News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-19
SUNDAYS SERMON,
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGE'S
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject: 1.-The Sunrise"

and the springs, and the farmhouse, your
cheek bron2ed and your spirits lighted, l hail
you home again with the words of Gehazi to
5he Shunammite: as it well with thee? is
# well with thy husband? is it well with the
childm On some faces | see the mark of re-
cent grief, but all along the track of tears [
see the story of resurrection and reunion
when all tears are done: the deep blowing of
5ne keel, followed by the flash of the phos-
Dhoresence.
Now that 1 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, H.
600 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, 1 cannot tell. 1 simply know L am
grandly and gloriously and inexpres-
sibly happy, 1t was said that John
occasionally got fast in his sermon, and to
e~xtricate himself would cry "Hallelujahr' I
am in no such prediCament to-day, but [ am
full of the same rhapsodic ejaculation. Start
ing out this morning on a new ecclesiastical
year, l 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 Corona
ton. Some time ago we had a new stop put
in this organ-a new trumpet stop-and |
want to put a new trumpet stop into my SER
mons.
In all our Christian work you and 1 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 we'd
ding in Jana of Galilee? Do you suppose
Christ was unresponsive when the children
clambered over His knee and shoulder at His
own invitation? Do you suppose that the
evangelist meant nothing when he said of
Christ: HE rejoiced 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 raptures of human life? l
believe not only that the morning laughs, and
that the mountains laugh, and that the seas
laugh, and that the cascades laugh, but that
Christ laughed. Moreover, take a laugh and
a tear into an alembic, and assay them, and test
them, and analyze 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
impression being produced because of what
he calls the great laughter he saw among the
people. Goddess merriment is blasphemy
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 is danger of stellar collision. We have
been told through the papers by these as
tronomers that there are worlds coming very
near together, and that we shall have
plaques and wars and tumults and perhaps
the worlds destruction. Do not be scared.
If you have ever stood at a railroad center,
where ten or twenty or thirty rail
tracks cross each other, and seen
that by the movement of the switch one or
two inches the train shoots this way and that,
without c~olliding, then you may understand
how fifty worlds may come within an inch
of disaster, and that inch be as good as a mill
ion miles. If a human switchtender can
shoot the trains this way and that without
harm, canno the Hand that for thousands
of years has upheld the universe keep our lit
tie world out of harms way? Christian geo
logists tell us that this world was million 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 six
thousand years. There is nothing in the
world or outside the world, terrestrial or
astronomical, to excite dismay. l wish that
some stout Gospel breeze might scatter all
the malaria of human foreboding. The sun
rose this morning at about half-past 5, and
| 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 international
differences which would have brought a
shock of arms in any other day, but which
were peacefully adjusted, 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
England. How was it settled? By
m en'of-war off the Narrows, or off the
Mersey? By the Gulf Stream of the ocean
crossed by a gulf stream of human blood?
By tine pathway of nations incarnadined? No.
exa, tam as eh9 n naSS * into a quiet room at Sen
Washington and to London A settled
Peace. Peace. England pays to the United
States the amount awarded-pays really
more than she ought to have paid. But still,
all that Alabama broil is settied-settled for
ever. 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 fisher
ies' The United States said: II will not pay
anything" Well, the two nations say: Il
guess we had better leave the whole matter
to a commission" The commission is APP
pointed, and the commission m the
affair, and the commission reports, and pay
we ought, pay we must. pay we do. Not a
pound of powder burned, not a cartridge Bit
ten off, no one hurt so much as by the
scratch of a pin. Arbitration instead of
battle.
So the somoan controversy in any other
age would have brought Germany and the
United States in bloody collision. But all is
settled. Arbitration instead of battle.
France will never again, | think, through
peccadillo of ambassador, bring on a battle
with other nations. She sees that God, in
punishment OF SEDAN, DlOIU6u OuU Ul6 fTeIc0
Empire, and the only aspirant of that throne
who had any right of expectation dies in a
war that has not even the dignity of being
respectable. What is that blush on the
cheek of England to-day? What is the leaf
that England would like to tear out of her
history? The Zulu war. Down with the
sword and up with the treaty.
We in this country might better have set
tied our sectional difficulties by arbitration
than by the thrust of the sword. Philan-
thropy said to the North: PAY down a GER
tain amount of money for the purchase of the
slaves, and let all those born after a certain
time be born free" Philanthropy at the same
time said to the South: "Yous sell the slaves,
and get rid of this great national contest and
trouble" The North replied: Il won't pay
a cent" The South replied: Il won't sell"
War! War! A million dead men, and a ma
tional debt which might have ground this ma
ton to powder.
Why did we not let W illiam II. Seward, of
New York, and Alexander H. Stevens, of
Georgia, go out and spend a few days under
the trees on the banks of the Potomac and
talk the matter over, and settle it, as settle
it they could, rather than the North pay in
cost of war, four billion seven hundred mil
lion dollars, and the South pay four billion
seven hundred and fifty million dollars, the
destroying angel leaving the first born dead
in so many houses all the way from the Pen
obscot to the Alabama. Ye aged men,
whose sons fell in the strife do you not think
that would have been better? Oh, yes! we
have come to believe, l think, in this cOun-
try, that arbitration is better than battle.
L may be mistaken, but | hope that the
last war between Christian nations is ended.
Bsrbarians may mix their war paint,
and Afghan and Zulu hurl poisoned arrows,
but | think Christian nations have
gradually learned that war is disaster
to victor as well as vanquished, and that
almost anything bought by blood is
bought at too dear a price. l wish to
God this nation might be a model of
willingness for arbitration. No need of
killing another Indian. No need of
sacrificing any more brave General Clusters.
Stop exasperating the red man, and there will
be no more arrows shot out from the reserva-
ton. A General of the United States army,
in high repute throughout this land, and
who, perhaps, has been in more Indian wars
than any other officer, and who has been
wounded again and again in behalf of our
Government in battle against the Indians,
told me that all the wars that had ever oc-
Cured between Indians and white men had
been provoked by white men, and that there
was no exception to the rule. While we are
arbitrating with Christian nations, let us to-
ward barbarians carry ourselves in a manner
unprovocative of contest.
| inherit a large estate, and the waters are
rich with fish, and the woods are songful with
birds, and my cOTnfields are silken and golden.
Here is my sisters grave. Out yonder, I'M
der that large tree, my father died. An in
vader comes, and proposes to drive me off
and take possession of my property. He
crowds me back, he crowds me on, and
crowds me into a closer corner, and still
closer corner until after n while saw: