OCR Text |
Show If Qrnttif$ f Maln!rntly BY THE REV. NEWELL D W I G H T HILLIS Text "I hear the tre-ad of coming rain.'' Among the great men Who have mn1e-history mn1e-history we must mnkc a large place for th prophet of a now era, Elijah, the op-tlrr.lxt. op-tlrr.lxt. From every point of view he wan the outstanding man of his time. SIiikIo-handed. SIiikIo-handed. lie slave! the mnvenn'iil tow.-ird Idolatry, turned the stream of supfr.stl-tion supfr.stl-tion and idolatry back In its channel and recovered men to faith In theism. For that reason he. shares with Moses tho honor of being associated with Chrl?t in lils transfiguration seen". Elijah differed from tho great emancipator, Moses, how- . r, in one striking particular. It M" -was a conservative man, who ushered In new Institutions, Elijah was essentially d destructive, nature, o rthrowlnc old and had customs. As such hn Was the typical reformer, rough, of granlte-iik endurance, endur-ance, a narrow man, narrow enough to have a cutting w dg 1 broad man, tr":ni enough to havo weight and momentum. His symbol was tho Hall for separating lh wheat from the chaff, the knife that cuts away tho wound, the tongue of lire that consumes ail evil. Like John the Baptist, he was an ascetic, dwelling in the desert, wearing a coat of skins, and living on locusts. I-Iko Bernard, ho broke with bis sovereign, and was hunted over tho hills by the soldiers of his king, l.lke St Francis of Assist, ho was a prophet of the open air. In the uroko of the whirlwind discerning ths Mroke of God's footstep; yet like th' Mystics, he recognized God's footprints . nlefly in tho still small voice. In an era When the king and queen headed the reactionary re-actionary movement, toward the worship of Baal. Elijah braved public opinion and Mood out boldly against the political leaders lead-ers it was as If one man should K" with naked breast against an army of soldiers armed with spears, and with his nakt-d rMs beat ih'-m down When he was ui years of age, Abraham Lincoln wrote tin so words in his Journal: "If at any time my soul expands until I feel that J am tho son of Ge"l, it is in the hour when I Imaglno myself standing up alone In the face of all the people who try to frown me down. It is for others to say we are the last to desert our country. I will say, I never deserted her." And Elijah Eli-jah was the forerunner of our great Emancipator, Bubllmc in his optimism and In Ills faith in Justice and In God. The scene In which this doubting servant ser-vant and this optimistic prophet plaj their parts Is one of A Dramatic the most dramatic 3no V ' lies in history. oceue- I or months the I clouds had withheld their rain. Tho heavens were brass and the earth iron. Through fierceness of heat the sun had burned thr r.iss into Its roots, shriveled the olives and rigs upon their tr i s. made the Jordan ltjill a sinuous thread of heated and bare stones. All this, too, In a land where harvi sts meant water and drought meant famine f'.r man and boast, in their despair all tho people rushed together before the king's palace. In their fear they ex-clalme.i ex-clalme.i against God "He has forgotten his promise; lie said that summer and winter and seed time and harvest should not fall; but they have failed " With one accord they turned toward Idolatry, rushed to the altars on the hills and Offered Of-fered sacrifices to Raal. Then stood forth the man of Men Jo-red and sv.pffed, but Elijah wrapped I Is mantle about his face, and, though there was no stain of vapor in the air, he answered "I hoar the tread of coming rain." Going apart from the fTcople, the man of God sent his companion to the hilltop to look for the approaching storm si!t times ho returned to answer. "There Is nothing," and tlx times Elijah, with hands upon his knees and face within his hands, not even lifting his face, to look toward the horizon answered: an-swered: "I hear the tread of coming T-aln " Pilnrnlm- h .-. envi-nlh Mm. tYtl youth beheld a cloud rising like unto .1 man's hand for siz.-. But the cloud grew and overcast all tho sky. Then cane- the ominous rush and roar of wind that precedes pre-cedes tho storm, bursting o'er tho land In long slanting lays tho clouds poured lorth their treasure. That night the Icing In his chariot rode wheel deep through the overflowing brooks The Arabs have a legend of Elijah and his servant 'We are two," said the boy. "and King Ahab hath an army pursuing us." "Ve are three." answered the man of God. and In one hour God can make the river to be a BC 1 that divides us from our memles " ' There is nothing," said the servant, and all the people answered '"ITo-re nothing.'' noth-ing.'' But that fear was the voice of mediocrity, and that doubt was the Bpest h of littleness. "I hear the tread of coming ialn." exclaims tho man of God. it Is the optimism of genius, it is the faith of greatness. The now times bring now men, but to these new men the) bring the old experiences experi-ences We have It New Need 'h0 ft" u: , ,. , thorlly that "what of Optimism. iai( i.een shall be -I The land is