Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-10-17

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the generations since Eve! What phil
anthropists who do not feel satisfied with
their own charities until they get into the
hundreds of thousands and the millions
What Gods acres" for the dead gardens
of beauty and palaces of marble for those
who sleep that last sleep! Now stop your
ISLANDERS of American cities. Do you say
they are the centers of crime and political
corruption: Please admit the fact that
that they are centers of intelligence and
generosity and the mightiest patrons
of architecture and sculpture and painting
and music and reservoirs of religious in
fiuence for all the continent. It will be
well for the country districts to cease talk
ing against the cities of other localities.
New York will not get the Worlds Fair
by depreciating Chicago and Chicago will
not get the Worlds Fair by bombarding
New ork.
Another suggestion concerning the COM
ing Exposition: Let not the materialistic
and monetary idea overpower the moral
and religious. During that Exposition,
the first time in all their lives, there will
be thousands of people from other lands
who will see country without State re-
ligion. Let US by an increased harmony
among all denominations of religion i'm
press other nationalities as they come
here that year with the superior advan-
tage of having all denominations equal in
the sight of Government All the rulers
and chief men of Europe belong to the
State religion, whatever it may be. Al
though our last two Presidents have been
Presbyterians the previous one was an
Episcopalisn and the two previous
Methodists, and going further back in that
line of Presidents we find Martin Van
Buren, a Dutch Reformed and John Quincy
Adams Unitarian, and a mans religion
in this country is neither hindrance nor
advantage in the matter OF political ele.
vation All Europe needs that. All the
world needs that A mans religion is
something between himself and his God,
and it must not, directly or indirectly, be
interfered with.
Furthermore, during that Exposition,
Christian civilization will confront bar
barism. We shall, as a Nation, have a
greater opportunity to make an evangeliz-
ing impression upon foreign nationalities
than would otherwise not be afforded us in
a quarter of a century. Let the churches
of the city where the Exposition is held be
open every day and prayers be offered
and sermons preached and doxologies
sung. In the less than three years be-
tween this and that worlds convocation
let US get baptism of the Holy Ghost so
that the six months of that Worlds Fair
shall be fifty Pentecosts in one, and in
stead of three converted, as in the former
Pentecost, hundreds of thousands will be
converted. You must remember that the
Pentecost mentioned in the Bible occurred
when there was no printing press, no
books, no Christian pamphlets no relig-
ious newspapers, and yet the influence
was tremendous. How many national
tiles were touched? The account says:
"Parthians and Modes and Elamites, "
that is, people from the Eastern coun-
tries; ''Phrygia and Pamphylia," that is,
the Western countries; 'Cyrsne and
strangers of Rome, the Cretes and Arab :
ans, that is, the Southern countries; hut
they were all moved by the mighty spec
tacle.
Instead of the sixteen or eighteen tribes
of people reported at that Pentecost all
the chief nations of Europe and Asia,
North and South America, will be repre-
sented at our Worlds Fair in 1892. and a
Pentecost here and then would mean the
salvation of the round world. But you
say, we have at that fair the people of all
lands and all the machinery for gospeliza-
tion, the religious printing presses
and the churches, but all that would not
make a Pentecost; we must have God.
Well, you can have Him. Has He not been
graciously waiting; and nothing stands
in the way but our own unbelief and in
dolence and sin. May God break down
the barriers! The grandest opportunity
for the evangelization of all nations since
Jesus Christ died on the cross will be the
Worlds Exposition of 1892. God may
take US out of the harvest field before
that but let it be known throughout
Christendom that that year, between May
and November, will be the mountain Of
Christian advantage, the Alpine and
Himalayan height of opportunity over
topping all others for salvation. Instead
of the slow process of having to
send the Gospel to other lands by
our own American missionaries,
who have difficult toll in overcoming
foreign prejudices, what a grand thing to
have able and influential foreigners con-
verted during their visit to America and
then have them return to their native
lands with the glorious tidingsi o. for an
=
1892, that work beginning in the autumn
of 1880
Another opportunity, if our public men
see it and it is the duty Of pulpit and
printing press to help them to see 1t, will
be the calling at that time and place of a
great peace congress for all nations. The
convention of representatives from the
Governments of North and South America
= of hof
we may have on a vast and world wide
scale at the International Exposition in
1892 By one stroke the Gorgon of war
might be slain and buried so deep that
neither trumpet of human dispute or Of
archangeps blowing could resurrect it
When the last Napoleon called such a con-
gress of nations many did not respond.
and those who did respond gathered
wondering what trap the willy destroyer
of the French Republic and the builder Of
a French Monarchy might spring on them.
But what if the most popular govern
ment on earth-I mean the United States
Government-should practically say to
all nations: On the American continent
in 1892, we will hoId a Worlds Fair, and
all nations will send to it specimens of
their products. their manufactures and
their arts, and we invite all the Govern
ments of Europe, Asia and Africa to send
representatives to a peace convention that
shall be held at this same time and place,
and that shall establish an international
arbitration commission to whom shall be
referred ali controversies between nation
and nation. their decision to be final and
so all nations would be relieved of the
expense of standing armies and naval
equipment war having been made an
everlasting impossibility.
All the nations of the earth worth con-
sideration would come to it mighty men
of England and Germany and France and