The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-10-05

slant help, and instant deliverance.
While the combined forces Of the uni.
verse In battle array could not stop his
black chariot a second or diverge 1t an
inch, the driver of that chariot says,
"Call upon me In the day Of trouble and
will deliver thee" while they are yet
speaking / will hear" Two wheeled
chariot, one wheel justice and the other
wheel mercy. Aye, they are swift
wheels. A cloud, whether 1t belongs to
the cirrhus, the clouds that float the
highest; or belongs to the stratus, the cen.
trail ranges; or to the cumulus, the w-
est ranges, seems to move WY
along the sky if it moves at all.
But many of the clouds 60 d a
speed that would seem lethargic vesti.
bule limited lightning express train, 70
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
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 1t.
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. My sister stopped
it. We have in our Sabbath 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 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, I 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 circum-
stances. heard of a ship captain who
put out with his vessel with large num-
Der 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 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 although he
was not Christian man he said: 'Let
us pray" and they all knelt, asking God
to come for their deliverance. They went
back to the deck, and the man at the wheel
shouted: "All right, cap'n. 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 put on
more sail, cap'n2" ''No!" 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 God. You will come out all rigf7fs
Some one else is managing the ship! It
did not 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
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 cloud. 1t
did not merely happen 80 that Luther
rose from the place where he 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 Reforma-
tion2 1t did not merely happen so that
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
that when George Washington was in
Brooklyn 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 escaped from the clutches of
Gems. Howe and Clinton. In chariot
of mist and cloud the God of American
rode along here. On that
pillow of consolation I 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
whether it is high tariff, or low tariff, or
no tariff at all, but only whether the
Democrats or the Republicans shall have
the salaried officers. Yea, when Euro
pean nations are holding their breath,
whether Russia or Germany
will launch war that will incarna-
dine continent, / fall back on the
faith that my Father drives. Yea, I cast
this as 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 triumph
ant in the fact that my Father drives.
Yes, he drives very near. know that
many of the clouds that you see in sum-
mer 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
were standing. Gay Lussac, after he
had risen in n balloon twontv-thre, thotl.