Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-05-08
THE VOICES OF NATURE.
On. TALMAeE DECLARES THEM AR
TlcULATE AND HARMONIOUS.

The Academy OF Music ThroDged to Hear
the brooklyn Divine Preach "A Sermon
Appropriate to the Season of the Year.
lisa. TX. I3 the Text.
BROOKLYN, April 27.-The attraction of
the parks in their new spring tire garb,
which affects many congregations at this sea
son, does not diminish the crowd which pours
into the Academy Of Music TO hear the elo-
auent preacher This morning the great edi-
flee was thronged, as usual, as soon as the
doors were openel After tine reading Of an
appropriate passage If Scripture and the
singing 81 the hymn. "Glory TO God on High"
Dr. Talmage announced as his text lisa. TX,
IS: 1.-The glory of Lebanon shall come unto
thee. the fir tree. the pine tree, and the box
together. ID beautify the place of my sanctu-
aryn Following is his sermon In full;
THE GLORY OF LEBANON.
On our way from Damascus we saw the
mountains of Lebanon white with snow, and
the places from which the cedars were hewn
and then drawn by OK teams down TO the
Mediterranean sea, and then fioated in great
RATS to Joppa, and then again drawn by OK
teams up to Jerusalem 10 build Soonon's
temnle. Those mighty trees in my text are
ctiiieil tue ElDI4 u i@tDduph. iHhhAihopN
nature felt the effects OF the first transgres-
sion When Eve touched the forbidden tree
it seems as if the sinful contact had smitten
NOT only that tree, but as il the air caught
the pollution from the leaves, and as If the
sap had carried the virus down INTO the very
soil until the entire earth reeked with the
'eprosy Under chat sinful touch nature
withered The inanimate creation, as If
lware Of the damage done it, sent up the
h9n and brier aud nettle 10 wound and
iercely oppose the human race.
THE COMING OF THE MILLENNIUM
Now as the physical earth felt the effects of
the first transgresslon, "a it shall also feel the
effect of the Sayionr's mission. A. from that
one tree IN Paradise a blight went forth
through the entire earth. so from one tree ON
Calvary another force shall speed out to in
terpenetrate and check, subdne and override
the evil In the end IL shall be found that
the tree of Calvary has more potency than
the tree Of Paradise AS the nations are evan
gelized think corresponding change VIII
be effected in the natural world verify be
leve that the trees, and the birds, and the
river and the skies will have their millenni-
UNI II mans sin affected the ground, and
the vegetation, and the atmosphere, shall
Christs work be less powerful or less extern
sivef
Doubtless God will take the irregularity
and fierceneSs from the elements so TO
make them congenial 10 the race, yet to be
30 symmetrical and evangelical. The ground
shall not be so lavish of weeds and ~ grudge-
full OF grain. Soils which now have peculiar
proclivities toward certain forms Of evil pro
duction will be delivered from their besetting
sins. Steep mountains, plowed down into
more gradual ascent, shall be girdled with
focks OF sheep and shocks OF corn The wet
marsh shall become the deep grassed meadow.
Cattle shall eat unhsrned by caverns once
haunted Of wild beasts Children will build
play houses in what was once cave of ser
penis; and, as the Scripture saith; The
weaned child shall put his hand on the cock
atrice's den
Oh what harvests shall he reaped when
neither drouth, nor excessive rain, nor mil
dew, nor iufesting insects shall arrest the
growth, and the utmost capacity Of the fields
for production shall he tested by an intelli
gent and athletic yeomanry. Thrift and com
potency characterizing the worlds inhabi-
tants, their dwelling places shall be graceful
and healthy and adorned Tree and arbor
and grove around about will look as II Adam
and Eve had got back 70 Paradise. Great
cities. now neglected and unwashed, shah be
orderly, adorned with architectural symme
try and connected with far distant seaports
by present modes Of transportation carried 10
their greatest perfection, or by new inven-
tions yet to spring up out Of the water or
drop from the air at the beck OF a Morse or "A
Robert Fulton belonging TO future genera
tons.
Isaiah in my text seems to look forward to
the future condition Of the physical earth as
a condition Of great beauty aud excellence,
and then prophesies that as the strongest aud
most ornamental timber in Lebanon was
brought down TO Jerusalem and constructed
into the ancient temple, 80 all that is beauti-
lul aud excellent in the physical earth shall
yet contribute 10 the church now being built
in the world. The glory Of Lebanon shall
come unto thee. the fir tree, the pine tree,
and the box together, TO beautify the place of
my sanctuary
Much Of this prophecy has already been full
filled and proceed TO some practical remarks
upon the Contributions which the natural
world is making to the kingdom OF God, and
then draw some differences. The first contri-
button that nature gives TO the church is her
testimony Ia beuaI OF the tiutn OF 1nflsti-
anity. This is an age of profound research.
Nature cannot evade mans inquiries once.
In chemists laboratory she Is put to torture |
and compelled 10 give up her my steries. Hid |
den laws have come out of their hiding place
The earth and the heavens, since they have |
been ransacked by geologist and botanist and |
astronomer. a pear 80 different from what |
they once were that they may be called 1.-THE |
new heavens and the new earth
POWERFUL EFFECT UPON THE RELIGIOUS
WORLD.
This research and discovery will have pow
erful effect upon the religious world They |
must either advance or arrest Christianity, |
make men better or make them worse. be the i
church's honor or the church's overthrow /
Christians, aware Of this in the early ages Of 1
discovery. were nervous and fearful AS to
the progress of science. They feared that /
some natural law, before unknown. would 4
suddenly spring into harsh collision with /
Christianity. GunpOwder and the CLEAN Of /
swords would not much have been feared /
By religionists as electric batteries. voltaic
piles and astronomical apparatus II was
feared that Moses and the prophets would be
run over By skeptical chemists and philoso
pliers SOute Of the followers of Arisfotla