Milford chronicle., 1889-05-03
A CENTENNIAL SERMON.
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE BY REV.
DR.. TALMAGE.

DR.. TALMAGs.
No Nation In More Glorious Condition
Than the United states-The Cause of the
American Colonies and the Great Revo-
LUTON Different Varieties of Lies.
BRooKLYN, April 2s.-At the tabernacle to-
day the Rev T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.,
preached a sermon appropriate to the COM
ing centennial The vast congregation sang
the hymn beginning:
| Before Jehovah's awful throne,
Ye 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
was full of horses and chariots of fire round
about Elisha" He said;
As itcost England many regiments and two
million dollars year to keep safely trouble
some captive at St. Helena, so the king of
| Syria sends out whole army to capture one
minister of religion-perhaps $4,000 men to
take Elisha. During the night the army OF
Assyrians came around the village Of Dothan,
where the prophet was staying At early
! daybreak the man servant of Elisha rushed in
and said: what shall we dol there is a
whole army come to destroy you. We must
die, we must die" But Elisha was not
scared a bit, for be looked up and saw
the mountains all around full of super
natural forces, and he knew that if there
were $1,000 Assyrians against him there
were 100000 angels for him; and in
answer TO the prophets prayer in behalf of
his aifrighted man servant, the young man
saw it too Horses of fire haHuessed to char
lots of fire, and drivers of fire pulling reins
of fire on bits Of fire, and warriors Of fire
with brandished sword Of fire, and the brill
lance of that morning sunrise was eclipsed
by the galloping splendors of the celestial
cavalcade And the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man; and he saw: and, behold,
the mountain was fun of horses and chariOts
of fire round about elisha" | have often
spoken to you of the Assyrian perils which
threaten our American institutions but now
as we are assembling to keep centennial cele-
bratiOn of 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 filled with armed threats, have to tell
you that the mountains Of our hope and cour-
age and faith are full of the horses and char
lots of Divine rescue.
ALLEGoRY OF THE CHARIOT OF FIRE.
You will notice that the Divine equipage is
kiel and Isaiah and John, when they come to
describe the Divine equipage, always repre-
sent it as a wheeled, harnessed, an uphol-
stored conhagration. 1t is not chariot like
kings and conquerors of earth mount, but an
organized and a compressed fire That means
purity, justice chastisement, deliverance
through burning escapes. Chariot Of rescued
yes, but chariot Of fire. All our national
observation-disclosures have been through scOrching
agonies and red disasters. Through tribu-
lation the individual rises. Through tribu-
lation nations rise. Chariots of rescue, but
chariots Of fire.
But how do know that this Divine equi-
page is on the sideof our institutionsg know
it by the history of the last one hundred and
eight years The American revolution start
ed from the pen of John Hancock, in indie
pendence hail. in l776 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 aud the grandest navies and the most
distinguished commanders, and resources in
exhaustible, and nearly all nations ready to
back them up in the fight. Nothing asagainst
immensely.
The cause of the American colonies which
olelA AlA az CIV hAbplSA otAAA AofhSA Ce5A
the quarreling of the generals, and through
the jealousies at small successes, and through
the winters which surpassed all their prede-
cessors in depth Of snow and horrors Of CON
gealment. Elisha, surrounded by the whole
Assyrian army, did not seem to be worse off
than did the thirteen colonies encompassed
and overshadowed by foreign assault. What
decided the contest in our favOrf The upper
forces the upper armies. The green and
white mountains of New England, the high
lands along the Hudson, the mountains Of
Virginia, all the Appalachian ranges were
full of re-enforcements which the young man
Washington saw by faith and his men
endured the frozen feet, and the gan
grened wounds, aud the exhaustiug hun
ger, and the long march because 'the
Lord opened the eyes of tho young man, and
he saw; and, behold, the mountains were full
of horses and chariots OF fire round about
Elisha" Washington himself was a mira
Gle. What Joshua was in sacred history the
first American president was IN secular his
tory. A thousand other men excelled him in
different things, but he exaelled 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 ext
ton. He was from God direct
do not know how any man can read the
history Of those times without admitting
that the contest was decided by the upper
forces
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF TEE CIVIL WAR
Then in 1861, when our civil war opened,
many at the north and at the south pro
nounced it national suicide It was not cour-
age against cowardice, it was not wealth
against poverty, it was not large states
against small states. 1t was hcroism against
heroism, it was tho resources of many gener
atoms against the resources of many gener
atoms, 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 nation in armed Indignation What
could come but exterminationf
At the opening Of the war the commander
in-chief Of the United States forces was u
man who had been great in battle, but old
age had come with many intirmities, and ho
had a right 10 quietude He could not
mount a horse, and he rode on the
battle field in a 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 a man in mid-life, who
had in his veins the blood OF many genera
tons OF warriors, himself one Of the heroes
Of Cherubusco and Cerro Gordo, Contreras
and Chapultepec. AS the years passed on
and the scroll of carnage unrolled, there
came out from both sides heroism and a
strength and a determination that the world
had never seen marshaled And what but
determination could come when Philip Sneri-
dan and Stonewall jackson met, and Nathan
lei Lyon and Sidney Johnston rode in from
north and south, and Grant and Lee, the two
thunderbolts Of battle, clashedi Yet we are
q nation, and yet we are at peace Earthly
courage did not decide the conflict The up
per forces OF the text They tell US there was