Milford chronicle., 1889-04-05
MILFORD, DEL, FRIDAY, APRIL ) 1889.
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
HE TALKS OF THE WONDERS OF
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

Some OF the Most Awful Disasters in His
tory Have Occurred During the Past
Nine Decades-The Spirit Of Christianity
Spreading Over the Earth.
KANSAS CRY, March si.-The Rev 7. De
Witt Talinage preached a sermon here today
ON ''Wonders of Disaster and Blessing his
text being, Il viii show wonders In the heav-
ems and in the earth.p Joel ii, 80. He said:
DR.. Cumming great and good man-would
have told us the exact time of the fulilnent
of this prophecy. As l stepped into his study
in London on my arrival from Paris just
after the French had surrendered at Sedan,
the good doctor said to me' 1T is just as
told you about France, people laughed at me
beceuse / talked about the seven horns and
the vials, but ! foresaw 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 as
sert that there is in it suggestions Of many
things in our time.
Our eyes dilate and our heart quiekens its
pulsations as we read of events in the Third
century, the Sixth century, the Eighth cen
tury, 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 pre-
ceding three quarters. We read in the daily
newspapers OF events announced in one para
graph and without any especial emphasis
Of events which a Horodotus, a Josephus, a
Xenophon, a Gibbon would have taken whole
chapters or whole volumes to elaborate.
Looking cut upon our time, we must cry out
in the words of the text; wonders IN the
heavens and in 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 picture as in ali
others. Need l argue this day that our time
is wonderful for disasterl Our world has had
a rough time since by the hand Of God it was
bowled out into space 1t is an eplepuc
earth: convulsion after CONFUSION; frosts
pounding it with sledge hammer of iceberg
and fires melting it with furnaces seven hun
dred times heated It 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 it, none OF
them slowing up for safety. Whole fleets
and navies and aFgosies and tlotillas OF worlds
sweeping all about US. Our earth like a fish
ing smack off the banks of Newfoundland,
while the Etruria and the Gernlanic and the
Arizona and the City of New York rush by.
Besides that, our world has by sin been dam
aged in its internal machinery, and ever and
anon the furnaces have burst, and the walk
ing beams of the mountains have broken and
1 the islands have shipped a sea, and the great
hulk Of the world has been Jared with occl-
4 dents that ever and anon threatened imme-
diate demolition. But it seems to us as if our
/ century were especially characterized by dis
| [ say volcanic, because IN earthquake is only
/ a v9lcano hushed up When Stromboli and
4 CotopaAt end Vesuyius stop breathing, let the
4 foundations OF she earth beware. Seven
1 thousand earthquake in two centuries re
corded in tho catalogue Of che British assocl-
alton Trajan, the emperor, goes to ancient
/ Antioch, and amid the splendors Of MS recep'
! ton is met by an earthquake that nearly de-
stroys the emperor's life. Lisbon, fair and
beautiful at O'Clock on the lst Of November
l755, in six minutes G0000 have perished, and
Voltaire writes of them: "For that region il
was the last Judgment, nothing wanting but
a trumpetP Europe and America feeling
the throb; 1890 chimneys in Boston partly
or fully destroyed
SOLE DISASTERS OF TIE NINETEENTH CEN
TURY.
But the disasters Of other centuries have
had their counterpart in our own. In ISL
Caracas was caught in the grip of the earth
quake; in 1922, in Chill, 100000 square miles
Of land by volcanic force upheaved to fou
and seven feet of permanent elevation; Il
1854 Japan felt the geological agony Naples
shaken ia 1851; Mexico in 1888; Medosa
the capital of the Argentine Republic, II
1861 Manila terrorized in 1868; the Hawaiian
islands by such force uplifted and let down
in 1871; Nevada shaken in 1871; Antioch il
1872; California in 1872; san Salvador Il
1873; while in 1883 what subterranean ex
citementsl Ischia, an island Of the Mediter
ranean, beautiful Italian watering place
vineyard clad, surrounded by all natura
charm and historical reminiscence; yonder
Capri, the summer resort Of the Roman EN-
perors; yonder Naples, the paradise Of art
this beautiful island suddenly toppled int
the trough Of the earth, 5000 merry maker
perishing, and some Of them so far down be
meath the reach of human obsequies that /
may be said Of many a one Of them as it wa
. said of Moses, "The Lord buried him ltal.
weeping, all Europe weeping, all Clristen
dom weeping where there were hearts T.
svmpathize and Christians to pray. Blu
while the nations were measuring that mag
nitude of disa5s'r, measuring it not WIZ
golden rod like HAT with which the angC
1 / measured heaven but with the black rule o
death, Java, of the Indian archipelago, tn
most fertile island Of all the earth, is caught i
the gripo the earthquake, and mountain aite
mountain goes down, and city after city unt
thatisland, which produces the healthiest bey
erage Of all the world, has produced the ghasi
lest accident of the century One hundre
thousand people dying, dying, dead, dead
WHEN HEAVENS WINDS VISITED THE Fart
ROUGHLY.
But look at the disasters cyclonic. At th
mouth Of the Ganges are three islands--th
( Hattiah, the Sundeep and the Dakin Shabai
! pore. In the midnight Of October, lsI, o
all those three islands the cry was; ''Ih
! waters, the watersm A cyclone arose an
rolled the sea over those three islands, and {
apopulation Of $40, 900, 2l5,00O were drowne'
Only those saved who had climbed to the to
of the highest trees. Did you ever see cl
clonel Nol Then pray God you may nev'
see one l saw one on the ocean, and
swept us eight hundred miles back from OF
course, and for thirty-six hours during Il
cyclone and after it we expected every ml
! nient to cd to the bottom. They told Us b
q fore we retired at ocloek that the baron
I eter had fallen, but at II o'clock at night v
Il were awakened with the shock Of the wave
I al the lights out. Crash went all Il
Il life boats. Waters rushing through the SIX.
q lights down into the cabin and down c
g tie furnaces until they Missed and smoke
Il in the deluge Seven hundred people pra.
q ing, blaspheming, shriesing. Our great sh
poised a moment on the top of a mountain
II phosphorescent fire, and then plunged dow
3 down, down, until it seemed as il she new
y would again be righted Ahl you ner'
p want to see a cyclone at sea But ! was
Minnesota, where there was one Of those c
clones on land that swept the city Of Roc
ester from its foundations, and took dwe
ing houses, barns, men, women, childre
horses cattle, and tossed them into ind
criminate ruin, and lifted q rail train Al
dashed it down, mightier hand than th
c of the engineer on the air brake. Cyclo
> in kansas, cyclone in Missouri, cyclone in W
consin, cyclone IN Illinois, cyclone In low
etl Satan, prince Of the power OF the air, nev
rit