The Iola register., 1899-12-22


gos and Saamancas and Borodinos
and Scdans and Gettysburgs of earthl
And right after them roll into the
heavens the peaceful vapors from the
chimneys of farmhouses and asylums |
and churches and capitals of Christian |
nations, and, as the sunlight strikes |
through these vapors, they will write |
in letters of jet and gold all over the |
sky, from horizon TO zenith; GLORY |
to God in the highest, and on earth |
peace, good will to men!"
While thinking of these things ]
looked out from my window, and the
wind was violently blowing. And |
saw from many chimneys the smoke |
tossed in the air and whirled in great
velocity, volume after volume, fold |
after fold, and carried on the swift
wind were the great pillars of smoke.
And, helped by Solomon in the text,
saw the speed of the church smy-
bolized. Do you realize the momentum
the church of God is under? Why,
| the smoke of chimney on the top
of Mount Washington, when the wind
is blowing GO miles the hour, is slow
as compared with the celerity of good
! influences. For 80 centuries the devil
had it his own way among the ua-
tions, Nearly all the great missionary
movements have been started within
the century, and see what one century
has done to recover the world from so
centuries of devastation. What great
revivals! What mighty churchesl
What saved millions!
From the ruins of Babylon and AS
syria and Nineveh and the valleys of
the Nile combinations have been ex-
humed proving to all fair-minded men
that the Bible is the truest book ever
written. The mythologies of Egypt
were found to have embodied in them
the knowledge of mans expulsion
from paradise and the sacrifice of a
great Emancipator. Moses account
of the creation, corroborated by the
hammer of Christian biologists; the
oldest profane writers, Hiromus, Hell
anicus and Berosus, confirming the
Bible account of ancient longevity;
Tacitus and Pliny confirming the
Bible accounts OF destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah; Iacitus and Porphyry
|
Matthew and Luke told; Macrobius
telling of the massacre of children in
Bethlehem, and Phlegon sketching at
the crucifXion
It is demonstrated to ali honest men
that it is not so certain that William
Cullen Bryant wrote "Thanatopsis" or
Longfellow wrote "Iliawatha" as that
God, by the hand of prophet and apos-
tie, wrote the Bible. All the wise men
in science and law ANA medicine and
literature and merchandise are grad
ually coming to believe in Christianity,
and soon there will be no people who
disbelicyc in il except those conspicu-
Gus for lack Of brain or men with two
families, who do not like the Bible
because it rebukes their swinish pro-
pcnsities.
The time is Fastening when there
will be no infidels left except liber-
tines and harlots and murderers. Mil
lions of Christians where once there
were thousands, and thousands where
once there were hundreds. What
bright evening this, the evening of the
nineteenth century! And the twen-
tieth century, which is about to dawn.
will, in my opinion, bring universal
victory for Christ and the church that
now is marching on with step double
quick or, if you prefer the figure of
the text, is being swept on in the
mighty gales of blessing imposing and
grand and majestic and swift like pill
lars of smoke.
H.. 4
Christ the door. a door more glorious
than that of the temple of Hercules,
which had two pillars, and one was
gold and the other emerald! Come in
to-day! The world you leave behind
is a poor world, aud it will burn and
pass off like pillars of smoke. Whether
the final conilagration will start in the
coal mines of Pennsylvania, which, in
some places, have for many years been
burning and eating into the heart of
the mountains, or whether it shall be-
gin uea| the California geysers or
whether from out the furnaces of
CotopaXi and Vesuvius and Stromboli
it shall burst forth upon the aston
ished nations | make no prophecy, but
all biologists tell us that we stand on
the lid of n world, the heart of which
is raging roaring, awful flame, and
some day God will let the red mon
sters out of their imprisonment Of
centuries, and New York, on fire in
1885, and Charleston on fire in 1865
and Chicago on fire in 1872, and Bos-
ton on fire in 1873 were only like one
spark from blacksmith's forge us
compared with that last universal
blaze which will be seen in other
worlds. But gradually the flames will
lessen, and the world will become a
great living coal, and that will take on
ashen hue, and then our ruined planet
will begin to smoke, and the noun
tains will smoke, and the valleys will
smoke, and the islands will smoke,
and the seas will smoke, and the cities
will smoke, and the five continents