Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-06-19
ALL TROUBLES PAST.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Promises of the Rainbow.
The Brightest Time After the Storm
Glories of the Future world-A Brilliant
Redemption After the Deluge
CT Sin.

The subject of a recent sermon
preached by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
at Brooklyn was: IAN Troubles Past "
and the text Revelations w. 3: There
was rainbow round about the throne. -
Following is the sermon:
AS after night of fearful tempest at
sea one ship, more staunch than an
other, rides on unchanged among the
fragments of spars and hulks that float
about. so old Noah's ark at the close of
the deluge floats on over the wreck of a
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 form in the line of
procession; no ground on which to bury
the dead. Sinking line twenty-seven
feet long, you just touch the tops of the
mountains. Ghastliness and horrori
The ark, instead of walking the sea,
like modern ship in majesty 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 in such craft when they
might in one dash of the wave have
been put out of their misery?
But at yonder spot in the horizon we
see colors gathering in the sky; at just
the opposite point in the horizon other
cOlors are gathering. l find that they
are the two buttresses of an arched
bridge. The yellow, the red, the orange,
the blue, the indigo, the violet are
m ngled, and by invisible hands the
whole structure is hung into the sky,
and the ark has triumphal 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 everlasting covenant be-
tween God and every living creature.
God lifted up that great arched bridge,
and set it over His own head in Heaven.
John saw it, for he says: There was a
rainbow round about the throne"
l 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 a strange
radiance, but they could not see it! So
Christ, the Ark, will see the overspan-
ming glory 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 sign in
Heaven, so l want you all at last to see
the grander rainbow round about the
throne. Look therel" says Noah to
and, Shem and Japhet, look! look!-the
green, the yellow, the red and the
orangew l should not wonder if some
of your own children in the Good Land
should after awhile cry out to you:
Look, father! look, mother! there is
rainbow round about the throne!" You
had better get into the ark, with all
your families, if you want to see it.
l notice also that the chief glory of
God comes after the rain. No shower,
no rainbow: 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 cOarse-clad tempest whose hand
and foot swing the 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 a thorough Christian life out of
sunshine alone. There are some very
dark hues in the ribbon of the rainbow;
you must have in life the blue as we'll
as the orange. Mingling all the colors
of the former makes white light; and
it takes all the shades, and sadness, and
vicissitudes of life to make the white
luster of a pure Christian character.
Your child asks you: Father, what
makes the rainbow" and you say: sit
is the sunlight striking through the
raindrops." Therefore, wondered how
there could be rainbow in Heaven,
then conclude that that rainbow must
be formed by the striking of Heavens
sunlight through the falling tears of
earthly sorrow. When we see a man
overwhelmed with trouble, and his
health goes, and his property goes, and
his friends go, 1 say: Now we shall
see the glory of God in this good
mans deliverance." AS at Niagara Falls
saw one day ten 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.
/ notice that the most beautiful things
of this world are to be preserved in
Heaven. When you see 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 burning up has
given me hIany pang. When 1 read
that Paris was besieged, / said: NOW
the pictures and statues in the Louvre
and Luxembourg will be destroyed; all
those faces of Rembrandt, and those
bold dashes of Rubens, and those en-
chantments 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
sculptures and upon the sky,
in which the TRANSPORTATION" of sunrise
and sunset is hung with loops and tas-
sells of fire? 1 was relieved when found
that the pictures had been removed
from the Louvre and the Luxembourg,
and am relieved now when 1 think
that the best parts of this earth are
either to be removed or pictured in the
good land. The trees must twist in the
last ire-the oaks and the cedars and
the naples; but in Heaven there shall
be the trees of life on the bank of the
Xha fr0r,,