Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-04-28
THE VOICES OF NATURE.
DR.. TALMAGE DECLARES THEM AR
TlcULATE AND HARMONIOUS.

the Brooklyn Divine Preach sermon
Appropriate to the Season of the Year.
lisa. IL, IS the Text.
BROOKLYN, April 27-The attraction of
the parks in their new spring time garb,
which affects many congregations at this sea-
son, does not diminish the crowd which pours
ineO the Academy of Music to hear the elo-
quent preacher. This morning the great edi-
fee was thronged, as usual, as soon as the
doors were opened. After the reading of an
appropriate passage of Scripture and the
singing Of the hymn, "Glory to God on High"
DIR. Talmage announced as his text lisa. TX,
10: "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto
thee; the fir tree the pine tree, and the box
together, to beautify the place of my sanctu-
ary." 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 ceGars 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 to build Solomons
temple. Those mighty trees in my text are
called the "glory of Lebanon" Illuminate
sion. When Eve touched the forbidden tree
IL seems as il the sinful contact had smitten
not only that tree, but as If the air caught
the pollution from the leaves and us il the
sap had carried the virus down into the very
soil until the entire earth reeked with the
leprosy. Under that sinful touch nature
withered The inanimate creation, as II
aware of the damage done it, sent up the
IL Il 1 l.. DO. I'D
fiercely oppose the human race.
THE COMING OF THE MILLENNIUM
Now as the physical earth felt the effects Of
the first transgresslon, so it shall also feel the
effect Of the Saviour's mission. AS from that
one tree in Paradise blight went forth
through the entire earth. so from one tree on
Calvary another force shall speed out to in
terpenetrate 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 evan
Relized, think corresponding change will
be effected in the natural world verify be-
nsve that the trees, and the birds, and the
rivers. and the skies will have their millenni-
um. II mans sin affected the ground, and
the vegetation and the atmosphere, shall
Christ's work be less powerful or less extern
siveI
Doubtless God will take the irregularity
and fierceness from the elements SO as to
mako them congenial to the race, yet to be
80 symmetrical and evangelical. The ground
shall not be so lavish of weeds and so 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
l,n1I Ln 1nl unit
nocks of sheep and shocks of corn. The wet
marsh shall become the deep erased meadow
Cattle shall eat unframed by caverns once
haunted of wild beasts. Children will build
play houses in what was once a cave Of SER
pents; and as the Scripture saith: ''The
weaned child shall put his hand on the cock
atrice's den."
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 fields
for production shall be 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 if Adam
and Eve had got back to Paradise, Great
cities, now neglected and unwashed, shall be
orderly, adorned with architectural symme
try and connected with far distant seaports
by present modes of transportation carried to
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 Il Morse or
Robert Fulton belonging to future genera
tons
Isaiah In my text seems to look forward to
4 s,.,1a Ia
a condition of great beauty aud excellence,
and then prophesies that us the strongest aud
most ornamental timber in Lebanon was
brought down to Jerusalem and constructed
into the ancient temple, SO all that is beauti-
full and excellent in the physical earth shall
vet contribute to 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
filed, 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 contrl-
button that nature gives to the church is her
testimony in behalf of the truth of Christi
anity. This is an age of profound research.
In chemists laboratory she is put to torture
and compelled to give up her mysteries 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, appear so different from what
they once were that they may be called "the
new heavens and the new earth"
POWERFUL EFFECT UPON THE RELIGIOUS
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
church's honor or the church's overthrow.
Christians, aware of this in the early ages of
discovery, were nervous and fearful as to
the progress of science. Thoy feared that
some natural law, before unknown, would
suddenly spring into harsh collision with
Christianity. Gunpowder and the CLEAN of
swords would not SO much have been feared
by religionists as electric batteries, votaic
piles and astronomical apparatus 1t was
feared that Moses and the prophets would be
run over by skeptical chemists and phioso-
pliers Some of the followers of Aristotle,
after the invention of the telescope, refused
70 look through that instrument, lest what
they saw would overthrow the teachings OF
that great philosopher But the Christian
religion has no such apprehension now.
Bring on your telescopes and microscopes
and spectroscopes- the more the better.
The God Of nature is the God of the Bible,
and In all the universe and in all the eternt-
ties he has never once contradicted himself.
Christian nmrchantC endow universities, and
In them Christian professors instruct the chill
dren of Christian communities The warm
est and most enthusiastic friends Of Christ
are the bravest and most enthusiastic friends
OF science, The church reioices as much over