THE-
AN EXCELLENT )
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Official Organ of Washington County.
'' FIRST OF ALL THE NEWS. -
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Washingtoa. Martin, Tyrrsii and BsiuforL
l.OO A YEAR IX ADVANCE. 44 FOE GOD, FOR COUNTRY, AND FOR TRUTH." SINGER COPT, 5 CfWfTS.
VOL. X. PLYMOUTH, N. C, FRIDAY, APRIL 28, 1899. NO. 32.
1
r
THE STREAM'S
Some say that I'm a babbler and I chatter
ou my way,
O'er the sands through many lands with
heart of stone.
Dut there's music in my babble, and my
chatter is a lay,
: That I love to sing when quiet and
alone.
Oh, the woodlands are my playgrounds and
the dales my sweet delight,
And the shaded nooks my rapture as I steal
along from sight.
Some say I'm never quiet; that I always fret
along,
Through the glades and in the shades,
with discontent,
Dut because I like to ramble is it such an ar
rant wrong
Must I fret in some secluded channel,
pent V
But I have my drenniing hours, and the bab
ble of my song
Brings its pleasure to the flowers and its
treusures to the throng.
rw-1 t,
JL. -rfk.
There was a sad group of ladies
gathered in the parlor of a pretty
; house on the outskirts of the town of
Topham. Miss Martha Joyce.spiuster,
of uncertain age, sat in a low rocking
chair her sweet face clouded, her ten
der heart sore; while her two nieces,
May and Bessie Joyce, twin sisters of
18, blue-eyed and pretty as rosebuds,
sat one each side. The three ladies
nil wore mourning and bore in their
pale faces and heavy eyes the traces
of recent sorrow; but while Aunt Mat-
tie meekly folded her hands aud sighed
May and Bessie gave voice to consid
erable inward indignation.
"I don't care for ourselves," said
Bessie, using the plural that meant
the inseparable twinship; "we are
young and can work, but it is too bard
to have Aunt Mattie turned out of
house and home after all she has done
for Mr. William Otdfield."
"Don't blame your uncle, dear,"
began Aunt Mattie.
"We wasn't our uucle," snapped
out May.
"He did what he promised to do,"
continued Aunt Mattie.
'And then uudid it," said Bessie,
angrily.
"We are not sure of that, dear."
"Now, auntie! He made .a. will,
leaving you this house aud $10,000
and 810,000 apiece to Bessie and me,"
said May; "but afterward, if he did
not destroy it, where is it?"
"Yes, where is it?" echoed her sis
ter. "If it was in the house, surely it
would have beeu found in the general
turning out of our household posses
sions today."
'Well, dear, it can't be found, and
we must go back to our old rooms and
try to re-establish the little school I
left five years ago. We have had a
comfortable home for that time. "
For the facts of the case were these:
William Oldfield, a widower of rnauy
years, possessing large means, had
"been attacked late in life with a pain
ful, incurable sickness, trying to nurse,
distressing to witness and having an
irritating effect on the nerves of the
sufferer. After euduring the trials of
dishonest servants and nurses, incom
petent housekeepers aud careless at
tendants for a time he had persuaded
his dead wife's maiden sister to give
up a small but flourishing school, by
which she supported herself and her
brother's orphan girls, and keep house
for him.
In default of regular salary.he gave
a home to the aforesaid nieces, who
supported themselves by sewing, aud
promised a legacy to Miss Mattie, who,
however, hardly expected and never
demanded it. Yet, most assuredly,
she had earned it, for her brother-in-law,
by reason of pain and bad temper,
made her a slave to his sick whims,
keeping her actively employed as
nurse, as he grew worse and worse,
till, during the last year of his life, she
rarely left his room.
Faithfully and patiently she en
dured the mouotouy of her life, the
caprices of her patient's temper, the
fatigue of nursiug, till death claimed
the invalid and released her. The
promised legacy had beeu left to her
and the girls in a will made a year be
fore William Oldfield died; but the
lawyer said the document was not in
trusted to his care. Failing to find it
in the house, the ladies were notified
that William Oldfield, Jr., the nephew
aud heir-at-law of the dead man, would
take possession of the entire property
at once.
