Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1896-10-09
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME m THE
nRSiINGrUN PREACHER.
Subject, 'The Day is at Hand"
TEEE' "Ths day is at hand."-ROmnns

-ta-@FaFH anu Alr Anf tAANAers NkAl
eheeAs hronzed aud your spirits lighted,
Lalt You home again with the words o
uehaA 70 the shunHmmits: SIS il well with
nvef i II well with thy husbaud2 Is 4
wei with the chilly" ON some faces Sc,
the mark OF recent grief, but all along tn,
track Oh tears | see the story Of resurrection
anu reunion when all tears are done the
Seep h.oWing OF the keel. followed by the
htsh OF tue phosphorescence, Now that
nave aske! you in regard To your welfare
you naturally ask how | am, Very we'll
thank You. Whether ii was the tracing All
o. the mountains, or bath In the surf Of
Long Island beach, or whether il is the joy
OF standing In this great group of warm.
hearted friends, or whether il is new ap.
pre'latlon OF the goodness OF God, can not
tell. simply know am happy.
II was said that John Moffatt the graat
Methodist preacher. occasionally got fast In
his sermon, and TO extricate himself would
cry "Hal.elujah.' | am in no such predf,a.
ment to-day, but am full of the same rhaD-
sodic ejaculation. Starting out this MORN
ing on new ecclesiastical wear. l want IN
give you tie keynote of my next twelye-
months ministry. | want TO set il TO the
lanes OF Antioch, ariel" and Corona
tion.' | want to put new trumnet sion
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 II 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 4th OF July, l776, will
see to 1t that this Nation shall not commit
suicide or November 3, 1896. By the time
the unparalleled harvests of this summer get
down to the sea-board, We shall be standing
in sunburst OF National prosperity that will
paralyze the pessimis.s, who by their evil
prophestes 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 Galiee2 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: ale reoiced in
spirit? Do you believe that the Divine
Thirst who pours all the waters over the
rocks at Nernal Falls. Yosemite, does not
believe in the sparkle and gallon and tumul-
tuous JOY and rushing rnptures of human
life2 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
gladness
Astronomers disturbed'many people by tell
ing them that there was danger of stellar
collision. We were told by these astrono.
mers that there are worlds coming very near
together, and that we shall have plaques and
wars and tumults and perhaps the worlds
destruction. Do not be scared. II you have
ever stood at railroad centre, whore ten or
twenty or thirty rail tracks cross each other.
and seen that by the movement OF the switch
one or two inches, the train shoots this wav
and that, without coliding, then you NAV
understand how fifty worlds may come with
in an inch OF disaster, aud that inch be
as good as q million miles If
human swtch-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? Christian biologists tell us
that this world was millions Of years in
/ building Well, 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 ey-
cite dismay | wish that some stout
/ Gospel breeze might scatter all the malaria
of human forebOdinC,
The sun rose this morning at about
O'Clock, and think that is lust about the
hour in the worlds history. 1.-THE day Is at
hand. The first ray of the dawn | 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, but which were
peacefully adjusted. the pen taking the place
OF the sword. The Venezuelan controversy
III any other age Of the world would have
brought shock of arms, but now is beng so
quietly adjusted that no one knows lust how
1t is being settled.
The Alabama question in any other age of
the world would have caused war between
the United States and England. How was
II settledt BY men-of-war off the Narrows,
or on the Mersey? No. A few wise men got
into quiet room at Geneva, talked the
matter over, and telegtaphed to Washington
and London, Gan settled" Peace! Peace!
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-settled for forever,
Arbitration instead of battle
SO the quarrel about the Canadian fish
cries in any other age would have caused
war between the United States and England.
30 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 q
battle with other Nations. She sees that
God, in punishment at Sedan, blotted out
the French Empire, and the only aspirant
Tor that throne who had any right of ex-
peetatton dies in war that has not even the
dignity of being respectable. What is the
leaf that England would like to tear out
OF her history The Zulu war. Down with
the sword and up with the treaty,
a N
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 a 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-
bic. The North replied: II won't pay q
cent" The South replied, 81 won't SELL"
War! War! A million dead men, ana a Ma
tlonal debt which might have ground this
Nation to powder Why did we not let
William FL. Seward, of New York, and Alex
ander IL. Stephens of Georgia, 90 out and
spend few days under the trees on the
banks OF the Potomac and talk the matter
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 hun
dred and fifty million dollars, the destroying
angel leaving the flrst-born dead in 80 MANY
houses all the way from the Penobscot to the |
Alabama. Ye aged men whose sons fell in
the strife, do you not think that would have
been better? Oh, yes! We have come to be-
leve, think, in this country, that arbitra-
ton is better than BATTLE
Imay be mistaken, but hope that the last
war between Christian Nations is ended.
Barbarians may mix their war paint, and |
Chinese and japanese go into wholesale |
massacres, and Afghan and Zulu hurl pois-
oned arrows, but l think Christian Nations
have gradually learned that war is disaster
to victor rs we'll as vanquished, and that al.
most anything bought by blood is bought at
too dear price. wish to God this Nation
might be model Of willingness for arbitra-
tlon; NO need OF killing another Indian. No