The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-29

wash anybody's feet" "Well," said the
distinguished member Of the commission,
bring me water and towel; will be very
glad 70 wash their feet" One was the
spirit Of the devil. the other the spirit OF
I Christ
But reference to Peter reminds me that
we must 20 TO the house-tOp IN Joppa where
he was taught the democracy of religion.
That was about the ouserest thing that
ever happened. On our way up 70 that
house-top, we passed an old well where the
great stones were gOrn deep with the ropes
of the buckets, and it must be well many
centuries old. and, think, Peter drank out
of IL. -Four or five goat or calf-skins filled
| with water lay about the yard. We soon
got up the steps and on the house-t0p. 1t
was ia such place in JOppa that Peter,
had hungry fit and tainted away
and had vision or dream or
trance. l said to my family and friends
| on that house-top, Listen while | read
about what happened here" And, opening
| the Bible, we had the whole story. IL seems
that Peter on the house-top dreamed that
| great blanket was let down out of heaven.
and in it were sheep and goats and cattle and
mules and pigeons and buzzards and snakes
| and all manner OF creatures that fly the air,
| or walk the fields, or crawl the EARTH, and
| in the dream voice told him as he was
| hungry to eat and no said, 81 cannot eat
things unclean" Three times he dreamed
| il. There was then heard a knocking at the
| gate of the house on the top of which
| Peter lay in a trance and three men
asked, is Peter herer Peter while yet
wondering what his dream meant descends
the stairs and meets these strangers at the
gate and they tell him that goo man by
the name of Cornelius, in the city of Cas-
area, mas also had dream and has sent
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preach. At thai call, Peter left Joppa for
C95area. The dream he had just had pre-
pared him to preach, for Peter learned by
it to reject no people as uuclean and where
as ne previously thought he must preach
only to the Jews. now he goes to preach to
the Gentiles who were considered unclean.
Notice how the two dreams meet-Peters
dream on the house-top, Cornelius dream
at CBsarea. So l have noticed providences
meet, distant events meet, dreams meet.
Every dream Is hunting up some other
dream and every event IS searching for
some other event. In the fifteenth century
tl499 the great event was the discovery Of
America. The art Of printing, born in the
same century, goes out to meet that dis
covery and make the new world an intelli-
gent world. The declaration of independ-
ence announcing equal rights meets Robert
Burns.
A mans a man for a that 1;
The United States was getting too large
to be managed by one government, and
telegraphy was invented to compress within
an hour the whole continent. Armies in
the civil war were to be fitted out with
clothing. and the sewing machine invention
came out TO make it possible. Immense
farming acreage is presented in this ooun-
try, enough to support million of our ma
tive born and millions of foreign; but the
old style pillow and scythe, and reaper and
thresher cannot do the work, and
thers came steam plows. steam har-
rows. steam reapers, steam rakes,
steam thresners, and the work is
accomplished. The forests of the earth fail
to afford sufficient fuel, aud so the coal
mines surrender sufficiency. The cotton
crops were luxuriant. but of comparatively
lIttlefvalue, for they could not be managed,
and so, at just the right time, Hargreaves
came with his invention of the spinning
jenny, and Arkwright with his roller, and
Whitney with his cotton-gin. The world,
after potterIng along with tallow candles
and whale oil, was crying for better light
and more Of it; and the hills of Pennsylva-
MIA poured out rivers of oil, and kero-
sene illumined the nations. But the
oil wells began to fail. and then the cleo
trio light comes forth to surn night
into day. So all events are woven together,
and the world is magnihcently governed,
because it is divinely governed. We
criticise things and think the divine ma
chinery is going wrong, and put our fingers
amid the wheels only to get them crushed
But, | say, hands off Things are coming
out gloriously. Corneliuss may be in Casa,
rea, and Peter in Joppa, but their dreams
meet. 1t is one hand that is managing the
world, and that Is Gods hand, and one mind
that is planning all things for good, and that
Is Gods mind and one heart that is filled with
L. "a H. 4 4
Gods heart. Have faith in him. Fret about
nothing. Things are not at loose ends. There
are no accidents All will come out right
in your history and in the world. As you
are waking from one dream upstairs, an
explanatory dream will be knocking at the
gate down stairs
Standing here in Joppa, remember that
where we this morning disembarked the
prophet Jonah embarked. For the
first time in my life | fully under
stand that story. God told Jonah to
go to Nineveh. but the prophet declined
that call and came here to Joppa. l was
for weeks, while in the Holy land, consult
ing with tourist companies, as to how |
could take Nineveh in my journey. They
did not encourage the undertaking. 1t is q
most tedious ride to Nineveh and desert.
Now see an additional reason why Jonah
did not want to go to Nlneveh. He not
only revolted because of the disagreeabe
message he was called to deliver at Min
eveh, but because it was q long way and
tough, and bandit infested, so he came here
to Joppa and took ship. But, alas, for the
disastrous voyagel He paid his full fare
for the whole voyage, but the ship
company did not fill their part of
the contract. To this day they
have not paid back that passage money.
Why people should doubt the story of
Jonah and the whale is more of mystery
than the Bible event itself. | do not need
the fact that Pliny, the historian, records
that the skeleton of a whale forty feet long,
and with hide foot aud half thick, was
brought from Joppa to Rome. The event
recorded in the book of Jonah has occurred
thousand times. The Lord always has a
whale outside the harbor for a man who
starts in the wrong direction. Recreant
Jonahl | do not wonder that even
the whale was sick of him This
prophet was put In the Bible, not as an
example. but as a warning, because the
world not only needs lighthouses, but buoys,
to show where the rocks are. The Bible
| story of him ends by showing the prophet
in fit of the sulks. He was mad because
Nineveh was not destroyed, and then he
went out TO pout, and sat under big leaf.
| using it for shade from the tropical sun, and
| when a worm disturbed that leaf, and it
withered and the sun smote Jonah, he flew
| into a great rage, said: at is better for me
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