Connecticut western news., 1899-11-16
GODS ETERNAL PLAN.
WORLD NOT GOVERNED AT s4APHAz-
 ARD, SAYS DR. TALMAGE.

WORLD NOT GOVERNED AT 'HAPHAz-
 ARD, SAYS DR. TAlMAGE.
 Enumerates Five Things That Have
 Been Settled by Divine Wisdom.
 Furnishes Proof In the Past His-
 tory of the World.
 ICopyright. Louis Klopsch, 1s90.l
 WASHINGTON, Nov. 12.-The idea that things in this world are at loose ends and going at haphazard Is In this dis course combated by pr. Talmage. The text Is Psalms cxix, 80, Forever, o Lord, thy word is settled in heaven"
 This world has been in process of rhange 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 such as you or I.have ever seen could have lived on 1t minute. Our hemi- sphere turns It's face to the sun and then turns its back. The axis of the earths revolution has shifted. The earth's center of gravity Is changed. Once flowers grew In the arctic, and there was snow in the tropic. There has been redistribution of land and sea, the land cruhbling into the sea, the sea swallowing the land. Ice and fire have fought for the possession of. this planet. The chemical composition of 1t Is different now from what 1t once was. Volcanoes once terribly alive are dead, not one throb of fiery pulse, not one breath of vapor-the ocean chang ing it's amount of saline qualities. The Internal fires of the earth are gradually eating their way to the surfaces-up- heavhl and subsistence of vast realms of continent.
 Moravians in Greenland have remov- ed their boat poles because the advanc- Ing sea submerged them. Linnaeus records that in 87 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 farmers hoe can be touch ed only by sailors anchor. Loch Nevis of Scotland and Dingle bay of Ireland and the fiords of Norway, where pleasure boats now float, were once valleys and giens. Many of the islands of the sea are the tops of sunken mountains. Six thousand miles of the Pacific ocean are sinking. The diane ter of the earth, according to scien- tific announcement, Is 1S9 miles less than 1t was. The entire configuration of the earth Is altered. Hills are de nuded of their forests. The frosts and the waters and the air lombard the earth till it surrenders to the as- sault. The so called everlasting hills" do not last. Many railroad companies cease to build iron bridges because the Iron has life of Its own, not a vegetable life or an animal life. but metallic life. and when that life dies the bridge goes down. Oxidation of minerals Is only another term for de- scribing their death. Noses and sea- weeds help destroy the rocks they decorate.
 Earth's Changes.
 The changes of the inanimate earth only symbolize the moral changes. So ciety ever becomes different for better or worse. Boundary lines between na- tons are settled until the next war un- settles them. Uncertainty strikes through laws and customs and legisla- ton. The characteristic of this world Is that nothing In 1t Is settled. At a time when we hoped that the arbitra- ton planned last summer at The Hague, Holland, would forever sheathe the sword and spike the gun and dis mantle 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 geological and social and na- honal and international unrest we turn with thanksgiving and exultation 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 settled in heaven"
 High up In the palace of the sun at least five things are settied-that na- tions which go continuously and per sistently wrong perish; that happiness Is the result of spiritual condition and not of earthly environment; that this world Is a schoolhouse for splendid or disgraceful graduation; that with or without US the world Is to be made over into a scene of arborescence and purity; that all who are adjoined to the unparalleled One of Bethlehem and Nazareth and Golgotha will be the subjects of supernal felicity without any taking or.
 Do you doubt my first proposition that nations which go wrong perish. We have in this American nation all the clements of permanence and de- struction. We need not borrow from others any troweis for upbuilding or torches for demolition. Elements of ruin-nihilism, infidelity, agnosticism, Sabbath dissertation, inebriety. sensu- ality, extravaganza, fraud; they are all here. Elements of safety-God wor- Bhiping men and women by the scores of millions, honesty, benevolence, truthfulness, self sacrifice, industry, sobriety 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 dominancy-the one class as- eendant, and this United States gov prnment, | think, will continue as long as the world exists; the other class as- cendant, and the United States goes into such small pieces that other gov ernments would hardly think them worth picking up.
 Cemetery of Nations.
 Have you ever noticed the size of the cemetery of dead nations, the vast Greenwood and Pere le Chaise, where mighty kingdoms were buried? Open the gate and walk through this ceme- tery 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. command Ing at one time 16.0OO miles of coast; her Hamilcar leading forth 30 myriads, or 100000 troops; her Hannibal carry ing out in manhood the oath he had