The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1889-04-04
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
HE TALKS OF THE WONDERS OF
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.


KANSAS CRY, March 81. The Rev.
T. De Witt Talmage preached ser Z
mon here today on ''Wonders Of Dis
aster and Blessing lis text being, 81
will show wonders in the heavens and
IN the earth" Joel ii, 80 He said:
Dir. Cumming-great and good man
would have told us the exact time
OF the fulfillment of this prophecy
AS | stepped into his study in London
on my arrival from Paris Just after tile
French had surrendered at Sedan, the
good doctor said TO me: 1t is just as
told you about France; people laughed
at me because talked about the seven
horns and the yials, but / foresaw all
this from the Book of Daniel and the
Book Of Revelation" Not taking any
such responsibility in the interprcta.
ton of the passage, ] simply assert
that there Is in il suggestions of many
things in our time.
Our eyes dilate and our heart quick
ems its pulsations as we read of events
in the Third century, the Sixth cen
tury, the Eighth century, the Four
teenth 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 quarters.
We read in the daily newspapers of
events announced in one paragraph
aud without any special emphasis-of
events which Herodotus, Josephus,
a Xenophon, Gibbon would have
taken whole chapters or whole vol
umes 10 elaborate. Looking out upon
our time, we must cry out in the words
of the text: "Nonders in the heavens
and in the earth"
propose TO show you that the time
in which we live is wonderful for dis
as.er and wonderful for blessing, for
there must be lights and shades in this
picture rs in all others. Need argue
this day that our time is wonderful for
disaster2 Our world has had n rough
time since by the hand of God it was
bowlcd outinto space. II is an epilep-
tic earth convulsion after convulsion :;
frosts pounding il with sledge hammer
Of iceberg, and fires melting it with
furnaces seven hundred times heated.
1t is II 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
nnd argosies and ilotillas of worlds
sweeping all about us. Our earth like
u fishing smack Off the banks of New
foundland, while the Etruria and Ger
manic and the Arizona and the City of
New York rush by. Besides that, our
world has by sin been damaged in its
internal machinery, and ever and anon
the furnaces have burst, and the walk
ing beams of the mountain 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
demolition. But it seems to us as if
our century were especially charac-
tcrized by disaster, volcanic, cy-
clonic, oceanic, epidemic. / say
volcanic, because an earthquake
is only a volcano hushed up.
When Stromboli and Cotopaxi and
Vesuvius stop breathing, let the foun-
dations of the earth beware. Seven
thousand earthquakes in two centuries
recorded in the catalogue of the Brit
ish ASSOCIATION. Trajan, the emperor,
goes to ancient Antioch, and amid the
splendors of his reception is met by an
earthquake that nearly destroys the
emperor's life. Lisbon, fair and
beautiful at o'clock on tho 1st of No
vember, 1755, in six minutes $4,000
have perished, and Voltaire writes ol
them: For that region it was the last
Judgment, nothing wanting but 6
trumpctp Europe and America feel
ing the throb; 1 500 chimneys in Bos
ton partly or fully destroyed.
SOME DISASTERS OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.
But the disasters of other centurie:
have had their counterpart in oui
own. In 1912 Caracas was caught il
tho grip of the earthquake; in 1922, ii
Chill, 100, 900 square miles of land by
volcanic force upheaved to four and
seven feet of permanent elevation; IL
1854 Japan felt the geological agony
Naples shaken in 1857; Mexico in 1853
Medosa, the capital of the Argentine
Republic, in 1861: Manila terrorizet
in 1868; the Hawaiian islands by sucl
force uplifted and let down in 1871
Nevada shaken in 1871; Antioch il
1872; California in 1872; San Saliva
dor III 1873; while in 1883 what sub
terranean excitement Ischia, an isl
and of the Mediterranean, a beautiful
Italian watering place, vineyard clad
surrounded by all natural charm
and historical reminiscence yonder
Capri, the summer resort of the Ro
man emperors; yonder Naples, tn
paradise of art-this beautiful islam,
suddcnly toppled into the trough %
the earth, 5000 merry makers perish
ing, and some of them so far down be
meath the reach of human obsequie
that it may be said of many one o
them us il was said Of Moses, 9TH
Lord buried him." Italy weeping, al
Europe weeping, all Christeadon
weeping where there were heart
10 sympathize and Christians Z
pray. But while the ration
were measuring that magnitude @
disaster, measuring it not wit
golden rod like that with which th
angel measured heaven, but with th
black rule of death, Java of the India
archipelago, the most fersile island Q
AL the earth, is caught in the grip c
the earthquake, and mountain afte
mountain goes down, and city afte
,crty, until that island, which produce
sl,a healthiest beverage of all th
world. las produced the ghastliest a,
cident of the century. One hundre
thousand people dying, dying, deat
dead.
WHEN HEAVENS WINDS VISITED TIL
EARTH ROUGHLY.
But look Mt the disasters cycloni,
At the mouth OF the Ganges are thre
islands-the Hattiah, the Sundeep en-
the Dakin Shabazpore. In the mi
night of October, 1871, ON all tho
threc islands the cry was The water
the watersp a cyclone arose ~
rolled the sea over those three islane
and of a population OF 340, 600, 2l5,0
were drowned. Only those saved w
had climbed TO the top of the high'
trees. Did you ever see cyclon
No9 Then | pray God you may new
see one. saw ono on the ocean, a
il swept US eight hundred miles ba
from our course, and for thlrty-s
hours during the cyclone and afi
il we expected every moment TO
TO the bottom They told us
fore we retired at o'clock that
barometer had fallen, but at ! / oclo
at night we were awakened with I
shock of the waves. All the lgl
.outl Crash went all the life boa
Waters rushing through the skyligl
down into the cabin and down on
furnaces until they hissed and smol
i'm the deluge. Seven hundred peo
praying, blaspheming, shrieking {
great ship poised moment on the
Of q mountain of phosphorcScent Il
and then plunged down, down, dos
until il seemed as if she never wo
again be righted. Ahl you ne