Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-11-27
Eun Eharadap Nnuemhe IL 1902

read in recent years a war of conquest
for that purpose. 1t was the influence
of the Mayfiower that shaped our
course, and that influence will outliVe
| the granite shaft on Bunker's Hill.
| To what shall we ascribe the
achievement of such results? The
statesman in his vanity may ascribe 1t
| to craftsmanship. But the statesman
should remember that there is nothing
! in statecraft that would bring US to
such conditions AS you think it over
you must see that our highest states
men are but politicians any way.
| There is hardly one of them that
could refrain from the manipulation of
a ward caucus for his own personal
ends. We are weak in that our public
men are second class men. If this ma
! ton is making strides towards leader
ship of the nations of the earth 1t is
not party effort that is bringing her
| there but God
| In that which men are pleased to
| term providence all things are of God.
We return thanksgiving unto God be-
cause we believe that thru the yea
| there has been a supernatural and su-
| perintending action of God direct upon
our lives. The very language of the
hour is that all good is from God. That
which men are slow to acknowledge
| is this supremest of marvels, that the
steps of men are Of divine ordering
1t is not that there should be divine
| interference in great events; that a
world should be created and its boun-
daries established; that empires and
thrones should be set; but that so
minute a thing as a sparrow's fall
should not escape the notice OF Him
who hath comprehended the dust OF the
| earth in a measure, and weighed the
mountains in scale and the hills in
balance.
That all things are of God will ap-
pear If you consider human limitations
But man can do much. He can build
temples, harness lightnings, measure
| planets, tunnel mountains and initiate
nature with surprising wonder and
brilliancy. But man can not create.
While he may discover laws and make
combinations of startling effect he must
ever remain the creator Of nothing.
Far back of those physical forces which
! translate themselves into blessings for
| all animal creation there Is one Sill
preme Independent being who has re-
served unto himself the right Of cre-
alton, and no man taketh from or
shareth that power with him. 1t is
he. then, who hath created life from
the soil and atmosphere, and all other
blessings we thank him for this day.
| In that proyidential care which man
ifests itself for our spiritual concern
There is none the less evidence that our
blessings are from God BY the con-
/ tagion of one who was flawless in NOR
ais is man awakened to the appre-
hension of a life above the ordinary
| to which he may attain. The ap-
proach to that life he never could find
and the apprehension of the same he
never could make by his own unaided
wisdom 1t is a joyously bewihering
Experience this, and it was left for the
Son Of God himself to bring level with
Jour apprehension, that he who actuates
! the machinery of the universe, guides
the course of planets and the leap of
cataract, should be present in all his
might when invoked by the obscurest
Ichild of sorrow In our lesser moments
this supremest of marvels my be for
gotten: in our greater moments it will
reappear. His tireless purpose faileth
not to bring back in man the beauty
and grace of the image sadly effaced
| by transgression.
| Perhaps I speak to some who have
let slip from their grasp this blessed
hope. Events of sorrow crystalize about
| the year. The grave yard contains for
you a mound dearer than all other
earthly possessions The day following
the death of his wife James Russell
Lowell wrote:
There's a narrow ridge in the grave
| yard,
."Twould scarce stay child in its
| race,
! But to me and my thought 1t is wider
Than the star sown vague of space.
/ For you to say "All things are of
God, is to refer back to him the cause
| of sorrow too great to be translated
into the language of men, For such
! the days are all in the bleak Decem-
Der. A father sat by the fireside dumb
with sorrow he could share with no
one. 1t seemed that hope had folded
her wings and never would return. On
his knee sat his child who asked the
meaning of text above the mantel
/ "The law of the good is perfect con-
verting the soul" The fathers lips
We're mute of speech and his heart
laden with pain. Then the child said,
Papa, don't it mean that God makes
no mistakes?" Tho the things that
come from God may not be Of our Sc
lecting, yet truly God makes no mis-
takes"
| In one of Krumachers parallels have
read something like this: A hermit saw
/ lightning kill shepherd, and he said:
1T can not be that God has any interest
in men, or he would not permit that"
That night in sleep the hermit had q
vision as beautiful as a poets dream.
With an angel he was borne away on a
journey. The distance was long but
| the delight was ever increasing, until
entering a home, the angel struck a
| beautiful child with the atrophy Of
death. In another home the angel took
away cup, and man standing on the
over, and his broken body rested below.
| The hermit was dumb with horror. The
messenger of God doing such things!
Then the heavenly visitant said: eThe
parents of that child are criminals, and
the child would be like them. The own
err of the cup is drunkard, and
snatched the temptation from him. The
man on the precipice was contemplat-
ing murder, and it was better that he
should die now than that another
should die by his hand and the stain be
upon his soul" A quaint way this of
teaching US that it is safe to trust AL