Pike County Democrat, Volume 30, Number 49, Petersburg, Pike County, 13 April 1900 — Page 3

Easter bells! Easter bells! Sing your message grand, Echoing in cadenced swells Over sea and land! In the seed from earth awaking, In the bud from winter breaking, * In the h,eart its gloom forsaking, Read four story. Easter bells! Easter bells! Easter bells! Waken Peace and Love! Kindness In you^ music dwells. Hallowed from above. Stay the tumult and the wronging, Melt the clouds around us thronging. Hush the cares to earth belonging. Joyful, joyful Easter Bells! —George Cooper, in Golden Days. ASTER bolls! Easter bells! Oh. the happy sound! Chiming over hills and dells, All the earth around,^ With the budding flowers springing, With the song the brook is singing. With the carols gayly ringing, Wake, ch, gladsome Easter belli!

,'E horses jogged easily along toward town. They were lazy old fellows; Nat and' Billy, and they had a h e a v y load of grain on for the

mill and perhaps resented it. Mrs* Dewey sat perched up beside her husband on the high seat of the wagon, drawing her shawj close about her, as the chill March wind struck her sensibly, as she remarked to her husband, with a protesting shiver. She was a plutfip little woman who had been pretty once, when her hair was bro>^n and curly, her eyes bright and her complexion fair and peachy, but since she had married' Lon Dewey, and gone out to his big grain farm to live, continual hard work had aged her greatly, and " 'the brightness and bloom of her girlhood days were almost crushed out of her. * Mr. Dewey was a good man, for all that he so thoroughly needed waking up, but he had been accustomed to seeing his mother and sisters turn off great quantities of work with their robust health and strength, and it simply did not occur to him that his wife ’was wearing her life away in a treadmill which was taxing her to the ut- < most limit of 1 er endurance. “Wheat’s a bringing a dollar a bushel,” remarked Mr. Dewey, as he flicked his whip suggestively around' Nat’s heels. “1 reckon if 1 can get the crop sold afore she drops. I’ll bo sotfee hundreds ahead of what I’ve been arv year before in some time.” “Lon, don't you suppose, if j*ou do, that we could have a new carpet in the parlor? It set ms like if I could have something real handsome to lbok at. it > would lighten the work ever so much.” “Ain’t I handsome enough?” asked Mr. Dewey, with unusual humor. Mrs. Dewey laughed. Her husband was. not a handsome man at his best, and to-day he had taken little time |o “slielc up,” and the March wind had tousled his hair and reddened his nose in addition. “The rag carpet was pretty enough wlfen it wasi ow,” she continued, “but someways I’ve got awfully tired of rag carpetin’.” 1 “You wimnrn folks get terribly tired of things anyhow, it seems to me,rt remarked Mr. Dewey, reflectively. . “Yes* we do, Lon,” replied his wife, with an unusual burst of feeling. “I’m tired’ to death of looking at the same things, and . of wearing the same clothes year in and year out. I get so hungry for pretty things sometimes it seems like I’d go wild.” Mr. Dewey turned and looked at his wife In astonishment. “Well, I swan, Martha,” he, said, slowly. “Pity you didn’t marry a rich man that could gpve you all you wanted.” “No, I don*: want np rich .man.” Martha Dewey caught her breath in a half sob. “You’re plenty rich enough, only you’ve get a notion of thinking .1 don’t need nice things like other women have them. Pretty things don’t cost so much more than humly ones, either.”

“Well, Itsnum, what’s got into you, Martha, all of a suddent?” j “Nothing1 new, Lon Dewey,” replied his wife in a combative tone, “it’s there pretty much all the time, but sometimes it swells and surges, and sets me going in spite of myself, like the water turns the big wheels at the mill.” They were in the town now, and a young woman was tripping along the sidewalk, clad in a handsome tailormade suit, whose perfect fit and material addled grace and beauty to a form and face no more to be admired than Martha’s in her younger days, Martha looked at her with longing eyes,. “If I could be dressed up like that when I go out, I wouldn’t mind the hand work atween times so,” she said. „ The •miller came out as the horses trotted up to the door of the great, busy mill, lie had been acquainted with Martha years before, and he noted her tired face and shabby attire. “Martha Hillis didn’t get much of a snap when she married Lon Dewey,” he reflected inwardly, as he invited her to come into the office and get warm while her husband sold his wheat. Martha forgot her longings in thecuriosities of the office, the telephone, the immense ledgers over which the bookkeeper was pouring, the book

