Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-07

and as a preacher of righteousness to utter
Ny first suggestion is that it is not wise
as certainly it is not Christian, to continu,
this wide and persistent attempt of Ameri
can cities to belittle and depreciate othel
cities. 1t has been going on for years, bu
now the spirit seems to culminate in this
discussion as to where the Worlds Fail
shall be held, a style of discussion which
has tendency to injure the success of tbs
Fair as a great moral and patriotic enter
prise, after the locality has been decided
upon. There is such thing as healthful
rivalry between cities, but you will bear me
out in saying that there can be no good tc
come from the uncanny things said about
each other by New York and Chicago, by
Chicago and st. Louis, by st. Paul and
Minneapolis. by Tacoma and Seattle, and
all through the States by almost every two
proximate cities. All cities, like individu.
ais, have their virtues and their vices. AL
our American cities
SHOULD BE OUR EMULATION.
What churchesi What public libraries
What asylums of mercyl 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 i'm
provement on all the generations of women
Slice LNSl w hat WIN OO
| not feel satisfied with their own charities
until they get into the hundreds of thous-
ands and the millionsi What Goods
acres" for the dead, gardens of beauty and
palaces of marble for those who sleep the
last sleep! Now stop your slander of Amer
ican cities. Do you say they are the Gen.
tiers of crime and political corruption?
Please admit the fact that they are centers
of intelligence and generosity and the
mightiest patrons of architecture and sculp-
ture 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, and it will
be we'll for the city of one locality to stop
talking against the cities of other localities.
New York will not get the Worlds Fair by
depreciating Chicago, and Chicago will not
get the Worlds Fair by bombarding New
York.
Another suggestion concerning the coming
exposition: let not the materialistic and
monetary idea oyerpower the moral and re-
| ligious. During that exposition, the first
time in all their lives, there will be thou
sands of people from other lands who will
see country .-
WITHOUT A STATE RELIGION.
Let us by an increased harmony among
all denominations of religion, impress other
nationalities, as they come here that year.
with the superior advantage of having all
denominations equal in the sight of govern
ment. All the rulers ard chief men of
Europe belong to the state religion, what
ever 1t 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 Mar
tin Van Buren Dutch Reformed, and John
Quincy Adams a Unitarian; and a mans
religion in this country is neither hindrance
nor advantage in the matter of political ele-
vation. All Europe needs that. All the
world needs that. A man s religion is some
thing between himself and his God, and it
must not, directly or indirectly, be inter-
fered with.
Furthermore, during that exposition,
Christian civilization will confront barbar-
ism. We shall, as nation, have greater
opportunity to make an evangelizing i'm
preston upon foreign nationalities than
would otherwise be afforded us in a quarter
of century. Let the churches of the city
where the exposition is held be open every
day, and prayers be offered and sermons
preached and doxologies sung. In the less
than three years between this and that
worlds convocation let us get baptism OF
that Worlds Fair shall be so Pentecosts in
one, and instead of 5000 converted, as in
the former Pentecost hundreds of thousands
will be converted.
A BETTER OPPORTUNITY NOW.
You must remember that the Pentecost
mentioned in the Bible occurred when there
was no printing press, no books, no Christian
pamphlets, no religious newspapers and vet
H., s,Q
nationalities were touched? The account
saws: "Parthians and Medes and Elamites"
that is, people from the eastern countries;
"Phrygia and Pamphylia," that is, the
western countries; "Cyrene and strangers of
Rome, Cretes and Arabians," that is, the
southern countries; but they were all moved
by the mighty spectacle. Instead of the 16
or Is tribes of people reported at that Peute-
cost, all the chief nations of Europe and
Asia, North and South America, will be
represented at our Worlds Fair in 1892, and
a Pentecost here aud 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 a 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 har- |
vest field before that, but let it be known |
throughout Christendom that that year. be- |
tween MAY and November, will be the |
mountain of Christian advantage, the Alpine |
on a a Of
topping all others for salvation. Instead of |
the slow process of having to send the gospel |
to other lands by our own American mis- |
sionaries who have difficult toll in acquir- |
ing the foreign Language and then must con- |
tend with foreign prejudices,
WHAT GRAND THING
to have able and influential foreigners con-
verted during their visit to America and |
then have them return to their native lands |
with the glorious tidings! Oh, for an over
whelming work of grace for the year 1892,
that work beginning in the autumn of 1891 |
Another opportunity, if our public men
see it, and it is the duty of pulpit and |
printing press to help them to see it, will be |
the calling at that time and place of great |
peace congress for all nations. The conven-
tion of representatives from the Govern
ments of North and South America, now at |
Washington, is only type of what we may |
have on a vast and worldwide scale at the |
exposition of 1892. By one stroke |
the gorgon of war might be slain and buried so |
deep that neither trumpet of human dispute |
nor of archangel's blowingscould resurreet 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 destroyer of the French Republic |
and the builder of a French Monarchy |
might spring on them. But what If |
the most popular Government on earth-I |