Pike County Democrat, Volume 29, Number 15, Petersburg, Pike County, 19 August 1898 — Page 7

ravelling of the Monument to Francis Scott Key, Author of the National Anthem. 4 MEMORABLE DAY FOR FREDERICK, MD. Frederick, Md., Aug. 10—Francis •Scott Key, the author of “The Star Spangled Banner,” was honored, Tuesday, in this, his native city, by the -dedication of a handsome monument •erected to the memory in Mount Olivet •cemetery.’ The preliminary ceremonies included -a parade in which military and civic •organizations from all parts of the state took part, and which was witnessed by thousands of residents and 'visitors The buildings along the line •of march were gaily decorated with the national colors. When the procession reached the foot of the monument the order of exercises was proceeded with. This included prayer, vocal and instrumental music, an oration by Henry Watter* son, of Kentucky, an address by Mrs. Donald McLean, of New York, and an ode by Folger McKinzey, of Baltimore. The cord which released the drapery covering the monument was then draw n by Miss Julia McHenry Howard, granddaughter of Francis Scott Key. The address of Hon. Henry Watter•on is as follows: yiotk. Henry Watterson’s Address. The Key Monument association, to which la •due the act of tardy justice whose completion we are here to celebrate, has reason to be proud of the success which has crowned its labor of lore. Within something less than four years from the date of its organlza: ion. It has reared Shis beautiful and imposing memorial to the author of the "Star Spangled Banner." Bemealh It lie the mortal remains ot Francis Ssott

4 HON. HENRY WATTERSON. Key and his wife. Mary Tnyloe Key. Hitherto tuunarked. except la the humblest way. their final resting place on earth has been at last separated from a: .one the surrounding graves, to be at once an altar and a shrine, known among men. wherever liberty makes her home, and consecrate to all hearts wherein the lore of liberty dwells. ‘ The Inspiration of the Almighty. One can not help thinking it somthing more than a coincidence that this monument L* erect* ad. and that these services are held, at a mo* meat when not alone is the country engaged in foreign war. but also at a moment when the words of Key's immortal anthem ring In the memory and start to the lips of all the a people of all the states and sections of the Union. But a little while ago this seemed a thing impossible of realisation during the life of the generation of men which is pa ssing away. Years of embittered civil strife, w ith their wounds kept open by yean of succeeding political controversy, which never before thus ended; nor did ever a people so promptly obey the laws alike of reason, race and nature, from which, as from some magic fountain, the American republic sprang.

Noth ins In romance, or in poetry, surpasses the wondrous story of this republic. Why Washington, the Virginia planter, and why Franklin, the Pennsylvania printer? Another ■sight have been chosen to lead the continental •mien; a brtU&ai and distinguished soldier; i but. as we now know, not only a corrupt ad* venturer, but a traitor, who preceded Arnold, j and who. had he been commander of the forces j At Valley Force, would hare betrayed his Adopted country for the coronet which Washington despised. In many ways was Franklin an experiment, and. as his familiars might have thought, a dangerous experiment, to be appointed the representative of the colonies in London and In Paris, as they knew, and j as we now know, he was a stalwart, j self-indulgent man. apparently little | given either to prudeaoe or to court liness. What was it that singled out these two •n from *1 others and designated them to be the chiefs of the military and diplomatic establish menu set up by the provincial gentlemen, whose declaration of independence was not knerely to establish a new nation, but to create « new world? It was as dearly the Inspiration of the Almighty as. a century later.,. was the faita of Lincoln is Grant, whom he had never | seen, and had reason to distrust it was as clearly the inspiration of the Almighty as that, la every turn of fortune, God has stood by the republic, not toes in the strange vicisaltodea of the wars of the revolution and of lilt, than in those of the war of sections. In the raining up of Paul Jones and Perry, of Preble and Hull. when. di«oouraged upon the land, the eon was to send God's people messages of notary. and in the striking down of Albert Sidney Johnson and Stonewall Jackson, when they were sweeping all before them. Inscrutable are the ways of Providence to man Philosophers may argue as they wllL and. rationalism any draw Its conclusions; but the mysterious power unexplained by either has. from the beginning of time, ruled the destinies ef men He** of those forces of life and thought there 4a yet another force equally inspired of God and -equally nastrnTlal to the exaltationof mama force without which the world does sot move except -downward, the forte of the Imagination which idealises the deeds of men and translates their Try‘-f Into words. It may be concluded Into -words It may be concluded that Washiagtoa ml Monmouth and Franklin at Versailles were aot thinking a great deal of what the world was Uke to say. But there ate beings so constituted that they can aot act. they can only think, and these are the Homers who relate in heroic measure, the Shakespeares who slag la swains of heavenly mask. Am ong the progeny of these was Francis Soott Key. Tbs Author of the Anthem, The son of n revolutionary soldier, he waa horn the 4th of August. IT8»>. not for awav from -the spot where we are now assembled, and -died In Baltimore the nth of January, Ud His life of nearly sixty-three years was an unbroken Idyl of tranquil happiness, amid oongeaial scenes: among kindred people; blessed by wedded love and am2(y children, and accompanied by the moceesful pursuit of the 1 earned prafe talon he hat chosen tor himself. Goldsmith s sketch of the Tillage preacher msy aot be inaptly quoted to * — his unambitious and unobtrusive from towns he ran bis godly race, e'er had

