Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-09
IT is HALF PAST FIVE
In the Worlds History, DR.. Talmage
Thinks, and Day is at Hand,
WITH A BRIGHT MORNING OUTLOOK
Arbitration in Vogue Instead of Battle, and
Justice to Indians.
ARITHMETIC is PROVING THE BIBLE

DE Witt TalmRge, ID. D., was welcomed
heme to-day by an overhowing eengrega-
ton At the opening of the service the
hymn beginning,
Welcome, sweet day of rest.
That saw the Lord arise,
was sung with fine effect DR.. Tslmage's
subject was: The Sunrise" and his text:
''The day is at hand" Romans xiii, II. He
said:
Back from the mountains and the seaside,
and the springs and the farmhouse, your
cheek bronzed and your spirits lighted, 1
hail you home again with the words of Ge-
hazi to the Shunamite: SIS it we'll with
thee9 is it well with thy husband? is il well
with the child?"
Now that have asked you in regard to
your welfare, you naturally ask how am.
Very WELL thank you. 1t was said that
John Moffatt, the great Methodist preacher,
occasionally got fast in his sermon, and to
extrlcate himself would cry "Hallelujah!"
/ am in no such predicament to-day, but 1
am full of some rhapsodie ejaculation.
Starting out this morning on a new eccle-
sisstical year, want to give you the key
L
want to set it to the tune of Antioch, Ariel
ana Coronation. Some time ago we had
new stop put in this organ-a new trumpet
stop-and 1 want to put a new trumpet stop
into my sermons.
LAUGHTER AND CHRISTIANITY.
{. In all our Christian work you and L want
more of the element of gladness. That man
has 40 right to say that Christ never laughed,
Do you suppose that he was glum at the
wedding in Cana of Galilee? Do you sup
pose Christ was unresponsive when the
children clambered over His knee and
shoulder at His own invitation? Do you
suppose that the evangelist meant nothing
when he said of Christ: "He reioiced in
Spirit?'' 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 life?
/ 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 laughed. Moreover, takea laugh
and tear into an alemDie, and assay them,
aud test them, and analyze them, and YOU
will often find as much of the pure gold of
religion in a laugh as in q tear. Deep
spiritual joy always shows itself in facial
illumination. John Wesley said he was
sure of good religious impression being
produced because of what he calls the great
laughter he saw among the people. Goddess
merriment is blasphemy snywhere, but ex-
preston of Christian joy is appropriate
everywhere.
Moreover, the outlook of the world ought
to stir us up to gladness. Astronomers re-
Gently disturbed many people by telling
them that there is danger of stellar collision
We have been told through the papers by
these astronomers that there are worlds COM
ing very near together, and that we shall
have plaques and wars and tumuits and
perhaps the worlds destruction,
AN INCH BETTER THAN A MILE.
Do not be scared. II YOU have ever stood
at a railroad center, where 10 or 20 or 30
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 eolliding, then you may understand |
how so worlds NAV come within an inch of |
disaster, and that inch be as good as ,0O0, 900
miles. If human switch tender 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 geologists |
tells us that this world was millions Of years |
in building. Well, now, l do not think |
God would take millions of years to build a |
house which was to last only 6,000 years. |
There is nothing in the world or outside the |
world, terrestrial or astronomical, to excite |
dismay. / wish that some stout Gospel |
breeze might scatter all the malaria of |
human foreboding. The sun rose this morn
ing 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 grad |
usl substitution of diplomatic skill for |
human butchery. Within the last 25 wears |
there have been international differences |
which would have brought a shock of arms |
in any other dsy. but which were peacefully |
adjusted, the pen taking the place of the |
sword.
That Alabama question in any other age |
of the world would have caused war be- |
tween the United States and England, |
How was it settled? By men-oEWar off the |
NarroWs. or of the Mersey? Bv the Gulf |
stream of the ocean crossed by gulf stream |
OF human blood? By the pathway of |
men 60 into a 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-settled for |
ever.
ARBITRATION INSTEAD OF BATTLE.
So, the quarrel eight or nine wears ago
about the Canadian fisheries in any other |
age would have caused war between the
United States and England. England said:
''Pay me for the invasion of nv Canadian
fisheries" The United States said: 'sI
will not pay anything" Well, the two
nations say: 81 guess we had better leave
the whole matter to a commission" The
commission is appointed, and the commits
sion examines the affair, and the commits
sion reports, and pay we ought, pay We
must, pay We do. Not pound of powder
burned, not a cartridge bitten of, no one
hurt SO much as by the scratch of a pin.
Arbitration instead of battle.
So the Samoan controversy in any other
age would have brought Germany and the
United States into bioSdy collision. But
al is settled. Arbitration instead of battle.
France will never again, think, through
peceadillo OF ambassador, bring on a battle
with other nations. She sees that God. in
punishment of Sedan, blotted out the
French Empire. and the only aspirant for
that throne vino had any right Of expecra-
tion dies in war that has not even the
dignity of being respectable. What is that
blush on the cheek of England to-day?
What is the leaf that England would like
to tear out of her history? The Zulu war.
Down with the sword and up with the
treaty.
We in this country might better have
settled our sectional difficulties by arbitra-
lion than by the thrust of the sword. Phi
anthropy said to the North: "Pay down a