Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-11-03
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: "Across the Continent'-Spiritual
Thoughts Suggested While Viewing
Scenes of Majesty and Grandeur
Wrought by the Hand of God.

Scenes of Majesty and Grandeur
Wrought by the Hand of God.
F TEXTS: "Streams in the desert. ."-Isaiah
xxxv.. g. "He toucheth the hills and they
smoke"-Psalms CIV, SO.
MY first text means irrigation. It means
the waters of the Himaiaya, or the Pyre'
nees, or the Sierra Nevadas poured through
canals and aqueducts for the fertilization
of the valleys. 1t means the process by
which the last mile OF American barrenness
will be made an apple orchard, or an orange
grove, or wheat field. or cotton planta-
tion, or Observation-Disclosures in the desert" "
My second text means volcano like Vesu-
vius or Cotopaxi, or 1t means the geysers
OF Yellowstone Park or of California. You
see hill calm and still, and for ages i'm
movable, but the Lord out of the heavens
puts His finger on the top oft, and from it
rise thick and impressive vapors: He
toucheth the hills and they smoke!"
Although my journey across the conti-
nent this summer was for the eighth time,
more and more am 1 impressed with the
divine hand in its construction, and with
its greatness and grandeur, and more and
more am thrilled with the fact that 1t is
all to be irrigated, glorifed and Edenized.
What a change from the time when Daniel
Webster on yonder Captoline Hill said to
the American Senate in regard to the centre
of this continent, and to the regions on the
Pacific Coast: "What do you want with
this vast, worthless AREA, this region OF
savages and wild beasts, of deserts and
cactus, of shifting sands and prairie dogsp
To what use could we ever put these great
deserts or these great mountains, impene-
trable and covered with eternal snow?
What can we ever hope to do with the
Western coast, rock-bound cheerless and
nninviting. and not a harbor on it? will
never vote one cent from the public treasury
to place the Pacific coast one inch nearer
iC of 81 l,a
the great statesman made when he said
that! All who have crossed the continent
realize that the States on the Pacific Ocean
Will have quite as grand opportunities as
the States on the Atlantic, and all this
realm from sea to sea to be the Lords cul-
tivc.Su possession.
Do you know what, in some respects, is
The most remarkable thing between the
Atlantic and Pacific? 1t is the figure of
cross on mountain In Colorado. 1t is
called the "Mount of the Holy Cross"
A horizontal creviee filled with perpetual
snow, and a perpendicular crevice filed
with snow, but both the horizontal line
md the perpendicular line so marked, so
bold, so significant, so unmistakable, that
all who pass in the daytime within many
miles are compelled to see it. There are
some figures, some contours, some noun
tain appearances that You gradually make
out after your attention is called to them
So a mans face on the rocks in the White
Mountains. So q maiden's form cut in
the granite of the Adirondacks. So city
In the moving clouds. Yet you have to
look under the pointing Of your friend or
guide for some time before you can see
the similarity. But the first instant you
glance at this side of the mountain in
Colorado, you cry out; ga cross! A
crossH' Dc you say that this geological in
scription just happens so? Mol That cross
on the Colorado mountain is not a human
device, or an accident Of nature, or the
freak of an earthquake. The hand of God
cut it there and set it up for the nation
to look at. Whether set up in rock be-
fore the cross of wood was set up on the
bluff back of Jerusalem, or set up at some
time since that assassination, / believe
the Creator meant it to suggest the most
notable event in all the history of this
planet and He hung it there over the
heart Of this continent to indicate that
the only hope for this nation is in the
Cross on which our Emmanuel died. The
clouds were vocal at our Saviour's birth,
the rocks rent at His martyrdom, why not
the walls of Colorado bear the record of
the Cruciflxion?
l supposed in my boyhood, from its size
on the map, that California was few
yards across, ridge of land on which
one must walk cautiously lest he hit his
head against the Sierra Nevada on one side,
or slip off into the Pacific waters on the
supposed 1t to be in my boyhood, I have
found to be larger than all the States of
New England and all New York State and
all Pennsylvania added together; and If
you add them together their square miles
fall far short OF California. And then all
those new born States of the Union, North
and South Dakota, Washington, Montana,
Idaho and Wyoming. Each State an en-
pire in size.
But" says one, Sin calculating the i'm
mensity of our continental acreage you
must remember that vast reaches of our
dry sand, and the Bad Lands of Montana
and the Great American DESERT I am
glad you mentioned that. Within twenty
five years there will not be between the
Atlantic and Pacific coasts a hundred miles
of land not reclaimed either by farmers
plough or miners crowbar. By irrigation.
the waters Of the rivers and the showers of
heaven, In what are called the rainy sea-
son, will be gathered into great reservoirs,
and through aqueducts let down where and
when the people want them. Utah is an
object lesson. Some parts of that Terri
tory which were so barren that spear of
grass could not have been raised there in
hundred years, are now rich as Lancaster
County farms Of Pennsylvania, or West
chester farms OF New York, or Somerset
County farms OF New Jersey. Experiments
have proved that ten acres of ground irri-
Paeed from waters gatnered In great hydro
logical basins will produce as much as fifty
acres from the downpour of rain as seen in
our regions. We have our freshets and our
droughts, but in those lands which are to
be scientifically irrigated there will be
neither freshets nor droughts. AS you take
pitcher and get 1t full of water, and then
set 1t on table and take a drink out of it
when you are thirsty and never think of
drinking pitcherful all at once, so Mon
tana, and Wyoming and Idaho will catch
the rains of their rainy season and take up
all the waters of their rivers in great
pitchers OF reservoirs. and refresh their
land whenever they will
But the most wonderful part of this Amer
lean continent is the Yellowstone Park. NY
two visit there made upon me an impress
sion that will last forever. Go in by the
Moneida route as we did this summer and
save 250 miles OF railroading, your stage
coach taking you through day of scenery
as captivating and sublime as the Yellow
stone Park itself. After all poetry has ex-
hausted itself concerning Yellowstone Park,
and all the Morans and Bierstadts and the
other enchanting artists have completed
their canvas, there will be other relations
to make, and other stories OF its beauty and
wrath. splendor and agony, to be recited.
The Yellowstone Park is the geoloyist's
paradise, By cheapening OF travel may it
I