The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-12-13
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE 5Y The NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject; Tn. World Grows Betier - The
Time in which We Live IL "ondsHSi
For Disaster and wondeiful For Bless
ing.-InGdelity DwiE-'ing.

/ DR. Ia!mage reCItCs some great events ana
shows that the word - advancing m the
right direction; text, Joel 70, 30, ! VIII
show wonders in the heavens a1d IN the
. earth"
DR.. Cumming-great and good man
. would have told us the exact time OF the
fuliiment Of this prophecy. As ! stepped
into MS study IN London on my ARRIVAL
from Paris jus. after the French had sur
rendered at Sedan the good doctor said 20
me: 1T u Just what / had told you about
France People laughed az me because i
talked about the seven horns and the walls,
I but ! foresaw all this from the book OF
/ Daniel and the book of Revelation Not
\ taking any such responsibility m the IN
terpretatlon OF the passage, i SIMPLY as.
sert that there are IN It suggestions OF
many things IN our time.
| Our eyes diate and our heart quickens
/ in It's puisatiOns as We read OF events IN
the third century, the sixth century, the
eighth century the fourteenth century,
but there were more f1r-reachlng events
crowded into the nineteenth century than
/ into any other, and the last twenty years
eclipse any preceding twenty We read IN
/ the daily newspapers OF events announced
in one paragraph and without any special
phasis-events which a Herodotus, a
JOscphus, a NenophOu, a Glbbon, would
have taken whole chapters or whole vol
umes 10 elaborate. Looking out upon our
time, we must cry ont IN the words Ok the
text, Wonders in the heavens and in the
earth"
propose 10 show you that the time in
which we live Is wonderful for disaster
and wonderful for blessing, for there must
. be lights and shades in this picture as in
all others. Need ! argue that our time Is
wonderful for disaster; Our world has
had a rough time since by the hand OF
God II was bowied out into space. IL Is
an epieptic earth-cOnyulson after convul-
uN..slsU
mer OF lcebergs and fires melting II with
furnaces seven times heated. IL Is a won
der 20 me it has lasted so long. Meteors
shooting by on this side and grazing it and
meteors shooting by on the other side and
grazing II, none of them slowing up for
safety. Whole fleets and navies and argo-
gOsies and flOtlllas OF worlds sweeping all
about US Our earth like fishing smack
off the banks of Newfoundland, while the
Maiestic and the st. Paul and the Kaiser
/ Wilhelm der Crosse rush by. Besides
that, our world has by sin been damaged
in its internal machinery, and ever and
anon the furnaces have burst, and the
walking beams of the mountains have
broken, and the islands have shipped a
sea, and the great hulk of the world has
been Jared with accidents that ever and
anon threatened immediate demolition.
But it seems to Us as If the last hundred
years were especially characterized by dis
aster-volcanic, oceanic, epidemic. | say
volcanic because an earthquake Is only a
volcano hushed up. When Stromboh and
CotopaM and Nesuvus stop breathing let
the foundations of the earth beware Sew
en- thousand earthquakes IN two centuries
recorded in the catalogue of the British as
sociationi Trajan, the emperor, goes to
ancient Antioch, and amid the splendors
of his reception Is met by an earthquake
that nearly destroys the emperors life.
Lisbon, fair and beautiful. at l o'clock
on the lst OF November, 1855, in six min
utcs 10000 have pcrish"d, and Noltaire
writes of them, For that region II was
the last Judgment nothing wanting but a
trumpet" Europe and America feeling
the throb-l500 chimneys in Boston partly
or fully destroyed
But the disasters Of other times have
h,d their coun erpart in later times. In
1912 Caracas was caught IN the grip of an
earthquake in 1852 in Chile 100 900 square
miles of land by volcanic force upheaved
to four and seven feet OF permanent ele-
yatIon, in 1854 Japan felt the geological
/ agony; Naples shaken IN 1851 Mexico in
| 1853; Mendoza, the capital of the Argentine
/ Republic in 1861; Manila terrorized in
/ 1863 the Hawaiian Islands by such force
/ uphfted and let down IN 1871; Nevada
] shaken in 1871. Antioch in 1872: Calltor-
! mia in 1872, San Salvador in 1873, while
! 1888 what subterranean excitement, Is.
! CHA. an island of the Mediterranean, a
| beautiful Italian watering place. vineyard
clad. surrounded by all natural charm and
/ historical reminisCence; yOnder Capri the
summer resort of the Roman emperors
yonder Naples, the paradise of art-this
beautiful island suddenly topped into the
trough of she earth, 5000 merrymakers
/ perishing, and some of them so far down
beneath the reach of human obSequies that
1t may be said of many one of them. a.
/ il was said of Moses, THE Lord buried
| him" Italy, all Europe weeping, all Chris
tendon weeping where there were hearts
to sympathize and Christians 10 pray. But
| while the nations were measuring that
| magnitude OF disaster, measuring 1t not
with golden rod like that with which the
angel measured heaven, but with the black
rule of death, Java, of the Indian archl
| pelago, the most fertile island of all the
earth, is caught in the grip of the earth
I quake, and mountain after mountain goes
down, and city after city until that island
| which produces the best beverage OF al
the world. produced the ghastliest catas
trophe One hundred thousand people
dying dead! Coming nearer home. or
August 81. 1856. the great EARTHQUAKE
which prostrated one-halt OF Charleston
S. G.
But look At the disasters cycionic. A
the mouth OF the Ganges are three islands
the Hattiah, the Sundeep and the Dakr
1877, on all those three islands the cry
was, The waters,' \ cyclone arose an'
rolled the sea over those three islands
and of population of 2lo,00p. 2l5,0Oo were
drowned Only those saved who h5I
climbed to the top of the highest trees
Did YOU ever see cyclone Mo- lhei
| pray God YOU may never see one. | saw
cyclone on the ocean, and lc swept VI
500 miles back from our course, and 10
thirty-siX hours during the cyclone au'
after IL we expected every moment To 81
TO the bottom They told us before we re
tired at o'clock that the barometer ha'
fallen, but at IL O'Clock at night we wer
awakened with the shock OF the waves
All the lights OUT Crash went all the lite
boats. Waters rushing through the sky
lights down into the cabin and down ol
the furnaces until they Kissed and smoked
in the delugc. Seven hundred peopi
PRAYING. shrekiug Our great ship polse
a moment on the top OF mountain O
phosphorescent fire and then plunge,
down. down, down until It seemed as
she never would again be righted. An
YOU never want to see a cyclone at sea
But | was IN Minnesota. where ther
was one of those cyclones on land ina
swept the city of Rochester from ITS toun
dations and took dwelling houses barns
men. women. children. horses, cattle an
tossed them into indiscrlmin1te RUIN an
lifted a rail train and dashed u down.
mi-htier hand than that of engineer o.
Inc airbr,ke Cyclone m Kansas. Cyc,on
in Missouri. cvclone IN Wisconsin. cycion
in Illinois cyclone IN Iowa! satan, primo
of tine power of the air. never made sue
cvclonic disturbances as he has IN our day
And am | not right IN saying that one q
. | the rharattpristics Of the time IN whic