Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-09-20

| and He Pret;,ccS His Sermon l,y Ill.
| Statement That He Is In 81 Happy Frame
| of Mind.
The Rev. t. Dewitt Talmage, d. D..
was welcomed home Sunday, Sept. s, by
m pyerhowing congregation. At the
opening of the service the hymn begin
ing,
! Welcome, sweet day of rest,
That saw the Lord arise,
was sung with fine effect. DR.. Talmage s
subject was: The Sunrise and his
text The day is at hand" Romans xiii,
10. III said:
Back from the mountains and the sea-
side. and the sp-ings. and the farm
house. YOUR cheek bronzed aud your
spirits lighted. l hail you home again
with the words of Cehazi to the Shu-
nammite: rs it we'll with thee? is it
we'll with thy husband? "is it we'll with
thv child?" On some faces I see the
mark of recent grief, but all along the
track of tears | see the story of resur-
rection and reunion when all tears are
done; the deep blowing of the keel, fol-
lowed by the flash of the phosphores-
ence.
Now that l have asked you in regard
to your welfare. you naturally ask how
l am. Very we'll, thank You Whether
it was the bracing air OF the Colorado
| mountains twelve thousand feet above
| the level of the sea, orthe tonic atmos-
the surf of Long ISLAND beach, or
whether it is the Joy Of standing III this
great group of warm hearted friends,
or whether it is n new appreciation of
| the goodness OF Goo, [ cannot tell.
simply know am grsndly and gloriously
and inexpressibly Happy. 1t was said
that John Motfatt, the great Methodist
preacher, occasionally got fast in his
sermon, and to ext.icate himself would
cry "Hallelujah!" am in no such pre-
dicament to- day, hut 1 am full of the
same rhapsodic Ejaculation. Starting
out this morning on new ecclesiastical
year l want to give you the key note of
my next twelve months ministry. want
to set it to the tune of Antioch. Ariel
aud Coronation. Some time ago we had
q new stop put in this organ--a new
trumpet stop--ant l want to put new
trumpet stop ;nto my sermons.
In our ChristiaL work you and need
man has no right to say that Christ
never laughed. DO you suppose that he
was g]um at the wedding i'll Cana of
Gallilee? DO you suppose Christ was
unresponsive when the children clam
bered over his knee and shoulder at his
own invitation? Do you suppose that
! the evangelist meant nothing when he
said of Christ: "He rejoicel in spirit?"
Do you believe tlat the divine Christ
who pours ali the water over the rocks
at Vernal Falls, Yosemite, does not be-
lieve in the sparkle and gallon and
tumultuous JOY and rashins raptures of
human life? l believe thatnot only the
morning laughs, and that The mountains
laugh, and that the seas laugh, and that
the cascades laugh, but chat Christ
laughed. Moreover. take 10 laugh and
a tear into an alembic, ami assay them,
and test them, and analyz, them, and
you will linda much Of thepure gold OF
spiritual Joy always showssitsel in ia
was sure Of good religious impression
being produced because Of what he
calls the great laughter he saw among
the people. Goddess merriment is l'as-
pnemy anywhere, hut expression of
Christian joy is appropriate everywhre.
Moreover the outlook of the void
ought to stir us to gladness. Astrono-
mers recently disturbed many people w
telling them that there is danger Of
stellar collision. We have been TOLD
through the papers by these astrono-
mers that there are worlds coming very
near together, and that we shall have
plaques, and wars, and tumults, and per-
haps the worlds destruction. Do moi
be scared. II you have ever stood Mt a
railroad center, where ten or twenty O,
thirty tracks cross each other, and seen
by the movement of the switch one OF
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 an d
That inch be as good as million miles.
1t human switchtender can shoot the
trains this way or that without harm.
cannot the Hand that for thousands of
years has upheld the universe keen on,
little world out of harms way? Chris
tan geolosists tell 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 5000 years. There is
nothing III the world or outside the
world, terrestrial or astronomical, to ex-
cite dismay. | wish that some stout
gospel breeze might scatter all the ma
larla OF human foreboding The sun
rose this morning at about half past 5,
and l think that is just about the hour
IN the worlds history. "The day is at
hand"
The first ray of the dawn l see in the
gradual substitution of diplomatic Skill
for human butchery. Within the last
twenty five years there have been inter
national differences which would have
brought shock of arms in any other
day, but which We're peacefully adj
Justed, 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 En-
gland. How was it settled? BY men,
of-war off the Narrows, CT off the Mer-
sey? By the Gulf Stream of the ocean
crossed by gulf stream of human
blood? by the pathway of nations in
carnadined? No. A few wise men go
INTO 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