Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1890-11-29

and this lake twenty-six and quarter
per cent.
Lake Sir-i-kol of India is the highest
lake in the world. This lake, on the
banks of which we kneel, is the lowest
lake. 1t empties into no sea. among
other things for the simple reason that
water cannot run up hill. 1t swallows
up the River Jordan and makes no re-
spouse of thanks, and never reports
what it does with the twenty million
cubic feet of water annually recasved
from that sacred river. 1t takes me
tree branches and logs fioated into if
by the Jordan and pitches them on
the banks of bitumen to decay there.
WHERE HERoD CAME TO BATTLE.
The hot springs near its banks by the
name OF Callirhoe, where King Herod
came to battle off his illnesses, no soon
er pour into this sea than they are poi
soned. Not a fish scale swims it. Not
an insect walks it, 1t hates life. and
II you attempt to swim there it lifts
you by an unnatural buoyancy to the
surface, as much as to say, I'VE want
no life here, but death is our prefer
ence; death Those who attempt TO
wade into this lake and submerge
themselves come out almost maddened
as with the sting of hundred wasps
and hornets, and with lips and eyelids
swollen with the strange ablution. The
/ sparkle of its waters is not like the
! sparkle Of beauty on other lakes, but a
metallic luster like unto the flash of a
sword that would thrust you.
The gazeles and the ibexes that live
on the hills beside it, and the cranes
and wild ducks that fly across-for,
contrary to the old belief, birds do
safely wing their way over it-and the
Arab horses you have been riding
though thirsty enough, will not drink
out of this dreadful mixture. A mist
hovers over parts of it almost confirm
ally, which. though natural evapora-
| ton, seems like a wing of doom spread
over liquid desolation. 1t is the rims
ings of abomination. 1t is an aqueous
monster coiled among the hills or creep
ing with ripples and stenchful with
nauseating malodors.
In these regions once stood four great
cities of Assyria: Sodom, Gomorrah
Adna and Zeboim. The Bible saws
they were destroyed by a tempest of
/ fire and birthstone after these cities
had filed up of wickedness. mo
that is absurd" cries some one. eft is
evident that this was a region of salt
and birthstone and pitch long before
that" And so it was The Bible saws
it was 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, be-
cause this region had these character
istics long before these cities were de-
stroyed." Volcanic action, is my re
ply. These cities had been built out
of very cOmbustible materials. The
mortar was of bitumen easily ignited,
and the walls dripped with pitch most
infiammable. They sat, think, on a
ridge of hills They stood high up and
conspicuous. radiant in their sins, os-
tentatious in their debaucheries, four
bells on earth.
One day there was a rumbling in the
earth, and a quaking. What's that p
cry the affrighted inhabitants. What's
that" The foundations of the earth
were giving way. a volcano, whose
fires had been burning for ages, at
Gods command burst forth, easily set
ting everything aflame, and first lifting
these cities high in air, and then dash
ing them down in chaslns fathomless
The fires of that eruption intershot the
dense smoke. and rolled unto the heav-
ems, only to descend again. And all
the CONFORMATION of that country was
changed. and where there was a hill
had been the pOmp of uncleanness
came widespread desoIatiOn The red
hot spade of volcanic action had shov-
eled under the cities of the plain. Be
fore 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 toucheth the
hills and they smoke"
GODS BOOK AND GEOLOGY AGREE.
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 in all
cases Gods writing on the earth and
Gods writing in the Bible are harmo
NOUS The shelves of rock correspond
with the shelves of the American Bible
society 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
mani" says science. Then comes
man" responds the Bible. Science digs
into the regions about the Dead sea.
and finds results OF tire and masses OF
birthstone, and announces a wonderful
geological formation "Oh, yes" says
the Bible; Moses wrote thousands of
years ago, The Lord rained upon