The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-03-20
AMERICA FOR GOD.
Rev. DR.. Talmage breaches a Patri-
otto Sermon.
The Hope OF the Christian world In Urea
Amerfca-The Armies or the Lords
Mighty Hests are Making .
Triumphal March.

/ ington. The text was:
And beheld another beast coming ND out OF
the earth; and he had two horns like lamb
and be sDake as dragon.-Revelstion kill, II.
Is America mentioned IN the Biblef
Learned and consecrated men who
have studied the inspired books a.
Daniel and David more than / have
and understand them better agree in
saying that the leopard mentioned in
the Bible meant Grecia, and the bear
meant Medo-Persia, and the lion meant
babylon, and the beast az the text com
ing up out of earth with two horns
like lamb, and the voice of dragon
means our country, because among
other reasons it seemed 90 come
up out of the earth when Co
lumbus discovered it, and it has
been for the most part at peace
like lamb, unless assaulted by for.
eign foe, in which case 10 has had two
horns strong and sharp, and the voice
of dragon loud enough to make all
nations hear the roar of its indigna-
ton. Is it reasonable to suppose that
God would leave out from the prophe-
cies Of His book this whole western
hemisphere No, no. II beheld an
other beast coming up out of the earth;
and he had two horns like a lamb, and
he spake as a dragon"
Germany for scholarship England
for manufactures. France for man
ners. Egypt for antiques. Italy for
pictures. But America for Godl
I start with the cheering thought
that the most popular book on earth
to-day is the Bible, the most popular
institution on earth 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, if need be, march out and die
for Him.
Am L too confident in saying Amer
lea for God?" If the Lord will help
me, win show the strength and ex-
tent 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 Get
tysburg. There is a Fourth of July
ism way of Dragging about this coun-
try. and the most tired and plucked
bird that ever few through the
heavens is the American eagle, so
much so that Mr.. Gladstone said to
me facetiously, at Hawarden: 81 hear
that the fish in your American lakes
nre so large that when one of them is
taken out the entire lake is percepti-
bly, lowered, and at dinner given in
Paris an American offered for a senti-
ment: Here is to the United States
bounded on the north by the aurora
borealis, on the south by the process
sion of the equinoxes, on the east by
primeval choas, and on the west by the
day of Judgement" The effect of such
grandilOquence is to discredit the real
facts which arc so tremendous they
need no garnishing. The worst thing
to do in any campaign, military or re-
ligious, is to underestimate an enemy,
and 1 will have no part in such at
tempt at belittlement.
This land to be taken for God, &C
cording to Hassel, the statistician, has
IA, 219, OCT square miles, width and
length that none but the omniscient
can appreciate. Four Europes put to-
gether, and capable of holding and
feeding, as it viii hold and feed, ac-
cording to Atkinson, the statistician,
If the world continues in exist
ence and does not run afoul of
some other world or get consumed
by the fires already burning in
the cellars of the planet-capable, 1
say, of holding and feeding more than
one billion of inhabitants. For you
must rembember it must be held for
God as well as taken for God, and the
last 500, 900. 900 inhabitants must not be
allowed to swamp the religion of the
first SOC, 900, 900. Not much use In talk
ing the fortress if we can not hold 1t.
1t must be held until the archangel's
trumpet bids living and dead arise
from this laundering planet.
You must remember that it is only
about seven o'clock in the morning of
our nations life. Great cities are to
fash and roar among what are called
the bad Lands" of the Dakotas and
the great Columbia plains" of Wash
ingtOn state, and that on which we
put our schoolboy fingers on the map
and spelled out as the "Great Ameri-
can desert" is, through systematic
and concentrating irrigation, to
bloom like Chatsworth park, and
be made more productive than
those regions dependent upon uncer-
tain and spasmodic rainfall. All these
regions, as those regions already Gull
tivated, to be inhabited! That was
sublime thing said by Henry Clay
while crossing the Allegheny noun
tains, and he was waiting for the
stage horses to be rested, as he stood
on a rock, arms folded, looking off
into the valley, and some one said
to him: ''Mr. Clay what are you
about?" He replied: Il
am listening to the oncoming
tramp of the future generation of
America" Have you laid our home
scheme on such an infini-
tude of scale? If the work of bring
ing one soul to God is SO great, can
/ 900, OO0, 900 be captured? In this
country, already planted and to be
overcome, paganism has built its altar
to Brahma, and the Chinese are al
ready burning incense in their tenn
pies, and Northumberland, drunk in
other days with the red wine of human
blood at Lucknow and Cawnpore, and
now fresh from the diabolism in Ar
menia, is trying to get a foothold here,
and from the minarets of her mosques
will yet humble her blasphemies, say
ings God is great, and Mohammed is
His prophet" Then there are the vast
er multitudes with no religion at all.
They worship no God, they live with
no consolation, and they die with no
hope No star of peace points down
to the Manager in which they are born,
and no prayer is uttered over the grave |
into xxybioh fha- einl~