The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-10-02

preached as usual. The opening hymn
was:
mo more let human blood DO split
Vain sacrifice for human guilt;
But TO each conscience be applied
The blood that flows from Jesus side"
The subject of the sermon was 'From
Ocean to Ocean, or My Transcontinental
Journey" Text: Psalms, Xxi, s: "He
shall have dominion from sea to sea- The
preacher said:
What two seas are referred to? Some
might say the text means that Christ was
to reign over all the land between the
Arabian sea and Caspian sea, or between
the Red sea and the Mediterranean sea. or
between the Black sea and the North sea.
No; in such case my text would have
named them. 1t meant from any large
body of water on the earth clear across TO
any other large body of water And so l
have a right to read it. He shall have
dominion from the Atlantic sea to the
Pacific sea. Mytheme is, America for God
First, consider the immensely of this
possession. Ii it we're only 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 His dominion. But its i'm
mensity and afiluence no one man 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 trayersed it. Having been privi-
legged six times TO cross this continent,
and twice this summer, l have come to
some appreciation of its magnitude. Cal
ifornia, which / supposed in boyhood,
from its size on the map, was few yards
across, a ridge of land on which one must
walk cautiously lest he hit his head against
the Sierra Nevadas on one side or
slip off into the Pacific waters
on the other; California the thin slice
of land as l supposed it to be in my boy
hood. | have found it to be larger than
all the states of New England and all New
York state and all Pennsylvania added to-
gether, and ii you add them together their
square miles fall far short of California.
North and South Dakota, Montana and
Washington territory, to be launched next
winter into statehood, will be giants at
their birth. Let the congress of the United
n
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 sena-
torial and congressional representatives
and we will be happy together. If some
of them have not quite the requisite
number of people fix up the constitu-
ton to suit these cases. Even Utah
will by dropping polygamy soon be ready
to enter. Monogany has triumphed
in parts of Utah and will probably
triumph at this fall election in Salt Lake
City. Turn all the territories into states,
and if some of the sisters are smaller than
the elder sisters give them time and they
will soon be as large as any of them. Be
cause some of the daughters of family
may be five feet in stature and the others
only four feet do not let the daughters five
feet high shut the door in the faces of
those who are only four feet high. Among
the diving utterances of our good friend,
the wise statesman and great author, the
brilliant orator and magnificent soul, S. S.
Cox, was the expressed determination to
move next winter in congress for the
transference of other territories into
states.
But while / speak of the immensely of
the continent | must remark that it is not
an immensely of monotone or tameness.
The larger some countries are the worse
for the world. This continent is not more
remarkable for its magnitude than for its
wonders of construction. What a pity
the u. ;. government did not take posses
sion of Yosemite, California, as it has of
Yellowstone, Wyoming, and of Niagara
falls, New York. Yosemite and the adj
-. ~ L..
seen them can think of them without
having his blood tingle? Trees now stand
ing there were old when Christ lived
These monarchs of foliage reigned before
Caesar or Alexander, and the next thou
sand years will not shatter their scepter
They are the masts of the continent their
canvas spread on the winds while the old
ship bears on its way through the ages.
Their size, of which travellers often speak,
does not affect me so much as their lon
gevity. Though so old now, the branches
of some of them will crackle in the last
confagration of the planet.
That valley of the Yosemite is eight
miles long and half mile wide and 5000
feet deep. 1t seems as if IL had been the
meaning of omnlpotence to crowd into as
small place as possible some of the most
stupendous 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 everlast-
ing defiance. If Jehovah has throne on
earth, these are its white pillows Stand
ing down in this great chasm of the valley
you look up and yonder is Cathedral rock,
vast, gloomy minister, built for the silent
worship of the mountains. Yonder is
Sentinel rock, 1870 feet high, bold, soil
tary, standing guard among the ages, its
top seldom touched until a bride one
Fourth of July mounted it and planted
the national standard, and the people
down in the valley looked up and saw the
head of the mountain turbaned with stars
and stripes. Yonder are the Three
Brothers." 1000 feet high; Clouds Rest, +"
North and South dome, and nights never
captured save by the fiery bayonets of the
thunderstorm.
No pause for the eye, no stopping place
for the mind. Mountains hurled on
mountains. Mountains in the wake of
mountains. Mountains fanked by noun
tains. Mountains split. Mountains
ground. Mountains fallen. Mountains
triumphant As though Mont Blanc and
the Adirondacks and Mount Washington
were here uttering themselves in one
magnificent chorus of rock and precipice
and waterfall Sitting and dashing
through the rocks the water comes down.
The Bridal Veil falls, so thin you can see
the face of the mountain behind it, Yon-
der is Yosemite falls, dropping 1854 feet,
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