Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-09-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourse Of the Great
Brooklyn Preacher
Subject: "Thc Sunrise"

1lll., IL.
Back from the mountains and the seaside,
and the springs, and the farmhouse, your
cheek bronzed and your spirits lighted, hail
you home again with the words Of Gehazi to
the Shunammite: as it well with theeg is
it well with thy husbandi is it well with the
childw On some faces l see the mark Of re-
cent grief, but all along the track Of tears
see the story of resurrection and reunion
when all tears are done; the deep blowing of
the keel, followed by the fash of the phos-
phoresence.
Now that l have asked you in regard to
your welfare, you naturally ask how l am.
Very well, thank you. Whether it was the
bracing air of the Colorado mountains, H.
600 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 warm hearted friends, or whether
it is new appreciation Of the goodness of
God l cannot tell. I simply know l am
grandly and gloriously and inoxpres-
sibly hay Ply. 1t was said that John
,Moffatt, tho great Methodist preacher,
occasionally got fast in his sermon, and to
extricate himself would cry "Hallelujahm l
am in no such predicament to-day, but am
full of the same rhapsodic ejaculation. Start
ing out this morning ON a new ecclesiastical
year, want to give you the key note of my
next twelve months ministry. l want to set
it to the tune of Antioch Ariel and Corona
ton. Some time ago we had a new stop put
in this organ-a new trumpet stop-and L
want to put a new trumpet stop into my SER
mons
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 G um at the we'd
ding in Cana of Galilee? Do you suppose
Christ was unresponsive when the children
oIo Iicl ypaa nd SbpnIIar of Hic
own invitation? Do you suppose that the
evangelist meant nothing when he said of
Christ He rejoiced in spiritT 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, take laugh and
a 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 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
appropriate everywhere
Moreover, the outlook of the world ought
to stir US to gladness Astronomers recently
disturbed many people by telling them that
there is danger Of stellar collision. We have
been told through the papers by these as
tronomers 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,
S,ybn 4a, tVyaf fhirtU oil
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 mill
ion miles II human switchtender oan
shoot the trains this way and that without
harm, cannot the Hand that for thousands
of years has upheld the universe keep our lit
tie world out of harms way? Christian geo.
logists tell us that this world was million of
years in building Well now, l 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 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 morning at about half-past 5, and
I 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
gradual substitution of diplomatic skill for
human butehery. Within the last twenty
five years there have been international
differences which would have brought a
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
hot no Tait Iof a,,A
England How was it settledP By
men of-war off the Narrows, or off the
Mersey9 By the Gulf Stream of the ocean
crossed by gulf stream of human bloodS
By the pathway of nations incarnadined? No.
A few wise men go into aquiet room at Cen
eva, talk the matter over, and telegraph to
Washington and to London: GAN 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 years ago
about the Canadian fisheries in any other age
would have caused war between tho United
States and England. England said: PAY
me for the invasion of my Canadian fisher
ies' The United States said: 81 will not pay
anything" Well, the two nations say: Il
guess we had better leave the whole matter
to commission" The commission is APP
pointed and the commission examines the
affair and the commission reports, and pay
we ought, pay we must. pay we do. Not a
pound of powder burned not a cartridge Bit
ten off, no one hurt so much as by the
scratch of pin. Arbitration instead of
battle.
So the Somoan controversy In any other
age would have brought Germany and the
United States in bloody collision. But all is
settled. Arbitration instead of battle.
T'roOoa will oorain I thinly through
peccadillo of ambassador, bring on battle
with other nations. She sees that God, in
punishment of Sedan, blotted out the French
Empire, and the only aspirant of that throne
who had any right of expectation 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 letter have set
tied our sectional difficulties by arbitration
than by the thrust of the sword Philan-
thropy said to the North PAY down GER
tain amount of money for the purchase of the
slaves, and let all those born after a 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: 81 won't sell y
War! War; A million dead men, and ma
tional debt which might have ground this ma
ton to powder.
Why did we not let William H. Seward, of
New York. and Alexander H. Stevens of
Georgia, go out and spend a few days under
the trees on the banks of the Potomac and
talk the matter over, and settle it. as settle
it they could, rather than the North pay in
cost of war; four billion seven hundred mil
lion dollars, and the South pay four billion
seven hundred and fifty million dollars, the
destroying angel leaving the first born dead
obscot to the Alabama. Ye aged men,
whose sons fell in the strife do you not think
that would have been better2 Oh, yes! we
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