The Yale expositor., 1898-05-20

tune he has brought this nation to
better moral and financial condition,
and so let us pray that he will lift
us out OF this valley of trouble unto
a higher mountain of blessing.
1t is a mystery that just as this
country was recovering from a long
season OF hard times, SO many of our
industries should now be halted; that
business men who thought they could
see their way to pay their debts and
build up more prosperous enterprises
and endow their homes with more adj
vantages should have to halt and walt
until the perfidious oppressor OF Cuba
shall be turned back. But individual
and national life Is always clothed
with mysteries, and we may make our
selves miserable by stabbing ourselves
with sharp interrogation points, and
plying the everlasting questions of
"Why?" and "How?" and "What?"
and "When?" While we must, of
course, try to be intelligent on all pub
lie affairs, IL is glorious thing to do
our duty, and then fully and confident
ly trust all in the hands of God, who
has proved himself the friend of our
country from the time when the Span
ish government fitted out an expedi-
ton to discover il, to this time. when
Spaniards would like to destroy 1t.
Morning, noon and night let us
commend this beloved land to the
care of gracious God. That he an
swers prayer is so certain that your
religion Is an hallucination If he does
not answer 1t. Pray that in reply TO
such duplication the farmers boys
may get home again in time to reap
the harvest of next July; that our
business men may return in time to
prepare for a fall trade such as has
never yet filed the stores and factories
with customers, and that all the homes
in this country now saddened by the
departure of father or brother or son
may months before the Thanksgiving
and Christmas holidays be full of joy
at the arrival of those who will for
the rest of their lives have stories TO
tell of double-quick march, and mar
row escape, and charges up the para
pets, and nights set on fire with bonn
bardment. and our flag hauled up to
places from which other flags were
hauled down.
A storm such as had never swept
the coast of England or aroused the
ocean. swooped upon the Spanish Arm
ada. Most of the ships soon went down
under the sea, while others were driv-
en- helplessly along to be splintered on
the coasts of England, Ireland, Scot
land and Norway. Another Spanish
Armada is crossing the Atlantic, and
We are ready to meet them. The same
God who destroyed the Armada in
1888 reigns in 1898. May He in His
might, either through human arm or
dumb element, defeat their squadron,
and give victory to the old flag Of Ad-
miral Farragut and David Porter!
Yet what the world most wants is
Christ. who is coming to take posses
sion Of all hearts. all homes, all ma
tons; but the world blocks the wheels
OF his chariot. / would like to see this
century, WIlCu Is HON dllllOoN Nbui-h
up, find its perCration in some mighty
overthrow Of tyrannies and a mighty
building up of liberty and justice. Al
most all the centuries have ended with
some stupendOus event that trans
formed nations and changed the map
of the world. 1t was SO at the close
Of the fourteenth century; it was so
at the close of the fifteenth century; it
was so at the close OF the sixteenth
century; it was so at the close OF the
seventeenth century; 1t was so at the
close of the eighteenth century. May
il be more gloriously so at the close
Of the nineteenth century! blessed
be the Lord God of Israel from ever
lasting to everlasting, and let the
whole earth be filled with his glory"
Amen. and Amen.