Yet it win reserved (or tills constant and modest gentleman to leave behind him a price less legary to Us countrymen and to identify Us name for all tim with his country’s Sag. Freedom’s Qlorta la Excolsls. The Star SpangledBanner owed very little to ehanoe. I<; was the emanation of n patriotic fervor as sincere and natural as It was simple and noble. It sprang from one of those glorious inspirations which, ooming to an author unbidden, seises st once upon the hearts and minds ol men. The occasion seemed to have been created for the very purpose. The man mad the hour were met, and the song came; and truly was song never yet bora amid snob soenes. We explore the pages of folk-lore, we read the story of popular musio, in vain, to find the like. Even the authorship of the English national anthem is in dispute. The ‘'Marsellalse" did Indeed owe its being to the passions of war and burst forth ia profuse strains and melody above the clang of arms; but, it eras attended by those theatrical accessories which preside over and minister to Latin emotion, and seem indispensable to its development, and it Is believed to have derived as much of its enthusiasm from the wine-cup as from the drum-beat Key’s song -was the very child of battle. It was rooked by cannon In the cradle of the deep. Its swaddling clothes were the Stars and Stripes its birth proclaimed. Its coming was heralded by shot and shell, and. from its baptism of fire, a nation of freemen clasped it to its bosom. It was to bo thenceforth and forever freedom's Gloria in Exoelsls. The Story of the Song. The clxeurastanoes which ushered It into the world, hardly less than the words of the poem, are full of patriotic- exhilaration. It was during the darkest days of our second war of independence. An English army had invaded and occupied the seat of the national government, and had burned the eapitol of the nation. An English squadron was In undisputed possession of the Chesapeake bay. There being nothing of interest, or value left within the vicinity of Washington to detain them, the British were massing their land and naval forces for other conquests. and, as their ships sailed down the Potomac. Dr» William Beanes, a prominent oiUsen of Maryland. who had been arrested at his home in Upper Marlboro charged with some offense, real or fancied, was carried off a prisoner. It was to secure the liberation of this gentle

