The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1896-05-18

little blossoms very ueiicate III appear.
ance, growing eleven 10 twelve thousand
feet above the sea near the peaks Of the
Rocky Mountains, just below the limit
of eternal. snow. Consider the daring
OF lark rising until it is invisible,
borne on an element so much lighter
than himself.
The stormy petrol il said to fly for three
days out 10. sea, in wrack OF darkness
and tempest, where the strongest ship
OF mans construction shivers on her
way, fearful Of water, air and iceberg.
DO the thing You were made TO do; reach
after nothing that takes you beyond
your power. 1t may not be yours to live
in the rare upper air, blossoming by
snow drifts; that might be fatal to your
make up unless the Lord placed you
there. 10 cling to the Ancient Rock,
even the Rock OF Ages, over the gorge OF
grief and despair, as lichen on its
cliff, Is a martyrs place; and perhaps God
In His mercy, not inding in you and me
material for martyrs has placed us safe
on a sheltered landward side-in cleft
OF the rock He has hidden us. IL we
cannot fly it is better to run-aye, even
to creep to a glorious destiny, rather
than 70 presume upon some sudden, easy
met hod of progress in character. The
absence OF wings, or rather the intensity
of grAvitatiou, is divine arrangement to
answer the prayer-keep back thy SER
1t Is not every man who could be
trusted with the temptations OF Jesus the
Master. Given the power to leap down
from the pinnacles OF temples, perhaps
we should not take heed to the question,
Am l devotIng the powers of God to the
glory of God? Whatever you discover
hallow it. Hallow the grain elevators,
the printing presses, the manifold mecan-
ism of the age.
The new forces that spin cars through
our streets, that carry our voices from the
Atlantic to the Great Lakes these forces
are like unto the Burning Bush. The use
of them is like being placed in the treas
temple. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God in the use of these His Inyster ious
powers, for no man can say how near the
powers may be TO pure spnit. Standing
by dynamo or Crookes' tube or
at telephone connection, / would
feel myself TO be at the entrance of the
Holy of HOLES in nature. Can any man
put these sublime and awful agents 10 any
other than noble uses? Had God IN
tended that they should be dragged
down to nero money getting. to profanity
aud lust He would have revealed them
to the world five thousand years ago.
Now, to men trained in the divine life
OF the Nazarene, to msn on whom the
culture Of ages has shone. on whom
the example and discipline OF previous
eras has been expended, even to US, has
God opened such and many another
hidden marvel that He might know
whether we would take them To serve
Him. If then you approach any OF the
channels of power consider them for what
they are, the harbingers OF great spirit
ual future, the messengers OF God, the
tokens of lis teemlng life and immediate
presence; and apply them in spirit OF
reverence to the dawning twentieth CEN
tury. When about to turn an electric
switch, fulfill the prayer OF Jesus Christ
and seek, by these hidden powers, to
hallow the name of our Father in heaven.
Make your telegraphic message, by the
mercy, or the comfort, or the faith II con-
tains, TO help on thst Christly petition:
"Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in
earth as it is in heaven.n Washington in
many weary day across mountains and
sws mps to reach even the east
ernmost waters that flow into the Mis-
sissippi. You today, standing in the
national capital named In his honor, can,
by the grace of God, send your voice in
one instant double the distance that his
long journey took hin, even to the very
shores of out great central river. Then
by so much as your power has been ex-
tended beyond that of Washington, by
so much as you are privileged to use
agencies that multiply yo1r presence. you
must also multiply your force for right
eousness, mercy and faith. oh, my soul,
draw back frcm uttering sentence that
eau carry anything less than q holy in
fuence half across continent! 1 say,
American, whirling a myriad OF spfndles,
rolling unnumhered wheels OF steel, wrap
ping the world with cordcns OF copper
wire, shooting your voices under oceans,
photoRraphing and analyzing the stars
weighing the very sun, Oh, American,
tempt not the Lord thy God! For Sill
He holdeth the waters in the hollow Of
His hand. He taketh up the mountains
as very little thing. He hengeth the
earth upon nothing He stretcheth out the
heaven as a tent TO dwell In; He prepares a
home for you in other spaces. lie under
standeth our thought ofar off; He is God
over all, blessed forever. To him, all
angels cry aloud; cher lbim and seraphim
cast forth their souls sin tones whose very
sweetness yielded proof that they were
born tor Immortality;" TO Vim have all
the nobless of earth's heroes and pro-
phets looked with reverent and kindling
eye, knowing that oil the enumerations OF
earthly tongues are but the outskirts OF
His ways, for how small whisper do wo
hear OF Him and into the slowly break
ing glory of His superual Being; into the
consciousness of that Life, only the
shadow Of which appeared In the trans
fCuration and at the resurrection; into
that diademed Maiesty, whose glowing
eye and snowy hair John saw In the APO
oslypse; into the very nucleus of that
power which said a. Let there be light
and there was light" into this BE all
and tho End All of Whom and for Whom
are all things, moves your spirit, steadily,
resistlessly, 10 open out before dim like an
unroled scroll Its history and motive. Hal
low then that Name, come into that
Presence with awful, Joy preypme not
upon His liberation OF a stain ot unrig ht-
eousness.