The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-04-10

organs in one diapason, and gather all
the congregations OF Christendom in one
gloria in excelsis. Mighty camp-meetings.
Mighty ocean groves. Mighty Chautau-
quas. Mighty conventions of Christian
workers. Mighty general assemblies of the
presbyterian church. Mighty conferences
OF the methodist church. Mighty associa-
tons of the baptist church. Mighty con-
ventions of the episcopal church. 1
think before long the best investments
will not be in railroad stock or Western
Union, but in trumpets and cymbals and
festal decorations, for we are on the eve of
victories wide and world uplifting. There
may be many years of hard work yet be-
| fore the consummation, but the signs are
to me so encouraging that / would not be
unbelieving if / saw the wing of the
apocalyptic angel spread for its last tri-
umphal fight in this days sunset, or if
tomorrow morning the ocean cables
should thrill us with the news that Christ
the Lord had alighted on Mount 0livet or
Mount Calvary to proclaim universal
| dominion.
o, you dead churches, wake upl Throw
back the shutters of stiff ecclesiasticism
and let the light of the spring morning
come in. Morning for the land. Morn
ing for the sea. Morning of emancipa-
ton. Morning OF light and love and
/ peace. Morning of day in which there
| shall be no chains to break, no sorrows to
assuage, no despotism TO shatter, no woes
| to compassionate. o, Christ descend
| Scared temple, take the crown Bruised
hand, take the scepter! Wounded foot,
step the throne! Thine is the king
| DOM"
These things say because want you to
be alert. l want you to be watching all
these wonders unrolling from the heavens
| and the earth. God has classified them,
whether calamitous or pleasing The d.
vine purposes are harnessed in traces that
cannot break, and in girths that cannot
| slip, and in buckles that cannot loosen
and are driven by reins that must an
swer. l preach no fatalism. A swarthy
engineer at one of the depots in Dakota
said: "When will YOU get on the lOcomo-
tive and take ride with us ?" "Well," l
said, NOW, if that suits you" So got
on one side the locomotive and meth
| odist minister, who was also invited,
got on the other side, and between
US and the engineer was the stoker. The
| train started. The engineer had his hand
on the agltated pulse of the engine. The
stoker shoveled in coal and shut the door
with loud clang. A vast plain slipped
under us and the hills swept by, and that
great monster on which we rode trembled
and bounded and snorted and ragged as
| it hurled us on. l said to the methodist
minister on the other side of the locomo-
tive: "My brother, why should presby-
terians and methodists quarrel about the
DEGREES and the free agency? You see
| that track, that firm track, that iron track;
that is the decree. You see this
engineers arm? That is free agency.
How beautiful they work together!
They are going to take us through. We
! could not do without the track, and
we could not do without the engineer"
/ So / rejoice day by day. Work for us all
| to do, and we may turn the crank OF the
| Christian machinery this way or that, for
we are free agents; but there is the track
laid so long ago and no one remembers it,
laid by the hand of Almighty God in
sockets that no terrestrial or satanic pres
sure can ever affect. And along that
track the car of the worlds redemption
will roll and roll to the grand central
depot of the millennium; / have no anX-
iety about the track. | am only afraid
that for our Incidence God will discharge
us and get some other stoker and some
| other engineer. The train is going through
with us or without us. So, my brethren,
watch all the events that are going by.
II things seem to turn out at all right, give
wings to your Joy. If things seem to turn
out wrong, throw out the anchor of faith
and hold fast
There is house in London where Peter
the Great OF Russia lived awhile when he
was moving through the land incognito
and in workman's dress that he might
learn the wants of the people. A stranger
was visiting at that house recently, and
saw in a dark attic an old box, and he said
to the owner of the house: whats in
that box" The owner said: 81 don't
know; that box was there when / got the
house, and it was there when my father
gotit We haven't had any curiosity to look
at it (; guess there nothing in it. :" "Well,"
said the stranger, 'Ill give you CO for
it." "Well, done" The CO was paid,
and recently the contents OF that box was
sold to the car of Russia for $4,000. In
it the lathing machine of Peter the Great,
his private letters and documents, of value
beyond all monetary consideration. And
here are the events that seem very insig-
nifcant and unimportant, but they incase
treasures OF divine providence and eterni-
ties of meaning which after awhile God
will demonstrate before the ages as being
of stupendous value. AS near as / can
tell from what 1 see there must be God
somewhere about.
When Titans play quoits they pitch
mountains; but who owns these gigantic
forces you have been reading about the
last two months? Whose hand is on the
throttle valve of the volcanoes? Whose
foot suddenly planted on the footstool
makes the continents CULVER? God
God! He looketh upon the mountains
and they tremble. He toucheth the hills
and they smoke. Cod God! l must
be at peace with Him. Through the Lord
Jesus Christ this God is mine and He is
yours. l put the earthquake that shook
Palestine at the crucifxion against all the
down-rockings of the centuries. This
God on our side and we may challenge all
the centuries of time and all the cycles of
eternity.
Those of us who are in mid-life NAV
we'll thank God that we have seen so
many wondrous things; but there are
people here to-day who will see the twen-
tieth century. Things obscure to us will
be plain to you yet. The twentieth CEN
fury will be as far ahead of the nineteenth
as the nineteenth is ahead of the eigh-
tenth, and as you caricature the habits
and customs and ignorance of the past
others will caricature this age. Some of
you may live to see the shimmering veil
between the material and the spiritual
world lifted. Magnetism, a word with
which we cover up our ignorance, will yet
be an exDlOred realm Electricity the fairy