Democratic messenger., 1892-10-29

had anything to do with America: Had
the storm Tat diverted the Mayhower
from the month of the Hudson for which
II was sailing and sent it ashore at Cap
Cod no divine supervisal: Does an
archy rule this world. or God:
st. Felix escaped martyrdom by crawl
ing through hole in the wall across
which the spiders immediately afterwar,l
wove II web. His prosecutors saw ,he
hole in the wall. but the spiders web
put them off the track. \ boy was lost
by his drunken father and could not for
years find his WAY home. Nearly grown
he went into Fulton street PRAYER
meeting anl asked for prayers that he
might find his parents. His mother was
in the room and rose and recognized L.
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 in the Bible. Do not tell
it to me. | said to an aged minister of
much experience: "All the events of my
life seem 10 have been divinely con-
nected. Do you suppose it is 81 i'll all
lives: He answered, Yes, but mos;
people do no; notice the divine leadingS.'
| stand here this morning to say from
my own experience that the safest thing
i'll all the world TO DO is to trust ic
Lord. ln.vcr had Il misfortune or
persecution or IA trial or Il disappoint-
ment. however excruciatiag at the time.
that Gni did not make turn out for liy
good. My one wish is TO follow ths
divine leading. want to watch tie
finger of God.
\ NATIONAL APPLICATION.
Nations also would do well To wal i
for the finger of God. What does the
cholera scare in America mean: Some
say il means that the plague will SWEEP
our land next summer. do not believe
Il word of it, There will be no cholera
here next summer. Four or five sum
mers ago there were those who said i:
would surely be here the following sum
mer because it was on the way. But it
did not Gene. The sanitary precautions
established here will make next summer
unusually healthful. Cholera never
starts from where it stopped the season
before, but always starts i'll the filth of
Asia. and if it starts next summer it
will start there again-it will not start
from New York quarantine. But it is
evident TO me that the finger of God is H.
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 III the hands of God.
He allowed the plague 10 come to our
very gates. and then halted il. The
quarantine was right and necessary, bu.
oh. how easily the plague could have
lcaped the barriers lifted against it,.
Thanks to the president of the United
States, and thanks To the health officers.
and thanks io the Thirteen. i regiment
and thanks 10 all who stood lrtwecn this
evil and cur national health. Int more
than all and higher than all thanks To
God. On; Of that soiemnity We ought
to pass up To something better than any
thing that has ever yet characterized us
as nation. We ouSht 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 blo;ted out
for our crimes. and that still multiplies
orr temporal prosperi,ies. 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
malignity ani abuse than any presiden-
tial campaign since we have been ma
tiOn. Turn over 10 the piciorials and
the columns If the political sheets of
the presidential cxcitementS all the way
back and see what contnmely Washing
ton and jefferson and Madison and Mon
roe and jackson went through. Now
see the almost entire absence of all that
The political orators. notice. this year
are apt 10 begin by eulogizins the hon
esty and good intentions Of the opposing
candidate. and say that he is better than
his party Instead of viiriol. camomile
flowers. That We seem to have escaped
the degradation of the usual quadrennial
billiuSss;:;e Is an encouraging fact. Per
haps this be;;erinent may have somewhat
resulted from the sadness lowering over
the honie Of the If the candidates Il sad
ness in wi.:cl, i:c Whole nation sympa-
thizes. Pe..a',; we have been 50 alb
sorbed in paying honors TO Christopher
Columbus that we have forgotten To
anaihematize the prominent men of the
present. No man in this country is fully
honored until lie is dead. Whatever I've
the reason, this nation has escaped many
of the horrors that ordinarily accompany
the presidential contest. But let us NOT
pause too long in hilarity about the pres
ent and forget the fact that there are
not only temporal possibilities far great
er than those attained, bat higher moral
and religious possibilities. The God OF
our fathers is the God of their children.
and his finger points Us TO IA higher ma
tional career than many have yet sus
pccted. For our churches. our schools.
our colleges, our institutions of mercy
the best days are yet to come.
ONWARD THE wATcHwoRD.
But notice that this finger of God al
most always and III almost everything
points forward and not backward. All
the way through the Bible the lamb and
pigeon on the altar. the pillar Of fire
poised above the wilderness, peace offer
ing. sin Offering, trcSpass offering, FIN
gers Of Joseph and Isaac and Joshua and
David and Isaiah and Micah and Ezekiel,
all together made the one finger of God
pointing To the human, the divine, the
gracious. the glorious, the omnipotcnt.
the gentle, the hardening and suffering
and atoning Christ. And now the Sam,
finger of God is pointing the world ulr
ward to the same Redeemer and for
ward to the time cf his universal dOmi-
nation. My hearers. get ont of the habit
of looking back and looking down, ana
look up and look forward. II is useful
once in awhile To look back. but you had
better for the most part of your time
stop reminiscencc and begin anticiia-
tion. We have none of us hardly h.
gun yet. If We love the Lord and trust
hiim-and Won may all love him and ti-1isi