The Portland daily press., 1892-10-15

And as God is not apt to fail in any OF
His undertakings (at any rate, I have
never heard of His having anything to
be gospelized, and from the Golden Gate
of California to the Narrows of New
York harbor, and from the top of North
America to the foot of South America,
from Boring straits to Cape Horn, this
is going to be ImmanuePs Land. All
the forms of irreligion and abomination
that have cursed other parts of the
world will land here-yea, they have
already landed-and they will wrangle
for the possession of this hemisphere,
and they will make great Roadway and
feel themselves almost established. But
God will not forget the prophecies
which encouraged Columbus about the
lends of the earth seeing the salvation
ofGod, 5" nor the Christian anthem which
Colum bus led on the morning of the 18th
of October, 1492, on the coast of San Sal
vador. Like that flock of land bircs
which met the Santa Maria and the
Pinta and the Nina far out st
sea, indicating to the commanders
~ cAADo AiOOV uAAou oiACy WSAS opp oNNAA
ing some country, SO whole fleet
of promise and hopes, golden-winged
and songful, this morning alight around
u.s. assuring us that we are approaching
the glorious period of American evan
gelization. A divine influence will yet
sweep the continent that will make ini-
guilty drop like Stacked lime, and make
the most blatant infdelity declare it
was only joking when it said the Bible
was not true, and the worst atheism
announce that it always did believe in
the God of nations. Let others call for
Requiem and Dead March, call for
George Frederick Handels hallelujah
chorus. There has been much talk of
late about communication with other
worlds. Mars has come SO near we can
see its canals, and it has been hoped
that by signals after a while we may
communicate with other stars. All,
that will not be possible until our
world has been reformed and evangel-
lied It would not do for our world in
its lost and ruined state to have COM
munications with other worlds. 1t
would spoil their morals. But wait
until this world is fully redeemed, as it
will be, and tEeniperhaps inter-stellar
correspondence may be opened. Till
then, this smitten and sickened world
of ours must be quarantined from COM
ing too near the unfallen worlds. But,
thank God, the prophecies which
cheered Columbus in his great UNDER
taking cheer u.s. America for God! Yea,
the round world for God. There can be
no doubt about it!
That great Italian navigator also inn
presses me with the idea that when one
does a good thing he cannot appreciate
its manifestations. To the moment of
his death, Columbus never knew that he
had discovered America, but thought
that Cuba was a part of Asia. He
thought the island Hispaniola was the
Ophir of Solomon. He thought he had
only opened a new way to old Asia
Had he known what North and South
America were and are, and that he had
found country three thousand miles
wide, ten thousand miles long, of sew
enteen million square miles, and four
times as large as Europe, the happiness
would have been too much for mortal
man to endure He had no idea that
the time would come when a nation, of
sixty million people on this side of the
sea would be joined by all the intelli-
gent nations on the other side of the
sea, for the most part of a year re-
citing his wonderful deeds. 1t
took centuries to reveal the result
of that one transatlantic voyage. So
is has always been. Could Paul, on
that June day, when he was decapi-
tated, have had any idea of what effect
his letters and the account of his life
would have on Christendom? Could
Martin Luther have had any idea of the
echoes that would ring through the
ages from the bang of his hammer nail
ing the Latin theses against church
door at Wittenberg? Could Eli Whit
ney have realized the continents of
wealth that would be added to the
south by the invention of his cotton
gin? Could John Guttenburg, toiling
year after year, making type, and
laboriously setting them side by side,
and with presses changed now this way
and now that, and sued by John
L duoo ioA AiohCy AOohSo, nhO hi1uy
of the people trying to cheat
Guttenburg out of his invention, he
toiling on until he produced what is
known as the Mazarin Bible, have any
idea that, as result of his inven-
ton, there would be libraries that
placed side by side would again and
again engirdle the earth, or the showers
of newspapers that snow the world
under? When Manhattan Island was
sold to the Dutch for 1914, neither they
who sold or bought could have foreseen
New York, the commercial metropolis
of America, that now stands on it. Can
a man who breaches a sermon, or
woman who distributes tracts, or
teacher who instructs class, or
passer-by who utters encouraging
words realize the infnitudes of useful
result? The teacher at Harrow school
who toiled with William Jones, the
most stupid boy in school, and at the
foot of his class, did not know that he
was fitting for his work the greatest
oriental scholar of modern times, his
statue now in St. Pauls Cathedral,
London. Every move you make for
God, however insignificant in your eyes
or in the eyes of others, touches worlds
larger than the one Columbus
discovered. Why talk about unim-