It was well known in Topham that
this heir was by no means the one to
whom the uncle desired to leave his
property, as the remainder of his es
tate, after the legacies mentioned,
passed, by the terms of the last will,
to the town to endow a hospital.
The young heir-at law had been on
ill terms with his uncle for years, being
a spendthrift, a gambler and a man ad
dicted to drinking, heartlessly indiffer
ent to his uncle's sufferings and laugh
ing boisterously when the lawyer pro
posed to him to make some compensa
tion to Miss Mattie for her services.
"The old maid was fishing for my
nncle's money, of course," he said,
"though she is not even a relative.
Let her go back to her proper place
and learn to keep her busy fingers
out of other people's pies."
,&o'Uhe lawyer, Mr. O'Byrne, of
kiudly heart and great legal knowledge,
was obliged to give Miss Mattie notice
SOLILOQUY.
Where I glide along at evening softly o'er
the shallow pool.
As they go, cattle low and quench their
thirst,
And the plowboy gets a hatfull of the water
clear and cool,
Standing where the summer posies blos
som first.
How I love to see the bossy with her pretty
soft gray eyes,
And a coat as red and glossy a3 the sunlight
in the skies.
If a stream can fall in.lovo then I have sure
ly lost my heart
To a maiden, sunshine laden, who each day
comes to the wood.
From the banks she looks with laughter
whore the light and shadows part,
And I'd tell her of my passion if I
could.
But I'm just a restless follow, and my love
must go unknown,
So I chatter on forever just a little stream,
alone.
TT rtn T rfk. TTT 9
9-J -m- JL J 7 .
to quit the house she had been prom
ised should be her own, giving vent
as he did so to some opinions of his
own in the matter, not strictly profes
sional. "You are sure von have searched
faithfully for the will?" he asked.
"Quite sure."
"He certainly had it," said the law
yer. "I drew it up myself ten thou
sand apiece and the house and person
al effects and furniture to Miss Mar
tha; the rest of the estate for the use
of the Topham hospital. Dear! dear!
why won't clients put such papers in
proper keeping instead of clinging to
them as if they were life-preservers?
I am very sorry, Miss Mattie. I havo
represented matters to the heir.but he
fails to see them in a proper light."
So the ladies . packed their trunks
and gathered in the little parlor to
spend their last evening, preparatory
to au early start in the morning. And
while they sat, mournfully conversing,
a strange event occurred. A shock
headed boy rang the bell and handed
in a note, which ran in this wise:
"Miss Martha Joyce: I do not
know t'at the disease of which my
uncle died was contagious, but I have
a horror of illness in any shape or
form. I therefore beg of you, before
you leave his house, to burn the bed
stead and beddiug he used, that I may
not find it when I take possession.
Yours, very truly,
"William Oldfield."
"Well!" cried Bessie, "if impudence
can reach a sublimer height thau that
I am mistaken."
"Burn the bedstead! that splendid
black walnut bedstead that matches
the chambsr suit!" said Miss Mattie.
"It really seems a pity!"
"Let him do it himself," said May;
"we are not his servants."
"I'll tell you what I-will do, dears,"
said gentle Aunt Mattie; "I have had
everything washed but the tickings;
I'll just empty the mattresses and have
those washed, too. But I really can
not reconcile it to my conscience to
burn up things that are perfectly
harmless."
"Oh, Aunt Mattie, give the bedding
to old Peggy! She will be delighted.
The blankets are soft and fine and the
sheets all clean. The young sinner
only wants them out of his way."
So old Peggy, an aged woman, pen
sioner to all the charitable folks in
Topham, was sent for and told of this
stroke of good fortune.
"We will go with ou," Bessie said,
"and help you carry them."
