484. The Day Dawn

The Day Dawn

Rom_13:12 : ’93The day is at hand.’94

Good-morning! Back from the mountains and the seaside and the springs and the farmhouse, your cheek bronzed and your spirits lighted, I hail you home again with the words of Gehazi to the Shunammite: ’93Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?’94 On some faces I see the mark of recent grief, but all along the track of tears I see the story of resurrection and reunion when all tears are done; the deep plowing of the keel, followed by the flash of the phosphorescence.

Now that I have asked you in regard to your welfare, you naturally ask how I am. Very well, thank you. Whether it was the bracing air of the Colorado mountains twelve thousand feet above the level of the sea, or the tonic atmosphere of the Pacific coast, or a bath in the surf of Long Island beach, or whether it is the joy of standing in this great group of warmhearted friends, or whether it is a new appreciation of the goodness of God, I cannot tell. I simply know I am grandly and gloriously and inexpressibly happy.

It was said that John Moffatt, the great Methodist preacher, occasionally got fast in his sermon, and to extricate himself would cry, ’93Hallelujah!’94 I am in no such predicament today, but I am full of the same rhapsodic ejaculation. Starting out this morning on a new ecclesiastical year, I want to give you the keynote of my next twelve months’92 ministry. I want to set it to the tune of Antioch, Ariel, and Coronation. During the summer a new stop has been put in this great organ’97a new trumpet-stop’97and I want to put a new trumpet-stop into my sermons. In all our Christian work you and I want more of the element of gladness. That man had no right to say that Christ never laughed. Do you suppose that he was somber at the wedding in Cana of Galilee? Do you suppose Christ was unresponsive when the children clambered over his knee and shoulder at his own invitation? Do you suppose that the evangelist meant nothing when he said of Christ: ’93He rejoiced in spirit?’94 Do you believe that the divine Christ who pours all the water over the rocks at Vernal Falls, Yosemite, does not believe in the sparkle and gallop and tumultuous joy and rushing raptures of human life?’94 I believe not only that the morning laughs, and that the mountains laugh, and that the seas laugh, and that the cascades laugh, but that Christ laughed.

Moreover, take a laugh and a tear into an alembic and assay them and test them and analyze them, and you will often find as much of the pure gold of religion in a laugh as in a tear. Deep spiritual joy always shows itself in facial illumination. John Wesley said he was sure of a good religious impression being produced because of what he calls the great laughter he saw among the people. Godless merriment is blasphemy anywhere, but expression of Christian joy is appropriate everywhere.

Moreover, the outlook of the world ought to stir us to gladness. Astronomers recently have disturbed many people by telling them that there is danger of stellar collision. We have been told through the papers by these astronomers that there are worlds coming very near together, and that we shall have plagues and wars and tumults, and perhaps the world’92s destruction. Do not be scared. If you have ever stood at a railroad center, where ten or twenty or thirty rail tracks cross each other, and seen that by the movement of the switch one or two inches the trains shoot this way and that, without any colliding, then you can understand how fifty worlds may come within an inch of disaster, and that inch be as good as a million miles. If a human switch-tender can shoot the trains this way and that without harm, cannot the hand that for thousands of years has upheld the universe keep our little world out of harm’92s way?

Christian geologists tell us that this world was millions of years in building. Well, now, I do not think God would take millions of years to build a house which was to last only six thousand years. There is nothing in the world or outside the world, terrestrial or astronomical, to excite dismay. I wish that some stout Gospel breeze might scatter all the malaria of human foreboding. The sun rose this morning at five o’92clock and thirty-seven minutes, and I think that is just about the hour in the world’92s history. ’93The day is at hand.’94

The first ray of the dawn I see in the gradual substitution of diplomatic skill for human butchery. Within the last twenty-five years there have been international differences which would have brought a shock of arms in any other day, but which were peacefully adjusted, the pen taking the place of the sword. That Alabama question in any other age of the world would have caused war between the United States and England. How was it settled? By men-of-war off the Narrows, or off the Mersey? By the Gulf Stream of the ocean crossed by a gulf stream of human blood? By the pathway of nations incarnadined? No. A few wise men go into a quiet room at Geneva, talk the matter over, and telegraph to Washington and to London, ’93All settled.’94 Peace, peace. England pays to the United States the amount awarded’97pays really more than, she ought to have paid’97but the United States is not honest enough to return it. But still, all that Alabama broil is settled’97settled forever. Arbitration instead of battle.

