The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-03-06
rouse in rs much Of q protest. But inso-

tHs IbIks Oh the Lof15 lOSr ana mdrcu
heayenward. each one taking a regiment
with him. Ths mountain OF inebriacy is not
an ordinarymountaiu, but 1t il armed. 1t
is line OF fortresses continually blazing
away its destructive forces upon ell our
neighborh oods. towns and cities. their. vol
eys OF death poured down upon the homes
and churches. Under this power more than
100000 men and women are in this country
every year imprisoned. and an army OF &c.,
coo drunkards almost shake the earth
with their staggering tread. 1t causes In
this couptry 800 murders and 400 suicides a
year. This mountain OF fnebracy has not
only assaulted the land. but bonbarded the
shipping Of the sea, and some OF the most
appalling shipwrecks on Atlantic and Pacific
coasts have been the result. What sank the
steamer Rothsay Castle, on the way from
Liverpool to Dublin, destroying 100 human
lives? A drunken sea captain. What blew
up the Bon Sherrod on the Mississippi and
sent 100 to horrible deaih2 A drunken crew.
What drove on The breakers steamer
making its way from Nav York TO Charleston
and gent whole families on. the way home
from summer watering places to tbs msrci-
less depths OF the sea? A drunken sea cap
tain. Gather up froE: the depths of the
rivers and lakes AMI oceans the bones Of
those shipwrecksd by intoxicated captains
and crews, and you could build out of them
temple OF horrors, all the pillars and affairs
aui'fioors and ceilings fashioned of human
skulls. Is it possible that such a mountain
OF Inebriacy can ever be made plain9
Yonder also is the mountain of crime, with
its strata of fraud an malpractice and NAL
feasance and biackmaii AMI burglary and
piracy and embszzement AMI libertinism
and theft, all its heights manned with the
desperadoes, the cutthroat5, the pickpocke.s,
tho thiuible rlggers, the corSair5, the wreck
era, the bandits, the triclsters, tho forgers,
the thugs, the garroters, the FIRE fiends, the
dynamiters, the shopiifters, The kleptomani-
acs, the pyromaniacs, the dipsomaniaes, tho
smugglers the kidnapers, the Jack Shop
pards, the Robert Macaires and ths Macbeths
OF yillainy. The crimes OF the world! Am
not right in calling them, when piled up
together, mountain? But we cannot bring
ourselves to appreciate great heights except
By comparison. You think OF Mount Wash
inGton as high, especially those of you who as
cended as OF old, on mule back, or more re-
Gently by rail train. to the Tip Top House.
Oh. mol that is not high. For 1t is only
about 5000 feet, whereas rising on this West
tern Hemisphere are Chimborazo, $1,000
feet high, and Mount SahaIa, $4,000 feet
high, and Mount Sarato, "a, 800 feet higd.
But that is not the highest mountain on the
Western Hemisphere. The highest noun
tain is the mountain Of crime, and is it pos
sible that this mountain. before our Zsrub-
DhDol, SGu tFCE Dc tUuOo u pistiES
There is also the mountain OF war. the
most volcanic OF all mountains-the Vesu-
yius whit H. not content, like the Fesuvius OF
Italy, with overwhelming two cities, Hercu-
ianeum aud Pompeii, has covered with its
fiery scoria thousands of cities, and would
like to wheim all the cities OF both hemis-
pa res. Give this mountain full utterance,
aud 1t would cover up Washington and New
York and London as easily rs a household
er. with his shovel at 10 O'Clock at night,
banks CRATE fire with ashes. This noun
tain is q pile of fortresses. barbados and
armories, the worlds artillery heaped, wheels
above wheels, columbiais above coiumbiads,
seventy-four Founders above seventy-four
Founders, wrecked Nations above wrecked
Nations.
