The Penn's Grove record., 1889-04-20
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON:
Wonders of Disaster and BIessin.

a WOulu nave TOLD us the exact
time OF the fulflment of this prophecy.
AS ! stepped into his study III London
on my arrival from Paris just after the
French had surrendered at Sedan, the
good doctor said 10 me: at is Just as /
told you about France: people laughed
at me because l talked about the seven
horns and walls, but ! foresaw all ills
from the Book of Daniel and the Book
of Revelation" Not taking any such
responsibility In the Interpretation of
the passage, I simply assert that there
Is in 1t suggestions Of many things in
our time.
Our eyes dllate and our hearts
~quickens In its pulsation as we read of
events in the Third century, the Sixth
century, the Eighth century, the Four
teenth century, but there are more
~far-reaching events crowded into
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
than in any other, and the last quarter
bids fair to eclipse the preceding three
quarters. We read in the daily news
papers Of events announced in one para
graph. and without any special empha-
sis-of events which a Herodotus, a
lco3CRluof O LAShoRhOh "a oItDOD, WOulu
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 in the EARTH"
l propose to show you that the time
in which we live IS wonderful for dis
aster 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 DIsAsTERp
by the band of God it was bowled out
into space. 1t is an epileptic earth;
convulsion after commissions; frosts
pounding 1t with sledge hammer OF
iceberg, and fires melting it with fur
naces seven hundred times heated. 1t
Is a wonder to me 1t has lasted so long.
Meteors shooting by on this side and
grazing it, and meteors shooting by on
the other side and grazing it, nom of
them slowing up for safety. Whole
fleets and nayies and argosies and
6otillas, of worlds sweeping about us.
Our earth like a fishing smack off the
banks of Newfoundland, while the
Etrurid and the Germdnic and the
arizona and the City Of Ne,0 York
rush by. Besides that, our world has
by sin been damaged in its internal
machinery, and ever and anon the fur
naces have burst, and the walking
beams of the mountains 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 demOli-
|itiOn. But it seems to us as if our
century were especially characterized
by
DIsASTER-yOLCANIC CYCLONI
oceanic, epidemic. l say volcanic. be-
cause an earthquake is only a volcano
hushed vi. When Stromboli and
| Cotopaxi and Vesuvius stop breathing,
let the foundations Of the earth be-
wareI Seven thousand earthquakes in
two centuries recorded in the catalogue
of the British Association I'rajan, the
emperor, goes to ancient Antioch, and
amid the s%plendors of his reception is
met by an earthquake that nearly de-
stroys the emperor's life. Lisbon, fair
and beautiful at ! O'Clock on the LIST of
November. 1865, in six minutes GO, 900
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 thIOt; 1900 chlmneys in Boston
partly or fully destroyed
But the disasters of other centuries
have had their counterpart IN our wi
In 1872 Caracas was caught in the
grip of the earthquake, in 1922, in
Chill, 100, 0C0 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;
Mendoza, the capital of the Argentine
Republic, in 1861; Manila terrorized in
1868; the Hawaiian islands by such
force uplIfted and let down In 1871;
Nevada shaken in 1871; Antioch in
1872; Califol pia in 1872; San Salvador
in 1878; while in 1883 what subterra-
mean excitement lschia, an Island of
the Mediterranean, a beautiful Italian
watering. place, vineyard clad, sur
rounded by all natural charm and
historical "reminiscences; yonder. Capri,
the suL1mer resort OF II Roman eni.
perors; yonder, Naples, the paradise of
art-this beautiful island suddenly
toppled into the trough of the earth,
8 200 merry-makers perishlng, and
some or them so far down beneath the
reach OF human obsequies that it may
be said OF many a one of them as 1t
was said of Moses, "rhe Lord buried
him." Italy,
ALL EUROPE WEEPING,
all Christendom weeping where there
were hearts to sympathize and Chris.
tians to pray. But while the nations
were measuring that magnitude of dis
aster, measuring it not with golden rod
like that with which the angel meas
ured heaven, but with the black rule
of death, Java, of the Indian aIchi-
pelago, the most fertile island of all
the earth, IS caught In the grip of the
earthquake, and mountain after noun
tain goes down, and city after city,
until that island, which produces the
healthiest beverage Of all the world,
has produced the ghastliest accident OF
the century. One hundred thousand
people dying, dying. dead, dead!
But look at the disasters cyctonfc AT
the mouth of the Ganges are three
is!ands-the Hattiab, the Sundeep and
the Dakin Shabazpore. In the mid
night of october, 1877. on all those
three islands the cry was:"The watersl
the watersl" A cyclone arose and
rolled the sea over those three islands,
and of a population of 100000, 2l5,-
were drowned. Only those saved who
had climbed to the top of the highest
tIeesl Did you ever see a cyclonep
Nc2 Then l pray God you may
never see one. / saw
CYCLONE ON THE OCEAN,
and it swept us eight hundred miles
back from our course, and for thirty
six hours during the cyclone and after
I we expected every moment to go to
the bottom. They told us before we
retired at 8 O'Clock that the barometer
had fallen, but at II O'Clock at night
we were awakened with the shock OF
the waves. All the lights outl Crashl
went all the lifeboats. Waters rushing
through the skylights down into the
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