The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1889-04-11
DR.. TALMAGE's SERMON.
lie Talks of the Wonders of the Nine.
tee N tn (eufurV

rendered at Sedan, the good doctor said to
me: st is just as told you about
France people laughed at me because l
talked about the seven horns and the walls,
but foresaw all this from the Book of
Daniel and the Book of Revelation" Not
taking any such responsibility in the inter
probation of the passage. simply assert
that there is in it suggestions of many
things in our time.
Our eyes dilate and our heart quickeDs
its pulsations as we read of events in the
Third century, the Sixth century. the
Eighth century. the Fourteenth 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 thepreceding three quarters.
We read in the daily newspapers of events
announced in one paragraph and without
any special emphasis-of events which a
Herodotus, a Josephus, Xenophon, a
Gibbon would have 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 in
which welive is wonderful for disaster and
wonderful for blessing, for there must be
lights and shades in this picture as in all
others. Need | argue this day that our
time is wonderful for disaster? Our
world has had rough time since by tie
hand of God it was howled out into space.
1t is an epileptic earth: CONFUSION after
convulsion frosts poundingit with sledge
hammer of iceberg, and fires melting it
with furnaces seven hundred times heated.
1t is wonder to me it has lasted so long.
Meteors shooting by on this side and graz
ing it, and meteOrs shooting by on the
other side and grazing it, none of them
slowing up for safety. Whole fleets and
nayies and argosies anc flotillas of worlds
sweeping all about US. Our earth like a
| fishing smack off the banks of Newfound
| land. while the Etruria and Germanic and
the Arizona and the City of New York
rush by. Besides that, our world has by
sin been damaged in its internal machin.
| cry, and eyer and anon the furnaces have
burst, and the walking beams of the noun.
| tain have broken, and the islands have
shipped sea. and the great hulk of the
world has BEEN Jared with accidents that
| ever and anon threatened immediate de-
molition. But it seems to US as if our
| century were especially characterized by
disaster, volcanic. cyclonic, oceanic, epi>
demic. say volcanic. because an earth
| quake is only volcano hnshed up. When
StrOmboli and COtopaxi and Vesuvius stop
! breathing let the foundations of the earth
beware. Seven thousand earthquakes in
two centuries recorded in the catalogue of
the British association. Trajan, the en-
perof. goes to ancient Antioch, and amid
the splendors of his reception is met by an
earthquake that nearly destroys the en-
peror's life. Lisbon. fair and beautiful at
| O'Clock op the lst of November, 1855, in
six minutes $4,000 have persisted, and Vol
taire writes of them For that region it
was the last judgment, nothing wanting
but trumpet !" Europe and America
feeling the throb l,506 chimneys in Bos~
ton partly or fully destroyed.
SOME DISASTERS OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY.
| But the disasters of other centuries have
had their counterpart in our own. In 1872
Caracas was caught in the grip of the
earthquake; in 1922, in Chilli, 100000
square miles of land by volcanic force up
heaved to four and seven feet of permanent
elevation; in 1854 Japan felt the geological
agony; Naples shaken in 1857; Mexico in
1858; Medosa, the capital of the Argentine
Republic. in 1861; Manila terrerized IN
1868: the Hawaiian islands by such force
uplifted and let down IN 1871; Nevada
shaken in 1871; Antioch in 1872; Califor-
MIA in 1872; San Salvador in 1878; while IN
| 1883 what subterranean excitement! Is
| CHA, an island Of the Mediterranean, a
beautiful Italian watering place, vineyard
clad, surrounded by all natural charm and
historical Renaissance; yonder. Capri, the
summer resort of the Roman emperors;
yonder Naples, the paradise of art-this
beautiful island suddenly toppled into the
trough of the earth, 5000 merry makers
perishing, and some of them 50 far down
beneath the reach of human obsequies
that it may be said of many one of them
as it was said of Moses, 1.-The Lord buried
him. Italy weeping, all Europe weeping.
all Christendom weeping where there were
hearts to sympathizs and Christians to
pray. But while the nations were meas
uring that magnitude of disaster, measur-
ing it not with golden rod like that with
which the angel measured heaven. hut
with the black rule of death, Java, of the
Indian archipelago. the most fertile island
of all the earth, is caught in the grip of
the earthquake, and mountain after noun.
tain goes down, and city after city, until
that islar d, which produces the healthiest
beverage of all the world, has produced
the ghastliest accident of the century
One hundred thousand people dying, dying
dead, dead.
WHEN HEAVENS WINDS VISITED THE
EARTH ROUGHLY.
But l)ok at the disasters cyclonic. Al
the mouth of the Ganges are three island.
the Haitian, the Sundeep and the Dakir
Shabezpore. In the midnight of October
1877, on all of those three islands the CT.
was: 1.-THE waters, the waters!" A cyclone
arose and rolled the sea over those thre,
islands, and of population of 100000
2l5,000 were drowned. Only those savet
who had climbed to the top of the highes
trees. Did you ever see cyclone? No
Then pray God you may never see one
saw one Oh the ocean, and it swept u
eight hundred miles back from our course
and for thirty-six hours during the cy clon
and after it we expected every moment t.
60 to the bottom. They told us before W
retired at 8 O'Clock that the baromete
had fallen. but at j O'Clock at night W
were awakened with the shock of tn
waves. All the lights out! Crash! wen
all the life boats. Waters rushing throug
the skylights down into the cabin an
down on the furnaces until they hisse
and smoked In the delpge. Seven hun
dred people praying, disappearing, shriek
ing. Our great ship poised moment 0