man. hits neighbor and friend, that Francis Scott Key obtained learn of the president to go to the British admiral under a flag of truce. He was conveyed by the cartel boat used for the exchange of prisoners and accompanied by the flag officer of the government. They proceeded down the bay from Baltimore and found the British fleet at the mouth of the Potomac. Mr. Key was courteously received by Admiral Cochrane: but he was not encouraged as to the success of his mission until letters from the English officers wounded at Blandensburg and left in the care of the Americans were delivered to the friends on the fleet to whom they had been written. These bore such testimony to the kindness with which they had been treated that It was finally agreed that Dr. Beanes should be released; but, as an advance upon Baltimore was about to be made, i^was required that the party of Americans should remain under guard on board their own vessel until these operations were concluded. Thus it was that, i the night of the 14th of September. 1814. Key witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry which his song was to reader illustrious. He did not quit the deck the long night through. With his single companion, the flag officer, he watched every shell from the moment it was fired until tt fell, Glistening with breathless interest to hear if an explosion followed.'* Whilst the cannonading continued they needed no further assurance that their countrymen had not capitulated. “But.” 1 quote the words of Chief J ustice Taney, repeat - ing the account given him by Key immediately after, “it suddenly ceased some time before day: and, its they had no communication with any of the enemy’s ships, they did not know whether the fort had surrendered.or the attack j upon it hail been abandoned. They paced the deck the residue of the night in painful suspense. watching with intense anxiety for the return of day. and looking every few minutes at their watches to see how long they must wait for it; and. as soon as it dawned and before it Was light enough to see objects at a distance, their glasses were turned to the tort, uncertain whether they should see there the Stars and Stripes, or the flag of the enemy.” Blessed vigil! that its prayers were not in vain: glorious vigil! that it gave us the Star Spangled Banner ! During the night the ebnee ption of the poem began to form itself in Key's mind. With the early glow of the morning, when the long agony ot suspense had been turned into the rapture of exultation, his feeling found expression in completed lines of verse, which he wrote upon the back of a letter he happened to have in his possession. He finished the piece on the boat that carried him ashore, and wrote out a clear copy that same evening at his hotel in Baltimore. ■ Next day he vad this to his friend and kinsman. Judge Nicholson, who was so pleased with it that he carried it to the office of the Baltimore American, where it was put In type by a young apprentice. Samuel Sands by name, and thence issued as a broadside. Within an hour after, tt was circulating all over the city, hailed with delight by the excited people. Published in the succeeding i sue of the American, and elsewhere reprinted, it went straight to the popular heart. It was quickly aeixed for musical adaptation. First sung in a tavern ad

Joining the Holiday Street theater in Baltimore, by Charles Durans, an actor, whose brother, Ferdinand Durang, had set it to an old air, its production on *the stage of that theater was the occasion of spontaneous and unbounded enthusiasm. Wherever it was heard its effect was electrical, and thenceforward it was universally accepted as the national anthem. Its Expression of Patriotic Feeling. The poem tells its owa story, and never a truer, for erery word comes direct from a great heroic soul, powder-stained and dipped, as it were, ia sacred blood. "O. say. can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming. Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous light. O'er the ram parts we watched., were so gallantly streaming!" ' The two that walked the deek of the cartel boat; had waited long. They had counted the hours as they watched the course of the battle. But a deeper anxiety yet is to possess them. The firing has ceased Ominous alienee: Whilst cannon roared they knew that the fort held out. Whilst the sky eras lit by messenger* of death they could see the national colors flying above it. —“the rockets' red glare and bombs bursting la air Qaie proof through the night that our flag was <1 still there. " Ba there comes an end at last to waiting and w si effing; asfta the first rays of the sun shoot above the horizon and gild to the eastern shore, behold the sight that gladdens the eyes ns It— —’Matehes the gleam of the morning's first la full glory reflected now shines ia the stream," for there, over the battlements of McHenry, the Stan and Stripes float defiant on the breeze, whilst all around evidences multiply that the attack has failed, that the Americans have successfully resisted it, and that the British are withdrawing their forces For then, and for now. and for all time, oome the words of the anthem— “Oh thus be it ever, when freeman shall stand Between their loved homes end the war s desolation! Blest with victory and pence, may the heevenfot'- \ —• conquer we must when oar ceuse it ia just, Ard this be our motto. 'In God ia our trust;' And the star spangled banner in triumph shall O'er the tend of the tree end the breve!” of the ante 4U the mte «

