The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-10-21


REV. TALMAeE. in the desert" My
second text means a volcano like We
suvius or Cotopaxi, or it means the gey-
sers of Yellowstone park or of Cali
fornia. You see hill calm and still,
and for ages immovable, but the Lord
out of the heavens puts his finger on
the top of 1t, and from it rise thick
and impressive vapors: "He toucheth
the hills and they smoke"
Although my journey across the con-
tinent this summer was for the eighth
time, more and more am / impressed
with the Divine hand in its construc-
ton, and with its greatness and gran
deur, and more and more am thrilled
with the fact that it is all to be irri-
gated, 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 center 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 cac-
tus, of shifting sands and prairie
dogs? To what use could we ever put
these great deserts or these great
mountains, impenetrable and covered
with eternal snow? What can we ever
hope to do with the western coast
rock bound, cheerless and uninviting,
and not Il harbor on it? | will never
vote one cent from the public treas
ury to place the Pacific coast one inch
nearer Boston than it now is" What
a mistake the great statesman made
when he said thatl 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
cultivated 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 a mountain in Col
orado. 1t is called the mount of the
HOLY Cross" A horizontal crevice
filed with perpetual snow, and per-
pendicular crevice filled with snow,
but both the horizontal line and the
perpendicular line so marked, so bold,
so significant, so unmistalSable, 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
gradually make out after your atten-
tion is called TO them. SO mans
face on the rocks in the White noun
tains. So maden's form cut in the
granite of the Adrondaclls. 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: "A cross! A crossw DO you say
that this geological inscription jug
happens so? No! That cross on TIE
Colorado mountain is not a human "a
vice, or an accident of nature, or IT, e
freak OF an earthquake. The hand of
God cut IL there and set IL up for the
nation to look at Whether set up in
rock before the cross of wood was set
up on the bluff back of Jerusalem, or
set up at some time since that assassi-
nation, ! believe the Creator meant il
to suggest the most notable event in
all the history of this planet, and he
hung IL 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 crucifXion?
First, consider the immensely of this
continental possession. If itwere only
small tract of land, capable of moth
ssa 4, .
ability only to support prairie dogs,
should not have much enthusiasm in
wanting Christ to have it added to his
dominion. But its immensely and
affiuence no one can imagine, unless
in immigrant wagon or stage coach, OIL
in rail train of the Union Pacific oil
the Northern Pacific or the Canadian
Pacific or the Southern Pacific, he has
traversed it.
supposed in my boyhood, from III
size on the map. that California was
few yards across, ridge of land or
which one must walk cautiously les
he hit his head against the Sierra
Nevada on one side, or slip off into thu
Pacific on the other-Californi the
thin slice of land, as | supposed it Il
be in boyhood, | have found TO b'
larger than all the states of New En-
gland and all New York state and al
Pennsylvania added together; and /
you add them together their square
miles fall far short of California. Ant
then all those newborn states of tn,
union, North and South Dakota
Washington, Montana, Idaho ant
Wyoming. Each state an empire II
sire.