The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1888-10-11

what have we done with it, Another day
dead and this is its gorgeous catafa,quc.
Now Is the time for what David called the
| ''evening sacrifice" or Daniel called the
| "evening oblation." Obi obi what chariot
made out OF evening cloudi Have you
hung over the taifrail on the ocean
and seen TINS cloudy vehicle roll over
sea, the wheels dripping with the magnia.
cencei Have you from the top of Ben
| Lomond or the Corflleras or the Berkshire
hills seen the day pillowed for the night. and
| yet had no aspiration OF praise and homaoei
Oh what rich God we have that He can
put on one evening sky pictures that
exec! Michael Angelo's "Last Judg..
ment' and GhIlandio's "Adoration OF
the Magi" and whole galleries of
Madonnas, and for only an hour, and then
away. and the next evening put on the same
sky something that excels all that the
Rnphaels and the Titans and the Rembrandts
| and the Corregi los and the Leonardo da Nincis
ever executed. and then draw curtain OF
| mist over them never again to be exhibited
\ How rich tod must bs to have a new chariot
of clouds every evening"
But the Bible tells MS that our King also
| has a black chariot. Clouds and darkness"
we are told. "are round about him" That
| chariot Is cloven out OF night, and that night
| Is trouble When He rides forth In that
/ black chariot restilence AMI earthquake and
famine and hurr cane and woe attend Him.
| Then let the earth tremble Then let ma
| tinns pray. Again and again He has ridden
| forth in thnt chariot of black clouds. across
| England. Frame Italy Russia and America,
and over all nations That which men took
| for the sound OF cannonading at Sehastopol,
Fat Sedan. mt Gettysburg, at Telel Kebr, at
| Bunker Hill, were only the rumblings of tue
| black chariot Il the Almighty. Ave. it is
| the chariot of stnrmcloul armed with thun-
derbolts and neither man nor angel nor devil
| nor earth nor hell nor heaven can resist III M.
| Tn those boulewar,ls of blue this chariot
never turns out for ANYTHING. Aye, no one
| else drives there Under one wheel %
! that chariot Babylon was crushed and Baal
| beck fe dead nn1 the Roman Empire was
prostratel and Atlantis. n whole continent
| that once connected Europa with America.
| fanS clear out Of sight so that the longest
/ anchor of ocean steamer cannot touch the top
| of its highest mountains The throne of the
! Cpsnrs was less than n pebble under the
| rgh' wheel OF this chariot and the Austrian
| dcspotsm less than u snowflake under the left
wheel. And over DESTROYED worlds on worlds
| that chariot has rolled without n Jar or iolt
| This black chariot Of war cloud rolled up
| 10 the northwest of Europe in 1872 and four
hundred thousand men marched TO take Mos
| COW. but that chariot of clouds rolled back,
and only twenty-five thousand out of the four
| hundred thousand troops lived to retlrn No
| great snow storm like that had ever before or
has ever since visited Russia. Ave, the chariot
| Of tina Lord is irresistible. There is
| only one thing that can halt or turn any OF
His charots, and that is PRAYER. Again and
| again it has stopped It, wheeled IL around
and the chariot of black clouds under that
sanctified human breath has blossomed into
| such brightness and color that men and
angels had to veil their faces from its bright.
ness. Mark YOU. the ancient chariot which
| David uses rs n symbol in my text had only
two wheels. and that was that they might turn
| quickly, two wheels taking less than hal.
| the time to turn that four wheels would
have taken. And our Lords chariot has
ONLY two wheels, and that means instant re-
| verSal, and instant help, and instant deliver
ance While the combined forces of the
universe in battle array could not stop his
black chariot a second or diverge IL an inch.
the driver of that chariot says: Call upon
Me in the day Of trouble and | will de.
speaking I will hear" Two. wheeled
chariot, one wheel Justice and tho other
wheel mercy Aye. they are swift wheels
| a cloud whether it belongs TO the crrhus,
the clouds that iloat the highest; or belongs
to the stratus, the central ranges: or To the
cumulus, the lowest ranges, seems to move
slowly along the sky IL it moves Mt all But
many clouds go Mt n speed that would make
a vestibule limited lightning express train
seem lethargic, so swift is the chariot of our
God yea, swifter than tho storm. swfter
than the light. Yet child ten years old has
been known to reach up, and with the hand
OF PRAYER tlke the courser of that chariot
hy the bit and slow 10 up, or stop it, or turn
/
stopped it, Elijah stopped it. Hezekiah
stopDed it. Daniel stopped il. Joshua
topped IL. Esther stopped L. Ruth stopped
~ Hannah storped IT.. Mary stopped it.
Aiy sister stopped it, We have in our Sab
bath-schools children who again and again
and again have stopped it.
Notice that these old time chariots. which
my text uses for symbol, had what we would
| call high dash board at the front but were
open behind. And the king would stand at
the dash board and drive with his own hands,
| And / am glad that He, whose chariot the
clouds are, drives Himself. He does not let
natural law drive. for natural law is deaf. He
does not let tate drive, for fate is merciless.
But our Father King drives Hims. If,
ana lie puts His loving hand on the reins OF
| tho flylng coursers, and He has "A loving ear
| open TO the cry of all who want TO catch His
attention. oh. lam so glad that my Fathor
| drives and never drives too fast and never
drives Goo slow, and never drives Off the
| precipce, and that He controls by a BIT that
never breaks, the widest and most raging
circumstances. j heard OF a ship captain
who put out with his vessel with n large
number OF passengers from Buffalo on Lake
| Erie, very early in the season and while
| there was much ice. When they were wei
| out the captain saw to his horror that the ice
was closing in on him from all sides, and he
! saw no way out from destruction and death.
| lie called into the cabin the passengers and
all the crew that could DO spared from their
| posts, and told them that the sh u must be lost
unless God interposed, and although he was
not Christian man he said: LET us pray,n
and they all knelt asking God to come for
their dellverance. They went back to the
deck, and the man at the wheel shouted: San
right capn it's blowing nor by nor west
now. :" While the prayer was going on in the
cabin the wind changed ana blew the ice ont of
the way. The mate asked :"Shall Iput on NOR,
sail, capnT ''No!n responded the captain.
this ship
Oh, men and women, shut in ON all sides
by icy troubles and msfortunes, in earnest
prayer put all your affairs in the hands of
God, You will come out all right Some one
else is managing the ship 1t did not merely
happen so that when Leyden was beseigei,
and the Duke of Alva felt sure of his tri.
umph, suddenly the wind turned, and the
swollen waters compelled him to stop
tho siege, and the city was saved
God that night drove along the
coast of the Netherlands in black chariot
of storm cloud. Itdid not merely happen so
| that Luther rose from the place whore ho
was sitting Just in time TO keep from being
crushed by stone that the instant after fell
on the very spot. Had he not escaped where
would have been the Reformationi II did not
Al.a.E III.