mea? The lore or • women; the mom ot duty; the thirst for glory; the heart-throbbing that impels the humblest American to stead by hie colors fearless in the defense Of his native soli end holding it sweet to die for it—the yearning which draws him to it when -ailed from it—its tree Institutions end Its blessed memories, ell ere embodied end symbolised by the brood stripes end bright stars at the notion’s emblem, ell live again to the lines end'tones of Key's anthem Two or three began the song, millions join In the chorus. They are singing it In Porto Rican trenches and on the ramparts of Santiago, and its echoes, borne upon the wings of morning, come rolling bade from far-away Manila; the soldier’s message to the soldier; the hero’s Bhibboleth In battle; the patriot’s solace in death! Even to the lazy sons of peaoe who lag at home—the pleasure-seekers whose merry-making tons the night to day—those stirring strains oome as a sudden trumpet call, and above the sounds of revelry, subjugate for the moment to a stronger power, rises wave upon wave of melodious resonance, the idler’s aimless but heartfelt tribute to bis country and hist country’s flag. The Future of the Republic.

Since the Star Spangled Banner was written nearly a century has come and gone. The drums, and tramplings of more than half its years hare passed over the grave of Francis Scott Key. Here at last he rests forever. Here at last his tomb is fitly made. When his eyes closed upon the scenes of tills life their last gaze beheld the ensign of the republic “full- ; high advmnoed, its arms and trophies stream- ' ing in their original luster, not a stripe ! erased or polluted nor a single star obscured.” If happily they were spared the spectacle of a severed Union. and “a land rent by civil fend ami drenched in fraternal blood.” it may be somewhere beyond the stars his gentle spirit now looks down upon a Nation awakened from its sleepof death and restored to its greater and its better self, and known and honored, as never before throughout the world. Whilst Key lived there was but a single paramount issue, about which all other issues circled, the Constitution and the Union. The problems of the Constitution and the Union solved, the past secure, turn we to the future; no longer a huddle of petty soverigntles. held together by rope of sand; no longer a body of mercenary shopkeepers worshipping rather the brand upon the dollar than the eagle on the shield; no longer a brood of provincial laggards, hanging with bated breath upon the movements of mankind, afraid to trust themselves away from home, or to put their principles to the test of progress and of arms: but a nation, and a leader of nations; a world power which durst face imperialism upon its own ground with republicanism, and with it dispute the future of civilization. It is the will of God; let not man gainsay. Let not man gainsay until the word of God has been carried to the furthermostendsof the earth; not until freedom is the heritage of all His creatures; hot until the blessings which He has given us are shared by His people in all lands; not until Latin licentiousness. fostered by modern wealth and culture and art, has been expiated by fire, and Latin corruption and cruelty have disappeared f rom the government of >men; not until that sobersuited Anglo-Saxonism. which, born at Kunnymede, was to end neither at Yorktown nor at Appomattox, has made, at one and the same time, another map of Christendom and a new race of Christians and yeomen, equally soldiers of the sword and of the