So, this recent quarrel about the Canadian fisheries in any other age would have caused war between the United States and England. England said, ’93Pay me for the invasion of my Canadian fisheries.’94 The United States said, ’93I will not pay anything.’94 Well, the two nations say, ’93I guess we had better leave the whole matter to a commission.’94 The commission is appointed, and the commission examines the affair, and the commission reports, and pay we ought, pay we must, pay we do. Not a pound of powder burned, not a cartridge bitten off, no one hurt so much as by the scratch of a pin. Arbitration instead of battle.

Some years ago it seemed as if all the nations of Europe were about to fly at each other’92s throats. You remember how we here in America stood breathless with suspense, wondering what would come next. If one drop of blood had been shed, rivers of carnage would have poured forth. If one musket had been discharged all Europe would have quaked with cannonade. Disraeli, at Berlin, makes a proposition and all the dogs of war slink to their kennels. France will never again, I think, through peccadillo of ambassador, bring on a battle with other nations. She sees that God, in punishment at Sedan, blotted out the French empire, and the only aspirant for that throne who had any right of expectation dies in a war that has not the dignity of even being respectable. What is that blush on the cheek of England today? What is the leaf that England would like to tear out of her history? The Zulu war. What meant the rising up of the English nation at the ballot-box last spring, overthrowing an administration which they thought was getting fond of military glory? It meant this: That the people of England want no more war. Down with the sword, and up with the treaty.

We in this country might better have settled our sectional difficulties by arbitration than by the thrust of the sword.

Why did we not let William H. Seward, of New York, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, go out and spend a few days under the trees on the banks of the Potomac and talk the matter over, and settle it, as settle it they could, rather than the North pay in cost of war four billion seven hundred million dollars, and the South pay four billion seven hundred and fifty million dollars, the destroying angel leaving the first-born dead in so many houses all the way from the Penobscot to the Alabama. Ye aged men, whose sons fell in the strife, do you not think that would have been better? Oh, yes! we have come to believe, I think, in this country, that arbitration is better than battle. I wish to God that this nation might be a model of willingness for arbitration. No need of killing another Indian. No need of sacrificing any more brave General Custers. Stop exasperating the red man, and there will be no more arrows shot out from the reservation. A general of the United States army, in high repute throughout this land, and who, perhaps, has been in more Indian wars than any other officer, and who has been wounded again and again in behalf of our Government in battle against the Indians, told me within thirty days that all the wars that had ever occurred in this country between Indians and white men had been provoked by white men, and that there was no exception to the rule. While we are arbitrating with Christian nations, let us toward barbarians carry ourselves in a manner unprovocative of contest. I inherit a large estate, and the waters are rich with fish, and the woods are songful with birds, and my cornfields are silken and golden. Here is my sister’92s grave. Out yonder, under that large tree, my father died. An invader comes, and proposes to drive me off and take possession of my property. He crowds me back, and crowds me on, and crowds me into a closer corner and still closer corner, until after a while I say. ’93Stand back; don’92t crowd me any more, or I’92ll strike. What right have you to come here and drive me off of my premises? I got this farm from my father, and he got it from his father. What right have you to come here and molest me?’94 You blandly say, ’93Oh, I know more than you do. I belong to a higher civilization. I cut my hair shorter than you do. I could put this ground to a great deal better use than you do.’94 And you keep crowding me back and crowding me on into a closer corner and closer corner, until one day I look around upon my suffering family, and fired by their hardships I hew you in twain. Forthwith all the world comes to your funeral to pronounce eulogium, comes to my execution to anathematize me. You are the hero, I am the culprit. Behold the United States Government and the North American Indian. The red man has stood more wrongs than I would, or you. We would have struck sooner, deeper. That which is right in defense of a Brooklyn home or a New York home is right in defense of a home on the top of the Rocky Mountains.

