The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-29
JAPAN IN PROPHECY.
INTERESTING SER1EON PREACHED
 BY REY. J. ZEE 1LITCHELL.

to the Everlasting Application of the
 Words of God-AbIe Address at the
 Grand Avenue Church.
 At the Grand avenue Congregational
 church yesterday morning the pastor
 Rev. J. Lee Mitchell preached an able
 sermon on the subject, Japan in Pro-
 phecy." A large congregation was
 present and listened with wrapt att
 tention to his discourse. The text was
 Matthew Ii. 9. Where Is He that was
 born king of the Jews2 for we have
 seen His star in the east and have
 come to worship Him."
 MT, Mitchell said:
 Neither text nor theme are intended
 to lead our minds into any definite po-
 litical conjectures, but only to take
 advantage of striking historical events
 to call our attention to a wonderful
 characteristic of the word, it's every
 lasting application, nothing ever spok-
 en is for once, but for always. We
 know that for the evangePs invitation,
 "come unto me-" it Is for all time,
 It may be even in heaven hastenlng
 ioyously home from some distant duty
 our rapture shall be to set aside spear
 and shield and go into Him. We know
 it of the eyangePs history, Jesus Is
 born in Bethlehem not once, but al~
 ways. Every minute of the day some
 soul of nature learns though no soul
 had ever learned before that Jesus is
 born, and is flooded with the self
 conscious joy of a soul that knows it
 belongs to endless life. We do not
 thus realize that prophecy is for all
 ways. We get hold of a bit of 1t and
 we fit it to some known event, and we
 say, "there, that phophecy was fulfilled
 there,' and then we find another place
 where 1t fits and we say, why, here
 have made a mistake, l guess. l can't
 tell which," and then we either give it
 up or map out some artificial scheme
 which is worthless. The fact is prophecy of the book is like proc
 lamation of the evangel, has many fulfillments. We limit the word of God, and 1t knows no limits. You might al- most say that if any word claiming to be divine is found with only one ap-
 plication, by no possibility can be
 made to apply to but one event, that word is not divine, it is too human all together. Endlessness of application is which characterizes Gods word
 Elijah came, the first Elijah that is the first incarnation of that meteoric whirlwind reforming truth which God ever holds in readiness for the like emergency, Five hundred years late Malachi saidI Behold, will send you Elijah before that great and terrible day of the lord" Coming down from AL. ny,, recognized John the Baptist as Elijah, as indeed we and even the men of his i own time recognized him as full of the spirit and power of Elijah. But when the disciples asked Jesus what the scribes meant by saying Elijah must first come Jesus answered. "It is true Elijah indeed eometh,' that is, is still to came. Matthey says that Jesus went to Egypt that it might be 1 Fulfilled" which was spoken by the l prophet, saying, "out of Egypt have I l called my son." that is "have I again | called my son." for Isaac had been | called 1,500 years before and Abraham | 300 years before that. Rachel had been 1 buried 300 years when the prophet de- | scribing the grief of the national spirit | of Israel over the captivity said, "A | voice was heard in Ramah, lamentatton and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children" Ger. 91, 15.) And again | Matthew 800 years after over the slain | babes of Bethlehem Tn Ramah was | there a voice heard fermentation and | weeping, and great mourning, Rachel | weeping for her children" Mat 2, IS, | that 1t might be again fulfilled.
 The cycles of progress are ever the | same. Spiritual uplift comes from | spiritual submission, always did, al- | ways will. Victory follows faith. First | Egypt, then trust in Moses, then the | Red sea, Wilderness, Jordan, Canaan | Jesus again called out of Egypt, Naz- areth, wilderness, temptation, Geth- Calvary heaven. Just so with every human soul that dares come up out of Egypt. The song of the angel l of Bethlehem never dies, Christ is ever being born, the star is ever in the west, l and God is marching on.
 The first westward migration for the sake of truth and purity was when Abraham left UT of Chaldees and mov- sd toward Canaan, so the center of in- spiration and hope continues to lie 1 that way. Abraham knew this for to the children of his ooneubines he gave gifts and sent them away eastward, away from Isaac, the child of promise, md in the opposite direction from that n which carefully guarded spirit of worship and progress was to move, lot driving away these children from he brightness of Zion's glad morning put committing to them other work in he world. The east is to be the store- louse of knowledge, the land of re- ( lection, the home of thought; the west l he land of revelation and activity, of 1 he concrete fact of life, Ii
 So there came wise men from the east i o worship the infant Redeemer, mem l whose expectations had been accurate, Ir Ind whose breadth of knowledge was S far beyond that of any man i n Palestine. Judea crad1ed the burning q act, the throbbing life principle; the t which Recognized it for | what 1t was from the Orient, Who f hese men were will doubtless always J ,e a matter of conjecture, not because I ve know no place from which they d ould have come but because we know o o many, Abraham's own children by V 5ahN L.