.keeper himself, a thin, wiry man who made figures with the quickness and precision of an automatic machine. His wife came in as she waited, a brilliant, graceful creature whose garments were redolent with the perfume of rich fur and odorous sachet powders. A bunch of carnations was pinned to her cloak. “See what Bathers gave me when I ordered my Easter lilies,” she said, smilingly to her husband, then noticing the hungry, wistful look on the little woman’s face in the office chair, a sweet thought eame to her, and unpinning the flowers, she laid three, of the fullest and richest in Martha’s hand. “Oh, thank you,” cried Martha, her voice trembling with eager delight. “I’m so fond of flowers, and 1 don’t get any time to raise ’em.”* She was still fondling the blossoms, and inhaling their rich perfume when Mr. Dewey came in, rubbing his hands in high good numor. “Well, Martha, I reckon we’d better go up to town now,” he said, as he folded a check which the miller had given him. “I’ve got some runnin’ around to do, but you can wait for me some place.” “Come over to my house first and get a lunch,” urged the miller. “Mrs. Dewey looks too weary to sit around the stores, and my wife would be delighted to meet her, I know.” 1 Mr. Bonney had a hearty, persuasive way which was hard to resist, and a few moments later Martha was taking off her bonnet in Mrs. Bonney's cosy sit-ting-room, in response to a generous welcome. , I Mary Bonney was one of those sweet, gracious women whose very presence means peace and good will, and Martha looked at /her enviously as she moved about in her pretty home, givingan order here, offering a suggestion there, and all thejjme smiling a welcome to the tired mile figure in the big easy chair, a luxurious change from the jolting of the high-seated wagon. It was all so pretty, it rested her so to look about her, and drink in the beauty of the soft, rich carpet on the parlor floor through the vista of the draped archway, and the daintiness of the lace

eagerly. There was always so muen to do at the farm on Sabbath morning, when they were apt to *leep late, that they had almost given :;p church going entirely. It was another link out of the chain which bound her girlhood days to her present. “Yes, do come,” urged Mrs. Bonney, seeing the look on Mrs. Dewey’s face. “The decorations will be lovely, and the music especially fine.” Mr. Dewey cast a doubtful look at his wife’s best dress, doubly shabby in contrast with Mrs. Bonney’s handsome teagown, and he thought of his own best suit, which had long seen its palmiest days, as he said: “Well, I’ll see; mebbe, if the weather is good.” He walked along in silence beside his wife as they went out of the hospitable home. That check in his pocket seemed burning to get out and spend itself on the things" which Martha not only wanted, but needed to keep her life fresh and young, her spirit sweet and hopeful. He had intended to add it to his already satisfactory bank account, hut as he looked down at his wife’s face his mind changed. They were passing a large dry goods store where everything, from & carpet to a paper of pins, was sold. “Let’s go in, Martha,” he said, awkwardljv“You said you wanted to look at some carpetin’, and say, whilst you are about it, I guess you’d better pick out a new j dress and some Easter fixin’s. That bunnit you’ve got on looks sort o’ ragged.’*" “Oh, Lon,” the little woman came near transfixing the entire street by throwing her arms around his neck then and there, but he opened the door hastily. “Get all you want, Martha, and I’ll foot the bill,” he said. “I’m going down to the tailor shop, for if we go to that Easter meeting we want to look a leetle mite as other folks do.” Martha’s heart sang: for joy all the way home, for wasn’t there a roll of the loveliest carpet she had ever dreamed of possessing under the seat, and in her lap a bonnet and dress pattern which she would not trust out of her own hands? Little things enough to make a heart

LET S GO IN, MARTHA.”

