Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-10-03
FROM SEA TO SEA.
The Wonders of Our Country De-
picted By DR.. Talmage.
a Country Fashioned By the Divine HAND
For Christ's Dominion-The Great
West-Its Natural Wonders
America For God.

q
recently preached q sermon at Brooklyn
upon the subject: From Ocean to Ocean.
or Ny Transcontinental Journey" Text:
Psalms lxxiL s: He shall have dominion
from sea to sea-" The preacher said:
What two seas are referred to! Some
might say that the text meant that Christ
was to reign over ell the land between the
Arabian sea and the Caspian sea, or be-
tween 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 It meant from
any large body of water on the earth clear
across to any other large body of water.
And so have a right to read it: He shall
have dominion from the Atlantic sea to
the Pacific sea- My theme is, America for
God!
First, consider the immensely of this
possession. If it were only a 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 is
added to His dominion. Butts immensely
and affluence no one 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 traversed
it Having been privileged six times to
cross this continent and twice this sum-
mer, l have come to some appreciation of
its magnitude. California, which l sup
posed 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 Nevada on
one side or slip of into the Pacific waters
on the other, California, the thin slice of
land as 1 supposed it to be in boyhood, /
have found to be larger than ali the States
of New England, and all New York State
and all Pennsylvania added together; and
if you add them together their square
miles will fall far short of California.
North and South Dakota, Montana and
Washington Territories, to be launched
next winter into Statehood, will be giants
at their birth. Let the Congress of the
United States strain point and soon ad-
NIT 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 rep
resentatives and we will be happy to-
the requisite number of people fix up the
Constitution to suit these cases. Even
Utah Will by dropping polygamy soon be
ready 20 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 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. Because
some of the daughters of a family may be
five feet in stature and the others only
four feet, do not let the daughter five feet
high shut the door in the face 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 determination to move
next winter in Congress for the transform
ance of other Territories into States.
But" says some one sin calculating
the immensely of our continental acreage
you must remember that vast reaches of
our public domain are uncultivated heaps
of dry sand, and the bad lands OF Mon
tana and the great American desert"
am glad you mentioned that Within
twenty-five years there will not be be-
tween the Atlantic and Pacific coast a
hundred miles of land not reclaimed
either by farmers pillow or miners crow
bar. BY irrigation, the waters of the
rivers and the showers of heaven in what
are called the rainy season will be gath
cred into great reservoirs and through
aqueducts let down where and when the
people want them. Utah is an object
lesson. Some parts Of that Territory
which were so barren that a spear of
grass could not have been raised there
in hundred years are now rich as Lam
caster County farms of Pennsylvania or
Westchester farms of New York or Som
erset 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 acrss 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 irri-
gated there will be neither freshets nor
droughts. As you take pitcher and get it
full of water and then set it on a table and
take drink out of it when you are thirsty
and never think of drinking a pitcherful
all at once, so Montana and Wyoming and
Idaho will catch the rains of their rainy
season and take up all the waters of their
rivers in great pitchers or reservoirs and
drink out of them whenever they will and
refresh their land whenever they will.
The work has already been grandly be-
gun by the United States Government
Over four hundred lakes have already
been officially taken possession of by the
nation for the great enterprise OF irriga-
ton. Rivers that have been rolling idly
through these regions, doing nothing on
their way to the sea, will be lassoed 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 ba-
sins will be made to catch the surplus of
waters in times of fresbet and keep them
for times of drought The irrigating pro-
cess by which all the arid lands between
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans are to be
fertilizsd is no new experiment. 1t has
been going on successfully hundreds of
years in Spain, in China, in India, in Rus
STA, in Egypt.
About eight hundred million Of people
of the earth too day are kept alive on food
raised on irrigated land. And here we have
allowed to lie waste, given up to the rat
tiesnake and bat and prairie dog, lands
enough to support whole nations of indus
trious population. The work begun will
be contaminated Here and there excep-
tional lands may be stubborn and refuse
to yield any wheat or corn from their hard
fists, but if the hoe fails to make an i'm
preston, the miners pickaxe will discover
the reason for it and bring up from be-
meath those unproductive surfaces coal
and iron and lead and copper and silver
and gold. God speed the biologists and
the surveyors, the engineers and the Sena-
torial commissions and the capitalists and