Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-10-09
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Washington DiVins's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: ''The Day is at Hand"
TEXT: 1.-THE day is at hand."-Romans

Back from the mountains md the seaside,
and the springs, and the farmhouse, your
cheeks bronzed and your spirits lighted,
hail you home again with the words OF
Gehazi to the Shunammites us it we'll with
thee2 Is 1t we'll with thy husband2 Is 1t
well with the child2" On some faces l see
the mark OF recent grief but all along the
track OF tears see the story of resurrection
and reunion when all tears are done; the
deep blowing of the keel, followed by the
flash of the phosphorescence. Now that
have asked you in regard to your welfare,
you naturally ask how l am. Very we'll,
thank you. Whether 1t was the jracing air
OF the mountains, or bath in the surf OF
Long Island beach, or whether 1t is the Joy
OF standing in this great group OF warm
hearted friends, or whether it Is a new APP
probation Of the goodness Of God, can not
tell. simply know am happy.
1t was said that John Moffatt, the great
Methodist preacher, occasionally got fast In
his sermon. and to extricate himself would
cry "Hallelujah!' am in no such predica-
ment to-day, but am full of the same rhap-
sodic ejaculation. Starting out this morn
ing on q new ecclesiastical year, want
give you the keynote OF my next twelv,
months ministry, l want to set 1t to the
tunes of "Antioch," "Ariel" and Corona
tlon." ! want to put new trumpet stop
into my sermons. We do wrong If we allow
our personal SORROWS to interfere with the
glorious fact that the Kingdom is coming.
We are wicked If we allow apprehension OF
National disaster to put down our faith in
God and the mission of our American peo-
pie. The God who hath been on the side of
this Nation since the &th of July, 1776, will
see to it that this Nation shall not commit
suicide on November 8, 1895. BY the time
the unparale ed harvests OF this summer get
down to the sea-board, we shall be standing
IN a sunburst OF National prosperity that will
paralyze the pessimists, who by their evil
prophesies are disappearing the God who
hath blest this Nation as He hath blest no
other.
In all our Christian work you and want
more Of the element Of gladness. No man
had a right to say that Christ never laughed.
Do you suppose that He was glum at the
wedding in Cana OF Galilee2 Do you sup
pose that Christ was unresponsive when the
| children clambered over His knee and
shoulder at His own invitation? DO you
suppose that the Evangelist meant nothing
when he said OF Christ; "He rejoiced in
epirit?" Do you believe that the Divine
Christ who pours all the waters over the
rocks at Yernal Falls, Yosemite, does not
believe in the sparkle and gallop and tumul-
tuous Joy and rushing raptures OF human
life2 I believe not only that the morning
laughs, and that the mountains laugh, and
that the seas laugh, and that the cascades
laugh, but that Christ laughed. Moreover,
the outlook of the world ought to stir US to
gladnessI
Astronomers disturbed.many people, by tell
ing them that there was danger CT stellar
collision. We were told by these astrono-
mers that there are worlds coming very near
together and that we shall have plaques and
and fupo11ltc mud Mariana fhA WOrl1'a
destruction. Do not be scared. Ii you have
ever stood at railroad centre, where ten or
twenty or thirty rail tracks cross each other,
and seen that by the movement OF theswltch
one or two inches, the train shoots this way
and that, without colliding, then you may
understand how fifty worlds may come with
in an inch of disaster, and that inch be
as good as million miles. LIZ
q human switch-tender can shoot the trains
this way and that without harm, cannot the
hand that for thousands of years has upheld
the universe, keep our little world out Of
harms way2 Christian biologists tell us
that this world WAS millions OF years in
building. We'll, now, | do not think God
would take millions OF years TO build house
which was to last only six thousand years.
There is nothing in the world or outside the
world, terrestrial or astronomical, to ex-
cite dismay. l wish that some stout
GOSD6l 6r6eZ0 might Scdltcr jill tu0 udidIld
of human foreboding.
The sun rose this morning at about
o'clock, and think that is just about the
hour in the worlds history. "The day is at
hand" The first raw of the dawn l see in
the gradual substitution OF diplomatic skill
for human butchery. Within the last twenty
five years there have been international diff
ferences which would have brought shock
o. arms in any other day, bus which were
10. %,1v; 4ha
of the sword. The Venezue an controversy
in any other age Of the world would have
brought shock of arms, but now is beng so
quietly adjusted that no ono knows just how
it is being settled.
The Alabama question in any other age OF
the world would havo caused war between
the United States and England. How was
it settled? BY men-of-war of the Narrows,
or off the Mersey2 No. A few wise men got
into quiet room at Geneva, talked the
matter over, and telegt aphed to Washington
and London, Gan settled" Peace! Peacel
England pays to the United States the
amount awarded-pays really more than she
ought to have paid. But still, all that Ala.
bama broil is sett!ed-settIed for forever.
Arbitration instead of battle.
So the quarrel about the Canadian fish
cries in any other age woGld have caused
war between the Unitel States and England
SO the Samoan controversy in any other age
would have brought Germany and the
United States into bloody collision. But
all is settled. Arbitration instead of battle.
France will never again, think, through
the peccadillo Of an Ambassador. bring On
battle with other Nations. She sees that
God in punishment at Sedan, bloited out
the French Empire, and the only aspirant
for that throne who had any right Of ex-
pectation dies in a war that has not eyenthe
dignity OF being respectable. What is the
leaf that England would like to tear out
OF her history? The Zulu war. Down Wit
the sword and up with the treaty.
We in this country might better have set
tied our sectional difficulties by arbitration
than by the trial of the sword. Philan"
thropy said to the North: PAY down GER
tain amount of money for the purchase OF
the slaves. and let all those born after GER
tain time be born Free" Philanthropy said
to the South: "You sell your slaves, and get
rid OF this great National contest and trou-
ble." The North replied: ~ won't pay {!
cent" The South replied III won't sell. H"
Wari War! A million dead men, and a Ma
tional debt which might have ground this
Nation to powder. Why did we not let
William Fl. Seward, OF New York, ana Alex
ander II. Stephens, OF Georgia, go OUT ana
spend few days under the trees OH the
banks of the Potomac and talk Inc mat5er
over and settle it, as settle it they could,
rather than the North pay in cost OF war
four billion seven hundred million dollars,
and the South pay four billion seven hum
dred and fifty million dollars, the destroying
angel leaving the flrst-bOrn dead in so many
houses ali the way from the Penooscot TO tue
Alabama. Ye aged men whose sons 1eil IN
the strife, do you not think that would nave
been better? Oh yes! We have come TO De-
lieye. think. in this country. that arbitra-