curtains. An oil-painting of a scene in the Alps fascinated her with its wondrous tints* and before she knew it she had spoken aloud. “If I had such a parlor to look into, 1—” then she stopped in confusion. “You are admiring my Alpine scenery,” observed Mrs. Bonney, following her eye. “1 hung it there wl£re I could see it readily from this room. It rests me so when I am tired, the glimpse of the beauties of nature which I never expect to see for myself,” “Then you know what it is,” replied Martha, eagerly. “I get so lonesome for pretty things to rest my eyes on. Maybe it’s wicked, for I've ®got a good home, but there isn't one single thing in it that is pretty like that picture and carpet.” “It isn’t wicked at all,” Mrs. Bonnev spoke warmly. “Our Father would not have filled the earth full of beauty, and given us the taste to enjoy it if it had been wrong.” Mr. Dewey, obtuse as he was, observed the contrast between this home and his own, and he was touched by his wife’s evident delight in her surrounds ings. Her eyes were shining, and fcer cheeks pink as she followed her host- j ess to the tasteful dining-room, where the lunch was set out on a pretty table, bright with silver and crystal, for the Ronneys lived as well as their guests, and enjoyed* their best things every day. A stand by the window was filled with Easter lilies, each bearing a tall shaft of buds almpst ready to blossom, and in a little sewing-room adjacent, a table was strewn with the details of an Easter costume. “We are in our annua', flurry,” observed Mr. Bonney, jovially. “Wife and the girls always enjoy a little Easter finery, but we old fellows don’t have much show in that direction, do we?” “We don’t make much fuss about Easter at our bouse,” replied Mr. Dewey, uneasily, a3 he remembered that not only Easter, but Christmas and birthdays passed by unheeded. After all, life was a barren routine at the Dewey farmhouse, and he was beginning to realize it. “Well, Easter means so much to us,” Mr. Bonney’s ruddy face was touched with a tender feeling, “that we love to celebrate it with all the brightness and beauty possible. By the way, Dewey, we are going to have especially fine services in church on Easter Sunday, Come in and enjoy it with us.” Mrs. Dewey looked at her husband.

glad in view of the wondrous message of the Eastertide, still to the^ starving just the crumbs must be fed until they can bear the stronger meat-. That followed later, as Martha’s heart opened bp to the beautiful Easter service, as flowers open their thirsty cups to the warm rain. Mr. Dewey, too, saw something in life which he had never seen before, a hope beyond the sordidness of everyday care, which lifts the spirit on invisible wings into the realm of the unseen. Life at the Dewey farmhouse was never again,the-same routine of dull, unbeautified labor, and Martha is growingyoungagain.—Mrs. F. M. Howard, in Chicago Standard. A SURE THIXG.

1: Lady Customer—Are these Easter eggs strictly fresh? Salesman—Yes’m, my hens lay nothing else but fresh eggs, ’m. Easter in Russia. The early morning hours of Easter day are given over id Russia to religious observances, but after ten o’clock5the day becomes one of conviviality. The practice of New Year’s calls is observed in Russia, at Easter, and everything is fun and jollity. On the streets gayly dressed men and women salute each other, and exchange decorated Easter eggs. Formerly everyone enjoyed the privilege of kissiing whom he met, but this practice has I lately falleu into disuse. A Base Inninnation Cecile—What would you give to have , such hair as mine ? Jeannie-—I don’t know—what did you give?—Tit-Bits-&*ji^**kk*) ■ .

VICTORY IN RETREAT Dr. T&lmage Gives Suggestions as to Christian Warfare. Jaakaa’i Pl» at Ambucide Cited mm m Saceeitfnl Metho$ «( Fl*fcllat CarlihttoMBMH—Sl»’» Triumph Brief. U ^

