The Forrest City times., 1890-11-01

| No science ever frightened believers In
 Revelation 90 much as geology. They feared that the strata of the earth would
 contradict the scripturcs, and then Moses
 must 90 under. But as in thc Dead sea
 Instance. so in all cases Gods writing on
 the earth. and Gods writing in the Bible
 are harmonious. Tho shelves of rock cor
 respond with the shelves of tho American Bible Society. Science digs into the earth and nnds deep down tho remains of plants,
 and so tho Bible announces plants first.
 science digs down and says, Marine ani-
 mAls next" and the Bible says, Marine
 animals nest.' science digs down and
 says, Land animals next" and the Biblc
 responds, Land animals next" ''Then
 comes mani" says science. ..Then comes
 mAnl" responds tho Bible. Science digs Into the regions about the Dead Sea. and
 Hnds result of firo, and masses of brim-
 stone, and announces . wonderful gealogi,
 cal formation. ''Oh, yes, says the Bible; | Moses wrote thousands of years ago, The
 Lord rained upon sodom. and upon Gomor-
 rah birthstone and fro from the Lord out | of heaven.' and David wrote, He toucheth
 the hills and they smoke.'" So guess we l will hold on to our Bibles little longer. A gentleman in tho ante-room of the White House At Washington, having an ap poinimcnt with Mir Lincoln at Ave o'clock
 in the morning, got there fifteen minutes l carly, and asked the servant, "Who is talk l ing In the next roomT' 1t is the President,
 sIr!'' ''Is any body with him?" "No, sir; he
 Is reading the Bible. He spends every | morning from four to five o'clock reading l the scrip turcs."
 My text implies that God controls vol canoes not with the full force of His hand, but with the tip of His finger. Etna, strom- boil and vesuyius lawn at His feet like hounds before tine hunter. These eruptions
 of the hills do not belong to Pluto's realm
 as the ancients thought, but to the Divine
 dominions. Humboldt counted two hundred l of them. but since then the Indian archiocl- i ago has been found to have nine hundred of 1 these great mouthpieces. They are on every continent and in all attitudes. That earth | quake which shook all America about six or seven summers ago, was only tho ravigg | around of volcanoes rushing against thu | sides of their rocky caverns trying to break i out They must como to tho surface. but 1t i will tc at the Divine call. They seem re- | served for the punishment of ono kind of sin. The seven cities they have ohliterated | wore celebrated for one kind of transgres- sion. Profigacy was the chief characteris- 1 tic of the seven cities over which they put | their sm othcring wing Pompeii. Hcreula-
 neum, Stabia, Adma. Zeboim, Sodom
 and Gomorrah. If our American | in high life and low life dis
 solutcness does not cease to become sokq 1 and become crime, if wealthy libertinism 1 continues to find SD many doors of domestic | life open 10 it's faintist touch. if Russian.
 and French. and American literature. st,ep- 1 cd In pruriency, does not get banished iron, tho ncws-stands and ladies parlors. God I will lct loose some of these suppressed mon. sters of earth. And 1 tell these American l cities that 1t will be more tolcrable for Sod. om and Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment | whether that Day of Judgment ! be in this present century or In the closing 1 century of the earth's continuance. Tho | ~ n rp airen1y n M iste hIf ! In the mercy of God they are chained in tho 1 kennels of subtcrraneous fire. Yet let pro- 1 fltgacy. whether it staxger into iasaretta | or sit on a commercial throne, whether it laugh In faded shawl under tho street gas I light or be wrapped in the finest array that foreign loom ever wrought or lapidary ever 1 empcarled. know right well that therc is .
 volcano waiting for it, whether In domestic life. or social life, or political life. or in tha | foundations of the earth from which spranc out tho dcvAstations that swallowed thu i cities of the plain. s'tie toucheth tho hilis 1 and they smoke.
