Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1899-08-17
AN ETERNAL GLOOM.
DR.. TalmBge Pictures the Earth
Without the Gospel
Vividly Portrays the Gloom of an In.
adeI Worid-Triumph of Atheism
Would Mean Death of
Civilization.

In this sermon DIR. Talmage gives |
glimpse Of what the world would be II
the Gospel were abolished and the hui |
man race left without Divine guidance. |
The text is Acts eco: THE sun shall |
be turned into darkness"
Christianity is the rising sun of our
time, and men have tried with the up
rolling yapors 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 heayens They would take the
oceans from other worlds and pour
them on the luminary of the planetary
system, and the waters go kissing down
amid the ravines ard the caverns, and
there is explosion after explosion, until
there are only few peaks OF IRE lei
| In the sun, and these are cooling down
/ and roinr out until the vast continents
| Of fame are reduced 70 a small acreage
Of FIRE. and that whitens and eools OF
until there are only few Goals left
and these are whitening and going out
until there Is not a speck left IN al the
mountains Of ashes and the valleys Of
ashes and the ehasms Of ashes. IN eS-
tinpuished sun! A dead sun! A buried
sum- Let ali worlds wall at the stupen-
dous obsequies.
OF course this withdrawal Of the solar
! light and heat throws our earth into
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
ceans. From arctic and antarctic re.
lions 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 shiyering villages and cities
The wealth OF the coal mines is hastily
incurred into the furnaces and stirred
into rage OF combustion, but soon the
honhres begin 20 lower, and the fur-
naees begin to 90 out, and the nations
..erin 10 die. Cotopaxi, Vesuvius' ktna,
rtromboH. California geysers, cease 70
smoke. and the ice of hailstorms re
mains unmelted in their crater. AZ
~. flowers have breathed their lasi
breath. Ships with sailors frozen az
The mast. and helmsmen frozen at the
wheel. and passengers frozen In me
cabin. all nations dying, first at me
: north and then at the south. ehlla
a frosted and dead in the cradle. octo-
r,enarian frosted and dead al the
',earth. Workmen with frozen hand on
he hammer and frozen foot on the
shuttle. Winter from sea TO sea. All
conrealing winter. Perpetual winter
!. Globe Of frigidity. Hemisphere shack
LA 70 hemisphere by chains OF
ice Universal Nova Zembla. The earth
an ice foe grinding against other &c.
foes. The arehangels OF malice ahe
horror have done their work, and now
!, tiev nav take their thrones OF glacier
!, and look down upon the ruin they haV'
wrought. What the destruction o. 'h'
sun IN the natural heavens would %
a !, our physical earth. the destrucuor
J, ~ Christianity would be TO the mora
world. The sun turned into darkness
Insdelity in our time is considered
: orea. Joke. There are people who re
o ioiee TO hear Christianity caricature'
and 10 hear Christ assailed with quihhl'
and ouirk and Misrepresentation an'
" badinape and harlequinade. ! propos'
g today 10 take infidelity and atheism
y out OF the realm OF popularity INTO ON
~ tragedy and show YOU what inildei
,,ropose and what II they are sueeessfu
= thew will accomplish. There are mos
in our communities who would llke u
/. soe the Christian religion overthrow
apd who saw the world would be oette
\ ,,,i,bor, n | want to show you wha
e the end Of this road and what : IN
terminus Of this crusade and what I'M
: ,,.orI1 yill be when atheism and infidel
e ,tv have triumphed over It, Il they car
> saw. n they can. reiterate IT, u me
n can.
In the first place. II win be the CON
,,ia+e and unutterable degradation Q
rvomonhood. I will prove II by lac'
.rs arguments which no honest ma
= ,,.,JI disnpte. In al communities an
Y cities and states and nations where IN
y Christian religion has been dominan
woman's condition has been ameh'
rated and improved and she Is deterre
- aud bonored in a thousand thing
20 and every gentleman takes on his q
& before her. If your associations ha'
:. been good, you know that the name
: wife. mother. daughter, suggests gr'
9 c,ous surroundings. You know ther
.ra no better schools and seminari'
= this country than the schools ~
}. seminaries for our young ladies'. 70
know that while woman may sufier y
iustiee in England and the Unite
m. states she has more Of her rights
- christendom than she has anywhei
m. else.
As Vow. compare this with woman's CO.
f, a;,ion in lands where Christianity NJ
10 made little or no advance-ln INN
e: IS IN Barbary. in Borneo, in Tartary'
20 rrvnt in Hindustan. The Burmese Sc
= ,bsir wives and daughters as so mar
: sbsen The Hindoo Bible makes It di
nd .raceful and an outrage for woman
= - iao1r out of the WI