Before this dwindling red race dies completely out, I wish that this generation of white people might by common justice atone for the inhumanity of its predecessors. In the day of God’92s judgment I would rather be a blood-smeared Modoc than a swindling United States officer on an Indian reservation! One man was a barbarian and a savage, and never pretended to be anything but a barbarian and a savage. The other man pretended to be a representative of a Christian nation. Notwithstanding all this, the general disgust with war and the substitution of diplomatic skill for the glittering edge of keen steel is a sign unmistakable that ’93the day is at hand.’94

I find another ray of the dawn in the compression of the world’92s distances. What a slow, snail-like, almost impossible thing would have been the world’92s rectification with fourteen hundred millions of population and no facile means of communication; but now, through telegraphy for the eye and telephonic intimacy for the ear, and through steamboating and railroading, the twenty-five thousand miles of the world’92s circumference are shriveling up into insignificant brevity. Hongkong is nearer to New York than a few years ago New Haven was; Bombay, Moscow, Madras, Melbourne within speaking distance. Purchase a telegraphic chart, and by the blue lines see the telegraphs of the land, and by the red lines the cables under the ocean. You see what opportunity this is going to give for the final movements of Christianity. A fortress may be months or years in building, but after it is constructed it may do all its work in twenty minutes. Christianity has been planting its batteries for nineteen centuries, and may go on in the work through other centuries; but when those batteries are thoroughly planted, those fortresses are fully built, they may do all their work in twenty-four hours. The world sometimes derides the church for slowness of movement. Is science any quicker? Did it not take science five thousand six hundred and fifty-two years to find out so simple a thing as the circulation of the human blood? With the earth and the sky full of electricity, science took five thousand eight hundred years before it even guessed that there was any practical use that might be made of this subtle and mighty element. When good men take possession of all these scientific forces, and all these agencies of invention, I do not know that the redemption of the world will be more than the work of a day. Did we not last Wednesday read the Queen’92s speech at the proroguing of Parliament the day before in London? If that be so, is it anything marvelous to believe that in twenty-four hours a divine communication can reach the whole earth?

Suppose Christ should descend on the nations’97many expect that Christ will come among the nations personally’97suppose that tomorrow morning the Son of God from a hovering cloud should descend upon these cities. Would not that fact be known all the world over in twenty-fours hours? Suppose he should present his Gospel in a few words, saying, ’93I am the Son of God; I came to pardon all your sins and to heal all your sorrows, and to prove that I am a supernatural being, I have just descended from the clouds; do you believe me, and do you believe me now?’94 Why, all the telegraph stations of the earth would be crowded as none of them were ever crowded just after a shipwreck. I tell you these things to show you it is not among the impossibilities or even the improbabilities that Christ will conquer the whole earth, and do it instanter, when the time comes. There are foretokenings in the air. Something great is going soon to happen. I do not think that Jupiter is going to run us down, or that the axle of the world is going to break; but I mean something great for the world’92s blessing and not for the world’92s damage is going to happen. I think the world has had it hard enough. Enough, the London plagues. Enough, the Asiatic choleras. Enough, the wars. Enough, the shipwrecks. Enough, the conflagrations. I think our world could stand right well a procession of prosperities and triumphs. Better be on the lookout. Better have your observatories open toward the heavens, and the lenses of your most powerful telescopes well polished. Better have all your Leyden jars ready for some new pulsation of mighty influence. Better have new fonts of type in your printing offices to set up some astounding good news. Better have some banner that has never been carried, ready for sudden procession. Better have the bells in your church towers well hung, and rope within reach, that you may ring out the marriage of the King’92s Son. Cleanse all your court-houses, for the Judge of all the earth may appear. Let all your legislative halls be gilded, for the great Lawgiver may be about to come. Drive off the thrones of despotism all the occupants, for the King of heaven and earth may be about to reign. The darkness of the night is blooming and whitening into the lilies of morning cloud, and the lilies reddening into the roses of stronger day’97fit garlands, whether white or red, for him on whose head are many crowns. ’93The day is at hand!’94

One more ray of the dawn I see in facts chronological and mathematical. Come, now, do not let us do another stroke of work until we have settled one matter. What is going to be the final issue of this great contest between sin and righteousness? Which is going to prove himself the stronger, God or Diabolus? Is this world going to be all garden or all desert? Now let us have that matter settled. If we believe Isaiah and Ezekiel and Hosea and Micah and Malachi and John and Peter and Paul and Christ, we believe the former, that it is going to be all garden. But let us have it settled. Let us know whether we are working on toward a success or toward a dead failure. Let us know whether this is a Bull Run or a Gettysburg.