 But the drasoman was rcjoiced when VIC had seen enough of this volcanic region of Palestine. and he gladly tightcns the giyths for another march, around tho horses 1 which ara prancing and neirhing for de- parture. We are o1 for the Jordon. only two ours away. We pass Bedouins whose stcarn features melt Into smile as we give
 them tho saiusation .'salaam Alcisoum, . "pcacc bc with you. their smile somc- times leaving us in doubt as to whether 1t is
 caused by their giadncss to see us or by our poor pronunciation of the Arabic. Oh. they are strange race. those Bedouins' Such
 a commiuxiIng of rufianisns. and honor, oi
 cowardice and courage. of cruelty and kindness. WhenN band Of them canse down upon a party in which Miss Whatrly wal travelling aud were about to take pocket
 books and perhaps life. this lady sitting hssP atit htsrH Htag&s n pen il and began Ia sketch these hrtgands, and seeing this composurc. the band ts thought IL something supernatural and fled. Christian womanltncss or nianliness is ali- conpucring When Martin Luther was told that Duke George would kili him 1T he went to Icipsic, Luther replied. "i would go tu Leipslc if it raincd Duke Georges nine days.
 Now we come through regions where thcrc are hills cut into the snsps of csthedrais 1 with altar. and cnlump. and arsh. anu
 chancei, and pulpit. aud dome. and archi- lecture uf the rocks that l think can hardly just happen so. Perhaps IL is be- | cause God loves the church so we'll He 1 builds In the soiitudes of Yellowstone Park,
 and Yosemite, aud Switzerland, and faies. line. these ecclesiastical Tiles. And who knows but that unseen spirits may some-
 times worship theres ..f,ragoman. when shall we see ihe Jordanf" 1 ask. All the time we were on the alert, and looking through tamarisk and willows for the grs atcst river of all tho earth. The Aisss-
 sippl Is wider. the Ohio ss deeper. the Anna l ron Is longer. the Hudson rois amid re- rions moro pictures uc the Thames has moro splendor on it's banks the Fiber suggests moro imperial procession. tho | Iilyssus has moro classic memories and the Nile feeds greater populations by It's irrlga tion: but the Jordan Is the queen of rivers and runs through all the bible. silver l,na sa xstt har. .tra ast4
 beforo night we shall moot on it's banks
 Eliish and Elisha. and David. and Jacob. and Joshua, and John. and Jesus.
 At last between two trees got n glimpse of river. and said. What Is that?f The
 Jordan" was the quick reply. And all
 along the line which had been heightened by other pilgrims, some from America and some from Europe. and some from Asia, l theory resoundcd Tho Jordan, The Jor- aan'" Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims have chRnted on It's banks and bathcd In its | waters. Many of them dip a wet gown in
 the wave and wring It out and carry 1t home
 for their own shroud. IL is an impetuous stream and rushes on as though IL were ha stening to tell Its story to the ages. Many an explorer has 1t whelmcd, and many .
 toat has IL wrecked. Lieutenant Molineux
 had copper -bottomed crafts split upon It's
 she.vngs. Only one boat, that of Lieuten- ant Lynch. ever lived to sail the whole
 length of It. At the season when the snows
 on Lebanon melt, the rage of this stream h like the ConemAugh when Johnstown perish cd. and the wild beasts that may be near run for the hills, explaining what Jeremiah
 says: ''Behold he shall go up like lion from the swelling of Jordan" No river so often changes It's mind. for it turns and twists. travelling two hundred miles to do that which In . straight limo might bc donc Tn sixty miles. Among banks now low, now high. now of rocks. now of mud. and now of Iao Ax..<s A st~s <1 olcandcrs, and Acncias, and reeds and pistA- chics. and silver poplars. This river marrios the Dead Sea to LAke Calico, und did ever | SO rough groom take the hand of so fair n | bride9
 This is the river which parted to lot an army of two million Israelites across. Hcre the skilled ma. or general of the syrian host
 at tho seventh plunge dropped his ieprosy, not only hy miraculous cure but suggest lng to all ages that water and plenty of t. has much to do with the sanitary improve ment of the world. Here Is where somo ! theolugt*al students of Ellshn's ttme were