The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1892-10-25

! sown there and grew so RAPIDLY that
] South Carolina was led to make rice her
| chief production. Can you not see the
/ finger of God in that incident? Rev.
! John Fletcher, of England. many will
! know, was one of the useful ministers
! of the Gospel who ever preached. Be-
| fore conversion he Joined the army and
! had bought his ticket on the shin for
/ South America. The morning he was
| to sail some one spilled on him a kettle
! of water, and he was so scalded he could
| not go He was very much disappoint-
ed, but the ship he was going to sail on
/ went out and was never heard of again.
/ Who can doubt that God was arranging
/ the life of John Fletcher? Was it
merely accidental that Richard RodGa
a Cornish miner, who was on his knees
praying, remained unhurt, though heavy
/ stones fell before him and behind him,
/ and on either side of him. and another
fell on top of these so as to make Il root
/ over hirG?
A missionary il Jamaica lost his way.
and III the night was wandering about.
/ when a freely flashed and revealed Z
! preclplce over which IL a moment more
/ he would have been dashed. +. W.
/ Robertson, the great preacher of Brigh-
| ton, England, had his life work decided
! by the barking of his dog. \ neighbOr
! whose daughter was ii was disturbed
! by the barking of that dog one night.
/ This brought the neighbor into commu-
/ nication with Robertson. That acquaint-
anceship kept him from joining the
! dragons and going to India and spend
/ in,r his ia I'm Toi1itosy
served him for a pulpit the influence of
which for Gospelization will reSound for
all time and all eternity.
Why did not Columbus sink when in
early manhood he was afoat six miles
! from the beach with nothing to sustain
| him till he could swim TO land but
| boats oar? wonder if his preservation
had anything to do with America: Had
| the storm that diverted the MayfOwer
from the mouth of the Hudson for which
| it was sailing and sent it ashore at Cape
| Cod no divine supervisal: Does an
archy rule this world, or God?
st. Felix escaped nartyrdom by crawl
ing through a hole in the wall across
which the spiders Immediately afterward
wove Il web. His prosecutors saw the
hole in the wall, but the spiders web
put them off the track. 4 boy was lost
| by his drunken father and could not for
years find his way home. Nearly grown
| he went into a Fulton street prayer
meeting and asked for prayers that he
might find his parents. His mother was
III the room and rose and recognized Ler
long lost son. Do You say that these
things "only happened sO:' Tell that TO
those who do not believe in a God, and
have no faith i'll the Bible. Do not tell
it to me. said to an aged minister Of
much experience: "All the events of my
life seem to have been divinely con-
nected. Do you suppose it is so in all
livesT' He answered, Yes. but mosi
people do not notice the divine leadiugs.'
l stand here this morning to say from
my own experience that the safest thing
in all the world to do is to trust tie
Lord. never had a misfortune or
persecution or a trial or disappOint-
ment, however excruciatilg at the time.
that God did not make turn out for my
good. My one wish is to follow th5
divine leading. want TO watch TIE
finger of God.
a NATIONAL APPLICATION.
Nations also would do well to wal 4
for the finger of God. What does the
cholera scare in America mean? Some
say it means that the plague will sweet
our land next summer. l do not believe
"A word of it. There will be no cholera
here next summer. Four or five sum
mers ago there We're those who said i
would surely be here the following sum
mer because it was on the way. But it
did not come. The sanitary precautions
established here Will make next summer
unusually kealthful. Cholera never
starts from where 1t stopped the season
before, but always starts i'll the filth Of
Asia, and if it starts text summer it
will start there again-lt VIII not start
from New York quarantine. But 1t Is
evident to Inc that the finger of God is il
this cholera scare, and that he Is point
ing this nation to something higher and
better. 1t has been demonstrated as never
before that we are in the hands of God
He allowed the plague to come to our
very gates, and then halted it. The
quarantine was right and necessary. bu:
oh, how easily the plague could have
leaped the barriers lifted against it!
Thanks to the president of the United
States, and thanks toAhe health officers,
and thanks to the Thirteenth regiment,
and thanks to all who stood between this
evil and our national health, but more
than all and higher than all thanks to
God! Out of that solemnity We ought
to pass up to something better than any
thing that has ever yet characterized US
as nation. We ought to quit our ma
tional sins, our Sabbath breaking, and
our drunkenness, and our impurities. and
our corruptions of all sorts as people.
The tendency is in self graduation at our
prosperity to forget the mercy of God
that has kept US from being blotted out
for our crimes, and that still multiplies
our temporal properties. Forward and
upward! See you not the finger of God
in this protecting mercy:
rejoice that there are many encOur-
aging signs for our nation, and one is
that this presidential campaign has less
InaliDnitV and abuse than anv preSideIl-