The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1881-01-14

Wealth. uO AoAAOW RAAAC1 ~ SSNb " AAoA As4~
sweetness of the picture of brethren OF
all evangelical bodies sitting in peace
and unity together. under the canopy of
an earthly tabernacle, embodying in its
highest material form, the eternal, divine
principles of the fatherhood of God and
the brother hood ofman For the fathers
and mothers in this favored
Isreal-to those faithful and untiring
adherents Of this branch of the Lords
Zion which took root in virgin soil near
ly twenty-five years ago, the moment
when the grand notes of the majestic
long metre doxology filled the house,
must have been crowded with intense
emotions. To stand in the full presence
of the rich fir uition of our best hopes,
while thought goes wandering back over
all the thorny pathway of early
struggle and hard-earned achievement
is indeed an experience TO which the
dullest sensibility never utterly dies.
How, then, must the hearts have swelled
in the bosoms of those pioneers of the
congregation and the town who beheld
the contamination of the
GRAND PLANS AND PURPOSES
which had been fostered amid the hopes
and fears of nearly quarter OF a GEN.
tury? How their minds must have re-
verted to the memory of other temples
far away, whose courts are hallOwed by
the sweet associations of earlier days I;
TO the separation from home and friends
to brave the uncertainties of fortunes
in new state; to the
crude surroundings, but stalwart
cordiality of the infant CON-
munity of the tar west; to the feeble be-
ginnings of business, social and religious
interests, which in the warming light of
courage and faith have waxed mighty
and assumed the form of the splendid
realities of to-day; to the memory of
those the songs of whose earthly pill
grimage have long since died on mortal
ears, but who, having wrought while
here on earth with diligence and patient
zeal for the establishment of Gods low
err kingdom, have gone to the fullness of
the Christians reward and gained
that rich estate whose glories
eye hath not seen nor the heart of
man conceived. Little marvel was
it that the spontaneous inspiration
should have swelled forth so grandly
in the opening notes OF thanksgiving,
and that such holy calm followed the
joyful pean, and pervaded the house as
the pastors invocation rose to heaven,
imploring continued favors from the
beneficent hand which which had given
so freely of all good things to the sup
plants of his mercy.
The scripture lesson which followed,
was rad by Rev. Mr.. Shoemaker,
of the Reform church, after which
the dedication anthem, "Nolcini"
was beautifully rendered by the
excellent choir, which more than
sustained its fine reputation In all of its
performances. Responsive reading OF
the 95th psalm followed, the singing OF
"Gloria" by the choir came next in or.
Kirby. of the n. E. church, led the con
gregation in an impressive prayer. The
hymn, 80 Thou whose Own Vast TEN
pie stands" was next sung by the entire
congregation, and then
| THE OBLIGATORY SERMON,
One of the happiest discourses ever
heard in Emporis, was preached, as re
ported below, by Rev. James G. Merrill
of Davenport, Iowa:
TExT-Heb, NJ, 40. "God having
provided better things for u.s."
Thirty-five minutes past eleven, Janu
airy 9th, 188f-the best moment that the
world has seen; best because it is the
last, and the last is ever the best in that
kingdom which was founded on the rock
of ages, has grown through the centuries
and will never cease to grow until the
| New Jerusalem shall come to an end
Best when every morning, as we take
up the public print, We expect to read
of disaster, crime and death when men
whom we had believed to be true we
find false; men who had fought life's
battles nearly through, only to be van
pushed at last? Best? Yet, 1 repeat
this II o'clock of the 9th of January
1881, is the best hour the world has seen
A nation comes to its eighty-fifth birth
day. 1t found large section of its do
main in revolt. "a few weeks" said
the leaders, land the rebellion will bt
quelled." But before a month deci
sive battle was fought. Men who had
expected to march with flying colors in
to the capital of their foes, were fleeing
in dire panic to the strong holds o.
their own capital, patriots were bowe(
down, parents were made chlldless, over
whelmed by the death of brave sons wht
seemed to have fallen in vain. Tit
generation learned for the first time, tina
war was a serious business that months
of agony, cruelties treason and the live
of the dearest must be given before tn
right should triumph: and yet that 16tf
: day of July, 1861, was the best day o
America up to the time of its dawning
Without it the work of all who had gont
before could never had been made per
feet without it, these would have remain
ed in free republic millions of bond
men calling down the Vengence of heaven
The inventor, as he stands appalled, il
the presence of the stern material which
refuses to be shaped by his genius or Il
obey his will, contrasts his spparcn
failure with the spirit of hope that an
mated him when the grand conception
first crossed his mind, and vet the hou
of dismay is better than the exalted me
ment when his scheme was first born
as he himself will learn in the time O
his entire triumph.
Even the old man, with palsied limb
shattered mind, alone in the world, if h,
but hath faith, can say this hour is the
best, for can he not sing:
zone sWeetly solemn thought
Comes to me DER and DER,
am nearer home to- day
Than ever have been before.
, In Gods kingdom the end is never 70
moment out of mind-and 1t is tn
best that infinite love and power coult
secure But this is not all. To believ
each moment the best because it is neeC
ed to reach the end, is only q mild forr
of fatalism, a cold philosophy, and ha
, | the ability and time and were it in tn
exact line of my thought, l would gla(
ly give the reasons for the faith tina
/ the last hour the world has seen nc
|. only must be but is the best. For sure
! ly it is the best in the sight {
THAT God who ever lives and loves.
One God. one law. one element,
a And one Tar OF divine event,
To which the whole creation moves"
. To make this plain, however, on
r must traverse history, must be able I
? compare the present and the past wit
= keen analysis, to collect material whic
would overwhelm him who should 3
: tempt to weigh it. 1t is impossibl
4 One course alone is open to US, to acceI
: the words of Him who spake as nevt
e never man spake, words which we b
lieve, for we love and trust Him, WORD
which are worth more to US than all ii
/ teachings Of the ages.
The Kingdom of heaven, He says is 1
q grain of mustard seed. There is
: gradual unfolding and enlargement frol
; a germ, there is no uprooting and plan
o ling anew, no interruption, change {
q substitution of force or process" 1t
like the leaven. He says it is like tn
), building of an house according to