Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-04-11

gloria in excelsis. Mighty camp meetings
Mighty Ocean Groves. Mighty Chautan-
quas. Mighty conventions of Christian
workers. Mighty general assemblies Of
the Presbyterian Church. Mighty con.
ferences of the Methodist Church. Mighty
associations of the Baptist Church. Mighty
conventions of the Episcopal Church. j
think before long the best investments
will not be in railroad stock or Western
Union, but in trumpets and cymbals and
festal decorations, for we are on the eve
of victories wide and world-uplifting.
There may be many years Of hard work
yet before the contamination, but the
signs are \, me so encouraging that j
would not be unbelieving il l saw the
wing of the spocalyptic angel spread for
its last triunphal flight in this days sun
set; or if tomorrow morning the ocean
cables should thrill US with the news that
Christ the Lord had alighted on Mount
Olivet or Mount Calvary to proclaim uni
versal dominion.
Oyou dead churches wake up! Throw
back the shutters of stiff ecclesiaticism
and let the light of the spring morning
come in. Morning for the land. Morning
for the sea. Morning of emancipation.
Morning of light and love and peace.
Morning of a day in which there shall be
no chains to break, no sorrows to assuage,
no deception to shatter, no woes to COM
passionate. o Christ, descendi Scared
temple, take the crownl Bruised hand,
take the scepter! Wounded foot step the
thronel Thine is the kingdom"
These things say because 1 want you
to be alert want you to be watching all
these wonders unrolling from the heavens
and TIE earth. God has classified them,
whether calamitous or pleasing. The d.
vine purposes are harnessed in traces that
can not break, and in girths that can not
slip, and in buckles that can not loosen
and are driven by reins they must answer.
l preach no fatalism- A swarthy en-
gineer at one of the depots in Dakota
said: "When will you get on the loco
motive and take ride with us!" WELL"
l said, "now' if that suits youw So j
got on one side the locomotive, and
Methodist minister, who was also invited,
got on the other side, and between US
were the engineer and the stoker. The
train started. The engineer had his hand
on the agitated pulse of the great engine.
The stoker shoveled in the coal and shut
the door with loud clang. A vast plain
slipped under us and the hills swept by,
and that great monster on which we rode
trembled and bounded and snorted and
Methodist minister on the other side the
locomotives: my brother why should
Presbyterians and Methodists quarrel
about the DEGREES and free agency? You
see that track, that iron track; that is the
.f-
That is free agency. How beauti-
fully they work together. They are
going to take us through. We could
not do without the track, and we could
not do without the engineer" So l
rejoice day by day. Work for US all to do.
and we may turn the crank of that Christ
ian machinery this way or that, for we
are free agents; but there is the track laid
so long ago no ono remembers it, laid by
the hand of Almighty God in sockets that
no terrestrial or satanic pressure can ever
affect. And along that track the car OF
the worlds redemption will roll and roll
to the Grand Central depot of the millen-
ium- have no anxiety about the track.
am only afraid that for our Incidence
God will discharge US and get some other
engineer. The train is going through,
with us or without US. So. my brethren,
watch all the events that are going by.
If things seem to turn out right give
wings to your joy. If things seem to turn
out wrong, throw out the anchor of faith
and hold fast.
When Titans play quoits they pitch
but who owns these gigantic
forces you have been reading about the
asst two months? Whose hand is on the
throttle valve of the volcanoes? Whose
foot suddenly planted on the footstool
makes the continents culver? God! God!
He looketh upon the mountains and they
tremble. He toucheth the hills and they
smoke. God! God! must be at peace
with Him. Through the Lord Jesus Christ
this God is mine, He is yours. l put the
that shook Palestine at the
crucifxion against all the down BOOKINGS
of the centuries. This God on our side,
we may challenge all the centuries of time
and all the cycles of eternity.
Those of us who are in mid-life may we'll
thank God that we have seen SO many
wondrous things; but there are people
here to-day who will see the twentieth
century. Things obscure to us will be
plain TO you yet. The twentieth century
will be as far ahead of the nineteenth as
the nineteenth is ahead of the eighteenth,
and as you caricature the habits and GUS
toms and ignorance Of the past, others
will caricature this age. Some Of you
nav live to see the shimmering vail be-
tween the material and the spiritual world
lifted. Magnetism, a word with which we
cover up our ignorance, will yet be an ex-
p!ored realm. Electricity, the fiery courser
IF the SKY that Benjamin Franklin
assoed and Morse and Bell and Edison
nave tried to control will become
completely manageable, and locomotion
will be switched and a world OF practical
thrown in upon the race
Whether we depart in this century or
whether we see the open gates of more
century, we will see these
Kings. 1t does not make much difference
where we stand, but the higher the stand
point the larger the prospect, We will |
zee them from Heaven if We do not see
hem from earth. l was at Fire Island,
Long Island, and went up in the cupola |
rom which they te!egraphed to New |
FORK the approach of vessels hours before |
hey come into port There is an opening |
n the wall, and the operator puts his tele- |
scope through that opening and looks out |
md sees vessels far out at sea- While |
vas talking with him he went up and |
ooked out He said: I'VE are ex- |
,ecting the Arizona tonight" l i
aid: 'Ts it possible you know all |
hose vessels? Do you know them as you |
NOW a mans facet" He said: Yes, |
lever make q mistake; before 1 see the |
lulks, often know them by the masts; 1 |
NOW them all, have watched them so |
ong." o, what a grand thing it Is to |
nave ships teIegraphed and heralded long