Connecticut western news., 1896-09-24
LIFE'S BRIGHT SIDE.
REV. DR. rALMAaE's WORDS OF HOPE
 AND CHEER.

REV. DR. rALMAaE's WORDS OF HOPE
 AND CHEER.
 He Takes "A Rapturous Outlook" For the
 Subject of . Sermon That shows Chris
 tan Courags-The Sunlight of Progress
 h Fast O'erspreading the World.
 WASHINGTON, Sept 20.-H the clarion note of this sermon, delivered at the na- tionh capital. could sound through Christendom, it woud give everything good new start. Dr. Talmage's text was Romans xiii. 12, 'The day Is at hand"
 Back from the mountains, and the seaside, and the springs, and the farm house, your cheeks bronzed and your spirits lighted, hail you home again with the words of Gehazi to the Shu- nammite: "Is it we'll with thee2 Is it well with thy husband? Is it we'll with the child?" On some faces see the mark of recent grief, but all along the track of tears see the story of resurreo- tion and reunion, when all tears are done; the deep blowing of the keel, fol lowed by the flash of the phosphores- oence. Now that have asked you in regard to your welfare you naturally ask how I am. Very we'll, thank you. Whether it was the bracing air of the mountains, or Q bath in the surf of Long Island beach, or whether it is the joy of standing in this great group of warm hearted friends. or whether it is a new appreciation of the goodness of God, I cannot tell. simply know am happy. It was said that John Moffatt, the great Methodist preacher, occasion ally got fast in his sermon, and to ex- tricate himself would ory Halleluiah" am in no such predicament today, but I am full of the same rhapsodio ejaoula- tion.
 Starting out this morning on a new ecclesiastical year, want to give you the keynote of my next 12 months min istry. want to set it to the tunes of "Antioch, Ariel" Coronation" 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 ap- prehension of national disaster to put down our faith in God and in the mis- sion of our American people. The God who hath been on the side of this na- tion since the 4th of July. 1776. will see to it that this nation shall not com init suicide on Nov. 8, 1896. By the time the unparalleled harvests of this summer get down to the seaboard we shall be standing in a sunburst of na- tional prosperity that will paralyze the pessimists who by their evil prophecies are blaspheming the God who hath blessed this nation as he hath blessed no other.
 Notes of Gladness.
 In all our Christian work you and want moro of the element of gladness. No man had right to say that Christ never laughed. Do you suppose that he was glum at the wedding in Cana of Galilee2 Do you suppose that Christ was unresponsive when the children clambered over his knee and shoulder at his own invitationy Do you suppose that the evangelist meant nothing when he said of Christ. "He rejoiced in spir- itr' Do you believe that the divine Christ who pours all the waters over the rocks at Vernal falls, Yosemite, does not believe in the sparkle and gal lop and tumultuous joy and rushing raptures of human lifef 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, take laugh and a tear into an alembio and as- gay them and test them and analyze them, and you will often find as much of the pure gold of religion in laugh as in tear. Deep spiritual joy always shows itself in facial illumination. John Wesley said he was sure of good religious impression being produced be- oause of what he calls the great glad ness he saw among the people. Goddess merriment is blasphemy anywhere, but expression of Christian joy is appropri- ate everywhere
 Moreover, the outlook of the world ought to stir us to gladness. Astrono- mers disturbed many people by telling them that there was danger of stellar collision. We were told by these astron- near together, and that we shall have plaques and wars and tumults and per haps the worlds destruction. Do not be scared. If you have ever stood at rail road center where 10 or 90 or 30 rail tracks cross each other and seen that by the movement of the switch one or two inches the train shoots this way and that without colliding. then you may understand how 50 worlds may come within an inch of disaster and that inch be as good as 1, 900, 000 miles. If 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 way? Chris tian geologists tell us that this world was millions of years in building. Well, now, do not think God would take millions of years to build a house which was to last only 6, 900 years. There is nothing in the world or outside the world, terrestrial or astronomical, to ex- cite dismay. I wish that some stout gospel breeze might scatter all the ma laria of human foreboding. The sun rose this morning at about 6 o'clock, and think that is just about the hour in the worlds history. ''The day is at hand. "
 The first ray of the dawn I see in the gradual substitution of diplomatic skill for human butchery. Within the last 25 years there have been international diff ferences which would have brought a shock of arms in any other day, but which were peacefully adjusted, the pen taking the place of the sword. The Venezuelan controversy in any other age of the world would have brought shock of arms, but now is being so quietly ad- justed that no one knows just how it is being settled.
 The Alabama question in any other age of the world would have caused war between the United States and Eng land. How was 1t settledi By men-of- war oil the Narrows or of the Mersey2 By the gulf stream of the ocean crossed hv . c,x,1f akvoou, of hrvoon hlo<5o Ru