[Copyright, 1300, by Louis Klopseh.] Washington, April 8. From an old-time battle scene Dr. ralmage in this discourse makes some startling suggestions as to the best styles of Christian work and points out the reason of so many pious failures; text, Joshua 8:7: “Then shall ye rise up from the ambush and seize upon the city.” 4< * vr • One Sabbath evening, with my family aroum^iue, we were talking over the scene of the text. In the wide apim^ eyes,and the quick interrogations hud the blanched cheeks I realised what a thflTling drama it was. There is the old city, shorter by name than any other city in the ages, spelled with two/ letters. A, I, Ail. Joshua and his men want to take it. How to do it is the question. On a former occasion, in a straightforward, face to face fight, they had been defeated, but now they are going to take it by ambuscade. Gen. Joshua has two divisions in his army. The one division the battle-worn commander will lead himself, the other division he sends off to encamp in an am- j bush on the west side of the city of Ai. No torches, no lanterns, no sound of heavy battalions, but 30,000 swarthy warriors moving in silence* speaking only in a whisper; no clicking of swords against shields, lest the watchmen of Ai discover it the stratagem be a failure. If the roistering soldier in the Israelitish army forgets himself, all along the line the word is “Hush! ” Joshua takes the other division, the one with which he is to march, and puts it on the north side of the city of Ai and then spends the night in reconnoitering in the valley. There he is, thinking over the fortunes of-the coming day with something of the feelings of Wellington the night before Waterloo or of Meade and Lee the night before Gettysburg. There he stands in the night and says to himself: "Yonder is the division in ambush on the west side of Ai. Here is the division I have under ray especial command on the north side of Ai. vThere is the old city slumbering in its sin. To-morrow will be the battle.” Look! The morning already begins to tip the hills. The military officers of Ai look out in the morning very early, and, while they do not see the division in ambush, they behold the other divisions of Joshua, and the cry “To arms> To arms!” rings through all the streets of the old town, and every sword, whether hacked and bent or newly welded, is brought out, and all the inhabitants of the city of Ai pour through the gates, an infuriated torrent, and their cry is: “Come, we’ll make quick work with Joshua and his troops!” No sooner had these people of Ai come out against th$ troops of Joshua than Joshua gave such a command as he seldom gave—“Fall back!” Why, they could not believe their own ears) Is Joshua’s courage failing him? The retreat is beaten, and the Israelites are dying, throwing blankets and canteens on every side under this worse t-han Bull Run defeat. And you ought to hear the soldiers of Ai cheer and cheer. But they huzza too soon. The men lying in ambush are straining their vision to get some signql from Joshua that they may know what time to drop upon the city. Joshua takes his burnished spear, glittering in the sun like a shaft of doom, ancl {mints it toward the city, and when the men up yonder in the ambush see it with hawklike swoop they drop upon Ai and without stroke of sword or stab of spear take the city and put it to the torch. go much for the division that was in ambush. How about the division under Joshua’s command? No sooner does Joshua stop in the flight than all his men istop with him, and as be wheels they wheel, for in a voice of thunder he cried: “Halt!” one strong arm driving bad: a torrent of flying troops. And then, as he points his spear through the golden light toward that fated city, his troops know that they are to start for it. What a scene it was when the division in ambush which had taken the city marched down against the men of Ai on Ihe one side, and the troops under Joshua doubled up their enemies from the other side, and the men of Ai were caught between these two hurricanes of Israelitish courage, thrust before and behind, stabbed in breast and back, ground between the upper and the nether millstones of God’s indignation! Woe to the city of Ai! Cheer for Israel! Lesson the first: There is such a thing as victorious; retreat. Joshua's falling bade was the first chapter in his successf ul besiegement. And there are times in your life when the best

thing, you can do is to run. 1 ou were once «the victim of strong drink. The demijohn and the decanter were your fierce fo^s. They came down upon you with greater fury than the men of Ai upon the men of Joshua. Your only safety is to get away from them. Your dissipating companions will come around you for your overthrow. Itun for your life! Fall back! Fall back from the drinking saloon! Fall back from the wine party! Your flight is your advance; yonr retreat is your victory. There is a saloon down on the next street that has almost been the ruin of your soul. Then why do you go along that street? Why do yon not pass through some other street rather than by the place of your calamity? A spoonful of brandy taken for medicinal purposes by a man who 20 years before had been reformed from drunkenness hurled into inebriety and

—.— IV— ■— 1 ... • the grave one of the best fries: soever had. Retreat is victory! Here is a converted infidel. H-it is so strong nqw in his faith in th ( ospel he says he can read anythin!;. What are you reading? Bolingbro> of11 Andrew Jackson Davis’ tracts? ’ ;'j adal’s Glasgow university address i[ Drop them and run. You will be an i i Mlel before you die unless you quit th n L These men of Ai will be too much i Mr you. Turn your back on the rani: a id file of unbelief. Fly before they felt you with their sworifc and trani fix you with their javelins. There are people who have been well-nigh r.fe; ed because they risked a foolhartfe xpeditiqn in the presence of mi; liny and overwhelming temptations fed the men of Ai made a more inf t teal of them.

