Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-03-20
REV. DR. TALMAGE
The Eminent Washington pivines
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: "America for Cod"

Revelation xiii, IL.
IsAmerica mentlonedin the BibleP Learned
and consecrated men who have studied the
inspired books of Daniel and Revelation
more than have and understand them battei
agree IN saying that the leopard mentioned
in the Bible meant Greca, and the beer
meant Medo-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 a dragon, means our
country, because among other reasons 1t
seemed to come up out of tho earth when
Columbus discovered it, and it has been for
tho most part at peace like lamb unless as
saulted by foreign foe, in which case 1t has
two horns strong aud sharp and the voice
OF q dragon loud to make all Nations hear
the roar Of its indignation. Is 1t reasonable
to suppose that God would leave out from
tho prophecies of His book this whole west.
ern hemisphere? No, no! III beheld anoth-
er heHst coming up out of the earth, aud 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 Amer
lea for God
start with the cheering thought that the
most popular book on earth to-day is the
to-day is the church, and the most popular
name on earth to-day is Jesus. Right from
this audience hundreds of men and women
would, ii need be, march out and die for
Him.
Am I too confident in saying, America
for God2" If the Lord will help me, will
show the strength and extent of the longI
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 plHcked bird that ever flew
through the heavens is the American EAGLE
SO much so that Mr.. Gladstone said to me
facetiously at Hawarden, II hear that the
fish in your American lakes are so large that
when one of them is taken out the entire
lake Is perceptibly lowered," and ut q dinner
given in Paris an American offered for
sentiment Here is to the United States
bounded on the north by the aurora borealls,
on the south BY the procession of the equi-
noxes, on the east by primeval chaos and on
the west by the day Of judgment" The e.
feet of such grandiloquence is to discredit
the real facts, which are so tremendous they
need ne garnishing. The worst thing to do
in any campaign, military or religious, is to
underestimate an enemy, and I will have no
part in such attempt at belittlemeht.
This land to be taken for God, according
to Hasse:, the statistician. has IA ,219,9&
square miles, width and length hat nohB
but the Omniscient can appreciate. Four
Europes put together and capable of holding
and feeling, as it will hold and feed. accord.
ing to Atkinson, the stalistician, If the world
continues in existence and does not FUN afoul
of some other world 81 get consumed by the
fires already Burning in the cellars of the
planct-capable, say. Of holding and feed
ing more than 1000, 900 900 inhabitants. For
you must remember it must be held for God
as we'll astaken for God and the last 5OO,-
600 inhabitants must not be allowed to
swamp the religion Of the first 500, 900, 600.
Not much use in taking the fortress if we
cannot hold 1t. 1t must be held until the
arc1angeps trumpet bids living and dead
arise from this laundering planet
You must remember it is only about 7
o'clock in the morning of our Nations life.
Great cities are to flash and roar among
what are called the "Bad Lands" of the Da-
kotas and the great Columbian plains Of
Washington State, and that on which we put
our schoolboy fingers on the map and spelled
out as the "Great American desert" is,
through systematic and concentrating irri-
CATION, to bloom like Chatsworth Park and
be made more productive than these regions
dependent upon uncertain and spasmodic
rainfall. All those regions, as we'll as all
those regions already cultivated. to be in
habited! That was sublime thing said by
Henry Clay while crossing the Allegheny
Mountains, and he was waiting for the stage
horses to be rested, as he stood ON rock,
arms folded, looking off into the valley; and
some one said to him., Mr.. Clay, what are
you thinking n5out?" He replied, II am
liStanino IN fho OnoOnoino frop,n If tho r.,
ture generation of America"
Have you laid our home missionary scheme
on such an inf1nitnde of scale? If the work
of bringing one soul to God Is so great, can
LOCO. 0C0 600 be captured? In this country,
already planted ami to be overcome; pagan
ism has built its altar to Brahma, and the
Chinese ars already burning incense in their
temples, and Mohammedanism, drunk in
other days with the red wine of human blood
at Lucknow and Cawnpur and now fresh
from tho dia6o!ism in Armenia, is trying to
get 4 foothold here, and from the minare;s of
her mosques will yet humble her blasphe-
mics, saying. "God isgreat, and Mohammei
is His prophet" Then there are tho vaster
muititudes with no religion at all. They
worship no God, they live with no consola-
ton, and they die with no hope. No star Of
peace points down to the manger in which
they are born, and no prayer is uttered over
the grave into which they sink. Then there
Is alcoholism, its piled up demijohns and
beer barrels and hogsheads of fiery death. a
barricade high and long as the Alleghenies
and Rockies and Sierra Nevadas, pouring
forth day and night their ammunition OF
wretchedness and woe. When q German
wants to take drink. he takes beer. When
an Englishman wants to take drink, he
takes ale. When q Scotchnan wants to take
a aE xUh n
American wants to take drink hetakes any
thing he can lay his hands on.
Plenty of statistics to tell how much money
Is spent in this country for rum; and how
many drunSards die. But who will give US
the statistics of how many hearts are crushed
under the heel of this worst demon of the
centuries? How many hopes blasted? How
many children turned out on the world ac-
cursed with the stigma of q debauched an
cestrY2 Until the worm of the distillery be-
comes the worm that never dies and the
smoke OF the heated wine watts becomes the
smoke of the torment that ascende,h up for
ever AMI ever. Alcoholism, swearing-not
with hand uplifted toward heaven, for from
that direction it can get no help, but with
right hand stretched down toward the per-
dition from which it came up-swearing that
1t will not cease rs long as there are any
homesteads to despoil, any magnificent men
and women to destroy, any immortal souls
to damn, any moro Nations to balk, any
more civilizations to extinguish.
Then there is what in America we call
socialism. in France communism and In
Russia nihilism. the three names for one and
the same thing, and having but two doc
trines in its creed. First, there is no God;
second. there shall be no rights of property.
Ons Oi their chief journals printed this seis-
ont. nx-r,O 70 h.. oo1n nj
dead bodies OF capitalists as well as out OF
hOgsn One of .he leaders Of communism