The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-03-06
REV. DIR, TALMAGE.
The Eminent Divine's Sermon, De-
livered in Washington.
Subjects ''storming the Heights"

6u0jCtts 7SboxtsAtnS tnV 2&St3hkSs
TExT. ssWho art thou, o great mountain?
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt becomes piain."
--Zeehariah ~, Z.
ZerubbabeIl Who owned that difficult
name in which three times the letter ''b' &C.
ours, disposing most people to stasumer In
the pronunciation? Zerubbabel was the
splendid man called to rebuild the destroyed
temple Of Jerusalem. Stone for the building
had been quarried, and The trowel had rung MT
the laying OF the cornerstone, aud al went
well, when the CuthfeaBs offered to help in
the work. They we're a bad lot of people,
and Zerubbabel declined their heip, and then
the trouble began. The Cuthseans proiu-
diced the secretary OF tho treasury against
Zerubbabel. so that the wages OF the carpen-
tiers and masons could not be paid, and the
heavy cedar timbers which had been dragged
from Mount Lebanon to the Mediterranean
and f1oated in RATS from Beirut to Joppa and
We're TO be drawn by OK team from JoIpa to
Jerusalem had halted and az result of the
work OF those jealous CuthRaas for sixteen
| years the building of the temple was stopped.
| But after sixteen years Zerubbabel, the
| mighty soul, got new cali from God 10 so
ahead with the temple building. and the
| angel otthe Lord In substance said: They
have piled up obstacles in the way OF Zsrub-
| babel until they have become az mcuatRin,
/
shall all be Numbered down and made fiat
| and smooth as the foor of house. Who
| art thou, o great mountain? Before Zefub-
babel thou shaltbeeome plain.
Well. the Cuihaans are not all dead yet.
| They are busy in every neighborhood aad
every city. md every Nation OF every age,
| heaping obstacles in the way OF the cause OF
God. They have piled up hindrances above
hindrances until they have become hill.
| and the hill has become mountain, and the
| mountain has become an Alp. and there 1t
| stands. right In the way OF all movements
| for the worlds salvation. Some people are
| so discouraged about the height and breadth
| OF this mountain in front Of them that they
J have done nothing for sixteen yesrs, and
| many of those who are at work trying to do
something toward removing the mountain
toll in such way that can see they have
| not much faith that the mountain OF him
ORANGES win ever be removed. They feel
they must do their duty, but they feel all the
| time-I can hear it in their prayers and ex-
hortations-that they are striking their
| pickaxes I'D shoyeis into the sides OF the
| Rocky Mountains. IL tho good Lord will
help me while preach, ! will give you the
names of some of the high mountains which
are really in the way and then show you that
| those mountains are to be Frustrated, torn
down, ground up, leyeled, put out OF sight
forever. "Who art thou, Ogreat mountain?
Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become q
plain"
First, there is the mountain OF prejudice,
as lone as a range OF the Pyrenees Preiu-
dice against the Bible as dull book, an in
consistent book, cruel book. an unclean
book, and in every way an unfit book. The
most ofthem have never read 1t. They think
thestrata fthe rocks contradict the account
in Geness. The poor souls do not know
that the Mosaic account agrees exactly with
the geological account. No violin or flute
4 \
pickax and shovel and blasting powder the
geoogist goes down IN the earth and says:
"The first thing created in the furnishing of
tho earth was tho plants" Moses says:
AYE, 1 told you that ia the book of Gone
sis, The earth brought forth grass and herb,
yielding seed after his kind and the tree
| yielding fruit" The geologist goes on
digging in the earth and says: "The next
thing In the furnishing of the earth was the
making of the creatures of the sea-" Moses
| says: "Aye, l told You that was next IN the
book OF Genesis. God said. Let the waters
bring forth abundantiy the moving creatures
that have life, and God created great
whales"
The geologist goes on digging and says,
'The next thing in the furnishing OF the earth
was the creation OF the cattle, and the rep
tiles and the beasts of the field" "Aye,
says Moses. told you that was next in the
first chapter of Genesis, And God said. Lot
the earth bring forth the living creature
after his kind, cattle and creeping things.
and beasts OF the earth after his kind"
The geologist goes on digging in the earth
and says, ssThe next creature was the human
family" AYE" says Moses. 81 told you
that was next in the hook OF Genesis, so
God created man in His own image, Ia the
image of God created He him; male and fe-
male, created He thern.'s Those prejudicad
against the Bible do not know that the explor-
ations In Egypt and Palestine and Syria are
confirming the Scriptures--the same facts
written on monuments and on the walls Of
exhumed cities as written in the Bible. The
city of Pithom has been unburied, and its
bricks are found to have been made without
straw, exactly corresponding with the Bible
story of the prosecuted Hebrews. On terra
Gotta cylinder, recently brought up from
| thousands of years of burial, the capture oil
Babylon by Cyrus is told. On Babyionidn
gem recently found are the figures of tree.
man, woman and a serpent, and the
hands of the man and woman are stretched
| up toward the tree as to pluck the fruit.
Thus the Bible story of the fall is confirmed.
In museum at Consantinople you see q
piece OF the wall that once in the ancient
temple OF Jerusalem separated the court OF
the Gentiles and the court OF the Israelites.
10 which Paul refers when he says of Christ,
"He Is our peace, Who hath broken down thu
middle wall OF partition between us" On
the names OF prominent men OF the Bible,
spelled a little different, according to the
demands of ancient language. 'Adamu'
for Adam, "Abramn" for Abraham, "Ablu''
for Abel. and SO on. Twenty-Five feet under
ground has been found seal inscribed with
the words, "Haggai, son of Shebaniah, y
thousands OF years ago cut, showing that
the Prophet Haggai, who wrote part of the
Bible, was not myth.
The royal engineers have found, eighty
feet below the surface of the ground al
Jerusalem. Ph9nician pottery and hewn
stones with inscriptions showing that they
were furnished by Hiram, King of Tyre, just
as the Bible says they were. The great names
OF Bible history, that many suppose are
names of imaginary beings. are found cut
into imperlshable stones which have within
few years been rolled up from theiI
enfombment of ages, such as Sennacherit
and Tigla;h-Plleser. On the edge of Z
bronzed step and on burned brick has beer
found the name OF ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Henri,
Rawlinson and Oppett and Hicks and Pales
tine exploration societies and Assyriologist;
and Psychologists have rolled another Bible
| up from the depths of the earth, and lol il
corresponds exactly with our Bible, the rocl
Bible just like the printed Bible, inscrp
lions on cylinders and briekwork GU
$500 years before Christ testifyius
to the truth OF what we read 1879
years after Christ. The story OF the tower
OF Babel has been confirmed By the fact that
recently at Babel an oblong pile of brick III
feet high evidences the remains OF n faller
tower. In the inspired book of Ezra WI
read OF the great and noble 5snapper, a name
that meant nothing especial until recently
IN PRED up Egyptian sculpture we havl