
his cry he hinder the escape! Fly will
him, Jehosheba! You hold in you
arms the cause OF God and good gov
ernment. Fail, and he is slain. Sue
ceed, and you turn the tide Of tn
worlds history in the right direction
1t seems as If between that youn,
king and his assassins there is nothin,
but the frail arm of woman. Blu
why should we spend our time in prais
ing this bravery Of expedition whei
God asks the same thing Of you an,
me? All around us the imperial chill
dren of great King. They are borl
Of Almighty parentage and will com
to throne if permitted. But sin, tn
old Athalah, goes forth to the mas
sacre. Murderous temptations are on
for the assassination. Valens, the EN-
peror, was told that there was some
body In his realm who would usurp hi
throne and that the name of the maj
who should be the usurper would be
gin with the letters T, Ii, L, o. d, an
the edict went forth from the EN-
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