Connecticut western news., 1901-12-12


 tion. You can get no idea of 1t unless you can ring all the church bells in one chime and sound all the organs In one diapason and gather all the congrega- tions of Christendom in one "Gloria In Excelsis." Mighty camp meetings! Mighty Ocean Groves! Mighty Chau- tauquas! Mighty conventions of Chris tan workers! Mighty general assem- plies of the Presbyterian church! Mighty conferences of the Methodist church Mighty associations of the Baptist church! Mighty conventions of the Episcopal church! There may be many years of hard work yet before the consumption, but the signs are to me so encouraging that would not be unbeleving If saw the wing of the apocalyptic angel spread for Its last triumphal flight in this days sunset or if tomorrow morning the ocean cables should thrill us with the news that Christ the Lord had alighted on Mount Olivet to proclaim universal dominion.
 The Divine Purpose.
 All dead churches, wake up! Throw back the shutters of stiff ecclesiasti- cism and let the light of the spring morning come In! Morning for the land! Morning for the seal Morning of emancipation! Morning of light and love and peace! Morning of a day in which there shall be no chains to break, no sorrows to assuage, no des- potism to shatter, no woes to compass sionate. Blessed Christ, descend! Scar red temple, take the crown! Bruised hand, take the scepter Wounded foot, step on the throne! "Thine Is the king dom."
 These things I say because I want you to be alert. I want you to be watching all these wonders unrolling from the heavens and the earth. God has classified them, whether calami- tous or pleasing. The divine purposes are harnessed In traces that cannot break and In girths that cannot slip and in buckles that cannot loosen and are driven by reins they must answer. I preach no fatalism. A swarthy engi- neer at one of the depots In Dakota said, "Whez will you get on the loco motive and take a ride with us?" Well" I said, "now, if that suits you" So I got on one side of the To- comotive, and a Methodist minister, who was also invited, got on the other side, and between us were the engineer and the stoker. The train started. The engineer had his hand on the agitated pulse of the great engine. The stoker shoveled In the coal and shut the door with loud clang. A vast plain slip ped under us, and the hills swept by, and that great monster on which we rode trembled and bounded and snort ed and ragged as 1t hurled us on. said to the Methodist minister on the other side of the locomotive: My brother, why should ministers quarrel about the decrees and free agency? You see that track, that firm track, that iron track; that is the decree. You see this engineers arm; that Is free agency. How beautifully they work together! They are going to take us through. We could not do without the track, and we could not do without the engineer"
 So I rejoice day by day. Work for all to do, and we may turn the crank of the Christian machinery this way or that, for we are free agents. But there Is the track laid so long ago no one remembers it-laid by the hand of the Almighty God in sockets that no ter restrial or satanic pressure can ever affect. And along the track the car of the worlds redemption will roll and roll to the Grand Central depot cf the millennium. have no anxiety about the track I am only afraid that for our incidence and unfaithfulness God will discharge us and get some other stoker and some other engineer. The train is going through with us or with out us. So. my brethren, watch all the events that are going by. If things seem to turn out right, give wings to your joy. If things seem to turn out wrong, throw out the anchor of faith and hold fast.
 God on Our Side.
 There is a house in London where Peter the Great of Russia lived awhile when he was moving through the land incognito and In workman's dress, that he might learn ship carpentry, by which he could supply the needs of his people. stranger was visiting at that house, What's in that boxY The owner said: II don't know. That box was there when got the house, and it was there when my father got 1t. We haven't had any curiosity to look at it. I guess there's nothing in 1t" Well" said the stranger. "Pn give you f2 for it." Well, done." The f2 was paid, and the contents of that box were sold to the czar of Russia for $50,OOO. In 1t the lathing machine of Peter the Great, his private letters and docu- ments of value beyond all monetary consideration. And here are the events that seem very insignificant and unim- pqrtant but they incase treasures of Divine Providence and eternities of demonstrate before the ages as being of stupendous value
 When Titans play quoits, they pitch mountains, but who owns these gi- gantic natural forces we are constantly reading about? Whose hand is on the throttle valve of the volcanoes? Whose foot, suddenly planted on the footstool, makes the continents quiver? God! l must be at peace with him. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, this God is mine and he is yours. I put the earthquake that shook Palestine at the crucifixion against all the down rockings of the centuries. This God on our side, we may challenge all the centuries of time and all the cycles of eternity.
 Those of you who are in midlife may we'll thank God that you have seen so many wondrous things, but there are people alive today who may live to see the shimmering veil between the mate rial and the spiritual world lifted. Magnetism, a word with which we cover up our ignorance, will yet be an explored realm. Electricity, the fiery courser of the sky, that Benjamin Franklin lassoed and Morse and Bell and Edison have brought under com plete control, has greater wonders to reveal Whether hara or dapartad fhfc