Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1890-11-21

and Zeboim. The Bible says they were de-
stroyed by a tempest of fire and birthstone
after these cities had filled up with wickedness.
''No, that is absurd" cries some one; 1T is
evident that this was q region of salt and
birthstone and pitch long before that" And
so it was. The Bible says it was region Of
sulphur long before the great catastrope.
"WeH, now" says some one, wanting to
raise a quarrel between science and Revela-
ton, you have no right to say the cities OF
the plain were destroyed by tempest of
fire and sulphur and birthstone, because this
region had these characteristics long before
these cities were destroyed" Volcanic ac-
ton, is my reply. These cities had been
built out Of very combustible materials. The
mortar was bitumen easily ignited, and the
walls dr1pped with pitch most infammable.
They sat, l think, on a ridge of hills. They
stood high up and conspicuous, radiant in
their sins, ostentatious in their debaucheries
four hells on earth.
One day there was rumbling in the earth
and quaking whats thatg' cry the af.
frlghted inhabitants. whats thatT' The
foundations of the earth were giving way. A
volcano, whose fires had been burning for
ages, at Gods command bursts forth, easily
setting everything afame, and first lifting
these cities high in the air and then dashing
them down in chasms fathomless. The fires
of that eruption intershot the dense smoke
and rolled unto the heavens only to descend
again. And all the CONFORMATION Of that
country was changed and where there was
hill there came valley, and where there
had been the pomp of uncleanness came wide
spread desoIatIon. The red hot spade of
volcanic action had shoveled under the cities
of the plain. Before the catastrophe the
cities stood on the top of the salt and sui
phur. After the catastrophe they were
under the salt and sulphur. Science right:
Revelation right. He toucheth the hills
and they smoke"
No science ever frightened believers in Re.
velation SO much as geology. They feared
that the strata OF the earth would contradict
the Scri ptures, and then Moses must go I'M
der But as in the Dead Sea instance so in
all cases Gods writing on the earth and Gods
writing in the Bible are harmonious. The
shelves of rock correspond with the shelves
of the American Bible Society. Science
digs into the earth and finds deep down the
remains of plants. and SO the Bible announces
plants first. Science digs down and says,
MARINE animals next" and the Bible says,
MARINE animals next" Science digs down
and says, Land animals next" 'Then
comes manE' says science. Then comes
mann responds the Bible. Science digs into
the regions about the Dead Sea, and finds
result Of fire and masses of brim-
stone, and announces wonderful geOlOgi-
cal formation. ooh, yes" says the Bible
''Moses wrote thousands of years ago, The
Lord rained upon SOdoDl and upon Go
morrah birthstone and fire from the Lord
out of heaven and David wrote, He touch
eth the hills and they smoke" SO guess
we will hold on to our Bibles little longer.
A gentleman in the ante-room of the mite
House, at Washington having appoint
ment with Mr.. Lincoln at 5 o'clock in the
morning, got there fifteen minutes early, and
asked the servant, ''Who is talking in the
next room?" cit is the President. sir" ''Iz
anybody with him?" mo, sir; he is reading
the Bible. He spends every morning from
to O'Clock reading the Scriptures
Nv tnyt in1OljoS that Cod CONTROLS VOL
Canoes not with the full force of his hand,
but with the tip of his finger. Etna Strom-
boil and Vesuvius faWn at his feet like
hounds before the hunter These eruptions
of the hills do not belong to Pluto's realm, as
the ancients thought but to the divine do
minions. Humboldt counted two hundred
Of them, but since then the Indian archipel-
ago has been found to have nine hundred of
these great nlouthpieces. They are on every
continent and in all latitudes That earth
quake which shook all America about six or
seven summers ago was only the raving
around of volcanoes rushing against the
sides of their rocky cavernG trying to break
out. They must come to the surface, but it
will be at the divine call. They seem re-
served for the punishment of one kind OF sin.
The seven cities they have obliterated were
celebrated for one kind of transgression.
Profigacy was the chief characteristic Of the
seven cities over which they put their smoth-
ering wing: Pompeii Herculaneum, Stabiae,
Adnla, Zeboim Sodom and Gomorrah
If our American cities do not quit their
profigacy, if in high life and low life disso-
luteness does not cease to be joke and be-
come crime, if wealthy hbertinism con.
tinues to find so many doors of domestic Life
open to it's faintest touch if Russian and
French and American literature stepped IL
pruriency does not get banshed from the
news stands and ladies' parlors, God will let
loose some Of these suppressed monsters of
the earth. And | tell these American cities
that it will be more tOlerable for Sodom
and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment,
whether that day of judgment be in this
present century or in the closing century
of the earths continuance. The volcanic
forces are already in existence, but in the
mercy of God they are chained in the ken
nels of subterraneOus fire. Yet let profit
gacy, whether it sta gger into laZarettO or
sit on a commercial throne whether it laugh
In a faded shawl under the street gas light or
be wrapped in the finest array that foreign
loom ever wrought or lapidary ever i'm
pearled know right we'll that Jhere is vol
cano waiting for it, whether in domestic life
or social life or political life or in the founda-
lions OF the earth from which sprang out the
devastations that swallowed the cities of the
plain. He toucheth the hills and thew
smoke"
but the dragOman was rejOiced when we
had seen enough of this volcanic region of
Palestine, and he gladly tightens the girths
for another march around the horses
which are prancing and neighing for de-
parture We are off for the Jordon, only
two hours away. We pass Bedouins whose
stern features melt into a smile as we give
them the salutation Salaam Aleikoum,
'Peace be with you" their smile sometimes
leaving US in doubt as to whether it is
caused by their gladness to see us or by our
poor pronunciation of the Arabic. Oh,
they are strange race, those Bedouins.
Such q convincing of ruffaniSm and