Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-10-20
SERMON ON IRRIGATION.
A Worthless area Once Was the Far
Western Regions.
IL is Now As X ch as Any in the Natr,n-Ir-
rigation Mrkes the Dessert Blosson
80 should Waste Places lie
Flooded With Gospel.

nr. Talmagc, in this discourse. takes
/ Ms with him on journey To the Pa.
/ ciiic. and finds The footsteps of the
/ Creator everywhere, As Hugh Miller
/ found them in the old red sandstone.
/ Texts: Isaiah NNNv.. Il, streams in
! the desert" Psalms civ, p, lie
/ touchcth the hills ami they smoke"
My first text means irrigation. 1t
means the waters of the llimalaya. or
/ the ivrcuccs, or the Sierra NevadaS
poured through canals and agucuucts
for the fertilization of the valleys. 1t
/ means the process 10y which the last
mile of American barrcuness will lie
made an am L. orchard, or an orange
grove, or a wheat field, or cotton
! plantation, ar a vincyard-''atreamS in
tine GcS TT" My second text means a
volcano lik, NrSuviuS or CotonaNi. or
! Il means tnc grV>crS of Yellowstone
| park or of California. You see a hill.
calm and still. and for ages immovahl' =.
| bu, the Lord out OF the heavens PUTS
/ Ills finger on the ton OF Il, and from il
/ rises thick and impressive Naporsi lie
! touchcth the hills and they smnliei"
Although my journey across the con-
| tucnt this summer was for the eighth
! Time. more ami more am impress >cd
with the divine hand in its construc-
| ton, and with its greatness ami
! grandeur. and more and more am
! thrilled with the fact that il is all To
lie irriCat, Il, glorIticd and Edcniz ed.
What change from the time when
Daniel Webster on youdcr Captolinc
hill said 10 the American senate in re-
gard to the center of this vast con-
tincnt aud To the regions of the Pacific
coast: What do you want with this
vast, worthless area, this region of
savages aud wild beasts, sands and
prairie dogs? To what use coud 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, cherries and uuin-
! viting, and not a harbor on il? | will
never vote one cent from the public
treasury to place the Pacific coast one
inch nearer Boston than it now is -
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 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
- slfr in
Colorado. 1t is called the mount of
the Holy Cross" 4 horizontal crevics
filled with perpetual snow, and per-
pendicular crevicc filled with snow,
but both the horizontal line and the
perpendicular line so marked. so bold,
SO significant, so unmistakaole, that
all who pass in the daytime within
many miles are compelled to see il.
There are some figures, some contours,
some mountain 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 maiden's form cut in
the granite in the Adirondacks. So a
city in the moving clouds. Yet you
have to look under the pointing of
your friend or guide for some time be-
fore You can see the similarity. But
the first instant You glance at this s,de
of the mountain in Colorado, you cry
out: "A cross. A crossw Do you say
that this geological inscription int
happens so? No. That cross on the
Colorado mountain is not human he
vice, or an accident of nature, or me
freak of an earthquake. The hand of
God cut it there and set i I 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 as
sassination, / believe the Creator
meant il to suggest the most nota bic
event in all the history of this planet,
and He hung it there over the heart of
this continent to indicate that only
hope for this nation is in the cross on
which our Emmanuel died. Ahe clouds
were vocal at our SaviouEs birth, the
rocks rent at His martyrdom, why not
the walls of Colo ado bear the record
OF the crucifxi
First, cons. a. 'meSsity of thfs
continer lH- posses al. II il were
o = small ..r, "a land, capable of
noi..~- u.i.-r nan sage brush, and
with 4r'. My to support prairie
dogs r.Juid not have much enthu-
siasm in wanting Christ to have it add
ed to His dominion. But its immensi-
v and atfluence no one can imagine
unless, in immigrant wagon or stage
coach. or in rail train of the Union Pa
cific or the Northern Pacific of the Ca
madam Pacific or the Southern Pacific,
he has traverseed it.
supposed in my boyhood from it's
size on the map that California was n
few yards across, ridge of land on
which one must walk cautiously lest
he hit his head against the Sierra Ne
vada on one side, or slip off into the
Pacific waters on the other-Califor-
MIA, the thin slice of land, as / sup
posed it to be in boyhood, | have
found to be larger than all the states
of New England and all New York
state and all Pennsylvania added to-
gether; and if you add them toge Their
their square miles fall far short of
California. And then all those new
born states q; the union, North and
South Dakota, Washington. Montana,
Idaho and Wyoming. Each state an
empire in size.
But" SAYS some one, in calculat-
ing the immensely of our continental
acreage You must remember that vast
reaches of our public domain are un-
cultivated heaps of dry sand, and the
BAD Lands of Montana and the Great
American desert" l am glad you
mentioned that Within 25 years there
will not be between the Atlantic and
Pacific coasts 100 miles of land not re.
claimed either by farmers pillow or by
miners crowbar BY irrigation, the
waters of the rivers and the showers OF
Heaven, in what are called the rainy
season, will be gathered into grea,
reservoirs, and through aqueducts
let down where and when the
people want them. Utah is an objee,
lesson. Some parts of that territory
which were so barren that a spear Of
grass could not have been raised there