The Canton times., 1900-09-28

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 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 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
sia, 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, hundred and twenty
millions of people under the wings of
that one eagle. Where is she now?
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 60 to others for
the sharp-edged weapon. "In the same
day shall the Lord shave with a razor
that is hired" God is love. God is
pity. God is help. God is shelter
God is rescue. There are no sharp
edges about Him. no thrusting points,
no instruments of laceration. II you
want balm for wounds, He has that.
If YOU want Divine salve for eyesight,
He has that. But if there is sharp
and cutting work to do, which re-
quires 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. This
Divine clemency will be no novelty to
those who have pondered the Cal
varean massacre, where God sub
merged Himself in human tears and
crimsoned Himself from punctured ar
teries and let the terrestrial and in
fernal worlds maui Him until the chan
deliers of the sky had to be turned
out, because the universe could not en-
dure the outrage. Illustrious for love
he must have been to take all that as
our substitute paying out of His own
heart the price of our admission at
the gates of Heaven.
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 astonishment 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 and in the form of serv-
ant waiting on you with blessing.
Extol that love, all painting, all sculp-
ture, all music, all architecture, al
worship! In Dresdenian gallery let
Raphael hold Him up as a 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 of 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