The Brookhaven leader., 1890-11-06

logs floated into it by the Jordan and
pitches them on the banks OF bitumen
to decay there.
The het springs near its banks, by the
name of Callirhoe, where King Herod
came to b4the of his illnesses, no soon
er pour into this sea than they are poi
soned. Not fish scale swims 1t. Not
an insect walks it 1t hates life, and II
you attempt to swim there it lifts you
by an unnatural buoyancy to the sur
face, as much as to say: I'VE want no
life here, but death is our preference
death" Those who attempt to wade
into this lake and submerge them
selves, 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 fash of sword
that would thrust you. The gazelles
and the ibexes that live on the hills be-
side 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 MKT
ure. A mist hovers over parts OF 1T
almost continually, which, though nat
ural evaporation, seems like a wing OF
doom spread over liquid desolation. 1t
is the rinsings of abomination. 1t is an
aqueous monster coiled among the hills,
or creeping with ripples, and stenchful
with nauseating malodors.
In these regions once stood four great
cities of Assyria: Sodom, Gomorrah,
Adma and Zeboim. The Bible says
they were destroyed by tempest of
fire and brim stone after these cities had
filled up with wickedness. ''No, that
is absurd" cries some one. "It is evil
dent that this was region of salt and
birthstone and pitch, long before that"
And so it was. The Bible says it was
region of sulphur long before tho
great catastrophe. "Well, now," says
some one, wanting to raise quarrel
between science and revelation, you
have no right to say the "Cities of the
Plain were destroyed by tempest of
hre and sulphur and birthstone,
because this region had these char
acteristics long before these cities
were destroyed" Volcanic action, is
my reply. These cities had been built
out of very combustible materials. The
mortar was of bitumen easily ignited,
and the walls dripped with pitch most
inflammable. They sat, think, on a
ridge of hills. They stood high up and
conspicuous, radiant in their sins,
ostentatious in their debaucheries, four
hells on earth. One day there was a
rumbling in the earth, and a quaking.
Whats up?" cry the affrighted in
habitants. "What's that?" The founda-
tions of the earth were giving away. A
volcano, whose fires had been burning
for ages, at Gods command burst
forth, easily setting every thing afame,
and first lifting these cities high IN the
air, and then dashing them down in
chasms fathomless. The fires of that
eruption intershot 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 valley,
and where there had been the pomp of
uncleanness came widespread desola-
tion. The red hot spade of volcanic ac-
tion had shoveled under the cities of
the plain. Before 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 touched
the hills and they smoke"
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 harmonious. 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 animals next"
and the Bible responds, Land animals
next" Then comes mani" says science.
''rhen comes mani" responds the Bible.
Science digs into the regions of the
Dead Sea, and finds result of fire, and
masses of birthstone, and announces
wonderful geological formation.
'Oh, yes" says the Bible: Moses
wrote thousands of years ago, The
Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Co
morrah birthstone and fire from the Lord
out of Heaven and David wrote, He
toucheth the hills and they smoke y"
/ guess we will hold on to our Bibles a
little longer. A gentleman in the ante
room of the White House at Washing
ton, having an appointment with Mr..
Lincoln at five o'clock in the morning,
got there fifteen minutes early, and
asked the servant: 'Who is talking in
the next room?" at is the President,
sir?' rs any body with him?" "No,
sir; he is reading the Bible. He spends
every morning from four to five o'clock
reading the Scriptures"
But the dragoman was rejoieed 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 of
for the Jordan, only two hours away.
We pass Bedouins whose stern features
melt into smile as we give them the
salutation, 'Salaam Aleikoum, "''Peace
be with you." their smile sometimes