The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-05-09

Before Jehovah's awful throne,
Ye nations. bow with sacredJoy.
DIR. 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 charlots
OF fire round about Elisha" He said:
AS it cost England many regiments and
two million dollars year to keep safely a
troublesome captive at st. Helena, so the
King of Syria sends out whole army to
capture one minister of perhaps
10000 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 do? there is whole army
come to destroy you. We must die, we
must die" But Elisha was not scared a
bit, for he looked up and say the noun
tains all around full of supernatural forces
and he knew that if there were SO, 900 As.
syrians against him there were 1000
angels for him, and in answer to the pro-
phet's 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 pulling reins of fire on
bits of fire; and warriors of fire with BRAN
dished swords of fire, and the brilliance of
that morning sunrise was eclipsed by the
galloping splendors of the celestial caval-
cade. And the Lord opened the eyes of
the young man; and he saw; and behold,
the mountain was full of horses and char
lots 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 GEN.
tennial celebration 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 noun
tains of our hope and courage and faith are
full Of the horses and chariots of Divine
rescue.
You will notice that the Divine equi-
page is always represen ted as a chariot of
fire. Ezekiel and Isaiah and John when
they come to describe the Divine equipage
always represent it as wheeled, har-
messed, an upholstered conhagration. 1t
is not chariot like kings and conquerors
of earth mount. but an organized and COM
pressed fire. That means purity, justice,
chastisement, deliverance through burn
ing escapes. Chariot of rescue? yes. but
chariot of fire. All our national disin.
treatments have been through scorching
agonies and red disasters. Through tribu.
lation the individual rises. Through trib-
ulatOn nations rise. Chariots of rescue,
but chariots of fire.
But how do I know that this Divine
equipage is on the side Of our institutions?
l 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
munitiop, without guns, without trained
warriors, with0Ht money, without pres
tige. On the other side, the mightiest
nation of the earth. the largest armies and
the grandest navies, and the most distins
guished commanders. and resources mex
haustibie, 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 suc-
cesses, and through the winters which
surpassed all predecessors in depth of snow
and horrors of congealment. Elisha sur
rounded by the whole Assyrian army did
not seem to be worse off than did the thir-
teen colonies encompassed and Overshaaa
owed by foreign assault. What decided
the contest in our favor? The upper
forces, the upper armies. The Green and
White mountains of New England, the
Highlands along the Hudson, the noun
tains 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 exhaust
ing hunger. and the long march because
1.-THE Lord opened the eyes of the young
man; and he saw; and, behold, the noun
tains were full of horses and chariots of
fire round about Elisha" Washington
himself was miracle. What Joshua was
in sacred history the first American Presi-
dent was in secular history. A thousand
other men excelled him in different things.
but he excelled them ali in roundness and
completeness of character. The world
never saw his like, and probably never
will see his like again, because there prob.
ably never will be another such exigency {.
He was let down a Divine interposition.
He was from God direct.
I do not know how any man can read the
history of those times without admitting
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 cowardice. it was not
wealth against poverty, it was not large
States against small States. 1t 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 nation in
armed Indignation. What could come but
determination !?
At the opening of the war the Com
mander,in-C of the United States
forces was a man who had been great in
battle, but old age had come with many
in6rmities. and he had right to quietude.
He could not mount horse, and he rode
on the battlefield 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 generations of warriors, himself one
of the heroes of Cherubucco and Cerro
Gordo, Contreras, and Chapultepec. Az
the years passed on and the scroll of car
mage unrolled, there came out from both
sides a, heroism and strength ard a de-
termination that the world had never seer
marshalled. And what but determination
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