The Russellville Democrat. [volume] (Russellville, Ark.) 1875-1898, 1890-05-08
GOD AND NATURE.
Sermon by Rev. r. Dewitt Tall
mage, Delivered in Brooklyn.
The wonders OF Nature All Tell Of the
Power of God. Illustrating the Di-
vine Truths Upon which Chris
tIanity Is Founded.

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text.
/ The glory OF Lebanon shall come unto
( thee; the fir tree, the pine tree and the box
together. 10 beautify the place Of my sanot-
uary.--Isaiah TX, IL.
On our way from Damascus we saw
tho 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 floated in great RATS 20 Joppa~
and then again drawn by ox-teams up
to Jerusalem to build Solomon's tem
pie. Those mighty trees in my text are
called the glory OF Lebanon Inani-
mate nature felt the effects Of the first
transgression. When Eve touched the
forbidden tree, 1t seems as II the sinful
contact had smittcn not only that tree,
but as If 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 inanimate crea-
ton, as If aware Of the damage done it,
sent up the thorn and brier and nettle
to wound, and fiercely oppose the hui
man race. Now as the physical earth
felt the effects of the first transgression,
so it shall also fell the effect OF the Sa-a
viour's mission. AS from that one tree
in Paradise blight went forth through
the entire earth, 50 from one tree on
Calvary another force shall speed out to
interpenetrate and check, subdue and
override the etil In the end 1t shall
l Il A. - o. y
more potency than the tree OF Paradise.
AS the nations are evangelical. think
a corresponding change will beseffected
In the natural world. Il verify believe
that the trees, and the birds, and the
rivers, and the skies will have their
millennium. If a mans sin affected tho
ground, and the vegetation, and the at
mosphere, shall Chirst's work be less
powerful or less extensive?
Doubtless God win take the irregular
! ity and herceness from the clements so
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 so grudgeful of
grain. Soils which now have peculiar
proclivities toward certain forms of
evil production will be delivered from
| their besetting sins. Steep mountains,
plowed down into more gradual ascent,
shall be girdled with fiocks of sheep
and shocks OF corn. The wet marsh
shall become the deep-grassed meadow.
Cattle shall eat unframed by caverns
once haunted Of wild beasts. Children
will build play houses in what was once
g 80. hn Coz int.
mre saith: 1.-THE weaned child shall put
his hand on the cockatrice's dem"
Oh what harvests shall be reaped
when neither drought, nor excessive
rain, nor mildew, nor infesting insects
shall arrest the growth, and the utmost
capacity of the fields : for production
shall be tested by AN intelhgentand
athletic yeomanry. Thrift and COM
potency charactarizing the worlds i'm
habitants, their dwelling places shall
be graceful and healthy and adorned.
Tree and arbor and grove around about
will look as II Adam and Eve had got
back to Paradise. Great cities, now
neglected and unwashed, shall be
orderly, adorned with architectural
symmetry and connected with far
distant seaports by present modes of
transportation carried to their greatest
perfection, or by now inventions yet to
spring up. out of the water or drop from
the al at the beck OF Morse or Robert
Fulton belonging to future generations
Isaiah in my text scenes to look for
ward to the future condition of the
physical earth as a condition OF great
beauty and excellence, and then proph-
estes that as the strongest and most Or.
namental timber in Lebanon was
brought down to Jerusalem and con-.
structed into the ancient temple, so all
that is beautiful and excellent in the
physical earth shall yet contribute to
the church now being built in the world.
"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"
Much of this prophecy has already
been fulfilled, and | proceed to some
practical remarks upon the contribu-
tions which the natural world is MAX
ing to tho Kingdom of God, and
then draw some differences. The first
contribution that nature gives to the
church is her testimony in behalflo the
truth of Christianity. This is an age
Of profound reseach. Nature can not
evade mans inquiries at fonce. In
chemists laboratory she is put to tort
ure and compelled TO give up her mys-
teries. Hidden laws have come out of
their hiding place. The earth and the
heavens, since they have been ram
sacked 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
Christianity, make them better or make
them worse, be the Chnrch's honor or
the Church's overthrow. Christians
aware of this in the early ages of dis
covery, were nervous and fearful as to
the progress OF science. They feared
that some natural law, before unknown,
would suddenly spring into harsh col
lision with Christianity. Gunpowder
and the CLEAN of swords would not so
much have been feared by religionists
Z
astronomical apparatus. IL was feared
that Moses and the prophets would be
run over by skeptical chemists and phi
losophers. Some Of the followers Of
Aristotle, after the invention of the
telescope, refused to look through that
instrument lest what they saw would
overthrow the teachings Of that
great philosopher. But the Christian
religion has no such apprehension now.
Bring on your telescopes and micro
scopes, and spectroscopes--and the
more the better. The God OF nature
is the God of the Bible, and in all the
eternities, He has never once contra
dieted Himself Christian merchants
endow universities, and in them Chris
tian professors instruct the children of
Christian communities Tho warmest
and most enthusiastic friends Of Christ
are the brayest and most enthusiastic