The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-11-06

u
cal formation. "Oh, yes,n says the Bible,
Moses wrote thousands Of years ago, The
Lord rained upon Solom and upon Go
morrah birthstone aud 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 aute-room of the White
House, at Washington, having an appoint
ment with Mr., Lincoln at 8 o'clock Ia the
morning, got there fifteen minutes early, and
asked the servant, "Who Is talking ia the
next room| ut is the President, sir" as
anybody with htmy "No, sir; he is reading
the Bible He spends every morning from
to 5o'clock reading the Scriptures"
My text implies that God 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 archipe-
ago has been found to have nine hundred of
these great mouthpieces. 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 ravlng
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 divine call They seem re-
served for the punishment OF ons kind OF sin.
The seven cities they have obliterated were
celebrated for one kind OF transgression.
Protligacy was the chief characteristic OF the
seven cities over which they put their smoth-
ering wing: Pompeii Hercuaneum, Stabie,
Adma, Zeboim, Sodom and Gomorrah.
III our American cities do not quit their
proaigacy, il in high life and low life disso-
luteneSs does not cease TO be a joke and be-
,r,,., IL t,.,,,,.
tinues to find SO many doors of domestic life
open to its faintest toucJ, il Russian and
French and American literature stepped in
pruriency does not get banished from the
news stands an / ladies' parlors, God will let
loose some of these suppressed monsters Of
the earth. Ant tell these American cities
that it will be more toerable for Sodom
and Gomorrah in the day OF Judgment,
whether that day of judgm snt be in this
present century or in the closing century
Of the earth's 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 stagger 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 i'm.
pearled, know right well that there is a vol
cano waiting for it, whether in domestic life
or social life or political life or in the founda-
ions or tine eartn rom wnIcn sprang out the
devastations that swallowed the cities of the
| plain. He toucheth the hills and they
| smoke"
| But the dragomln was rejoiced when we
| had seen enough of this volcanic region Of
Palestine. and he gladly tightens the girths
| for another march around ths horses
which are prancing au1 neighing for de-
| parture. We are or for the Jordon, only
| two hours away. We pass Bsdouins whose
stern features melt into 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 giadness to see us or by our
poor pronunciation of the Arabic. Oh,
they are a strange race, those Beiouins.
Such q commingliug of ruffanism and
| honor, of cowardice aud courage, of cruelty
| and kindness! When band of them came
down upon party in which Miss Whately
was travelling, ami were about to take
pocketbooks and perhaps life, this lady, sit
| ting upon her horse, took out her notebook
and pencil and began to sketch these brig
ands, and seeing this composure the bandits
thought it something supernatural and fed.
Christian womanliness or manliness is all
conquering. When Martin Luther was told
that Duke George would kill him if he went
to Leipsic, Luther replied: II would go to
Leipsic if it rained DuGe Georges nine days"
Now we come through regions where there
are hills cut into the shape of cathedrals,
with altar and column and arch and chancel
| and pulpit and dome and architecture of the
! rocks that | think can hardly just happen so.
| Perhaps it is because God loves the church so
well, he builds in the soiitudes of Yellow.
stone park and Yosemite and Switzerland
and Palestine these ecclesiastical piles. And
| who knows but that unseen spirits may
sometimes worship there? 'Dragoman, when
shall we see the Jordan%' | ask. All the
| time we were on the alert, and looking
through tamaris.i and willows for the
greatest river of all the earth. The Missis-
sippi is wider, the Ohio is deeper, the Anna
Eon is longer, the Hudson rolls amid regions
more picturesque, the Thames mas more
| spleDdor on its banas, the Tiber suggests
more imperial procession, the llyssus has
more classic memories, and the Nile feeds
greater populations by its Irrigation, but the
Jordan is tha queen OF rivers. and runs
through all the Bible, silver thread sCrunS
like beads WITH heroics, and before night we
shall meet on its banks Elijah and Ellsha
and David and Jacob and Joshua and john
and Jesus
At last between two trees[ got glimpse
nf a river and said, what is that" The
Jordan" was the quick reply. AM all along
the line whici had beal heightened BIZ other
nilgrims some from America, ami some from
Europe, and some from Asia, the cry was
sounded THE Jordan? The Jordan" Hun.
dreds OF thousands Of pilgrims have chanted
on its banks and bathed tits waters. Many
of them dip vet gown in the waves ana
wiring it out and carr it home for their own
shroud 1t ia an impetuous stream and
rushes on as though it were fastening to tell
its story to tae ages Many an explorer has
it whe.msd and many boat hasit wrecked:
Lieut., Moloneaux had copper bottomed
crafts split upon its shelvings. Only one
boat that of Lieut.. Lynch, ever lived to
sail the whole length OF it. At the season
when the SHOWS on Lebanon melt tna rage
of this stream is like Conemaugh when
Johnstown persisted, and the wild beasts
that NAV be near run for the hills, explaining
what Jeremiah SAYS, Behold, he shall go up
like lion from the swelling OF JORDAN
No river so often changes its nnnd, Tor "
turns and twists. travelling two hunoreo
mics TO 90 unav which In = straight lin
might be done in sixty miles, Among bank
now low, now high, now on rocks, now o.
sand having the feet of the terebinths anf
oeanders and acacas and reeds and pis
tachios and silver poplars. This river mar.
ries the Dead Sea TO Lake Galliiee, and did
ever so rough groom take the hand OF SC
fair bride?
This is the river which parted 70 let al
army of two million Israeites across. Here
tine skilled major general of the Asyrau
host at the seventh plunge dropped his lep-
rosy not only by miraculous cure. but sug
costing to all ages that water, and plenty
Of it, has much to do with the sanitary ini
provement of the world. Here is where
some theological students of Elisha's time
were cutting trees with which to build q
theological seminary, aud an axe head, not
sufficiently wedged to the handle, few of
into the river and sank, and the young
man deplored not so much the loss of the