The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-10-09
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "From Ocean to Ocean; or,
MyTranscontinentaI Journey"

TEXT: "He shall haue dominion from
sea to sed."-Psalms Hii., 8.
Whist two seas are referred to? Some
might say that the text meant that
Christ was to reign over all the land
between the Arabian Sea and Caspian
Sea, or between the Red Sea and the
Black Sea and the North Sea- No; in such
case my text would have named them. IT
meant from any large body Of water on the
earth clear across to any other large body OF
water. And so I have right to read it
He shall have dominion from the Atlantic
Sea to the Pacific Sea. My theme Is,
America for Godl
First consider the immensity Of this pos
session. If it were only small tract of land
capable of nothing better than sage brush
and with ability only to support prairie
wanting Christ to have it added to his do
minion. But its immensity and affluence nc
one can imagine unless, in Immigrant wagon
or stage coach or in rail train Of the Union
Pacific or the Northern Pacific or the Can
adian Pacific or the Southern Pacific he has
traversed it. Having been privileged SIX
times to cross this continent, and twice
this summer, have come to
some appreciation of its magnitude.
hood from it's size on the map, was a few
yards across, 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 Pacific waters on the other, Call
fornia, the thin slice of land as l supposed 1t
to be in boyhood, have found it to be larger
than all the States of New England and all
New York State and all Pennsylvania added
together; and if you add them together their
r~h Co., -, of Drr1Ja
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 States
strain point and soon admit 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
Representatives and we will all be happy
together. If some of them have not quite the
requisite number Of people, fix up the Con.
by dropping polygamy soon be ready To
enter. Monogamy 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
some of the sisters are smaller than the elder
sisters, give them time and they will soon be
as large as any Of them. Because 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 dying utterances OF
our good friend, the wise statesman and great
author, the brilliant orator and magnificent
soul, s. s. Cox, was the expressed deternin-
ton to move next winter in Congress for the
tranference Of other Territories into States.
But" says some one, 'tin calculating the
immensity of our continental acreage you
must remember that vast reaches Of our pub
lie domain are uncultivated, heaps of dry
sand, and the bad lands Of Montana and the
great American desert.n am glad you men
toned that Within twenty-five years there
will not be between the Atlantic and the
Pacific coasts hundred miles Of land not
reclaimed either by farmers plow or miners
crowbar. By irrigation, the waters Of the
rivers and the showers of heaven in what are
called the rainy season will be gathered
into great reservoirs and through aque-
ducts let down where and when the people
want them. Utah is an object lesson. Some
parts of that territory which were SO barren
that q spear Of grass could not have been
raised there in hundred years are now rich
as Lancaster County farms Of Pennsylvania
or Westchester farms of New York or
Somerset County farms Of New Jersey.
Experiments have proved that ten acres OF
ground irrigated from waters gathered In
great Neurological 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 irrigated there
will beneither freshets nor droughts. As you
take pitcher and get it full Of water and
then set it on table and take drink out of
it when you are thirsty and never think
30 J,in Y,ifo ot
Montana and Wyoming and Idaho will catch
the rains of their rainy season and take up
all the waters of their rivers in great pitch
ers of reservoirs and drink out of them when
ever they will and refresh their land when
ever they will.
The work has already been grandly begun
by the United States Government. Over
four hundred lakes have already been off,
cially taken possession Of by the ma
tion for the great enterprise Of irri-
CATION. Rivers that have been
nothing on their way to the sea, will be las
seed and corralled and penned up until such
time as the farmers need them. Under the
same processes the Ohio, the Mississippi and
all the other rivers will be taught to behave
themselves better, and great basins will be
made to catch the surplus of waters in times
of freshets and keep them for times Of
drought. The irrigating process by which all
the arid lands between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans are to be fertlllzed is no new
experiment. 1t has been going on success
fully hundreds Of years, in Spain, In Ching,
in India, in Russia, in Egypt.
About eight hundred millions of people OF
the earth to-day are kept alive by food raised
on irrigated land. And here we have al
lowed to lie waste, given up to rattlesnake
and bat and prairie dog, lands enough to sup
port whole nations Of industrious popula-
tion. The work begun will be consum-
mated Here and there exceptional
lands may be stubborn and refuse to
Weld any wheat or corn from their hard
fists, but if the hoe fail to make an impress
SION, the miners picza1 will discover the rea-
son for it and bring up from beneath thoso
unproductive surfaces coal and iron and lead
and copper and silver and gold. God speed
the geologists and the surveyors the engl-
neers and the senatorial. commissions, and tho
capitalists and the new settlers, and the hus-
bandmen who put their brain and hand and
heart to this TRANSPORTATION of the American
continent!
But while ( speak of the immensity of the
continent, I must remark it is not an i'm
mensity Of monotone or tamencss. The
larger some countries are the worse for the
world. This continent is not more remarka-
BILE for its magnitude than for its Woncyrs OF
construction What pity the United States
Government did not take possession of Yose-
mite, California, as it has of Yellowstone,
Wyoming, and Of Niagara Falls, New York!
Yosemite and the adjoining California re-
gions! Who that has seen them can think
of them without having his blood tin
gle? Trees now standing there that
were cid when Christ lived. These monarchs
of foliage reigned before Caesar or Ale1au-
der, and the next thousand years will not
shatter their scepter. They are the nasts of
the continent their canvas spread on the
winds while the old ship bears on its way
through the ages. Their size, of which trav!.
elers often speak, does not affect me so much