The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1899-11-16
REV. DR.. IALMAGE.
THE EMINENT DIvINE's SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.

Il
Subject. Settled in Heaven--The Fate o.
Nations as Well as OF Individuals IN
Gods Hands-rhe World Not Gov.
| erned in Haphazard Way.
tCopyright, Louis Klopsch. 1927
| wAsHINo1oN, d. C.-The idea that things
| In this world are at loose ends and going
| at haphazard Is In this discourse combated
by DR.. Talmage. The text Is Psalms cxix..
80. Forever, o Lord, thy word is settled
In heaven"
This world has boen In process Of change
| ever since 1t was created mountains born.
mountains dying, and they have both
| cradle and grave. Once this planet was
all fluid, and no being sucn rs you or I
have ever seen could have lived on 1t a
minute. Our hemisphere turns its face to
the sun and then turns it's bnck. The axis
| OF the earth's revolution has shifted The
earth's centre OF gravity ls changed. Once
| flowers grew In tho arctic aud there was
snow In the tropic. There has been re-.
distribution OF land aud sea. the land
crumbling into the sea, the sea swallowing
the land. Iceand flre have fought for the
possession OF this planet. The chemical
composition OF 1t is different now from what
/ IL once WAS. Volcanoes once terribly alive
are dead, not one throb OF fiery pulse, not
| one breath OF vapor-the ocean changing q
| Its amount OF saline qualities. The inter.
1
their way to the surface-upheaval and
subsldence OF vast realms OF continent.
| Moravlans IN Greenland have removed
| their boat poles because the advancing sea
submerged them. Linnmus records that
| In elghty-seven years great stone was 100
feet nearer the water than when he wrote.
Forests have been buried by the sea, and
land that was cultured by far mers hoe can
| be touched only by sailors anchor.
| Loeb Nevis OF Scotland and Dlngle bay
OF Ireland and the flords OF Norway, where
| pleasure bouts now float, we're once valleys
and glens. Many OF tue Islands OF the sea
are the tops OF sunRen mountains. six
thousand miles Of the Pacific Ocean are
| sinking. The diameter OF the earth, nc.
oording to scientific announcement Is 1s0
| miles less than 1t was. The entire con-
| fguration OF the earth is altered. Hills
are denuded OF their forests. The frosts
and the waters and the air lombard the
| earth till 1t surrenders to tho assault.
The so called everlasting hills" do not
| last. Many railroad companies cense to
build iron bridges because the iron has n
| life OF its own, not vegetable life or an
| animal life. but metallic life, and when
| that life dies the bridge COOS down. Oxlda-
tlon OF minerals Is only another term for
| describing their death. Moses aud sea-
weeds help destroy tho rocks they deco
| rate.
The changos'of tho lnanimate earth only
| symbolize tho moral changes Society
over becomes different for better or worse
! Boundary lines between nations are set
\ tied until the next war uusettles them.
| Uncertainty strikes through laws and Gus
| toms and legislation. The characteristic
OF this world is that.nothlng in it is settled
At time when we hoped that the arb-
tratlon planned last Summer at Tho
Hague, Holland, would forever sheathe
| the sword and spike the gun and dlsmantle
| the fortress the world has on hand two
wars which are digging graves for the
| Hover OF English and American soldlery
From the presence of such geological and
| social and national and international un-
rest we turn with thanksgiving and exul-
| tation to my text and lind that there arc
things forever settled, but In higher lati-
tudes than we have ever trod. Forever,
o Lord, Thy word is settled In heaven"
High up in the palace of the sun at least
1ve things are settled-that nations which
go continuously and perslstently wrong
| perish; that happiness Is the result of
spiritual condition and not of earthly en-
vironment; that this world Is u school
| house FOR splendid or disgraceful gradua-
tion; that with or without us the world is
to be made over into q scene OF nrborescence
and purity; that all who are adjoined to
| the unparalleled One of Bethlehem and
Nazareth and Golgotha will be the sub
jects of q supernal felicity without any
taking Off.
Do you doubt my first pro positlon-that
nations which go wrong perlshp We have
| In this American nation all the elements OF
permanence aud destruction. We need not
borrow from others any trowels for up
/ building or torches for demolition. Ee-
ments OF ruln--nihillsm, inadellty, agn ostic-
ism, Sabbath dissertation, inebrlety, sensu-
| allty, extravaganza fraud; they are all
here. Elements OF safety-God-worsh
Ing men and women by the scores of
millions, honesty, benevolence, truthful
ness, self-sacrlfice, industry, sobrlety and
more religion than has characterized any
nation that has ever existed; they .are all
| here. The only question Is as to which OF
the forces will gain domlnancy-the one
| 'tias9 ascendant, and this United States
Government, think, will continue rs long
| as tho world exists; the other class as
such small pieces that other governments
would hardly think them worth picking up.
Have you ever noticed the size OF tho
| cemetery of dead nations, the vast Green
| wood and Pere le Chaise, whore mighty
Kingdoms were buried2 Open the gate an d
walk through this cemetery and read the
| epitaphs. Here lies Carthage, born 100
years before Rome, great commercial
| metropolis on the bay OF Tunis, part of
an empire that gave the alphabet to the
Greeks and their great language to the
| Hebrews her arms the terror OF nations,
| commanding at one time lb,UUU miles OF
| coast; her Hamilcar leading forth thirty
myrlads, or 100000 troops; her Hannibal
carrying out In manhood the oath he had
taken in boyhood to preserve eternal en-
| nifty to Rome, leaving costly and impos.
ing monuments ut Agrlgentum CHASTITY
| hoap of ruins; Carthage, her colonies on
every coast, her ships plowlng every sea;
| Carthage-where are her splendors nowy
| All extinguished. Where are her swords?
| The last ono broken. Where are her towers
and long ranges of magnificent archl.
! tecture2 Buried under the sands of tho
| Bagradns. AS ballast of foreign ships
much of her radiant marble has been car
| rled away to build the walls OF transmedl-
| terranean cathedrals, while othor blocks
| have been blasted In modern times by the
makers of the Tunis railway. Aud all OF
that great and mighty city and kingdom
| that tho tourist finds to-day Is here and
| there broken arch OF what was once u
nfty-nle aqueduct.
Our talented and genial friend. Henry
| NJ Field, In one OF his matchless books OF
| travel, lnbors hard to prove that the slight
ruins Of that city are really worth visiting
| Carthage buried IN tho cemetery OF dead
| nations. Not one altar to the true, God
did she rear. Not one OF the Ten Com
mandments but she consplcuously vlo-
| lated. Her doom was settled In heaven
| when II was decided far back In the eterni-
ties that the nation and kingdom that will
not serve God shall perish.
Walk on In the cemetery OF nations and
see the long lines OF tombs-Thebes and
| Tyre and Egypt and Babylon and Medo-