The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1890-10-31

the word lake has heretofore suggested
those bewitchments Of beauty Luzern'
or Cayuga, some great pearl set by
loving God In the bosom of the luxuri
ant valley, change all your ideas about
lake, and see this sheet Of water which
the Bible calls the Salt sea, or Sea O
the Plain, and Josephus calls Lake AS
qualities. The muieteers will take cart
of the horses while we go down to the
brink and dip up the liquid mixture ir
the palm of the hand. The waters are
a comlningling of birthstone and pitch,
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 twenty-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 we kneel, is the lowest
lake. 1t empties into no sea, among
other things for the simple reason that
water cannot run up hill. 1t swallows
up the River Jordan and makes no re
spouse of thanks, and never reports
what it does with the twenty million
cubic feet of water annually received
from that sacred river. 1t takes the
tree branches and logs floated into it
by the Jordan and pitches them on
the banks of bitumen to decay there.
WHERE HERoD CAME TO BATTLE.
The hot springs near it's banks by the
name of Callirhoe, where King Herod
came to battle off his illnesses, no soon.
er pour into this sea than they are poi
soned. Not a fish scale swims it. Not
an insect walks it. It hates life, and
if you attempt to swim there it lifts
you by an unnatural buoyancy to the
surface, as much as to say, 1--WE want
no life here, but death is our prefer
ence; death" Those who attempt to
wade into this lake and submerge
themselves come out almost maddened,
as with the sting of hundred wasps
and hornets, and with lips and eyelids
swollen with the strange ablution The
sparkle of it's waters is not like the
sparkle of beauty on other lakes, but a
metallic luster like unto the flash of
sword that would thrust you.
The gazelles and the ibexes that live
on the hills beside it, 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 riding,
though thirsty enough, will not drink
out of this dreadful mixture. A mist
hovers over parts of it almost continu-
ally, which. though natural evapora-
ton, seems like wing of doom spread
over liquid desolation. 1t is the rims
ings of abomination. 1t is an aqueous
coiled among the hills or creep
ing with ripples and stenchful with
malodors.
In these regions once stood four great
cities of Assyria: Sodom, Gomorrah,
Adma and Zeboim. The Bible says
they were destroyed by tempest of
fire and birthstone after these cities
had filed up of wickedness. mo,
that is absurd" cries some one. 1T is
evident that this was region of salt
and birthstone and pitch long before
hat" And SO it was. The Bible says
t was region of sulphur long before
he great catastrophe. "Well, now,"
'ays some one, wanting to raise quar-
ell between science and Revelation.
you have no right to say the cities of
he plain were destroyed by tempest
If fire and sulphur and birthstone, be-
'ause this region had these character
sites long before these cities were de-
troyed. Volcanic action, is my re-
,ly. These cities had been built out |
If very combustible materials The
Mortar was of bitumen easily ignited, |
md the walls dripped with pitch most
They sat. think, on
idge of hills. They stood high up and
conspicuous, radiant in their sins, os-
entatious in their debaucheries, four
Tells on earth.
One day there was a rumbling in the
arth, and quaking. whats that9"
ry the affrighted inhabitants. What's
hat?' The foundations of the earth
we're giving way. A volcano, whose
res had been burning for ages, at
fod's command burst forth, easily set
ing everything af1ame, and first lifting
hese cities high in air. and then dash
lg them down in chasms fathomless.
he fires of that eruption intershot the
ense smoke. and rolled unto the heav-
MS, only to descend again. And all
ne configuration of that country was
hanged. and where there was hill
here came valley, and where there
ad been the pomp of uncleanness
anne widespread desolation. The red
OF spade of volcanic action had SHOW
led under the cities of the plain Be
're the catastrophe the cities stood
n the top of the salt and sulphur.
fter the catastrophe they were under
lie salt and sulphur. Science right;
evelation right. HE toucheth the
ills and they smoke"
GODS BOOK AND GEOLOGY AGREE.
No coinnoa oxor e.;