The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1900-01-14
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A RKIEF SYNOPSIS OF THE DIvINE's
SUNDAY DISCOURSE

Subject: Settled In Heaven-The Fate 81
Nations as Welt as of Indtvid aais in
Gods Hauds-rhe World Not Gov
erned in a Haphazard Way.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1921
WASHINGTON, D. C.-The idea that thines
In this world are at loose ends and going
at haphazard Is In this discourse combated
by DR.. Talmage. The text IL Psalms cxix.,
80. Forever, o Lord, thy word is settled
in heaven"
This world has been in process of change
ever since 1t was crea.ed-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 its back. The axis
OF the earth's revolution has shifted. The
earth's centre OF gravity Is changed. Once
flowers grew in the arctic and there was
snow In the tropie. There has been re-
distribution 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
composition OF 1t Is different now from what
1t once was. Volcanoes once terribly alive
are dead, not one throb OF fiery pulse, not
one breath Of vapor-the ocean changing
its amount OF saline qualities. The inter-
nal fires OF the earth are gradually eating
their way to the surface-upheaval and
subsistence OF vast realms of continent.
Moravians in Greenland have removed
their boat poles because the advancing sea
submerged them. LinnRus records that
In eighty-seven years great stone was 100
feet nearer the water than when he w~ote.
Forests have been buried by the sea, and
land that was cultured by far mer's hoe can
be touched only by sailors anchor.
Loeb Nevis OF Scotland and Dingle bay
of Ireland and the fiords OF Norway, where
pleasure boats now float, were once valleys
and glens. Many OF the Islands OF the sea
are the tops OF suuken mountains. Six
thousand miles of the Pacific Ocean are
sinking. The diameter Of the earth, nc.
cording to scientific announcement, Is 189
miles less than it was. The entire con.
flguration of the earth Is altereds Hills
are denudei OF their forests. The frosts
and the waters and the air lombard the
earth till It surrenders to the assault.
The so called "eyerlasting hills do not
last. Many railroad companies cease to
build iron bridges because the iron has a
life OF its own, not o vegetable life or an
animal lie, but metallic life, and when
that life dies the bridge goes down. Oxida-
tion OF minerals Is only another term for
describing their death. Moses and sea-
weeds hoip destroy the rocks they deco.
rete.
The changes OF the inanimate earth only
symbolic the moral changes. Society
Boundary lines between nations are set
tied. until the next war unsetties them.
Uncertainty strikes through laws and GUS
toms and legislation. The characteristic
OF this world Is that'nothing in 1t Is settled.
At time when We hoped that the arbl-
trutfon planned last Summer at The
Hague, Holland, would forever sheathe
the sword and spike the gun aud lismantle
the fortress the world has on hand two
wars which are digging graves for the
flower of English and American soidiery.
From the presence of such geological and
social and national and International I'M
rest we turn with thanksgiving and exul-
tation to my text and find that there are
things forever settled, but In higher lati-
tudes than we have ever trod. Forever,
| o Lord, Thy word is settled In heaven"
High up In the palace OF tho sun at least
five things are settfed-that nations which
60 continuously and persistently wrong
perish; that happiness Is the result OF
spiritual condition and not OF earthly en-
vironment; that this world Is O school
house for splendid or disgraceful gradua-
tion; that with or without Us the world is
to be made over into scene Of arborescence
the Unparalleled One of Bethlehem and
Nazareth and Golgotha will be the SUBJ
jects Of supernal felicity without any
taking off.
Do you doubt my first pro posltion-that
nations which so wrong perish? We have
in this American nation all the elements oil
permanence aud destruction. We need no,
borrow from others any trowels for mp.
building or torches for demolition. Ele.
ments OF Standardization, infldelity, agnostic.
ism, Sabbath dissertation, inebriety, sensu-
| ality, extravaganza, fraud; they are al
here. Elements OF safety-God-worshi
ing men and women by the scores oil
millions, honesty, benevolence, truthful.
ness, seif-sRcrifce, industry, sobriety and
more religion than has characterized any
! nation that has ever existed; they ARE al
here. The only question is as to which oil
the forces will gain dominancy-the one
class ascendant, and this United States
Government, / think, will continue as long
as the world exists; the other class as.
cendant, and the United States goes into
such small pieces that other governments
would hardly think them worth picking up.
Have you ever noticed the size OF the
cemetery OF dead nations, the vast Green
wood and Pere le Chaise, where mighty
kingdoms were buried? Open the gate and
walk through this cemetery and read the
epitnphs. Here lies Carthags, born 100
years before Rome, great commercial
metropolis on the bay Of Tunis, part oil
an empire that gave the alphabet to the
Greeks and their great language to the
Hebrews; her arms the terror OF nations
commanding at one time $1,000 miles Of
coast; her Hamilcar leading forth thirty
myrlads, or 800, 900 troops; her Hannibal
carrying out in manhood the oath he had
taken In boyhood to preserve eternal en-
nifty to Rome, leaving costly and tmpos-
ing monuments at Agrigentum a CHASTITY
heap of ruins; Carthage. her colonies on
every coast, her ships blowing every sea;
Carthage-where are her spiendors nowa
All extinguished. Wbsre are her swords?
The last one broken. Where are her towers
aud long ranges Of magnificent archi.
lecture? Buried under the sands OF the
Bagradas. As ballast OF foreign ships
much Of her radiant marble has been car
riedaway to build the walls OF transmedi-
terranean cathedrals, while other blocks
have been blasted In modern times by tue
makers OF the Tunis railway. Aud all OF
that great aud mighty city and kingdom
that the tourist finds to-day is here and
there a broken arch OF what was once G
fifty-roiie aqueduct.
Our talented and genial friend, Henry
M. Field, Ia one Of his matchless- books OF
travel, labors hard to prove that the slight
ruins OF that city are really worth visiting.
Carthage buried Ia the cemetery OF dead
nations. Not one altar to the true God
did she rear. Not one Of the Ten Com
mandments but she conspicuously vio-
lated. Her doom was settled In heaven
when 1t was decided far back in the eternf-
ties that the nation and kingdom that will
not serve God shall perish.
Walk on in the cemetery OF nations aud