Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-05-03
STARVING MILLIONS.
AN ELOQUENT PLEA IN BEHALF OF
FAMINE STRICKEN INDIA.

Sermon.
CHICAGO, May 2.-Dr. Talmage is on
n 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
ing corn to India. Text, Esther i, 1,
'-This is Ahasuerus which reigned from
India even unto Ethiopia.
Among the 773, sos words which
make up the Bible only once occurs the
word India In this part of the Scrip
lures, which the rabbis call +" Megillah
Esther or the volume of Esther,
book sometimes complained against be-
cause the word Good is not even once
mentioned in it, although one rightly
disposed can see God in it from the
first chapter to tho last, we have it set
forth that Xerxes, or Ahasuerus, who
invaded Greece with 1900, 600 men,
but returned in 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 un-
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'-
our ship sailed up one of the mouths of
the Ganges, past James and Mary is
land, so named because 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
iognomies of the living and the Gre
nations of the dead. had never ex-
pected to be there, because the sea and
long ago had q 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 configuration is such as no one but
God could have architected, and it
seems as if a man who had no religion,
going there, would be obliged to ac-
knowledge q 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
mountains, the cowboy said to his athe-
istic companion, Jack, if there is no
God now, l guess, from the looks of
things around here, there must have
been God some time.'' No one but the
Omniscient could have planned India,
and no one but the Omnipotent could
have built it. 1t is great triangle, its
base the Himalayas- word meaning
"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 CT India. That country is
the home CT 100000, 600 souls What
ever be ones taste, going there his
taste is gratifed. Some go as hunters of
great game, and there is no end to their
entertainments. Mighty fauna-bison,
buffalo, rhinCcerCs, 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 ''the man eater"
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, $40
people were slain by the tiger and 1O,-
900 cattle destroyed From the back of
the elephant CT from galleries built
among the trees 1900 tigers went
down, and $19, 900 of government re-
ward were paid the sportsmen. I advise
all those who in America and other
lands find amusement in shooting sing
ing birds, coming home at night with
empty powder flask and whole choir
of heaven slung over their shoulder, to
absent themselves for awhile and attack
the justifable game of India. Or if you
90 as botanists, oh, what opulence of
flora! With no distinct flora of it's own
it is the chorus of all the flora of Persia
and Siberia and China and Arabia and
Egypt.
A Passion For Souls.
The Baptist missionary, Carey, who
did infinite good to India, had two
great passions-frst a passion for
souls and next passion for flowers
and he adorned his Asiatic home and
the American homes of his friends and
museums on either side OF the sea with
the results OF his floral expeditions in
India. To prepare himself for morning
prayers he was accustomed to walk
amid the flowers and trees. 1t is the