new. but the experience of Elijah and his servant is repeated again and fcgaln In the career of patriots and heroes Indeed, lest men should grow fearful, and optimism fall in the great this book of God oft reiterate tho principle. Here are the three friends Of Jdb. counselors of fear and doubt They remind him that he has le.st ,-hil-oren. herds and flocks, health Itself "There Is nothing left but to curse rind end die." But Job is the son of genius, snd this Is hie answer: "The cloud Is black, but light is behind It. Thee are but the whisperings of his wisdom, the full thunder of his love who can understand." under-stand." And here is Ellsha, hunted by his enemies like a partridge o'er the hills, and at last driven to cover In a little village His companion exclaims, ' There Is nothing,'' noth-ing,'' but when the vr,iinp man's eyes are Opened, lo' the mountains are filled with the chariots and the horsemen of God. And here Is tho despondent prophet who 1 I ,1ms "I alone a in left. ' Now take away my life." And behold, there were 7000 who had not bowed the knee to B 1 1 Here are the pessimists of today 'I hi J are appalled by the mlRllt of cruel wealth and organised corruption Ih. v think the forces of evil are steadily waxing ltd- qnity seems rampant, the wicked nourish like the green bay tree. The righteous nr. clean forgotten of God But this vole- I? the voice .,t medlocilty. The -rent i ,.n today stays bis heart on hope in God 'What do you see'" snld one to the dying 1-ero in a dark hour for the church '1 hi t answered an Intrepid soul, what do I ... sei 3( rusa lorn tailing upon Llii Christ, I Heme falling upon J-nis: lem. 1 see the QothS falling upon H im I Nee tlu Lord arise to go forth and BmltC I his enemies " And the hero conquered by faith In that God who subdues all enemies by sheer weight of love. History Is God uttering himself through events. In this divlno book he speaks it Iit.,-,1 1 n 1. tti.. evnerl- What His- ence ol divine soula torv Savs ll" it'M''" lh" ruiy oay. apostles and the martyrs In the iook of Nature he speaks through the laws of light and heat. Among the nations he speuks through events In their CSUS! 1 and 8equence l.et history therefore, utter her voice, and speak, enforcing this principle Perhaps events will determine deter-mine whether there Is ground for the fears anil doubts of mediocrity, and whether or not tho centuries havo Jus-tilled Jus-tilled the optimism and faith of great men The generation that lay before the coming of ChrlSI was an era of fear and doubt, it seemed as if every Intellectual torch hail been extinguished, leaving the world In the night of Ignorance. Slowly all the stars burned to ashes, like a Candle Can-dle nickering out in its socket. In Syria tiii last of the noble Maccabees is dead. In Ephe.Miiei and Athens the lecture rooms that have been filled for centuries were empty am silent. In Rome violence and murder had Stilled tho voice of tho last great speaker Julius Caesar was slain forty-four years before the birth of Christ. The next year thai Cicero, whose mutt. 1 was "I try to make my enmities transient and my friendships eternal'' was beheaded by Antony. Three years lab-r the great satirist, Horace, who tried to laugh his countrymen out of their follies and sins, fell on death. Shortly afterward after-ward Virgil, too, passed away. The golden gol-den age of Intellect had gone forever. Not a .single statesman was left to lead the people, not one great orator to plead their wrongs; not one poet whose songs should cheer the people In camp, by the fireside, not one hero who COUld still lead them through tho desert. What a night was that! Murder, violence, cruelty, lust avarice, ambition, rampant everywhere' The passions of the Emperor and Senators Sena-tors like seres flames consumed every virtue What a spiritual drought was that! Do you wonder that men said. "There is nothing?" That slaves and gladiators and people were sodden In hopelessness? And yet In that very hour when weak men trembled, as did Elijah 's servant the great men could answer, "1 hear the tread of coming rain " In the hour when other lights were extinguished extin-guished the star that made others dim by force of brightness STOSS; when Intellect perished, the supreme Intellect of all the ages stood forth to teach Where had been the uncleanness In palace and slave market was heard one saying "Blessed are the pure In heart." After Antony had put to death' his greatest enemy. Cicero, there came a teacher saying. "IyOve your enemies, pray for them thai despltefully use you." TO a generation that looked toward death a an awful plungo Into darkness came one saying: 1." not your react De Irouoiea: In my father's house are many mansions " Ver-ih Ver-ih it w .h darkest Jut before the dawn. Verily, the light burned low, only ih.u It might flame up Tn new and unwonted brilliancy. Surely the events of that epoch have Justified the optimism of the gre it souls that answered doubt and fear. sa ing ' In this our drought I heat the tread of coming rain " Then three and rhlriv years passed away. There came a time when fear seemed to havt a Optimism and the',lcht to say, "There .t, . Is nothing" The Beginnings of lasi ,,.;ir 0f Christ's Christianity. 