The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-21

~ u ~
Gives the World It's Discoveries.
There are True Prophets I'm Our Day.
At the service at IL o'colck Sunday
morning at the First Baptist church,
the Rev. DR.. Calvin &. Blackwell preach
ed a very remarkable sermon with refer
ence to the Gaveston calamity. He
was heard with the most intenes in
terest by a very large congregation
The following scriptures constitute
his text:
go son of man, l have set thee a
Waterman unto the house of Israel,
therefore, thou shalt hear the word of
my mouth and warn them from me-"
Ezel. 33:7-"Woe to the multitude of
many people, who make a noise like
the noise of the sea, and the rushing
of the nations, like the rushing of
mighty waters. But God shall rebuke
them and they shall be chased like
half before the wind and like a roll
ing thing before a whirlwind. Behold
at e~veningtide trouble, and before the
morning he is not."-Is. 17:12-14.
The following is a synopsis of DR..
BlackWelrs discourse:
How these Whirling winds, rushing
and roaring waters, driving men and
material before them like chaff, with
the trouble people at evening tide,
and before morning gone forever, reads
like a description written by an eye
witness of the Galveston horror. Yet
1t was a vision in the eye of the pToph-
ct Isaiah t~wenty-six hundred years
ago.
BY the mouth of many prophets
through a series of centuries God fore
told the rise and ruin of scores of
kings and kingdOms-eVen before some
of the kings were born or the king
dOms set up. Isaial said: L declare
new things and before they spring
forth l tell you of them.-2:9.
Ezekiel declared that the prosperous
land of Syria should be made more
desOlate than a wilderness.'-6:14.
Volney says the whole and seems a
dreary burying place
Jeremiah says: Judgment shall
come upon all the cities of the land of
MOab,-S:9. And there is not a city
today in the once pOpulous land. %
We that dwell in Moab leave the cities
and dwell in the rock.'-4S:2S. and
NOlney says: The wretched peasants
of Moab retire among the rock which
bOrder5 on the dead sea-
Malachi IA says of EdOm that nee
held a noble and generous people that
they shall be called the border of
~wickedness,' and now Pacocke describes
them as "a very bad people and nOtOri-
Gus robbers.
Nahum ia speaks of the once pop
ulous and mighty city of Nineveh-'the
Lord hath given commandment con-
corning thee that no more of thy name
be sown'-and how God has kept his
word is shown by the fact that in all
tho urnrlI there ~ M ni+Tor noDnn1
'Nineveh.'
Ezekiel, speaking of Egypt 3O:12
and 29:15, says: I will lay the land
waste by the hand of strangers-and
it shall be the basest of Kingdoms
GibbOn confirms this thus: Egypt
twenty-three centuries z was de
prived of her natural ~proprietieS, and
for about 500 years she has been under
arbitrary dominion of strangers ana
base slaves
Isaiah 10: has a vivid description of
the utter ruin OF Babylon the great.
Because Of the wrath of the Lord it
shall never be inhabited. Neither shall
the Arab pitch his tent there nor the
Shepherds make their folds there
Travellers say an Arab cannot be hired
to tent all night among the ruins of
Babylon. nor will the shepherd fold his
flock there.
Amos IL: I will send a fire upon
OdLds ulCH Sldll utNpu III Palaces
thereof VOlney's travels veriies his
prophecy in these words: The ruins
of white marble found at GAIA prove
that 1t was formally the abode of
luxury and o%pulence' and destroyed by
fire.
Ezekiel 26:14. speaking OF the great
commercial city of Tyre, Il will make
thee k the top of a rock thou shalt
be a place to spread nets upon thou
shalt be built no more-for the Lord
hath spoken it. Today the rocks and
ruins OF Tyra, the queen Of the sea, is
only a place for fishermen to spread
their nets, and though many efforts
nav been made to make 1t a great
port again dismal failure has followed
every effort.
Jesus himself stood on top of Olivet
and pronounced the doom and deStruc-
ton of Jerusalem and foretold the dis
persion of the Hebrew race. The Ro-
and the Hebrews are scattered in every
nd.-Luk 19:41-44. jeremiah 25:9
adds that the Jewish people should be-
come an establishment and an hiss
ing
Thus 1 could go through the Bible
and quote at least 155 prophesies of
destruction and punishment that God
declared he would send upon as many
as forty distinct peoples and places
with their verified ~fulfillments in the
language Of such inndel writers as
Volney. Gibbon, Renan and others.
Every one OF these dire calamities
foretold by the prophets could be turn
ed aside-yes turned into blessings if
the people would only repent.
Has God ceased to see the doings
OF men and nations In this our odern
world? God is the same today as yes
terday. Why don't He speak TO US
now by holy men as OF Old in words
OF prophetic warning? Why should God
repeat himself? In the forty peoples
and cities to whom He sent the ancient
prophets We find the same conditions
and sins that we mOderners are gull
~. God warned, waited and finally
punished the ancients and put the re
cords in the Bible and history, for our
worning and admonition. So that If
We indulge In the same sins we may
know OF a certainty that God will not
be slack in melting out to us similar
punishment. The wise mans mirror
hangs behind him. Look back and be
warned.
Noah speaks to ante-deluvian peo-
pie the imaginations Of whose hearts
waro evil utinually'- the flood