The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-01-01

ISC0iN0u lEOm budG ohSAOU
River. It takes the tree branches and
logs foated into it by the Jordan and
pitches them on the banks of bitumen
to decay there.
The hot springs near its banks, by the
name of Callirhoe, where King Herod
came to battle off his illnesses, no SOON
er pour into this sea than they are poi
soned. Not fish scale swims it. Not
an insect walks it. 1t hates life, and if
you attempt to swim there it lifts you
by an unnatural buoyancy to the sur
face, as much as to say: 1--WE 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 metallic
luster like unto the flash 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 it
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
filed up with wickedness. mo, that
is absurd, cries some one. ''It is evil
dent that this was a region of salt and
birthstone and pitch, long before that"
And so it was. The Bible says it was
region of sulphur long before the
great catastrophe. "Well. now," says
some one, wanting to raise a quarrel
between science and revelation, you
have no right to say the ''Cities of the
Plain were destroyed by tempest of
fire 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
infiammable. They sat, think, on a
ridge of hills They stood high up and
conspicuous, radiant in their sins,
ostentatious in their debaucheries, four
bells on earth. One day there was q
rumbling in the earth, and quaking
whats up?" cry the affrighted in
habitants. whats thatY' 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 ahame,
and first lifting these cities high N 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 hill there came a valley,
and where there had been the pomp of
uncleanness came widespread desola-
ton The red hot spade OF volcanic ac-
ton 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"
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 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, " "Peacf
be with you" their smile sometimes
leaving us in doubt as to whether
it is caused by their gladness t.
see US or by our poor pronuncia
ton of the Arabic. Oh, they are
strange race, those Bedouins. Such
commingling of rufianism and
honor, of cowardice and courage, oil
cruelty and lxindnessl When band O
them came down upon party in which
Miss Whately was travelling, and were
about to take pocket-books, and per
haps life, this lady sitting upon her
horse took out her note book and pencil
and began tosketch these brigands, anC
seeing this composure, the bandit
thought it something supernatural and
fed Christian womanliness or manli
ness is all-conquering When Martin
Luther was told thar Duke George
would kill him if he went to Leipsic
Luther replied: Il would go to Leipsic
if it rained Duke Georges nine days"
Now we come through regions where
there are hills cut into the shape o
cathedrals, with affairs, and column. ant
arch, and chancel, and pulpit ant
dome, and architecture of the rocks tina
J / think can hardly just happen so. Per
haps it is because God loves the churcl
so we'll He builds in the solitudes O
! Yellowstone Park, and Yosemite, ant
| Curitzap1aDd and palestine +bago %