Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-05-03
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Brooklyn's Divine breaches on the
voices of Nature"
He Pleads for More Sympathy With tho
World of Nature.

Dor together, to beonttfg the place Of my
sanctuary lisa. X. 10.
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 hoated 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 1nanimate
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 reeke with the
| leprosy. Under that sinful touch nature
| wlthered. The inanimate creation, as if
! aware of the damage done it, sent up the
/ thorn and brier and nettle to wound and
/ hercely oppose the human race.
Now as the ply steal earth felt the effects
Of the first transgression SO it 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 shah speed out to in
| terpenetl ate and check, subdue and override
! the evil. In the end it shall be found that
the tree OF Calvary has more potency than
| Che tree OF Paradise As the nations are
evangeiized, think corresponding change
VI. L
| believe that the trees, and the birds and the
| rivers, and the skies will have their millenni-
| UNI. il mans sin affected the ground, and
the vegetation, and the atmosphere shall
| Chrlsts work be less powerful or less extern
sive?
| Doubtless God will take the irregularity
| and fierceness from the elements so as to
| make them congenial to the race vet to be
| so symmetrical and evangelical The ground
shall not be so lavish OF weeds and so grudge-
| full 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
| docks OF sheep and shocks Of corn. The wet
1 marsh shall become the deep erased meadow.
| Cattle shall eat unharmei by caverns once
| haunted of wild beasts. Children will build
! play houses in what was once a cave of ser
! penis; and as the Scripture saith THE
| weaned child shall put his hand on the cock
| atrice's den
Oh what harvests shall be reaped when
| neither drouth, nor excessive rain nor mil
| dew, nor lnfesting insects shall arrest the
| growth, and the utmost capacity of the fields
| for production snail be tested by an intslli-
| gent and athletic yeomanry Thrift and COM
| potency characterizing the worlds inhabit-
ants, their dwelling places 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 unwashed shall be
| orderly, adorned with architectural svmme-
| try and connected with far distant seaports
| by present modes of Transportation carried to
| their greatest perfection. or by new inven-
| tons yet to spring up out of the water or
| drop from the air at the beck of a Morse or a
| Robert Fulton belonging to future genera
tons
Isaiah in my text seems to look forwardto
the future condition of thephysical earth as
! condition of great beauty and excellence,
| ana then prophesies that as the strongest and
most ornamental timber in Lebanon was
| brought down to Jerusalem and constructed
| INTO the ancient temple, SO all that is beauti-
flu and excellent in the physical earth shall
| yet contribute to the church now being built
III the world. The glory of Lebanon shall
| come unto thee; the fir tree, the pine tree
and the box together, to beautify the place
| of my sanctuary
| Much of this prophecy has already been
| fulfilled, and proceed to some practical re-
marks upon the contributions which the
| natural world Is making to the kin gdom of
, tod, and then draw some differences. The
first contribution that nature gives to the
church Is her testimony in bshslf of the
| truth of Christianity This is en- age of pro-
found research. Nature cannot evade mans
inquiries as once. In chemists laboratory
she is put to torture and compelled to give up
her mysteries Hidden laws nave come out
| of their hiding place. The earth and the
| heavens, since they have been ransacked by
| geologlst and botanist and astronomer pear
so different from what they once were that
they may be called ''the new heavens and the
| new earth
This research and discovery will have DOW
erful effect upon the religious world They
| must either advance or arrest Christianity.
make men better or make thee worse, be the
ehurchs honor or the churoy's overthrow
Christians, aware Of this in II early ages of
| discovery, were nervous and fearful Is to the
| progress of science. They feared that some
| natural law, before unknown, would sudden
1 ly spring into harsh collision with Christian
| ity. Gunpowder and the CLEAN of swords
| would not so much have been feared byra-
hgionists as electric batteries, voltaic piles
and astronomical apparatus. It was feared
| that Moses and the prophets would be run
| over by skeptical chemists and philosophers
| Some of the followers of Aristotle after the
| invention of the telescope refused to look
| through that instrument, lest what they saw
| would overthrow the teachings of that great
pui"Jsophei. Christian religion has
| no such apprehension noT-
| 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 eterni-
ties He has never once contradictsd Himself.
| Christian merchants endow universities and
| in them Christian professors instruct the chill.
1
| est and most enthusiastic friends of Christ
| are the hravest and most enthusiastic friends
| of science The church reioces as much
1 over every discovery as the world reioices.
| Good men have found that there is no war be-
| tween science and religion. That which
| at first has seemed TO be che weapon
| of the infidel has turned out to be the
weapon of the Christian
| Scientific discussions NAV be divided into
! those which are concluded, and those which
are still in progress, depending for decision
| upon future investigation. Those which are
| concuded have invariably rendered their
verdict for Christianity, and we have faith
| to believe thot those WI Gu are still in prose-
| cutlon viii come to as favorable conclusion
| The great systems of error are falling before
| these discoveries. They have crushed every
| thing but the Bible and that they have es-
| tablshed. Mohammedanisn and paganism
| IN ther ten thousand forms have been proved
false, and by grelt natural laws shown to be
J lmpostions Buried cities have been ex-
/ humed and the truth of God found written
| on their coffin lids. Bartlett, Robinson and
! Layard have been 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 aud explorers nave
/ come be" say that they have found among
! mounta'' md among ruins and on the shore
| of waters, living and undying evidences of |
/
Men who have gone to Palestine infidels
| have come back Christians They who were
| blind and deaf to the truth at home have
| seemed to see Christ again preaching upon
| Ollvet, and have beheld in vivid Imagination
| the Son of God again walking the hills about
| Jerusalem. Caviglia once rejected the truth.
! but atterward said; Il came to Egypt, and
| the Scriptures and the pyramids converted
| me" When ! was in Beyrout. Syria, last
| December our beloved American mission
| airy, Rev. Dr. Jessup told me of his friend
| who met skeptic at Joppa, the seaport of
| Jerusalem, and the unbeliever said TO his
| friend. 81 am going into the Holy Land to
| show up the folly of the Christian religion
| / am going to visit all the so-caiied sacred
! places and write them up, and show the
! world that the New Testomeno is an imposi-
ton 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 'Well. how is itg'
| said the aforesaid gentleman to the skeptic
| The answer was: II have seen it ALL and |
| tell you the Bible is truel Yes: IL is all tIue~
| The man who went to destroy came back to
! defend.
And what | myself saw during my recent
| absence | conclude that any one v 30 can go
| through the Holy Land and remain an unbe-
| lever is either a bad man or an imoecile God
| employed men to write the Bible, but He
| took many of the same truths which they
recorded and with His own almighty hand
| He gouged them into the rocks and drove
| them down into dismal depths and as doeu
| ments are put in the corner stons OF a temple.
| SO in the very foundation of the earth He