West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1888-05-03

400 feet there were woods waving and
fountains playing, the verdure. the foliage,
the glory looking as II mountain were ON
the wing On tho tip top king walking
with his queen. among statues snowy white,
looking up at birds brought from distant
lands, and drinking out OF tankarls OF solid
gold, or looking oif over rivers and lakes up.
on nations subdued aud tributary. CRYING. "is
not this great Babylon which have built p
what batter1ng ram smote the walls What
plowshare upturned the gardensf What ar
my shattered the brazen gatesl What
long, fierce blast OF storm put out this
light which illuminated the world What
crash OF discord drove down tho music
that poured from palace window and gar
den grove, and called the banqueters TO their
revel and the dancers to their feeti | walk
upon the scene of desolation To find nm an
swer and pick mp pieces OF bitumen and
Drick and broken pottery, the remains OF
Babylon; and as in the silence OF the night 1
hear tho surging of that billow OF desola-
ton which rolls over the scene / hear the
wild waves s1ying: Babylon was proud
Babylon was impure. Babylon was a star,
but by sin she turned TO NORWOOD and has
fallen"
From the prosecutions OF the Pilgrim
Fathers and the Huguenots i'm other lands
God set upon these shores nation. The
council nres OF the aborigines went out i'm
the greater light OF "A free government. The
sound of the war whoOp was exchanged for
the thousand wheels of enterprise and pro
gress. The mild winters, the fruitful sum
mers, the healthful skies charmed from other
lands a race OF hardy men who loved God
and wanted 10 be free. Before the wood
mans AK forests fell and rose again into
ships masts and churches pillars Cities
on the banks OF lakes begin to rival
cities by the sea. The land quakes with
the rush OF the rail car and the
waters are churned white with the
steamers wheel. Fabulous bushels of western
wheat meet on the way fabulous tons of
eastern coal. Furs from the north pass on
the rivers fruits from the south And trad
ing in the same market is Maine lumberman
and South Carolina rice merchant and Ohio
farmer and Alaska fur dealer. And churches
and schools and asylums scatter light and
love and mercy and salvation upon 60,0OO,-
600 Of people.
pray that our nation may not COPY the
crimes of the nations that have perished and
our cup OF blessing turn TO NORWOOD and
like them we go down. / am by nature and
by grace an optimist, and expect that this
country Will continue to advance until the
world shall put on millennial era, and when
Christ comes again He will set His throne
somewhere between the Alleghenies and the
Sierra Nevadas But be not deceived. Our
only safety is in righteousness toward God
and justice toward man. IL we forget the
goodness OF the Lord to this land, and break
His Sabbaths. and improve not by the dire
disasters that have again and again come to
us as apeope, and we learn saving lesson
nor drought, nor mildew, nor scOurge of locust
and graSshopper, if the political corruption
which has poisoned the fountains of public
virtue and beslimed the high places of author
ity making free government at times a hiss
ing and byword in all tho earth; if the
drunkenness and lcentiousness that stagger
and blaspheme in the streets of our great
cities, as though they were reaching after the
fame of Corinth and Sodom, are not re-
pented of, we will yet see the smoke of our
hatlOn X iuIii, tho piiiafs o. Gal Lational and
state capitals will fall more dsastrousy
than when Sampson pulled down Dagon;
and future historians viii record upon the
page believed with generous tears the story
chat the free nation OF the west arose in
splendor which made the world stare It
had magnificent possibilities It forgot God
IL hated justice. 1t Rugged its crime. It
halted on its high march. IL reeed under
the blow of calamity. IL fell. And as it
was going down all despotisms of earth
from the top of bloody thrones began to
shout: AHA, so would we have it. while
struggling and oppressed peoples looked out
from dungeon bars with tears and groaDs
and cries of untold agony, the scorn of those
and the woe of those uniting i'm the exclama-
ton: LOOK yonder! There fell n great star
from heaven, burning as it were n lamp,
and il fell upon the thir,l part of the rivers
and upon the fountains of waters; and the
name OF the star is called Wormwoodl"