cross. even m Africa and in Asia, as we hare made them here in America. Thus, and thus alone, and wherever the winds of Heaven blow, shall fly the spirit it not the actuality of the blessed symbol we have come here this day to glorify: ashamed of nothing that God has sent ready for everything that God may send.' It was not a singer of the fireside, but a hearthless wanderer, who put in all hearts the Anglo-Saxon simple “Home. Sweet Home.” It was a poet, not a warrior, who gave to our Union the Anglo-Amer-ican's homage to his flag. Even as the Prince of Peace who came to bring eternal life was the Son of God. were these His ministering angels; and, as each of us, upon His knees, sends up a prayer to Heaven (lor “Home, Sweet Home.** may He also murmur, and teach His children to lisp, the sublime refrain of Key's immortal anthem— “And the Star Spangled Banner, oh, long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!" THOSE CHARITY PARTIES. The Projector* Always Plan Fun tot Themselves, But They Make Trouble. The two fair daughters of a Warren avenue household were discussing the entertainment they proposed giving for the benefit of a little work of charity in which they were interested, and. as a matter of course, the old gentleman hail to have his say. “It's an infernal nuisance,” he declared. “The house will be in commotion for a week, nothing will be thought of but your ps-ty and everything will be disarranged. That night we will all be awake till well toward morning, and the next day those who are not sick will go about snarling and half asleep. I call it nothing but tomfoolery.” “Papa,” said the eldest, “don’t you understand that we are going to help some of the poor and that every cent we make will provide them with some comfort? What you should da ia to encourage us?” “Don't talk silly. It’s a good deal you girls care about this charitable feature of this social combination you’re in. It’s the boys and girls and cards and dancing you want. No use trying to puli the wool over my eyes.” “Very well. We’U try to do our duty even if you do try to make it hard. We, at least, have some sympathy for the afflicted. ” “Oh, you have? Sweetly disinterested, aren’t yon? How much did you take in at the last blowout?” “Just $13.50,” proudly. “Weil, I’ll give you just $30.50 tost the cause if you’ll not inflict your co* workers on us. Now, host’s your charity?” “Mamma, I wish to the land you’d come down here. Papa’s acting perfectly awful,” and she flounced out of the room while he laughed sardonically.—Detroit Free Press. Pslstsd I’srnfTspht. Police court judges are tine-imposing men. An auction store is always a for-bid-ding place. The honeymoon often ends with the groom's last quarter. It’s tough on the balloonist when hi takes a drop too much. Some men who possess neither gold nor silver have lots of brass. The optimist takes a day off when the rent collector comes aroun d. The composer can't publish his first opera nntil he has produced a score. It is easier for a borrowed umbrella to keep lent Shan it is for the average man.—Chicago Evening News Tit* Good Old Times. Wife (looking up from a book)—What do you think of this? In the time of the Ptolemies a wife was always given full control of her husband's property. Husband—Y-e-s; {but in those days the fashions never changed,—N. X.

MEETING TROUBLES. Rev. Dr Talm&ge Gives Encouragement to the Unfortunate. Vh«r« Happiness May be Found Even In (be Midst of (he Most Severe Trials—Getting Oat Into (he Sanllght. The following discourse by Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage contains encouragement for those who are in the midst of troubles and misfortunes. It is based on the test: There was a sharp rook one one side and a sharp rock on the other side.—I Samuel, xiv., 4 The cruel army of the Philistines must be taken and scattered. There is just one man, accompanied by his body-guard, to do that thing. Jonathan is the hero of the scene. I know that David cracked the skull of the giant with a few pebbles well slung, and that H00 Gideouites scattered 10,000 Amelekites by the crash of broken crockery; but here is a more wonderful conflict. Yonder are the Philistines ou the rocks. Here is Jonathan with his bodyguard in the valley. On the one side is a rock called Bozez: on the other

tide is a rock called Seneh. These two were as famous iu olden times as in modern times are Plymouth Bock and Gibraltar. They were precipitous, unscalable and sharp. Between these two rocks Jonathan must make his ascent. The day comes for the scaling of the height. Jonathan, on his hands and feet, begins the ascent. With strain and slip and bruise, I suppose, but still on and up, first goes Jonathan, and then goes his bodyguard. Bozez on one side, Seneh on the other. After a sharp tug, and push and clinging, I see the head of Jonathan above the hole in the mountain; and there is a challenge, and a fight, and a supernatural consternation. These two men, Jonathan and his bodyguard, drive back and drive down the Philistines over the rocks, and opens a campaign which demolishes the enemies of Israel. I suppose that the overhanging and overshadowing rocks on either side did not balk or dishearten Jonathan or his bodyguard, but ouly roused and filled th em with enthusiasm as they went up. “There was a sharp rock on the one side, aid a sharp rock on the other side.’* My friends, you4 have been, or are now, some of you, in this crisis of the text. If a man meets one trouble he can go through with it. He gathers all his energies, concentates them on one point, and in the strength of God, or by his own natural determination, goes through it. But the man who has trouble to the right of him, and trouble to the left of him, is to be pitied. Did either trouble come along, he might endure it, but two troubles, two disasters, two overshadowing misfortunes, are Bozez and Seneh. God pity him!” “There is a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side.” In this crisis of the the text is that man whose fortune and health fail him at the same time. Nine-tenths of all our merchants capsize iiJ business before they come to 45 years of age. There is some collision in commercial circles, and they stop payment. It seems as if every man must put his name on the back of a note before he learns what a fool a man is who risks all his own property on the prospect that some man will tell the truth. It seems as if a man must have a large amount of unsalable goods on his own shelf before he learns how much easier it is to buy than to sell. It seems as if every man must be completely burned out before he learns the importance of always keeping fully insured. It seems as if every man must be wrecked in a financial tempest before he learns to keep things snug in case of a sudden euro