The four women ascended one flight
of stairs to the room where William
Oldfield died. Everything was in
order there, aud over the mattresses
was spread a white Marseilles quilt
that Bessie put with the rest of the
bedding, while Aunt Mattie and May
dragged the mattresses to the floor.
"They are all stuffed with hair,
PegS.Y." Aunt Mattie said. "I or
dered them myself."
"Yes, marm, " said the old woman,
feeling them carefully and nodding
her head; "I'm thinking I'll sell the
hair. Husk stuffing will do for my
old bones, and I cau buy some flour
and coal, likely, with the price of the
hair."
"Just as you please," said Aunt
Mattie, tying the mattresses securely
with a stout cord. "Now, girls, are
you ready? Hannah will help Peggy
with this bundle, and we will carry
the sheets, blankets and spreads."
So when William Oldfield took pos
session the next day he found the
bedstead bare and a note from Bessie
tied to it, respectfully declining to
make a bonfire of the furniture and
stating the fact that the bedding had
been given away for a charitable use.
"If he doesn't like it he is welcome
to dislike it," that young lady said,
graciously, as she signed the dainty
epistle in her finest handwriting.
The heir said a bad word, locked
up the room aud occupied another
apartment, where there had been no
"confounded sickness," as he said,
aud there reigned in the house where
Aunt Mattie had kept dainty neatness
the confusion of a young bachelor's
household, the disorder following fre
quent late suppers, 'when the city
friends of young Oldfield came down
to "make a night of it and help him
spend the old man's money."
Quiet Topham was scandalized and
sighed over the days xrheu the dissi
pated nephew was a far-away disgraoa
for mild gossip, but there seemed to
be no help for the trouble.
The funeral had been over nearly
three months, aud Miss Mattie had
collected a goodly number of little
folks once more around her, when one
morning, while Bessie was busy in the
little kitchen baking pies and May was
running a sewing machine in the sit
ting room, there came hobbling up to
the door old Peggy.
"Come in, Peggy," Bessie said,
cheerily. "You are just in time for
an apple pie I baked for you."
"Bless your kind heart and sweet
face," said the old woman. "You are
never so poor yourself but you re
member those who are worse oft. But
it's Miss Mattie I want to see."
"You are just in time, then. There's
the noon bellringiug, and here comes
Auut Mattie and May to help about
dinner."
"Miss Mattie," said old Peggy,
"did you ever lose a paper when you
were at the old house?"
"A paper!" screamed Bessie and
May in chorus. "Oh, Pegsy, did you
find one?"
"i'es, dears. I can't read myself,
but here it is."
And from the folds of her shawl
Peggy drew forth a large folded docu
ment, indorsed in round legal hand
on the back:
"Last will and testament of William
Oldfield."
Aunt Mattie sat down aud cried
softly. Bessie danced around like an
iusaue Indian, aud May, seizing a hat,
darted off to Lawyer O'Byrne.
"How did you find it?" Bessie cried
at last, when she was exhausted with
her solitary dauce.
"Well, dears," said the old woman,
"I've been waiting till the warm days
to empty the mattresses, for they were
wonderfully comfortable for ray old
bones in the winter, and so today I
ripped them open, as Mick Calloran
said he'd give a fair price for the hair
aud fill them up again with husk.
Aud pushed in one of them, near the
middle, in a little slit cut with a
kuife, I found the paper. Aud it's
thankful I am this day that's it's good
news I bring, if your face tells the
truth, honey."
"Good news! the best of news!" saia
Bessie. "You shall have the warmest
shawl next winter to be found in Top
ham, Peggy, and the softest bed."
And here May entered with Mr.
O'Byrne, and the whole story had to
be told again.
"It is the will, sure enough," said
the lawyer. "And so Mr. Oldfield
wanted you to burn the bed and bed
ding! H'm! I shouldn't wonder if
he was afraid of this very discovery
and was too great a coward to risk
hunting for it himself. It is my opin
ion that he will burn the whole house
down yet if he keeps possession long.
