The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-11-12

branches and logs Hoated into 1t BY tho
Jordan and pitches them on the banks
Of bitumen to decay there.
The hot springs near its banks, BY
the name Of Callirhoe, where King
Herod came % battle of his illnesses,
no sooner pour into this sea than they
are poisoned. Not fish scale swims It
Not an insect walks it. 1t hates life,
and il you attempt to swim there 1t lifts
you by an unnatural buoyancy to the
surface, Is much as to say: 1--WE want
no life here, but death is our preference,
DEATH" Those who attempt to wade
into this lake and submerge themselves
come out almost naddened. as with the
sting of hundred wasps or hornets, and
with lips and eyelids swollen with the
strange ablution. The sparkle Of its
waters is not like the sparkle Of beauty
on other lakes, but metallic luster like
unto the fash of sword that would
thrust you. The gazelles and the ibexes
that live on the hills beside 1t, and the
cranes and wild ducks that fly across
for, contrary to the old belief, birds do
safely wing their way over it-and tho
Arab horses you have been riding,
though thirsty enough. will not drink
out of this dreadful mixture. A mist
hovers over parts of it almost continual
ly, which, though natural evaporation,
seems like wing Of doom spread over
liquid desolation. It is the rinsings Of
abomination. 1t is an aqueous monster
coiled among the hills, or creeping with
nipples, and stenchful with nauseating
maladors.
In these regions once stood the four
great cities of Assyria, Sodom, Gomor-
rah, Adma and Zeboim. The Bible says
they were destroyed by tempest OF fire
and birthstone after these cities had
filled up of wickedness. mo, that is
absurd" cries some one. ut IS evident
that this was region Of salt and brim.
stone and pitch long before that" And
so it was. The Bible says it was re-
gion of sulphur long before the great ca
tastrophe. swell, now" says some one,
wanting to raise quarrel between sci.
ence andr evelation, ''you have no right
to say the Cities of the Plain we're de-
stroyed by a tempest Of fire and sui
phur and birthstone, because this region
had these characteristics long before
these cities were destroyed" Volcanic
action. is my reply. These cities had
been built out of very combustible ma
terials. The mortar was bitumen, east
ly ignited, and the walls dripped with
pitch, most infammable. They sat,
think, on ridge Of hills. They stood high
up and conspicuous, radiant in thei1
sins, ostentatious in their debaucheries
four bells on earth. One day there was
rumbling in the earth, and quaking
whats that?' cried the affrighted in
habitants. whats that?" The founda
tions of the earth were giving way. 4
; volcano, whose fires had been burning TO-
ages, at Gods command burst forth
easily setting every thing a-fame, ant
first lifting these cities high in air, ant
then dashing them down in chasms faith
omless. The fires of that eruption inter
} shot the dense smoke, and rolled int
the heavens, only to descend again
And all the CONFORMATION of that coun
} try was changed, and where there was
hill there came valley. and wher
there had been the pomp of uncleannes
| there came widespread desolation. tn
red hot spade of volcanic action ha
} shovelod under the cities Of the plain
Before the catastrophe the cities stoo
, In <aV ne %hn colt nd C,,1v>1,,,
J After the catastrophe they were unde
, the salt and sulphur. Science right
Revelation right. HE touched tn
hills and they smoke"
, No science ever frightened believer
: in Revelation so much as geology The
, feared that the strata of the earth woul
r contradict the Scriptures, and the
Moses must go under. But as in tn
) Dead Sea instance. so in all cases God
writing on the earth and Gods writin
in the Bible are harmonious
: The shelves ofrock correspond with tn
shelves OF the American Bible Society
t science digs into the earth and find
r deep down the remains Of plants, and S
, the Bible announces plants first. Scienc
: digs down and says, Marine animal
i next" and the Bible says, marine an
r mails next" Science digs down an
: says, Land animals next" and tn
: Bible responds, Land animals next
n "Then comes mani" says science 1.-THE
n comes mani" responds the Bible. Scienc
r digs into the regions abo,
Q the Dead Sea and finds resu
r of fire and masses of birthstone and al
:. nounces a wonderful geological form
Q ton. "Oh, yes" says the Bible, "Most
: wrote thousands of years ago, I'll
/ Lord rained upon Sodom, and upon G.
= morrah birthstone and fire from I'll
/. Lord out of Heaven and David wrot
}. He toucheth the hills and they smoke.
$ So guess we will hold on to our Bib
d little longer. A gentleman in tt
It ante room Of the White House, at Wasl
d ington, having an appointment with M
y Lincoln at o'clock in the morning
9 got there fifteen minutes early, an
T. asked the servant, ''whois talking in tt
Q next room?" "It is the President, sir
rs anybody with him?" mo, sir; l
Il is reading the Bible. He spends eve,
y morning from to o'clock reading tt
It Scriptures"
My text implies that God controls vc
y canoes not with the full force of II
o hand, but with the tips of His finger
d Etna, Stromboli and Vesuvius fawn
% His feet like hounds before the hunte
y These eruptions of the hills do not b
It long to Pluto's realm as the ancien
a thought. but to the Divine dominion