The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-11-12
FOOTPRINTS OF GOD.
Kew. Dr.. Talmage Discourses on
Cur Natural Wonders.
The Footsteps OF the Creator Upon the
Mountains aud Plains of The
NesI-Tne salvation of
Continent.

Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol-
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.-Psains, CIV, 81.
My first text means irrigation. 1t
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 wheat field, or a cotton
plantation, or a vineyard-"streams
in the desert" My second text means
volcano like Vesuvius 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, glorifed 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,
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 th|se
| great mountains, impenetrable and
covered with eternal snow? What can
we ever hope to do with the western
coast, rock-bound, cherries and I'M
| inviting, and not a harbor on 1T? L
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
4 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 between the
Atlantic and Pacific? 1t is the figure
of cross on a mountain in Colorado.
| 1t is called the Mount of the Holy
Cross" A horizontal crevice filled
with perpetual snow, and perpendic-
ular crevice 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 a 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. lie hand of God cut it there
and set it 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 assassination, | be-
lieve the Creator meant it to suggest
the most notable event in all the his
tory of this planet, and He hung ii
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 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, and
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 inn
mensity and atfiuence 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 q
few yards across, ridge of land or
which one must walk cautiously lest
he hit his head against the Sierra Ne
yada on enc side, or slip off into the
Pacific waters on the other--Califor
MIA. the thin slice of land, as / sup
posed it in my boyhood, have founC
to be larger than all the states of New
| England and all New York state anC
| III Dnn,nrrlrn nia nd6ad fnmethnr. ON,