Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-10-21
THE TROWEL OF GOD.
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS HOW AMERICA
WAS MADE.

Cldl4Du.l
WASHINGTON, Oct. 16.-Dr. Talmage,
in this discourse, takes us with him on
a journey TO the Pacific, and finds 1.-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 the hills and they
smoke"
My first text means irrigation. It
means the waters of the Himalaya or
the Pyrenees 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 o wheatfield or a cotton plan
tation OF a vineyard-"stream in the
desert" My second text means vol
cano like Vesuvius or Cotopaxi, OF it
means the geysers Of Yellowstone park
OF of California. You see hill calm
and still and for ages immovable, 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 smokeP'
Although my journey across the con-
tinent this summer was for the eighth
time. more and more am l impressed
with the divine hand in its construction
and with its greatness and grandeur,
and more and more am thrilled with
the fact that it is all to be irrigated,
glorifed and Edenized. What change
from the time when Daniel Webster on
yonder Capitoline hill said to the Amer
lean 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
cactus, Of shifting sands and prairie
dogs? To what use could we ever put
these great deserts or these great noun
tains. impenetrable and covered with
eternal snow? What can we ever hope
to do With the western coast, rock
bound. cherries and uninviting and not
harbor on it: will never vote one cent
from the public treasury to place the
Pacific coast one inch nearer Boston
than it now is" What 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 Lord 5 cultivated possession.
The Colorado Cross.
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 mountain in Colo
RADIO. Il is called the "Mount OF the
Holy Cross. A horizontal crevice filled
with perpetual snow and perpendicu-
lar creyice filled with snow, but both
the horizontal line and the perpendicu-
lar line SO marked, so bold, so slgnih-
cant. so unmistakable, that all VINO
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
ont after your attention is called to
them. So mans face on the rocks IN
the White mountains. So maiden 4
form cut in the granite Of the Adiron-
dacks. So a city in the moving clouds
Yet YOU have to look under the point
ing of your friend or guide for some
time before you can see the similarity
But the first instant you glance at thi'
side of the mountain in Colorado you
cry out, "a cross, crossW Do you
saw that this geological inscription JUS
happens 60? No. That cross ON the Col
orado mountain is not human device
or an accident Of nature, or the treaH
of an earthquake. The hand of God cu
it there and set it up for the nation t
look at. Whether set up in rock before
the cross Of wood was set up on the oluf
back Of Jerusalem or set up ut som'
time since that assassination beliey'
the Creator meant it to suggest tn
most notable event in all the ElstCry C
this planet, and he hung 1t there owe
the heart Of this continent to indicat
that the only hope for this nation Is Il
the cross on which our Emmanuel died
The clouds were vocal at our saviour
birth. the rocks rent at bis mGrtyrdoln
why not the walls Of Colorado bear th
record Of the Crucifixiong
First. consider the immensity Of TIL
continental possession. If it were onl
small tract of land, capable 81 notn
ing better than sagebrush, aud VIII
ability only to support prairie dogs
should not have much enthusiasm
wanting Christ to have it added TO hl
dominion. But its immensity and ahr
euce no one can imagine, unless ID Ill
migrant wagon or stagecoach or IN ra
train Of the Union Pacific, or th
Northern Pacific, or the Canadian "a
oifc. or the Southern Pacific, he ha
traversed It,
I An Edenixed Continent.
supposed in my boyhood' from i
size on the map. that California was
$ few yards across, ridge Of land
= which one must walk cautiously lest l
! hit his head against the Sierra Nevad
| On one side or slip off into the Pacii
waters on the other. California, Il
4 thin slice Of land, as | supposed 1t to
in boyhood, have found to be larg
than all the states of New England al
: all New York state and all PennsyiV
b MIA added together, and if you add the
= together their square miles fall far sho
of California. And then all those ne'
Q born states Of the Union, North al
South Dakota, Washington. Montan
Idaho and Wyoming. Each state an er
pire in size
"But, says some one, "in calculs
ing the immensity Of our continent
g acreage you must remember that va
L reaches Of our public domain are uncI
y tivated heaps Of dry sand and the b
- Lands of Montana and the great Amei
y can desert" | am glad you mention
u that. Within 20 years there will not
y between the Atlantic and Pacific'coa'
- a hundred miles Of land not reclaim
- either BY farmers pillow or miners cro'