Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-05-01
A SERMON By TALMAGE.
HIS sUBJECF MOST TIMELY ONE
"THE VOICES or NATURE"
They Are Artiouiats and Harmonious, He
says-The Doctors Congregation Not at
All Affected by the Beauufni Weather
oftho sprIngtime.

Sunday morning. April ~. after the read
ing Of an appropriate passage OF Scripture
and singing Of the hymn. Glory TO God on
High DIR. Talmage announced as his text
lisa. TX, 13: The glory Of Lebanon shall
come unto thee, the fir tree. the pine
tree and the box together. TO beautity the
place Of my sanctuary. Following ls mis-
sermon in full;
On our way to Damascus we saw the
mountains Of Lebanon white with snow.
and the places from which the cedars were
hewn and drawn by OK teams down to the
Mediterranean sea, and then floated In great
RATS to Joppa, and then drawn again by OK
teams to Jerusalem to build solomon stem-
pie. Those mighty trees in my text are
called the glory Of Lebanon" Inanimate
nature felt the effects Of the first trans
pression. When Eve touched the forbidden
tree, It seems as If the sinful contact had
smitten not only that tree, but as II
the air caught the pollution from
the leaves. and as II the sap
had carried the virus into the very SOIL
until the entire earth reeked with the lep-
posv. Under that sinful touch nature with
cred. The inanimate creation, as IL un-
aware of the damage done it, sent up the
thorn and brier and nettle to wound and
iereely oppose the human race.
Now as the physical earth felt the effects
of the first transgression, so it shall also
feel the effect Of the Savior's mission. AS
from that one tree in Paradise blight twent
forth through the entire earth. SO from one
tree on Calvary another force shall speed
out to interpenetrate and check, subdue
and override, the evil. In the end it shall
be found that the tree of Calvary has more
potency than the tree of Paradise. AS the
nations are evangelized, think cores
ponding change will be effected in the nat
ural world. Iverily believe that the trees,
and the birds, and the rivers, and the skies
will have a millennium. II mans sin al
fected the ground, and the vegetation,
and the atmosphere, shall Christ's
work be less powerful or less extensive?
Doubtless God will take the irregularity
and ferceness from the elements, so as to
make them eongenial to the race, yet to be
SO symmetrical and evangelical. The
ground shall be so lavish OF weeds and so
grudgeful of grain. Soils which now have
peculiar proclivites toward certain forms Oh
evil production will be delivered of their be-
setting sins. Steep mountains, plowed down
into more gradual ascent, shall be girdled
with hocks of sheep and shocks of corn.
The wet marsh shall become the deep
grassed meadow. Cattle shall eat unharmed
by caverns once haunted Of wild beasts.
Children will build play-houses in what was
once a cave of serpents, and, as the Scrip
ture saith, 1.-The weaned child shall put his
Oh, what harvests shall be reaped when
neither drouth, nor excessive rain. nor mil
dew, nor infesting insects shall arrest the
growth. and the utmost capacity OF the t1elds
for production shall be tested by an intelG-
gent and athletic yeomanry. Thrift and
competency characterizing the world s in
habitants, their dwelling places shall be
graceful and healthy and adorned. Tree
and arbor and grove around about will look
Evn od srnt A.
disc Great cities, now neglected and un-
washed, shall be orderly, adorned with ar
chitectural symmetry and connected with
far distant seaports by present modes oi
transportation carried to their greatest per-
feetion, or by new inventions yet to spring
up out of the water or drop from the air al
the beck of Morse or Robert Fulton be-
longing to future generations. Isaiah IN my
text seems to look forward to the future
condition of the physical earth as condi-
ton of great beauty and excellence, ano
then prophesies that as the strongest anC
most excellent ornamental timber in Leba.
non was brought down to Jerusalem ano
constructed into the ancient temple, so al
that is beautiful and excellent in the physl-
cal earth shall yet contribute to the church
now being built in the world, "The glory o.
Lebanon shall come unto thee; the fir tree
the pine tree, and the box together. to beau
tify the place of my sanctuary.
Much of this prophecy has already beer
fulfilled, and / proceed to some practica
remarks up the contributions which the
natural world is making to the kingdom O.
God and then draw some inferences. The
first contribution that nature gives to the
church is her testimony in behalf of the
truth of Christianity. This is an age o
mems inquiries as once. In chemists
| laboratory she is put to torture and com
PEELED to give up her mysteries. HiddeI
| laws have come out of their hiding place
The earth and the heavens, since they have
been ransacked by geologist and botanis
and astronomer, appear so different from
what they once were that they may b.
| called -the new heavens and the new
earth"
This research and discovery will hav,
powerful effect upon the religions world
| They must either advance or arrest Chris
| tianity, make men better or make then
worse, be the church's honor or th,
| church's overthrow. Christians, aware o
| this in the early ages Of discovery, wer
nervous and fearful as to the progress o
science. They feared that some natura
| law, before unknown, would suddenl
| spring into harsh collision with Chris
| tianity. Gunpowder and the gleam o
| swords would not SO much have been feare,
| by religionists as electric batteries, voltai
| piles, and astronomical apparatus. 1t wa
| feared that Moses and the prophets woult
be run over by skeptical chemists an
| philosophers. Some of the followers Q
| Aristotle, after the invention of the tele
| scope, refused to look through that instru
ment. lest what they saw would overthrow
the teachings of that great philosopher
| But the Christian religion has no such ap
| prehension now.
Bring on your telescopes and microscope
| and Spectroseopes--and the more the bet
| ter. The God Of nature is the God Of tn
Bible, and in all the universe and in all tn
eternities He never once contradicted Him
| self Christian merchants endow universe
ties, and in them Christian professors in
/ struct the children of Christian communi
1 ties. The warmest and most enthusiast
| friends of Christ are the bravest and mos
enthusiastic friends of science, The churc
| rejoices as much over every discovery a
| the world rejoices. Good men have foun
that there is no war between science an
| religion. That which at first has seemed
be the weapon Of the infdel has turned on
| to be the weapon of the Christian.
Again, nature offers an invaluable con
tributi0n to Christianity by the illustratio
she makes Of divine truth. The inspire
writer's seized upon the advantages offere
by the natural world. Trees and rivers an
| clouds and rocks broke forth into holy an
enthusiastic ,utterances. Would Christ st
forth the strength Of faith. he points to th
sycamore. whose roots spread out and strik
down and clinch themselves amid gres
depths Of earth, and he said that faith wa
strong enough to tear that up by the root
| At Hawarden, England. Mr.. Gladston,
while showing me his trees during pre-
longed walk through his magnificent parl
pointed out a sycamore. and with wave
the hand said. In your visit to the Hol
Land did you see any sycamore more in
i pressive than thatf" confessed that I ha