Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-05-14
THE LIGHT 0BSCURED.
DIR, TALN AGES STABERNACLES SERMON YES
TERDAY MORNING.
The Sun Turned Iato Darkness Moral Light
Hidden from the WorM-The Great
Army Of IOfieIS-H0w |, Leads
to Eternal Ruin and Death.
SPECIAL Tlcram to he Regisr.

Aud grid the Gospel arInor on
was sung with magnificent effect. Dr..
Talmage's subject was "Obscuration, ," and
his text: "The sun shall be turned into
darkness. Acts IL, V. 20 He said.
Solar eclipse is here prophesied to take
place about the time of the destruction of
ancient Jerusalem. Josephus, the histor-
ian, says that the prophecy was literally
fulfilled, and that about that time thsre
were strange appearances in the heavens
The sun was not destroyed but for a little
while hidden.
Christianity is the rising sun of our
/ time, and men have tried with the mp.
rolling vapors of skepticsm and the smoke
of their blasphemy to turn the sun into
darkness. Suppose the archangels OF
malice and horror should be let loose
little while and he allowed to eNtinguish
and destroy the sun in the natural
heavens. They would take the oceans
from ether worlds and pour them On this
luminary OF the planetary system, a-d
the waters 20 Kissing down amid the
ravines and the caverns, and there is eX-
plosion after explosion, until there are
only few peaks Cf fire left in the sun,
and these are cooling down and going out
until the vast continents of flame are re-
duced to small acreage of ire, and that
yhiteus and COOls Of until there
are ouly a few Couls left, aud these are
whitening and going out until there is not
a spark left in all the mountains of ashes
and the valleys Of ashes and the Chasms Of
ashes. An cxtiUgllshed sun. A dead
sun. 4 buried sun. Let all worlds wall
at the stupenious ohsCquies.
Ofcourse, this withdrawal OF the solar
light and heat thOwG Our earth into uni
versal chill, and the tropics becoms the
temperate, and the temperate becomes the
Arctic, and there acc frozen rivers and
fcozen lakes and frozen oceans. From
Arctic and Antarctic regions the inhahit-
ants gather in toward the centre aud find
the Equator as the poles The slain Tor
ests are piled up into great bonfire, and
around them gather the shiyering villages
and cities. The wealth Of the coal mines
ia hastily poured into the furnaces and
stirred into
RAGE or COMBUSTION,
hut soon the bonfrcs begin to lower, and
the furnaces begin 10 90 ont, and the ma
tons begin to die. COtOpaNi, NeSuviu',
Etua, St!omboli, Californian geysers CcGse
TO smoke, and the ice of hail storms re-
mains unmelted in their crater. All the
followers have breathed their last breath.
Sbins with sailors frozen at the mast, and
helmImen frozen ut thG wheel, and pasaen-
gers frozen in the cabin; all nations dying,
first nj the north and then Mt the south.
Child frosted and dead in the cradle Oc-
togenarian frosted and dead at the hearth.
Workmcn with frozen hand on the hammer
and tr,Zen foot ON the shuttle Winter
from sea TO sea- All-couEeIling winter
p.rnatul winter. Globe of tripdlty
Hsmisphcre shackled 10 hemisphere by
chains of ice. Universal Nova /emhla
The earth an ice Zoe grinding against other
ice Hoes The archangeIs of malice and
horror have done their work, and now they
may take their thrones ct glacier and look
down upon the ruin they have wrought.
What the destruction OF the sun IN the
natural heavens would be to our physical
earth, the destruction OF Christianity
would bo TO the moral world. The sun
tuTned into darkness. Inhdelity III our
time ia considered great joke. There aTc
people who rejoice to hear Christianity
caricatured, and to hear Christ assalled
with bubble and Quirk and misrepresen-
tatOn and badnage and harlequinade.
/ | propose this morning to take lniidoii-
ty and Atheism out OF the realm of iocu-
| laritv into one of tragedy, and show you
what they propose, and what, if they are
successful, they will accomplish There
are those in all our communities who
would like to see the Christian religion
overthrOwn, and who say the world
would be better without it.
want to show you what is the
END or THIS ROAD,
and what is the terminus Of this crusade,
and this world will be when Atheism aud
Infdelity have triumphed O it, If they
can. say, il they can. | reterate 1t,
il they can.
In the first place, it will be ia" com
pleta and uputterahlc degradation oi
womunhood. will prove il by facts and
arguments which no honest man will dis
pute. In all communities and cities and
States and nations where the Christian re-
ljgjon has been dominant, woman's cOudI-
, tion has been ameiioratcd and improved,
and she is deferred to aud honored in
thousand things, and every gentleman
takes oil his hat before it. Ii your aSso.
Citations have been good yOu know that
the name of wife, mother, daughter, sug.
gest gracious surroundings. N0u know
there are no better achools and seminaries
in Brooklyn or in any city of this
country than the schools and semi.
naues for cur young ladies. GOu
know that while woman may suffer inius.
tice in England and the United States, she
has more of her rights IN Christendom than
she has anywhere else.
Now, compare this with wOmau'5 con
ditiOn in land where Christianity has made
little or no advance-in China, in Barbary,
in Borneo. in Tartary, in Egypt, in Hin
dOstan. The Burmese sell their wives and
daughters IA 50 many sheep. The Hludo0
Bible makes it disgracelul and an outrage
for a woman t0 listen to music or look ont
of the window in the absence Of her hus'
band, and gives as lawful ground for dl-
vOrce wOman's beginning 10 eat before
her husband has finished his meal. What
mean laOSe "lllle DuLultS Ou the p'hN'
and rivers in China in the morning? Ia
tanticide following inianticIde, Female
children destroyed simply bccauEe they
are female Woman hauessed to a plow
as au OK. Woman veiled and harTicaded,
and in all styles Of cruel seclusion. Her
BIRTH 4 MISFORTUNE.
Her life a torture. Her death n horror.
The missionary of the cross to-day in
heather lands breaches generally to two
groups "A group of men who do rs they
please and sit where they please; the other
group women hidden and carefully secluded
in a side apartment, where they may hear
the voice OF the preacher, hat may not be-
seen. No refinement No liberty. No
hope for this life. 20 hope for the life TO
come. Hinged nose. Cramped foot. Dis
figured face. Embroidered soul. Now
compare those two conditions. How Jar
toward this latter condition that | speak
Of would woman 60 il Christian Influences
were withdrawn and Christianity were de-
stroyed: Ii isonly question of dynamics.
If an object be lifted to a certain point and
not fastened there, and the lifting power
be withdrawn, how long before that
object will fall down to the point