The Monitor-register., 1897-05-07
STARVING MILLIONS.
AN ELOQUENT PLEA IN BEHALF OF
FAMINE STRICKEN INDIA.

FAMINE STRICKEN INDIA.
Rev. DIR. Talmage Is Helping to Fill the
Ships That Are to Carry Food For the
Starving People of India-A Thrilling
Sermon.
CHICAGO, May 2.-Dr. Talmage is on
a mission of bread for the famine suf-
ferers 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 carry
9t'This is Ahasuerus which reigned from
India even unto Ethiopia"
Among the 773, 693 words which
make up the Bible only once occur the
word India" In this part of the Scrip
lures, which the rabbis call Megillah
Esther" or the volume of Esther, a
book sometimes complained against be.
cause the word "God" is not even once
mentioned i'll it, although one rightly
disposed can see God in it from the
first chapter to the last, we have it set
forth that Xerxes, or Ahasuerus, who
invaded Greece with 1000, 900 men,
but returned in a poor fishers 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 IN
til, with more and more enthusiasm,
all around the world Bishop Heber's
hymn about ''India's coral strand" is
being sung. Never will I forget the
thrill Of anticipation that went through
my body and mind and soul when aft
er two weeks tossing on the seas
around Ceylon and India - for the
winds did not, according to the old
hymn, elbow soft DER Ceylon's isle"-
u ship sailed up one of the mouths of
the Ganges, past James and Mary is
land, so named because a royal ship OF
that name was wrecked there, and |
stepped ashore at Calcutta, amid the
shrines and temples and sculptures of
that City Of Palaces. the strange phys
Economies Of the living and the Gre
nations Of the dead. l had never ex-
pected to be there, because the sea and |
long ago had a serious falling out, but
the facilities of travel are so increasing
that you or your children will probably
visit that land Of boundless fascination.
a Wonderful Country.
Its CONFORMATION is such as no one but
God could have architected, and il
seems as if a man who had no religion,
going there, would be obliged to ac-
knowledge a God as did the cowboy il
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 OIL
mountains, the cowboy said to his athe-
istic companion, Jack, if there is nc
God now, l 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, its
base the Himalayas-a word meaning
1.-THE dwelling place of snows''-those
mountains pouring out of their crystal
cup the Indus, the Brahmaputra and the
Ganges to slake the thirst of the vast
populations of India. That country is
the home CT $40, 900, 600 souls. What
ever lie ones taste, going there his
taste is gratified. Some go as hunters of
great game, and there is no end t. their
entertainment. Mighty fauna-bison,
buffalo, rhinoceros, elephant, panther,
lion, tiger-this last to be the perpetual
game for Americans and Europeans be-
cause he comes up from the malarial
swamps where no human being dare en-
ter; the deer and antelope his accustom-
ed food, but once having obtained the
taste of human blood he wants nothing
else, and is called 1.-THE man eater. F"
You cannot see the tigers natural fe-
rocity after he has been Inundated by
a voyage across the sea. You need to
hear his growl as he presses his iron
paw against the cage in Calcutta. Thir-
teen towns have been abandoned as resi-.
dence because Of the work of this cruel
invader. In India in the year 1877, 819
people were slain by the tiger and TO-
600 cattle destroyed. From the back O.
the elephant or from galleries bull
among the trees 1900 tigers wen
down, and SIS, 900 of government re
ward were paid the sportsmen. l advis,
all those who in America and othe.
lands find amusement in shooting sing
ing birds, coming home at night will
empty powder flask and a whole choi
of heaven slung over their shoulder, t,
absent themselves for awhile and attacl
the justifiable game of India. Or if yol
go as ~botanists, oh, what opulence O
fora! With no distinct flora of its owl
it is the chorus of all the fora of Persi
and Siberia and China and Arabia an
Egypt.
n Passion For Souls.
The Baptist missionary, Carey, VIII,
did infinite good to India, had tw,
great passions-first a passion TO
souls and next a passion for flowers
and he adorned his Asiatic home ant
the American homes of his friends ant
museums on either side OF the sea witt
the results Of his floral expeditions il
India. To prepare himself for morning
prayers he was accustomed to wall
amid the flowers and trees. 1t is TIN
heaven of the magnolia and abeimosl
and palm tree. The ethnologist goin,
there will find endless entertainment
In the study of the races now living
there and the races of whose blood the
are a commingling. The historian go
ing there will find his theory of War
rem Hastings government in India TIN
reverse from that which Edmund Burke
gave him i'll the most famous address
ever made in a courtroom, its two char
acteristics matchless eloquence and ont
sidedness of statement. The archaolo
gist will be thrown into a frenzy of de
light as he visits Delhi Of India anG
digs down and finds seven dead cities
underneath the now living city. AL.
success to the hunters and the botanists
and the ethnologists and the historians
and The psychologists 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
ID, 900 miles, yet gets louder and more
agonizing as the days go by. But why
have any interest in PEOPLE SO far away
that it is evening thcle when it is morn
ing here, their complexion darker, their
language to us "a jargon, their attire
unlike that found i'll any American
wardrobe, their memory and their am
bition unlike anything that we recall
or hope for? With more emphasis than
you put into the interrogatory "Why?''
/ answer: First, because our Christ was
an Asiatie. Egypt gave to us its monu,
ments, Rome gave to us its law, Ger.
many gave to us its philosophy, but
Asia gave to us its Christ-his mother
an Asiatic; the mountains that looked