Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-11-25
FOOTPRINTS OF GOD.
kew. Dr.. Talmage Discourses on
Our Natural Wonders.
The Footsteps of the Creator Upon tho
Mountains and Plains OF tho
West-The salvation OF
Continent.

IeN. 4. DeNltt lulIluBt, Ill Nnc loi-
lowing sermon, takes his hearers
among the mighty wonders of the
great west, where he finds everywhere
the footprints of the Creator. The
texts are; Streams in the DESERT
Isaiah, Xxxv., 6; He toucheth the hills
and they smoke.-Psalms, civ, 81.
My first text means irrigation. 1t
means the waters of the Ilimalaya, 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 wheat field, or cotton
plantation, or vineyard-"streams
in the desert" My second text means
volcano like Nesuvius or Cotopaxi,
or it means the geysers of Yellow
stone 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 OF
it, and from it rise thick and impress
sive vapors: HE toucheth the hills
and they smoke!"
Although my journey across the
continent this summer was for the
eighth time, more and more am | i'm
pressed 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, gloritied and Edenized.
What change from the time when
Daniel Webster on yonder Captoline
hill said TO the American senate in re-
gard to the center of this continent,
ana 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 mountains, impenetrable and
covered with eternal snow? What can
we ever hope to do with the western
coast, rock bound, cheerless and un-
| inviting, and not a harbor on it? /
will never vote one cent from the pub
| lie treasury to place the Pacific coast
one inch nearer Boston than it now
| is" What a mistake the great states
man 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
| Atlantic and Pacific? 1t is the figure
of cross on mountain in Colorado.
1t is called the mount of the Holy
| Cross" A horizontal crevice filled
with perpetual snow, and perpendic-
ular crevicc filled with snow, but both
the horizontal line and the perpendic-
ular line so marked. so bold, so signifi-
cant, 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 mans face on the
rocks in the White mountains. So a
maidens 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: "A cross! A
cross!" Do you say that this geologi-
cal inscription just happens so? No!
That cross on the Colorado mountain
is not human device, or an accident
OF nature. or the freak of an earth
quake. The hand of God cut it there
and set it up for the nation to look at
cross of wood was set up on the bluff
back of Jerusalem, or set up at some
time since that assassination, / be.
leve the Creator meant it to suggest
the most notable event in all the his.
tory 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 ouI
Emmanuel died. The clouds were vo
cal at our Saviour's birth, the rocks rent
at His martyrdom, why not the walls
Of Colorado bear the record of the cru
cifixion?
First, consider the immensely OF
this continental possession. If it were
only small tract of land capable OF
nothing better than sage-brush, ant
with ability only to support prairie
dogs, should not have much enthu.
siasm in wanting Christ to have itadd
ed to His dominion. But it's i'm
mensity and atfiucnce no one can
imagine, unless, in immigrant wagon
or stage coach, or in rail train of the
Union Pacific or the Northern Pacific
or the Canadian Pacific or the South
ern Pacific, he has traversed it.
supposed in my boyhood, from its
size on the map, that California was 9
few yards across, ridge of land Oh
which one must walk cautiously lest
he hit his head against the Sierra Ne
vada on enc side, or slip off into the
Pacific waters on the other-Calfor
mia, the thin slice of land, as | sup
posed it in my boyhood, have found
to be larger than all the states of New
England and all New York state ant
all Pennsylvania added together; ant
if you add them together their square
miles fall short of California. Ant
then all these newborn states of tn,
Union, North and South Dakota
l.. Washington, Montana, Idaho and Wy
oming. Each state an empire in size
"But," says some one, "in calculat