Connecticut western news., 1896-03-12
A SUBLIME THEME.
AMERICA FOR GOD" THE SUBJECT OF
 OR. TALMAGe'S SERMON.

AMERICA FOR GOD" THE SUBJECT OF
 OR. TALMAGs'S SERMON.
 Other Nations Are Devoted to Art and
 Nsaufactsres. but America Shall He Fol
 Plan of Campaign.
 WASHINGTON, March 8.-This dis course presents sublime theme and is of national importance, and coming from the capital of the nation must have stirring effect throughout the land. Dr. Talmage chose for his text Revela tion xiii, II, And 1 beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon"
 Is America mentioned in the Bible; Learned and consecrated men who have studied the inspired books of Daniel and Revelation more than have and under stand them better agree in saying that the leopard mentioned in the Bible meant Grecia. and the bear meant Me do-Persia, and the lion meant Babylon, and the beast of the text coming up out of the earth, with two horns like lamb and the voice of 2 dragon, means our country. because among other reasons 1t seemed to come up out of the earth when Columbus discovered it, and it has been for the most part at peace like q lamb unless assaulted by foreign foe. in which case it has had two horns strong and sharp and the voice of dragon loud enough to make all nations hear the roar of its indignation. Is 1t reasonable to suppose that God would leavs out from the prophecies of his book this whole western hemisphere? No, no "I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like lamb, and he spake as dragon. :"
 Germany for scholarship, England for manufactures. France for manners, Egypt for antiquities. Italy for pictures, but America for God.
 start with the cheering thought that the most popular book on earth today is the Bible, the most popular institution on earth today is the church. and the most popular name on earth today is Jesus. Right from this audience hun dreds of men and women would, if need be, march out and die for him.
 Am too confident in saying, "Amer- ica for GodY" If the Lord will help me. I will show the strength and extent of the long line of fortresses to be taken and give you my reasons for saying it can be done and will be done Let us decide, in this battle for God, whether we are at Bull Run or at Gettysburg. There is Fourth of Julyish way of dragging about this country, and the most tired and plucked bird that ever flew through the heavens is the Ameri can eagle, so much so that Mir. Gladstone said to me facetiously at Hawarden, "I hear that the fish in your American lakes are so large that when one of them is taken out the entire lake is pereepti- bly lowered" and at a dinner given in Paris an American offered for a senti- ment, Here is to the United States bounded on the north by the aurora bo- realis, on the south by the procession of the equinoxes, on the east by primeval chaos and on the west by the day of judgment. The effect of such grand iloquence is to discredit the real facts, which are 90 tremendous they need no garnishing. The worst thing to do in any campaign. military or religious. is to underestimate an enemy, and will have no part in such attempt at belfttle- ment.
 To Be Taken For God.
 This land to be taken for God, &C., cording to Hassel, the statistician, has l4,a19,9 ,967 square miles, width and length that none but the Omniscient can appreciate. Four Europes put to- ing, as it will hold and feed, according 10 Atkinson. the statistician, if the world continues in existence and does not run afoul of some other world or get consumed by the fires already burning in the cellars of the planet-capable, say, of holding and feeding more than 1000, 900, 900 inhabitants. For you must remember it must be held for God as we'll as taken for God, and the last 300, ,000, 900 inhabitants must not be al lowed to swamp the religion of the first the fortress if we cannot hold it. It must be held until the archangel's trumpet bids living and dead arise from this laundering planet.
 You must remember it is only about o'clock in the morning of our nation s life. Great cities are to flash and roar among what are called the Bad Lands' of the Dakoeas and the great "Colum- bia plains" of Washington state, and that on which We put our schoolboy fin gers on the map and spelled out as the "Great American desert" is, through systematic and consummating irriga- tion. to bloom like Chatsworth park and be made more productive than those re- gions dependent upon uncertain and spasmodic rainfall. All those regions, as we'll as those regions already culti- rated, to be inhabited That was a sub lime thing said by Henry Clay while crossing the Alleghany mountains, and he was waiting for the stage horses to be rested, as he stood on rock, arms folded, looking of into the valley, and some one said to him, "Mr. Clay. what are you thinking aboutr' He replied, 'I am listening to the oncoming tramp of the future generation of America. "
 Have you laid our home missionary scheme on such an infnitude of scalei If the work of bringing one soul to God is so great, can 1000, ,000, ,000 be cap tured? In this country. already planted and to be overcome, organism has built its altar to Brahma, and the Chinese are already burning incense in tbeil temples, and Mohammedanism, drunk an other days with the red wine of hu man blood at Lucknow and Cawnpul and now fresh from the diabolism il Armenia, is trying to get foothole here, and from the minarets of hel mosques will yet humble her blasphe mics. saying, "God is great, and Mo hammed is his prophet. y Then there are the vaster multitudes with no reli zion at all. They worship no God, they