The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-09-19

lighting up a scene OF woe ana uealh,
whole households smitten down and
not one able to succor h others or
| lift a cup Of water to their burning
| lips: homes of wealth with their dead
unburied; collins containing lear ones
laid upon the curbstone, to be taken
| UP by the dead cart in its hurried
round; trenches and pits dug In
cemetery because graves enough couid
not be had; food getting scarce and all
of supply cut off-sucn was
| the condition of things in the plague
| stricken city, and week after week n
| dread monotony of death went on! IL
| must be seen to be realized in all Its
horrors.
THE GREAT HISTORICAL PLAQUES.
The preacher then turned from per-
| sonal impressions to take a broader
view of the subject, beginning with a
| few references to the great plaques
| recorded in history. Pestilence, he
said, occupies a very prominent place
| in the annals of mankind. 1t has not
the grandeur and glory that belong to
war, nor does it figure so largely in the
pages of the historian, but in its de-
| structive effects it is scarcely less ter
| rible. War might be defined carnage
adorned by heroism.' pestllence is
Carnage without herolsm." 1t is too
painful for history to dwell upon; 1t IS
the mOnotony of death and desolation.
History therefore 1T and only
] touches here and there upon It's raw
ages. But the place it occupies In
| history does not represent its real
| place, either in it's extent or effects.
Pestilence fills a mighty place in the
economy of human existence; 1t has
/ been at work from age to age, and
even to recapitulate the great plaques
that have desolated the world more
than occupy my allotted time; but, IN
order to obtain some impression OF
the magnitude of the subject, 1T is only
necessary to recall a few of the great
est since the Christian era. In A. ID.
10 a terrible pestilence ravaged all
Europe. In Rome alone, when at its
height, it was estimated that the deaths
were at least a myriad 100000 a day.
Again, a century later, the whole
Roman Empire, from Egypt to Scot
land, was swept over by a single pestl-
lence. Gibbon calculated that half the
human race persisted from it. Passing
e a great number of intervening
plaques, another general pestilence
went coursing back and fourth through
Europe, and the world for a period of
ffty-eight years, between A. d. 542
and A. ID. 600, limited to no climate,
no season of the year, no mode of COM
munication, but coming and going at
pleasure, with little respect either to
means or remedies. Some cities were
left without an inhabitant. Passing
again over whole centuries marked by
destructive plaques, we come to the
middle of the year 1345, when we meet
a terrible pestilence called the ''black
DEATH" extending from China to Ire
land. In many cities nine out of ten of
the inhabitants persisted and some
were entirely de%populated. In London
so, 900 persisted. Venice lost 100, O0Oof
her inhabitants. In Spain two-thirds
of the population is said to have perish
ed. Three centuries later another pes
tilen- desolated Europe. In Naples
$40, 900 out of 200, 900 people died /; in
Genoa, $4,000 out of 1000. Fifty
years after another plague broke out
and swept over Europe for nine years,
and a century later the cholera march
ed around the world on its mission of
death.
II ISL OF THESE PLAQUES.
The preacher then proceeded to con-
slider the causes and objects of these
terrible visitations. AS certainly as
uOu cAlSlS, SdIu Hc, 81 ldtuIy uOSS
God maintain a perfect government
over the world, and therefore all events
must nave some definite aim or pur-
pose. We canno believe for an instant
that an agency like pestilence, operat-
ing on so wide a scale, and with such
striking uniformity in the economy Of
the world, has no end or purpose to
perform. Admitting that pestilence is
a physical fact, under the control of
unknown but constant laws. does it
exist for itself. or has it, under the
government of God, moral ends to SUBJ
serve? In other words, has God
brought this fearful agency of pesti-
lence into the world without a purpose?
Is it destruction merely for the sake Of
destruction. or has it higher uses and
moral purposes in view to justify and
explain its existence?
This latter question the preacher an
swered in the affirmative. He believed
that God, in the appointment of ''the
peStilence that walketh in darkness
and the destruction that wasteth at
MONDAY" meant to invigOrate the
stock of the race. Sin has two effects,
one on the physical and the other on
the moral nature, and they act and
react on each other. ST. Paul, in the
first chapter of Romans, depicted the
monstrous vices of the heather world
of his time, which rendered necessary
the purging of it's blood by the great
pestilence of the following century.
In a similar the preacher de-
scribed the subsequent great epidemics
as so many struggles for life between
the lower and higher physical types OF
mankind, always resulting in the vic
tory of the latter and consequent bene-
fit to all succeeding generations. He
referred to the origin of the epidemic
in Africa as a proof of the unity of the
race, which should carry conviction to
those who have denied their kinship
with the dusky tribe Of that CONT
nent.
TRIBUTE TO d
After an eloquent appeal for charity