The national leader., 1889-04-20
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
wonders Of Disaster and R,ess,,o

VIII snow wonders in the beo,,o
the EARTH Joel, 2;3O No heavens andir
Or. Cumming-great and oood
manI-would have told no 4h 81.
Time OF the fulflment of this ,Mo nronhaa,, Iaao'
on M0 -, = stepped INTO his study In London
I'll Trany, my arrival from Paris Just after the
lencn nao surrendered at Sedan the
tTou uoctor said to me: ssIt ia inst az 7
oo'o you about France: people lanohed
ac me because talked ahont tba SeuoT
norns ana vials, but foresaw ali thic
iIom tne Book of Daniel and the ROOF
vi revelation" Not taking anv snch
responsibility in the Interpretation % ~
10 Sa1 .. passage, l simply assert that there
our time. 'linsS III
our eyes dllate and our hearts
qulckens In its pulsation as we read of
events IN the Third century. the sixth
century, the Eighth century the Four-
Seonth century, but there are more
iar-reachlng events crowded into
THE NINETEENTH CENTupv
tnan IN any other, and the last ouarter
olus ialr TO eclipse the proceeding three
quarters. we read in the daily news
papers OF events announced in one nara
graph. and without any special empha-
sS-of events which a Herodotus a
Josephus, Nenophon "a Gibbon. would
nave 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.,
propose to show you that the time
LII Wnlch 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 I
argue this day that our time is
WONDERFUL FOR DIsAsTERp
Our world has had rough time since
by the hand of God it was bOWled out
into space. 1t is an epileptic earth; ;
convulsiOn after convulsion; frosts
pounding 1t with sledge. hammer of
iceberg, and fires melting it with fur
naces seven hundred times heated. 1t
IS wonder to me it has lasted so long.
MetOOrs 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
4eets and navies and argosies and
Aotillas, Of worlds sweeping about us.
Our earth like fishing smack off the
banks of Newfoundland, while the
EtrlriG and the Germantc and the
arizona and the City Of NesO 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 sea, and
the great hulk of the world has been
1arred with accidents, that ever and
anon threatened immediate demoli-
ition. But it seems to us as if our
century were especially characterized
by
DIsASTER-VoLCANIC CYCLONI
oceanic, epidemic. say volcanic. be-
cause an earthquake is only a volcano
hushed up. When StrOmboli and
Cotopaxi and Vesuvius stop breathing,
Iet the foundations of the earth be-
warel Seven thousand earthquakes in
two centuries recorded In the catalogue
of the British Association Trajan, the
emneror. goes to ancient Antioch, and
amid the splendors of his reception is
met nv an earthquake that nearly de-
otrovs the emperOr's life. Lisbon, fair
and heautiful at O'Clock on the 1st of
November. 1755, In six minutes 60. 600
hove nerIsbed: and Voltaire writes OF
than. HFor that region it was the
1ast indgment, nothing wanting but a
trumpetl Europe and America feeling
the throb; 1900 chlmneys In Boston
nartly or fully destroyed!
Knit the disasters of other centuries
80 had their counterpart in our own.
I" In 1919 caracas was caught in the
- - ,he earthquake; in 1922, in
EshiIi sn,R 100000 square miles of land by
ninanic O' force upheaved to four and
oo sOo feet of permanent elevation; in
eefun eorI 1onan felt the geological agony;
11os ,os oak shaken in 1857; Mexico IN 1858;
Napioo tS0vo the capital of the Argentine
Rennblic' in 1861; Manila terrorlzed in
1SsS. the Hawaiian isianos Dy I sucn
force @ nplifted and let down In 1911;
WaUada shaken in 1871; Antioch In
NenaG" Iogos Sa,;forpia in 1872; San Salvador
!o11; 1o5o. while in 1888 what subterra-
III lo'U, 'oUr,oitementI Ischla, an Island OF
mean 1fnN;terranean, beautiful Italian
tns vineyard oSstn clad suT sur
rounueu reminiscence; yonder. Capri,
historical ~ resort of the Roman en-
the suhnmoid suhodar Naples, the paradise of
perors; yon hoautiful island suddenly
art-tniS - the trough of the earth,
tOppled lnUo makers perishlng, and
5000 meia d1o % far down beneath the
some or tne non n obsequies that it may
reach OF 1u n,"nv a one of them as it
was VI sa said Of Noses n' NO'O 'O''''
him - Italy, WEEPING