Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-16
SETTLED IN HEAVEN.
Or. TALMAGE ON DIVINE lNTERPO5l-
TON IN HUMAN AFFAIRS.
The Fate of Nations ms Wei as of In
diVidunls In God's Hands The
world Not Governed In u Unphnz-
ard wny.
tcopyright, Louis Kidpsch. tl99.l

Copyright, Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, Nov. 12.-1hc idea that
things in this world are at loose ends
snd going at |haphazard is in this dis
course combatcd by DIR. Talmagc. The
text is Psalms cxix. 50. Forever, y
Lord. thy word is settled in heaven
This world has been in process Of
change ever since it was C~reated-moun-
tains born, mountains dying, and they
have both cradle and grave. Once this
planet was all fluid, and no being such as
YOU or | have ever seen could have lived
on it n minute. Our hemisphere turns its
iacc to the sun and then turns it's back.
The axis of the earth's revolution has
shifted. The earth's center of gravity is
changed. Once flowers grew in the arc
lie and there was snow in the tropic.
There has been a redistribution Of land
aud sea, the land crumbling into the sea,
The sea swallowing the land. Ice and
fire have fought for the possession of this
planet. The chemical composition Of it
Is different now from what it once was.
Volcanoes once terribly alive are dead.
not one throb of fiery pulse, not one
breath of vapor-thc ocean changing its
amount OF saline qualities. The internal
fires of the earth are gradually eating
their way to the surfaccs-uphcaval and
suhSidcnce of vast realms Of continent.
Moravians in Greenland have removed
their boat poles because the advancing
sea submerged them. Linnaeus records
chat in ST years a great stone was 100
feet nearer the water than when he
wrote. Forests have been buried 10y the
sea, and land that was cultured by farm
pr's hoe can he touched only by sailors
anchor. Loeb Nevis of Scotland and
Iingle bay of Ireland and the fiords Of
Norway, where pleasure boats now float,
were onye valleys and glcns. Many of
the islands of the sen are the tops of
sunken mountains. Six thousand miles
Of the Pacific ocean are sinking. The di-
0meter of the earth, according to scicn-
tiic announcement. is 1S9 miles less than
II was. The entire confguration of the
earth is altered. Hills are denudcd of
their forests. The frosts and the wa
ters and the air lombard the earth till it
surrenders to the assault. The so called
Everlasting hills" do not last. Many
railroad companies cease TO build iron
bridges because the iron has n life OF its
own, not n vegetable life or an animal
life, but a metallic life, and when that
life dies the bridge goes down. Oyida-
ton of minerals is only another term for
describing their death. Mosscs and sea
weeds help destroy the rocks they deco.
rate.
Tho changes of the inanimate earth
only symbolic the moral changes. Soci-
ETY. ever becomes different for better or
worse. Boundary lines between nations
are settled until the next war unsettlcs
them. Uncertainty strikes through laws
aud customs and legislation. The char
acteristic of this world is thai nothing in
1t is settled. At a time when we hoped
that the arbitration planned last summer
Mt The Hague, Holland, would forever
sheathe the sword and spike the gun and
dismantle the fortress the world has on
hand two wars which are digging graves
for the flower of English and American
soldiery. From the presence of such geo.
logical and social and national and inter
national unrest we turn with %thanksgir-
ing and cXultation to my text and find
that there are things forever settled, but
in higher ATTITUDES than we have ever
trod. Forever, o Lord. thy word is set
tied in heaven
Fate of Nations Settled.
High up in the palace of the sun nj
least five things are settlpd-thst nations
which go continuously and persistently
wrong perish; that happiness is the re
suit Of spiritual condition and not of
earthly environment; that this world is 4
schoolhouse for splendid or disgracefuI
graduation; that with or without us the
world is to be made over into 2 scene Of
ar5orcscence and purity: that all who
are adjcined to the unparalleled One of
bethlehem and Nazareth and Golgotha
.,1l - ~. ,,,lsant- - a ,H,-, T.l..sIr
without any taking off.
Do you doubt my first propoSition-that
nations which go wrong perish? We
have in this American nation all the eie
ments of permanence and destruction
We need not borrow from others aly
trowels for upbuilding or torches fol
demolition. Elements Of ruin-nihilism
intidelity, agnosticisn, Sabbath desecra
ton, inebriety, sensuai,ty, extravaganza
fraud; they are all here. Elements q
safety-God worshiping men and wo
men by the scores of millions, honesty
benevolence, truthfulness, self sacrifice
industry, sobriety and more religion thar
las characterized any nation that ha
e;er existed: they are all here. I'll,
only question is as to which of the force
will gain dominancy-the one class As
PENDANT, and this United States govern
ment, | think, will continue as long n
line world exists; the other class ascend
ant, and the United States goes int
such small pieces that other govern
ments would hardly think them wort
picking up.
Have you ever noticed the size Of tn,
cemetery of dead nations. the vast Green
wood and Pcre lie Chaise, where might.
kingdoms were buried! Open the gat
md walk through this cemetery and reu'
the epitaphs. Here lies Carthage, borl
100 years before Rome, great commercial
metropolis on the bay of Tunis. a part o
m empire that gave the alphabet to tn
Greeks and their great language to tn
Hebrews; her arms the terror of nations
commanding at one time 10000 miles O
.Oast; her Hamilcar leading forth 30 my
RAIDS, or 100000 troops; her Ilanniba
tarryinG out in manhood the oath he ha
taken il b~Oyhood to preserve eternal cI
nifty to Rome, leaving costly and impo-
ing monuments ut Agrigentum Il ghastl
heap of ruins; Carthage, her colonies o
Every coast, her ships blowing every sea
Carthagc-where are her s%plcndors now
SI Az "a M