Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-10-27


\ ton, 1t is the rinsings Of abominatioD
1 It Is an aqueous monster coiled among
/ the hills, or creeping with r pies, aud
stenchful with nauseating malodors.
THE CITIES or THE PLAIN.
/ In these regions once stool four great
cities of Assyria: S0dom, Gomorrah, Adma
4 and Zeb0im. The Bible says they were de
stroyed by TEMPEST Of fire and brim.
stone after these cities had filled up OF
/ wickedness. 'No; that is absurd, cries
some one; sit is evident that this was re-
/ gion Of salt and birthstone and pitch long
before that" And so it was. The Bible
says it was region Of sulphur long be
fore the great catastrope. "Well, now, y
! says some one, wanting TO raise a quarrel
between science and Revelation, you have
no right to say the cities of the plain
were destroyed by Il TEMPEST Of fire and
sulphur and birthstone, because this re-
giOn 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 Of bitumen easily ignited,
and the walls dripped with pitch most in,
aammable They sat, think, on "A ridge
of bills. They stood high up and con5picu-
Gus, radiant In their SINS ostentatious in
their debaucheries, four hells on earth
One day there was a rumbling in the
earth, and quaking ~ hats that" cry
the affrighted inhabitants, what that"
The foundations Of the earth were giving
way. A volcano, whose fires had been burn.
ing for ages, at Gods command bursts
forth, easily setting everything afame, and
first lifting these cities high in air and
then dashing them down in chasms fathom-
less The fires of that eruption intershot
the dense smoke and rolled unto the heav
ems, only to descend again. And all the
configuratiOn of that country was changed,
and where there was n hill there came val
ley, and where there had been the pomp of
uncleanness came widespread desolation
The red hot spade of volcanic action had
shoveled 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; Revelation right
"He toucheth 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 90 under. 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 cor.
respond 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 ami.
mails next" and the Bible says, MARINE
animals next" Science digs down and
says, Land animals next" and the Bible
responds, Land animals next" "Then
comes manp' says science. "lhen comes
manp responds the Bible Science digs
into the regions about the Dead sea, and
finds result Of fire and masses of brim-
stone, and announces u wonderful geologi-
cal formation "Oh, yes, says the Bible,
Moses wrote thousands Of Years ago, The
Lord raincd upon SodOm and upon Go.
morrah birthstone and fire from he Lord
out Of heaven and David wrote, lie
toucheth the hills and they smoke" So
/ guess we will hold on to our Bibles lit
tie longer gentleman in the ante-room
of the White House at Washington, hay
ing an appointment with Mr.. Lincoln at 8
O'Clock in the morning, got there fifteen
minutes early, and asked the servant,
"Who is talking in the next room?" ut
is the president, sir" Is anybody with
him?" go, sir; he is reading the Bible
He spends every morning from to
O'Clock reading the Scriptures"
PROPAGATE CITIES OVERWHELMED
My text implies that God controls vol
canoes, not with the fun force of his hand
but with the tip of his finger. Etna, Strom-
bolt and Vesuvus fawn at his feet like
hounds before the hunter These erup-
tions Of the hills do not belong to Pluto's
reulm, as the ancients thought, but to the
divine dominions. Humboldt counted two
hundred of them, but since then the In
dian archipelago hus been found to have
nine hundred of these great mouthpieces.
They are on every continent and in all lati-
tudes That earthquake which shook
all America about six or seven summers
ago was only the raving around Of yolca-
noes rushing against the sides of their
rocky cavcrns try .ng to break out. They
must come to the surface, but it will be ut
the divine call They seem reserved for
the punishment Of one kind of sin. The
seven cities they have obiteritcd were eel
cbrated for one Kind Of transgresson.
ProniWcy was the chief Characteristic of
the seven cities over which they put their
smotheriDg wing; Pompci, lIerculaneum,
StabiU, Adma, Ieboim, Sodom and Go
morrah
If our American cities do not quit their
profligacy, if in high life and low life disso-
lutcncss does not cease to be Il joke and be.
come crime, if wealthy libertinism con
tinues to find so many doors Of domestic life
open to its taintest touch if Russian and
French and American literature stepped in
pruriency does not get banished 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 il will be more tolerabe for Sodom
and Gomorrrah in the day of judgment,
whether that day of judgment be in this
present century or in the closing century
of the carth's continuance The volcanic
forces are already in existence, but in the
mercy of God they are chained in the ken
nels Of subterrancuus fire Yet let profit
gaCy, whether it stngger into lazaretto,
or sit on commercial throne, whether it
laugh in faded shawl under the street
gas light or be wrapped in the finest array
that foreign loom ever wrought or lapidary
ever impaired, know right well that there
is avolcano waiting for it, whether in do
nestle life, CT social life, orpolitical life, or
in the foundations Of the earth from which
spraug out the deyastations that swal
lowed the cities of the plain He toucheth
the hills and they smoke
But the dr8goman 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 dc
parture We are off for the Jordan, only
two hours away. We pass Bedouins whose
stern features melt into a smile as we give
them the salutatton Salaam Alei6oem,
Peace be with you,n their smile some