The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-09-28
FROM SEA no SEA.
The Wonders of Our Country De-
picted By DR.. Talmage.
n Country Fashioned by the Divine Hand
For Christ's D~omiuion-The Great
West-Its Natural Wonders
America For God.

Rev. I. De Witt Talmage, who made a
tour OF the West during the past summer,
recently preached n sermon Mt Brooklyn
upon the subject: From Ocean to Ocean,
or My Tra|nscontineutal Journey" Text
Psalms lxxil. s: HE shall have dominion
from sea to sea-" The preacher said:
what two seas are referred tor Some
might say that the text meant that Christ
was tore g. over all the land between the
ARABIAN sea II the Caspian sea. or be-
tween the Red sou and the Mediterranean
sea, or between the Black sea and the
North sea. No; in sue, case my taxt
would have named them. IT. meant from
any large body OF watt On Inc earth clear
across to any other large body of water.
And so | have "A right TO r,aG H.: lie shall
have dominion from the Ailautic sea TO
the Pacific sea. My theme is, America for
Godt
First, consider tho immensity of this
possession. If it were only a small tract
of land capable of nothing better than
sage brush and with ability only to sup
port prairie dogs, | should not have much
enthusiasm in wanting Christ to have it
added to III s dominion. Butts immensely
and Hfiuence no one can imagine unless,
in Immigrant wagon or stage coach or in
rail train of the Union Pacific or the
Northern Pacific or the Canadian Pacific
or the Southern Pacific, he has traversed
It Having been privileged six times to
cross this continent, and twice this sum-
mer, l have come 10 some appreciation of
Its magnitude. California, which ! sup
posed in boyhood from its size on the map,
was a few yards across, a ridge of land on
which one must walk cautiously lest he
hit his head against the Sierra Nevada on
one side or slip Off into the Pac fc waters
on the other, Ca ifornia, the thin slice of
land as ! supposed it to be in %boyhood, l
have found to he larger than ali the States
of New England, and all New York State
and all Pennsylvania ad led together; and
If you add them together their square
miles will fall far short of California.
North and South Dakota, Montana and
Washington Territories, to he launched
next winter into Statehood, will be giants
at their birth. Let tho Congress of the
United States strain n point and soon adj
init also Idaho and Wyoming and New
Mexico. What Is the use keeping them
out In the cold any longer? Let us have
the whole continent divided into States
with Senatorial and Congressional rep
resentatives aud we will be happy to-
gether. III some of them have not quite
the requisite number of people fix up the
Constitution 10 suit these cases. Even
Utah will by dropping polygamy soon be
ready 10 enter. Monogamy has iriumphed
In parts of Utah and Will probably triumph
at this fall election in Salt Lake City.
"But," says some one, ''In calculating
the immensely of our continental acreage
you must remember that vast reaches of
our public domain are uncultivated heaps
of dry sand, and the bad lands of Mon
tana and the great American desert" l
am glad you mentioned that Within
twenty-five years there will not be be-
tween the Atlantic and Pacific coast n
hundred miles OF land not reclaimed
either by farmers pillow or miners crow
bar. By irrigation, the waters Of the
rivers and the showers of heaven in what
are called the rainy season will he gath
cred into great reservoirs and through
aqueducts let down where md when the
people want thom. Utah is an object
lesson. Some parts of that Territory
which were so barren that a spear of
grass could not lave been raised thore
In a hundred years are now rich as Lam
caster County farms of Pennsylvania OF
Westchester farms of New York or Som
erset County farms of New Jersey.
Experiments have proved that ten acres
VI Jun = tOA AiOth wax dIuGI6h
in great Psychological basins will produce
as much as fifty acres from the downpour
of rain as seen in our regions. We have
our freshets and our ~droughts, but in those
lands which are to be scientifically irIi-
gated there will be neither treshets nor
droughts.
The work has already been grandly be-
gun by the United States Government.
Over four hundred lakes lave already
bsen ofilc ally take possession OF by the
natiCn for the great enterprise of irriga-
ton. Rivers that have been rolling idly
through the g regions, doing nothing on
their way TO the $ "A, will lie lassoed and
corralled and pepuelu up until such time
as the farmors need them.
About eight hundred million of people
of the earth to-day are kept alive on food
raised on irrigated land. And here we have
allowed TO lie waste, given up to the rat
tlesnake and bat and prairie dog. lands
enough to support whole nations of indus
trious population. The work begun will
be contaminated Here and there excep-
tional lands may be stubborn and refuse
to yield any wheat or corn from their hard
fists, but II the hoe fails to make an inn
preston, the miners pickaxe will discover
the reason for IL and bring up from be-
hO10h " III ~ SNeAf
and iron and lead and copper and silver
and gold. God speed the biologists and
the surveyors, the engineers and the Sena-
torial commissions and the capitalists and
the new settlers and the husbandmen
who put their brain and hand and heart
to this TRANSPORTATION Of the American
continentl
But while i speak of the immensity of
the continent, ] must remark it is not an
immensely of monotone or tameness. The
larger some countries are, the worse for
the world. This continent Is not more re-
markable for its magnitude than for its
wonders of construction, What a pity
the United States did not take possession
of Yosemite. Cal, as it has Of Yellow
stone, Wyo, and OF Niagara Falls, N. Y.
Yosemite and the adjoining California
~regionsi Who that has seen them can
think Of them without having his blood
tingle? Trees now standing there that
were old when Christ lived. These mon
archs Of foliage reigned before Caesar or
Alexander, and the next thousand years
will not shntter their scepter.
The valley oft Yosemite is eight miles
long and a half mile wide and 1900 feet
deep. 1t seems as if it had been the mean
ingo Of Omnipotence 10 crowd into as small
q place as possible some of the most stu
pendous scenery of the world. Some of
the cliffs you do not stop to measure by
feet, for they are literally a mile high.
Steep. SO that neither foot of man nor
beast ever scaled them, they stand in
everlasting defiance. IL Jehovah has a
throne on earth these are It's white pillars.
Standing down in this great chasm of the
valley you look up and yonder is Caths-
dral rock. vast, gloomy minister built for
the silent worship of the mountains.
Yonder is Sentinel rock, 3 30 feet high,
bold, solitary, standing guard among the
ages, its top seldom touched until a bride
one Fourth of July mounte | it and plante
the National standards and the people
down in the valley looked up m saw the
head Of the noun tain turbaned with the
stars and stripes. Yonder are The 'Thre,
Brothers, " 1909 feet high; Clouds Rest
North n South Dome and heights never
captured save by the fiery bayonets Of
the thunder storm.
No pause for the eye, no stopping place
for the mind. Mountains hurled OF
mountains. Mountains in the wake o
mountains. Mountains hanked by mount
aims. Mountains split. Mountains
ground. Mountains fallen. Mountain
triumphant. As though Mont Blanc anC
~ <AuHohuhcks anu Mouub ashluBtoi
were here u~ttering themselves in on
magnificent chorus OF rock and precipic,
n waterfall.
Sitting and dashing through the rock
the water comes down. The Brida Val
Falls, so thin you can see the fnce of tn
mountain behind il. Yonder is Yosemit
Falls, dropping 1894 feet, sixteen time
greater descent than that of Niagara
These waters dashed TO death on the rock,
so that the white spirit Of the slain water