Connecticut western news., 1889-09-18
Welcome, sweet day of rest, That saw the Lord arise,

was sung with fine effect. pr. Talmage's sub ject was: ''The Sunrise," and his text: 1.-The day. is at hand." Romans xiii, 1s. He said:
 Back from the mountains and the seaside, and the springs. and the farmhouse, your cheek bronzed and your spirits lighted, l hail you home again with the words of Ge- hazi to the Shunammite: "ls 1t well With thee: is it we'll with thy husband: is it well with the ehild., On some faces I see the mark of recent grief, but all along the track of tears see the story of resurrection and reunion when all tears are done; the deep ploughing of the keel, followed by the flash of the phoSphoreScence.
 Now that l have asked you in regard to your welfare, you naturally ask how 1 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 standing in this great group of warin-hearted friends or whether it is new appreciation of the good ness of God. I cannot tell. l simply know 1 am grandly and gloriously and meNpres- sibly happy. It was said that John Moffatt, the great Methodist preacher, occasionally got fast in his sermon, and to extricate him. self would cry ''Hallell1ah" I am in no such predicament today. but am full of the same rhapsodic ejaculation. Starting out this morning on 8 new ecclesiastical year, want to give you the key note of my next twelve months ministry. I want to set it to the tune of Antioch. Ariel and Coronation. Some time ago we had new stop put in this organ "a new trumpet stop-and l want to put a 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 suppose that he was glum at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Do you sup pose Christ was unresponsive when the children elambered over his knee and should CT at his own invitation! Do you suppose that the evangelist meant nothing when he said of Christ: '.He rejoieed 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 rap lures of human life: I 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, take a 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 a tear. Deep spiritual joy always shows itself in facial illumination. John Wesley said he was sure of 8 good religious impres- sion being produced because of what he calls the great laughter he saw among the people. Goddess merriment is blasphemy anywhere, but expression of Christian joy Is appropri- ate everywhere
 Moreover. the outlook of the world ought to stir us up to gladness. Astronomers re tently disturbed many people by telling them chat there 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 centre, where ten or twenty or thirty rail tracks cross each other. and seen that by the move n1ppf Of the switch two inches the train shoots this way and that, without col hding, 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 geolo- gists tell us that this world was millions of years in building. We'll, now, do not think God would take millions of years to build house which was to last only six thousand years- There is nothing in the world or out side the world, terrestrial or astronomical, to excite dismay. I wish that some stout Cos pei breeze might scatter all the malaria of human forebOding. The sun rose this morn- ing at about half past ,, and think that Is just about the hour in the worlds history. 1.-The day is at hand.'
 The first ray of the dawn see in the grad ual substitution of diplomatic skill for human butchery. Within the last twenty-five years there have been international differences which would have brought shock of arms in any other day, 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 between the United States and England. How was it settled! By men-0f-war of the Narrows. or of the Mersey? By the Gulf Stream of the Ocean crossed by gulf stream of human blood? By the pathway of nations incarna- dined? No. A few wise men go into a quiet room at Geneva, talk the matter over. and telegraph to Washington and to Lon don: ssAn settled.- Peace. Peace. Eng land 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 forever. Arbitration in stead of battle.
 So, the quarrel eight or nine years 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 my Canadian fisheries.' The United States said: ssI will not pay any, thing" Well, the two nations say: ''I guess we had better leave the whole matter to commission" The commission is appointed and the commission examines the affair, and the commission 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 pin. Arbitration instead of battle.
 So the Samoan controversy in any other age would have brought Germany and the United States into bloody collision. But all is settled. Arbitration instead of battle.
 France will never again, I think, through pecadillo of ambassador, bring on a battle with other nations. She sees that God, in punishment of Sedan, plotted out the French Empire, and the only aspirant for that throne who had any right Interpretation dies in 8 war that has not even the dignity of being respectable. What is that blush on the cheek of England today? What is the leaf that Eng land 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 set tied our sectional difficulties by arbitration than by the thrust of the sword. Philan- thropy said to the north: ''Pay down a cer- tain amount of money for the purchase of the slaves, and let all those born after certain time be born free" Philanthropy at the same time said to the south: ''You sell the slaves, and get rid of this great national contest and trouble" The north replied: II won't pay cent" The South replied: s'J won't sell" War! War! A million dead men, and national debt which might have ground this nation to powder.
 Why did we not let William H. Seward, of New York, and Alexander H. Stephens,
 Georgia, go out and spend few days under the trees on the banks of the Potomac
 Gtalk the matter over, and settle it, as settle it they could, rather than the north pay in cost of war, four billion seven hun- lred million dollars, and the south pay four billion seven hundred and fifty million dol lars, the destroying angel leaving the first born dead in so many houses all the way from the Penobscot to the Alabama. Ye aged men, whose sons fell in the strife, do you not think that would have been better: Oh yes, we have come to believe, think, in this country, that arbitration is better than battle.
 I may be mistaken, but hope that the last war between Christian nations is ended