The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1889-10-24


mercy! What academies Of music! What
mighty men in law and medicine and art
and scholarship. What schools and colleges
and universities! What women radiant and
gracious and an Improvement on all the
generations of women since Eve! What
pkilanthropists who do not feel satisfied
with their own charities until they get into
the hundreds of thousands and tho millions!
What Gods acres" for the dead, gardens
of beauty, and palaces of marble for those
who sleep the last sleep! Now stop your
slander of American cities. Do YOU say
they are the centers of crime and political
corruption! Please admit the fact that they
are centers of intelligence and generosity
and the mightiest patrons of architecture
and sculpture and painting and music and
reservoirs of religious influence for all the
continent. 1t will be we'll for the country
districts to cease talking against the cities,
andit will be well for the city of one local
ity to stop talking against the cities OF other
localities. New York will not get the
worlds fair by deprcciating Chicago, and
Chicago will not get the worlds fair by
depreciating New York
Another suggestion concerning the COM
ing exposition: let not the materialistic and
monetary idea overpowcr the moral and re-
ligious. During that exposition, the hrso'
time in all their lives, there will be thou
sands of people from other lands who Will
see country without state religion. Let
us by an increased harmony among all de-
nominations of religion impress other ma
L;onalties, as they come here that year,
with the superior advantage Of having all
denominations equal in the sight of govern
ment. All the rulers and chief men OF
Europe belong to the state religion, what
ever it may be. Although our last two
Presidents have been Presbyterians, the
previous one was an Episcopalian; and the
two previous, Methodists; and going further
back in that line of Presidents, we find
Martin Van Buren, Dutch Reformed; and
John Quincy Adams Il Unitarian; and
mans religion in this country is neither
hindrance nor advantage in the matter OF
political elevation. All Europe needs that.
All the world needs that a mans religion
is something between himself and his God,
and it must not, directly or indirectly, be
interfered with.
Furthermore, during that exposition
Christian civilization will confront barbar-
ism. We shall as a nation have greater op-
portunity to make an evangeliZing impress
sion upon foreign nationalitics than would
otherwise be afforded us in quarter OF
century Let the churches of the city
where the exposition is to hold be open
every day, and prayers be offered and ser
mons preached and doXologics sung. In the
less than three years between this and that
worlds convocation let us get baptism OF
the Holy Ghost, so that the six months OF
that worlds fair shall be fifty Pentecosts in
one, and instead Of three thousand con-
verted, as in the former Pentecost, hundreds
of thousands will be converted. You must
remember that the Pentecost mentioned in
the Bible occurred when there was no print
ing press, no books, no Christian pamphlets,
no religious newspapers, and yet the In
fuence was tremendous. How many ma
tionalties were touched! The account says:
"Parthians and Medes and Elamites," that
is people from the eastern countries; "Phry-
ga and Pamphvlia," that is the western
countries; "Cyrene and strangers OF Rome,
Cretcs and Arabians," that is the southern
countries; but they were all moved by the
mighty spectacle. Instead of the sixteen or
eighteen tribes Of people reported at that
Pentecost, all the chief nations Of Europe
and Asia, North and South America, will
be represented at our worlds fair in 1892,
and O Pentecost here and then would mean
the salvation of the round world.
But, You say, we may have at that fair the
people of all lands and all the machinery
for gospelization. the religious printing
presses and the churches, but all that would
not make Pentecost; we must have God.
Well, YOU can have Him. Has He not been
graciously waiting. and nothing stands in
the way but our own unbelief and Incidence
and sin. May God break down the barriers !!
The grandest opportunity for the evangel-
ization of all nations since Jesus Christ died
on the cross will be the worlds exposition
of 1892 God may take us out of the harvest
field before that, but let it be known
throughout Christcndom that that year, be-
tween May and November, will be the
mountain of Christian advantage, the Alpine
and Himalayan height of opportunity over
topping all others for salvation. Instead OF
the slow process Of having to send the gos
pei to other lands by our own American
missionaries, who have difficult toll in &C
auiring the foreign language and then must
contend with foreign preiudiccs, what
grand thing to have able and influential
foreigners converted during their visit in
America and then have them return to their
native lands with The glorious tidings! .,
for an overwhelming work of grace for the
year 1892, that work beginning in the au-
tumn of 1889!
Auu,uvr opportunity, II our puurc mtn
seeit, and it is the duty of pulpit and print
ing press to help them to see it, will be the
calling at that time and place OF great
peace congress forall nations. The conven-
ton of representatives from the govern
ments of North and South America, now at
Washington, is only type OF what we may
have on vast and world wide scale at
the International Exposition in 1892. By
one stroke the gorgon of war might be slain
and buried so deep that neither trumpet OF
human dispute or of archangeFs blowing
could resurrect it. When the last Napoleon
called such congress OF nations many did
not respond and those that did respond
gathered wondering what trap that willy de-
stroyer of the French republic and the
builder of French monarchy might spring
on them. But what if the most popular
government on carth--I mean the United
States Goverpmcnt-should practically say
10 all nations: On the American continent
in 1892, we will hold worlds fair, and all
nations will send to it specimens of their
products, their manufactures and their arts,
and we invite all the governments of Europe,
Asia and Africa to send representatives to
a peace convention that shall be held at the
same time and place, and that Shall estab.
lish an international arbitration commission
10 whom shall be referred all controversies
between nation and nation, their decision tC
be final and so all rations would berclievet
from the expense of standing armies a,
naval equipment, war having been made an
everlasting impossibiltty.
All the nations of the earth worth consid-
Grafton would come to it; mighty men of