The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1899-05-20
AN ETERNAL GLOOM.
Dr.. Talmsge Pictures the Earth
Without the Gospel
Wildly Portrays the Gloom Of an In
Adel WorId-Tniumph Of Atheism
Would Mean Death Of
Civilization
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891

OopyIABuNs L1AAs hlSp1Cuf AoIs I
washington, May IA
In this sermon DR.. Talmsge gives a
glimpse CO what the world would be if
the Gospel were abolished and the hu-
man race left without Divine guidance.
The text is Acts 2:20: The sun shall
be turned into darkness"
Christianity is the rising u Of our
time, and men have tried with the up
rolling vapors Of skepticiSm and the
smoke of their blasphemy to turn the
sun into darkness. Suppose the arch
angels Of malice and horror should be
let loose a little while and be allowed to
extinguish and destroy the sun in the
natural heavens! They would take the
oceans from other worlds and pour
them on the luminary Of the planetary
system. and the waters 20 kissing down
amid the rayines and the cayerns, and
there is explosion after explosion. until
there are only a few peaks Of fire left
in the sun, and these are cooling down
and going out until the vast continents
Of fame are reduced to a small acreage
Of fire. and that whitens and cools of
until there are only a few coae left,
and these are whitening and going out
until there Is not a sPeck left in all the
rountains Of ashes and the valleys OF
ashes and the chasms of ashes. An ex-
tlnguished sun. Adead sum- Aburied
sun! Let all worlds wall at the atupen-
dous obsequies.
OF course this withdrawal OF the solar
light and heat throws u earth into a
universal chill. and the tropics become
the temperate, and the temperate be-
comes the arctic. and there are frozen
rivers and frozen lakes and frozen
oceans. Prom arctic and antarctic re-
gions the Inhabitants gather in toward
the center and find the equator as the
poles. The slain forests are piled up
into a great bonfire. and around them
gather the shivering villages and cities.
The wealth Of the coal mines is hastily
poured into the furnaces and stirred
into rage OF combustion. but Don the
bonfres begin 10 lower, and the fur
naces begia TO go out, and the nations
begin to die. COtspaEi, Vesuyius, Etna,
stromboli. California gsysers, cease to
smoke, and the ice ~ hailStorms re-
mains unmelted IA their crater, All
the flowers have breathed their Hast
breath. Ships with sailors frozen AZ
the mast, and helmsmen frozen at the
wheel, and passengers frozen in the
cabin, all nations dying, first at the
north and then at the south. Child
frosted and dead in tbs cradle. Octo-
penarian frosted aud dead ut the
hearth. Workmen with frozen hand on
the hammer and frozen foot on ths
shuttle. Winter from sea TO sea. All
consealing winter. Perpetual winter.
Globe Of frigidity. Hemisphere shack
led TO hemisphere by chains OF
lee. Universal Nova Zembla. The earth
~ Zee foe grinding against other ice
foes. The archangels Of malice and
horror have done their work, and now
they may take theiT thrones Of glacier
and look down upon the, Guip they have
wrought. What the destruction ~ the
sun IN the natural heavens would ~
60 our physical earth, the destruction
Of Christianity would be 10 the moral
world. The sua turned into d%arknessi
Infdelity in u tina ls considered a
great joke. There are peopih who re-
joice 10 hear Christianity cancatussd
and 10 hear Christ assailed with quibble
and quirk and Misrepresentation and
badinage and hariequinade. ! propose
to-day 10 take inhdelity sAi atheism
out Of the realm Of POPULARITY into Dne
OF tragedy and show you what inhdeiG
propose and what II they are successful
they will accomplish. There are those
In our communities who would like 10
see the Christian religion oyerthrovyn
and who say the world would be better
without II. / want 70 show you what
Is the end OF this road and what il ths