The Iola register., 1890-11-07

that this was a region of salt and
birthstone and pitch long before that
And so it was The Bible says Il
VS. a region of sulphur long before
the great catastrophe. "Well, now,
says some one, wanting to raise quar-
rel between 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 de-
stroyed." Volcanic action is 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 infiammable.
They sat, think. on a ridge of hills.
They stood high up and conspicous,
radiant in their sins, ostentatious in
their debaucheries, four hells on earth.
One day there was rumbling in the
earth and quaking. whats that?'
cry the affrighted inhabitants. 'AFhaes
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 confguration of that
country was changed. and where there
was a hill there came a valley, and
where there had been the pomp of un-
cleanliness came widespread desolation.
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 gotknder. But as 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, Marine animals next {"
Science digs down and says, Land ami
mails next" and the Bible responds,
Land animals next" "Then comes
man. 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.
20, yes" says the Bible, "Moses wrote
thousands of years ago the Lord rained
upon Sodom and Gomorrah' birthstone
and fire from the Lord out of Heaven,
and David wrote. He toucheth the hills
and they smoke" So guess we will
hold on to our Bibles little longer.
My text implies that God controls
volcanoes, not with the full force of His
hand, but with the tip of His finger.
Etna, Stromboli and Vesuvius fawn at
His feet like hounds before the hunter.
These eruptions of the hills do not be-
long to Pluto's realms, as the ancients
thought, but to the divine dominions.
Humboldt counted 200 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 latitudes. 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 it will be at the di-
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. Profligacy was the chief charac-
teristic of the seven cities over which
they put their smothering wing: Pom
peii, Herculaneum, StabB, Adma,
Zeboim, Sodom and Gomorrah. If
our American cities do not quit their
profigacy, If in high life and low life
dissoluteness does not cease to be Joke
and become crime, if wealthy libertin-
ism continues to find so many doors of
domestic life open to its faintest touch,
if 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 l tell these American
cities that it will be more tolerable 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 Gre. You let profigacy,
whether it stagger into a lazaretto or
sit on a commercial throne, whether it
laugh in faded shawl under the street
gaslight or be wrapped in the finest ar
ray that foreign loom ever wrought or
lapidary ever impearled, know right
well that there is a volcano waiting for
it, whether in domestic life. or social
life, or political life, or in the founda-
tions of the earth from which sprang
out the devasrations that swallowed the
cities of the plain. HE toucheth the
hills and they smoke"
But the dragoman was rejoiced when
we had seen enough of this volcanic
region of Palestine, and he gladly
tightens the girths for another march,
around the horses which are prancing
and neighing for departure. We are off
for the Jordan, only two hours away.
We pass Bedouins whose stern features
melt into smile as we give them the
saluta ton, Salaam Aleikhoum, peace
be with you," their smile sometimes
leaving US in doubt as to whether it is
caused by their gladness to see US or by
our poor pronunciation of the Arabic
D. they are a strange race, those Bed
ouins Such commingling of ruffian-
ism and honor, of cowardice and cour-
age, of cruelty and kindness When a