The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-11-07

sky something that e1cels all that the
Raphaels and the Titans and the Rembrandts
and the Corregios and the Leonardo da Vlncl:
ever executed, and then draw curtain OF
mist over them never again 70 be exhibited
! How rich God must be to have new chariot
! Of clouds every EVENING"
! But the Bible tells US that our King also
| has black chariot "Clouds and darkness. u
! we are told, fare round about him." That
chariot is cloven out of night, and that night
is trouble. When He rides forth in that
black chariot restilence and earthquake and
| famine and hurricane and woe attend Him.
| Then let the earth tremble. Then let ma
/ tions pray. Again and again He has ridden
| 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 cannonading at Sehastopol,
at Sedan, at Gettysburg, at Telel-kebir. at
| Runker Hill were only the rumblings OF the
! black chariot of the Almighty. Ave, it is
, the chariot Of seormcloud armed with thun-
, derbolts. 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
else drives there Under one wheel Of
that chariot Babylon was crushed and Baal-
beck fell dead and the Roman Empire was
prostratei and Atlantis, whole continent
that once connected Europe with America,
sank clear out of sight so that the longest
anchor of ocean steamer cannot touch the top
of it's highest mountains. The throne OF the
Caesars was less than a pebble under the
right wheel of this chariot, and the Austrian
despotism less than snowflake under the left
wheel. And over destroyed worlds on worlds
that chariot has rolled without jar or Jolt.
This black char lot of war cloud rolled up
to 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 return. No
great snow storm like that had ever before or
has ever since visited Russia. Aye, the chariot
of the Lord is irresistible. There is
only one thing that can halt or turn any of
His chariots, and that is prayer. Again and
again it has stopped it, wheeled it 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 as 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 DdGtls array COulu uoI sup nto
black chariot second or diverge it an inch,
the driver Of that chariot says: "Call upon
liver thee" "While they are yet
speaking I will hear" Two wheeled
chariot, one wheel justice and the other
wheel mercy. Aye. they are swift wheels.
A cloud, whether it belongs to the 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 O 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 child ten years old has
been known to reach up, and with the hand ana
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 Hezeaiah
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
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 dashboard 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 fate drive for fate is merciless.
But our Father King drives Himself.
and He puts His loving hand on the reins of
the flying coursers, and He has 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
drives too slow, and never drives off the
precipice, and that He controls, by bit that
never breaks, the widest and most raging
circumstances I heard Of ship captain
who put out with his vessel with a large
number of passengers from Buffalo on Lake
Erie, very early in the season and while
there was much ice. When they were well
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.
He called into the cabin the passengers and
all the crew that could be spared from their
posts, and told them that thu sh p must be lost
unless God interpoSs1, and although he was
not Christian man he said: Let US pray"
and they all knelt asking God to come for
their deliveran"e. They went bac!. to the
deck, and the man at the wheel shouted: "All
right capn, it's blowing nor by nor west
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 Iput on more
SAIL cap'n" mo-" responded the captain.
Don't touch her. Some one else is managing
this ship"
Oh, men and women, shut in on all sides
by icy troubles and misfortunes, in earnest
prayer put all your affairs in the hands OF
liod. You will come out all right. Some one
eise is managing the ship 1t did not m .ro's
happen so that when Leyden was beselged,
and the Duke of Alva felt sure of his til
,,,,rb c,,55opIy tba wind Turned and the
swollen waters compelled 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 clouti Itdid not merely happen 50
that Luther rose from the place where be
was sitting Just in time to keep from being
cruSGe by stone that the instant after feil
on the very spot. Had he not escaped where
would have been the reformation! 1t did not
was saved from drowning by an oar
that was floating on the waters Other,
wise, who would have Unveiled America:
it did not merely happen so that when
George Washington was i'll Brooklyn great
| 70, settled down over ali the place where this
church stands, and over all this end or Long
| Island, and that under that fog he and ms
army escaped from the clutches OF Generals
| Howe and Clinton. In chariot Of mist and
cloud the God of American Independence
rode along here On that pillow OF consolation
| put down my head to sleep at night
On that soliL foundation build when see
this nation in political paroNysm every four
| years, not because they care two cents about
whether it is high tariff, or low tariff, or no
tariff at all, but only whether the Demo-
Gratis or the Republicans shall have
ropean nations are holding their breath,
| yon1erinr whpther RuSsia or Germany will