The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1902-03-01

cloud of witnesses"
Before / get through 1 will show yo'
that you fight in an arena, aroun
which circle, in galleries above eacl
other, all the kindling eyes and all tn
sympathetic hearts of the ages, and a
every victory gained there comes dow
the laundering applause of a grea
multitude that no man can number
Being comprised about with so grea
a cloud of Witnesses"
On the first elevation of the ancien'
amphitheater, on the day Of a ccle
bration, sat Tiberius or Augustus OF
the reigning king. So in the great
arena of spectators that watch GU
struggles and in the first divine gal
lery, as l shall call it, sits our King
one Jesus. On his head are many
crowns. The Roman emperor got his
place by cold-blooded c%onquests, but
IL King hath COME to His place by the
broken hearts healed and the tears
wiped away and the souls redeemed,
h Roman emperor sat, with folded
arms, Indifferent as to whether the
s%wordsman or the lion beat, but our
Kings sympathies are all with us
nay, unheard of condescension! see
Him come down from the gallery into
the arena to help us in the fight, shout
ing until all up and down His voice
is heard: Fear not! l will help thee!
l will strengthen thee by the right
hand of My power!"
Thnxr nnro 20 t1n -,1r, -, +ha ara-,
in the olden time food to thicken their
blood. so that it would flow slowly and
thai for a longer time the people might
gloat over the scene. But our King
has no pleasure in our wounds, for we
are bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh,
blood of His blood.
Once in the ancient a~mphitheater a
lion with n paw caught the combat
ants sword and with his other paw
caught his shield. The man took his
knife from his girdle and slew the
beast The king, sitting in the gal
lery, said: THAT was not fair. The
lion must be slain by a sword" Other
lions were turned out, and the poor
victim fell. You cry: SHANE.
shame!" at such But the
King in this case is our brother, and
He will see that we have fair play.
He will forbid the rushing out of more
lions than we can meet. He will not
suffer us to be tempted above that
we are able. Thank Cod The King
is in the gallery! His eyes are on us.
His heart is with us. His hand will
deliver us. "'Blessed are they who put
their trust in Him"
| look again. and | see the angelic
There they are-the angel
that swung the sword at the gate of
Eden, the same that Ezekiel saw up
holding the throne of God, and from
which | look away, for the splendor is
insutferable. Here are the guardian
angels. That n watched a patriarch;
this one protected a child: thai a. has
been pulling a soul out of temptation.
All these are messengers Of light!
Those drove the Spanish armada on
rocks. This turned Sennacherib's
living host into a heap of 1851 900
,orpses. Those yonder chanted the
Christmas carol over Bethlehem until
chant awoke the shepherds. These
creation stood in the balcony of
heaven and serenaded the newborn
world wrapped in swaddling clothes Of
light. And there, holier and mightier
than all. is Michael. the a~rchangel. |
command an earthly host gives dig
nity, but this one is leader of the 90
700 chariots of God and of the 10000 !
10000 angels. l think God gives
command to the archangel. and the
.irchangel to the seraphim, and the
seraphim to the cherubim, until all
he lower orders of Heaven hear the
command and go forth on the high
Now, bring on your lions! Who can
ear? All the spectators in the angelic
gallery are our friends. "He shall give
His angels charge over thee. to keen
,hee in all thy ways. They shall bear
up in their hands lest thou dash
thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt
upon the lion and adder; the
young lion and the dragon shalt tbou
trample under foot"
Though the arena be crowded with
temptations, we shall. with the angelic
strike them down in the name of
our God and leap on their fallen car
o bending throng of bright
angelic faces and swift wings and
lightning foot, | hail you to-day from
The dust and struggle of the arena,
l look again, and / see the gallery
of the martyrs. Who is that? Hugh
Latimer, sure enough He would not
apologize for the truth he preached.
and so he died, the night before
swinging from the bedpost in perfect
glee at the thought of emancipation.
is that army of 6,666? They are
Theban legion who died for the
faith. Here is a larger host in mag
1ificent array, 1000, who persisted
Christ in the prosecutions of
)iocletian. Yonder is a family group.
Felicitas of Rome and her children.
they were dying for the faith
stood encouraging them. Ono
ION was whipped to death by thorns;
mother was flung from "a rock; an
'ther was beheaded. At last the
mother becamp n martvr rLou~