Topham never heard such rioting."
The will was given to Mr.O'Byrue's
keeping and in due time proved and
executed. The heir-at-law made a
great bluster, but knowing his rage
was useless left the house once more,
considerably the worse for his brief
sojourn in it. The fact that even the
temporary enjoyment of his uncle's
money was an altogether unexpected
event probably aided his acquiescence
in the legality of the will.
The house wa3 cleaned and purified
and once more given over to Auut
Mattie's quiet rule and the happy oc
cupancy of the twin sisters, who gladly
gave up sewing and teaching to join
in the social pleasures of Topham.
The hospital flourishes, and old Peggy
never tires of relating how she found
the fortunes of the Joyce ladies in the
hair mattresses William Oldfield or
dered to be burned on the day when
fear made him too cautious.
The Secret of the Dreyfus Case.
The fact that Dreyfus is a Jew fur
nishes a key to the mysteries of the
cause celebre which is connected with
his name. It is impossible to under
stand how the French nation an im
pulsive, generous people, who, although
blind in their anger, are temperament
ally incapable of remaining deaf to the
appeal of justice after the initial fury
of their wrath has spent itself can
persist in withholding from the con
demned officer an opportunity to jus
tify himself before the courts of his
country. The paradox may be under
stood when it is remembered that,
after the memory of Sedan, the great
est passion of the French is a deep
and enduring hatred of the Jews as a
race. The cry, "A bas les juifs!" is
almost as potent in France today as
was that other cry at the close of the
last century the cry that gave utter
ance to the hot resentment of more
thau a hundred years and drove the
disdainful Marie Antoinette to the
guillotine "A bas le roi!" S. Ivar
Tonjoroff, in The Arena.
The One Who Didn't Dorijre.
A woman evangelist is converting
many sinners in Missouri. In one of
her addresses the other day she said:
"There is a man in this house who is
untrue to his wife! I am going to
throw this hymn book at him." She
raised the book as if she was going to
throw it, and every man but one in
the h mse ducked his head to avoid
the book. Then she blistered the
dodgers and lauded the one true man.
It was afterward learued tbet he w
deaf and dumb.
THE STOREKEEPERS OF CUAM.
An Interesting Keport from the Surgeon
of the Itetinington.
The navy department has received
an interesting report made by Surgeon
Ward of the cruiser Bennington, at
Port San Luis d'Apra, Island of Guam,
in the Ladrones, just before that ves
sel left there to join Admiral Dewey
the last of January.
Sui ge Ward had been ashore in
vestigating the commercial products
and mercantile establishments during
the stay of the Bennington iu the har
bor, with a view to determining what
dependence could be placed ou the
local markets for maintaining the force
to be kept there hereafter by the
United States. He says he found,
eight so-called stores iu Agana, the
chief town, besides a number of small
huts, where the native aguardieute,
made of fermeuted cocoanut milk, is
sold, but he did not ascertain whether
or not these bars were licensed. He
classed the stores under five heads,
according to the nationality of the
men owning them. In the Manila
stores, conducted by men fioniMauila,
three in number, it was possible to
buy cotton clothes of various hues and
dyes, embroideries, a few ready-made
articles of apparel, buttons, shoes,
paper, pens, ink, matches, and a small
assortment of canned goods of poor
quality and expensive, as well as soap,
caudles and aguardiente. In one of
the Manila stores cigars made of na
tive tobacco, which was of poor qual
ity, were purchasable. The Japan
ese store is the largest and best in the
town. It contained all the goods to
be had in the Manila stores, and in
addition sugar, Japanese beer and imi
tations of imported wines. It also
sold eggs and bread, the latter baked
every other day, of exceedingly poor
quality. The Chinese store was a poor
one, and was patronized only by Chin
ese. In the chamorro (native) store
Dr. Ward found native coffee of fair
quality, excellent chocolate and a
few cheap cotton dyed stuffs, pipes,
matches, etc.
