Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-12-19
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"A SERMON ANS, -
~ THE REV. M<SsM
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Theme: A Nations Warning.

Hamburg avenue and VERIFIED street.
on the above theme, the Rev. Ira
Wemmell Henderson, pastor, took as
his text Daniel 5:5: "In the same
hour came forth fingers of mans
hand, and wrote over against the
candlestick upon the plaster of the
wall of the kings palace; and the
king saw the part of the hand that
wrote" He said:
This is a weird story. The Incl
dent Is gruesome. The circumstances
give pause for thought. The picture
Is terrific. Belshazzar, the wicked
king, in the midst of revelry and vice,
surrounded by his retinue and the
parasites of a degraded court, flaunt-
inE his villainy in the very face of the
living God, finds that God is not
Knocked, much less Is He dead. The
animated hand points the tight end Of
long rope. 1t emphasizes clear
warning Of Jehovah. And 1t terrifies
the king.
Belshazzar had cause to fear. 1t is
no wonder that his knees knocked
and that his limbs shook, that he had
fit, so as to say, of the ague. Well
he might. For NebuchadneZzar the
king, his father before him, had had
an exhibition of the power and the
presence of God within the world.
He had harbored wickedness in his
heart and within his dominions and
God had humbled him. Belshazzar
therefore might have learned from
ancestral experience what would be
likely to be the sure result Of his
many and perverse sins. Simple rea-
soning might have led him to refrain
to try the patience of Jehovah to his
own undoing. But he would not be
taught. He would not even be
warned. And the same night Bel
shazzar the king of the Chaldeans
was slain.
This weird tale is as useful as 1t
is gruesome and as illustrative as 1t
is terrific. 1t is admonitory. 1t
should be exemplary. 1t certainly af-
fords food for sober and continued
thought. 1t epitomizes lesson that
so many men and nations in the past
have failed or refused to grasp. The
lesson that a man cannot fool with
laws of morality and righteousness
and with the principles enunciated by
Almighty God and be safe or live for
long
lory that men and nations have wait
ed until the moose has frightened How
many have Haunted their wilfulness
in the face of Jehovah with a SEEM
ing calm superiority to the inevitable.
How many have refused to heed even
after the hand has, as it were, written
over against the wall of their own
lives. Louis presumed to defy God
= Nd 30 h Ia OH
the right. And his fatuousness pre-
pared the way for freedoms France.
George the Third moved to thwart
the plans of Providence in the new
world. But the political idiocy of
George the Third simply fastened the
ascendancy of George Washington.
America tried to demonstrate the
holiness of an unholy slavery and to
pmpromise principle. But God wrote
large upon the page of our national
history His ultimatum concerning the
lights of man with the red blood of
the flower of our manhood
The lesson of Belshazzar is apropos.
1t is pertinent. And it is nowhere
more needed than within the confines
of most Christian and civilized Amer
lea. To mention no others, 1t Is of
practical value in our commercial and
governmental and ecclesiastical af
fairs. For commerce has been made
the creature of the whims and fam
cies of unscruplous financiers. The
Government has been, and Is now be-
ing, made the opportunity for thieves
and malefactorS of every conceivable
political stripe. The church has been
dormant. In many quarters she has
been, so it would seem, dead. We
have been remiss in much. We have
been fast and loose in more. We have
deified wealth and permitted goddess
ness to strut with little let or hind
rance upon the kings highway. God
knows we have been warned. Let
us trust that we shall heed the hand.
Let us not emulate Belshazzar.
No man may deny that we have
drifted fast toward the rocks of ma
tional dishonor and disgrace in our
commercial affairs. The financial anu
commercial situation is a disgrace to
free people, not to say of q Chris
tian nation. And bad as is the story
that comes directly to our ears it is
not half of what may be told and but
an adumbration of the catastrophe
that will follow as surely as that Cod
lives IL we do not mend our ways.
The spectacle of panic III TIC midst
of the most legitimate prosperity that
the world has ever known is in itself
far greater condemnation of our
methods and our career than any
sermon. Words cannot picture the
sinfulness of the situation so well IS
can the fact with which we are face
to face. Any sane man can perceive
the outcome. None but fool or a
knave would deny the sin. Shall we
shut our eyes to the writing hand?
Fast as we have drifted toward
commercial and financial disaster we
have none the less swiftly progre -sed
in many quarters, and even now are
moving, toward political degeneracy.
The administration of our cities is 4
by-word and joke among the ma
tions of the world. AS we contenl-
plate them ourselves we seem almost
to take delight to say that they are as
badly managed as they are. Ger
tainly many Of US openly despair Of
reformation and pronounce popular
self-government upon that point to be
and utter and shameful failure.
The efforts of those who sit behind
the scenes and pull the wires in our
national affairs are to accomplish the
discrediting and overthrow of any
man or measure that Is squared to
the unhinching application of the
rule of righteousness regardless Of
the consequences or the COST We
may we'll thank God that here and
there, especially in the South and
West, the citizenship Of America is
so keen to hear the breaking waves
and to steer the ship of our national
existence off impending shores. For
We must aa&DGG oar course, o: We
will perish a. the g:ass.
Similarly the church has been re-