'ministry was draw-ng draw-ng to a close. The first year of his teaching was the year of puMie curiosity. The next ,w. 1 1 was the year of popular favor, whi n people pressed and thtr.ngeil about th now toucher During the third year of his ministry he went Into the remote re-mote region of Tvr and Sldon, and Into the countrj beyond lordan To those who sal in darkness he prearhed the coming kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of righteousness and love sot up In the Itj of man's BOUl. It was true that the leaders feared him, and that tho rulers and scribes were plotting a consplraev to compass hi overthrow. "It was also true that he had won the attention of the spiritual and lhat the common people heard him gladly With whut expectant hope looked he forward to tho coming pasSOVer. For the disciples and their master events seemed propitious, it happened, hap-pened, aio, that the passovei year was a favorable one for the Incoming of strangers. Never was there such a system sys-tem of university extension Invented BS tho Jewish pnssover system Once each year the Jews assemble, 1 for two weeks In the home capital, merchants from tin East, the bankers from Alexandria and Antloch. the financiers from Ephesus. A full half million pi,, were assembled In Jerusalem and tl,ir white tents covered cov-ered all the hills round about For two weeks tho people listened to the great rabbis, who had returned from manv a distant town to unfold the Messianic scriptures. At last the ripe hour had come Every moment was big with promise and also destiny When the people met their masUr with hosannas, strewed plm branches n the way and brought him in with banners and trumpets, trump-ets, the disciples entered into their full victory Then when 8 few days passed lo, every hope went crashing down In ruin. It was as If some Satanic Samson had bowed himself to pull the temple Of Jewish Civilisation down upon the Christ and crush him midst the unlveival ruin. First, the chief priests made common pause with the Roman Governor. Then the great te.oh,,. from foreign cities grew cold and doubted Thereupon the common people caught the .contagion of fear, and they too. fell awa v When all passers by frowned upon him he called his twelve disciples Into an upper room, but even this company began to fall In pieces. First. Judas took his sop and was gone Into the night Then the Christ foreshadowed the denial of Peter nnd the flicker of fear on young John's face. Ho feu that even this beloved disciple dis-ciple would soon follow afar off six hours later, he waa alone. In the garden deserted by all his band surroundert by enemies assembled to compass his de.lth Littleness would have said "There Is nothing; all Is gone; r,,,d hlmof 1at)l forgotten ' But the one "whoce name Is above every name," paid "Jjt not your hearts be troubled " If the Jewish priests and tho Roman rulers and tho common people all deported him. ho said to the twelve "Fear not " If Judas betrayed be-trayed and Peter denied, and all plaved the coward and fled ho kept hi? untroubled untrou-bled heart, even In that hour Was his faith Justified by events? Was there solid ground for this optimism? Lean over the next forty dnys. Tho diaclnles arU?ack' henceforth a solid band, unyielding un-yielding as rock With them havo come tho great company of 3000. Threo days later there are 5000. Twenty years later they aro 2o0,ooo a century later there are 4MUMK. And now these disciple each with a torch In his hand, are march ing straight away from Jerusalem Into every corner of the earth, that they may kindle a fire that will never die nut upon the altars of the human heart. Verily again events have Justified the man of God, who answered I he fear In the time of drought, 1 hear the tread of tho com-li.g com-li.g rain." Now pass ovei another century. Let ns not speak of the era of lhat Nero who I flow Paul, and led A Dark Hour ' Pissls througto , hi . gardens that at nnd the . . ., wera lighted Blight Hope. up by rows of christians, wearing eoats of burning pit, h Come to the era of ComrHodUS and Idoclotlnn. I'nnotlceil and despised, Christianity has been growing In secret. It was a leaven that worked silently, but It orked, and. oh, how rapidly It had is initial Impulse from the apostles, and from men like Paul, who went with Quenchless enthusiasm Into the huts of Slaves, and IntO (he cells where ftlndla- tors lived, who assembled the sjoldlers In their camps and brightened manv a stormy night In this life the poor had no hope, and they gave eager h- iringS to these messengers whose souls were overflowing with hope and Joy. Also the wine word of I'hrlst. the beauty of his parables, his stainless life, the Wlnsome-i Wlnsome-i 1 SI of his love, his enthusiasm for publican pub-lican and sinner, and tho high hopes el the life beyond that he held out melted all hearts, t'otild we go bnei to that far-off far-off scene