The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1896-10-03
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Strong Hope for Day Of Univer-
sal Arbitration,
when Standing Armies May Disappear
and the World be- Governed Upon
PRINCIPLES of Peace and
Christianity.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following sermon before his Wash
ington congregation, basing it on the
text:
| The day Is at hand.-Romans kill, IL.
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: us it well with thee? is 1T
well with thy husband? is it well with
the child?" On some faces l see the
mark OF recent grief, but all along
the track of tears i 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 am. Very
we'll, thank you. Whether it was the
bracing air of the mountains, or a
bath in the surf of Long Island beach,
or whether it is the Joy of standing in
this group of warm-hcartcd friends, or
whether it is a new appreciation OF
the goodness of God, l can not
tell. l simply know l am
happy. 1t was said that John
Moffatt, the great Methodist preach
er, occasionally got fast in his sermon,
and to extricate himself would cry
"Halleluia h" am in no such predica-
mcnt to-day, but am full OF the same
rhapsodic ejaculation. Starting out
! this morning on new ecclesiastical
year, l want to give you the keynote
of my next IL months ministry. l
want TO set it to the tunes of An
tioch," Ariel" and Coronation" l
want to put new trumpet stop into
my sermons. We do wrong If we al
low our personal sorrows to interfere
with the glorious fact that the king
dom is coming We arc wicked if we
allow apprehension of national disas-
ter to put down our faith in God and
and the mission of our American peo-
pie. The God who hath been on the
side of this nation since the 4th of
July, lT1G, will see to it that this ma
| ton shall not commit suicide on No
vember 3, 1896 by the time the I'M
parallelcd harvests of this summer
/ get down to the scaboard we shall be
standing in sunhurst of national
prosperity that will paralyze the pes
simists who by their evil prophecies
are disappearing the God who hath
blest this nation as He hath blcst no
other.
In all our Christon work you and |
| want more Of the element of gladness.
No man had sight to say that Christ
never laughed. Do you suppose that
lie was glum at the wedding in Cana
i of Gallce? Do you SUPPOSE that Christ
vas unresponsive when the children
clambered over His knee and shoulder
ut His own invitation? Do you sup
pose that the evangelist meant
nothing when he said of Christ: "he
rejoiced in spirit?' Do you believe
| that the divine Christ who pours all
Che waters over the rocks at
Vernal Falls, Yosemite, does not
believe in the sparkle and gallop
and tumultuous joy and rushing
| raptures OF human life? 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 laug More
| over, take laugh and a tear into an
| alembic, and assay them, and test them,
and analyze them, and you will often
| ind as much of the pure gold of re-
| lgion in laugh as in Il tear. Deep
| spiritual Joy always shows itself in
| facial illumination. John Wesley said
he was sure of good religious impress
sion being produced because OF what
he calls the great gladness he saw
among the people. Goddess merriment
is blasphemy anywhere, but express
sion of Christian JOY is appropriate
everywhere
Moreover, the outlook Of the world
ought to stir us to gladness. Astrono-
mers disturbed many people 10y telling
them that there was danger of stellar
collision. We were told by these as
tronomers that there are worlds COM
ing very near together, and that we
shall have plaques and wars and tu-
mults and perhaps the worlds dcstruc-
ton. Do not be scared. II you have
ever stood at n railroad center, where
ten or 90 or 80 rail tracks cross each
other, and seen 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 million miles. II hu.
man switch-tcnder can shoot the trains
this way and that without harm, can
not the hand that for thousands of
years has upheld the universe, keep
our little world out of harms way?
Christian re ologists tell us that this
world was millions Of years in build
ing. Well, now, l do not think God
would take millions of years to build
a house which was to last only six
thousand years. There is nothing in
the world or outside the world, ter
restial or astronomical, TO excite dis
may. wish that some stout Gospel
breeze might scatter all the malaria
of human foreboding. The sun rose
this morning at about o'clock. and l
think that is just about the hour in
the worlds history. "The day is at
hand"
uba fret roy Of the dawn / see in