So, also, there is victorious the religious world. Thou times the Kingdom of seemed to fall backT When -‘i of the Scotch -Covenanters g..v K reat m ds of dye^to the heather of the has > blood a deep hlands. ose e.\an un- > pt. Barasassins when the Vaudois of France u-| termination rather than mi Christian surrender, when c tholomew’s day ndounted rode through the streets of^aris, crying “Kill! Bloodletting is f* oo:l in Angus^ Kill! Death to the I bg uenotsi Kill!” when Lady Jane G.vr's head rolled from the executionirfii block, when Calvin was imprisoned] in the castle, when John Knox d ?<i. for the truth, when John Buriyan ay in Bedford jail, saying: “if rotting Jod will help me and my physical lif> c( ntinucs. I will stav here until the mb; grows on my eyebrows rather tfciln (give'up ;k from rmouth a conof the falling Brussels (riumphfhocking Christ h Twelve fast 400,th. Fallthe old my faith,” the days of retv?a! for the church were days of victory, The pilgrim fathers fell bait the other side of the seats t Hock, but now are marsh alu tinent for the Christianizeju<ii world. The church of Cti-u'i back from Piedmont, falling-1 ;fck fjrom Rue St. Jacques, falling back from St. Denis, falling back from \A ar ijtembergcastles. falling back from in market place, yet all the tijihe ing. Kotwithstandingallflie reverses which the Church | suffers, what do wesee to-dny thousand missionaries of ,ln Icross on heathen grounds; 80,0y0 roi asters of Jesus Christ in this land; at 1 000.000 of Christians on the er; ing back, yet advancing ins: Wesleyan hymn will prove t The Lion of Judah shall break t He chain And give us the victory agaist in 1 again! But there is a more mark* :l illustration of victorious retreat; in the life of our Joshua, the Jesus of First falling back from r.ft height to au appalling depjilq falling from celestial hiiLs to terrestrial valleys, from throne to marge r; yet that did not seem to suffice. lath hs a retreat. Paliing back still fatti er from Bethlehem to .Nazareth, fro is i Nazareth to Jerusalem, back from Jerusalem to Golgotha, back from Golgi; tha to the mausoleum in the rock, tact; down over the precipices of pirnition until he walked amid the cavern;, ofj eternal captives and drank of the wire of the wrath of Almighty Gcu, ariid the Ahabs, and the Jezekels, a id the Beh shazzurs. Oh, men of the pulpit and men of the, pew, Christ's descent from IieavCn to earth does no: n ensure half the distance! it was from i lor y to perdition. Be descended tato fell. All the records of earthly retreat ire as nothing compared with thiu, hilling back. Santa Anna, with the fragments of his ii hp ages, appalling

army flying aver the plate|ius of Mexico and Napoleon and his ai my retreating from Moscow into the : wfwl snows of Russia are not Worthy.to be mentioned with this recent, v'/nert all the powers of darkness see i t to be pursuing -Christ as he fell bac'i, until the body of Him who came o do such wonderful things lay pulseless and stripped. Methinks that the! city of Ai wa^vnot so emptind ol its inhabitants whan they went to pi reue Joshua as perdifton was emptied of deyils when they started for this pursuit of Christ, and he fell back and back, down lower, down lower, rhasm below chasm, pit beloAv pit, uir.t 1 he seemed to strike the bottom of objjurgation and scorn and torture. ( h, the long,. • loud, jubilant shout of ht 11 at the defeat of the Lord God Aim: ghtfy S But let not the powers of darkness rejoice quite so soon. ] >o yop hear that disturbance in tile tomb of Arimathea? I hear the si eet rending! What means that stone iiurled down the side of the hi}l? Who is this coming out? Push him bad ! The dead must not stalk in this open sunlight. Oh, it is our Joshua. Lee 1 imeome out. He comes forth and start) for the city. He takes the spearrof the. toman guard and points that way. C'h a*eh militant marches up on one side, anud the church triumphant marches d< wn on tho other side. And the powers of darkness being caught betwee i- these ranks of celestial and terrestrial vailor nothing is left of them save j ist ejnough to illustrate the direful over throw of hell and our Joshua’s eternal victory. On his head be all the cro’jps. In his hands be all the scepte rs{. Ai his feet be all the human hearth; apd here, Lord, is one of them. Lesson the second: Tie triumph of the wicked is short. I)ic you ever see an army in a panic? Th re is nothing so uncontrollable. If yotl had stood at Long bridge, Washington, during the opening of our civil wa r, y-oju would know what it is to set »n army run. And when those men .of Ai looked out and saw those men of Jcspua ip a stampede they expected ea<;y work. They would scatter them as i e equinox the leaves. Oh, the gleeful pi d jubilant descent of the men of Ai ip on the men of Joshua! But their exhilaration was brief, for the tide of bstit e turned, and these quondam conquer >rs left their miserable carcasses in t he wilderness of Bethaven. So it alw *; s is. j The triumph of the wicked in short. You make $20,000 at the gna ng table. Do you expect to keep it? Tou will die in *

