News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-05-09
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR TALMAGEa
STERLING DISCOURSES
Subject; The Upper Forces in Amer
lean History"

the youlg man: and he Sd1C; and, behold
the mountain IrdS fun Of horses and char
lots of fire round about EtiShG."-H King
vi, II.
As it cost England many regiments anC
two million dollars a year to keep safely
troublesome captive at st. Helena, so thi
King Of Syria sends out a whole army Il
capture one minister of rehgion-perhaps so.
600 men to take Elisha. During the nigh
the army of ASsyrians came around the vii
lage Of Dothan, where the prophet wa
staying. At early daybreak the mar
servant of Elisha rushed in and said
What shall we do? there is
whole army come to destroy you. We mus
die, we must dien But Elisha was moi
scared G bit for he looked I'D and saw
the mountains all around full of super
natural forces and he knew that if there
were $1,000 AsSyrians against him there
were 100000 angels for him; and il
answer 90 the prophets prayer in behalf OF
his affrighted man servant, the young man
saw it too Horses of fire harnessed to char
lots of fire. and drivers of fire pulling reins
of fire on bits of fire; and warriors of fire
with brandished sword of fire, and the brill
lance of that morning sunrise was eclipsed
by the galloping Splendors of tie celestial
cavalcade. And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man; and he saw; and, behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariotS
of fire round about Elisha" l have often
spoken to You of the AsSyrian perilS which
threaten one American INSTITUTIONS, but now
as We are assembling to keep centennial cele-
bratlon of the Inauguration of Washington,
speak of the upper forces OF the text that
are to fight on our side. If all the low levels
are filled with armed threats, | have to tell
you that the mountains of our hope and cour-
age and faith are full of the horses and char
lots Of Divine rescue.
lou will notice that the Divine eouipage is
always represented as a chariot of fire. Eze-
tiel and Isaiah and John, when they come to
describe the Divine equipage, always repre-
sent it as wheeled, harnesSed. an uphol-
stored confagration 1t is not a chariot like
Kings and cOnqUeroTs of earth mount, but an
organized and q compressed fire. That means
purity, justice, chastisement, deliverance
through burning escapes. Chariot of rescue?
yes, but chariot of fire. All our national
observation-disclosures have been through scorching
agonieS and red disasters. Through tribu-
lation the individual rises. Through tribu-
lation nations rise ChariotS of rescue, but
chariotS of fire
But how do I know that this Divine eoui-
page Is on the side of our Institutions know
1t by the history of the last one hundred and
eight years. The American revolution started
from the pen of John Hancock, in indie
pendence Hall, in 1176. The colonies without
ships. without ammunition, without guns,
without trained warriors, without money
without prestige On the other side, the
mightisst nation of the Garth, the largest
armies and the grandest navieS and the most
disting pushed commanders and resources in
exhaustible, and nearly all nations ready to
back them up in the fight Nothing as against
immensely.
The cause of the American colonies. which
started at zero, dropped still lower through
the quaTreling of the Generals, and through
the lcalousles at small successes, and through
the winters which surpassed ell their predc-
cesSors in depth of snow and horrors of con-
geaIment. Elisha, surrounded by the whole
Assyrlan army, did not seem to be worse off
than did the thirteen colonies encompassed
and oveTshadowed by foreign assault. What
decided the contest in our favor? The upper
forces, the upper armies. The green and
white mountains Of New England, the high
lands along the Hudson the mountains of
Virginia, all the Appalachian ranges were
Lul Of re-enfOrcements which the young man
w aSh1n5ton saw by faith and his men
endured the frozen feet and the gan
yrened wounds and the exhauSting hun
GER and the long march because the (
Lord opened the eyes of the young man: and /
le saw; and, behold, the mountains were full 4
# horses and chariotS of fire round about 4
Elisha Washington himself was a mira
lie. What Joshua was in sacred history the
lrs5 American President was in secular his
Dry. A thousand other men excelled him in /
iferent things but he excelled them all in
oundneSs and completeness of character.
Inc world never saw his like, and probably
ever VIII see his like again, because there
robably never will be another such ext
,ency. He was let down a Divine interposi-
ion. He was from God direct.
l do not know how any man can read the
history of those times without admitting
hat the contest was decided by the upper
forces.
