The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-28


and merciful toward those who, while
they ave great faults, have also great
virtues Some people are barren Of
virtues. No weeds verify, but no fiow-
ers. / must not be too much enraged
at a nettle along the fence IL IL be in a
field containing 40 acres Of ripe Michi-
gan wheat Some time g n~aturalists
told US there was on the sun a pot TO-
600 miles long, but from the brightness
and warmth / concluded IL was a good
zeal Of a sun still. The sun can afford
to have a very large spot upon it,
though it be 1000 miles long, and 1
am very apologize for those men who
have great faults, while at the same
time they have magnificent virtues
NOTHING EVER HAPPENS"
Again, when / read in my text that
the Lord shaves with the hired razor
of AsSyria the land of dae / think
myself of the precision of Gods provi-
dence. A razor swung the tenth part
OF an inch out OF the right line means
either failure or l~aceration, but Gods
dealings never slip, and they do not
miss by the ~thousandth part of an inch
the right direction. People talk as
though things in this world were at
loose ends. Cholera sweeps across
Marseilles and Madrid and Palermo,
and we watch anxiously. Will the ep-
idemic sweep Europe and America?
People say, That will entirely de-
pend on whether the incubation is a
successful experiment: that will de-
pend entirely on quarantine regula-
tions; that will depend on the early or
late of frost. That cpl
demic is pitched into the world, n IL
goes laundering across the continents,
and il is all guess-work and an appall-
ing perhaps" 1 think, perhaps, that
God had something to do with it and
that his mercy may nave in some way
nrAtnntnl M rhor he nav hnxn dome
as much for us as the quarantine and
the health officers. 1t was right and a
necessity that all caution should be
used, but there have come enough mac
aroni from Italy, and enough grapes
from the south of France, and enough
rags from tatterdemalions, and d
in these articles of transportation
enough choleraic germs to have left by
this time all the cities mourning in
the cemeteries. / thank all the doc
tors and guarantees, but more than
all, and first of all. and last of all,
and all the time, i thank God. In
all the 5000 years of the worlds eX-
istence there has not one thing mere
ly happened So" God is not an an
archist. but a King, a Father.
When little Tad, the son of Presi-
dent Lincoln, died, all America SYM
pathiZed with the sorrow in the White
house. He used to rush into the room
NueIe Tie CdDllGl was III SSSSlOu anu
while the most eminent men of the land
were discussing the questions of ma
tiona existence. BUT the child a no
care about those questions. Now, God
the Father and God the Son and God
the Holy Ghost are in perpetual session
in regard to this world and kindred
worlds. Shall you, his child, rush in
to criticise or arraign or condemn the
divine government? No; the cabinet
of the Eternal Three can govern ana
will govern in the wisest and best
way, and there never will be a mis-
take and, like razor skillfully SWUNG.
shall cut that which ought to be cut
and avoid hat which ought to De
avoided Precision to the very hair
breadth. Earthly timepieces may get
out of order and strike wrong, saying
it is 1 o'clock when it is 3. Gods clock
is always right, and when it is l it
strikes 1, and when it is II it strikes
II, and the second hand is as accurate
as the minute a
NATIONAL SIN PUNCHED.
Further, my text tells US that God
sometimes shaves nations. I'm the
same day shall the Lord shave with a
sweep he went across Judaea, and down
went its pride and its power. In 1861
God shaved the American nation. We
had allowed ITO grow Sabbath desecra-
ton and oppression and blashemy and
impurity and, all sorts of turpitude.
The south had it's sins, and the north
it's sins, and the east it's sins, and the
west it's sin. We had been warned
again and again, and we did not heed.
At length the sword of war cut from
the st. Lawrence to the gulf and from
Atlantic seaboard to Pacific seaboard.
The pride of the land, not the towards.
but the heroes, on both sides went
down. And that which we took for the
sword of war was the Lords razor. In
1862 again it went across the land; in
1863 again; in 1864 again. Then the
sharp instrument was incased and put
away.
Never in the history of the ages was
any land more thoroughly hav than
during those four years of civil COM
bat, and, my brethren, if we do not
quit some of our individual and natur-
al sins the LORD will again take us in
hand He has other razors within reach
besides war-epidemics, droughts, de-
luges, plagues-grasshopper and locust
or u overtowering success may so
far excite the jealousy of other lands
that under some preteX the great ma
tons may continue to put us down.
Our nation, so easily approached on
north and south and from both oceans,
might have on hand at once more hos
tilitieS than were ever arrayed against
n power. L hope no lei combina-
ton against us will ever be formed,
but / want to show that, as Assyria
was the hired razor against Judaea,
and Cyrus the hired razor against
Babylon, and the Huns the hired razor
against the Goths, there are now many
razors that the Lord could hire if, be-
cause of our national sins, he should
undertake to shave us. In 1870 Ger
many was the razor with which the
Lord shaved Franc Japan was the
razor with which he shaved China and
America the razor with which he saved
arrogant, oppressive and Bible hating
Spain. But nations are to repent in
a day. May a speedy and worldwide
coming to God hinder on I'll sides the
sea all national calamity. But do not
let us as a nation either by unrighteous
law at Washington or bad lives among
ourselves defy the Almighty.
INSTRUMENTS OF GOD.
One would think tina our national
symbol of the eagle might sometimes
SuggeS another "a Qla-fhaJ which an.