News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-19

other man pretended to be a representative
of a Christian nation. Notwithstanding al
tins, the general disgust with war and The
substitution of diplomatic skill for the gilt
tering edge of keen steel is a sign unmistaka,
BILE that "the day is at hand"
L find another ray of the dawn in the com
preston OF the worlds distances, What 8
Slow, snall-ike, almost impossible thing
would have been the worlds rectificatior
with fourteen hundred millions of population
and no facile means of communication; but
now through telegraphy for the eye anC
telephone intimacy for the ear, and through
steamboating and railroading. the twenty
five thousand miles of the worlds circumfer
n1fcant brevity. Hong Kong is near
er to New York than a few years ago New
Haven was; Bombay, Moscow, Madras, Mel
bourne within speaking distance. Purchase
a Geographic chart, and by the blue lines see
the telegraphs of the land, and by the red
INES the cables under the ocean. You see
what opportunity this is going to give for the
final movements of Christianity. A fortress
may be months or years in building, but after
it is constructed it may do all its
work In twenty minutes. Christianity has
been planting its batteries for nineteen CEN
turtles, and may go ON in the work through
other centuries; but when those batteries are
thoroughly planted, those fortresses are fully
built, they may all do their work in twenty
four hours. The world sometimes derides the
church for slownesS of movement. Is science
any quicker? Did it not take science five
thousand SIX hundred and ffty-two years to
find out SO simple a thing as the
circulation of the human blood?
With the earth and the sky full of electricity,
science took five thousand eight hundred
years before 1t even guessed that there was
any practical use that might be made of this
subtle and mighty element. When good men
take possession of all these scientific forces.
and all these agencies of invention, L do not
know that the redemption of the world will
be more than the work of half a day. Do
we not read the Queens speech at the
p~roroguing of Parliament the day before in
London? If that be so, is it anything mar
velous to believe that in twenty-four hours a
divine communication can reach the whole
earth? Suppose Christ should descend on the
nations-many expect that Christ will come
among the nations perSonally-SuppoSe that
tomorrow morning the Son of God from a
lowering cloud should descend upon these
cities. Would not that fact be known all
the world over in twenty-four hours?
Suppose He should present His Gospel
in a few words saying: II am the Son
of God; l came to pardon all your sins and to
heal all your sorrow; to prove that | am
a supernatural being, I have just descended
from the clouds; do you believe Me, and do
you believe Me now?' Why, all the tele-
graph stations of the earth would be crowded
as none of them were ever crowded Just af-
ter a s%hipwreck. l tell you all these things
to show you 1t Is not among the impossible
ties or even the im~probabihties that Christ
will conquer the whole earth, and do it in
stanter, when the time comes. There are
foretokenings in the air. Something
great is going. to happen. l DO not
think that Jupiter is going to run us down
or that the axle of the world is going to
break; but | mean something great for the
worlds blessing and not for the worlds
damage is going to happen. 1 think the world
has had it hard enough. Enough, the Lon
don plaques. Enough, the Asiatic choleras.
Enough, the wars. Enough, the shipwrecks.
Enough, the confagrations. [ think our
world could stand right well a procession of
properties and triumphs. Better be on
the lookout. Better have your observa-
tories open toward the heavens, and
the lenses of your most powerful telescopes
well polished. Better nave all your Leyden
jars ready for some new pulsation of mighty
Better have new fonts of type in
your printing Offices to set up some astound-
ing good news. Better have some new BAN
ner that has never been carried, ready for
professions. Better have the bells IN
your church towers well hung, and rope with
IN reach, that you may ring out the mar
riage of the Kings Son. Cleanse all your
court houses, for the Judge of all the earth
may appear. Let all your legislative halls
be gilded, for the great Lawgiver may be
about to come. Drive off the thrones of
ltSPOtISLl III Lue occupants, LOT UIle Mig VI
heaven and earth may be about to reign.
