The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-06-29
LESSON FROM THE RAINBOW
CHILDRENS' DAY TESTERDAY AT
 EPWORTH 1T. r. CHURCH.

sermon to Children on "Tho Rainbow" by
 Rev. MT. Grifin-A Fine Illustration and
 Beautiful Line ofThought-Colors of tho
 Rainbow to Represent Gods Promises
 Clouds Needed to Show a Rainbow.
 Yesterday was chlldren's day at the Epworth M, E. church at the corner
 of Orange and Edwards streets, and
 the altar and the platform were pret-
 tily decorated in roses and other flow CTS for the occasion. At 10:3O in the
 morning the pastor, Rev. D. N. Griffin, preached a special sermon to children
 on the subject, "The Rainbows." As
 illustrative of his remarks, a repre- scntation of a rainbow was drawn in
 colored crayons on blackboard, which
 stood in front of the pulpit, There was
 also a large secondary rainbow drawn
 on a canvas, At the conclusion of the
 sermon MT. Griffin invited all the chil-
 dren to look through a spectrum which
 he had.
 MT. Griffin preached from the text Genesis iX, Il, And it shall come to
 pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in
 the cloud" He said that God gives US | two Bibles, the Scriptures and nature Psalm xix, "The heavens declare the
 glory of God; and the Armament shew- eth His handiwork," etc, and the hymn | which begin "There seems a voice in every gale, a tongue in every flower, which prOclaims, oh Lord, a Wondrous | tale' illustrate this statement. The sun speaks to us of the Son of Right | eousness, the stars of the Star of Beth | lehem, the wind of the New Birth, the | wind bloweth where it listeth," the housereminds us of the house not made with hands," bread of the Bread of Life, water of the Water of Life, and 1 flowers of the Rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley clothes recall to us the robes of Righteousness, the sparrow of Gods care, sheep of the Good Shep- herd, darkness of the sinners doom, and ugly things of nature remind us | of sin and death, and destruction.
 To those people who lived after the | flood clouds indicated sin and death | but on this black background of His | wrath God put the rainbow, a picture of His love. This is a world of clouds. | Sin is dark cloud. MT. Griffin then mentioned the various clouds which l formed a background against which l Gods promises may be appreciated and | spoke of the cloud of temptation and | the cloud of Sorrow and Death. Against i each of these clouds he placed a rain 1 bow, each color of which he made to | represent to the children a promise of | hope and comfort
 He then spoke of the special prom
 ises to children, and as he spoke of each
 one he pointed out on the picture of
 the rainbow the color which represent
 ed that promise thus stamping indel- | libly on the minds of the children His
 thought The first promise mentioned
 was As in Adam all dled so in Christ
 all are made alive" and was repre-
 scented by the violet. The second was | represented by indigo and was Come thou with all thy house." MT. Griffin l saying that children were included in
 this. The third promise was T love | | Me early shall find Me" and the blue l of the rainbow fixed it in the minds of the children. The fourth promise
 was the green of the rainbow and was Suffer little children to come unto Me, i etc." the fifth was the yellow and the
 words Except ye be anointed and | become as little children ye shall never | enter the Kingdom of Heaven" the | sixth, ,Iby orange and the words "It is
 not the will of your Father that one l of these little ones should perish" the | seventh by red, the brightest of all, 1 and the words Unto you and your | children and those that are far off, as many as the Lord, our God, shall cal"
 MT. Griffin then said that as when 1 there is no cloud there can be no rain l bow, so in life when we have no clouds 1 there can be no appreciation or Ine sunshine. He then drew some beauti 1 ful lessons from the rainbow and em- 1 phasized the fact that God recognized
 His covenant as He saw the rainbow
 and said that as we see the rainbow
 we should remember Gods covenant l and be thankful to Him.