dydon. When the calamity does come, it is awful. The man goes home in despair, and he tells his family: “’We’ll have to go to the poor house.” He takes a dolorous view of everything. It seems as if he never could rise. But a little time passes, and he says, “Why 1 am not so badly off after all; I have my family left.” Before the Lord turned Adam oat of Paradise, He gave him Ere, so that when he lost Paradise he could stand it Permit one who has never read but a few novels in all his life, and who has not a great deal of romance in his composition, to say, that if, when a man’s fortune fail, he has a good wife —a good Christian wife—he ought not to be despondent ^Oh,” you say, “that only increases the embarrassment, since yoa have her also to take care of.” You are an ingrate, for the woman as often supports the man as the man supports the woman. The man may bring all the dollars, but the woman generally brings the courage and the faith in God. Well, this man of whom I am speak* ing looks around, and he finds his family is left, and he rallies, and the light comes to his eyes, and the smile to his face, and the courage to his heart. In two years he is quite over it He makes his financial calamity the first chapter in a new em of prosperity. He met that one ti ouble—conquered it He sat down foi a little while under the grim shades* of the rock Boses; yet he soon arose, i nd began, like Jonathan, to climb. I at bow often is it that physical ailment comes with financial embarrassment! When the fortune failed it brol;e the man’s spirit Hit nerves were shattered. His brain was stunned. I ran show you hundreds of men in our sities whose fortune and health failed at the same time. They cam« prematurely to the staff. Their hand trembled with Incipient paralysis. They never saw a well lay since the hour when they called their creditors together for a compromise. If such men are impatient, and j teculiar, and irritable, excuse them. They had two troubles, either one or! which they could have met successfully. If, when the health wcat« the foii.one been retained. ■’Ho .-iV" .5 .Vi.

it would not have been so bad. The man eodld hare bought the very l>e»t medical advice, and he could have had the very best attendance, and long lines of carriages would have stopped at the front door to inquire as to his welfare. But poverty on the one side and sickness on the other are Boses and Seneh, and they interlock their shadows, and drop them upon the poor man’s way. God help him! “There was a sharp rock on the one side, and .a sharp rock on the other side.” Now, what is such a man to do? In the name of Almighty God, I will tell him what to da Do as Jonathan did— climb; climb up into the sunlight of God’s favor and consolation. I can go through the churches, and show you men who lost fortune and health at the same time, and yet who sing all day and dream of Heaven all night. If you have any idea that sound digestion, and steady nerves, and clear ey ^ight, and good hearing, and plenty of friends are necessary to make a man happy, you have miscalculated. I suppose that these overhanging rocks only made Jonathan scramble the harder and the faster to get up and out into

