The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-12-13
THEAMERICAN CONGRESS
Rev. DR.. Talmage Gives It Greet
ing to the Capital
The GlorIea of the Americas Republic
The Spirit Of the Lord Behind
Our Cherished Traditions
and Institutions.

The following discourse by Rev. It.
Dewitt Telwage was delivered before
his Washington congregation, which
included many of the nations legisla-
tors. on the eve of the assembling OF
the Fifty-fourth congress. lie took for
his text:
And the Lord opened the eyes Of she youne
man; and he saw; and, behold, the mountain
was full OF horses and chariots OF hze around
about Elisha.-IL Kings, VI, IL.
The American congress is assem-
bling. Arriving or already arrived
are the representatives of all sections
of this beloved land. Let us xeleOme
them with prayers and benedictions.
A nobler group OF men never entered
Washington than those who will to
morrow take their places In The SEM
ate chamber and the house of repre-
sentatives. Whether they come alonel
or leave their families at the Home
stead far away, may the blessing
of the Eternal God be upon theml
We invite them to our churches, and
together, they in political spheres and
we in religious circles, will give the
coming months to consideration of the
best interests of this country which
God has blessed so mnch in the past
that propose to show you and show
them so far as may now reach their
ear or tomorrow their eye through
their printing press, that God will be
with them to help them as in the text
He filed the Mountains with help for
Elisha.
As It cost England many regiments
and twenty million dollars a year TO
keep safely troublesome captive at
st. Helena, so the king of Syria sends
out a whole army to capture one
minister of religion-perhaps fifty
thousand men-to take Elisha. Dur
ing the night the army of Syrians
came around the village of Dothan
where the prophet was staying. At
early daybreak the man servant of
Elisha rushed in and said: "What
shall we do? There is a whole
army come to destroy you! We
must die! we must diep But
Elisha was not scared q bit, for
he looked up and saw the noun
tains all around full of supernatural
forces, aud he knew that If there were
fifty thousand Syrians against him
there were one hundred thousand
angels for him; and in answer to the
prophets prayer in behalf of his af-
frighted man servant, the young man
saw it, too. Horses of fire harnessed
to chariots of fire, and drivers of fire
pulling reins of fire on bits of fire,
and warriors Of fire with brandished
swords of fire, and the brilliance of
that morning sunrise was eclipsed
by the galloping splendors of the
celestial cavalcade. "And the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man;
and he saw; and, behold, the noun
tain was full of horses and chariots of
fire round about Elisha" / speak of
the upper forces of the text that are
to fight on our side as a nation. II all
the low levels are filled with armed
threats, 1 have to tell you that the
mountains of our hope and courage
and faith are full of the horses and
chariots of Divine rescue.
You will notice that the Divine
cquipage is always represented as a
chariot of fire. Ezekial and Isaiah
and John, when they come to describe
the Divine equipage always represent
1t as a wheeled, harnessed, an up
holstered confagration. 1t is not
chariot like kings and conquerors of
earth mount, but an organized and
compressed fire. That means purity,
justice, chastisement, deliverance
through burning escapes. Chariot of
rescue? yes, but a chariot of fire. All our
national observation-disclosures have been
4brOu nh eoorobipor arOp;os anJ roJ H.
asters. Through tribulation the indi-
vidual rises. Through tribulation ma
tions rise. Chariots of rescue, but
chariots of fire. But how do know
that this Divine equipagc is on the
side of our institutions? / know it by
the history of the last one hundred
and nineteen years. The Anne rican
revolution started from the pen of
John Hancock in Independence hall
in 177G. The colonies, without
ships, without ammunition, without
guns, without trained warriors, with
out money, without prestige. On the
other side, the mightiest nation of the
earth, the largest armies, the grandest
navies, and the most distinguished
commanders, and resources inexhaus-
tible, and nearly all the nations ready
to back them up in the fight. Moth
ing, as against immensely.
The cause of the American colonies,
which started at zero, dropped still
lower through the quarreling of gen.
erals, and through the jealousies
at small successes, and through the
winters which surpassed all predeces-
sors in depth of snow and horrors of
congealment- Elisha surrounded by
the whole Syrian army did not seem
to be worse off than did the thirteen
colonies encompassed and overshad-
owed by foreign assault. What de-
cided the contest in our favor? The
upper forces, the upper armies. The
Green and White mountains of
New England, the Highlands along
the Hudson, the mountains of Vir-
ginia, all the Appalachian ranges
were full of re-enfOrcements which
the young man Washington saw by
faith; and his men endured the frozen
feet, and the gangrened wounds, and
the eXhausting hunger, and the long
march, because "the Lord opened the
eyes of the young man; and he saw:
and, behold, the mountains were full
of horses and chariots OF fire rould
about Elisha" Washington himself
was a miracle. What Joshua was in sa-
cred history, the first American prcai-
dent was in secular history. A thou
sand other men excelled him in differ
ent things, but he excelled them all in
roundness and completeness of char
acter The world never saw his like,