The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-12
THE SODOM OF BIBLE TIMES.
(contlnued from third page.)

nished by this simple. pathetic story
 of Abraham's intercession for sodom.
 Fifty righteous men in a whole city
 full were enough to save it! Forty.
 twenty, might have done it. Nay. SO
 great is the power of pure disinter-
 ested righteousness. that even for
 the sake of ten true citizens
 the Lord would have spared Sodom-
 Its social life corrupt, It's politics
 worthless. its government power,ess.
 its very streets given over to open rioting and licentiousness-and 6et
 fifty good men could have redeemed 1t!
 What greater tribute has ever been
 given to the matchless power of the
 leadership of true men in city,
 Think In what ways such men could
 have saved their city. Undoubtedly
 they could have done much simply by
 living true. pure. righteously happy
 lives in the midst of those sodomites.
 The quiet charm and silent influence
 of any good mans life Is never to be
 lightly esteemed. If not enough to
 save city. 1t may leaven neighbor-
 hood, or glorify a home. Even a c.ois-
 tered virtue may have its beauty. IT
 not it's use. Possibly if fifty righteous
 men had lived in Sodom, although do-
 ing nothing but quietly setting good
 examples, the Lord for their sake might
 have spared the whole city. It would
 not, however, have been an easy task
 for the divine providence to have re-
 deemed Sodom, if merely the ouiet
 lives of few good men had been the
 whole leaven and working of righteous
 ness amid the increasing corruption.
 But if there had been fifty, or even less
 than fifty true, strong men there, who
 were willing to band together. and or
 ganize themselves in some civic clue
 to work for the purification. Of the
 politics and life of the whole town or
 Sodom, then the Lords offer to Abra-
 ham that he would spare the city Sor
 the sake of fifty men, might not have
 seemed incomprehensible even to the
 practical politicians of Sodom. F1fty
 men so combined and determined
 might have aroused an answer to their
 appeal throughout the whole city, and
 gained unexpected allies even in the
 lowest wards among men who, though not protesting for themselves over-much
 goodness, were becoming heartily tired
 and sick of the evils and the shames
 which they saw and knew. Fifty men.
 so organized and determined. might
 have inaugurated new era even for
 Sodom. and spared the later provi-
 dential necessity of putting the dead sea upon the map of antiquity. What a superb chance Abraham in his 1mpor-
 tunate faith saw for fifty good men. It is too bad that history missed 1t. Only twenty, or ten clean, strong men. not afraid even if their business should
 be pinched a little by. their known devotion to the better city which might
 be made even of seemingly hopeless Sodom; and, as g. consequence of their moral power an aWake kening in time of the public conscience, an honest busi- ness administration of affairs, and the returning favor instead Of the impend- ing wrath sof heaven. It hurts one's faith to see men, miss such splendid opportuniue 5of public service s"Oh. Lordls' Vi ham lgays for the city, ''let sus ind but fiftS@ good, men and true; give the people twenty, ten good leaders, and spare the place for their sake" We'll might the Lord have spared it for their sake; for not sodom itself could be judged hopeless, if few such leaders could have been found in it. Upon the closing fateful scene in the history of this ancient city, I. will not dwell. The theologian may claim the miracle; the geologist may be puzzled to account for the Dead sea in the place of the rich plain; but to the prophet there is no mystery about it: the whole course of the history is clear as righteousness, and the events move on with the certainties of eternal jus tice.
 There Is one feature of the biblical narrative upon which our attention in conclusion should rest. It is 8 superb scene. It presents the divine optimism of history. It is given in the scripture in a brief description: In the morning Abraham rose up early and went to the place where the Lord had con,- with him, and there from some hill top he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrar: and he "beheld, and To. the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace" There on the stood the solitary man with the word of the true God sound- Ing in his conscience and the vision of better city shining in his heart. That single, solitary man. who lookedy \ for the city which had foundations, whose maker and builder is God. Abra- ham with his prophetic spirit, was of more importance in the Lords great plan of human history than all the civilization and all the wealth of those cities of the plain. The cne man on the mountain who believed in the city of God. was the man of impor- tance to God in his historic work. Let sodom and Gomorran perish. for Abra- ham lives, and in him shall all the nations of the hearth be blessed. AL ways throughout the history Abraham shall remain. and Sodom shall vanish. The man with the voice of tile eternal right in his conscience cannot fail, nor perish; but down the fixed moral grooves of the universe time brings ,n the inevitable day when the smoke l ,f any Sodom, though 1t be powerful IS Tammany. shall 50 up as the. iIaoke of the furnace. It is tafa for IS to believe, 1t is safe for any young nan beginning his public career to be- ieved in lonely Abraham on the hill :op against all Sodom in the plain.
 have attempted thus to draw a 3rief historical sketch of sudnm and fs ir1nfiflifinna. ifa taossihIa noIIrrA < { |