Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-21
hi Amenl "None of these things move

do not know. 1t has been charged on the
lightDings. Well, the Lord controls the
lightnings.' He managed them severa
thousands of years before our electrician.
were born. The Bible indicates that
though they flash down the sky recklessly,
God-bailds@s1-them a road to travel.
In the Psalms it is said: HE nndy a-w4y
for the lightning and the thunder" Evel
since the time of Benjamin Franklin the
world has been trying to tame the light
nings, and they seem to be quite well har-
messed, but they occasionally kick over the
traces. But though we cannot master great
natural forces, God can and does, and that
God is our Father and best Friend, and this
thought gives us confidence.
REINFORCED BY THE FIRE.
We are also reinforced by the increased
consolation that comes from confraternity q
sorrow. The people who, during the last 16
years, sat on the other side of the aisle,
whose faces were familiar to you, but to
whom you had never spoken-you greeted
them this week with smiles and tears as you
said: "Well, the old place IS gone" You
did not want to seem to cry, and so you swept
the sleeve near the corner of the eve. and
pretended it was the sharp wind made your
eyes weak. All! there was nothing the
matter with your eyes; it was your soul bub-
bling over. tell you that it is impossible
to sit for years around the same church fire.
side and not have sympathies in common.
Somehow you feel that you would like those
people on the other side of the aisle, about
whom you know but little, prospered and
pardoned and blessed and saved. You feel
as if you are in the same boat, and you want
to glide up the same harbor and want to dis
embark at the same wharf
If you put gold and iron and lead and
zinc in sufficient heat they will melt into a
conglomerate mass; and 1 really feel that
last Sabbath's fire has fused US all, grosser
and finer natures into one. 1t seems as if
We all had our hands on a wire connected
with an electric battery; and when this
church sorrow started it thrilled through the
whole circle, and we all felt the shock. The
Oldest man and the youngest child could join
hands in this misfortune. Grandfather
said, 81 expected from those altars to be
buried;" and one of the children last Sab
bath cried, "Grandpa, that place was next
to our own house" Yea, we are supported
and confident in this time by the cross of
Christ
NE ShOOO 10 NO1 DOhNLDs
That is used to the fire. On the dark day
when Jesus died, the lightning struck it
from above, and the flames of hell dashed
up against it from beneath. That fearful,
painful, tender, blessed cross still stands.
On it we hang all our hopes; beneath it we
put down all our sins; in the light of it we
expect to make the rest of our pilgrimage.
Within sight of such a sacrifice, who can
feel he has it hard? In the sight of such
symbol, who can be discouraged, however
great the darkness that may come down
upon him? Jesus livesl The loving,
patient, sympathizing, mighty Jesusi 1t
shall not be told on earth, or in hell, or in
heaven, that three Hebrew children had the
Son of God beside them in the fire, and that
a whole church was forsaken by the Lord
when thev went through furnace about
200 feet wide.
o Lord JeSusl shall we take out of Thy
hand the flowers and the fruits, and the
brightness and the joys, and then turn away
because Thou dost give us one cup of bitter
ness to drink? Oh, no, Jesus! we will
lrink it drv. But how it is changed
Blessed Jesus, what hast Thou put into the
cup to sweeten it? Why, it has become the
wine of heaven, and our souls grow strong.
come now, and place both of my feet deep
lown into the blackened ashes of our con-
'umed church, and 1 cry out with an ex-
lilaration that L never felt since the day of
MY emancipation, Victory! victoryl
through our Lord jesus Christi
Your harps, We trembling saints,
Down from the willows take,
Loud to the praise of love divine
Bid every string awake.
THIRTY CHURCHES INSTEAD OF ONE.
We are also reinforced by the catholicity
that 1 have already referred to. We are in
The academy to-day, not because we have
no other place to go. Last Sabbath morn
ing at 9 o'clock we had but one church;
now we have about 80. all at our disposal.
Their pastors and their trustees say: "You
nav take our main audience rooms. YOU
may take our lecture rooms, YOU NAV take
,ur church parlors, you may baptize in our
oaptisteries, and sit on our anxious seats"
Oh! if there be any larger hearted ministers
,r larger hearted churches anywhere than
n Brooklyn, tell me where they are, that 1
nay go and see them before l die. The mil
ennium has come. People keep wondering
when it is coming. 1t has come. The lion
md the lamb lie down together, and
he tiger eats straw like an OK. II
hould like to have seen two of the old-time
,igots, with their swords, fighting through |
hat great fire on Schermerhorn street last |
sabbath. 1 am sure the swords would |
lave melted, and they who welded them |
Tould have learned war no more / can
ever say word against any other denomi- |
ation of Christians. 1 thank God never |
ave been tempted to do it. cannot be a |
ectarian. have been told ought to be,
nd 1 have tried to be, but have not |
nough material in me to make such a
tructure. Every time get the thing most
one, there comes fire, or something else, |
nd all is gone. The angels of God shake
ut on this air, "Glory to God in the high
st, and on earth peace, good will toward
len." do not know but see on the hori-
on the first CLEAN of the morning which |
hall unite all denominations in one organi-
alton, distinguished only by the locality as
d apostolic times.
ONLY A DISTINCTION OF LOCALITY,
1t was then the Church of Thvatira, and
he Church of Thessalonica, and the Church
Antioch, and the Church of Laodicea.
o l do not know but that in the future
istory, and not far off either, it NAV be
imply distinction of locality, and not of
reed, as the Church of New York, the
hurch of Brooklyn, the Church of Boston,
ne Church of Charleston, the Church of
Iadras, the Church of Constantinople, the
hurch of America.
NV dear brethren, we cannot afford to be
,verely divided. Standing in front of the
reat foes of our common Christianity, we
ant to put on the whole armor of God and
arch down in solid column, shoulder to
loulder! one commander! one triumph!
The trumpet gives martial strain.
Israel! gird thee for the fight;
Arise. the combat to maintain;
Arise, and put thy foes to fight.
We also feel reinforced by the thought
lat we are on the way to a heaven that can
ever burn down. Fires may sweep through
her cities-but am glad to know that the