The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1877-05-28
EHE WHEELING DAILY INTELLGENCL MONDAY MORNING rs 1877

sent prophecy to Us and who are the EN-.
bOdimenl Of prophecy in the eyes Of
ChriStendom, were gifted simply With a
longer sight than ordinary mortals
possess; were furnished by the great
/ Am with news In advance Of their
generation, and were enabled by means
Of certain private and confidential dis.
patches from the Regulator Of the uni.
verse, 10 tell their countrymen what was
10 take pace century or two after they
should be In their graves. A great mis-.
take this, and mistake fraught with the
grayest consequences, not literary and
historical merely, but moral and spirit.
ual. No doubt, some Of these men were
possessed Of uncommon intellectual ca.
pacity. No doubt, they were keen Oh.
servers, patient watchers Of events, saga.
ciOus men Of affairs, and shrewd students
Of human motives and human conduct
sharp.sighted politicians, wise statesmen;
but they were something very much more
and higher than all this, or they would
not have been what they were. II was
their calling ITO speak that which be.
lorgi TO all time, and finds It's intsrpretu.
ton In every plaCe;;to penetrate to the
everlasting realities Of things; to disclose
not when this or that man will appear,
but how and where all men appear and
disappear; TO make it felt, not in what
nook Of duration such an incident
will happen, but from what alien.
bracing eternity the images Of his.
tory emerge and are swallowed up" In
one word, they were men who had struck
this truth, that human events ran in the
grooves Of moral law; that human history,
with all its astonishing phases and com.
plications, Its swirling nations, It's rising
and falling dynasties, its crowned and dis.
crowned kings, its Ninevehs and tower.
ing Babylons, its warriors, priests, Law.
givers, battle.tields, and armies drowned
in blood, was panorama exhibiting the
play Of moral forces; passing show, very
bewildcring 10 those who looked at il
from the outside, but very simple to those
who traced effects to their causes, and at
last 10 one grand cause, the justice oil God.
They perceived that events were as they
were, and could not be otherwise; because
lie was what He was, and could not be
otherwise. And they perceived that
events must continue to 60 on upon the
same principle-evil producing its effects,
and good producing its effects; evil pro-
ducing different effects according to the
degree and kind of its eyilness, good
producing different effects according to
the degree and kind Of its goodness. They
saw what would be, because they saw what
must be. And their sight was longer or
shorter, according as their moral con-
viCtion was intense or feeble. They did
not Judge OF the future by the past, save
as they judged both past and future by
the eternal and they judged the eternal
by the soul. The word Of the Lord came
to them, because it was very near them /;
il was in their heart. There was no mys.
terry nor marvel in the ioreknowledge OF
such men. They could not help fore.
knowing, for they could not hel Up fore
feeling. They had the key to causes,
and Of course they could unfold the
sequence Of effects. They knew what was,
Of course they could define what was to
come. Such men are found in every ma
tion, and in every century. They are
men who aresure that by the constitution
Of things, by the organization Of the uni
verse, by the nature oil the Lord, honesty
means success; and truth means triumph;
aud justice means pleaSantnesS, prosper
ity and peace, and goodness means great.
ness and glory.-O. B. rockingham.