The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-12-21
ALL IN GODS HANDS.
Dr. Talmage on Divine Interpolation
in Human Affairs.

Fate of Nations a. Well m Of In-
dividuals settled i'm Heaven
world Not Governed In
. Haphasafd Way.
Copyright. 1899. by Louis Klopsch)
Washington.
The idea that things in this world
are at loose ends and going at haPhaz-
ard is in this discourse combated by
Dr.. Talmage. The text is Psalm 119,
g.: 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. and 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 it's 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. There
has been 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
it once was. Volcanoes once terribly
alive are dead, not one throb of fiery
pulse. not one breath of yapor-the
ocean changing its amount of saline
quantities. The internal fires Of the
earth are gradually eating their way
to 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
tions which go continuously and per-
sistently wrong perish; that happi-
| ness is the result of spiritual condi-
| tion and not of earthly environment;
| that this world is a schoolhouse for
splendid or disgraceful graduation;
that with or without us the world is to
be made over into scene of arbores-
cence and purity; that all who are ad-
joined to the unparalleled One of Beth
lehem and Nazareth and Golgotha will
he the subjects of supernal felicity
| without any taking of.
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-
struction. 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, extravagance, fraud; they are all
here. Elements Of safety-God-wor-
Shipping men and women by the scores
of millions, honesty, benevolence, truth
fulness, 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,
1 think, will continue as long as the
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
1 Greenwood and Pere lie Chaise, where
mighty Kingdoms were buried? Open
the gate and walk through this cem-
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 boyhood to preserve
eternal enmity to Rome, leaving costly
and imposing monuments at Agrigen.
tum ghastly heap of ruins; Carthage
her colonies on every coast, her ships
plowing every sea; Carthage whers
are her splendors now? All extin
guished. Where are her swords? Ths
last one broken. Where are her tow
; ers and long ranges Of magnificent
architecture? Buried under the sand,
of the Bagradas. As ballast of foreigr
ships much of her radiant marble hal
been carried away to build the WALL
of trans-Mediterranean cathedrals
while other blocks have been blastes
in modern times by the makers OF tn,
Tunis railway. And all Of that grea
and mighty city and kingdom that tn
tourist finds to-day is here and ther,
q broken arch Of what was once so
mile aqueduct. Our talented an,
genial friend, Henry N. Field, in on,
: Of his matchless books of travel, Ia
, bors hard to prove that the slight ruin
Of that city are really worth visiting
|, Carthage buried in the cemetery o
dead nations. Not one altar to th
) true God did she rear. Not one Of tn
, Ten Commandments but she, conspicu
. ~,.~1,v vs~lo4ad Her 1onm WAS enff1a.