Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1889-09-26

The Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D. D..
was welcomed home Sunday, Sept. 8, by
an OVERLOOKING congregation. At the
opening of the service the hymn begin
ing,
| Welcome, sweet day Of rest,
That saw the Lord arise,
was sung with fine effect. DR.. Talmages
subject was: The Sunrise" and his
text: The day is at hand" Romans xiii,
IL. He said:
Back from the mountains and the sea-
side, and the springs, and the farm
| house, your cheek bronzed and your
spirits lighted, l hail you home again
with the words of Gehazi to the Shu-
nammite: is it we'll with thee? is it
we'll with thy husband? lis it we'll with
thy child?" On some faces I see the
mark of recent grief, but all along the
track of tears l see the story of resur-
rection and reunion when all tears are
done; the deep blowing of the keel, fol-
lowed by the flash of the phosphores-
ence.
Now that have asked you in regard
to your welfare, you naturally ask how
am. Very well, thank you. Whether
it was the bracing air of the Colorado
mountains twelve thousand feet above
the level of the sea, or the tonic atmos-
phere of the Pacific coast, or a bath in
the surf of Long Island beach, or
whether it is the JOY of standing in this
| great group of warm hearted friends,
| or whether it is q new appreciation of
the goodness of God, l cannot tell. l
simply know am grandly and gloriously
and inexpressibly happy. 1t was said
that John Moffatt, the great Methodist
preacher, occasionally got fast in his
sermon, and to extricate himself would
CRY -Hallelujah." I am in no such pre-
dicament day, but 1 am full of the
same rhapsodic ejaculation. Starting
out this morning on new ecclesiastical
year l want to give you the key note OF
my next twelve months ministry. want
to set it to the tune of Antioch, Ariel
and Coronation. Some time ago We had
a new stop put in this organ-a new
trumpet stop-and l want to put new
trumpet stop into my sermons.
In our Christian work you and need
more of the element of gladness. That
man has no right to say that Christ
never laughed. Do you suppose that he
was glum at the wedding in Cana of
Gallilee? Do you suppose Christ was
unresponsive when the children clam
bered over his knee and shoulder at his
own invitation? Do you suppose that
the evangelist meant nothing when he
said of Christ: He rejOiced in spirit?"
Do you believe that the divine Christ
who pours ali the water over the rocks
at Vernal Falls, Yosemite, does not be-
lieve in the sparkle and gallop and
tumultuous Joy and flashing raptures of
human life? l believe that not only the
morning laughs, and that the mountains
laugh, and that the seas laugh, and that
the cascades laugh, but that Christ
laughed. Moreover, take a laugh and
tear into an alembic, and assay them,
and test them, and analyze them, and
you will find as much of the pure gold of
religion in a laugh as in q tear. Deep
spiritual joy always shows itself in ia
ciaf illumination. John Wesley said he
being produced because of what he
calls the great laughter he saw among
the people. Goddess merriment is BIAS
| phemy anywhere, but expression of
Christian joy is appropriate everywhere.
Moreover the outlook of the world
ought to stir US to gladness. Astrono-
mers recently disturbed many people by
telling them that there is danger of
stellar collision. We have been told
through the papers Ly these astrono-
mers that there are worlds coming very
near together, and that We shall have
plaques, and wars, and tumults, and per-
haps the worlds destruction. Do not
be scared. If you have ever stood at n
railroad center, where ten or twenty or
thirty tracks cross each other, and seen
by the movement of the switch one or
two inches the train shoots this
way and that without colliding, then
you may understand how fifty worlds
may come within an inch of disaster. and
that inch be as good as a million miles.
If human switchtender can shoot the
trains this way or that without harm,
cannot the Hand that for thousands of
years has upheld the universe keep our
little world out of harms way? Chris
tian biologists tell us that this world
was millions of years in building. Well,
now, / do not think God would take
millions of years to build house which
was to last only 5000 years. There is
nothing in the world or outside the
| world, terrestrial or astronomical, to ex-
cite dismay. 1 wish that some stout
| gospel breeze might scatter all the ma
| laria of human foreboding. The sun
rose this morning at about half past 5,
and think that is Just about the hour
in the worlds history. "The day is at
| hand.
The first ray of the dawn see in the
| gradual substitution of diplomatic skill
for human butchery. Within the last
twenty five years there have been inter-
national differences which would have
brought shock of arms in any other
day, but which were peacefully ad-
| justed, the pen taking the place of the
sword.
That Alabama question in any other
Of ha h,-
war between the United States and En-
gland. How was it settled? By mem
| of-war off the Narrows, or off the Mer-
| sey? By the Gulf Stream of the ocean
crossed by a gulf stream of human
blood? By the pathway of nations in
carnadined? No. A few wise men 60
into quiet room at Geneva, talk the
matter over. and telegraph to Washing
ton and to London: All settled"
Peace. Peace. England pays to the
United States the amount awarded
pays really more than she ought to have
paid. But still, all that Alabama broil
| is settled-settlel forever. Arbitration
instead of battle.
So, the quarrel eight or nine years
ago about the Canadian fisheries in any
other age would have caused war be-
tween the United States and England.
England said; PAY me for the inva-
sion of my Canadian fisheries?" The
United States said: Il will not pay
anything" Well, the two nations say:
I guess We had better leave the whole
matter to a commission" The commits
| sion is appointed. and the commission
examines the affair, and the commission
reports, and pay We ought, pay We must,
pay We do. Not a pound of powder
| burned not q cartridge bitten off, no
one hurt SO much as by the scratch of o
pin. Arbitration instead of battle.
So the Somoan controversy in any
other age would have brought Germany
and the United States into bloody col
lision. But all is settled. Arbitration
| instead of battle.
France will never again, I think,
through peccadillo of ambassador,
bring on q battle with other nations.
She sees that God, in punishment of
Sedan, blotted out the French empire,
and the only aspirant for that throne
who had any right of expectation dies
L.