The Penn's Grove record., 1889-05-18
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON:
The Nations Protector.

WV hOS tAICIt<
and two million dollars a year to keel
safely a troublesome captive at st
Helena, so the king Of Syria sends out
. whole army to capture one minister
of Ieligion-perhaps $4,000 men-tC
take Elisha. During the night the
army Of Assyrians came around thu
village Of D0than, where the prophe,
wa5 staying. At early daybreak tn,
m~an.servant Of Elisha rushed In and
said: what shall we dop there is {
whole army come to destroy you'll We
must diel w must diei" But Elisha
was not scared a bit, for he looked VI
and saw the mountains all around full
of
SUPERNATURAL FORCES,
and he knew that II there were 80, 0O(
Assyrians against him there were 100.
600 angels for him; and in answer tt
the prophets prayer in behalf OF hi.
af1righted man servant, the young mar
saw it too. Horses of fire harnessed
to chariots of fire, and drivers OF fire
pulling reins Of fire on bits of fire, and
warriors Of fire with b~randished
swords Of fire, and the brilliance OF
that morning sunrise was eclipsed by
the gallOping splendors of the celestial
cavalcade. "And the Lord opened the
eyes of the young man; and he saw
and behold the mountain was full OF
horses and chariots Of fire round about
Elisha" l have often spoken to you
Of the Assyrian perils which threaten
our American institutions, l speak of
the upper forces Of the text that are to
fight on u side. Ii all the low levels
are filled with armed threats, | have to
tell you that the mountains Of our hope
and courage and faith are full of the
horses and chariots of Divine rescue.
You will notice that the Divine
equipage is always represented as a
chariot of fire. Ezekiel and Isaiah and
John, when they come to describe the
Divine equipage, always represent it as
q wheeled, a ~harnessed, an upholstered
conflagration. 1t is not a chariot like
kings and conquerors of earth mount,
but an organized and compressed fire.
That means purity, justice. chastise.
ment, %deliverance through burning es.
capes. Chariot Of rescued yes, but
chariot of Ere. All
OUR NATIONAL DISENTHRALMENTs
have been through scorching agon!es
and red disasters. Through tribulation
the individual rises. Through tribu-
latlon nations rise. Chariots of rescue,
but chariOts of fire. But how do /
know that this Divine equipage is on
the side of our institutlonsp l know II
by the history Of the last one hundred
and eight years. The American Revo.
luton started from the pen Of John
Hancock in Independence Hall in
l776. The colonies, without ships,
without ammunition, without guns,
without trained warriors, without
money. without prestige. On the Other
side, the mightiest nation of the earth
the largest armies, the grandest navies,
and the most distinguished command.
ers. and resources inexhaustIble, and
nearly all nations ready to back them
up in the fight. Nothing, as against
immensely.
The cause of the American colonies,
which started at zero, dropped still
lower through the quarreling of the
generals, and through the jealOusies al
small successes, and through the win.
ters which surpassed all predecessors In
depth of snow and horrors of CONCEAL
ment. Elisha surrounded by the whole
Assyrian army did not seem to he the
worse off than did
THE THIRTEEN COLONIES
M rso,3 apI nuarohodouo6 hv for.
eign assault. What decided the contest
In our favor? The upper forces, the
upper armies. The Green and White
mountains of New England, the High
lands along the Hudson, the noun.
tains of Virginia. all the Appalachian
ranges we're full of reinforcements
which the young man Washington saw
by faith; and bis men endured the
frozen feet, and the g~angrened
wounds, and the exhausting hunger,
and the long march, because 1.-THE
Lord opened the eyes of the young
man; and he saw: and behold. the
were full Of horses and
chariots of fire round about Elisha. y
Washington himself Wds a miracle.
What Joshua was in sacred history,
the first American president was in
secular history. A thousand other
men excelied him In different things,
but he excelled them all In roundnesl
and completeness Of character. The
world never saw his like, and probably
will never see his like again, because
there probably never will be another
such %exigency. He was let down a
Divine interposition. He was from
God direct.
/ do not know how any man can
read the history OF those times Without
the contest was decided by
the upper forces. Then,
IN 1861,
when our civil war opened, many at
the North and at the South pronounced
it national suicide. 1t was not courage
cowardice. 1t was not wealth
poverty, it was not large States
against small States. 1t was heroIsm
heroism, it wGs the resources
of many generations against the re.
sources of generations, 1t was the
prayer of the North against the prayer
of the South, 1t was One-half OF the
In armed wrath, meeting the
other half OF the nation IN armed In
What could come but ex-
at the opening of the war the COM
mander.in.chief of the United States
was a man who had been great
in battle, but old age had come, with
many inirmities, and he had q right to
quietude. He could not mount a
horse and he rode on the battlefield in
a carriage. asking the driver not to Jolt
lr too much. During the most Of the
four years of the contest, On the
Southern side was a man In mid-life.
who had in his veins the blood OF many
generations of warriors, himself one OF
the heroes of CherubuscO and Cerro
COntreras and Chapultepec.
As the years passed on and
THE SCROLL OF CARNAGE
unrolled, there came out from both
sides a herOism, and a strength, ana a
determination that the world had never
seen m~arshaled. And what but
determination could come when Philip
Sheridan and Stonewall jackson met,
and Nathaniel Lyon and Sidney John
ston rode in from North and South,
and Grant and Lee, the two thunder
bolts OF battle, clashedp Yet. W are
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