Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1896-05-20
HEq. DR.. IgLugGE.
The Eminent Divine's Sunday
Sermon.

Sermon
sunIsct: ''Before They Adjourn"
sTExr: "And teach his senators WISDOM
Psalms cv., 20.
Senators in this text stand for Lawmakers.
Joseph was the lord treasurer of the Esyptian
government. and among other great things
which he did, according to my text. was to
teach his senators wisdom. And il any men
on earth ought to be endowed with wisdom
IT 1s senators, whether they stand in con-
crosses, parliaments or reichstags or assem-
blies or legislatures. By their decisions
nations go mp or down. Lawmakers are
sometimes so tempted by prejudices. by sec
tfonal preference, by opportunity OF personal
advancement, and sometimes what Is best to
do Is so doubtfulthat they ought to be prayed
for and encouraged in every possible way
instead Of severely criticised and blamed and
excoriated, as is much of the time the case.
Our public men are SO often the target to be
shot at, merely because they obtain eminence
which other men wanted but could not reach,
that more injustices are hurled at our ma
tional legislature than the people OF the Uni
ted States can possibly imagine. The whole
sale belying Of our public men is simply dam
nable.
By residence in Washington 1 have come
to find out that many OF our public men ara
persistently misrepresented, and some OF the
best OF them. the purest In their lives and
most faithful in The discharge OF their duties,
are the worst DETAINED. Some day l want to
preach a sermon from the text in II Peter:
"They are not afraid to speak evil Of digni-
| ties. Whereas angels, which are greater in
power and might, bring not railing accusa-
| tion against them before the Lord. But
these, as natural brute beasts. made to be
! taken and destroyed. speak evil OF the things
that they understand not" So constant and
| malignant is this work of depreciation and
| standardization in regard to our public men
| that all over the land there are those who
J suppose that the city of Washington is the
| center of all corruption, while what with its
| parks, and its equestrian statuary, and Its
| Wide streets. and its architectural symme-
| tries, and its lovely homes, it is not only the
! most beautiful city under the sun, but has
| the highest style of citizenship. have seen
| but one intoxicated man in the more than
| six months of my residence, and 1 do not
| think any man can give similar testimony OF
any other city on the American continent.
The gavels of our two houses of national
| legislature will soon fall, and adjournment
| of two bodies of men as talented, as upright
and as patriotic as ever graced the capital
| will take place. The two or three unfor-
tunate outbreaks which you have noticed
only make more conspicuous the dignity,
| the fraternity, the eloquence, the fidelity
| which have characterized those two bodies
! during all the long months of important and
| anxious elaboration. We put a halo around
| great men of the past because they were 50
| rare in their time. Our senate and house OF
| representatives have five such men where
once they had one But it will not be until
| after they are dead that they will get anpre-
ciated. The world finds it safer to praise
the dead than the living. because the de-
parted. having heavy pile of marble above
| them NAV not rise to become rivals
But, before the gavels of adjournment
drop and the doors of Capitol Hill shut,
there are one or two things that ought to be
done, and le. us pray God that they may he
accomplished More forcibly than ever be.
fore, congress has been implored to acknowl-
edge God in our constitution. The Metho-
dist Church, n church that is always doing
| glorio1s things. has in its recent Whining
ton conference requested our congress to
amend the immortal document which has
been the foundation and wall and dome oi
our United States government by inserting
the words, "rrusiing in Almighty Hod." II
| that amendment is made, it will not oniy
please all the good people of the country,
but will please the heavens. 1t was only an
oversight or mental accident that the fath-
ers who made the constitution did not insert
a divinely worshipful sentence. They all. so
far as they amounted to anything, believed
in "God the Father Almighty, the Maker OF
heaven and eartn. and in Jesus Christ. His
only begotten Son." The constitution W Duld
have been failure had it not been for the
divine interference. The members OF the
convention could agree on nothing until, in
response to Benjamin Franklin's request that
the meetings be opened by prayer, the Lord
God was called on to interfere and help, and
then the way was cleared. and all the states
signed the document, a historical fact that
all the rat terriers OF modern infidelity can
not bark out Of existence. know that there
, was an exception to the fact that the promi-
~.a,xk, tv.N hos ffFvaa ma
Tom Paine a libertine and a sot. did not
believe in anything good until he was dying,
and then he shrieked out for Gods mercy.
And Ethan Allen, from one of whose
descendants 1 have received within n few
| days a confirmation of the incident j men,
! toned in a recent sermon, as saying to his
dying daughter that she had better take her
mothers Christian religion than his own in
fidelity. The article sent mo says: 'The
story has been denied by some of the Allen
family, but the Bronson family, some oi
whom were with the dying girl, affirm that
1t is substantially true. In such matter
one confirmation is worth more than many
denials." So says the article sent me.
There is no doubt that Ethan Allen was the
vulgarsst sort of an infidel, Tor, sitting in q
Presbyterian Church. his admirers say hs
struc.; the pew in front of him and swore out
loud so as TO disturb the meeting, and nc
gentleman would do that. do not wonder
that some of his descendants are ashamed o
him, but of course they could not help it ant
are not to blame. But all the decent men O
the Revolution believed in God, and oul
American congress, now assembled. will oni,
echo the sentiments of the fathers when the,
enthrone the name OF God in the consti
tuition. We have now more reason fol
inserting that Acknowledgement OF divinity
than our fathers had. Since then the :on
tinent has been peopled and great cities from
the Atlantic to the Pacific built, and all il
peace, showing that there must have been
supernai supervsal. Since then the war o
. 1912, and ours the victoryi Since then great
, financial prostrations. out OF which We came
to greater prosperity than anything that pre-
ceded. Since then sanguinary 1862, 1868
1864 and 1865, and notwithstanding the fact
that all the foreign despotisms were plan
ming for our demolition, We are united peo
ple and tomorrow you will find in botf
{ houses of congress the men who fought fo
:, the north and south, now sitting side b,
side. armed with no weapon except the pen
| with which they write home to their con
| stituents who want to be appointed post
: masters. The man who cannot see GOD II
our American history is as blind OF soul n
= he would be blind of body If he could not Al
. l2 o'clock of an unclouded noon see tn,
sun in the heavens.
Asa matter of gratitude to Almighty God
3 gentlemen of the American congress, b
, pleased to insert the four words suggests
by the Methods: conference. Not only be
cause of the kindness of God to this patio
in the past should such reverential insertion
be made, but because of the fact that we ar
going to want divine interposition sti
further in our national history. This gol
and silver question will never be settled I'll
4 til God settles it. This question of tariff an
" tree trade will never be settled until Go
. Httles it. This question between the ea'
u Ind the west, which is getting hotter an
Is hotter and looks toward a republic of III
n Pacific, will not be settled until God settl,
t. We needed God in the l20 years OF OF
sst national life, and we will need Hi'
10 Niir more in the next 120 years. Lift
70 your heads, ye everlasting gates of oil
II glorious constitution, and let the KI
:, Sf Glory come in! Make one line
~ that in,mnrfal document radiant wi