If there is a child in your house sick, and you are sure he is going to get well, you sympathize with present pains, but all the foreboding is gone. If you are in a cyclone off the Florida coast, and the captain assures you the vessel is stanch and the winds are changing for a better quarter, and he is sure he will bring you safe into the harbor, you patiently submit to present distress with the thought of safe arrival. Now I want to know whether we are coming on toward dismay, darkness, and defeat, or on toward light and blessedness. You and I believe the latter, and if so, every year we spend is one year subtracted from the world’92s woe, and every event that passes, whether bright or dark, brings us one event nearer a happy consummation, and by all that is inexorable in chronology and mathematics I commend you to good cheer and courage. If there is anything in arithmetic, if you subtract two from five and leave three, then by every rolling sun we are coming on toward a magnificent terminus. Then every winter passed is one severity less for our poor world. Then every summer gone by brings us nearer unfading arborescence. Put your algebra down on the top of your Bible, and rejoice. If it is nearer morning at three o’92clock than it is at two, if it is nearer morning at four o’92clock than it is at three, then we are nearer the dawn of the world’92s deliverance. God’92s clock seems to go very slowly, but the pendulum swings and the hands move, and it will yet strike noon. The sun and the moon stood still once; they will never stand still again until they stop forever. If you believe arithmetic as well as your Bible, you must believe we are nearer the dawn. ’93The day is at hand.’94

There is a class of phenomena which makes me think that the spiritual and the heavenly world may after a while make a demonstration in this world which will bring all moral and spiritual things to a climax. Now, I am no spiritualist; but every intelligent man has noticed that there are strange and mysterious things which indicate to him that perhaps the spiritual world is not so far off as sometimes we conjecture, and that after a while, from the spiritual and heavenly world there may be a demonstration upon our world for its betterment. We call it magnetism or we call it mesmerism or we call it electricity because we want some term to cover up our ignorance. I do not know what it is. I never heard an audible voice from the other world. I do not say that there may not be persons who have heard voices from the other world. I am persuaded of this, however, that the veil between this world and the next is getting thinner and thinner, and that perhaps after a while, at the call of God’97not at the call of the Davenport brothers or Andrew Jackson Davis’97some of the old Scriptural warriors, some of the spirits of other days mighty for God, a Joshua or a Caleb or a David or a Paul may come down and help us in this battle against unrighteousness. Oh, how I would like to have them here’97him of the Red Sea, him of the Valley of Ajalon, him of Mars Hill. History says that Robert Clayton, of the English cavalry, at the close of a war bought up all the old cavalry horses lest they be turned out to drudgery and hard work, and bought a piece of ground at Naversmire Heath, and turned these old war-horses into the thickest and the richest pasture to spend the rest of their days, for what they had done in other days. One day a thunder storm came up, and these war-horses mistook the thunder of the skies for the thunder of battle, and they wheeled into line’97no riders on their backs’97they wheeled into line ready for the fray. And I doubt me whether, when the last thunder of this battle for God and truth goes booming through the heavens, the old Scriptural warriors can keep their places on their thrones. Methinks they will spring into the fight and exchange crown for helmet, and palm-branch for weapon, and come down out of the King’92s galleries into the arena, crying, ’93Make room! I must fight in this great Armageddon.’94

My beloved people, I preach this sermon because I want you to toil with the sunlight in your faces. I want you old men to understand before you die that all the work you did for God while yet your ear was alert and your foot fleet is going to be counted up in the final victories. I want all these younger people to understand that when they toil for God they always win the day; that all prayers are answered, and all Christian work in some way is effectual, and that the tide is setting in the right direction, and that all heaven is on our side’97saintly, cherubic, seraphic, archangelic, omnipotent, chariot and throne, doxology and procession, principalities and dominion; he who hath the moon under his feet and all the armies of heaven on white horses.

Brother! brother! all I am afraid of is, not that Christ will lose the battle, but that you and I will not get into it quick enough to do something worthy of our blood-bought immortality. Oh, Christ! how shall I meet thee, thou of the scarred brow and the scarred back and the scarred hand and the scarred foot and the scarred breast if I have no scars of wounds gotten in thy service? It shall not be so. I step out today in front of the battle. Come on, you foes of God, I dare you to the combat. Come on, with pens dipped in caricature. Gome on, with tongues forked and viperous and adderous. Come on, with types soaked in the scum of the eternal pit. I defy you! Come on! I bare my brow, I uncover my heart. Strike! I cannot see my Lord until I have been hurt for Christ. If we do not suffer with him on earth, we cannot be glorified with him in heaven. Take good heart. On! on! on! See! the skies have brightened! See! the hour is about to come! Pick out all the cheeriest of the anthems. Let the orchestra string their best instruments. ’93The night is far spent, the day is at hand.’94

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage