The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1889-09-13
THE GLORIOUS SUNRISE.
SERMON PREACHED BY Or. TALMAoE
SUNDAY, SEPT. 8.

He Ii Welcomed Home by Glad Throns
and He Prefaces His Sermon by the
Statement That He Is In Happy
Frame of Mind.
BROOKLYN, Sept. 8.-The Rev. I. De
Witt Talmage, b, D., was welcomed
home today by an overlooking con-
gregatiog. At the opening OF the SER
vice the hymn beginning,
Welcome, sweet day Of rest,
That saw the Lord arise,
was sung with fine effect. DR.. Tai
mage's subject was 1.-THE Sunrise, "
and his text; 1.-THE day is at hand"
Romans xiii, IL. He said:
Back from the mountains and the
seaside, and the springs, and the farm
house, your cheek bronzed and your
spirits lighted, hail you home again
with the words of Gehazi to the Shu-
nammite: SIS it we'll with thee2 is it
well with thy husbanda is it we'll with
the child2" On some faces I see the
mark of recent grief, but all along the
track OF tears see the story of resur
rection and reunion when all tears
are done; the deep blowing Of the
keel, followed by the flash of the phos-
phoresence.
THE DOCTOR Is HAPPY.
Now that have asked you in re-
gard 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 atmosphere of the Pacific coast,
or bath in the surf Of Long Island
beach, or whether it is the joy Of stand
ing in this great group of warm heart
ed friends, or whether it is new ap-
probation of the goodness of God, l
cannot tell. I simply know I am
grandly. and gloriously and inexpres-
sibly happy. It was said that John
Motfatt, the great Methodist preacher,
occasionally got fast in his sermon,
and to extricate himself would cry
''HallelujahT am in no such pre-
dicament today, but am full of the
same rhapsodic ejaculation. Starting
out this morning on a new ecclesiasti-
cal year, | want to give you the key
note of my next twelve months min
istry. ! 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
/ want to put new trumpet stop into
my sermons.
In all our Christian work you and /
want more of the element of gladness.
That man has no right to say that
Christ never laughed. Do you sup
pose that he was glum at the wedding
in Cana of Galilee2 Do you suppose
Christ was unresponsive when the
children clambered over his knee and
shoulder at his own invitation2 Do
you suppose that the evangelist meant
nothing when he said of Christ: "He
rejoiced in spirit9" Do you believe
that the divine Christ who pours all
the water over the rocks at Vernal
falls, Yosemite, does not believe in the
sparkle and gallop and tumultuous joy
and rushing raptures of human life7 /
believe not only that the morning
laughs, and that the mountains laugh,
and that the seas laugh, and that the
cascades laugh, but that Christ laugh
ed. Moreover, take laugh and
tear into an alembic, and assay them,
and test them, and analyze them, and
you will often find as much of the
pure gold Of religion in laugh as in
tear. Deep spiritual joy always
shows itself in facial Illumination
John Wesley said he was sure of
good religious impression being pro-
duced 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 every
where.
DO NOT BE AFRAID.
Moreover, the outlook of the world
ought to stir us to gladness. AS
tronomers recently disturbed many
is danger of stellar collision. We
have been told through the papers
by these astronomers that there are
worlds coming very near together,
and that we shall have plaques and
wars and tumults and perhaps the
worlds destruction Do not be scared.
If you have ever stood at railroad
center, where ten or twenty or thirty
rail tracks cross each other, and seen
that 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 million
miles. If human switchtender can
shoot the trains this way and that
without harm, cannot the Hand that
for thousands of years has upheld the
universe keep our little world out of
harms way? Christian biologists
tell us that this world was million of
years in building. Well, now, I do
not think God would take millions
of years to build a house which
was to last only six thousand years.
There is nothing in the world or out
side the world, terrestrial or astronom-
ical, to excite dismay. I wish that
some stout Gospel breeze might scatter
all the malaria of human foreboding.
The sun rose this morning at about
half past 5, and l 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 dinlonnatic |