Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-04-13
T. DEWITT TAlMAGE
Discourses Upon the "Won-
derS Of Disaster and
Blessing"
A Mastery Sermon Delivered
at Kansas City on
Sunday.
"And Along That Track the Car OF
the Worlds Redemption VIII
Roll TO the Depot OF
the Millennium"

KANSAS Cry, March 3l.-The Rev. I.
Dewitt Talmage preached a sermon here
today on Wonders OF Disaster and
Blessing, " his text being, Il will show
wonders in the heavens and in the earth"
Joel ii, so. He said:
DR.. Cumming-great and good man
would have told III the exact time OF the
f|ulflIment Of this prophecy. AS !
stepped into his study in London on my
arrival from Paris just after the French
had surrendered atSedan, the good doctor
said TO me. ct is just IS | told you
about France; people laughed at me be-
cause [ talked about the seven horns and
the vials, but ! fotesaw all this from the
book OF Daniel and the book OF Reyela-
ton" Not taking any such responsible
ity in the Interpretation Of the passage, !
simply assert tina there is in it sugges-
tons OF many things in our time.
Our eyes dilatc and our heart quickens
its pulsGtioDs as we read of events III the
third century, the sixth century. the
eighth century, 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 quar-
tiers. We read in the daily newspapers
of events announced in one paragraph
and without any special emphaSis-of
events which a H3rodotus, a Josephus, a
Xenophon, a Gibbon would have taken
whole chapters or whole volumes to
elaborate. Looking out upon our time,
we must cry out in the words Of the
text: Wonders in the heavens and III
the earth"
| 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 pict-
ure as in all others. Need | argue this
this day that our time is wonderful for
disaster? Our world has had a rough
time since by the hand of God it was
bowlcd out into space. 1t is an epileptic
earth. CONFUSION after CONFUSION; froGts
pounding it with sledge hammer OF ice
berg, end fires melting it with furnaces
seven hundred times heated. 1t a won
der 10 me it has lasted SO long. Metcors
shooting by on this side and grazing ii.
and meteOrs shooting by ontbc other sIcc
and grazing it. none OF them slowing up
for safety. Whole fleets and nayieS and
a|rgOsies and hotilas Of worlds sweeping
all about us. Our earth like q tshlng
smack off the banks of Newfoundland,
while the Etruria and Gcrmaujc and the
Arizona and the City Of New York rush
by. Besides that, u world has by rim
been damaged IN is internal machinery,
and ever and auun the furnace have
burst. and the walking beams OF tue
mountain have broken, and the islands
have shipped 3 sca, ami the great hulk Of
the world has been Jared with accidents
that ever and anon threatened immediate
demolition. But il seems To US IS # our
century were especially characterized by
disaetcr, volcanic, cNcionlc, oceanic, cpl
demic. | say volcanic, because al earth
quake is only a volcano hushed up.
When Stromboli and CotopaXi and Fesn-
Was stop breathing, lot IT, foundation
OF the earth beware. Seven Thousand
earthduakes ia two centuries recorded in
the catalogue OF the British association.
Traiap, the emperor, goes to ancient An
tioch, and amid the splendors of his re
ceptlOn is met by an earthquake that
nearly destroys the emperOr's life, lis
bon. fair and beautiful on the Let Of No
vember, 1855, in elk minutes go, GOO have
persisted, and Voltaire writes of them
''For that region it was the last judgment,
nothing wanting but a trumpet
Europe and America feeling the throb,
1900 chimneys in Boston fully or par,
italy destroyed.
But the disasters of other CENTURIES
have had their counterpart in our own
In 1912 Caracas was caught in the grill
of the earthquake; in 1922, in Chill, 100,
600 square miles Of land by volcanic force
upheaved to four and seven feet OF per
manent elevation: in 1854 Japan felt the
geological agony; Naples shaken in 1857
Mexico in 1868; Medosa. the capital Of
the Argentine Republic, in 1851; Manillt
terroriZed in 1868; the Hawaiian islands
by such force upliftcd and let down il
1871: Nevada shaken IN 1871; Antioch IL
1872; California in 1879; San Salvador il
1878; while in 1888 what subterraneai
excitement Ischia. an island of tn
Mediterranean, a beautiful Italian water
ing place, vineyard clad, surrounded b,
all natural charm and historical reminis
Cence; yonder Capri, the summer resor
of the Roman emperOrs; y0nder Naples
the paradise of .rt-this beautiful islam
suddenly topp ID into the trough of tn
earth, 5000 II rry-makers perishing, an
some of theI 80 far down beneath III
reach Of human o~bsequies that it may b
said of many a one OF them as it wa
said of Moses: The Lord buried him.
Italy weeping. all Europe weeping. al
C%hristendom weeping where there wer
hearts TO sympathize and Christians t
pray. But while the nations were meas
iring that magnitude Of disaster, meas
uring il not with golden rod like tina
with which the angel measured heaven
but with the black rule Of death, Java, q
the Indian archipelago, the most fertil
island of all the earth, Is caught in In
grip Of the earthquake, and mountai
after mountain goes down, and city ate
CITY. units that Island, which produce
the heslthiest beverage Of all the world
has produced the ghastiest accident 9
the century. One hundred thousand pee
pie dying. dying. dead, dead.
WHEN HEAVENS WINDS VISITED TIL
EARTH ROUGHLY.
But look at the disasters cycionic. a
tho ~o,,th If the Ganpea are three i8IAnC