the sunlight; and this combined shadow of invalidism, and financial embarrassment has often sent a man up the quicker into the sunlight of God’s favor and the noonday of His glorious promises. It is a difficult thing for a man to feel his dependence upon G>d when he has $10,000 in bank and $30,000 in government securities, and a block of stores and three ships. “Well,” the man says to himself, “it is silly for me to pray, ‘give me this day my daily bread,’ when my pantry is full, and the canals from the west are crowded with breadstuffs destined for my storehouses.” Oh, my frend, if the combined misfortunes and disasters of life have made you climb up into the arms of a sympathetic and compassionate God, through all eternity you will bless Him that in this world “there was a sharp rock on the side, and a sharp rook on the other side.” Again, that man is in the crisis of the text? who has home troubles and outside persecution at the same time. The world treats a man well just as long as it pays to treat him well. As long as it can manufacture success out of his bone and brain and muscle, it favors him. The world fattens the horse it wants to drive. But let a man see it his duty to cross the track of the world, then every bush is full of horns and tusks throst at him. They will belittle him. They will caricature him. They will call »his generosity self-ag-grandizement, and his piety sanctimoniousness. The very worst persecution will sometimes come upon him from those who profess to be Christians. John Milton—great and good John Milton—so far forgot himself as to pray, in so many words, that his enemies might be eternally thrown down into the darkest and deepest gulf of hell, and be the undermost and most dejected, and the lowest down vassals of perdition! And Martin Luther so far forgot himself as to say,in regard to his theological opponents: “Put them in whichever sauce you please, roasted, or fried, or baked, or stewed, or boiled, or hashed, they are noth

mg bat asses!’’ Ah, my friends, if John Milton or Martin Lather could come down to such scurrility, what may you not expected from less elevated opponents? Now, sometimes the world takes after them; public opinion takes after them; and the unfortunate man is lied about until all the dictionary of Billingsgate is exhausted on him. You often see a man whom you know to be good and pure and honest, set upon by the world, and mauled by whole communities, while vicious men take on a supercilious air in condemnation of him; as though Lord Jeffreys should write an essay on gentleness, or Henry VI1L talk about Now, a certain amount of persecution rouses a man’s defiance, stirs his blood for magnificent battle, and makes him 50 times more a man than he would have been without the persecution. So it was with the great Reformer when he said: *’I will not be put down; I will be heard.” And so it was with Millard, the preacher, in the time of Louis XI. When Louis XI. sent word to him that unless he stopped preaching in that style he would throw him into the river, he replied: “Tell the king that I will reach Heaven sooner by water than he will reach it by fast horses.” A certain amount of persecution is a tonic and inspiration, but too much of it, and too long continued, becomes the rock of Bozez throwing a dark shadow over a man’s life. What is he to do then? Go home, you say. Good advice, that. That is just the place for a man to go when the world abuses him. Go home. Blessed be God for our quiet and sympathetic homes! But there is many a man who has the reputation of having a home when he has none. Through unthinkingness or precipitation there are many matches made that ought never to have been made. An officiating priest can not alone unite a couple. The Lord Almighty must proclaim banns. There are many homes in which there is no sympathy, and no happiness, and no good cheer. The clamor of the battle may not have been heard outside; but God knows, notwithstanding all the playing of the “Wedding March,” and ail the odor of the orange blossoms, and the benediction of the officiating pastor, there has been no marriage. So sometimes men have awakened to find on .one side of them the rock of persecution, and on the other side of them the rock of domestic infelicity.' What shall such a one do? Do as Jonathan did —climb. Get up the heights of God’s consolation, from which yon may look down in triumph upon outside persecution and home trouble While good and great John Wesley was being silenced by the magistrates, and having his name written on the board fences of London in doggerel, at that very time his wife was m»n ny him as miserable as she oould—acting as though she ware possessed by tbs devil, sa 1

suppose she was; never doing him w kindness until the day she ran away, so that he wrote in his diary these words: “I did cot forsake her; I hare | not dismissed her.” Planting one foot 1 upon outside persecution, and the other foot on home trouble, John Wesley climbed up into the heights of Christian joy, and after preaching 40,000 sermons and traveling 270,000 miles, reached the heights of Heaven, though in this world he had it hard enough— “a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other.* Again, that woman stands in the crisis of the text who has bereavement and a struggle for livelihood at the same time. Without mentioning Cannes, I speak from observation. Ah, it is a hard thing for a woman to make an honest living, even when her heart is not troubled, and she has a fair cheek, and the magnetism of an exquisite presence. But now the husband, or the father, is dead. The expenses of the obsequis have absorbed all that was left in the savings hank; and, wan and wasted with weeping and watching, she goes forth—a grave, a hear3e, a coffin behind her— to contend for her existence and the existence of her children. When I see such a battle as that open I shudder at the ghastliness of the spectacle. Men sit with embroidered slippers and > write heartless essays about woman’s wages; but that question is made up of tears and blood, and there is more blood than tears. Oh, give women free access to all the realms where she can get a livelihood, from the tele

