The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-04-28
LESSONS FROM NATURE.
rALMAGE BREACHES ON VOICES
THAT ARE NEVER sILENr.

Arubu oI NnrlStlanlty-DunD Lips
that Preach the Gospel
BROOKLYN, April 27.-The attraction of
the parks in their new spring-time garb,
which affects many congregations at this,
season, does not diminish the crowd which
pours into the Academy of Music to hear
the eloquent preacher. This morning the
great ediflce was thronged, as usual, as
soon as the doors were opened. After tho
reading Of an appropriate passage of scrip
ture and the singing of the hymn, "Glory
to God on High,n Dr. Talmage announced
as his text lisa. lx.:13, The glory OF
Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree.
the pine tree, and the box together, to
beautify the place Of my sanctuary Fol-
lowing is his sermon is full:
On our way from Damascus we saw the
mountains of Lebanon white with snow.
and the places from which the cedars were
hewn. and then drawn by ox-teams down
to the Mediterranean sea, and then foated
in great RATS to Joppa, and then again
drawn by ox-teams up to Jerusalem to
build Solomon's temple. Those mighty trees
In my text are called the ''glory Of Leba-
non." Iuanimate nature felt the effects OF
the first transgression. When Eve touched
the forbidden tree, it seems as if the sinful
contact had smitten not only that tree, but
as IL the air caught the pollution from the
leaves, and as If the sap had carried the
virus down into the very soil until the
entire earth reeked with the leprosy.
Under that sinful touch nature withered.
The inanimato creation, as If aware
OF the damage done 1t, sent up the thorn
and brier, and nettle to wound and fierce!y
oppose the human race. Now as the physi-
cal earth felt the effects of the first trans
gression, so 1t shall also feel the effects of
the Savior's mission. As from that one tree
in Paradise blight went forth through the
entire earth, so from one tree on Calvary
another force shall speed out to interpene-
trate and check, subdue and override the
evil. In the end 1t shall be found that the
tree of Calvary has more potency than the
tree of Paradise As the nations are evan
gellzed, think a corresponding change will
be effected in the natural world. l verify
believe that the trees, and the birds, and
the rivers, and the skies, will have their
millennium. If mans sin affected the ground.
and the vegetation, and the atmosphere.
shall Christ's work be less powerful or less
extensive!
Doubtless God will take the irregularity
and fierceness from the elements 50 as to
make them congenial to the race, which
will then be symmetrical and evangelical.
The ground shall not be so lavish of weeds
and 80 grudgetul of grain. Soils which now
forms Of evil production will be delivered
from their besetting sins. Steep mountains,
plouRhed down into more gradual ascent,
shall be girdled with focks of sheep and
shocks Of corn. The wet marsh shall be-
come the deep-grass meadow. Cattle shall
eat unharmed by caverns once haunted by
wild beasts. Children will build play
houses In what was once a cave of serpents;
and, as the scripture saith: 1.-THE weaned
child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's
den.n
Oh what harvests shall be reaped when
neither drought, nor excessive rain, nor mil
dew, nor infesting insects shall arrest the
growth, and the utmost capacity of the
fields for production shall be tested by an
intelligent and athletic yeomanry. Thrift
aud competency characterizing the worlds
inhabitants, their dwelling-plac shall be
graceful and healthy andIadorned. Tree and
arbor and grove around about will look as
IL Adam and Eve had got back to paradise.
Great cities, now neglected and unwashed,
shall be orderly, adorned with architectural
symmetry AMI connected with far
transportation carried to their greatest
perfection, or by new inventions
yet TO spring up out of the water or drop
from the air at the beck of Morse or a
Robert Fulton belonging to future genera
tions. Isaiah, in my text, seems to look.
forward to the future condition of the phys
ical earth as condition of great beauty
and excellence, and then prophesies that, as
the strongest and most ornamental timber
in Lebanon was brought down to Jerusalem
and constructed into the ancient temple, 50
all that is beautiful and excellent in the
physical earth shall yet contribute to the
church now being built in the world. 1.-THE
glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee; the
fir tree, the pine tree, and the box tree to-
getheer, to beautify the place OF my sanctu.
ary.
Much of this prophecy has already been
fulfilled, and / proceed to some practical
remarks upon the contributions which the
natural world is making to the kingdom Of
God, and then draw some inferences. The
first contribution OF that nature gives to the
church is her testimony In behalf of tho
truth of christianity. This is an age Of pro-
found research. Nature cannot evade mems
inquiries as once. In chemists laboratory
she is put to torture and compelled to give
up her mysteries Hidden laws have come
out OF their hiding place. The earth and
the heavens, since they have been ransacked
by geologist and botanist and astronomer,
appear SO different from what they once
were that they may be called ''the new
heavens and the new EARTH
This research and discovery will have
powerful effect upon the religious world.
They must either advance or arrest chris.
tianity, make men better or make them
worse be the church's honor or the church's
overthrow. Christians. aware of this in the
early ages of discovery, were nervous and
fearful as to the progress of science. They
feared that some natural law, before unA
known, would suddenly spring into harsh
collision with christianity. Gunpowder and
the CLEAN of swords would not so much
have been feared by religionists as electric
batteries, voltaic piles, and astronomical
apparatus. 1t was feared that Moses and
the prophets would be run over by sceptical
chemists and philosophers. Some Of the
followers OF Aristotle, after the invention Of
the telescope, refused TO look through that
instrument, lest what they saw would over
throw the teachings Of that great philos-
opher. But the christian religion has no
such apprehension now. Bring on your
telescopes and microscopes, and spectre
scopes-and the more the better, The God
of nature is the God of the Bible, and in all
the universe, and in all the eternities, he has
never once contradicted himself. Christian
merchants endow universities. and in them
christian professors instruct the children Of
christian communities. The warmest aud
most enthusiastic friends of Christ are the
bravest and most enthusiastic friends of
science. The church rejoices as much
over every discovery as the world reioices.
Good men have found that there is no war
between science and religion. That which
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