Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1889-04-07
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
HE TALKS OF THE WONDERS OF
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
Some Of the Most Awful Disasters I'm His
tory Have Occurred During the Past
Nine Decades-The Spirit Of Christianity
Spreading Over the Earth.

tory Have Occurred During the Past
Nine Decades-The Spirit Of Christianity
Spreading over the Earth.
KANSAS CITY, March 31.-The Rev.
7. DE Witt Talmage preached SER
mon here today on Wonders Of Dis
aster and Blessing" his text being, II
will show wonders in the heavens and
IL the earth" Joel ii, 30. He said:
DR.. Cumming-great and good man
would have told us the exact time
Oi the fulhllment of this prophecy.
As ] stepped into his study IN London
on my arrival from Paris just after the
French had surrendered al Sedan, the
good doctor said 10 me: at is Just as /
told you about France; people laughed
al me because | 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 interpreta-
ton Of the passage, simply assert
that there is in IL suggestions Of many
things in our time.
Our eyes dilate and our leart quick
ems its pulsations as we rad of events
in the Third century, the Sixth CEN
tury, the Eighth century, the Four
:eenth 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 the preceding three quarters.
We read in the daily newspapers Of
events announced in one paragraph
and without any special emphasis-of
events which Herodotus, a Josephus,
a Xenophon, a G'bbon would have
taken whole chapters or whole vol
umes 10 elaborate. Looking out upon
our time, we must cry out in the words
OF the text: Wonders in the heavens
and in the earth"
l propose to show you that the time
in which 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 | argue
this day that our time is wonderful for
disasterl Our world has had a rough
time since by the hand of God il was
bowled out into space. II is an epilep-
tic earth convulsion after couvulsion;
frosts pounding itwith sledge hammer
Of iceberg, and fires melting il with
furnaces seven hundred times heated.
1t is a wonder To me il has lasted SO
long. Meteors shooting by ON this
side and grazing it, and meteors
shooting by on the other side and
grazing il, none of them slowing up
for safety. Whole fleets and navies
and argosies and hotillas of worlds
sweeping all about us. Our earth like
a fishing smack off the banks Of New
foundland, while the Etruria and Ger
manic and the Arizona and the City of
New York rush by. Besides that, our
world has by sin been damaged in its
internal machinery, and ever and anon
the furnaces have burst, and the walk
ing beams of the mountain have
broken, and the islands have shipped
a sea, and the great hulk of the world
has been Jared with accidents that
ever and anon threatened immediate
demolition. But il seems 10 us as il
our century We're especially charac-
terized by disaster, volcanic, cy-
clonic, oceanic, epidemic. i say
volcanic, because an earthquake
is only volcano hushed up.
When Stromboi and Cotopaxi and
Vesuvius stop breathing, let the foun-
dations Of the earth beware. Seven
thousand earthquakes in two centuries
recorded in the catalogue Of the Brit
ish ASSOCIATION. Trajan, the emperor,
goes 10 ancient Antioch. and amid the
splendors OF his reception is met by an
earthquake that nearly destroys the
emperor's life. Lisbon, fair and
beautiful at / o'clock ON the list Of No
vembcr, 1855, in six minutes co, 600
have perished. and Voltaire writes of
them; For that region il was the last
judgment, nothing wanting but a
trumpet" Europe and America feel
ing the throb; ], 500 chimneys in Bos-
ton partly or fully destroyed.
SOME DISASTERS OF THE gNETEENTH
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 1929, in
Chill, 100, 600 square miles Of land by
volcanic force upheaved 10 four and
seven feet of permanent elevation in
1884 Japan felt the geological agony
Naples shaken in 1851; Mexico in 1883
Medosa, the capital Of the Argentine
Republic. In 1861: Manila terrorized
in 1868: the Hawaiian islands by such
force uplifted and LET down in 1871
Nevada shaken in 1871; Antioch in
1872; California in 1872; San SALIVA
dor In 1873; while in 1883 what sub
terranean excitement lschla, an isl
and OF the Mediterranean, beautiful
Italian watering place, vineyard clad
surrounded Dy all natural charm
and historical rcnliniscence; yondcr
Capri, the summer resort Of the 30
man emperors; yonder Naples, thl
paradise Of at-this beautiful islam,
suddenly toppled into the trough o
the earth, 5000 merry makers perish
ing, and some Of them 30 far down b
meath tie reach Of human obsequie
that il mey be said Of many one 0
them as K wcs said Of Moses, "Th
Lord buried hin." Italy weeping, u
Europe weeping, all Christendon
weeping where there were bean
TO sympathize and Christians Z
pray. But while the natioo|
were measuring that magnitude q
disaster, measuring il not
golden rod like that with which 80
angel measured heaven. bus "a y. ~. !.