The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-11-29
rCopyright. Louis Klopsch, 1899. :,

Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, 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 cxlx.,
SO. Forever, o Lord, thy woid is settled
In heaven"
This world has been In process OF change
ever since it was created-m ountains 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 q
minute. Our hemisphere turns its face to
the sun and then turns its back. The axis
OF the earth's revolution has shifted. The
earth's centre Of gravity IL changed. Once
flowers grew in the arctic and there was
snow in the tropic. There has been a re-
distribution OF land and sea, the land
crumblIng into the sea, the sea swallowing
the land. Iceand fire have fought for the
possession OF this planet. The chemical
composition of 1t 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-rhe ocean changing
its amount Of saline qualities. The inter-
nal fires Of the earth are gradually cutting
their way to the surfnce-upheaval and
subsistence Of vast realms OF continent.
MoravIans in Greenland have removed
their boat poles because the advancing sea
submerged them. Linn8us records that
in eighty-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 mer's hoe can
be touched only by sailors anchor.
Loeb Nevis OF Scotland and Dlngle bay
of Ireland and the f1ords OF Norway, where
pleasure boats now float, were once valleys
and glens. Many OF tue islands OF the sea
are the tops OF suuken mountains. Six
thousand miles OF the Pacific Ocean are
sinking. The diameter OF the earth, ac-
cording to scientific announcement, Is 189
miles less than 1t was. The entire con-
figuration 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 the assault.
The 80 called "everlasting hills" do not
last. Many railroad companies cease to
build iron bridges because the iron has q
life Of its own, not a vegetable life or an
animal life, but q metallic life, and when
that life dies the bridge goes down. Oxida-
ton OF Minerals Is only another term for
describing their death. Moses and sea-
weeds help destroy the rocks they deco
rate.
The changes OF the inanimate earth only
symbolize the moral changes. Society
ever becomes different for better or worse.
Boundary lines between nations are set
tied until the next war unsettles them.
Uncertainty strikes through laws and GUS
toms and legislation. The characteristic
OF this world Is that.nothiug In 1t Is settled.
At a time when we hoped that the arbl-
tration planned last Summer at Tie
Hague, Holland, would forever sheathe
the sword and spike the gun and dismantle
wars which are digging graves for the
flower 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 find that there are
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
Eve things are settled-that nations which
20 continuously and persistently wrong
perish; that happiness is the result OF
spiritual condition and not OF earthly en-
yironment: that this world Is a school
house for splendid or disgraceful gradua-
tion; that with or without US the world Is
to be made over into scene Of arborescence
and purity; that all who are adioined to
the UNPARALLELED One OF Bethlehem and
Nazafoth and Golgotha will be the sub
jects OF a supernal felicity without any
taking of.
Do you doubt my first proposltlon-that
nations which 80 wrong perish? We have
In this American nation all the elements OF
permnnence and destruction. We need not
borrow from others any trowels Tor up
building or torches for demolition. Ele-
ments OF ruin-nihilism inf1delity, agnostic-
ism, Sabbath desecration, inebriety, sensu-
ality, extravaganza, fraud; they are all
here Elements OF safety-God-worship-
ing men and women by the scores OF
millions, honesty, benevolence, truthful.
ness, sef-sacrilce, industry, sobriety and
more religion than has characterized any
nation that has ever existed; they .nre all
here. The only question Is as to which OF
the forces will gain dominancy-t one
class ascendant, and this United States
Government, I think, will continue rs long
as the world exists; the other class, as
cendant, and tho United States goes Into
such small pieces that other governments
would hardly think them worth picking up.
Have you ever noticed the size OF the
cemetery Of dead nations, the vast Green
wood and Pere le Chalse, where mighty
Kingdoms were buried? Open the gate and
walk through this cemetery and read the
epitaphs. Here lies Carthage, born 100
years before Rome, great commercial
metropolis on the buy 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 10000 miles OF
coust: her Hamilcar leading forth thirty
myriads, or 100000 troops; her Hannibal
taken in boyhood to preserve eternal en-
nifty to Rome, leaving costly and impos-
Ing monuments at Agrlgentum o Ghastly
heap OF ruins; Carthage, her colonies on
every coast, her ships plowing every sea-
Carthage-where are her splendors now?
All extlnguished. Where are her swords?
The last one broken. Where are her towers
and long ranges Of magnificent archi-
lecturer Buried under the sands OF the
Bagradas. As ballast OF foreign ships
much of her radiant marble has been car
rled away to build the walls OF transmedi-
terranean cathedrals, while other blocks
huye been blasted In odern times by tho
makers OF the Tunis railway. And al! OF
that great and mighty city and Kingdom
that the tourist finds to-day is here and
there broken arch Of what was once
ffty-uile aqueduct.
Our talented and genial friend, Henry
! NJ. Field, in one of his matchless books OF
travel, labors hard to prove that the slight
ruins Of that olty are really worth visiting.
Carthage buried IN tho cemetery OF dend
nutions. Not one altar to the true God
did she rear. Not one OF the Ten Com
mandments but she conspicuously Tio-
lated. Her doom was settleo III HedVeu
when 1t was decided far back In the eterni-
ties that the nation and kingdom that vii!
not serve God shall perish.
Walk on In the cemetery OF nations and
see the long lines OF tombs-Thebes and
Tyre and Egypt apd Babylon and Medo,
Persian and Macedonian aud Roman and
Saxon heptarchy, great nations, small no.
tlons, nations that lived year aud nations
thnt lived 500 years.
Our own nation will be judged by the
same moral lnws by which all other M.
tlons have been judged. The judgment
day for individuals will probably come far