The single American store, though
a more pretentious establishment thau
any of the others, was inferior in
many respects to the Japanese. A
greater variety of goods was kept, in
cluding a large assortment of canned
vegetables, meats, kerosene, oil, rice,
accordions, hats, stockings, lamps,
lamp shades, crockery, trunks, paints
and nails. Dr. Ward says that shoes
of fair pattern could be made to order
by native shoemakers, and the natives
could also make comfortable furniture.
Flour, which was difficult to find, and
butter and lard, which naturally did
not keep well in such a warm climate,
were expensive. Milk could be pur
chased in small quantities, chickens
aud eggs were plentiful, but the beef
was poor, aud there were no sheep iu
the island.
Pigs are abundant. Yams and sweet
potatoes grow freely, as well as corn,
the latter being used, by the natives
to make bread. Bananas, cocoanuts
nd bread fruit are the chief sources
of native food. Fishing is but little
attempted. A good clam i3 found,
and a small oyster of sweet taste.
Deer and goats abound, and wild tur
key, plover, ducks and other edible
birds are plentiful.
Chinese Enterprise.
"I happen to have a dress coat,"
said a man about town, "that was
made by Poole, the famous Loudon
tailor, and I've preserved it with o
good deal of care. To tell the truth,
I attached less value to the garment
itself than I did to the sign niauual of
the house, emblazoned on a strip ot
white silk and stitched inside the col
lar. It was a trifio snobbish, I dare
say, but if so I've received my punish
ment. "A few weeks ago I took the coat
along with me on a trip to Florida,
and while at a small coast resort I
noticed the buttons were getting
worn. The only tailor in town was a
Chiuaman, and I gave him the coat
with instructions to repair the dam
ages, which he did, very neatly. I
had forgotten all about the incident,
aud one evening during Carnival was
at the club chatting with some visitors
from Detroit, when somehow or other
the conversation turned ou high art
tailoring. One of the strangers sang
the praises of a chap at his home, and
I like a fool, couldn't resist the temp
tation of remarking thnt my suit was
made by Poole. Thereupon the other
fellow expressed curiosity as to how
the English tailors inserted the shoul
der reinforcements of dress coats, and
I obligingly slipped mine off to allow
him to examine it. He looked it ovei
and when he handed it back I noticed
that he wore a peculiar smile. It was
no wonder, for, by Jove! in place of
the signed silk strip below the collar
was a great hideous pink tab bearing
the legend: "Charley One-Lung,
Merchant Tailor, Wayback, Fla."
New Orleans Times-Democrat.
The Population of Japan.
The official census statistics for
Japan, exclusive of Formosa, have
just been published, showing a total
population exceeding forty-three mil
lions. That of Tokio is nearly twe
millions, and two other cities, Kobe
and Osaka, each exceed a million.
The increase since 1896 is about hall
a million. There were 305,000 mar
riages in the same period, and 134. 00C
divorces.'
DR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BTH NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: "floM Fast to the lilble" Ty
sons Drawn From the Sword of Eleazar
As He Grasped Ilia Weapon So Should
We Cleave to the Old Gospel.
Text: "And his hand clave unto the
sword." II Samuel xxiii., 10.
What a glorious thing to preach the
Gospel! Some suppose that because I
have resigned a fixed pastorate I will
cease to preach. No, no. I expect to
preach more than I ever have. If the
Lord will, four times as much, though
in manifold places. I would not dare to
halt with such opportunity to declare the
truth through the ear to audiences and to
the eye through the printing press. And
here we have a stirring theme put before
us by the prophet.
A" great general of King David was
Eleazar, the hero of the text. The Philis
tines opened battle against him, and his
troops retreated. The cowards fled.
Eleazar and t&ree of his comrades went
into the battle and swept the field, for
four men with God on their side are
stronger than a whele regiment with God
ngainst them. Fall back!" shouted the
commander of the Philistine army. The
cry ran along the host, "Fall back!"
