The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-06-13
ALL TROUBLES PAST.
The Rainbow of Promise
Given to Mankind
by God.
A Christian Life Cannot Be
Made Out of Sun
shine Alone.

l
and Baptismal day with the Tabernacle con-
gregation, an occasion of especial impressive.
ness The children were baptized before the
sermon and the sacrament administered aft
er the sermon. The subject of DR.. Talmage's
discourse was "All Troubles Past" and the
text. Revelation iv: 8. "There was rainbow
round about the thr one" Following is the
sermon:
As, alter night OF fearful tempest at sea,
one ship, more staunch than another, rides
on unchanged among the fragments ofspars
and hulks that float about, so old Noah s
ark, at the close ofthe deluge floats on over the
wreck Of dead world. Looking out of the win
dow OF the ark, you see the planks of houses,
and the sheaves of wheat and the carcasses OF
cattle, and the corpses of men. No tower is
left to toll the burial; no mourners to 'orm
in line of procession; no ground in which to
| bury the dead. Sinking in a line 81 feet long,
you just touch the tops of the mountains.
Ghastliness and horror! The ark, instead Of
walking the sea, like modern ship, in ma
jesty and beauty, losses helplessly; no helm
to guide; no sail to set; no shore to steer for.
| Why protract the agony of the good people
| i'm such craft, when they might in one dash
of the wave have been put out OF their mis-
| cry?
| But at yonder spot in the horizon We see
colors gathering in the sky; ADJUST the opDo-
site point in the horizon other colors are
gathering. | find that they are the two but
tresses of an arched bridge. The yellow, the
red the orange, the blue. the indigo, the vio-
let are mingled, and by invisible hands the
| whole structure is hungintO the sky. and the
ark has triunphal arch to sail under. An
Angel of Light swings his hand across the
sky, and in the seven prismatic colors he
paints with pencil OF sunbeam the everlast-
ing covenant between God and every living
creature God lifted up that great arched
bridge, and sat it over His own head in the
heaven. John saw it, for he says: "There
was rainbow round about the throne"
notice that none but the people who were
in the ark saw the rainbow. 1t cast it's
shadow clear down into the water where the
people were buried, and lighted up the dead
faces with strange radiance, but they could
not see it. So only those who are at last
found in Christ, the Ark. will see the over
spanning glories of the throne. Hence
you had better get into the Ark! As
you call your family out at the close of the
shower to show them the ign in heaven, so l
want you at last to see the grander rainbow
round about the throne. Look there!' says
Noah to his wife. lat that bow in the clouds;
and Shem and Japhet, look! look!-the
green. the yellow, the red, and the orange!"
should not wonder if some of your children
in the Good Land should after a while call
out to you, "look, father. look mother! there
is rainbow round about the thronep' You
had better get into the Ark, with all your
families if you wantto see it.
Inotice also that the chief glory of God
comes after tho rain. No shower, no rain
bow; no trouble no brightness OF Christian
consolation. Weavers are sometimes, by
reason of their work, dusty and rough in
their apparel; and SO it is the coarseclad
| To- + h.
shuttle, that weaves the rainbow. Many
Christians are dull, and stupid, and useless
because they have not had disaster enough
to wake them up. The brightest scarf that
heaven makes is thrown over the shoulders
of the storm. You can not make q thorough
Christian live out of sunshine alone. There
are some very dark hues in the ribbon of the
rainbow; you must have in lie the blue as
we'll as the orange. Minging all the colors
Of the former makes white light; and it
takes all the shades. and sadnesses and
vicisstudes OF life to make the white lustre of
a pure Christian character.
Your child asks you, 'Father. what makes
the rainbow" and you say. "It is the sun
light striking through the raindrops." There
fore l wondered how there could be rain
bow in heaven, since there were no storms
there; but then l conclude that that rainbow
must be formed by the striking OF heavens
sunlight through the falling tears of earthly
sorrow. When we see man overwhelmed
with trouble, and his health goes and his
property goes, and his friends go, l say,
Nov, we shall see the glory Of God in this
good mans deliverance." AS at Niagara
Falls saw, one day. 10 rainbows spanning
the awful plunge of the cataract, SO over the
abyss of the Christians trial hover the rich
hued wings of all the promises.
Inotice that the most beautiful things OF
this world are to be preserved in heaven.
When you nee the last color fade out from
the rainbow Of earth, you need not feel sad,
for you will see the rainbow round about the
throne. That story about the world burn
ing up has given me many pang When !!
read that Paris was besieged, said: Now
the pictures and statues in the Louvre and
Luxembourg will be destroyed: all those
| faces of Rem brandt, and those bold dashes
| Of Rubenu. and those entertainments OF
Raphael on canvas, and those statues of
Canova." But is it not more melancholy
| thought that ruin is to come upon this great
glory of the earth, in which the mountains
are the chiseled sculptures and upon the sky,
! in which the TRANSPORTATION" ofsunrise and
sunset is hung with loops and tassels of fire?
was relieved when found that the pictures
| had been removed from the Louvre and the
Luxembourg, and am relieved now when
think that the best parts OF this eurth are
| to be removed or pictured in the good land.
The trees must twist in the last fre-the
| oaks and tine cedars and the naples; but in
heaven there will be the trees of life on the
bank of the river, and the palm-trees from
which the conquerors shall pluck their
| branches The Hudson, the St. Lawrence
and the Ohio shall boil in the last fame,
| but we shall have more than their
| beauty in the river OF lie from under the
throne The daisies, and the portulacas,
and the roses of earth will wither in the hot
| sirocco Of the Judgment, but John tells Of
the garlands which the glorifed shall wear
and there must be flowers, or there could be
no garlands.
The rainbow on our sky, which is only the
pillow OF the dying storm, must be removed
but then, glory be to God! there is q rain
bow round about the throne" l. have but
| to look up to the radiant arch above the
throne of God to assure myself that the
most glorious things of earth are to be pre-
served in heaven. Then let the world burn
| all that is worth saving will be snatched out
of the fire.
I see the same truth set forth in the ~
foundations o. the wall of heaven. st. John
announces the IL foundations of this wall to
be, the first, of jasper-yellow and red; the
of bsrI