The Forrest City times., 1890-11-01
HILLS THAT SMOKE"
rALNAaTS SERNON ON JORDAN
 AND THE DEAD SEA

n V0mR AW0m kD0 RtuUVM uM tH10 OOEs
 dan. u.-sOdom and Gomorrah Proso-
 types of American Cities. = The River of Death.
 BROOKLYN. Oct. ee.--Dr. Talmagc preach
 ed the fifth sermon of the series on his tour
 In the Holy Land in tho Academy of Music
 ln this city this morning. This evening at
 the service in the Academy of Music, Now
 York. the sermon was repeated before an
 audience which filled the vast building in
 every part. Dr. Talmage announced as his
 text. Psalm 1oA:s2; "Hc toucheth the hills
 and they smoke.'' He said:
 David, the poet. here pictures volcano
 and what Church's Cotopaxi does on paint
 err canvas. tnis author does in words. You
 see hill, calm and still. and for ages im-
 movable, but the Lord out of the heavens
 puts His finger on the top of 1t and from 1t
 rise thick vapors intershot with Ire. "He
 toucheth the hills and they smoke."
 God Is the only being who can manage .
 valcano and again and again has he employ
 cd volcanic action. The pictures on the
 walls of pompeii. the exhumed Italian city,
 as we saw them last November, demonstrate
 that the city was not fit to live. In the first century. that city, engirdled with palaces,
 emparadisSd with gardens, pillared into
 architectural cxquisiteness, was at the foot
 of n mountain up the sides of which 1t ran
 with vineyards and villas of merchant
 princes. and all that marble and bronze
 and Imperial baths and arboriculture and
 rainbowed fountains, and coliseum At the
 dedication of which nine thousand beasts
 had been slain, and supcrnal landscape
 in which the shore gave roses to the sea and
 tho sea gave crystals to the shore: yea, all
 that beauty. and pomp. and wealth could
 give was there to be seen or heard But tho
 bad morals of the city had shocked the world. In the year 70, on the 9th of August,
 black column rose above the adjoining
 mountain, and spread out, Pliny says, as ho
 saw 1t, like great pinc tree, wider and
 wider, until it began to rain upon tho city,
 first thin ashes and then pumice stone, and
 sulphrus fumes scooped. and streams of mud
 poured through the streets till few people
 escaped and the city was buried. and some
 of the inhabitants eighteen hundred years
 after were found embalmcd in the scorim of that awful doom. The Lord called upon volcanic forces to obiiteratc that prohigatc
 city. He touched the hills and they smoked.
 Nothing but volcanic action can explain what shall show you at tho Dead Sea upon which looked last December. and of whose
 waters l took . bitter and stinging taste.
 Concerning all that region there has been a
 controversy enough to fill libraries. science
 saying one thing, revelation saying another
 thing. But admit volcanic action divinely
 employed and both testimonies are ono and
 the same. Geology. chemistry, geography.
 astronomy, ichthyology, oruithology and
 zoology are coming one by one to confirm
 the Scriptures. Two leaves of one book are
 Revelation and Creation and tho pcnman-
 ship Is by the same divine hand. Our horse.
 back rsdc will not be so steep today aud you can stay on without cilngipg to the poumel of tho saddle. but the scdhes amid which we ride shall. if possible, be more
 thrilling and by the tmc the horses snul | yl.na sls.ls. ' tites, or the Dead Sea. we will bc ready to
 dismount and read from our Bibles about what was done by the Lord when He touch cd tho hills and they smoked.
 Take detour and pass along by tho rocky fortress of Masada where occurred
 something moro wonderful in tho way of desperation than you havo ever heard Of, unless you have heard Of that Hcrod built palace amid these heaps ot black and aw- full rocks which look like tunlblcd mid |. night great band of robbers. about one thousand including their families, after ward held the fortress. When tho Roman
 army stormcd that steep and the bandits could no longer hold tho place. their chief. tan. EIeasAr. n,ade n powerful speech which persuaded them to de before they wcre cap tured. First tho men kissed their families n loving and fearful goodbye and then pu, dagger Into their hearts and tho woineu and children were slain. Then ten men HttU tht@tu Uy tp SiAy Att t1t rtntl men. and each man lay down by the dead wife and children and waited for these exc. cutioncrs to do their work. This done one man of the ten killed the oshar nine Then tho survivor committed sui. eide. Two women and hvc cailarcn had hid themselves and after all was over came forth to tell of tho nine hundred and sixty slaughtered. Great and rugged nat ural scenery makes tho most trcmcnd- GUS natures for good or evil. Great states men and great robbers, great orators and great butchers. were nearly ali born or reared among mountain precip!ces. Strong natures arc hardly ever born upon the plain When men have anything greatly good oi greatly evil 10 do. they como down on the rocks.
 Pass on from under the hadow of Masafia. tn. scene of concentrated diaholism. and come along where the salt crystals crackls under the horses hoofs. You are near the most God forsaken region of all the earth. You to whom the word iake has heretofore suggested those hewltchments of beauty. Luxcrne or CAyugA, some great pearl set by loving God in the bosom of the luNuriAnt valley. change all your ideas about lake. and see this sheet of water which the Bible calls tho Salt Sea. or Sea of the Plain. and Joscphus calls Lake Asphaltiies- Tho mule. teers will take care of tho horses while ws get down to tho brink and dip up the liquid mixture In the palm of the hand. The waters are "A commlnglsng of birthstone and piteh and hAve six times larger percentage of salt than those of the Atlantic Ocean, the ocean having four per cent of salt and this lake twonty-six and quarter per cent. Lake Sir-i-kol of India Is the highest lake in the world. This lake. on the banks of which VIC kneel.ls the lowest lake. It emp lies Into no sea. among other things. for the simple reason that water cannot run uphill. IL swallows up the river Jordan and makes no response of thanks. and new CT reports what Is does with the twenty million cubic feet of water annually rcceiv- ed from that sacred river. IL takes tho trce branches and logs hoated into it by the Jor- dan and pitches them on the banks of bitu- men to decay there.
 The hot springs near its banks by the name of Caiiirhoc, where King Herod came to bathe on hIs Illness. no sooner pour into this sea than they are poisoned. Not 6 1sh-scale swims it. Not an Insect walks it. It hates life. and if you attempt to swim there it lifts you by an unnatural buuyanry to the surface, us much as to say {. Two want no lifc here. but death Is our preference. death." Those who attempt ta wade into this lake and submergc them selves. como out almost maddcned. as with the sting os n hundred wasps and hornets.
 and with lips and cyeIids swollen with the strange ablutIon. The sparkle of It's wAtars Is not like the sparkle Of beauty on othet lakes. but metallic lustre lIke unto the lash of sword that would thrust you.
 Tho xnreiles and the ihcxes that live on
 tho hills beside It. and the cranes and wild ducks that fly across--for. contrary to the tho 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 drcadful mix
 ture. A mist hovers over parts of is
 almost continually. which. though natural
 evaporation. seems like wing of doom spread over liquid desolation. It is tho rinsings of Abomination. lt Is an aqucous
 monster coilcd among tho hills, ar creep- Ing with ripplcs, and stenchful with nAu- ssatin4 mHlodors.
 In these regions oncc stood four great
 cities of Assyria. sodom. Gomorrah. AdmA Nnd xehoim. The Hthle savn they were ocstroyed by N tempest of hrc and hrim- atone after these cities had filled up of wickcdncss No. that is absurd" erica sonc one; ''lt l. evident that this was . reg on of salt and birthstone and pitch long before that" And so It was. Tho Bibla says it was region of sulphur long befcru tho great catastrophe. s.Well now" sAya