Eleazar, having swept the field, throws
himself on the ground to rest, but the mus
cles and sinews of bis hand had been so
long bent around the hiit of his sword that
the hilt was imbedded in the flesh, and the
gold wire of the hilt had broken through
the skin of the palm of the hand, and he
could not drop this sword which he had
so gallantly wielded. ''His hand clave
unto the sword." That is what I call
magnificent fighting for the Lord God of
Israel. And wo want more of it.
I propose to show you how Eleazar took
hold of 'the sword and how the sword took
hold of Eleazar. I look at Eleazar's hand,
and I come to the conclusion that he took
the sword with a very tight grip. The
cowards who fled had no trouble in drop
ping their 6words. As they fly over the
rocks I hear their swords clanging in every
direction. It is easy enough for them to
drop t heir swords, but Eleazar's hand clave
unto the sword. In this Christian conflict
we want a tighter grip of the Gospel weap
ons, a tighter grasp of the two edged sword
of the truth. It makes me sick to see these
Christian people who hold only a part of
the truth and let the rest ot the truth go,
so that the Philistines, seeing the loosened
grasp, wrench the whole sword away from
them. The only safe thing for us to do is to
put our thumb on the book ot Genesis and
sweep our hand around the book until the
New Testament comes into the palm and
keep on sweeping our hand around the
book until the tips ot the fingers clutch at
thewords "In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth." I like an infi
del a great deal better than I do one of
these namby pamby Christians who hold a
part of the truth and let the reet go. By
miracle God preserved this Bible just as it
is, and it is a Damascus blade. The sever
est test to which a sword can be put in a
sword factory is to wind the blade around
a gun barrel like a ribbon, and then when
the sword is let loose it flies back to its own
shape. So the sword of God's truth has
been fully tested, and it is bent this way
and that way and wound this way and that
way, but it always comes back to its own
shape. Think of it! A book written nearly
nineteen centuries ago, and some of it
thousands of year3 ago, and yet in
our time the average sale of this book
is more than 20,000 copies every week and
more than 1,000,000 copies a year! I say
now that a book which is divinely inspired
and divinely kept and divinely scattered is
a weapon worth holding a tight grip of.
Bishop Colenso will come along and try to
wrench out of your hand the five books of
Moses, and Strauss will come along and try
to wrench out of your hand the miracles,
and Renau will come along and try to
wrench out of your hand the entire life of
the Lord Jesus Christ, and your associates
In the office or the factory or the banking
house will try to wrench out of your hand
the entire Bible, but in the strength of the
Lord God of Israel and with Eleazar's grip
hold on to it. You give up the Bible, you
jrive up any part of it, and you give up par
don and peace and life in heaven.
Do not be ashamed, young man, to have
the world know that you are a friend of the
Dible. This book is the friend of all that is
good, and it is the sworn enemy of all that
is bad. An eloquent writer recently gives
an incident of a very bad man who stood
In a cell of a Western prison. This crimi
nal had gone through all styles of crime,
and he was there waiting tor the gallows.
The convict standing there at the window
of the cell, this writer says, "looked out
and declared, 'I am an infidel.' He said
that to all the men aud women aud chil
dren who happoned to bo gathered there,
'I am an Infidel.' " And the eloquent writer
says. "Every man and woman there be
lieved him." And the writer goes on to
lay, "If he had stood there saying. 'I am
a Christian.' every man and woman would
have said, 'He is a liar!' "
This Bible Is the sworn enemy of all that
Is wrong, and it is the friend of all that is
good. Oil, hold on it! Do not take part
of it and throw the rest away. Hold on to
all ot It. There are so many people now
who do not know. You ask them if the
soul is immortal, and they say: "I guess it
Is; I don't know. Perhaps it is; perhaps
It isn't." Is the Bible true? "Well, perhaps
It is, and perhaps it isn't. Perhaps it may
be, figuratively, and perhaps it may m
partly, and perhaps it may not be at all."
