The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-10-28
FOOTSTEPS OF GOD
REV. DIR. TALMAGE FINDS HIS IN.
PRINT EVER WHERE
The Beauties of Nature Furnish n
Theme For a Powerful m
Would Abo ish All Creeds and De-
nominations


Copyright, 1898, by American Press
A~ssociation.)
DR.. Talmage in his discourse takes
US with him or a journey to the Pa
cifc and finds the footsteps of the
Creator" everywhere, as Hugh Miller
found them in the old red sandstone.
texts Isaiah xxxv, G, Streams in the
desert, Psalms civ, 80, He toucheth
he hills, and they smoke"
My first text means irrigation. 1t
means the waters of the Himalaya or
the Pyrenees or the Cierra Nevadas
poured through canals and equeducts
for the fertilization Of the valleys. 1t
means the process by which The last
mile of American b~arrenness VIII be
made an apple orchard, or an orange
grove, or a wheat field, of a cotton
plantation, or a Observation-Disclosures in
the desert" My second text means a
volcano like Vesuviu5 or Cotopaxi, or
it means the geysers Of Yellowstone
park or Of California. You see a hill
calm and still and Tor ages ~immovdble,
but the Lord out Of the heavens puts
his finger on the top of it and from
it rise thick and impressive vapors.
He toucheth the hills, and they
smoked
Although my journey across the con-
tinent this summer was for the eighth
time, more and more am [ impressed
with the divine hand in it's cOnstruc-
ton and with it's greatness and gran
deur, and more and more am l thrilled
with the fact that it is all to be ir-
Tip1tr1 plorifip6 and Er6aniZa6 What
a change from the time when Daniel
Webster on yOnder CapitOline 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 Shift
ing sands and prairie dogs? To what
use could we ever put these great deS-
erts or these great mountains, impen-
etrable and covered with eternal snow?
What can we ever hope to do with the
western coast, rock bound, cheerless
and uninviting and not a harbor on It?
/ will never vote one cent from the
public treasury to place the Pacific
coast one inch nearer Boston than it
now it." What a mistake 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 OppOr-
tunitieS as the states on the Atlantic,
and all this realm from sea to sea to
be the Lords cultivated possession.
A CROSS ON THE MOUNTAIN.
Do you know what in some respects
is the most remarkable thing between
the Atlantic and Pacific? 1t is the fig
ure of a cross on a mountain in Colo
rado 1t is called the Mount of the
Holy Cross A horizontal creVice fill
ed with perpetual SnOW and q perpen-
dicular crevice filled with snow, but
both the horizontal line and the per-
pendiCular 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
mountain appearances, that you grad
ually make out after your attention
is called to them. SO a man face on
the rocks in the White mountains. so
a maidcl's form cut in the granite
of the AdirOndacks. SO a city in the
moving clouds. Yet YOU have to Look
under the pointing of your friend or
guide Cor some time before you can
see the similarity. But the first instant
YOU glance at this side of the noun
tain in Colorado, you cry out: "a
cross! A cross" Do you say that this
geological inscription just happens so?
No! That cross on the Colorado noun
tain is not a human device or an acct
dent 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 to suSgeS
the most notable event in all the histO-
ry of this planet, and he hung it there
over the heart of this continent to IN
dictate that the only nope for this ma
ton is in the cross on which our I'M
manuel 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 cru
cifxiOn" :
First. consider the immensely Of this
continental possession. If it were only
a small tract of land, capable of moth
ing better than Sagebrush and with
ability only to support prairie dogs, ]
should. not have much enthusiasm il
wanting Christ to have it added to his
dominion. But it's immensely and af.
fluence no one can imagine unless ir
immigrant wagon or stagecoacn or ir
rail train of the Union Pacific or Tho
Northern Pacific or the Canadian Pa
cific or the Southern Pacific he ha:
Traversed it.
a VAST DOMAIN.
I supposed in my boyhood, from it:
size on the map, that CallfOrn1a wa:
a few yards across. a ridge of land OF
which one must walk cautiously les
he hit his head against the Sierra Ne
vada on one side or slip off into tht
Pacific waters on the other. CalifOr
mia. the thin slice OF land. as I suppos
ed it to be in boyhood, I have fOunt
to be larger than ali the states of New
England and New York state and al
Pennsylvania added together. and i
you add them together their sQuart
miles fall Tar short of California. Ani
then all these newborn states of tn,
Union, North and South Dakota. Wash
fngtOn, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming
Each state an empire in size.
But" says some one. Sin calculating
she immensely of our continental acre
age you must remember that vas
reaches of our public domain are uu
cultivated heaps of dry sand. and tn,
Bad Lands of Montana and the Grea-