The Afro-American advance., 1900-11-17

part of an inch The right direction. REQ,
Die talk as though things in this world
were at loose ends. Cholerf sweeps across
Marseilles and Madrid and Palermo; ana
we watch anxiously. Wlll the epioamlc
sweep Europe aud America? People say:
THAT viii entirely depend on whether
the inocuIation is successful experiment;
that will depend entirely on quarantine
regulation. that win depend on the early
or late apDearance of frost, that epidemic
Il pitched into the world, and it goes blum
derlng across the continents, and It rs al
guesswork and all appalling perhaps.
think perllaps that God had something to
do with It and that His mercy may have
in some way protected us, that He may
have done as much for us as the qnaran-
tine and the health officers. 1t was right
and a necessity that all caution should be
used. but there have come enough maea-
roni from Italy and enough grapes from
the south of France and enough rags from
tatterderualions and hidden in these artls
cles OF transportation enough choieralc
germs to have left by. tins time ah the
thank all tie doctors and quarantines, but
| more than all and first of all and last OF
/ all and all the time / thank God. In all
the G000 years of the worlds existence
there has not one thing merely happened
so" God is not an anarchist, but a King,
| a Father.
/ When little Tad, the son of President
Lincoln, died, all America sympashlzIegd Ig
with the sorrow in the White House lie
used to rush into the room where the
| Cabinet was in session and while the most
| eminent men of the land were discussing
| the questions Of national existence But
the child had ne care about those ques-
tions. No, God the Father and God the
Son and God the Holy Ghost are in per,
| petual session in regard to thus world
and kindred worlds. Shall you, His child,
rush in to cTiticise or arraign or condemn
| the divine government? No. The cab.
met of the eternal three can govern and
| will govern in the wisest and best way,
and there never will be a mistake and,
like razor skillfully swung. shall cut that
which ought to be avoided. Precision to
the very hairbreadth. Earthly time
| pieces may go out of order and strike
or 2 when it is g. Gods clock is always
right, and when it is / it strikes !, and
| when it is II it strikes II, and the second
hand is as accurate as the minute hand.
Further, my text tells Us that God
sometimes shaves nations: I'm the came
day shall the Lord shave with a razor
that is hired" With one sharp sweep
He went across Judeas and ID down went ITS
/ pride and its power. In 1861 God shaved
the American nation. We had allowed to
grow Sabbath desecYation and oppression
and blasphemy and fraud and impuritv
| and all sorts of turpitude. The South had
its sins and the North had it's sins and
the East its sins and the West its sins.
| 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 seaLoard to Pacific sea-
board The pride of the land, not the
towards, but the heroes, on both sides
went down. And that which we took for
the sword ef war was the Lord razor. In
| 1862 again it went across the land; IN
| 1868 again: in 1864 again. Then the sharp
instrument was incased and put away.
One would think that our national SYM
Dol of the eagle might sometimes SUCCESS
| another eagle, that which ancient Rome
carried In the talons Of that eagle were
| clutched at one time Britain, France,
/ Spain, Italy, Dalmatia, Rhaetia, Noncum,
| Pannonia, Moesia, Dacia, Thrace, Mace
| donia. Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoeni-
cia, Palestine, Egypt and all northern
1 Africa and all the islands of the Mediter-
ranean--indeed all the world that was
worth having; l20, 100000 Of people under
the wings OF that one eagle Where is
/ she now? Ask Gibbon, the historian, IN
/ his prose petns. the Decline End Fall Of
| the Roman Empire" Ask her gigantic
ruins, bemoaning their sadness through
| the ages, the screech owl at windows out
| of which worldwide eonquereTs looked.
Ask the day of judgment, when her
crowned debauchees, Commodus and Per
tinax and Caligula and Diocletian. shall
| answer for their infamy. As man and as
nations let us repent and have our trust
in a pardoning God rather than depend
on former successes for immunity. Out
of thirteen of the greatest battles of the
world Napoleon had lost but one before
| Waterloo Pride and destruction often
rode in the same saddle.
But notice once more and more than
| all in my text that God is so kind and
| loving that when it is necessary for Him
to cut He has to go to others Tor the
sharp edged weapon. In the same day
| shall the Lord shave with a razor that is
| hired" God is love. God is pity. God
| is help. God is shelter. God is rescue.
| There are no sharp edges about Him, no
| thrusting points, no instruments OF lacera-
| ton IL you want balm for wounds, lie
has that. If you want divine salve for
eyesight He has that. But If there Is
| sharp and cutting work to do which re-
quires a razor, that He hires. God has
nothing about Him that hurts save when
dire necessity demands, and then He has
to go clear off to some one else 20 get the
instrument This divine clemency will be
no novelty to those who have pondered
| the CalVarean massacre, W0efe GOu SUD-
merged Himself in human tears and Grim
| soned Himsef from punctufed arteries
and let the terrestrial and Internal worlds
maui Him until the chandeliers of the
sky had to be turned out because the uni
verse could not endure the outrage. Illus
! trious for love He must have been to take
all that as our substitute, paying out of
His own heart the price of our admission
| at the gates of heaven.
King Henry II. of England crowned his
son as king, and on the day of coronation
put on servants garb and waited, he,
the king, at the sons table, to the aston
ishment of all the princes. But we know
of more wondrous scene, the King OF
heaven and earth offering to put on you,
His child, the crown of life and in the
form of servant waiting on you with
blessing. Extol that love, ali painting. all
sculpture, all music, all architecture, all
worshipi In Dresdenian gallery let Ra-
phael hold Him up as child, and IN Ant
werp cathedral let Rubens hand Him
down from the cross martyr and Han.
del make all his oratorio vibrate around
that one chord-"He was wounded for our
transgressions, bruised for our iniqulties.
But not until all the redeemed get home
and from the countenances IN all the gal
leries of the ransomed shall be revealed
the wonders of redemption shall either
man or seraph or archangel know the
height and depth and breadth of the love
of God.
| AZ our national canital A uoniment in