The Penn's Grove record., 1899-11-17
DR.. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY The NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Settled in Heayen-The Fate of
Nations as Well as OF Individu nails in
Gods Hands-rhe World Not Gov
erned in a Haphazard Way.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch, 1921
WASHINGTON, D. O.-rhe 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 been Ia process OF change
ever since 1t was created-mountains born,
mountains dying, and they have both
cradle and grave. 0nce this planet was
all fluid, and no being sueh as you or l
have ever seen could rave lived on It a
minute. Our hemisphere turns its face to
the su~S7ad then turns its back. The axis
OF the earth's revolution has shifted. The
earth's GENRE of gravity Is changed. Once
flowers grew In the arctic aud there WAS
snow In the tire 2icA There has been a re-
distribution Of land and 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 1t Is different now from what
II once was. Volcanoes once terribly alive
are dead, not one throb OF fiery pulse, not
one breath of ~vapor-the ocean changing
Its amount OF saline qualities. The inter-
nal fires OF the earth are gradually eating
their way to the surface-upheaval and
| subsistence OF vast realms OF continent.
Moravians in Greenland have removed
their boat poles because the advancing sea
submerged them. Linn@us records that
in e~ighty-seven years a great stone was 100
| feet nearer the water than when he wrote.
-.1 , H. No haan hf1 tod hu tha con Qnh
land that was cultured by far m hoe can
be touched only by sailors anchor.
Loeb Nevis OF Scotland and Dlngle bay
OF ireland and the Aords OF Norway, where
pleasure boats now float, were once valleys
and glens. Many OF the islands Of the sea
are the tops of sunken mountains. Six
| thousand miles OF the Pacific Ocean are
| sinking. The diameter OF the earth, nc
| cording to scientific announcement, Is 189
miles less than it was. The entire con-
Dguration 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 SO called "everlasting hills" do not
last. Many railroad companies cease to
build iron bridges because the iron has a
life of Its own, not a vegetable life or an
animal life, but u metallic life, and when
that life dies the bridge goes down. 0xida-
tion OF minerals is only another term for
| utScfiDlDR hull uCuhus hlOSoCo dhu b0a-
weeds help destroy the rocks they deco
rate.
The changes OF the inanimate earth only
symbolic 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,nothing In it is settled.
At a time when we hoped that the arbl-
tration planned last Summer at The
Hague, Holland, would forever sheathe
the sword and spike tho gun and dismantie
the fortress the world has on hand two
wars which are digging graves for the
flower of English and American soljlery.
From the presence OF such geological and
social and national and international un-
rest we turn with thanksgiving and exul-
tationl my text and find that there are
things\ ever settled, but in higher lati-
tudes II I'VE have ever trod. Forever,
| o Lord, my word is settled In heaven"
High up In the palace Of the sun at least
| hyefhings are settled-that nations which
go continuously and persistently wrong
perish; that happiness is the result OF
Spiritual condition and not of earthly en-
%vlronnent; that this world Is a school
houes for splendid or disGraceful gradual
ton; that with or without us the world is
to bema' ver into. scene of arboreseence
anh-V 4 that all who are adioined to
-eled One OF Bethlehem and
~ Na-l Golgotha will be the sub
/ jS-st N supernal felicity without any
Do "a abt my first pr,posltion-that
nations w go wrong perish? We have
in this AmA. IN nation all the elements OF
~permanence aud destruction. We need not
borrow from others any trowels for up
building or torches for demolition. Ele-
ments OF ruin-nihilism, inidelity, agnostic-
ism, Sabbath Dissertation, inebrlety, sensu-
atty, extravaganza, fraud; they are all
here. Elements of safety-God-worship-
Ing men and women by the scores OF
millions, honesty, benevolence, truthful
ness, self-sacrifce, 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 oil
tho forces will gain Mountaineering one
class ascendant, and this United States
Government, I think, will continue as long
a. the world exists; he other class as
cendant, and the 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 ie Chaise, where mighty
Kingdoms were buried? Open the gate and
walk through this cemetery and read the
~epitnphs. Here lies Carthage, born 100
years before Rome, great commercial
metropolis on the bay of Tunis, n part OF
an empire tina 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
coast; her Hnmilear leading forth thirty
myrlads, or 500, 900 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 at Agrigentum a CHASTITY
heap OF ruins; Carthage, her colonies on
every coast, her ships blowing every sea
Cnrthage-where are her s~plendors now
All extinguished. Where are her swordsi
The last one broken. Where are her towers
and long ranges OF magnificent aren't
lecturer Buried under the sands OF tbs
Bagradas. As ballast OF foreign ship!
much OF her radiant marble has been car
rled away to build the walls of transmedi
terranean cathedrals, while other blocks
nave been blasted In modern tins by the
makers of the Tunis railway. AM all o
that great and mighty city and kingdom
that the tourist finds to-day is here ant
there a broken arch OF what was once {
ffty--qile uqueduct.
Our talented and genial friend, Henri,
NJ. Field, iu one Of his matcbless books o
travel, labors hard to prove that the sligh'
ruins OF that city are really worth visiting
Carthage buried Ia tho cemetery OF dea'
nations. Not QUE altar to the true Coo
did she rear. Not one of the Ten Com
mandments but she conspicuously VIC
lated. Her doom was settled 10 HEAVIER
when 1t was decided far back in the eterni
ties thai the nation and kingdom that vii
not serve God shall perish.
Walk on In the cemetery of nations AM
see The long lines Of .ombs-rhebes an
Tyre apd Egypt and Babylon and Medo
Persian and Macedonian aud Roman an
Saxon heptarehy. great nations, small ma
tons. nations that lived q year II nation
that lived 500 years.
Our own nation will be judged by th
same moral laws by which all other ma
lions hnve been judged. The iudgmen
day for individuals will probably come ia
on In the future. Judgment day for na
tions is every day. every day weighed
every day approved or every day cor
deinned. Never before In the history {
this country has the American nation bee
Y mns~euraly In the balance than It Is thi
minutse 20 right, and we go up. ID
wronN and we go down.
n Al, not 80 anxious to knew what thi
statesman or that warrior thinks we ha
better do with Coba and Porto Rico an
the philippines us l am anxious to kno'
what god thinks we had better do. TIL
dest,nA OF this nation vii! not be decide
on yonder capi.oline hill or at Manila {
al fhe presidential ballot box, for it wiz y
settied-fn heaven.
Another thing decided in che sang
place IL that happiness is the resu.-9