St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1899-12-16
ALL IN GODS HANDS.
Dr.. Talmage on Divine Interpositiou
in Human Affairs.
Fate Of Nations ~ Well ~ of In
dividuals Settled In Heaven
World Not Governed IN
q Haphasard Way.
Copyright, 1889. by Louis Klopsch.)
Washington.


Washington, -
The idea that things in this world
are at loose ends and going at haphaz-
ard j. in this discourse combated by
D.. Talmage. The text is Psalm 119,
s: Forever, o Lord, Thy word is set
tied in Heaven"
This world has been in process OF
change ever since it was created
mountains born, mountains dying, and
they have both cradle and grave.
Once this planet was all fluid, ana no
being such as you or have ever seen
could have lived on it a 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 center of gravity is changed.
Once flowers grew in the arctic and
there was snow in the tropics. Ihere
has been a redistribution 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 compost
ton of it 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-tne
ocean changing its amount OF saline
quantities. The internal fires OF the
earth are gradually eating their way
IN the surfaces-upheaval and sub
sidence of vast realms of continent.
High up in the palace of the sun at
least five things are settled-that ma
tons which go continuously and per-
sistently wrong perish; that happl-
ness is the result of spiritual condi-
ton and not Of earthly environment;
that this world is schoolhouse for
splendid or disgraceful graduation;
that with or without us the world is to
he made over into a scene OF arbores-
cence and purity; that all who are adj
Joined to the unparalleled One OF Beth
lehem and Nazareth and Golgotha will
be the subjects of supernal felicity
without any taking of.
Moravians in Gree Inland have re-
moved their boat poles because the adj
yancing sea submerged them. Linnaeus
records that in 81 years great stone
was 100 feet nearer the water than
when he wrote. Forests have been bur-
led by the sea, and land that was cul-
turd by farmers hoe can be touched
only by sailors anchor. Loeb Nevis,
of Scotland, and Dingle bay, of Ireland,
and the fiords of Norway, where pleas
ure 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,
according to scientific announcement,
is 1S9 miles less than it was. The en-
tire configuration of the earth is al
.ered. Hills are denuded of their for
ests. The frosts and the waters and
the air lombard the earth till it sur
renders 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 . vegetable life or an an
imal life, but metallic life, and when
that life dies the bridge goes down.
Oxidation of minerals is only another
term for describing their death. Moses
and sea-weeds help destroy the rocks
they decorate.
The changes Of the inanimate earth
only symbolic the moral changes. So
ciety ever becomes different for better
or worse. boundary lines between ma
tions are settled until the next war
unsettles them. Uncertainty strikes
through laws and customs and legisla-
ton. The characteristic of the world
is that nothing in it 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 dismantle
the fortress the world has on hand two
wars which are digging graves for the
flower of English and American sol
diery. From the presence of such geo.
logical and social and national and in
ternational unrest we turn with thanks
giving and exultation to my text and
find that there are things forever set
tied, but in higher ATTITUDES than we
have ever trod: Forever, 0 Lord, Thy
word is settled in Heaven"
Do you doubt my first proposition
that nations which go wrong perish?
We have in this American nation all
the elements Of permanence and de-
straction. We need not borrow from
others any trowels for upbuilding or
torches for demolition. Elements of
ruin-nihilism, infidelity, agnosticism,
Sabbath desecration, inebriety, sensual
ity, extravaganza, fraud; they are all
here. Elements of safety-God-wor-
Shipping men and women by the scores
of millions, honesty, benevclence, truth
fitness, self sacrifice, industry, sobri-
ETY. and more religion than has char
acterized any nation that has ever ex-
listed; they are all here. The only
question is as to which of the forces will
gain dominancy-the one class ascend
ant. and this United States government,
I think, will continue as long AZ tie
world exists; the other class ascend
ant, and the United States goes into
such small pieces that other govern
ments would hardly think them worth
picking up.
Have you ever noticed the size Of the
cemetery Of dead nations, the vast
Greenwood and Pere lie Chaise, where
mighty kingdoms were buried? Open
the gate ard walk through this GEM
etery 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, COM
manding at one time 10000 miles of
coast; her Hamilcar leading forth 30
myriads, or 100000 troops; her Hanni-
bal carrying out in manhood the oath
he had taken in bnyhood to preserve
eternal enmity to Rome, leaving costly
and imposing monL ments at Agrigen-
tum q CHASTITY heap Of ruins; Carthage.
her. colonies on every coast, her ships
blowing every sea; Carthage-where
are her splendors now? All extin-
Quished. Where are her swords? The
last one broken. Where are her tow
ers and long ranges OF magnificent
Buried under the sands