Connecticut western news., 1895-12-05

there came out nom both sides a hsro- ism, and strength, and a determina- tion that the world had never seen mar shaled. Aud gwhatT but extermination could come when Philip Sheridan and Stonewall Jackson met, and Nathaniel Lyon and Sidney Johnston roda in from north and south, and Grant and Lee, the two thunderbolts of battle, clashed? Yet. we are nation, and yet we are at peace. Earthly courage did not decide the conflict The upper forces of the text-they tell us there was a battle fought above the clouds on Lookout mountain, but there was something higher than that
 A Friend of the Nation.
 Again, the horses and chariots of God came to the rescue of this nation Tn 1876, ut the close of a presidential elec- ton famous for ferocity. A darker cloud yet settled down upon this nation. The result of the election was in dispute, and revolution, not between two or three sections, but revolution in every town and village and city of the United States seemed imminent. The prospect was that New York would throttle New York, and New Orleans would grip New Orleans, and Boston, Boston, and Sa- wannah, Savannah, and Washington, Washington. Some said MT. T1den was elected, others said Mir. Hayes was elected, and how near we came to uni yersal massacre some of us guessed, but God only knew. I ascribe our escape not to the honesty and righteousness of infuriated politicians. but ascribe, 1t to the upper forces of the text Chariots of mercy rolled in, and though the wheels were not heard and the flash was not seen, yet all through the mountains of the north, and the south, and the east, and the west, though the hoofs did not chatter, the cavalry of God galloped by. I tell you God is the friend of this nation. In the awful excitement at the massacre of Lincoln, when there was prospect tbat greater slaughter would open upon this nation. God hushed the tempest. In the awful excitement at the time of Garfeld's s assassination God put his foot on the neck of the cyclone. To prove God is on the side of this ma tion argue from the last eight or nine great national harvests, and from the national health of the last quarter of century, epidemics very exceptional, and from the great revivals of religion, and from tho spreading of the church of God, and from the continent blossom ing with asylums and reformatory insti- tutions, and from an Edenixation which promises that this whole land is to be Q paradise, where God shall walk.
 I am encouraged more than can tell you as l see the regiments wheeling down the sky, and my jeremiads turn into doxologies, and that which was the Good Friday of the nation s crucifxion becomes the Easter morn of its resurrec tion. Of, ,courss God works through shu- al betterment is to come among other things through a scrutinized ballot box. By the law of registration it is almost impossible now to have illegal voting. There was time-you and I remember it,very.well-when-d droves of vagabonds wandered pp and down on election day, and from poll to poll, and voted here, and voted there, and voted everywhere, and there was no challenge. or if there were, it amounted to nothing, sbec&nse nothing could so suddenly be proved upon the vagabonds. Now, in every we'll organized neighborhood, every voter is watched with seyerest scrutiny. If am in region where am allowed vote, must tell the registrar my name, and how, old I am, and how long have re- sided in the state, and how long have resided in the ward or the township, and if misrepresent, 50 witnesses, will rise and shnt me out from the ballot box. Is not that great advxnce2 And then notice the law that prohibits man voting if he has bet on the electioDsa A step farther needs to be taken andsthat man forbidden vote who has offered or taken bribe, whether it be in the shape of free drink, or cash paid down, the suspicious cases obliged to put their hand on the Bible and swear their vote in if they vote at all So. through the sacred chest of our nations suffrage, re- demption will come.
 God will save this nation through an aroused moral sentiment, There has never been so much discussion of morals and immorals. Men, whether or not they acknowledge what is right. have to think what is right. We have men who have hadtheir hands in the public treas ury the most of their lifetime, stealing all they could lay their hands lops dis coursing eloquently about dishonesty in public servants, and men with two or three families of their own preaching eloquently about the beauties of the sev- enth commandment. The question of so- briety and drunkenness is thrust in the face of this nation as never before and takes a part in our political contests The questitS of national sobriety is go- ing to be respectfully and deferentially heard at the bar of every Legislature, and every house of representatives, and
 every state senate, and an omnipotent
 voice will ring down the sky and across this land and back again, saying to,these rising tides of drunkenness which threat en to whelm home and church and na- tion, "Thus far shalt thou come, but no
 farther, and here shall thy proud waves | be staid. 1" -
 sga Antagonus' Army.
 | l nave nOC In my mlnd 6haoOw of
 disheartment as large as the shadow of
 house hy's wing. My faith is in the
 upper forces, the upper armies of the
 text God is not dead. The chariots are
 not unwheeled. If you would only pray
 more and wash your eyes in the cool,
 bright water fresh from the we'll of
 Christian reform, it would be said of
 you. .as Sef this one of the text, .iTho
 Lord opened the eyes of the young man,
 and he saw, and, behold, the mountain
 was full of horses and chariots of fire
 round about Elisha
 When the army of Antigonus went
 into battle, his soldiers were very much
 discouraged, and they rushed up to the general and said to him, ''Don't you
 see we have few forces and they have
 so many poref' And the soldiers were