The L'Anse sentinel., 1904-10-01


k4eN kNNN brought either de-
wESSH kN\%SA liverance or bond
1AmW NV age to their people.
NNJ1 j The pages Of his
TX tory, sacred and
MIN profane, are filed
NAE with the records of
warfare and car
" mage, fierce fight
ing and glorious victory or ignominious
defeat The story Of Israel's conflicts
marks Palestine from north to- south
and from the sea coast to the borders
of the great Euphrates on the west as
one great battlefield. Nations have had
their rise and fall upon the battlefield.
Persian power marks its decline from
the great battle of Marathon, and
Greece rises to a place Of power and
sends out her Alexander to conquer the
world Rome comes upon the scene,
and wherever the conquering army OF
the Caesars went there were battlefields
which told of nations subjugated and
brought under the sway of imperial
Rome. Take your map of the world, and
wherever there was battle which you
can remember offhand place dot, and
see how quickly you can dot the surface
OF the earth over with battlefields You
will quickly become impressed with the
fact that the world is but one vast bat
tlefield. Take II in our own land, the
country which is scarcely four centuries
old in the worlds history, and note
how from north to south and from east
80 hoo froc nf tho
warhorse. There Is no state but has had
its conflict with the red man, the orig
inal proprietor OF the land and many
of the states are dotted with its monu-
ments to mark the place Of conflict in
revolutionary and civil war And among
the innumerable battlefields which the
world has seen are hundreds and thou
sands which are Important; battles
which have changed the map again and
again and given birth to new nations
and peoples. And at the present time
there is raging in the east one of the
great conflicts of modern times, and
great battlefelds are being added to the
list-great battlefields in which man
has contended with man for supremacy
and power.
D UT the greatest battlefield which
- Heaven or earth has seen Is that
which is found within the human soul.
On that place of conflict have been
fought out questions and issues which
have to do not only with time but with
eternity. Every soul knows what this
haun dos
perate battles to fight than others;
some have to wage the silent warfare
within until the very life's blood seems
to be forcing its way through the sweat
glands, and the anguish of spirit would
crush out the very life; while others
experience the ordinary battles, and
know sometimes defeat and sometimes
victory. The few endure the supreme
conflicts, but all experience the inner
fightings and strivings. The soul Is
constant battle-ground. 1t Is the place
where man decides the great issues of
life and eternity. 1t is the place from
which there sounds forth the cry OF
defeat or victory. Never did warrior
on battlefield, as he contended hand to
hand with the determined foe, realize
more fully what conflict means than
does the soul to which comes the bitter
strife, the contending of the forces OF
good and evil. 1t Is within the soul
that a man decides whether self or
God shall rule; it is within the soul
that desire and duty wage their des-
perate strife; 1t is within the soul that
Righteousness contends with unright-
eousness, truth with error, Gods spirit
with the spirit of the evil one. We all
know what it means to speak of the
soul as battle-ground 1t is scene
of conflict from which man can never
separate himself. The worlds battle
fields change, here to-day and there to-.
morrow, and seldom Is second battle
fought upon the same ground and over
the same issue, but the greatest Of all
battlefields, the human soul, is the con-
stant recurring scene Of warfare, and
over and over again the soul finds 1t
must fight against the besetting sin,
the prevailing weakness, the persistent
temptation.
THIS conflict began away back in the
l beginning when Adam and Eve
fought out the issue OF good and evil
in the garden and met defeat because
they left God out Of their reckoning.
The record Of that battle has come
down to us through the ages, and ev-
cry life since then has come under the
shadow OF. that defeat. Adams defeat
has brought all the human race under
the dominion Of sin and death. But
even as by one man sin entered into
the world and death by sin, so by one
man, the man Christ Jesus, there came
life and salvation into the world by His
victory over sin and death. How the
nation looks for the hero who shall
deliver 1t from the bondage of the op-
pressor! A David for Israel; Wei
lington for Europe; a Washington for
America; q Garcia for Cuba And az
nations in bondage need a deliverer,
so the human race under the bondage