The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-10-29
ON THE DEAD SEA.
Sermon by Rev. T. De Witt Tai
mage, D. D.
He Describes His visit to the Salt Sea OF
the Holy Land--viewing tho Sites Of
sodom and Gomorrah-Aleng
tho Banks OF the River
Jordan.


series, Rev. Dr. Talmage announced as
his text Psalm civ, so: "He toucheth
the hills and they smoke" The elo-
quent divine spoke as follows:
David, the poet, here pictures vol
cano and what Churoh's Cotopaxi does
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 1t and from 1t rise thick va
pors, intershot with fire. HE toucheth
the hills and they smoke"
Gcd is the only being who can msnage
volcano, and again and again has he
employed volcanic action. The pictures
on the walls OF Pompeii, the exhumed
Italian city, as we saw them last No
vember, demonstrate that the city
was not fit to live. In the
first century that city, engirdled
with palaces, emparadised with gar
dens, pillared into architectural ex-
quisiteness, was at the foot Of noun
tain up the sides Of which 1t ran with
vineyards and villas ofmerchant princes,
and all that marble, and bronze, and inn
perial baths, and arboriculture, and
rainbowed fountains, and coliseum at
the dedication OF which nine thousand
beasts had been slain, and supernal
landscape in which the shore gave roses
to the sea and the sea gave crystals to
the shore; yea, all that beauty, and
pomp, and wealth could give was there
TO be seen or heard. But the bad morals
Of the city had shocked the world. In
the year 20. on the 4th Of August, Q
black column rose above the adjoining
mountain and spread out, Pliny says, as
he saw 1t, like great pine tree, wider
and wider, until it began TO rain upon
the city, first thin ashes and then pum-
ice 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 inhab-
itants eighteen hundred years after
were found embalmed in the scori@ Of
that awful doom. The Lord called upon
volcanic forces to obliterate that profit
gate city. He touched the hills and
they smoked
Nothing but volcanic action can ex-
plain what 1 shall show you at the Dead
Sea upon which looked last December,
and Of whose waters took bitter and
stinging taste. Concerning all that re-
gion there has been q controversy
enough TO fill libraries, science saying
one thing, revelation saying another
thing. But admit volcanic action di-
vinely employed and both testimonies
are one and the same. Geology, ohemis-
try geography, astronomy, ichthology,
ornithology, and zoology are coming one
by one to confirm the Scriptures. Two
leaves OF one book are revelation and
creation, and the penmanship Is by the
same divine and. Our horseback ride
will not be so steep to-day, and you can
stay on without clinging to the pommel
Of the saddle, but the scenes amid which
we ride shall, II possible, be more thrill
ing, and by the time the horses snuffthe
sulphurous atmosphere Of Lake Asphalt
ties, or the Dead Sea, we will be ready
TO dismount and read from our Bibles
about what was done that day by the
Lord when He touched the hills and
they smoked.
Take a detour and pass along by the
rocky fortress OF Masada where occurred
something more wonderful in the way
OF desperation than you have ever heard
OF, unless, you have heard Of that
Herod built palace amid these heaps
OF black and awful rocks which look
like tumbled midnight A great band
Of robbers, about one thousand includ'
ing their families afterwards held the
fortress When the Roman army
stormed that steep and the bandits could
no longer hold the place, their chief
tain, EleaEer, made powerful speech
which persuaded them TO die before
they we're captured. First the meI
kissed their families loving and tear
full goodbye and then put dagger intS
their hearts and the women and chill
dren were slain. Then ten men wers
chosen by Let 10 slay all the other men
and each man lay down by the dead
wife and children and waited for these
executioners to do their work Thii
done, one man Of the ten killed thi
other nine. Then the survivor commit
ted suicide. Two women and fye chill
dren had hid themselves and after al
was over, came forth 10 tell Of the mint
hundred and sixty slaughtered. Grea
and rugged natural scenery makes th'
most tremendous natures for good o.
evil Great statesmen and great rob
bers, great orators and great butchers
were nearly all born or reared amonI
mountain precipices. Strong nature
are hardly ever born upon the plain
When men have any thing greatly goo
or greatly evil 10 do, they come dow
Of the rocks
Pass on from under the shadow o
Masada, the scene Of concentrated dis
bolism, and come along where the sal
crystals craclle under the horses hoofs
You are near the most Collaboration re
Rion OF all the earth. You TO whom th
word lake has heretofore suggeste
those bewitchments Of beauty, Luzern
or Cayuga, some great pearl set set by
loving God in the bosom OF the luxuri
ant valley, change all your ideas abou
alslSe, and see this sheet OF water whic
the Bible calls the Salt Sea, or Sea Q
the Plain, and Josephus calls Lake Al
phaltites The mulcteers will take car
Of the horses while wo 60 down to tn
brink and dip up the liquid mixture 1
the palm OF the hand. The waters ar
commingling OF birthstone and pitci
and have six times larger percentage {
aalt than those OF the Atlantic 0cear