The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-10-02
UNIVERSAL PEACE.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Draws a Picture
of the Millennium.
Hope for the Dawn of the Day of Unl-
VersaI Arbitration, when Principles
OF Peace and Christianity
Shall Govern All.

The following discourse Of Rev. Il.
Dewitt Talmage was delivered before
his WashiH gton congregation, being
based on the text:
The day Is hand.-ROmans kilt, II.
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-
nammjte: rs it well with thee? is il
we'll 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
resurrection and reunion when all
tears are done; the deep blowing of
the keel, followed by the flash Of the
phosphorescence. Now that l 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-hearted friends, or
whether it is a new appreciation of
the goodness of God, 1 can not
tell. simply know 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
"Hallelujah.' l am in no such predica-
ment to-day, but am full of the same
Thapsodic ejaculation. Starting out
this morning on n new ecclesiastical
Z 70 - "a
of my next u months ministry. l
want to set it to the tunes of AN
tioch, Ariel" and Coronation" 1
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 are 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, l776, will see to it that this ma
ton shall not commit suicide on No
vember 3, 500. by the time the I'M
paralleled harvests of this summer
get down to the seaboard we shall be
standing in a sunburst of national
prosperity that will paralyze the pes
simists who by their evil prophecies
are disappearing the God who hath
other.
In all our Christon work you and l
want more of the element of gladness.
No man had Alright to say that Christ
never laughed. Do you suppose that
lie was glum. at the wedding in Cana
of Galilee? Do you suppose that Christ
as unresponsive when the children
clambered over His knee and shoulder
at His own invitation2 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
the 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? / 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. More
over, take laugh and tear into an
alembic, and assay them, and test them,
and analyze them, and you viii often
find as much of the pure gold of re-
ligion in a laugh as in tear. Deep
spiritual Joy always shows itself in
facial illumination. John Wesley said
he was sure of a 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 by 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 destruc-
ton. Do not be scared. If you have
ever stood at railroad center, where
ten or 20 or so 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
eolliding, then you may understand
how so worlds may come within an
inch of disaster, and that inch be as
good as a million miles. If a hui
man switch-tender 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 wayP
Christian biologists tell US that this
world was millions of years in build
ing. Well, now, do not think God
would take millions of years to build
a house which was to last only six
tho 0sand years. There is nothing in
the world or outside the world, ter
restial or astronomical. to excite dis
may. j wish that some stout Gospel
breeze might scatter all the malaria
of human foreboding. The sun rose
this morning at about 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 l see in
the gradual substitution of diplomatic |
skill for human butchery. Within the |
last % years there have been interna-
tional differences which would have |
brought shock of arms in any other |
day, but which were peacefully ad- |
justed, 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 adjusted that no
one knows just how it is beng set
tied.
The Alabama question in any other
age of the world would have caused |