we ho;tid see many nn old disciple dis-ciple in the darkness, surrounded by a little handful of the pnnr. and while he fells the story of this WOndrOUS teacher, the tears fall on furrowed cheeks, all unused un-used to tears The scholars went over tlr-t and secretly, and the poossfollowsd hard after 1 .a.st of all, the middle ,-la"S hegnn to move By the year 120 thfl mi -morabllla of Christ had taken (fatal form In the four gospels. Hy the year HO folstis and Luclan and the adherents of Jupiter nnd Apollo had become alarmed, and turned the whole force of their wit and ridicule again t the new religion. The-n tho Emperors began to feel alarmed. Plainly Christianity could p.. no longer Ignored. The better also ths Rmperer, and the more patriotic and the more faithful to the Roman law, the more seal-ous seal-ous In persecution. Diocletten mad.- a stand for his nation's faith. The old Roman's Ro-man's spirit put on Its coat of mat, v'. I 'tied Its BWOrd and vent forth to -terminate The eonlllct between the two was like a duel between an armed knight and a spotless girl whose only weapon Is her stainless lnnoc?nee. fr Hitchcock Hitch-cock has beautifully said that the Reman Re-man spirit and the Christian filth W ,1 era like Origan and Justin Martyr, the greatest heroes like Polycorp and Ignatius, Igna-tius, the most beautiful women llk Per-petua Per-petua and Fellcltas vere burned or tortured, tor-tured, or torn by wild Leasts or tos'.ed on the horns of bulls. The ilams of persecution per-secution were exceedingly fierce. If the heavens gavo forth any rain the drops were red with blood. And In the sands Of that arena the cruel knight fought with the spirit of Innocence, that had no weapon and would not resist When the duel was over. Christianity, like a young girl, bore the wounded knight In her arms out of the arena, and healed his wounds and nursed hint back to life again Meanwhile the force of perset U-tion U-tion hael driven the disciples over the Alps Into tho fon-sls where dwelt the Germans. Westward Into the borders of Spain and England eastward toward the Ganges south toward the heael waters of the Nile. Again. If In the hour of persecution, perse-cution, fear and doubt said, "There Is nothing.' the faith Hnd optimism of greatness answered, "I hear the tread of the coming rain." Pass over the centuries familiar to us all Recall only lor a moment the darkless dark-less of that era Hope Safer trhen the Florentine Than Fear ,,"!'k , wns !"!"" '' only to be followed by the era of faith and light; the time of drought that fell upon the land of the Huguenots, to be followed by that burst of enthusiasm and faith unpsralli led In history; the time ,,f Luther when there w-i only a German monk to stand up against the excesses of the, age of Indulgence - Though a gen. - ration liter this monk had given Germany Ger-many S new language and ushered in the great modern Protestantism, Corns on to the lime of our ow-n Puritan fathers. It lf the time of t.'haiies 1. The church has grown rich: It has lands- it h e. gold nnd -liver. Its Pope lives In a palace When the prince is welcomed b that pop,, the magnate lifts Id Jeweled posers po-sers and points toward his coffers iver-llowlng iver-llowlng with coin, saying: "The day has gone when the .lunch nm-1 : -, llvr nnd gold have I none.'' To which the prince answered. Yes, and the r,n- has gone also when the church says, rise up and walk. Wishing to gain the powi r of gold the king become? a spiritual lord. parses acts of uniformity Hs 'r,'', prayers to be written, assumes the right of sovereignty over every man s c.n-s, c.n-s, feu. e And w hen the people rebel the king lift his malbd hand W strike in London the Rre.t scholar and pastor was SI .UrgCd In the market place and his' . at - cropped off On 8 single dav 40U PS-tors PS-tors are ie,i frm their homes !n chains , Sir' John KIM dies in London lower John Bunyan goes through Uedfora prison pris-on The women In Scotland arc staked out amid the rising tide. Our forefathers forefath-ers leave their m r hoe -ec. Il,, I. .:.,.(. their natlvt land They make their way to Holland, and when life there Is no longer tenable thej march flOwn to ' ne r,1,:. roii'w of 'his hand, and sail forth to meet savages, winter, famine, pestl-enee pestl-enee that leaves half tlv lr number dead vini' ilnd r th- snow n the hrsi w ' hsd paSS' A" 0?er Scotland and England Eng-land and lU the new colonies doubt and fear .x.i.im.d There UOhing left GOd has forgotten oppression Is rewsTd-I rewsTd-I ed rlrhteousne n . r" , 1 midst the fear and the darkness our Furl-tan Furl-tan rathers anewercu wjjAfUf 'vUh.o ,,f c-eatness: "Gcd l abroad., Ho, Inns I not forgotten We hoar the tread of i "Vmlng rain. We ore a handful but we I Bnaii become a great company And "' " "fUng I,, h "TuMl i ll.M,-ne.i ' hand tefl reat,v,s nrffo of c-.ming mm.,, '1' "I t9I to...-,.! ",'sl":,"ji. hJM , 1?. . hr. promisJtsdSH u l'-dom an, . ''I." " 15 gi ld Th strong to he. nDr?r.t,O0, asuH vivo gone to a&fl xM "' r!""1" Is mea?1 tbH r-s-lmlsm AT th BBsi ""r It Is lwt?KtM |