Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-10-27

branches and logs fioated into it BY the
Jordan and pitches them on the banks of
bitumen to decay there.
The hot springs near Its banks by the
name of Caiiirhoe, where King Herod
came to battle off his illnesses, no sooner
pour into this sea than they are poisoned.
Not d fish scale swims it.
NOT AN INSECT WALKS IT.
1t hates life, and if you attempt to swim
there it lifts you by an unnatural buoy
| ancy to tbs surface, as much as to say I,
"We want no life here, but death is our
| preference, death. - Those who attempt
TO wade into this lake and submsrge
themselves come out almost maddened,
as with the sting of a hundred wasps and
hornets, and with lips and eyelids swollen
| with strange ablution. The sparkle OF
its waters are not like the sparkle OF
| beauty on other lakes, but metallic
lustre like unto the fash of a 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 the Arab horses you have been rid
| ing, though thirsty enough, Will not
! drink out OF this dreadful mixture. A
| mist hovers over parts of 1t almost con-
| tinually, which though naturcl eyapora-
ton, seems like wing of doom spread
over liquid desolatcn. 1t is the rnsings
| of abo nation. 1t is an aqueous mon
ster coiled among the hills, CT creeping
| with ripples, and stenchful with naase-
| ating malodnrs.
| In these regions once stood four great
cities of Assyria: Sodom, Gomorrah.
Adma and Zeboin. The Bible says they
- b., e,p nc Rra n
birthstone after these cities had filled up
| of wickedDess. "No, that is absurd -
cries some one. "It is evident that this
was a region of salt and brImstone and
pitch long before that. And so II vas.
The Bible says il was region OF sulphur
| long before the great catastrophe.
"Well, now says some one, wanting
| to raise a quarrel between science aud
revelation. ''you have no right 70 say
| the cities of the plain were destroyed by
| a tempest of fire and sulphur and brim-
| stone, 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 materials. The NOR
tar was of bitumen easily ignited and
the walls drippad with pitch most in
| fiammable. They sat, l think, on ridge
| of hills. They stood high up and con-
spicuous, radiant in their sins, ostenta-
tious il their debaucheries, four heIls,ou
earth. One day there was a rumbling
in the earth, and quaking. "What's
| thet?' cry the affrighted inhabitants,
! whats thst?'i The foundations of
| the earth were giving way. A volcano.
| whose fires had been burning for ages,
az Cod % command hurit forth pgily
setting everything afiame, and first lift
ing thess cities high in air, and thsu
dashing them down in chasms fathom-
less. The fires of that eruption inter-
shot the dense smoke, and rolled unto
the heavens, only to descend again.
And ali the confGuration of that coun-
try was changed, end where there was q
hill there came valley, and where
there had been the pomp or uncleanness
came widespread desoiatlon. The red
hot spade of volcanic action had SHOW
sllsd under the cities of the plain. Be-
fore 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. Revela-
ton right. ''Hs touched the hills and
they smoke. -
No science ever frightened believers in
Revelation so much as geology. They
feared that the strata of the earth would
contradict the scriptures, and then
Moses must go under. But as in the
Dead sea instance, so in all cases God g
writing on the earth. and Gods writing
in the Bible are harmonious. The
shelves of rock correspond with the
shelves of tina American Bible society.
SCIENCE DIGS INTO THE EARTH
and finds deep down the remains of
plants, and so the B BILE announces
plants first. Science digs down and
says, 'marine animals next, and the
Bible says, 'mariue animals next
Science digs down ard saws, Gland ami
mails next" and tie Bible responds.
Gland animals next "Thep comes
man!' says science. "Then comes
manl' responds the Bible. Science digs
into the regions about the Dead sea, and
finda result of fire, and masses of brim-
stone, and announces wonderful geo.
logical formation. 'Oh, yesz'' says
the Bible, ''Mosss wrote thousands of
years ago The Lord rained upon Sodom,
and upon Gomorrah, birthstone aud frs
from the Lord out of heaven, and David
wrote, he toucheth the hills and they
smoke. - So l guess We will hold on
to cur Bibles little longer. = gentle
Uldu III lHe dute-TOOLu vi tue w Hlle |
House at Washington, having an ap-
pointment with Mr.. Lincoln at 5 |
O'Clock i'll the morning, got there |
fifteen minutes early, and asked the |
servant, "Who Is talking in the next |
roomr' cit ia the president, sIr!'
ISIS anybody with him?' "No, sir; he |
is reading the Bible. He spends every |
morning from to 'olock 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, Stromboll and Vesuvius fawn at |
His feet like hounds before the hunter. |
These eruptions of the hills do not be- |
long to Pluto's realm as the aucients |
thought, but to the Divine dominions. |
Humboldt counted 200 of them, but |
since then the Indian archipelago has |
been found to have 900 OF these great |
mouthpieces. They are on every CONT |
nent and IN all ATTITUDES. That earth |
quake which shook sll America about |
six or seven summers ago was only the |
rsvinG around of volcanoes rushing |
against the sides of their rocky csverns |
trying to break out.
THEY MUST COME TO THE SURFACE,
but it will be at the Divine call. They |