The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-06-14
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVNEs SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "wonders of Disaster and
Blessing" preached at Kan
sas City, MOI
TEXT: az l0iH show aronders in the
heavens and IN the earth. Joel Fl. 30

ao lo4u FRANCE. people IaQ2leQ at
me because l talked about the seven
horns ard the walls but forsaw all this from
the Book of Daniel and the Book Of Revela-
ton" Not taking any such responsibility In
the Interpretation Of the passage simply
assert that there is in it suggestions of many
things IN our time.
Our eyes dilate and our heart quickens its
pulsations as We read of events In the Third
century, the Sixth century, the Eighth cen
fury, the Fourteenth century, but there are
more lar reaching events crowded into the
Nineteenth century than into any other.
and the last quarter bids fair to
eclipse the preceding three quarters.
We read in the daily newspapers of
events announced in one paragraph and
which Herodotus, a Josephus, a XenophOn,
a Gibbon would have taken whole chapters
orwhole volumes TO elaborate. Looking out
upon cur time, we must cry out in tha words
of the text; WONDERS in the heavens and in
the earth.n
Propose 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 all
Others. Need / argue this day that our time
is wonderful for disaster1 Our world has
had a rough time since by the hand of God it
was bowled out into space. 1t is an epileptic
earth; convulsion after CONFUSION; frosts
pounding it with sledge hammer of
iceberg, and fires melting it with
furnaces seven hundred times heated. 1t Is a
wonder to me it has lasted so long. Meteors
shooting by on this side and grazing it, and
meteors shooting by on the other side and
grazing 1t, none of them slowing up for
safety. Whole fleets and navies and argosies
and hotllas OF worlds sweeping all about us.
Our earth like fishing smack of 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 have 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 deInoli-
ton. But it seems TO us as II our century
were especially characterized by disaster,
volcanic, cyclonic, oceanic, epidemic. / say
volcanic, because an earthquake is only @
volcano hushed up. When Stromboli
and Cotopaxi and Vesuvius stop breath
ing let the foundations of the earth
beware. Seven thousand earthquakes in
two centuries recorded in the catalogue of
the British association. Trajan, the
Emperor, goes to ancient Antioch, and amid
the splendOrs of his reception is met by an
earthquake that nearly destroys the Emper-
oris life. Lisbon, fair and beautiful at one
minutes 60.O00 have persisted, and yoltaire
writes Of them: 'F0r that region it was the
last Judgment, nothing wanting but a
trumpetr 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 1879
Caracas was caught in the grip Of the earth
quake; in 1922, in Chilli, 10000 square miles
Of land by volcanic force upheaved to four
and seven feet of permanent elevation; in
1854 Japan felt the geological agony;
Naples shaken In 1857; Mexico in 1858;
Medosa, the capital of the Argentine
Republic in 1861 Manila terrorized In 1858;
the Hawaiian islands by such force uplifted
and let down in 1871; Nevada shaken in 1871;
Antioch in 1872; California In 1877; San
Salvador in 1873; while in 1888 what
subteTTanean excitement Ischia, an isl
and Of the Mediterranean, a beautiful
Italian watering-place, vineyard clad, sur
rounded by all natural charm and historical
"Reminiscences; yonder, Capri, the summer re-
sort of the Roman Emperors; yonder
Naples, the paradise Of art-this beautiful
island suddenly toppled into the trough of
the earth, 5000 merry=makers perishing, and
some of them 50 far down beneath the reach
of human ObseQuies that it may be said of /
many a one of them as it was said of Moses:
The Lord buried him. Italy weeping, all |
Europe weeping, all ChFistendom weeping
where there were hearts to sympathizs and |
Christians TO pray But while the nations |
were measuring that magnitude Of disaster.
measuring it not with golden rod like that |
with which the angel measured heaven,
but with the black rule of death. Java
of the Indian archipelago, the most fertile
island Of all the earth, Is caught in the grip
of the earthquake, and mountain after |
mountain goes down. and city after city. |
until that island, which produces the health |
lest beverage of all the world has produced |
the ghastliest accident of the country. One |
hundred thousand people dying, dying, dead, |
dead
orBut look at the disasters cyclonic. At the
\, I'll of the Ganges are three islands-the |
tnat u the Sundeep and the Dalin Shabaz- |
o;o4 the midnight of October, 1877, on |
oAa0e "Isree islands the CRY was: 'fThe !
counts fofatersm A cyclone arose and
ally this 9pulation Of $4,000, $4,000 |
strange Flo the op g Of the highest Sapsa ~ao
characteFer see a cyclone? No? Then l /
- - y0u may never see one. saw one |
Ne ocean, and it swept us eight hundred |
- Is back from our course, and for thirty
10 hours during the cyclone and after
FIN we expected every moment to go
: the bottom. They told US be
Oore we retired at 9 O'Clock that the /
Ist night We were awakened with the shock of
the waves. All the lights OUT crash went
all the life boats. Waters rushing through
the skylights down into the cabin and down
on the furnaces until they Missed and smoked
in the deluge. Seven hundred people pray
ing, disappearing, shrieking. Our great ship
poised moment on the top of a mount
ain of phOsphOrescent fire and
then plunged down, down, down,
until it seemed as if she would never again
be righted- Ali you never want to see
cyclone at sea. But l was In Minnesota,
where there was one Of those cyclones on
land that swept the city Of Rochester from
its foundations and took dwelling houses,
barns men, women, children, horses, cat
tie and tossed them into indiscriminate
ruin, and lifted a rail train and dashed it
down, a mightier hand than that of the en-
gineer on the air brake. Cyclone in Kan
sas, cyclone in Missouri, cyclone in Wiscon-
sin, cyclone in Illinois, cyclone in Iowa
Satan, prince Of the power of the air, never
made such cyclonic disturbances as he has IN
cur day. And am l not right in saying that
one of the characteristics of the time in
which we live is disaster cyclonic2
But look at the disasters oceanic. Shall
call the roll of the dead shfppingf Ye mon
sters Of the deep, answer when call your
names. Vile de Havre, the Schiller, City of
Boston, the Melville, the President, the Gin
0r1a- But why should l go on calling
the roll when none OF them answer,
and the roll is as long as the white
scroll Of the Atlantic surf at Cape Hatteras
Dreakerss II the oceanic cables could report
al the scattered life and all the bleached
ZONES that they rub against in the depths of
he ocean what a message of pathos and
tragedy for both beachesi In one storm |
eighty fishermen persisted off the coast of
Newfoundland, and whole feets q
hem of the coast of England God help
he poor fellows at sea, and give high seats /
n heaven TO the Grace Darlings and the Ida
4ewises and the hfeboat men lowering around
5oodwin's Sands and the SherTies. The sea, !
'wning three-fourths Of the earth. proposes
o capture tbs other fourth, and is lombard I
ng the land all around the earth. !
The moving of our hotels at
Brighton Beach backward one hundred !,
ards from where they once stood, a type of
What is going on all around the world and on ,
very coast. The Dead Sea rolls to-day
ghere ancient cities stood. Pillars of tenn t
lies that stood on hills geologists now find J
hree-quarters under the water or altogether
ubmerged. The sea, having wrecked SO
many merchantmen and fiotillas wants to ] I
wreck the continents and hence disasters :
Lob '