Tais mountain OF war is not only loaded
to cannonade the earth, but it is also come
terry. holding the corpscs of 81 .00o, 900 slain
in the wars of Alexander and Cyrus 60 Co.,
900 slain in Roman wars, 150, 600 slain in
war with Turks and Saracens and holding
about 81, COO, 900, 900 corpses, not million, but
billion. which was the estimate made By Ed
muEd Burke more than 100 years ago OF those
who had been destroyed by war, so that you
would have TO add more millions now.
Twenty years ago careful author estimated
that about fourteen times the then popu-
lGtion OF the world had gone down in battle
or in hospital after battle. All, this noun
tain OF war is not like an ordinary mountain!
Il is like Kilauea, one Of the Sandwich ISL
ands, which holds the greatest volcano In all
the earth, and concerning which l wrote
from the Sandwich Islands a few years ago:
's"What Kissing, believing, tumbling soar
ing force is kilaueR! Lake of unquenchable
fire; conyolutions and paroxysms OF flame;
elements OF nature in torture; torrldity and
luridity; congregation OF breads; molten
horrors; sulphurous abysms; swirling mys-
terry OF all time; Infinite turbulence; chimney
of pardition: wallowing terrors; fifteen acres
of threats; giooms insuffsrable aud Dant-
esque; caldron stirred blythe champion witch
of pandemonium; campfire OF the armies of
Diabolus; wrath of the mountains in full
bloom shimmering incandescence; pyrotech-
mics of the planet; furnace blast of the ages;
Kilauear' But. my friends. mightier, high
er, vaster, hotter, more raging, Is tho volcanic
mountain of war. It has been blazing for
hundreds OF years and will keep on blazing
until, untii-but dare not hazard a proph-
ecy. Can it be that its fires will ever be put
out? Can it be that its roar will ever be 81
lenced9 Can it be that before our Zerubba-
bel that blazing mountain will ever become
@ plain?
There is also the long range of mountains,
longer than Appalachian range. longer than
Caucasian range, longer than Sierra Nevada
range-the piled up opposition of bad litera-
ture, bad homes, bad institutions. bad asnuse-
ments, bad centuries, bad reiigions--Pag an-
ism, Hindooism, Buddhism. MohammedGn-
ism and buttrassed and enthroned goddess
ness, devoted to ambition and lust and hydra
headed, argus eyedabomination, a. 1t stands
with lifted fist AMI moslling lips, challenging
Jehovah upon the throne OF the universe to
strike il BE dare. Oh, it is great mountain
rs my text declares. There is no use in deny
ing it. The most authentic statistics declare
IT. The signs of the times prove 1t. All
Christian workers realize IL. 1t Is q noun
tain. "The mountain can never be brought
down." says worldly speculation. ''The
mountain can never be made a piain," says
q small faith in the churches. Well. lot US
see. Let US look about for the implements
we can lay our hands on. Let us count the
number on our side who are willing to dig
with shovel or bore tunnel or blast a
lock. Lst us see II there is any foreign help
that will come in to re-enforce us. l do not
want to make myself absurd by attempt
ing an impossibility. If it is only one
spade at the foot of Mount Blanc, ii it is
only one arm, capable of lifting but few
pounds, against u mountain that weighs
100.0a0 ,000 tons, let US quit before we make
ourselves the trayesty and caricature of tho
universe. II we are to undertake this job,
first OF all We must have competent engi-
neer, one who knows oil about excavations.
about embankmen.s, about tunnels, about
mountains. L Know engineers who have
carved up mountains, cut down mountains,
removed mountains. l Will do nothing un-
less know who is to be our engineer.
Zerubbabei led at the rebuilding of the an
cient temple, and Matthew Henry, the great
est OF commentators, declares that our
Zerubbabel is the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Zsrubbabei fmy text was only type OF the
glorious and omnipotent Jesus, and as /
look up into the face OF this divine engineer
n sf<vfrz xrrtfl
Godhead, and see thar in His arm is the al
nliChfinnss that nnn.I ont all fha rrorIdz that