The Opelousas courier., 1891-01-24

i1nda,. s. sAleeI the catastrophe they were
hegelation right. she toucheth t6a gsiIis,
they smoke.p No Hhhs
Y science ever frightened believers in Re-
seia'ion SO much as geology. They feared
tnat the strata of the earth would contradict
Ine scriptures, and then Moses must go nm
uef. But as in the Dead Sea instance so in
Eases Gods writing IN the earth and Go1,s
writing IN the Bible are harmonious. The
sae1ses OF rock correspond with the shelves
u tne american Bible Society. Science
Jugs into the earth and finds deep down the
remains OF plants, and so the Bible announces
pian1s nrs5. Science digs down and saw.
marine animals next and the Bible says
Marine animals next" Science DIGS down
n says, Land animals next" ssThsn
comes manW says science. Then comes
man" responds the Bible. Science digs into
the regions about the Dead Sea, and finds
result of fire and masses of brim-
soohe, ana announces a wonderful geologi-
Moses wrote thousands Of wears ago sTba
Lord rained upon Sodom and UPON Go
morrah birthstone and fire from tha lord
out OF heaven and David wrote. He toucb-
eth the hills and they smoke.'" So I guess
We viii hold on to our Bibles a little longer.
A gentleman In the ante-room Of the White
House, at Washington, having an appoint
ment with Mr.. Lincoln at 5 O'clock in the
morning, got there fifteen minutes early. and
asked the servant, WHO is talking in the
next roomg 1T is the President sir.n tTs
anynody with him?' mo, sir; he is reading
4 to 5 o'clock reading the Scriptures.n
My text implies that God controls VOL
canoes, not with the full force of his hand.
but with the tip of his finger. Etna, Strom-
boil and Vesuvius fawn at his feet like
hounds before the hunter. These eruptions
OF the hills do not belong to Pluto's realm, as
the ancients thought, but to the divine do
minions. Humboldt counted two hundred
OF them, but since then the Indian archipel-
ago has been found to have nine hundred of
these great mouthpieces. They are on every
continent and in all ATTITUDES. That earth
quake which shook all America about six or
seven summers ago was only the raving
around OF volcanoes rushing against the
sides OF their rocky caverns trying TO break
out. They must come to the surface, but it
will be at the divine call. They seem re-
served for the punishment Of one kind Of sin.
The seven cities they have obliterated were
celebrated for one kind of transgression.
Frofigacy was the chief characteristic of the
seven cities over which they put their smoth-
ering wing: Pompeii, Herculaneum, Stable,
Adma, Zeboim, Sodom and Gomorrah.
LII our American cities do not quit their
profigacy, il in high life and low life disso-
luteness does not cease to be q joke and be-
come a crime, If wealthy libertinism con-
tinues to find so many doors of domestic life
open TO its faintest touch, if Russian and
French and American literature stepped in
p~ruriency does not get banished from the
news stands and ladies' parlors, God will let
! loose some of these suppressed monsters of
the earth, And / tell these American cities
that it will be more tolerable for Sodom
and Gomorrah in the day of Judgment,
whether that day of Judgment be in this
present century or in the closing century
of the earth's continuance. The volcanic
forces are already In existence, but in the
mercy of God they are chained In the ken
nels of subterraneous fire. Yet let profit
gacy, whether it stagger into a lazaretto or
sit on a commercial throne, whether it laugh
in a faded shawl under the street gas lighter
be wrapped in the finest array that foreign
loom ever wrought or lapidary ever im-
pearled, know right well that there is a vol
cano waiting for it, whether in domestic life
or social life or political life or in the founda-
lions of the earth from which sprang out the
de~vastations that swallowed the cities Of the
plain. 'He toucheth the hills and they
smoke"
But the dragoman was rejoiced 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 de-
parture. We are off for the Jordon, only
1 fvyn III a WQU nRS Hdn01TnG WnGG
s4a,,, fsa+,,ras ma1t inta { sm;Ia as Wa rive
then, tha sanitation SaIaam alaiko,m
aPaaca ~ With vor y thair sn,ila sometimes
| leaving us in doubt as to whether it is
caused by their gladness TO see us or by our
| poor pronunciation of the Arabic. oh,
| they are a strange race, those Bedouins.
Such a c~ommingling of ruffanism and
honor. OF cowardice and courage, of cruelty
and kindness When O. band Of them came
down mon a party in which Miss Whately
was travelling and were about to take
rockethooks and nerhans life. this lady. sit
ffng uDon her horse. took out her notebook
snT mcneil and beoan to sketch these brig
ands and seeing this composure the bandits
thought it something supernatural and fed:
Christian womanliness or maniiness Is all
conqueriag. When Martin Luther was told
thct D. George would kill him i ne Went
to Lelrsis luther replled: i would go TO
Leipss rained Duke Georges nine days"
Nov ~ COME through regions where there
are hills cut into the shape or cathedrals,
with altar and column and arch and chancel
and pulpit and dome and architecture OF the
rocks that think can hardly just happen so.
Perhaps 1t Is because God loves the c1urchs SO
well, he builds IN the soiitudes OF yellow,
stone park and Yosemite and SWtzerland
and Palestine these ecclesiastical piles And
who knows but that unseen spirits may
sometimes worship there? "Dragoman, When
shall We see the Jordan ] ask. All the
time we were on the alert. and looking
through tamarisk and willows for the
greatest river OF all the earth. The Mfssis-
sippl is wider, the Ohio is deeper. the Anna,
ION is longer. the Hudson rolls amid rapions
-.r. -
s9uJ, uno n1n.Ss nas moIe
splenuol ~ us panks tne Iloer suggests
" a .upsaiaa paosssslon, bae iiyssus nas
greater populations by its Irrigation. but the