The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-07-04
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-
Hgion the Only Foundation
of Real Prosperity.


And the Lord opened the eyes of the young
man; and he saw; and. behold the mountain
was full of horses and charots of fire round
about Elisha.-H Kings, vi, II.
As it cost England many regiments and
two million dollars year to keep safely
troublesome captive at st. Helena, so
the King of Syria sends out a whole army
to 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 a whole
army come to destroy you. We must die,
we must de-"
But Elisha was not scared a bit. for he
looked up and saw the mountains all
around 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 it, too. Horses of fire harnessed
to chariots of fire, and drivers of fire pull
ing reins of fire on bits of fire, and war
riors of fire brandished swords of fire;
and the brilliance of that morning sun
rise was eclipsed by the galloping SPLEEN
doris of the celestial cavalcade.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young
maa; and he saw; and, behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots OF fire round
about Elisha.
have often spoken to you of the Assy-
rian periIs which threaten our American
institutions, but now, as we are assem-
To 81 Oh -
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
filed 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 euuipage
is always represented as a chariot of fire.
Ezekiel and Isaiah and John, when they
come to describe the Divine equipage, al
ways represent it as a wheeled, har-
messed, an upholstered confagration. 1t
is not a chariot like Kings and conquerors
of earth mount but an organized and
compressed fire. That means purity,
justice, chastisement, deliverance through
burning escapes. Chariot of rescue? yes,
but chariot of fire. All our national dis
enthrallments 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 1776.
The colonies, without ships, without am
mun1tlon, 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
tlnguished 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 favor? 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 gangrened wounds, and
the exhausting hunger, and the long
march, because
The Lord opened the eyes of the young man:
ana 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
hrst American President was in secular
history. A thousand other men exceled
him in different things, but he exceled
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 exigeney. He was let
down a Divine interposition. He was
from God direct.
j 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 cowardics, it was not
wealth against poverty, it was not large
States against small States. It was hero |
ism against heroism, it 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 The war the Com /
mander-in-Chief of the United States |
forces was man who had been great in /
battles, but old age had come with many /
lnhmities, and he had a right of auietude.
he could not mount horse, and he rode
on the battlefield in carriage, asking
the driver not to jolt it too much. During
the most Of the fenr years Of the contest
on the Southern side was man in mid
life, 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 herolsm and strength and a de-