The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-06-05

fire. And l saw ELLSWORTH Tall, ana
Lyon fall, and Mcpherson fall, and
Bishop Polk fall, and Stonewall Jackson
fall And I saw hundreds of grave
trenches afterward cut into two great
gashes across the land, the one for the
dead men of the north, the other for the
well as my eye was quickened, and I
heard the tramp of enlisting armies, and
heard the explosion of mines and gun
powder magazines, and the crash Of for
tifcation walls, and the swamp an
gel, and the groan Of dying hosts fall
ing across the pulseless heart of other
dying hosts. And I saw still farther out,
and saw Oh the banks of the Penobscot,
and the Oregon, and the Ohio, and the
Hudson, and the Roanoke, and the
Yazoo, and the Alabama, widowhood
and orphanage and childlessness-some
exhausted in grief and others stark and
mad, and I said: Enough, enough have
I seen into the past from the top Of
Lookout mountain. o God, show me
the futureP"
Great nature has never found an apter
pupil than Dr.. Talmage. Her handi-
work is plain to him, her hieroglyphs
and monuments on rocky wall or noun
tain top are to him filed with deep sig
nificance. Thus when grand landmark
of western state met his eye it was
hailed as but another special revelation
of Omnipotence.
"Do you know" says he, ''what in
some respects is the most remarkable
thing between the Atlantic and Pacific?
1t Is the figure of q cross on a mountain
in Colorado. It Is called the Mount of
the Holy Cross. A horizontal crevice
filled with perpetual snow and per-
pendicular crevice filed with snow, but
both the horizontal line and the perpen-
dicular line SO marked, so bold, so sig
nifcant, so unmistakable that all who
pass in the daytime within many miles
are compelled to see it. There are some
figures, some contours, some mountain
appearances, that you gradually make
out after your attention is called to
them. So mans face on the rocks in
the White mountains So a maiden's
form cut in the granite Of the Adiron-
dacks. So city in the morning clouds.
Yet you have to look under the pointing
of your friend or guide for some time
before you can see the similarity. But
the first instant you glance at this side
of the mountain in Colorado you cry out,
"A cross! A crossP Do you say that
this geological inscription just happens
so? Mol Nothing in this world just hap
pens SO. That cross on the Colorado
mountain is not human device, or an
accident of nature, or the freak of an
earthquake The hand Of God cut it
there and set 1T up for the nation to look
at. Whether set up there In rock before
the cross of wood was set up on the bluff
back of Jerusalem or set at some time
since that assassination, believe the
notable event in all the history Of this
planet, and he hung it there over the
heart of this continent to indicate that
the only hope for this nation is in the
cross on which our Emmanuel died The
clouds were vocal at our Saviour's birth,
the rocks rent at his martyrdom-=why
not the walls of Colorado bear the record
of the crucifixion?"
Down in the southwestern sea DR..
Talmage found Hawaii-found it in a
sense that perhaps no other has found it
AS the very heaven of flowers. How
his whole sentient soul revels i'll the
bounteous richness and variety of floral
exuberance of this sun kissed isle! Hear
him:
Blanks Of flowers white as snow, or
blue as skies, or yellow as sunsets, or
starry as November nights, or red as
battlefelds. A heaven of flowers. Flow
ers entwined in maidens' hair, and
twisted round hats, and hung ON necks,
and embroidered ON capes and sacks.
Tuberoses, gardenias, magnolias, passi-
fioras, trumpet creepers, oleanders,
geraniums, fuchsias, convolvuli and hi.
discus red as fire. Jasmine, which we
in America carefully coax to climb the
wall just once, here running up and
down and jumping over to the other side
and coming back again to jump down
this side.
'fNight blooming cereus, so rare in
our northern latitude we call in puT
neighbors to see it, and they must come
right away or never see it at all, here in
these islands scattering its opulence Of
perfume on all the nights, and, not able
to expend enough in the darkness, also
flooding the day. Struggling to surpass
each other all kinds of trees, whether Of
fruit or of rich garniture, mango and
grange and bamboo and alligator pear