The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-01-12
iLL IN GODS HANDS.
De Talmage on Divine Interposition
in Human Affairs.
fate or Nations ns Well NJ OF In
dividuHis settled In Heaven
World Not Governed I'm
a HRphaxard Way.
Copyright 1899, by Louis Klopsoh)

49, HiIi'"-N. Nt t'Nt ~ SdiAi Al's
S: Forever. o Lord, Thy word is set
tied i'm 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 I'M the tropics. There
has been q 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
tion of il is different now from what
10 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
quantities. The internal fires of the
earth are gradually eating their way
TO the surfaces upheaval and sub
sidcnce of vast realms of continent.
High up I'm the palace of the sun at
least five things are settled-that ma
tious which 90 continuously and per-
sistently wrong perish; that happi-
ness is the result of spiritual condi-
ton and not of earthly environment;
that this world is a schoolhouse for
splendid or disgraceful graduation;
,hat with or without us the world is TO
hc made over into a scene of arb0res-
ceuce and purity; That an who are ad'
ioired 20 the mpara, olcd One of Beth
lchcm and Nazareth and Golgotha Will
the subjects of a supernal felicity
without amy taking of.
DO YOU doubt my first proposition
hat nations which go wrong perish?
SIC have iu this American nation all
tle elements OF pelmgnence and de-
struction. We need not borrow from
others any troweis f.r upbuiiding or
torches for demolition. Elements Of
ruiu-nihilism. inidelity, agnosticism,
Sabbath desecration. inebriety. sensual
iiv. extravaganza. fraud; they are all
here. Elements of safety-God-wOr-
.hp'nc men and women 10y the scores
ID millions. honesty. benevolence, truth
ulucss. self sacrifice. industry, sobri-
ETY. and more religion than has char
acterizcd any nation that has ever eX-
.sted; they are all here. The only
question is as 10 which Of the forces Will
Gain dOminancy-the one class ascend
ant. and this United States government,
think. VIII 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
Greenwood and Pere le Chaise, where
mighty kingdoms were buried? Open
the gate and walk through this GEM
etcry and read the epitaphs. Here lies
Carthage. born 100 years before Rome,
great commercial metropolis Oh 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 O,OOO troops; her Hanni-
bal carrying out in manhood the oath
lie had taken in boyhoOd to preserve
eternal enmity to Rome, leaving costly
and imposing monuments at Agrigen-
tum a ghastly heap Of ruins; Carthage,
her colonies on every coast, her ships
plowing every sea; Carthage-where
are her splendors now? All extin-
guishcd. Where are her swords? The
last one broken. Where are her tow
ers and long ranges of magnificent
architecture? Buried under the sands
IF the Bagradas. As ballast of foreign
,9lips much of her radiant marble has
been carried away TO build the walls
Of trans-Mediterranean cathedrals,
while other blocks have been blasted
I'm modern times by the makers of the
Tuuis railway. And all of that great
and mighty city and kingdom that the
tourist finds to-day is here and there
a broken arch Of what was once a 80
mile aQueduct. Our talented and
genial friend. Henry VI. Field. in one
of his matchless books of travel, Ia
bors hard TO prove that the slight ruins
of that city are really worth visiting.
Carthage buried in the cemetery of
dead nations. Not one altar TO the
true God did she rear. Not one of the
Ten Commandments but she conspicu-
ouslv violated. Her doom was settled
ir Heaven when it was decided far back
I'm the cternities that the nation and
Kingdom that will not serve God shall
perish.
Our own nation will be Judged by the
same moral laws 10y which all other
nations have been Judged. The judg-
mcnt day for individuals will probably
come far or in the future. Judgment
dsy for nations IS every day, every day
weighed, every day approved or every
day condemned. Never before in the
history Of this country has the Amer
lean nation been more surely in the
balances than Fl is this minute. DO
right. and we 90 mp. DO wrong, and
we 20 down. am not so anxious to
know what this statesman or that war
- N .--l--- ..-. - LnL.ol- do with Cnha