Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1890-10-31

stone after these cities had filed up OF
wiclxedness. "No, that Is absurd, cries
some one; at Is evident that this was a
reg on OF salt and birthstone and pitch long
before thai" And so IL was. The Bible
says IL was a region OF sulphur long before
the great catastrophe. "Well, now" says
some one, wanting to raise quarrel be-
tween science and revelation, 'you have no
right to say the Cities OF the Plain were
destroyed by a tempest OF fire and sulphur
and birthstone, because this region had
these characteristics long before these
cities were destroyed" Volcanic action,
is my reply. These cities had been built
out OF very combuStible materials. The
mortar was OF bitumen, easily ignited, and
the walls drlpped with pitch most infam-
mable. They sat. l think, on ridge of
hills. They stood high up and conspicu-
Gus, radiant I'm their sins, ostentatious in
their debaucheries, four hells on earth.
One day there was a rumbling In the earth,
and a quaking. "What's that?" cry the
aifrighted inhabitants. whats thatI"
The foundat ons OF the earth were giving
way. A volcano, whose fires had been
burning for ages, at Gods command burst
forth. easily setting everything ahame. and
first lifting these cites high in air, and then
dashing them down In chasms fathomless.
The fires of that eruption intershot the
dense smoke, and rolled into the heavens,
only to descend again. And all the con-
uEuAlOH VI AHdb Nbhilbly was NhhhHNht
and where there was hill there came
valley, and where there had been the pomp
OF uncleanness came widespread desola-
ton. The red hot spade of volcanic action
had shovelled 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 as In the Dead sea
instance. so I'm 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 rema ms 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 man" says science. "Then c. mes
mani" RESPONDS the Bible. Science digs
into the regions about the Dead Sea, and
finds result of fire, and masses of brim-
stone, and announces n wonderful ge)logi-
cal formation. "Oh, yes, says the Bible;
Moses wrote thousands OF years ago, The
Lord ranel upon SodOm, and upon Gomor-
rah birthstone and fire from the Lord out
OF heaven and David wrote, He tCu he,h
the hills and they SMOKE" So guess we
will hold ON TO our Bibles "A little longer.
gentleman I'm the ante-rOom OF the
White House at Washington, having an ap-
puin ment with Mr.. Lincoln at five o clock
in the morning, got there fifteen minutes
early, and asked the servant. "Nho Is talk
ing i'm the next roDmi' 1T IS the President,
siri'' 'Is anybody with himI" ''No, sir: he
Is reading the Bible. He spsnGs every
morning from four to five o'clock reading
the Scriptures.
My text implies that God contro.s vol
canoes not with the full force OF His hand,
but with the tip OF His finger. Etna, Strom-
boil and Nesuvius fawn at His feet like
hounds before the hunter. These eruptions
of the hills do not belong to Pluto : realm
as the ancients thought, but TO the Divine
dominions. humboldt counted two hundred
OF them, but since then the Indian ar, hipel-
ago has been found To have nine hundred of
! these great mouthpicces. They are on every
continent and in all ATTITUDES. 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 caverns trying TO break
out. They must come to the surface, but IL
will be at the Divine call They seem re
served for the punishment OF one kind Of
sin. The seven cities they have obliteraied
were celebrated for one kind OF transgres-
sion. Prohigacy was the chief characteris-
tic of the seven cities over which they put
their SIN offering wing; Pompeii. Hercula-
neum, StabiR, Adma, Lc5Oim, Sodom
and Gomorrah II our American
cities do not quit their proaicacy, il
! in high life and low 80 dis
! soluteness does not cease To becoL'e. = Joke
and become crime, If wealthy liberalism
continues to find so many doors Of dom stic
| life open TO it's faintIst touch. il Russian.
| and French, and American literature steep
ed in pruriency. does not get banished from
the news-stands aud ladies' parlors, God
will let loose some of these suppress d mon
] sters OF earth. And l tell h Sc American
cities q at IL will be more tolerablc for Sod
| ON and Gomorrah in the Day OF Judgment,
whether that Day OF judgment
| century OF the earths continuance. The
volcanic forces are already in existence, but
| in the mercy of Godthey are chained in the
| kennels of subterraneous fire. Yet let pro-
! nigacy, whether IL stagger into laZaretto
| or sit on a commercial throne, whether IL
laugh In faded shawl under the street gas
| light or be wrapped In the finest array that
! foreign loom ever wrought or lapidary ever
| empearled, know right well that there Is "A
volcano waiting for IL, whether in domestic
life, or social life, or political life, or in the
/ foundations OF the earth from which sprang
cities OF the plain. IKE toucheth the hills
| and they smoke"
But the dragoman was rejoiced when we
had seen enough OF this vo.canic region of
! Palestine, and he gladly tightens the pirths
| for another march, around the horses
| which are prancing and ncighing for de-
| parture. We are OFF for the Jordon, only
| two hours away. We pass Bedouins whose
| stearn features melt into a smile as we give
| them the salutation "Salaam Aleikoum,"
| ''Peace be with YOU" Their smile some-
| times leaving us In doubt rs TO whether IL is
caused by their gladness 10 see us or by our
| poor pronunc alton of the Arabic. Oh, they
are a st ange race, those BedOuinsl Such
a commingling of ruilianism. and honor, OF
cowardice and courage, of cruelty and
kindness! When "a hand of them came down
| upon a party in which Mis- Whately was
travelling and were about to take pocket
books and perhaps life. this lady sitting
upon her horse took out her notebook and
pencil and began To sketch these trigands,
and seeing this compJsure, the band Is
| thought IL something supernatural ard fed.
| Christian womanlncss or manlinoss is all
| conquering. When Martin Luther was told
that Duke George would kill him IL he went
TO Leipsic, Luther replied, 81 would go to
Leipsic IL it rained Duke Georges nine
DAYS"
Now we come through regions whore there