Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-10-12

front, but were open behind. And ,he
king would stand at the dashboard 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 fate drive. for
fate is merciless. But our Father King
drives Himself, and puts His loving
hand on the reins of the flying coursers,
and He has a loving ear open to the cry
of all who want to catch His attention.
Oh. am so glad that my Father drives.
and never drives too fast, and never
precipice. and that He controls, by a bit
that never breaks. the widest and most
raging circumstances. Iheard of a ship
captain who put out with his vessel with u
large number of passengers from Buffalo
on Lake Erie, very early in the season
and while there was much ice. When
they were we'll out the captain saw to
his horror that the ice was closing in on
him on all sides. and he saw no way out
from destruction and death. He called
into the cabin the passengers and all
the crew that could be spared from their
posts. and told them that the ship must
be lost unless God interposed. and al
though he was not Christian man he
said: Let us pray. and they all knelt,
asking God to come for their deliverancc.
man at the wheel shouted: All
right, cap'n, it's blowing nor by
norwest now While the prayer was
going on in the cabin the wind changed
and blew the ice out of the way. The
mate asked: Shall put on more sail,
cap'n?" MOT" responded the captain.
Don't touch her. Some one else is
managing this ship" Oh, men and wo-
men. shut in on all sides by icy troubles
and misfortunes, in earnest prayer put
all your affairs in the hands of God.
You will come out all right. Some one
else will manage the ship! 1t did net
merely happen SO that when Leyden was
besieged, and the Duke of Alva felt sure
of his triumph, suddenly the wind
turned. and the swollen waters COM
PEELED him to stop the siege. and the
city was saved. God that night drove
along the coast of the Netherlands in
black chariot of storm cloud. 1t did
not merely happen so that Luther rose
from the place where he was sitting Just
i'll 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 Reformation? 1t
did not merely happen sothat Columbus
was saved from drowning by an oar that
was floating on the waters. Otherwise,
who would have unveiled America? 1t
did not merely happen so when George
was in Brooklyn Il great
fog settled down over all the place
where this church stands and over
all this end of Long Island, and that
under that fog he and his army es-
capped from the clutches of
Gems. Howe and Clinton. In chariot
of mist and cloud the God of American
independence rode along here. On that
pillow of consolation l put down my
head to sleep at night. On that solid
foundation build when see this nation
in political paroxysm every four years,
not because they care two cents about
no tariff at all, but only whether the
Democrats OF the Republicans shall have
the salaried Offices. Yea, when Euro
pean nations are holding their breath,
wondering whether Russia OF Germany
will launch war that will incarnadine
a continent, I fall back on the faith
that my Father drives. Yea, cast this
MS an anchor, and plant this as column
of strength, and lift this as telescope,
and build this as fortress, and propose
without any perturbation to launch upon
an unknown future triumphant in the
fact that my Father drives. Yes, He
drives very near. l know that many of
the clouds that you see in summer are
far off, the bases of some of them five
miles above the earth. High on the
highest peaks Of the Andes travellers
have seen clouds far higher than where
they We're standing. Gay Lussac. after
he had risen in balloon twenty-three
thousand feet, still saw clouds above
him.
But there are clouds that touch the
earth and discharge their rain, and,
though the clouds out of which Gods
chariot is made may sometimes be far
away, often they are close by, and they
touch our shoulders, and they touch our
homes, and they touch us an over.
have read of two rides that the Lord
took in two different chariots of clouds
and of another that He will take. One
day, in chariot of clouds that were
mingling of fog and smoke and fire,
God drove down to the top of terrible
crag, fifteen hundred feet high, now
called Jebel Musa, then called Mount
Sinai, and He stepped out of His chariot
among the split shelvings of rock. The
mountain shook as with an ague, and
there We're ten volleys of thunder, each
Of the ten emphasizing a tremendous
Thou shalt" or Thou Shalt not. Then
the Lord resumed His chariot Of clouds
and drove up the hills of Heaven. They
were dark and portcntous clouds that
made that chariot at the giving of the
law. But one day He took another ride,
and this time down to Mount Tabor, the
clouds out of which His chariot was
made bright clouds, roseate clouds. il
Illuminated clouds, and music rained from
all of them. and the music was n min
Cling of carol and chant and triumphal
march: This is my beloved Son in
whom am we'll pleased" Transfgura-
ton chariot!
ooh, say hundreds of you, Il wish I
could have seen those chariots-the
black one that brought the Lord to
Jebel- Musa at the giving Of the law, and
the white one that brought Him down to
Tabor" Never mind, you will sec some-
thing grander than that, and it will be
mightier mingling of the somber and the
radiant, and the pomp of it will be such