They despise what they call the apostolic
creed, but if their own creed were written
out it would read like this: "I.believe ia
nothing, the maker of heaven and earth,
and in nothing which it hath sent, which
nothing was born of nothing and which
nothing was dead and burled and descend
ed into nothing and rose from nothing
and ascended to nothing and now sitteth
at the rii?ht hand of nothing, from
which It will come tojudge nothing. I be
lieve in the holy agnostic church and in
the communion of nothingarians and in
the forgiveness of nothing and the resur
rection of nothing and in the life that never
shall be. Amen!" That is the creed of
tens of thousands of people in this day. If
you have a mind to adopt such a theory, I
will not. "I believe In God, the Father Al
mighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in
Jesu " Christ and in the holy catholic
church and in the communion of saints
and In the Ufo everlasting. Amen!" Ob,
when I eeo Eleazar taking such a stout
grip of the sword in the battle against sin
and for righteousness, I come to the con
clusion that we ought to take a stouter
grip of God's etornal truth the sword of
righteousness.
As I look at Eleazar's hand I also notice
his spirit of self forgetfulness: lie did not
notice that the hilt ot the sword was eatiDg
through the palm of his hand. He did not
know it hurt him. As lie went out into the
conflict he was so unxlous for the victory
he forgot himself, and that hilt might go
never so deeply into the palm of his hand,
it could not disturb him. "His hand clave
unto the sword." Oh, my brothers and
sisters, let us go into the Chrlstlun conflict
with the spirit of self abnegation. Who
:area whether the world praises us or de
nounces us? WDat do we caro for mfsrep
resentation or abuse or persecution ia a
conflict like this? Let us forget ourselves.
That man who is afraid of getting his hand
hurt will never kill a Philistine. Wha
CHres whether you get hurt or not if you
get the victory? Oh, how many Christians
there are who are all the time worrying
about the way the world treats theml
They are so tired, and they are so abused,
and they are so tempted, when Eleazar
did not think whether he had a hand or an
arm or a foot. All he wanted was victory.
We see how men forget themselves in
worldly achievement. We have often seen
men who, in order to achieve worldly suc
cess, will forget all physical fatigue and
all annoyance and all obstacle. Just after
the battle of Yorktown In the American
Revolution a musician, wounded, was told
he must have his limbs amputated, and
they were about to fasten him to
the surgeon's table, for it was
long before the merciful discovery ot
anaesthetics. He said: "No; don't fasten
me to that table. Get me a violin." A
violin was brought to him, and he said,
"Now, go to work as I begin to play," and
for forty minutes, during the awful pangs
of amputation, he moved not a muscle noz
dropped a note, while he played some
sweet tune. Oh, Is it not strange that with
the music of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
and with this grand raerch of the church,
militant on the way to become the church
triumphant, we cannot forget ourselvei
and forget all pang and all sorrow and all
persecution and all perturbation?
What have we suffered In comparison witb
those who expired with suffocation or were
burned or were chopped to pieces for the
truth's sake? We talk of the persecution
of olden times. There Is just as much per
secution going on now In various ways. In
1849, in Madagascar, eighteen men were put
to death for Christ's sake. They were to
be hurled over the rocks, and before they
were hurled over the rocks, in order tc
make their death the more dreadful in an
ticipation, tbey were put ia baskets and
swung to and fro over the precipice thai
they might see how many hunarea teet tnej
would have to be dashed down, and while
they were swinging in these baskets ovei
the rocks they sang:
Jesus, lover of my 30ul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly.
While the billows near me roll.
While the tempest still is high.
Then they were dashed down to deata..
Oh, how much others have endured for
Christ, and how little we eadure for
Christ! We want to ride to heaven in i
Pullman sleeping car, our feet on soft
plush, the bed made up earlv, so we can
sleep ah the way, the black porter of death
to wake us up only in time to enter tin
golden city. We want all the surgeons to
fix our hand up. Let them bring on all the
lint and all the bandages and all the salve,
for our hand is hurt, while Eleazar doer
not know his hand is hurt. "His hand
clave unto the sword."
