Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-04-11
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR. TALMAGEs
STERLING DIsCOURsEs.
subject: wonders Of Disaster and
Blessing" preached at Kan
sas City, MOI


Nc study in London on my arrival from Paris
'1st after the French had surrendered at
SEDAN. the good doctor said to me; 1T is just
ssTtod YOU about France; people laughed at
ma because | talked about the seven
horns and the vials, but forsaw all this from
The Book Of Daniel and the Book of Revela-
ZION y Not taking any such responsibility in
tbe Interpretation of the passage, l simply
sssert that there is in it suggestions of many
things in our time.
0nr ewes dilate and our heart quickens its
rulsations as we read of events in the Third
century, the Sixth century, the Eighth cen
tnry the Fourteenth century, but there are
more far reaching events crowded into the
Nineteenth century than into any other,
and the last quarter bids fair TO
eclipse the preceding three quarters.
events announced in one paragraph and
without any special emphasis-of events
which Herodotus, a JosephuS, a Xenophon,
sGibbon would have taken whole chapters
or whole volumes TO elaborate. Looking out
mon our time we must cry out in the words
of the text: Wonders in the heavens and in
the earth"
Ipropose to show you that the time in
which We live is wonderful for disaster and
wonderful for blessing, for there must be
lights and shades in this picture as in ell
otbers Need | argue this day that our time
iswonderful for Disaster Our world has
lad rough time since by the hand of God it
vas boWled out into space. 1t is an epileptic
earth: convulsion after CONFUSION; frosts
nnnding it with sledge hammer OF
ICEBERG. and fires melting it with
furnaces seven hundred times heated. 1t is a
wonder 10 me it has lasted SO long. Meteors
,booting by on this side and grazing it, and
meteors shooting by on the other side and
grazing it. none of them slowing up for
afety. Whole fleets and navies and argosies
and hotillas Of worlds sweeping all about us.
Our earth like a fishing smack off the banks
Of Newfoundland, while the Etruria and
Germanic and the Arizona and the City of
New York rush by. Besides that our
world has by sin been damaged in its inter.
nal machinery, and ever and anon the fur
naces have burst, and the walking beams OF
the mountain nave broken, and the islands
have shipped a sea, and the great hulk of the
world has been Jared with accidents that
ever and anon threatened immediate demoli-
ton But it seems to rs as If oar century
we're especially characterized by disaster.
volcanic cyclonic, oceanic, epidemic. l say
volcanic, because an earthquake is only a
volcano hushed up. When Stronboli
and Cotopaxi and Nesuvius stop breath
Ing, let the foundations of tho earth
beware Seven thousand earthquakes in
two centuries recorded in the catalogue of
the British association. Trajan, the
Emperor goes to ancient Antioch. aud amid
The splendors of his reception is met by an
earthquake that nearly destroys the Emper-
O's life Lisbon. fair and beautiful at one
O'Clock on the LIST of November, 1855, in six
minutes G0,000 have persisted and Voltaire
writes Of them: For that region it was the
last Judgment nothing wanting but
trumpetm Europe and America feeling the
throb 1900 chimneys IN Boston partly or
fully destroyed
But the disasters of other centuries have
had their counterpart in our own. In 1872
Caracas was caught in the grip of the earth
quake; in 1922 in Chill, 100000 square miles
0tland by volcanic force upheaved to four
and seven feet Of permanent elevation; in
~ Japan felt the geological agony:
Naples shaken in 1857; Mexico Ia 1883;
Ned0sa the capital of the Argentine
Republic, in 1861; Manila terrorized in 1868;
the Hawaiian islands by such force uplifted
and let down in ISL: Nevada shaken in 1871:
Antioch in 1872; California in 1872; San
Salvador in 1873; while in 1883 what
sbteTanean excitement lschia, an isl
and Of the Mediterranean, a beautiful
Italian waterng-place, vineyard clad, sur
rounded by all natural Charm and historical
reminsoence; yonder, Capri, the summer re-
9It o. the Roman Emperors; yonder,
Naples the paradise Of art-this beautiful
stand suddenly toppled into the trough of
The earth, 5000 merry-makers perishing, and
slme Of them so far down beneath the reach
Of human ubSequies that it may be said of
many a one Of them as il was said of Moses:
The Lord buried him. Italy weeping, all
Europe weeping, all Christendom weeping
where there were hearts 70 sympathize and
Christians to pray. But while the nations
were measuring that magnitude of disaster,
Measuring 1t not with golden rod like that
WIN which the angel measured heaven,
olI WITH the black rule of death, Java,
o. tie Indian archipelago, the most fertile
Eaad Of all the earth, is caught in the grip
o. TIE earthquake, and mountain after
mountain goes down, and city after city,
ma that island, which produces the health
- beverage Of all the world, has produced
ne ghastiest accident Of the country. One
hundred thousand people dying dying, dead,
but look at the disasters cyelonic. At tho
moath Of the Ganges are three islands-the
a2tuah, the Sundeep and the Daldn Shabaz-
i@e In the midnight Of October. 1871 on
~ those three islands the CRY was. ''Thc
Eslels the watersw A cyclone arose and
Nled the sea over those three islands,
and o. a population Of 10000, 2l5,000 (
were drowned. Only those saved who 1
Is9 climbed to the top Of the highest trees.
Dl you ever see a cyclones Noy Then l I
NNA 9ttu may never see Niit- o&F bit1
~ tae ocean, and it swept us eight hundred /
lliss beck from our course, and for thirty
y hours during the cyclone and after 4
We expected every moment TO go 4
Y the bottom They told us be- 4
We We retired at o'clock that tho 4
~loneter had fallen, but at II o'clock /
= night We were awakened with the shock Of 4
NJ Waves. All the lights out Crashl went 4
i '9e lte boats. Waters rushing through 4
-s@ylshts down into the cabin and down 4
se furnaces until they Kissed and smoked .
l1s deiuge. Seven hundred people pray t
ny 9aspheming, shrieking. Our great ship 4
90 moment on the top of a mount
= Of phosphorescent fire, and
-. plunged down, down, down,
l-.l y seemed as If she would never again
rlgated. All, YOU never want TO see
-oae ct sea. But ] was in Minnesota.
1e there vas one of those cyclones on
iaat swept the city of Rochester from
limitations and took dwelling houses,
= y men, women. children, horses, cat
ana tossed them into indiscriminate
-, ard lifted a rail train and dashed II
-. - ini;htier hand than that Of the en-
s1ef On the air brake Cyclone in Kan
:. = y Clone in Missouri, cyclone IN Wiscon-
~. ese.one IN Illinois cyclone in Iowa
- prince Of the power Of the air, never
u. :, alch cy Ionic disturbances as he has il
n-A- And am | not right in saying thai
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