Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-09-19

Inc SundaY after returning from DIS
Western tour Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmags
preached at Brooklyn. N Y. his subject
being "The Sunrise" and his text The
day is at hand. Romans xiii II He said:
Back from the mountains and the sea-
side. and the springs, and the farmhouse,
your cheek bronzed and your spirits
lighted, hail you home again with the
words o: Gehazi to the Shunamite: as ii
welt with thee? is it well With thy hus-
band: is it well with thy chilG?" On
some faces 1 see the mark of recent grief,
but all along the track of tears sse the
story Of resurrection and reunion when all
tears are done; the deep blowing OF the
keel, followed by the fash of the phosphor-
essence.
Now that have asked you in regard to
your welfare, you naturally ask how ]
am. Very well, thank you. Whether it
was the bracing air of the Colorado
mountains Il, QUO feet above the level of
the sea, or the tonic atmosphere of the
Pacific coast or a 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 a
new appreciation of the goodness of God,
l can not tell l simply know am grand
ly and gloriously and inexpress bly, happy.
It is said that John Moffatt the great
Methodist preacher, occasionally got fast
in his sermon, and to extricste himself
would cry "Hallelujah!" lam in no such
predicament to-day, but l am full of the
same rhapsOdic ejaculation. Starting 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
Coronation. 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 INFO my sermons.
In all of our Christian work you and l
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 Cali
lee? Do you suppose Christ was unre-
spOnsive when the children clambered
over His knee and shoulder at His own in
vitation? Do you suppose that the evan
gelist meant nothing when he said of
Christ: He rejoicsd 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 Taptures of human life!
believe not only that the morning laughs,
and that the mountains laugh, and that
the seas laugh, and the cascades laugh,
but that Christ laughed. Moreover, take
a laugh and tear into an alembic aud
assay them and test them and analyzs
them and you will often find as much of
the pure gold of religion in a laugh as in
a tear. Deep spiritual joy always shows
itself in facial illumination. John Wesley
said he was sure of a good religious i'm
preston being produced because of what
he calls the great laughter he saw among
the people. Goddess merriment is bias
phemy 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 was danger of stellar
collision. We have been told through the
papers by these astronomers that there
are worlds coming very near together,
aud that we shall have plaques and wars
and tumults and perhaps the worlds de-
struction. Do not be scared. If you have
ever stood at a railway center where ten
or twenty or thirty rail tracks cross each
other, and seen 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 n million miles. If a
human switchtender can shoot the trains
this way and that without harm can not
the Hand that for thousands of years has
upheld the universe keep our little world
out of harms way?
Christian biologists tell US that this
world was millions of years in building.
Well, 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 outside
the world, terrestrial or astronomical, to
excite dismay. l wish that soma stout
Gospel breeze might scatter all the ma
lara OF human foreboding. The sun rose
this morning about half past five, and l
think that is just about the hour in the
worlds history. "The day is at hand"
The first ray of dawn l see in the grad
ual substitution of diplomatic skill for
human butcbery. Within the last twenty
five years there have been international
differences which would have brought a
shock of arms in any other day, but W hich
were peacefully adjusted, the pen taking
the place of the sword.
That Ala bama question in any other age
of the world would have caused war be-
tween the United States and England.
How was it settled: By men-of- war off
the Nsrrows or off the Mersey: By the
Gulf stream of the ocean crossed by gulf
stream OF human blood? BY the pathway
IF nations incarnadined: No. A few
wise men go into quiet room at Geneva,
talk the matter over and telegraph to
Washington and London: "All settled"
Peace. Peace. England pays the United
States the amount awarded-p3ys really
more than she ought to have paid. But
STILL al that Alabama broil is settled
settled forever. 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 the
United States and England England
said: Pay me for the invasion of my
Canadian fisheries" The United States
said: Il will not pay any thing" Well,
the two nations say: 81 guess we had
better leave the whole matter to a COM
mission" The commiss ion is appoint I'd,
and the commission examines the affair."
and the commission reports, and pay we i
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 a pin. Arbitration instead of
battle.
So the Samoan con troversy in any other
age would have brought Germany and the
United States into bloody collision. But
all is settled. Arbitration in stead of battle
France will never again, think
through peccadillo of ambassad dor, bring on
e battle with other nations. She sees that