The advance. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1899-19??, 1900-09-22


Marseilles and Madrid ard Palermo. and
we watch anxiously Will the epidemic
| sweep Europe aud America? People say:
| THAT viii entirely depend on whether
the incubation is a successful experiment;
| that will depend entirely on quarantine
regulation; that win depend on the early
or late appearance Of frost; that epidemic
is pitched into the world and it goes blum
| dering across the continents, and it is all
| Ruesswork and all appalling perhapsD i
| think perhaps that God had something to
| do With it and that his mercy may have
| in Some way protected ms, that He may
| have done as much for us as the quaran-
| tine and the health officers. II was right
and necessity that all caution should he
| used but there have come enough maca-
| roni from Italy and enough grapes from
the south OF France and enough rags from
tatterdermalions and hidden in these artis
cles OF transportation enough choeraic
germs to have left by this time all the
cities mourning in the cemeteries j
thank all the doctors and quarantines, but
more than all and first of all and last OF
all and all the time / thank God. In all
the 6000 years Of the worlds existence
there has not one thing merely "happened
| so.' God is not All anarchist but King,
q Father.
When little Tad, the son Of President
Lincoln. died, all America svmpathized
with the sorrow in the White House He
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 no 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 this world
and kindred worlds Shall you, His child,
rush in to criticise or arraiGn or condemn
the divine government? No. The cab.
- 80 H. n.kl
will govern in the wisest and best way,
and there never will be a mistake and,
like razor .slSillfully swung. shall cut that
which ought to be avoided. Precision to
the very hairbreadth. Earthly time
pieces may go out of order and strike
wrong, saying it is O'Clock when it is
or when it is g. Gods clock is always
right and when it is ] it strikes ], and
when it is u it strikes II, and the second
hand is as accurate as the minute hand.
Further, my text tells us that God
sometimes shaves nations "In the came
day shall the Lord shave with a razor
that is hired" With one sharp sweep
pride and its power. In 1851 God shaved
the American nation. We had allowed to
grow Sabbath Dissertation and oppression
and blasphemy and fraud and impurity
and all sorts Of turpitude. The South had
its sins and the North had its 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 4 war was the Lord razor. In
1852 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 suggest
another eagle, that which ancient Rome
carried. In the talons Of that eagle were
elutched at one time Britain, France
Spain, Italy, Dalmatia Rhaetia, Noricuin,
Pannonia, Moesie, Dacia, Thrace, Mace
donia, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Phoeni-
Ella, Palestine, Egypt and all northern
Africa and all the islands of the Mediter-
ranean--indeed all the world that was
worth having; l2o,0J00OO Of people under
the wings OF that one eagle Where is
she now? Ask Gibbon, the historian, in
| lis PROSE penn, The Decline end Fall Of
, the Roman Empire" Ask her gigantic
J ruins, bemoining their sadness through
J the ages the screech owl at windows out
Of which worldwide conquereys looked.
Ask the day of judgment, when her
/ crowned debauchees, Commodus and Per
tinax and Caligula and Dioeletian, shall
nations let us repent and have our trust
/ in a pardoning God rather than depend
r on former SUGGESTS 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.
s But notice once more and more than
e all in my text that God is so kind and
9 loving that when it is necessary for Him
5 to cut lie has to go to others Tor the
Z sharp edged weapon. In the same day
e shall the Lord shave with razor that ID
I hired" God is love. God is pity. God
/ is help. God is shelter. God is rescue
I There are no sharp edges about Him, nc
q thrusting points, no instruments of Iacera
E ton. If you want balm for wounds, He
e has that. If you want divine salve f0l
r eyesight, He has that. But If there Is
G sharp and cutting work to do which re
g quires razor. that He hires. God has
/ nothing about Him that hurts save when
d dire necessity demands, and then He has
J. to 90 clear off to some one else TO get ths
s instrument. This divine clemency will be
e no novelty to those who have pondereo
n the Calvarean massacre, where God sub
!. merged Himself in human tears and Grim
: soned Himself from punctured arteries
s and let the terrestrial and Internal worlds
d maui Him until the chandeliers OF the
d sky had to be turned out because the uni
n | verse could not endure the outrage. Illus
:. trious for love He must have been to take
L all that as our substitute, paying out Of
d His own heart the price of our admission
II at the gates of heaven.
King Henry IT. of England crowned hi:
l. son as king, and on the day Of coronation
!, put on servants garb and waited, he
n the king, at the sons table, to the aston
v ishment of all the princes. But we know
I. OF more wondrous scene the King d
e heaven and earth Offering to put. on You
e His child, the crown of life and in thu
!. form Of a servant waiting on you witt
4 blessing. Extol that love, all painting, al
d sculpture, all music, all architecture, al
d Worship In Dresdenan gallery let Ra
o phael hold Him up as a child, and IN Ant
a werp cathedral let Rubens hand Hin
q down from the cross as a martyr and Han
d del make all his oratorio Vibrate arount
e that one chord--"He was wounded for oul
r transgressions, bruised for our iniqulties.
. But not until all the redeemed get HON,
4 and from the countenances in all the gal
4 leries Of the ransomed shall be revealed
4 the wonders Of redemption shall elthei
n man or seraph or archangel know thu
n height and depth and breadth of the low
Is of God.
x AT our national capital a monument IL
IF honor of him who did more than any ont
& to achieve our American independence
n was for scores of years in building, ans
= \ ,.o.t nc no mana 1iacotfrn pp6 and said 4