The Russellville Democrat., 1889-05-09
TALMAGES SERMON.
A Discourse Apropos to the Gen.
tennial Celebration.
Evidence of the Divine Hand In the shap-
ing the Destiny of Our Nation-Re-
ngion the Only Foundation
of Real Prosperity.

I following centennial sermon at the
| Brooklyn Tabernacle, taking for his text:
/ And the Lord opened the eyes OF the young
man; aud he saw; and, behold. the mountain
I was fun Of horses aud chariots OF fire round
about Elisha II Kings, vi, H.
As il cost England many regiments and
two million dollars year to keep safely
a troublesome captive at st. HeleEa, SO
the King Of Syria sends out whole army
10 capture one minister of religion-per-
! haps fifty thousand men to take Elisha.
! During the night the army of Assyrians
/ came round the village OF Dothan, where
| the prophet was staying. At early day
/ break the man servant of Elisha rushed
/ In and said:
"What shall we do? There is whole
arm come to destroy you. We must die,
we must die"
But Elisha was not scared o bit. for he
| looked up and saw the mountains all
ground full Of supernatural forces, and
| he knew that if there were fifty thousand
! Assyrians against him there were one
hundred thousand angels for him; and in
answer TO the prophets prayer in behalf
OF his affrighted man servant the young
man saw il, too. Horses Of fire harnessed
to chariots Of fire, aud drivers of fire pull
vi
riors OF fire brandished swords of fire;
and the brilliapre OF that morning SUM-
rise was eclipssd by the galloping SPLEEN
| doris of the celestial cayalcade.
And the Lori opened the eyes Of the young
man; an he saw; aud, behold, the mountain
was full Of horses and charots OF FIRE round
about Elisha.
| have often spoken to you of the Assy-
| riau peris which threaten our American
institutions, but now, as we are assem-
bling To keep centennial celebration of
the inauguration OF Washington, | speak
| Of the upper forces of the text that are TO
| Hght on our side. II all the low levels are
filled with armed threats, | have to tell
you that the mountains of our hope and
courage and faith are full of the horses
aud chariots of Divine rescue.
You will notice that the Divine equipage
Is always represented as a chariot of fire.
Ezekiel aud Isaiah and John, when they
1ome to describe the Divine equipage, al
ways represent it as q wheeled, har-
messed, an upholstered confagration. 1t
is not chariot like Kings and conquerors
of earth mount but an organized and
compressed fire. That means purity,
justice, chastisement, deliveran0e through
burning escapes. Chariot of rescue? yes,
but chariot of fire. All our national dis
entertainments have been through scorch-
ing agonies and red disasters. Through
tribulation the individual rises. Through
tribulation nations rise. Chariots Of res
cue, but chariots of fire.
But how do | know that this Divine
equipage is on the side of our institutions?
| know it by the history OF the last one
hundred and eight years. The American
Revolution started from the pen of John
Hancock in Independence Hall in 1915
The colonies, without ships, without am
munition, without guns, without trained
warriors, without money, without
prestige. On the other side the mightiest
nation on earth, the largest armies, and
the grandest navies, and the most dis
tinguishsd commanders, and resources
inexhaustible, and nearly all nations
ready to back them up in the fight. Moth
ing as against immensely.
The cause of the American colonies,
which started at zero, dropped still lower
through the quarreling of the Generals,
and through the jealousies at small sue
cesses, and through the winters which
surpassed all predecessors in depth Of
snow and horrors of concealment Elisha,
surrounded by the whole Assyrian army,
did not seem to be worse off than did the
thirteen colonies encompassed and over
Swallowed by foreign assault. What de-
cided the contest in our favorg The up
per forces, the upper armies. The Green
and White mountains of New England,
the highlands along the Hudson, the
mountains of Virginia, all the Appala-
chan ranges were full Of re- endorsements
which the young man Washington saw
by faith; and his men endured the frozen
feet, and the gaugrened 6olnds, and
the exhausting hunger, and the long
march, because
The Lord opened the eyes OF the young man;
and he saw; and behold, the mountains were
full Of horses and chariots OF fire round about
Elisha
Washington himself was miracle.
What Joshua was in sacred history the
first American President was in secular
history. thousand other men exceled
him in different things, but he exceled
them all in roundness and completeness
of character. The world never saw his
like, and probably never will see his like
again, because there probably never will
be another such exigency. He was let
down Divine interpolation. He was
from God direct.
l do not know how any man can read
the history of those times without admit
ting that 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
courage against cowardice, il was not
wealth against poverty, it was not large
States against small States. 1t was hero
ism against heroism, 1t was the resources
Of many generations against the resources
Of generations, 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 Ma
ton in armed indignation. What could
come but determination?
At the opening of he war the Com
mander-iu-C Chief Of the United States
forces was a man who had been great in
battles, but old age had come with many
ufimties, and he had a right OF quiepude.
He could not mount a horse, and he rode
on the battlefield in 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 man ia mid
ife, who had in his veins the blood Of the
heroes of Cherubusco and Cerro Cor
do, Contreras and Chepultapec. AS the
years passed on and the scroll OF the car
mage unrOlled, there came out on both
sides q herOlsm and a strength aud de-
termination that the world had never
marshaled. Aud what but determination
could come when Phillip Sheridan and
Stonewall Jackson met and Nathaniel
Lyon Sydney Johnston rode in from
North aud South. and Grant and Lee, the
two thuuderbolts Of battle, clashedg Yet
we are Nation, aud yet we are at peace.
Earthly courage did not decide the con-
hict. The upper 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
Again the horses and ehariots of God
came to tho rescue Of this Nation in 1876,
at the close OF a presidential election
fnmnns for daYilish farncifv A harknr