The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-11-06

the clues OF Glaln were destroyed by n tenn
pest OF fire and sulphur and birthstone. be.
cause his region had these characteristics
long before those cities were destroyed =
Volcanic action, is my reply. These cities
have been built out OF very combustible ma.
terials. The mortar was Of bitumen, easily
ignited, and the walls drppeh with pitch,
most infammable They sat, think, on a
ringe OF hills. They stood high up and con.
spicuous, radiant in their SINS ostentatious
in their debaucheres, our hells on earth
One day there was n rumhing in the earth
and q quaking What's thnt?'' The foun.
dations OF ths earth were giving way.
volcano, whose fires had been burning for
ages, at Gods command burst forth easily
setting every thing aflame, and first lifting
these cities high in air. and then dashing
them down in chasms fnthomless The fires
OF that eruption ntershot the dense smoke,
and rolled unto the heavens, only to descend
again. And oil the confguration of that
country was changed, and where there was
hill there came valley, and where there
had been the pomp OF nncieanliness came
widespread desolation. The retl.hot spade
oavolcanic action had shoyeled under the
cities of the plain. Before the catastrophe,
the cities stood on the top of the salt and
sulphur; After the catastrophe they were
under the salt and sulphur. Science right.
Revelation right. "He touched the hills and
they smoke. y
No science ever frightened believers in
revelation so much as geology. They feared
that the strata of the earth would contra
dict the scriptures, and then Moses must go
under. But as in the De al Sen instance SO
in oil cases Gods writing on the earth, and
Gods writing in the Bible arc harmonious.
The shelves Of rock correspond with the
| shelves of the American Bible society.
Science digs into the earth and finds deep
down the remains OF plants, and SO the
Bible announces plants first Science digs
n1in la
and the Bible says, Marine animals next. y
Science digs down and says, 'Land ami
mails next" and the Bible responds,
Land animals next" "Then comes
mani" says science. Then comes mani"
says the Bible Science digs into the
regions about the Dead Sea, and finds the
result of fire, and masses of birthstone.
and announces q wonderful geological
formation. sob. yes" says the Bible,
"Moses wrote thousands ofyears ago The
Lord rained upon Sodom, and upon Gomor-
rah birthstone and fire from the Lord out OF
heaven and David wrote: 'Hetoucheth the
hills and they smoke" So guess we will
hold OH to our Bibles little longer A
gentleman in the ante.room Of the White
House at Washington, having an appoint
ment with Mr. Lincoln at 5 O'Clock in the
morning, got there IS minutes early, md
next room?" ut ia the president, sir!'' Is
anybody with him?" mo, sir; he is reading
the Bible. He spends every morning from
to O'Clock reading the scriptures"
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 Vesuvins fawn at His feet like
hounds before the hunter. These eruptions
of the hills do not belong to Pluto's realm
as the ancients thought, but to the devine
| dominions. Humboldt counted 200 ofthem,
but since then the Indian archipelago has
| been found to have 900 OF these great mouth
pieces. They are on every continent and in
all ATTITUDES. That earthquake which sho ok
oil America about six or seven summers
| ago was only the rnving around OF volcanoes
| rushing against the sides of their rocky cav
erns trying to break out. They must come
| to the surface, but it will be at the Divine
call. They seem reserved for the punish
nlent of one kind Of sin The seven cite
they have obliterated were celebrated for
one KIND OF transgression. Profligacy was
the chief characteristic of seven cities over
which they put their smothering wing: Pom
pei, Hercnlaneum. Stable Adma, Zeboim,
Sodom and Gomorrah. Ii our American
cities do not quit their profgacy, if in high
lie and low life dissoluteness does not cease
| to be O joke and become crime, if wealthy
llbertinism continues to find so many doors Of
domestic life open to itsfaintest touch, if Rus
sian, French and American literature, steep
ed in pruriency. does not get banished from
| the news-stands and ladies' purlors, God will
let loose some of these suppressed monsters
| OF the earth. And I tell these American
cities that it will be more tolerable for
Sodom and Gomorrah in the day OF judg-
ment, whether that day Of Judgment be in
this present century or in the closing cent
ury of the earths continuance. The vol.
canic forces are already in existence, but
in the mercy of God they are claimed
in the kennels of subterraneous fire.
Yet, let profigacy. whether it stag
ger into lazaretto or sit on a CONNER.
cial throne, whether it laugh in a faded
shawl under the street gaslight or be wrapped
IN the finest array that foreign loom ever
wrought or lapidary ever empearled know
| right well that there is q volcano waiting 10 r
it, whether in domestic lie, or social life, or
in the foundations Of the enrt, from which
ssprang out the devastations thnu swallowed
the cities Of the plain, He toucheth the
| hills and they smoke"
But the draeoman was re;oiced when we
had seen enough OF this volcanic region of
Palestine and he gladly tightens the girths
1or another march, around the horses, which
are prancing and neighing for departure
away. We pass Bedouins whose stern feat
ures melt into u smile as we give them the
sulutation Salanm Aleikoum peace be with
you their smile sometimes leaving us in
doubt as to whether it is caused by their
gladness to see us or by our poor pronuncia-
1 WIN VI CuC IA dnC. VII, Uuey are d strange
race those Bedouins; such commingling
OF ruffiunism. and honor, cowardice and
courage, of cruelty and kindness When a
band Of them came down upon party in
which Miss Whately was travelling and were
about to take pocketbooks and perhaps lie,
this lady sitting upon her horse took out
her note book and pencil, and began to
| sketch these brigands, and seeing
this composure, the bandits thought
it something supernatural and fled Chris
tan womanliness or mnnliness is all-con-
| quering. When Martin Luther was told
that Duke George would kill him if he vent
/ to Lei?sic, Luther replied II would go to
Lelpsic il it rniEed Duke Georges nine days"
Now we come through regions where there
are hills cut into the shape of cathedrals
with altar. and column and arch, and chan
Gel. md pulpit and dome, and architecture
OF the rocks TINT think can hardly just hap
] pen 50. Perhaps it il because God loves the
| church SO well. He builds IN the solitudes of
Yellowstone Park, and Yosemite and Switz-
.erland, and Palestine these ecclesiastical
piles And who knows but that un-
seen spirits may sometimes worship there?
.'Drngomnn, when shall we see the Jortlnn?''
ask. All the time we were on the alert and
looking through tamarisk ond willows for
the greatest river Of all the earth The
Mississippi s wider. the Ohio is deeper, the
Amazon il longer, the Hudson rolls among
regions more pictrlresoue the Th nea haa