Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-28
VOICES OF NATURE
That in Clear, Harmonious Tones,
Tell of the Glory of God.
SCIENCE A GREAT AID TO RELIGION,
The Vast Systems of Error Falling Before
Its Discoveries.
ISAIAH'S PROPHECY COMING TRUE
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH,

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
edIhce Vas thronged, as usual, as soon as
the doors were opened. After the reading
of an appropriate passage of Scripture and
the singing of the hymn "Glory to God on
High, DR.. Talmage announced as his text
lisa. lx:13, "Tne glory of Lebanon shall come
unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the
box together. to beautify the place of my
sanctuary" Following is his sermon in
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 OK teams down to the
Mediterranean Sea, and then foated in great
rats to Joppa, and then again drawn by OK
teams up to Jerusalem to build Solomon's
temple. Those mighty trees in my text are
called the glory of Lebanon" Inanimate
nature felt the effects of the first transgres-
sion. When Eve touched the forbidden tree,
it seems as if the sinful contact had smitten
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. Un-
der that sinful touch nature withered. The
inanlmate creation, as if aware of the damage
done il, sent up the thorn and brier
and nettle to wound, and fercely oppose. the
human race. Now as the physical earth felt
the effects of the first transgresslon SO 1t shall
also feel the effect of the Saviour'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 in
terpenetrate 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
Iar
think 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?
GODS WORK ON THE EARTH.
Doubtless God will take the irregularity and
ferceness from the elements as to make
them congenial to the race, which will then
be symmetrical and evangelical. The ground
shall be SO lavish of weeds and SO grndge-
ful of grain. Soils which now have peculiar
proclivities toward certain forms of evil pro-
duction will be delivered from their besetting
sins Steep mountains, plowed down into more
gradual ascent shall be girdled with t1ocks of
sheep and shocks of corn. The wet marsh shall
become the Geep-grassed meadow. Cattle shall
eat unharmed by caverns once haunted of wild
beasts. Children will build plav houses in what
was once cave of serpents; and as the
Scripture saith, THE weaned child shall pu:
his hand on the cockatrice's den."
Oh what harvests shall be reaped when
neither drouth, nor excessive rain, nor mildew,
nor infestng insects shall arrest the growth
and the utmost capacity of the fields for pro-
duction shall be tested bv an intelligent and
athletic yeomanry Thrift and competency
eharacterlzing the worlds inhabitants, their
dwellngDlaces shall be graceful and healthy
and adorned Tree and arbor and grove around
about will look as if Adam and Eve had got
back To Paradise. Great cities. now neglected
and uuwashed shall be orderly adorned with
architectural symmetry and connected with far
distant seaports bypresent modes of transporta-
tion carried to their greatest perfection or by
new inventions yet to spring up ouU of the
water, or drop from the air at the beck of a
Morse or Robert Fulton belonging to future
generations.
Much of this prophecy of Isaiah has already
been fulfilled, and proceed to some practical |
remarks upon the contributions which the nat
ural world is making to the kingdom of God
and then draw some differences. The first con-
tribution which nature gives to the church is
her testimony in behalf of the truth of Chris
Nature cannot evade mems inquiries as once
In chemists laboratory she is put to torture
and compelled to give up her mysteries. Hid
0en laws have come out of their hiding-place
The earth and the heavens, since they have
been ransacked by geologist and Dotanist and
astronomer, appear SO different from what they
once were that they may be called 1.-THE new
heavens and the new EARTH"
This research and discovery will have power |
full effect upon the religious world. They must
either advance or arrest Christianity, 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 unknown, would suddenly |
spring into harsh collision with Christianity. |
Gunpowder ann 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 skeptical chem |
lists and philosophers. Some of the followers |
of Aristotle, after the invention of the tel |
escope, refused to look through the instrument !
lest what they saw would overthrow the teach |
ings of that great philosopher. But the |
Christian religion has no such apprehension |
now. Bring on your telescopes and microscopes,
and spectroscopes-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
Scientific discussions may be divided into
those which are concluded, and those which |
are still in progress, depending for decision |
upon future investigation. Those which are |
concluded have invariably rendered their ver-
dlct Tor Christianity. and we have faith to be-
neve that those which are still in prosecution
Will come to as favorable a conclusion The /
great systems of error are falling before these ,
truth OF the Bible, and SO reinforced Chris
tlanlty. Mohammedanism and paganism in
their ten thousand forms have been proved |
false, and by great natural laws shown to be
lmposltions. Buried cities have been exhumed
ana the truth OF God found written on their
cotfin-lids. Bartlett Robinson and Layard
nave oeen not more The apostles of science
than the apostles of religion The dumb lips
OF the pyramids have opened to preach the
gospel Expeditions have been fitted out for
Palestine, and explorers have come back to say
~ ThnNT hCN fnTIT
among ruins, and on the shore of waters. living
and undying evidences of our glorious Chris
tianity.
Men who have gone to Palestine int,dals bave
come back Christians They who were blind |
and deaf to the truth at home have Seemed to |
see Christ again preaching upon OlIyet and
have beheld in vivid Imagination the Son of
God again walking the hills about JerusaIam
Caviglla once rejected the truth. but afterward
said, II came to Egypt, and the Scriptures and
the Pyra mids converted me-" When was in
missionary, Rev. DR.. Jessup, told me
OF his friend who met
A sKEPTIC AT JoPPA,
the seaport of Jerusalem and the unbelieyer
said to his friend: II am going into the Holy
Land to show up the folly of the Christian re-
ligion. l am going to visit all the so-called
sacred places and write them up, and show
the world that the New Testament is an i'm.
position upon the worlds credulity" Months
after, DR.. Jessup's friend met the skeptic at
Beyrout. after he had completed his Journey
through the Holy Land. swell, how is it ?i'
said the aforesaid gentleman to the skeptic
The answer was: 81 have seen it all, and tell
you the Bible is true Yes, it is all true p The
man who went 10 destroy came back to defend.
After what myself saw during my recent abb
sence, / conclude that anyone who can go
through the Holy Land and remain an unbe-
lever is either a bad man or an imbecile.
Again, nature offers an Invaluable contri-
button to Christianity by the illustration she
makes of divine truth. The inspired writer's
seized upon the advantages offered by the
natural world. Trees and rivers and clouds