As I look at Eleazar's hand I come to the
conclusion that he has done a great deal of
hard hitting. I am not surprised when I
see thut these four men Eleazar and his
three companions drove back the army of
Philistines that Eleazar's sword clave to.
his hand, for every time hestruok an enemy
with one end of the sword the other end ot
the sword wounded him. When he took
bold ot the sword, the sword took, hold ot
blm.
Oh, we have found an enemy who cannot
be conquered by rosewater and soft
speeches. It must be sharp stroke and
straight thrust. There is intemperance,
and there is fraud, and there Is gambling
and there is lust, and there are 10,000 bat
talions of iniquity, armed Philistine in
iquity. How are they to be captured and
overthrown? Soft sermons in morocco,
cases laid down in front ot an exquisite au
dience will not do it. You have got to call
things by their right name. You have got
to expel from our churches Christians who
eat the sacrement on Sunday and devout
widow's houses all the week. We have
got to stop our indignation against the
Hittltes and the Jebusites and the Gir.
gashites and let those poor wretches ga
and apply our indignation to the mod
ern transgressions which need to be
dragged out and slain. Ahabs here,
Herods here, Jezebels here, the massacre
of the infants here. Strike for God so hard
that while you slay the sin the sword will
adhere to your own hand. I tell you, my
friends, we want a few John Enoxes and
John Wesleys in the Christian church to
day. The whole tendency is to refine on
Christian work. We keep on refining on it
until we send npologetio word to iniquity
we are about to capture it. And we must
go with sword silver chased and presented
by the ladies, and we must ride or
white palfrey under embroidered hous
ing, patting the spurs in only just
enough to make the charger dance
gracefully, and then we must send a
missive, delicate as a wedding card, to
ask the old black giant ot sin if he will
not surrender. Women saved by the
grace of God and on glorious mission
sent, detained from Sabbath classes be
cause their new hat is not done. Churches
that shook our cities with great revivals
sending arouud to ask some demonstrative
worshiper if he will not please to sa
"Amen" and "halleluiah" a little softer. It
seems as if in our churches we wanted -baptism
of cologne and balm of a thousand
flowers when we actually need a baptism
ot fire from tho Lord God ot Pentecost.
But we are so afraid somebody will criti
cise our sermons cr criticise our prayers
or crlticiso our religious work that one
anxiety for tho world's redemption is lost
in the fear we will get our hand hurt
while Eleazar went into the conflct, "and
his hand clave unto the sword."
But I see in the next place what a hard
thing it was for Eleazar to get bis hand and
his sword parted. The muscles and tha
sinews had been so long grasped around
the sword he could not drop it when he
proposed to drop it, and his three com
rades, I suppose, came up and tried to help
him, and they bathed the back, part of his
hand, hoping the sinews and muscles would
relax. But no. "His hand clave unto the
sword." Then they tried to pull open the
fingers and to pull baftk the thumb, but no
sooner were they pulled back than they,
closed again, "and his hand clave unto the
sword." But after awhile they were suc
cessful, rfnd then they noticed that the
curve in the palm of the hand corresponded
exactly with the curve of the hilt. "Hia
hand clave unto the sword."
You and I have seen it many a time.
There are in the United States to-daj
many aged ministers of the Gcspel.
They are too feeble now to preach. In
the church records the word standing
opposite their name is "emeritus," or
the words are "a minister without
charge." They were a heroic race. Thej
had small salaries and but few books,
and they swam spring freshets to meet
their appointments, but they did in their
day a mighty work for God. They
took off more of the heads of Philistine
iniquity than you could count from nooa
to sundown. You put that old minister of
tho Gospel now into a prayer meetiDg or
occasional pulpit or a sick room whera
there is some one to be comforted, and it is
the same old ring to his voice and tb
same old story of pardon and peace and
Christ and heaven. His nana has so long;
clutched the stord in Christian conflict he.
cannot drop Ifc. "Hla hand clave unto th
sword."