-—~—~~ the poorhouse. You made «. fortune by iniquitous traffic. Do you expect to keep it? Your money will scatter,or it will stay long enough to curse your children after you are dead. Call ®v«r the roll of bad men who prospered and see how short was their prosperity. For awhile, like the men of Ai. they went from conquest to conquest, but after awhile disaster rolled back upon them, and they were divided into three parts. Misfortune took tneirproperty, the grave took their bpdy and the lost world took their soul. Lesson the third: -How much may be accomplished by lying in ambush for opportunities. Are you hypercritical of Joshua’s maneuver? Do you say. Ihat it was cheating for him to take that city by ambuscade? Was it wrong for Washington to kindle campfires on Jersey heights, giving the impression to the opposing force that a great army was encamped there when there was none at all? I answer, if the war was right, then Joshua was right in his stratagem. He violated no flag of truce, lie broke no treaty, but ty a lawful ambuscade captured the city of Ai. Oh. that we all knew how to lie in ambush for opportunities to serve Ood. The best of our 'opportunities dc not lie on the surface, but are secreted. By tact, by stratagem, by Christian ambuscade, you may take almost any castle of sin for Christ., tome up toward men with a regular besiegement of argument and you will be defeated, but" just wait until the door of their hearts is set ajar, or they are off their guard, or their severe caution is away irom home, and then drop in on them from a Christian ambuscade. There has been many a man up to his chin in scientific portfolios which proved there was no Christ and no divine revelation, his pen a scinviter flung into the heart of theological op* ponents. who nevertheless has been discomfited and captured for God by some little three-year-old child who has got up end put; her snowy arms around his jsinewy ne.ek and asked ! some pimple question about God. j Oh. make a Hank movement! Steal a march on the devil! Cheat that man into Heaven! A five-dollar treatise that will stand all the laws of homllet* ics may fail to do that which a penny tract of Christian entreaty may accomplish. Oh. for more Christian^ in ambuscade—not lying in idleness, hpt waiting for a quick spring, waiting until just the right time comes! Do not talk to a man about the vanity of this,, world on the day when he has bought something at “12” and is going to sell > it at “15."’ But talk to him about the vanity of the world on t he day when he has bought something at *T5” and is compeiml to sell it at “12!” Do not rub a man’s disposition the wrong way; do not take the imperative mood when the subjunctive mood will do just as well; do nut talk in perfervid style to a phlegmatic nor try to tickle a torrid temperament with an icicle. You can. take any man for Christ if you knew how to get at hi in. Do not send word to him that to-morrow at ten o’clock you propose:to open your batteries upon him. but come on him by a skillful, persevering, God directed ambuscade.

I have heard it said: “Look out fora maiv who has’only one idea; he is irre* slstible,” 1 ' say Took out for the man who has oi* The;:, and that a determination for soui-saving. i believe God wahld strike bate-dead if I dared, to point the spear in any other direction. Oh, for some of the courage ami enthusiasm of Joshua! lie flung two armies from the tip of that spear. It is sinful for us to rest unless it is to get stronger muscle and fresher brain and purer heart for God's work. 1 feel on my head the bauds of Christ in a new ordination. I)o you not feel the same omnipotent pressure? There is a work for all of us. Oh. that we might stand up side by side and point the spear toward the city! It ought to be taken. It will be taken. Our cities are drifting off toward loose religion or what is called “liberal Christianity,” which is so liberal that it giveayip all thecardi1 nal doctrines of the Biblei so liberal that it surrenders the rectitude of the throne of the Almighty . That isuiber- , ality with a vengeance; Let us decide upon the vvork which we as Christian men have to do and in the strength of God go to work and do it. I believe that, the next year will be the most-stupendous year that Heaven ever saw. The nations are quaking now with the eoming of God. It will be a year of successes for the men of Joshua, but of doom for the men of Ai. You put your ear to the rail track, and you can hear the train.coming miles away. So I put my ear to the ground, and I hear the thundering on of the lightning train of God’s mercies and judgments. The mercy of God is first to be tried upon this nation. It will be preached in the pulpits, in theaters, on the streets—everywhere. ^People will be invited to accept the rwercy Of the Gospel, and the story and the song and the prayer will be “mercy.” But suppose they do not accept the offer of mercy—what then? Then God will come with His judgments, and the grasshoppers will eat the crops, and the freshets will devastate the valleys, and the defalcations will swallow the

money markets, and the fires will burn the cities, and the earth will quake from pole to pole. Year of mercies and of judgments; year of invitation and of warning; year of jubilee and of woe. Which side are you going to be on—with the men of Ai or the men of Joshua? Pass over this Sabbath into the ranks of Israel. I would clap my hands at the joy of your coming. You will have a poor chance for this world and the world to come without Jesus. You cannot stand what is to come upon you and upon the world unless you have the pardma and the comfort arid this side areybur happiness and safety; on the other side are disquietude and despair. Eternal defeat to the men of Ai! Eternal victory to the men oi Joshua!