The Washington herald., 1918-01-14


stage and the huge reptile wriggled
itself toward him and began to wind
itself around the man until man and
snake seemed blended into one and
high above the head of the man. in
cessantly moved the head OF the ser
pent. The tongue OF the serpent stuck
out and the man threw his head back.
The audience burst forth and the
man gave a call and thinking that
an added part Of the, performance,
they burst forth again until the
voiciferation rolled down to the
street like a simoom of the desert,
when the Mortified audience sat
there and heard bone after bone
Of the man break until the monster
killed him.
The Grip Of Sin.
At first it was small and then it
was large; at first it was weak and
then it was strong. So with your
habits. At first you may crush
them. oh! there are men and wo-
men that are held by the enslaving
power of appetite, in bands strong
er than steel and more enduring.
There was a time when you could
| have defeated that, now you are
perfectly helpless in its grip. So
with sin. and to save my life
can't make lot Of people see it.
All the panorama Of the ages and
all the spectacles painted and all
the lurid colors of sin and of shame
and of damnation may be flashed
upon the canvas of their memory,
. and yet they will blind their eyes
and stop their ears and rush pell-
NELL to hell. You can not describe
or explain it upon any given note
or suggestion or hypothesis other
than a personal devil in the world,
and it blinds the eyes Of men and
women lest they might see and be
saved.
I never got such a clear idea of
1t as 1 did by reading that wonder
full book Of the nineteenth century,
by Gen. Lew Wallace, Ben Hur."
How many ever read that book? 1
! thought everybody had read that
that had ever read anything decent
outside of the Bible.
Now listen, let me- tell you a little
history. Wallace used to be in Phil
adelpAia and Bob Ingersol and he
were companions. One day they were
travelling on a train in Indiana, dis
cussing the church and IngersolI said
to him:
General, why don't you write a
/ book refuting their arguments show
! ing the falsity OF their belief" and
Wallace parted with the promise that
! he would do it and he started to
write Ben Hur"
He said to himself. See here, II
that book is going to stand the Sc
we're criticism, that it will be COM
PEELED to do, by the ministers in the
church. 1 must fortify myself and 1
must read the Bible, that 1 may be
able to intelligently quote it"
So he started to read the New Testa-
| ment with the idea in view of fortify-
ing his position against the church.
/ The more he read the more he saw.
The divine problem Unfolded itself
from a divine mind and, sir, he ac-
cepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and
he said:
''You note the difference between the
beginning of that book and the closing
| of it" He says: THE fore part of
it was written while 1 was a blatant
infidel and the later part while was
! a believing Christian of Jesus Christ
the Son OF God" and so 1 never got
such a clear idea of It as 1 did by
reading that wonderful book.
Tale of Ben Hur.
The story of "Ben-Hur'' is refresh
ing for the minds of those who have
read OF the story before as well as
good for those who know nothing
about it. The confiscating of the fam
lily estate is told about and then the
change of the Emperor and then the
return Of Ben-Hur from his far-ofr
wandering and prodigality. He walk
ed down the street. and, being tired,
! fell down upon the doorstep and fell
asleep. His mother and sister had
been driven out into the Ieper's cells,
and they come into town to secure
bread and water and they went down
the street to take one more look at
the old home to which they'd said
"GOod-by." For they were lepers. and
they saw him lying on the doorstep
that they had long regarded dead.
They dared not awaken him, for fear
his anguish of heart upon learning of
their condition would be greater than
he could bear and then the law for
bade them touching him. They were
lepers. but they stealthily crept to his
side and they placed their leprous lips
against the sandals that covered his
feet
Satisfied with that evidence of IN
dying affection, they secured the
bread and the water and started out
again, back to the tombs, and Ben
Hur awakens and sees a great throng.
And imagine. down the street comes
an old blatant infidel splitting tobacco
juice enough TO drown a jackrabbit.
Hey. what's all the excitement
down there"
"Oh. nothing, a Iong-haired fanatic
from Nazareth. who says he is the
Son of God" and he says it is fraud
and he goes cussing and splitting
along the street. He meets another
old infidel and he accosts him. He
says:
What is the crowd down there
forg''
'Oh, nothing. nothing at all They
say that a couple of lepers have been
cleansed by the word of mouth from
man who says he is the Son of
God, nothing to It! It's just the re-
suit OF some occult power. You
know matter is non-existent to the
mortal mind
So Ben has his curiosiey aroused
and he goes down and discovers that
a man they call Jesus of Nazareth
has Just eleansed a couple of lepers
and he finds out that the recipients
OF the power of Jesus Christ are his
own mother and sister. He hears
Of the story Of leprosy from their
lips and sees them standing there
cleansed. before him. he falls. him.
self. at the feet of Jesus Christ ana
follows Him to life.
"Unelean! UneIean!s
All over you have evidences enough