The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1893-02-23

knr the kzaxsssrf CT Israel. &AFe la. The
God Of heayen and earth cho@e that M
ton. In cosne& a. q stream thrvuxh al
history. with . history all sfa own. slew.
Ing down through empires that towsrezi
In suhliraity around IL and yet un-
touched by them: lowing by the vsFy
base Of the Asxyrian thrune and yet On.
ward and onward. thrcugh |. 600 years.
until as last Jesus tho Sun Of Man.
emerged from that stream of history.
and the race was scaitersd
THE COMMONWEALTH on tsgAEI-
God chose n nation as the vehicle of
Divine revelation, and he chess the ra.
tons around To bear a part In IL He
chose the Assyrian nation as his saw and
az and hame, through which 60 free his
own chosen people. and when the king
Of Assyria made his proud boast before
the prophet Of God the prophet said;
~You have laid the city waste. but You
are nothing. You are tho instrument Of
Gods hand. and God La going 10 con.
sumo his own people and uses you as the
flame with which To do IT, But after
the scourge a remnant viii remain, and
that remnant will he his people. through
whom he will work out his design and
purpose. But In the process ron viii be
ground to powder" So Assyria played
her part In the role Of nations, in that
grand drama God had planned for the
race.
The history of every empires rise and
fall is divine chapter of the book OF
Revelation. Go back and stand before
Tyre and Sidon, as In their pride and
glory they mastered the commerce OF
q world, and hear the prophet M he
speaks of them and their future. Go
now and hear tho sad waves washing on
the shores of that seq, silent. deserted,
even the ruins covered by tho sands os
| centuries, inhabited not even by bats and
owls-a wild stretch of desolation. In
the history of Tyre and Sidon you will
find written the eternal law OF tho tri.
| umph of righteousness in the history OF
| mankind.
Stand before Babylon In her pride and
| glory, with her matchless army and heI
| monarch, master of the civilization oi
| the age, and hear the revelry within
| and then hear the shrieka Of women and
| children and men as their blood flows
like water and the city is swept with tho
| bassoon of destruction, and Babyloniar
| civilization falls never to rise again
Hear the howl OF tho wild beasts among
her palaces now, where kings and mobiles
once reveled, and you will fnd that ths
| plumb line of Gods Righteousness fel
over those walls. and they were found
wanting.
| Read the story Of Greece, OF her ris.
and progress and fall, Of her brillian,
era Of civilization, of her artists and
men of letters, and read the story O. hel
slavery and decline and the wrtitn o.
God that abides on unrighteousness
Read again the history Of the seven hillet
city, in all her glory and pride, Ions
ages spent In her development, until l
was mistress of the world. and then con
trast the introduction of the follies ant
extravagances and sins and dispensatiol
of the age of slavery, and Of gold, an.
Of power, and read again Of Goth an,
Vandal, who. from q foreign north
swept down and obliterated ancien
Rome. In every rise and fall Of empire
read the edict of the Most High God, re
vealing himself unto man.
GOD WORKS BY MEANS.
Come down to modern history, and
is the same. God in nations? Yes. Reas
the history of the Arab in Africa ant
find there even God following the tracl
of slave trader over that wild Africal
continent. The language Of the Ara
slave trader is the only universal Ian
guage there, and now they have trans
lated the Bible into 1.-THE only Ian
guage that can penetrate the darknes
of the continent. So God has chosel
them as instruments through which III
might save a continent.
| So through the history Of the Englisl
and American nations. England in he
greed and rapacity seizes empire afte
empire But we look now ON the shift
ing scenes, and out from 1t all ther
seems to come Gods plan OF q langnag
universal, OF an empire universal, O
whose soil his sun win never set, an
whose men and women, reared in happ
homes, taught in reverence Of the Mos
High God, shall carry the cross Of Chris
to the utmost limits of the earth, unit
his civilization and home and altar an
God shall be the inspiration of q world
So God has led in the past in the develop
ment of that nation.
So he has led your own nation /
America-so he is guiding and develop
ing today. The history of America is
history of a series of providences. II
had not been for the almighty intel
ference of God, this nation would hay
been 10 nation at all. IL ever Go
formed and fashioned nation, he di
. this one, and laid its foundations, an
, watched over its people In their ION
struggle with the mother country, ths
at last they should build unto him som'
thing higher and nobler and better an
teach all the earth. God has reveale
himself in the history OF nations, say
, Paul to these Athenians. National hi
! tory is a method of divine revelation
, He would tell those people:
Il Second-That nationality is Divin
ordinance; that God has appointed the
! bounds and their seasons. 1t is not an a.
cident. but that 1t is chosen instrz
! neut IN the hand of an eternal God 10
working out the salvation Of the world
A Divine ordinance-because nation
, | atty Is an ordinance Of life. God ha
|. | caused in the past the development OF b
5 dividuahty that the human race Nigh
| attain In its breadth and scope the broad
> est possibilities.
CHRISTIANITY rs PATRIOTIC.
81 believe that patriotism Is religion
sentiment; that the man who does nc
love his country does not love God
II not q true Christian. The highes
sweep OF patriotism is Of the very spiri
. Of the living God. He who truly love
his country loves it as part of God
D great world-not as against all the worl
because it Is part of his inheritane
q from the Great Father.
y" Race and national .hatreds are thu
e | virtues overaccentuated. They only nee
g | to be toned down to the plane OF
o rational, fraternal rivalry, for man
4 | attain the noblest things.