The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-10-31

an aqueous monster COdleQ auOnE the
hills, or creeping with ripples, and
stenchful with nauseating malodors-
In these regions once stood four great
cities of Assyria; Sodom, Gomorrab.
Adma and Zeboina- The Bible says
they were destroyed by a tempest of
fire and birthstone after these cities had
filled up of wickedness- tsSo that Is
absurd" cries some one; sit is evident
that this was region of salt and
birthstone and pitch long before that"
And SC it was The Bible says it
was region of sulphur long before
the great catastrophe well. now"
says some one, wanting 20 raise quar-
rel between science and revelation, 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 de-
stroyed." Volcanic actionis my reply.
These cities had been built out of very
combustible materials The,mortar was
of bitumen, easily lighted, and the walls
dripped with pitch most inhammable.
They sat, 1 think, on a ridge of hills
They stood high up and conspicous,
radiant in their sins, osteBtatious in
their debaucheries, four hel!s on earth.
One day there was a rumbling in the
earth and a quaking whats that?'
cry the affrighted inhabitants- whats
that?" The foundations of the earth
were giving away. a volcano whose
fires had been burning for ages, at Gods
command burst forth, easily setting
every thing afiame, and first lifting
these cities high in the air and then
dashing them down into chasms faith
omless- The fires of that eruption in
tershot the dense smoke and rolled unto
the heavens only to descend again
And all the configuration of that
country was changed, and where there
was hill there came a valley. and
where there had been the pounp of I'M
cleanliness came widespread desolation-
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 sulphur.
After the catastrophe they were under
the salt and sulphur. Science right.
Revelation right HE 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, 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 So
ciety. 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, ''Marino animals next"
Science digs down and says, Land ami
mails next" and the Bible responds,
Land animals next" Then comes
MANI says science. Then comes mani"
responds the Bible. Science digs into
the region about the Dead Sea, and finds
result of fire, and masses of birthstone,
and announces a wonderful formation
40. yes" says the Bible. Moses wrote
thousands of years ago the Lord rained
upon Sodom and Gomorrah' brimsto tone
and fire from the Lord out of Heaven,
and David wrote He toucheth the hills
and they smoke" So I guess we will
hold on to our Bibles little longer A
gentleman in the ante-room of the
White House at Washington, having an
appointment with Mr.. Lincoln at five
o'clock in the morning, got there fifteen
minutes early, and asked the servant:
''Who is talking in tho next room?"
SIT is the President siri'' as any body
with him?" mo. sir; he is reading the
Bible. He spends every morning from
four to five o'clock, reading the Scrip
lures"
My text implies that God controls
volcanoes, not with the full force of His
mana, nut with Jne Tip OF his nnRer.
Etna, Stromboi and Vesuvius fawn at
His feet like hounds before the hunter.
These eruptions of the hills do not be-
long to Pluto's realms, the ancients
thought, but to the divine dominions.
Humboldt counted 800 of them, but
since then the Indian Archipelago has
been found to have 900 of these great
mouth-pieces They are on every con-
tinent and in all ATTITUDES. That earth
nm wi Oh nj hnU
six or seven summers ago was only the
raving around of volcanoes rushing
against the sides of their rocky caverns
trying to break out They must come
to the surface, but it will be at the d.
vine call They seem reserved for the
punishment of one kind of sin. The
seven cities they have obliterated were
celebrated for one kind of transgres-
sion. Profiigacy was the chief charac-
terist;c of the seven cities over which
they put their smothering wing: Pom
peii. Herculaneum, Stab 40. Adma,
Zeboim, Sodom and Gomorrah. If
our American cities do not quit their
prohigacy, if in high life and low life
dissoluteness does not cease to be a joke
and become crime, If wealthy libert n
ism continues to find so many doors of
domestic life open to its fain test touch,
| il 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 1 tell these American
cities that it will be more toierable for
Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of
Judgment whether that day of judg-
ment be in this present century or in
the closing century of the earth's con-
| tinuance. The Volcanic forces are al
ready in Existence, but in the mercy of
God they are chained in the kennels of
subterraneous fire. You let prodigacy,
whether it stagger into lazaretto or
sit on commercial throne, whether it
laugh in a faded shawl under the street
gaslight or be wrapped in the finest ar
ray that foreign loom ever wrought or
lapidary ever impaired, know right
| we'll that there is volcano waiting for
it, whether in domestic life, or social
| life, or political life. or in tho founda-
| tiols of the earth from which sprang
| out the devasuations that swallowed the
cities of the plain He toucheth the
hills and they smoke"
But the dragoman was reioiced when
we had seen enough of this volcanic
region of Palestine and he gladly