The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-05-07
AN APPEAL FOR INDIA,
REV. DIR. TALMACE IN BEHALF
OF A FAMINE STRICKEN PEOPLE

blessed Is He That Considereth the Poor;
the Lord Will Deliver Him In Time of
Trouble"-A Thrilling Story Of q Pros.
trste People.
DR.. Talmage is on 4 mission of bread for
the famine sufferers Of India He is
speaking every day TO vast audiences In
Iowa and Illinois. helping to fill the ships
provided by the United States government
for carrying corn to India. Text. Esther
i. l, This is Ahasuerus which reigned
from India even unto Ethiopia"
Among the 773, s93 words which make I'D
the Bible only once occurs the word
India" In this part of the Scriptures.
which the rabbis call "Megillah Esther"
or the volume Of Esther, a book some
times complained against because the
word Cod" is not even once mentioned
in it. although one rightly disposed can
see God in IL from the first chapter 10
the last. we have it set forth that Xerxes.
or AhasueruS, who invaded Greece with
100000 men, but returned in a poor fish
er's boat, had a vast dominion. among
other regions, India. In my text India
takes its place in Bible geography. and
the interest in that land has continued to
increase until with more and more en-
thusiasm all round the world Bishop
Hebers hymn about midas coral
strand is being sung. Never Will / forget
the thrill of anticipation that went
through my body and mind and soul when
after two weeks tossing on the seas
around Ceylon and India-for the winds
did not according to the old hymn, blow
sole Ger Ceylon's isle"-our ship sailed
up one of the mouths of the Ganges. past
James and Mary island. so named be-
cause a royal ship of that name WAS
wrecked there, and / stepped ashore at
Calcutta. amid the shrines and temple
and sculptures of that city of Palaces.
the strange physiognomies of the living
and the cremationS of the dead.
l had never expected to be there. be-
cause the sea and l long ago had a seri-
Gus falling out, but the facilities of travel
are SO Increasing that you or your chill
dren will probably visit that land of
boundless fascination. It's configuration
is such as no one but God could have
architected. and it seems as if a man who
obliged to acknowledge a God. as did the
cowboy in Colorado. His companion, an
atheist, had about persuaded the cowboy
that there was no God, but coming amid
some of that tremendous scenery of high
rocks and awful chasms, and depths dug
under depths, and mountains piled on
tic companion, Jack. if there is no God, I
guess from the looks of things around
here there must have been a God some
time No one but the Omniscient could
have planned India, and no one but the
Omnipotent could have built it. 1t is a
great triangle, it's base the Himalayas, a
word meaning the dwelling place of
SHOWS" those mountains pouring out of
their crystal cup the Indus, the Brahma- !
putra and the Gauges to Stake the thirst
of the vast populations of India. That
country is the home of 2io, 900, 900 souls. !
Whatever be ones taste. going there his
taste is gratitied. Some go as hunters of
entertainment Mighty fauna-bison, buff !
falo, rlAnoceros, elephant, panther, lion, !
tiger, this last to be the perpetual game !
for Americans and Europeans because he
comes up from the malarial swamps |
where no human being dare enter, the
deer and antelope his accustomed food, |
1"t ar1n Ln,i,n -a;ra Tho a-+l ~f -, !
man blood he wants nothing else and IS
called the man eater" You cannot see
the tigers natural ferocity after he has |
been humiliaten by a voyage across the !
sea. You need to hear his groWl as he
presses his iron paw against the age in
Calcutta. Thirteen towns have been !
abandoned as residence because of the
work of this cruel invader.
In India, in the year 1877, S19 people We're
slain by the tiger and 10, 900 cattle destroy !,
ed. From the back of the elephant or
from galleries built among the trees 1,500
tigers went down and $500 Of govern
ment reward was paid the SpOrtSrnen. L |
advise all those who in America and other I
lands find amusement in shooting singing {
birds, coming home at night with empty /
powder flask and q whole choir of heaven !
slung over their shoulder, to absent them |
selves for awhile and attack the %iustifi- /
able game of India. Or if you go as bo- /!
ataniStS, oh, what opulence Of floral! With /
of all the flora of Persia and Siberia and |
China and Arabia and Egypt. [
INO GFEAl tASOlONO. !
The Baptist missionary Carey, who. did !
infinite good to India, had two great pas :
SiOnS-firSt, a passion for souls, and, next. !
a passion for flow ars-and he adorned his
ASiatic home and the American homes of
his friends and museums on either side T,
the sea with the results of his floral ex- |
petitions in India To prepare himself for
morning prayers he was accustomed to
walk amid the flowers and trees. 1t is
the heaven of the. magnolia and abelmosk
and palm tree. The ethnolOgist gong there
will find endless entertainment in the
study of the races now living there and
the races of whose blood they are a COM
mingling.
The historian going there Will find his
theory of Warren Hastings government
in India the reverse from that which Ed
mund Burke gave him in the most famous
address ever made in a courtroom, its two
characteristics matchlesS eloQuence and
onesidedness of statement. The archaeo-
logist will be thrown into q frenzy of de-
| ligI. as he visits Delhi of India and dig
down and finds seven dead cities under
meath the now living city. All success to
the hunters, and the botanists. and the
| ethnOlgists, and the historians, and the
| archaeo,OgistS who visit India, each one
on his or her errand. But we today visit
India as Christian women and men to
hear the full meaning Of a groan of
hunger that has Travelled 14.ON miles, yet
gets louder and more aSOnizing as the
days go by. But why have any interest
in people SO far away that 1t is evening
| there when it is morning here, their COM
plexion darker, their language to us a
| jargOn, their attire unlike that found in
any American wardrobe, their memory and
their ambition unlike anything that We re-
call or hope for?
With more emphasis than you put into
the interrogatory "Why?' l answer, first,
because our Christ was an Asiatic. Egypt
gave to us its monuments, Rome gave to
US it's law, Germany gave to US its philos-
ophy, but Asia gave to US its Christ. His
' mother an Asiatic; the mountains that
looked down upon him. Asiatic; the lakes
on whose pebbly banks he rested and on
~ho-a ahanna1 NO va he walked ACiatjn'
the apostles whom he first commissioned
Asiatic: the audiences he whelmed with
his illustrations drawn from blooming
lilies and salt crystals and great rainfalls
and believing tempests and hypocrites
long faces and croaking ravens-all those
audiences ASiatic. Christ during his
earthly stay was never outside of Asia.
When he had Is or IS years to spare from
his active work, instead of spending that
time in Europe. | think he goes further
toward the heart Of ASia-namely, India.
The Bible says nothing of Christ from l.
years of age until 80, but there are records
in India and traditions in India which
-. - Y0h y-nD3arTy1l most "