Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1888-10-20

Now Is the time for what David called the
''evening sacrifice" or Daniel called the
evening oblation.' OH OIL what chariot
made out of evening cloud Have you
hung over the taffrail on the ocean
and seen this cloudy vehicle roll over
The pavements Of calm summer
sea, the wheels dripping with the magnif-
rencel Have you from the top of Ben
Lomond or the Cordilleras or the Berkshire
nils seen the day plowed for the night. and
yet had no aspiration of praise and homage'
Oh, what n rich God we have that He can
put on one evening sky pictures that
excel Michael Angeles "Last judy
ment" and GhiIlandjos Alteration 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
Raphaels and the Titans and the Rembrandts
and the Corregios and the Leonardo da Vincis
ever executed, and then draw a curtain of
mist over them never again to be exhibited
How rich God must be to have a new chariot
of clouds every EVENING"
But the Bible tells us that our King also
has 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 tEat
black chariot pestilence and earthquake and
famine and hurricane and woe attend Him.
Then let the earth tremble. Then let ma
-
forth in that chariot Of black clouds. across
England France. Italy. Russia. and America,
and over all nations. That which men took
for the sound of cannonadlng at Sehastopol,
at Sedan. at Gettysburg, at Tel-el-Kebir. at
Bunker Hill, were only the rumblings of the
black chariot of the Almighty Ave, it is
;he chariot of stormcoud armed with thun-
1erbolts and neither man nor angel nor devil
nor earth nor hell nor heaven can resist Him.
On those boulewards of blue this chariot
never turns out for ANYTHING. Aye, no one
Use drives there Under one wheel o.
kat chariot Babylon was crushed and Baal-
peck fell dead and the Roman Empire was
1rostrate1 and Atlantis, a whole continent
that once connected Europe with America,
ank clear out OF sight so that the longest
lnchor Of ocean steamer cannot touch the top
If its highest mountains. The throne of the
CAESARS was less than a pebble under the
light wheel of this chariot and the Austrian
iespotism less than a snowflake under the left
Wheel And over destroyed worlds on worlds
hat chariot has rolled without jar or Jolt.
This black char lot of war cloud rolled up
o the northwest of Europe in 1872 and four
hundred thousand men marched TO take Mos
.ow but that chariot of clouds rolled back,
md only twenty-five thousand out of the four
hundred thousand troops lived to return. No
great snow storm like that had ever before or
las ever since visited Russia. Ave, the chariot
If tho Lord is irresistible. There is
,nly one thing that can halt or turn any of
His chariots, and that is PRAYER. Again and
Igain it has stopped it. wheeled it around,
ind the chariot of black clouds under that
anctified human breath has blossomed into
mch brightness and color that men and
tngels had to veil their faces from its bright
less Mark you, the ancient chariot which
David uses as a symbol in my text had only
;wo 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 it an inch,
the driver of that chariot says: "Call upon
Me in the day of trouble and l will de-
liver thee "Whie they are yet
speaking l will hear" Two-wheeled
chariot, one wheel justice and the other
wheel mercy. Aye, they are swift wheels.
A cloud whether it belongs to tine cirrhus,
the clouds that float the highest; or belongs
to the stratus, the central ranges; or TO the
cumulus. the lowest ranges, seems to move
slowly along the sky if it moves at all. But
many clouds 90 at a speed that would make
vestibule limited lightning express train
seem lethargic, SO swift is the chariot of our
God; yea. swifter than the storm, swifter
than the light. Yet a child ten yeaps old has
been known to reach up and with the hand
Of prayer take the courser of that chariot
by the bit and slow it up, or stop it, or turn
it aside. or turn it back The boy Samuel
stopped it. Elijah stopped it. Hezekiah
stopped it. Daniel stopped it. Joshua
stopped it. Esther stopped it. Ruth stopped
it. Hannah stopped It. Mary stopped it.
My father stopped it. My mother stopped it.
Nv sister stopped it, We have in our Sab
sath-schools children who again and again
md again have stopped it,
Notice that these old time charioss. which
ny text uses for symbol, had what we woald
,all high dash board at the 'front.' but were
open behind And the king would stand at
.he dashboard and drive with his own hands,
Z And | am glad that He, whose chariot the
..ouds are. drives Himself He does not let
natural law drive. for natural law is deaf He
! loes not let fate drive. for fate is merciless.
| But our Father King drives Himself,
and he puts His loving hand on the rens of
'he flying coursers. and He has loving ear
| open TO the cry OF all who want to catch His
attention. Oh, lam SO glad that my Father
iriyes and never drives too fast, aud never
/ irives too slow, and never drives of the
1 )recipice. aud that He controls,by bit that
1aver breaks. the widest and most raging
circumstances. heard of a ship captain
who put out with bis vessel with large
aumber OF passengers from Buffalo on Lake
Erie. very early in the season and while
here was much ice. When they were we
! 1ub enc captain saw 20 MS horror that the Ice
was closing in on him from all sides, aud he
saw 10 way out from destruction and death.
lie called into the cabin the passen gers and
all the crew that conld be spared from their
posts, and told them that the sh pmust lie lost
Unless 6ol interposej, and although he was
aot Chrstian man he said: "I.et us pray y
and they all knelt asking God to come for
their deliveranee. They went back TO the
deck. and tn man at the wheel shouted: Gan
right capn. it's blowing nor by nor west
nov" While tho prayer was going on in the
cabin the wind chang ID and blew the ice ont of
the way. The mate asked: Shall ] put on more
sail, capn. Nor responded the captain.
Don. ioneA her Some one else is managing
j i.iis ship
I Oh. men and women.slut in on all sides
+ I,y icy troubles ard misfortunes, IN earnest
prayer put ali your affairs in the hands OF
TOD. You will come out all right. Some ono
SO is managing the ship 1t did not merely
happen SO that when Leyden was besefger,
aud the Duke Of Alva felt sure Of his tri.
umph. suddenly the wind turned, and the
swollen waters compelled him to stop
the siege. and the city was save. :.
God that night drove along the
coast Of the Netherlands in black chariot
Of storm cloud. Itdid not merely Happen %
that I..thsr rose from the place whore he
was sitting INST IN me- 10 keep from being
ciushe by a stone that the instant after fell
on the very spot Had he not escaped whers
tvouid haze. .af. fh,. IL 1fl not