The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-10-24

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of God.
Nations also would do well TO watch for
She finger of God. What does the cholera
scare in America mean' some say 10
means that the plague VIII sweep our land
next summer, | do not belleve a word OF
It There will be no cholera here next sum-
mer -Four OF five summers ago there were
those who said it would surely be here the
following summer because it was on the
wav. But it did not come. The sanitary
precautions established here will make next
summer unusually healthful. Cholera
never starts from where It stopped the sea-
son before, but always starts in the filth OF
Asia, and if it starts next summer 1t will
start there again-it will not start from
New York quarantine. But 1t Is
evident to me that the finger of God
is in this cholera scare, and that he Is
pointing 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 10 come TO
our very gates and then halted it. The
quarantine was right and necessary, but
oh, how easily the plague could have leaped
the barriers lifted against IL. Thanks to
the President of the United States, and
thanks to the 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 tnan
all, thanks to God Out of that sOlemnlty
we ought to pass up 70 something better
than anything that has ever yet character
lied us as nation. We ought TO quit our
national sins, our Sabbath breaking, and
our drunkenness, aud our impurities, and
our corruptions of all sorts as a people.
The tendency is in REORGANIZATION at our
prosperity TO forget the mercy Of God that
has kept US from being blos5ed out for our
crimes, and that still mulnplies our temporal
properties Forward, and upward See
of 1r,A in,
mercy
rejoice that there are many encour-
aging signs for our nation, and one is that
this PRESIDENTIAL campaign has less malIg-
nifty and abuse than any presidential cam
pRign since we have been a nation Turn
over to the pictorials and the columns OF the
political sheets of the presidential excite
ments all the way back ana see what con-
tume!y Washington and Jefferson and
Madison and Monroe and jackson went
through. Nov see the almost entire alb
seuce Of all that. The political orators
notice this year are apt TO begin by eulog q
ing the honesty and good intentions of the
opposing candidate, and say that he is bet
ter than his party. Instead OF vitriol,
camomile flowers. That we seem TO have
escaped the degradation Of the usual quad
renuial billnRsgste IS an encouraging
fact. Perhaps this betterment may
have somewhat resulted from the
sadness lowering over the home OF
one o. the candidates, a sad
ness in which the whole nation sympsthizes.
Perhaps We have been SO absorbed in paying
honors to Christopher Columbus that we
have forgotten TO RnathemauiZe the prOmi-
nent men OF tho present. No man In this
country is fully honored until he is dead.
Whatever be the reason, this nation has
escaped many Of the horrors that ordinarily
accompany the presidential contest But
let us net pause too long in hilarity about
the present aud forget the fact that there
are not only tenn poral possibilities far grea ter
than those attained, but higher moral and
religious possibilities. The God of our
fathers is the God Of their children, and his
finger points US TO higher national career
theI many have yet suspected. For our
churches, our schools, our colleges, our in |
situations Of MERCY, the best days are yet to |
come.
But, notice that this finger of God almost |
always and in almost everything poin for
ward and not back ward All the way |
through the Bible, the lamb and pigeon on |
the altar, the pillar ot fire poised above the |
wilderness, peace offering, sin Offering, tres |
pass offering, fingers of Joseph and IBaac |
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 omnipntsnt,
the gentle. the pardoninE and suffering
and atoning Christ. And now the same
finger OF God IL pointing the world up
ward TO the same Redeemer and forward to
the time of his universal domination. My
hearers, get out Of the habit of looking back
and looking down, and look up and look
forward. 1t is useful once in while to look
back, but you had better, for the most part
OF your time, stop rsminisceuce and begin
anticipation. We have, none Of us. hardly
begun yet If we love the Lord and L~uss
him-and you may all love him and G'ust
him from this moment on-we no more
understand the good things ahead of us
than a child at school studying his A
c can understand what that has to do
With his reading John Ruskins Seven
Lamps of ArchiJecture,n or Dante's
''Divina Commedie" The satisfactions
and JOYS we have as yet bad are like the
music a boy makes with his first lesson on
the violin compared with what was evoked
from his great orchestra by my dear and
illustrious and transcendent, but now de-
parted friend, Patrick Gilmore, when he
lifted his baton and all the strings vibrated,
and all the lrutnpets pealed fo tb, and ali
the flutes caroed, and all the drums rolled,
and all the hoofs of the cavalry charge
" hjch he initiated were in full beat. Look
ahead The finger of God points for ward.
20, but, says some one, II am getting
old aud / have a touch of rheumatism in
that foot, and | believe something is the
mat err with my heart, and | cannot stand
as much as 1 used to-" Well, congratulate
you, for that shows yon are getting nearer
to the time when you are going to enter in;-
mortal youth and be strong enough TO hurl
OF the battlements of heaven and bandit
who by unheari OF burglary, might break
into the Golden City. But" says some
one, II feel so lonely. The most OF my
friends ore gone ana the hereavements of
life have multiplied until this world that
was once 50 bright TO me has lost its cha
] congratulate you, for when you go there
VIII be fewer here to hold you back and
more there to pull you In. Look ahead
The finger Of God is pointing for y ard
W. sit here in church. and by hymn and
prayer and sermon and Christian associa-
ton we try 60 get in a frame of mind that
will be acceptable To God aud pleasant to
ourselves. But what a stupid thing il is all
compared with what 1t will be when we
have gone beyond psalm book and sermon
and Bible, and we stand, our last imper-
fectiou gone, in the presence Of that charm
CT the universe-the blessed Christ-aud
have him look in our face and say: ~ have
beea watching you and sympathizing with
you and helping you all these years, and
now you are here. Go where you please
and never know sorrow and
never shed a tear. There is your
mother now-she Is coming to greet
you-and there is your father, and there
are YOUR children Sit down uDder this traa