Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-05-10

AT the Brooklyn laOefnacle on Sun.
day, April rs, the Rev. I. De Witt Tai
mage, d. D., preached a sermon appro-
pirate to the coming centennial. The
vast congregation sang the hymn begin
| ming:
| Before Jehovahs awful throue,
/ We nations bow With sacred JOY.
DR.. Talmage's text was II. Kings vi, II
And the Lord opened the eyes of the
Young man; and he saw: and. behold
| the mountain WIS full of horses and
! clariots of fire round about Elisha
| He said: so
| AS it cost England many regiments
and S2.uGo,00o year to keep safely a
troublesome captive at st. Helena. sc
the King of Syria sends out a whole
army to capture one minister of re-
l,gion-peruaps 5o,uat men to take
Elisha. During the night the army of
| Assyrians came around the village of
Dothan. where the prophet was staying.
| At early daybreals the man servant of
| Elisha rushed in and said: What shall
we doy there is a whole army come to
| destroy YOU. We must die, we must die. -
| But Elisha WAS not scared Il bit, for he
| looked up and saw the mountains ali
around full of supernatural forces. and
| he knew that ii there were $4,000 AS
| syrians against him there were 100.OOO
| angels for him; and i'll answer to the
prophets PRAYER in behalf of his af-
frighted man servant, the Young man
saw it too. Horses OF fire harnesscd to
chariots of fire, and drivers of fire pull
ing reins of fire Oh bits of fire; and
warriors of fire With brandished sword
of fire, and the brilliance of that morn
ing sunrise was eclipsed by the galloping
splenders of the celestial cavalcade.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the
young man. and he saw: and, behold,
the mouutain was full of horses and
chariots of fire round about Elisha.
syrian perils which threaten our Ameri-
can Institutions, but now as We are as
sembling to keep centennial celebration
of the inauguration of Washington. I
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 courage and faith are full
of the horses and chariots of divine
rescue.
You will notice that the divine equip
age il always represented as chariot of
fire. Ezekiel and Isaiah and John when
they come to describe the divine equip
age. always represent it as wheeled. q
harnessed, an upholstered confugration.
1t is not chariot like kings and con-
querors of earth mount, but an organ
lied and compressed fire. That means
purity, justice. chastisement, deliver
ance through burning escapes. Chariot
of rescue? yes, but chariot of fire. All
our national observation-disclosures have been
through scorching agonies and red dis
asters. Through triDulation the indi-
vidual rises. Through tribulation ma
tions rise. Chariots OF rescue, but
chariots of fire.
But how do l know that this divine
equipage is on the side of our institu-
tions? know 1t 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 1776 The colonies without
ships, without ammunition, without
guns, without trained warriors, without
money, without prestige. On the other
side, the mightiest nation of the earth,
the largest armies, and the grandest ma
vies, and the most distinguished COM
handlers, and resources inexhaustible,
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 quarreling of the
generals. and through the jealousies at
small successes, and through the win
ters which surpassed all predecessors in
depth of snow and horrors of CONCEAL
ment. Elisha surrounded by the whole
Assyrian army did not seem to be worse
off than did the thirteen colonies en-
comprised and overshadowed by foreign
assault. What decided the contest in
our favor? The upper forces, the upper
armies. The Green and White Noun
tains of New England, the Highlands
along the Hudson, the mountains of
Virginia, all the Appalachian ranges
were full of re- endorsements which the
young man Washington saw by faith;
and his men endured the frozen feet.
and the gangrened wounds, and the ex-
hausting 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 a miracle.
What Joshua was in sacred history the
first American president was in secular
history. A thousand othermen excelled
him in different things, but he excelled
them all in roundness and completeness
of character. The world never saw his
IKE, and probably never will see his
like again, because there probably never
will be another such EFFICIENCY. He was
let down divine interposition. He
was from God direct.
do not know how any man can rea d
the history of those times without ad-
hitting 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 pronounced it national suicide.
1t was not courage against cowardice, it
was not wealth against poverty, it was
not large states against small states.
1t was heroism against heroism, it was
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 ma
ton 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 COM
mander- in chief of the United States
forces was man who had been great in
in battle, but old age had come with
many intirmities, and he had right to
quietude. He could not mount horse,
and he rode on the battle field in a car
rage, asking the driver not to Jolt it too
much. During the most of the four