Then in 1861, when our Civil War opened.
many at the North and at the South pro
nounced it national suicide 1t was not corll.-
age against cowardice, it was not wealth |
agalnst poverty, 1t was not large States
herolsIn, 1t was the resources of many gener-a
at1onS against the resources of MANY genera
tons, it was the prayer of the North against
the prayer of the South, it was one-half of the
nation IN armed wrath meeting the other half
Of the nation in armed indignation. What
could come but determination?
AT the opening of the war the commander
tn-chlef of the United States forces was a
man who had been great in battle, but old
age had come with many infirmities, and he
had a right to quietude. He could not
mount a horse, and he rode on the
battle field in a carriage, asking the
driver not to jolt it too much. During the
most of the four years of the contest, on the
Southern side was a man in mid-life, who
had in his veins the blood of many genera
lions Of warriors, himself one OF the heroes
Of Cherubusco and Cerro Gordo, Contreras
and Chapultepec. As the years passed ON |
and the scroll Of carnage unrolled, there |
came out from both sides heroism and a /
strength and a determination that the world /
had never seen marshaled. And what but |
determination could come when Philip Sheri- /
dan and StonewaH jackson met, and Nathan
lei Lyon and Sidney johnson rode in from /
north and south and Grant and Lee tho two
thUnderboIts OF battle, clashed Yet we are /
g HetiOn and yet we are at peace. Earthly 1
courage did not decide the conflict The up |
per forces Of the text. They tell US there was
a battle fought above the clouds on Lookout
Mountain; but there was something higher |
than that.
II,
70 the rescue Of this nation in 1876 at the
close of Presidential election famous for
tevilisi ferOci5y. 4 darker cloud yet settled |
Town upon this nation. The result of the /
election was IN dispute, and revolution, not
between two or three sections, but revolution
in every town and village and city of the
the United States, seemed imminent. The /
prospect was that New York would throttle
New YORK and New Orleans would grip New
Orleans, and Boston, Boston, and Savannah,
Savannah. and Washington, Washington |
Some said Mr. Tiden was elected; others
said Mr.. Hayes was elected; and how
near we came to universal massacre
some of Us guessed, but God only knew.
ascriba our escape not to the hon.
esty and Righteousness of Infatuated
forces Of the text. Chariots of mercy rolled
IN, and though the wheels were not heard and
the fash was not seen, yet all through the
mountains of the north and the south and
the east ana bne west, JnOugn the nOOIS Qld |
not clatteT, the cavalry of God galloped by.
| tell you God is the friend of this nation. In
the awful excitement at the massacre of Lin
coin, when there was q prospect that greater
slaughter would open upon this nation, God
hUs5sd the tempest. In the awful excitement
1t tAs time of Garield's assassination, God
put dis foot on the neck OF the cyclone.
To prove that God is on the side of this M
ton, l argue from the last eight or nine great
national Harvests and from the national
lealth of the last quarter of a century-epi-
-emicS very exceptional-and from the great
evivals Of religion, and from the spreading
II the Church of God, and from the continent
'lOssOming with asylums and reformatory in
and from an Edenization which
PROMISES that this whole land is to be Para
tise where God shall walk in the cool of the
ay.
If in other sermons ! showed you what was
ne evil that threatened to upset and demol-
81 American institutions, I am encouraged
-o-e than l can tell YOU as l see the regi-
nents wheeling down the sky, and my jere
MAIDS turn into doxologies, and that which
vas the Good Friday of the nations crucif1-
on becomes the Easter morn of its resurrec-
ion. OF course God works through human
and this national better
nent Is to come among other things through
scrutinized ballot boz, By the law of reg
stration il IS almost impossible now to have
legal voting. There was a hme-you
md remember it very well-when droves
# vagabonds wandered up and down on
slection day and from poll to poll, and
roted here and voted there, and voted
Everywhere, and there was no challenge; or,
there were, it amounted to nothing, be-
ause nothing could so suddenly be proved
iDon the Vagabonds. Nov, in every well
,rganized neighborhood, every voter Is
watched with severest scrutiny. / must
all T-r4- o~11 how