Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1889-09-24
Talmage's Word Painting

| Inc hsV. bs WIN j a'hhcSO " y
charsc, eris,ic sermon Sunday based upon
what be saw during bis receEt transconti.
nental journey.
That Valley Of the Yosemite is eight
miles lorg and half mile wide end three
thousand feet deep. 1t seems as If it bad
been the meapiDg OF OmDipotepce to crowd
mo as small place IS possible some OF the
! must stupenduus scenery OF tbs world.
me of the Cliff. you do Dot stop to measure
u, feet FIR they aie literally mile high.
! If ] huvuh has throne on earth THESE are
lis write pillars.
mo pause for the eye DO stopping place
| for .he mind Mountains hurled on noun
talos. Mountains in the wake OF mountains.
| M,uutajns haDke; by noun aims. Noun
ta;ns split. Mountains ground. MountsiDs
f,,i.n. Mountains triumphant. AS though
! Mont Bianc and the Adj; ondacks and
| Mount Washington were here ntterlDg them
serves 10 one magnificent chorus Of rock
nrd preclpioe sDd waterfall.
.Yonder is Yosemite Falls, dropping
| 2 634 feet, sixteen times greater descent
than nat OF Niagara. Thtse waters dashed
! 81 Death on The rocks, so that the white
spirit of the slain waters ascending in o
robe Of mist seeks The heaven. Yonder ls
Nevada Fails, plugging 700 feet. the water
IN arrow, the water in rockets, the water ID
| pearls, the water in ametbysts, be water IN
njamonds. That cascade filings down the
| rocks enough jewels to array all the earth
| ia eauty, spu luehes on until it drops into
a verv he'll Of waters, the smoke of their
| TO, ments ascending forever and ever.
| sBnt the most wonderful part of this
American continent is the Yellowstone Park.
After al poetry has exhausted itself and all
the Moraus and Bierstadts and the other
| sncbautiDg artists have completed their can.
vas there will be other revelations to make
and other stories Of its beauty and wrath,
-piendor and agony to be reclted. Yellow
| .;one Park is geoiogist's paradise.
In some portions of it there seems to be
,he anarchy of the elements. Fire end
| water. aud the vapor born of that marriage,
| ,erriGc Geyser cones or hills Of crystal
| ,hst have been over FIVE thousand years
! ~ wing. Ia places the earth, throbbing,
nu.nE, sroaping, quakiDg with squeous
pafoxy m.
"At the expiration of every sixty.6ve
minutes one of the geysers tosses its boil
| ing water 1S5 feet ia the air and then de.
| scgndipp inio swinging rainbows. Caverns
| of pictured walls large enough for the sepul-
| h5e o; the human race. Formations OF
| atone in share and color OF Gala lily, OF
| belio!rope, Of ross, Of cowsiip. of sunfower
aud of oiAdiolR. sulphur aud arsenio and
| TX de of non, with their delicate pencils,
urning the hills into Luxemburg or
Vatican picture gallery The so-called
ThaDatopeis Geyser, exquisite as the Bryant
pnuln it was named after, and the 30 called
E0engelne Geyser lovely as the Long.
| fellow heroine it commentaries. The 80
called Pulpit Terrace, from its white eleva.
ton. preaching migh;ier sermons Of God
'nsn nan bnmau lips ever uttered. The 30.
called Bethesda Geyser, by the warmth OF
which invelids have already been cured, the
Angel of Health continually stirring the
waters. Enraeed craters. with beat at 500
| degrees. only little below the surface
In scme places waters az innocent and
smiling as child making a fret attempt to
walk from It's mothers lap, and not far of
as Gaming and freuzied and upgovernable
as q maniac in murderous struggle with his
| keepers.
'But after you have wandered along the
zeyserire enchaDtmeut for days and begin to
feel that there can be nothing more Of inter.
est to see, you suddenly come upon the per-
oration OF all majesty and grandeur, the
| Grand Canyon. 1t is here that it seems to
me-snd l speak it with revereDce-Jeho-
vah seems 10 have surpassed Himself 1t
seems great gulch let down into the eter-
mites
Here, hung up and let down and spread
abroad, are all the colors of land and sea
aud sky. Upholsterlng of the Lord God AL.
mighty. Best work of the Architect OF
Worlds. Sculpturing by the infinite. Ma.
sonry by an omnipotent trowel. Yellow
You never saw yellow unless you saw II
there. Red You never sew red unless you
saw it there Violet You never saw violet
unless you saw it there. Triumphant BAN
ners of color. Ia a cathedral of oasalt, SUM-
rise and sunset married by the setting OF
rainbow ring.
Gothic arches, Corinthian capitals and
Egyptian basilicas built before human arch.
itecture was born Huge Notifications OF
granite constructed before war forged its
first cannon. Gibraltars and Sebastopole
that never can be taken. Aihsmbras where
kings of strength and queens of beauty reign.
ed long before the fret earthly crown was
impeerled. Thrones on which no one but
the King Of Heaven and Earth ever sat.
Font of waters at which the lesser hills are
baptised, while the giant cliffs stand round
as sponsors.
Hanging over ore of the cliffs 1 looked of
urtil could not get my breath, then retreat.
Ing to less exposed place 1 looked down
again. Down there is pillar of rock that
in certain conditions of the atmosphere
looks like pillar of blood. Yonder are 6f
ty feet of emerald on a base Of five hundred
feet of opal. Wall of chalk resting on ped.
estals of beryl Turrets flight tumbling on
floors of darkns ss. The brown Frightening
into golden. Snow of crystal melting into
fire Of carbuuce. Flaming red cooling into
russet Cold blue warming into saffron.