graph office to the pulpit! Let men’s wages be cut down before hers are cut down. Men have iron in their souls and can stand it.. Make the way free to her of the broken heart. May God put into my hand the cold, bitter cup of privation, and give me nothing but a windowless hut for shelter for many years, rather than that after I am dead there should go out from my home into^the pitiless world a woman's arm to fight the Get* tysburg, the Austerlitz, the Waterloo of life for bread! And yet, how many women there are seated between the rock of bereavement on the one side and the rock of destitution on the other! Bozez and Seneh interlocking their shadows and dropping them upon her miserable way. “There is a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp jock on the other side.” What are such to do? Somehow, let them climb up into the heights of the glorious promise: “Leave thy father* less children—I will preserve then alive, and Idt thy widows trust ia me.* Or get up into the heights of thatothei glosious promise: “The Lord pre> serveth the stranger, and re,lieveth the widow and the fatherless.” O ye sewing women, on starving wages! O ye widows, turned from the once beautiful home! Oye female teachers,, kept on niggardly stipend! O ye despairing women, seeking in vain for work, wandering along the docks, and thinking to throw your* selves into the river last night! O ye women of weak nerves, and achipgty sides, and short breath, and broken heart, you need something more than hnman sympathy; you need the sympathy of God. Climb up into His arms. He knows it all, and He loves you more

umu miner, or rnoiuer, or ausoaaa ever could or ever did; and, instead of sitting down, wringing your hands in despair, you had better begin to climb. There are heights oi consolation foi you, though now “there is a sharp rock on one side, and a sharp rock on tbs other side.” Again, that man is in the crisis oi the text who has a wasted life on the one side and an unilluminated eternity on the other. Though a man may all his life have cultured deliberation and self-poise, if he gets into that position, all his self-possession is gone. There are all the wrong thoughts of his existence, all the wrong deeds, all the wrong words—strata above strata, granitic, ponderous, overshadowing. That rock I call Bozez. On the othei aide are all the retributions of the future, the thrones of judgment, the eternal ages; angry with his long defiance. That rock I call Seneh. Between these two rocks 10,000 times Id,000 have perished. O man immortal, man redeemed, mao blood-bought, climb up out of those shadows! Climb up by the way of the Cross. Have your wasted life forgiven; have your eternal life secured. This hour just take the look to the past, and see what it has been; and take one look to the future, and see what it threatens to be. You can afford to lose your health, you can afford to lose your property, you can afford to lose your reputation; but you can not afford to lose your soul. That bright, gleaming, glorious, precious, eternal possession you must carry aloft in the day when the earth burns up and the heavens burst. You see from my subject that when a man gets into the safety and peace of the Gospel, he does not demean himself. There is nothing in religion that leads to meanness or unmanliness. The Gospel of Jesus Christ only asks you to climb as Jonathan did—climb toward God, climb toward Heaven, climb into the sunshine of God’s favor. To become a Christian is not to go meanly down; it is to come gloriously up—up into tha communion of saints; up into the peace that passeth all understanding; up into the companionship of angels. He liven upward; he digs upward. Oh, then, accept the wholesale invitation which 1 make this day to all the people! Come up from between your invalidism and financial embarrassments. Come up from between your bereavements and your destitution. Come up from between a wasted life and an unillumined eternity. Like Jonathan, climb up with all your might, instead of sitting down to wring your hands in the shadow and in the darkness—“a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side.” * . • Men who are continually telling they have done are usaully not doing much now.—Washington ocrtfct