The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-11-12
VOLCANOES.
ecience and the Writings Of God
Are Harmonious.
The Forces of Nature Ready to Spring
Forth When Monsters Of the Earth
Become Observation-Disclosures.
Talmage's Sermon.

Forth When Monsters OF tine Eortn
Become Observation-Disclosures.
Talmage's Sermon.
/Dr. Talmage preached the nth ser
mon OF the series Of his tour in the Holy
Land in the Academy Of Music in Brook
Ign. Sunday morning. DR.. Talmage an
nounced as his text Psalm CIV. 80: HE
toucheth the hills and they smoke" He
said:
David, the poet, here pictures q vol
cano, and what Church's Cotopaxi docs
on painters canvas, this author does in
words. You see hill, calm and still,
and for ages immovable, but the Lord
out of the Heavens puts His finger on
the top Of it and from it rise thick va
pors, intershot with fire. HE toucheth
the hills and they smoke. :"
God is the only being who can man
age = volcano and again and again has
He employed volcanic action. The pic
lures on the walls Of Pompeii, t'1 ex-
humed Italian city, as we saw then last
November, demonstrate that the city
was not fit to live. In the first century
that city, engirdled with palaces, en-
paradised with gardens, pillared into
architectural exeuisiteness, was at the
foot OF mountain up the sides OF which
1t ran with vineyards and villas OF mer-
chant princes, and all that marble. and
bronze, and imperial baths, and arbori-
culture, and rainbowed fountains, and a
coliseum at the dedication of which
5000 beasts had been slain and super
nal landscape in which the shore gave
roses to the sea and the sea gave crys'
tails to the shore; yea, all that beauty,
snd pomp, and wealth could give was
thare to oe seen or heard. But the bad
mc-als Of the city had shocked the world.
In the year 70, on the 4th OF August,
. black column rose above the adjoin.
ing mountain and spread out, Pliny says,
Is .~ saw 1t, like a great pine tree,
wider and WIDER, until it began to rain
upon the city; first thin ashes and then
pumice stone, and sulphurous fumes
scooped, and streams of mud poured
through the streets till few people
escaped and the city was buried, and
some of the inhabitants 1880 years
after were found embalmed in the scorist
Of that awful doom. The Lord called
upon volcanic forces to obliterate thai
profigave city. He touched the hills
and they smoked.
Nothing but volcanic action can ex
plain what shall show you at the Dead
Sea, upon which looked last December
and of whose waters took bitter and
singing taste. Concerning all that re
eion there has been controversy
enough to fill libraries, science saying
one thing, revelation saying another
thing. But admit volcanic action divinely
employed and both testimonies are one
and the same. Geology, chemistry, geo
graphy, astronomy, ichthyology, or
anthology and zoology are coming ont
by one to confirm the Scriptures. Tive
leaves of one book are revelation ant
creation, and the penmanship is by tn
same divine hand. Our horseback rid'
VIII not be SO steep to-day, and you ca,
stay on without clinging to the pomme
Of the saddle, but the scenes amid which
We ride shall, II possible, be more thrill
ing and by the time the horses sniff thu
sulphurous atmosphere IT Lake Asphal
titles, or the Dead Sea- we will be read,
to dismount and read from our Bible
about what was done that day By tn
Lord when He touched the hills an,
they smoked.
Take detour and pass along by tn
rocky fortress of Masada where occur
red something more wonderful in tn
way of desperation than you have eve
heard of, unless you have heard OF that
Herod built palace amid these heap
of black and awful rocks which lool
like tumbled midnight A great ban
of robbers, about 1000 including thei
families, afterward held tho fortress
When the Roman army stormed tina
steep and the bandits could no longc
hold the place, their chieftain, Eleazal
made powerful speech which persuad
ed them to die before they were car
tured. First the men kissed thei
families a loving and fearful good
bye and then put dagger ir
to their hearts and the wome
and children were slain. Then ten me
we're chosen by lot to slay all the othe
men, and each man lay down by tn
dead wife and children and waited fc
these executioners 70 do their worl
This done, one man OF the ten killed tn
other nine. Then the survivor COMM
ted suicide. Two women and Ave chi
dren hid themselves, and after all wa
over came forth to tell Of the 900 slaugl
tered. Great and rugged natural seen,
~ makes the most tremendous nature
for good or evil. Great statesmen an
great robbers, great orators and gres
butchers, were nearly all born or reare
among mountain precipices. Strong nj
lures are hardly ever born upon tn
plain. When men have any thing grea
ly good or greatly evil to do they com
down off the rocks.
Pass on from under the shadow (
Masada the scene Of concentrated di
bolism, and come along where the sa
crystals crackle under the horses hoof
You are near the most God.forsaken r
slon Of all the earth. You to whom til
word lake has heretofore suggeste
those bewitchmsnts of beauty, Luzerr
or Cayuga, some great pearl set by 10
ing God in the bosom of the luxurial
valley, change all your ideas about
lake, and see this sheet of water whic
the Bible calls the Salt Sea, or Sea
the Plain, and Josephus calls Lal
Asphaltites. The muleteer will tai
care Of the horses while we get dow