The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1890-10-31
DEAD SEA AND JORDAN.
eERMON DELIVERED By Or. T. DE
WITT TALMAGE.

The Eminent Divine Continues His Mar
ration OF His ThriilingIy Interesting
Journey Through the Holy Land-Tul
Text of the Discourse IL Hero Given.
BROOKLYN. Oct. %. DIR Talmage
preached the fifth sermon of the series
on his tour In the Holy Land in the
Academy of Music In this city this
morning. This evening ut The Chris
tian Herald service in the Academy OF
Music New York. the sermon was re-
peated before an audience which filed
the vast building in every part. DR..
Talmage announced as his text Psalm
civ. 32: He toucheth the hills and
they smoke" He said:
David the poet here pictures vol
cano. and what Church's Cotopaxi
does on painters canvas this author
does in words You see hill. calm
and still and for ages iinmovable, but
the Lord out of the heavens puts his
finger on the top of it and from it
rise thick vapors, undershot with fire.
HE toucheth the hills and they
smoke"
GODS TREMENDOUS TOOLS
God is the only being who can man.
age a volcano, and again and again
has he employed volcanic action. The
pictures on the walls of Pompeii, the
exhuned Italian city, as we saw them
last November, demonstrate that the
city was not fit to live. In the first
century that city, engirdled with pal
aces, emparadised with gardens, pill
Jared into architectural exquisiteness,
was at the foot of mountain, up the
sides of which it ran with vineyards
and villas of merchant princes, and all
that marble and bronze and imperial
baths and arboriculture and rainbowed
fountains, and a coliseum at the dedi-
cation of which nine thousand beasts
had been slain, and a supernal land
scape in which the shore gave roses to
the sea and the sea gave crystals to the
shore; yea, all that beauty and pomp
and wealth could give was there to be
seen or heard. But the bad morals of
the city had shocked the world.
In the year ~. on the 4th of August,
a black column rose above the adjoin-
ing mountain and spread out. Pliny
says. as he saw it, like a great pine
tree. wider and wider, until it began to
rain upon the city, first thin ashes and
then pumice stone, and sulphurous
fumes scooped, and streams of mud
poured through the streets till few peo-
pie escaped and the city was buried,
and some of the inhabitants eighteen
hundred years after were found en-
balmed in the scori@ of that awful
doom. The Lord called upon volcanic
forces to obliterate that profligate city.
He touched the hills and they smoked.
Nothing but volcanic action can ex-
plain what l shall show you at the
Dead sea upon which I looked last De-
cember and of whose waters took
bitter and singing taste. Concerning
al that region there has been contro-
versy enough to fill libraries. science
aging one thing, revelation saying an
,ther thing. But admit volcanic &C
ion divinely employed and both testi-
monies are one and the same. Geolo-
y, chemistry. geography. astronomy,
chthyology. ornithology and zoology
Ire coming one by one to confirm the
Scriptures. Two leaves of one book
ire Revelation and Creation, and the
is by the same divine hand.
Dur horseback ride will not be so steep
oday, and you can stay on without
,linging to the poinnel of the saddle,
,ut the scenes amid which we ride
hall, if possible. be more thrilling, and
~ the time the horses snuff the sui
,hurous atmosphere of Lake Asphalt
ties or the Dead sea we will be ready
o dismount and read from our Bibles
bout what was done that day by the
Lord when he touched the hills and
hey smoked.
A VIVID BIT OF DESCRIPTION.
Take detour and pass along by the
ocky fortress of Masada, where oc-
urred something more wonderful in
he way of desperation than you have
ver heard of, unless you have heard
# that. Herod built a palace amid
hese heaps of black and awful rocks,
which look like tu1nbled midnight.
| great band of robbers-about one
thousand, including their families-af-
erward held the fortress. When the
loman army storlned that steep, and
he bandits could no longer hold the
lace, their chieftain, Eleazar, made a
owerful speech. which persuaded them
D die before they were captured.
First the men kissed their families
owing and fearful good-by and then
ut dagger into their hearts, and the
,omen and the children were slain.
hen ten men were chosen by lot to
lay all the other men, and each man
~ down by the dead wife and chill
rem and waited for these executioners
, do their work. This done, one man
f the ten killed the other nine. Then
ne survivor committed suicide. Two {
,Omen and five children had hid them &