Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-01-14
ONE PROLIFIC TEXT.
Several Preachers Take Up the Work
of the Wind in Pittsburg,
DRAWING ITS DIVERSE LESSONS.
DR.. Holland on the Whirlwind of Bible
Times and What 1t Was Like.
OTHER SERMONS In A SIMILAR VEIN

The recent disaster in Diamond and
Wood streets furnished an interesting text
for several sermons yesterday. Among
them none was more instructive than the
one preached at the Bellefeld Presbyterian
Church last evening by Rev. DR.. w. j.
Holland, whose text was: "Behold the
whirlwind fthe Lord; even his fury is gone
forth, a sweeping tempest" from Jeremiah
xxx, %. On this subject he discoursed, in
substance, as follows:
In the scriptures of the Old Testament the
whi-lwind is frequently mentioned as mes
senger of violent and sweeping destruction.
Palestine is subject to fierce winds, sweeping
from the east and southeast, and charged Win
great power of destruction. The meteorlc con-
ditions are such as to favor greatly the pro-
ductions of cyclonic movements IN the ar.
The hot arid wastes of the Arabian deserts
lying TO the east and south, the cold taplelanos
and snowy mountain tops of Asia Minor TO the
north; the one region engendering hot currents
of air, which meeting the cooler currents DIow-
ing from the opposite direction, produce TO-
tary storms of more or less severity.
OF the power resident in the air when in mo-
ton as a storm, we have had impressive Illus
trotious during the past week Two of the
cities of this Commonwealth our own one Of
them. are full of mourning tonight because Of
the ruin and death wrought by the winds in
their might.
A FEARFUL POWER.
"As thin as arr we say, and imagine that it
is impossible to conceive anything thinner and
less substantial, and therefore devoid Of
power. But this fluid which we call air, made
UP Of about one part of oxygen to four of
s,,,, hxa
has a fearful power. The gale which blew
down that building in our city, and wrecked
great manufactory in Reading and swept away
a suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, was Sc
we're one no doubt. and made memorable be-
cause there lay in its path structures which mad
not strength enough to resist its fury, carrying
down to their death great number of meE,
women and children and destroying vast
amount of invested capital But it furnished
no comparison with other gales which have
blown even recently; it was not the terrible air
motion which the ruin wrought would suggest
that il was Il was not whirlwind or cyclone
in the strict sense of the words. Had it been a
cyclone, such as sweep across the Western
prairies. the ruin and wreck would have doubt
less been greater.
1t is almost impossible to convey in words a
scene OF the awful grandeur and destroying
power which resides in the true cyclone. AT
The time the village of Irving. Kan, was swept
away such was the force of the wind that |
shingles were driven through boards by the |
blast as bulleus are driven into wood by the dis
charge of gun.
1t is this destroying and deathdealing power |
of the whirlwlnd, which causes it to be en- |
ployed by the prophets and psalmists as a type |
and emblem of the anger of God against sin. |
1t is the prevalent doctrine of the scriptures |
that God is angry against sin. and pitted with |
hot Indignation against lniquity. God is not |
Indifferent TO violations of HIS most holy laws. |
Men often sink into carelessness because pun
ishment is delayed: but, sooner or later, they /
are doomed
TO DE RUDELY AWAKENED
from their dream of carnal security They can.
not violate Gods will with impunity neither |
the physical laws of His universe nor His
moral laws. The Bible likens the vengeance of
God against sin to the whirlwind.
Are you to infer from what have said that
the awful calamity which has befallen some Of
our fellow-cItizens is revelation of Gods
anger against those who have suffered because
of the iniquity found in them? By meansi
That was the folly of the Jews who came to
PLATE; who told him Of the Galileans who
mingled blood with their sacrifices. Christ re-
huked them. saving that they were not sinners
above all the Galileans because they suffered
such things, and added the words Except We
repent, ye shall all yet be punished"
The Doctor concluded by urging upon
his hearers the necessity of repentance and
faith,