The darkness of the night is blooming
and whitening into the lilies of morning
cloud, and the lilies reddeding into the roses
Of stronger day-ft garlands, whether white
Or red, for Him on whose head are many
The day is at handr'
One more ray of the dawn | see in facts
chronological and mathematical. Come
low, do not let us do another stroke of
work until we nave settled one matter.
What is going to be the final issue of this
great contest between sin and righteous
ness? Which is going to prove himself
lhe stronger, God or Diabolus? Is this
world going to be all garden or all desert?
Now let us have that matter settled If
,nd bs Mic1h ls ana n fRd Ezekiel and Hosea
1t is going to be ali gaTrau. But let us have
it settled. Let us know whether we are
working on toward u success or toward a
lead failure, If there is a child i'll your
house sick, and you are sure he is going to
well, you sympathiZe with present pains,
but all the forebodirg is gone. IL you are
a cyclone off tho Flori:iG coast, aud the
Captain assures you the vessel is staunch
and the winds are changing for a better
quarter, and he is sure he will bring
you safe into the harbor, you patient
ly submit to present distress with the
thought of safe arrival. Now l want to
know whether we are coming N toward dis
may, darkness and defeat, or on toward light
and b~lessedness. You and l believe the lat
and if so, every year we spend is one
year subtracted from the worlds woe, and
every event that passes, whether bright
or dark, brings us one event nearer a
happy contamination, and by all that
is inexorable in chronology and mathematics
commend you to good cheer and courage.
If there is anything in arithmetic, if you sub
two from five and leave three, then by
every rolling sun we are coming on toward
-----sG~o-4 ~-,l@1 Hua@. -.&-
passed is one severity less for our poor world.
Then every summer gone by brings us nearer
arborescence. Put your algebra
down on the top of your Bible and rejoice.
If it is nearer morning at 3 o'clock than it
is at 2, if It'll nearer morning at 4 o'clock
it is at j, then we are nearer the dawn of
the worlds deliverance. Gods clock seems
to go very slowly, but the pendulum swings
the hands move, and it will yet strike
noon. The sun and the moon stood still once;
they will never stand still again until they
stop forever. If you believe arithmetic as
well as your Bible, you must believe we are
nearer the dawn. "The day is at hand"
There is a class of phenomena which makes
think that the spiritual and the heavenly
world may, after a while, make a demonstra-
ton in this world which will bring all moral
md spiritual things to a climax. Now, l am
no s~piritualist; but every intelligent man has
noticed that there arc strange ana mys-
terious things which indicate to him that
the ~Spiritual world is not so far off
rs sometimes we conjecture, and that after n
while, from the spiritual and heavenly world
here may be a demonstration upon our world
Tor its betterment. We call it magnetism,
)r we call it meSmerism, or We call it electric
ty, because We want some term to cover up
)ur ignorance. | do not know what that is.
never heard an audible voice from the other
world. | am pursuaded of this, however,:
hat the veil between this world and the
lext is getting thinner and thinner, and that,
perhaps after a while, at the call of Cod
at the call of the Davenport brothers,
II Andrew jackson Davis-some of the old
criptural warriors, some of the spirits of
days mighty for Coda Joshua, or a
Caleb. or a David. or a Paul-may come
Town and help us in this battle against I'M
righteousness. Oh, how l would like to have
hem here-him of the Red Sea, him of the
of Ajalon, him of Mars Hill. History
that Robert Clayton, of the English cav
llry, at the close of a war bought up all
jhe old cavalry horses lest they be turned out
% drudgery and hard work, and bought
/ piece of ground at Naversmire
into the thickest and richest
pasture to spend the rest of their days for
what they had done in other days. One day
4 thunder storm came up, and these war
horses mistook the thunder of the skies for
Jhe thunder of battle, and they wheeled into
ine-no riders on their backs-they wheeled
INTO line ready for the fray. And l doubt
whether, when the last thunder of this
for God and truth goes booming
the heavens, the old scriptural war
riors can keep their places on their thrones.
Methinks they will spring into the fight and
exchange crown for helmet, and palm branch
for weapon, and come down out of the Kings
into the arena, crying: make
rooml l must fight in this great Arranged