Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-12-13

course DR.. Talmage recites some great
events and shows that the world is
advancing in the right direction; text.
Joel II. 80, IL will show wonders in the
heavens and In the earth"
DR.. Cumming-great and good man
would have told us the exact time OF
the fulfllment of this prophecy. As
stepped into his study in London on
my arrival from Paris just after the
French had surrendered at Sedan the
good doctor said to me: 1T is just
what L had told you about France.
People laughed at me because l talked
about the seven horns and the Walls,
but foresaw all this from the book of
Daniel and the book of Revelation"
Not taking any such responsibility in
the Interpretation of the passage.
simply assert that there are in It sug-
gestions of many things in our time.
Our eyes dilate and our heart quick
ems In its pulsations as we read OF.
events i'm the third century, the sixth
century, the eighth century. the four
teenth century. but there were more
farreaching events crowded into the
nineteenth century than into any 9th
er, and the last twenty years eclipse
any preceding twenty. We read in the
daily newspapers of events announced
in one paragraph and without any spe-
cial emphasis-events which He
rodotus. Josephus. n Xenophon, Glib
hon, would have taken whole chapters
or whole volumes TO elaborate. Look
ing out upon our time, we must cry
out In the words of the text, WONDERS
in the heavens and IN the earthr'
propose to show you that the time
in which we live is wonderful for dis
aster 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 disas-
ter? Our world has had n rough time
since by the hand of God IL was bowl
ed out into space. 1t is an epilcptic
earth - CONFUSION after convulsion;
frosts pounding It with sledge ham
mer of iceberg and fires melting it with
furnaces seven times heated. 1t is a
wonder to me it has lasted so long.
Meteors shooting by on this side and
grazing II and meteors shooting by on
the other side and grazing 1t, none OF
fleets aud navies and argosles and 10
tiilas of worlds sweeping ali about us.
Our earth like q fishing smack off the
banks of Newfoundland, while the Ma.
jestic and the st. Paul and the Kaiser
Wilhelm der Crosse rush by Besides
that, our world has by sin been dam
aged I'm its internal machinery, and
ever and anon the furnaces have burst,
and the walking beams OF the noun
tains have broken. and the islands have
shipped sea. and the great hulk of
the world has been Jared with acct
dents that ever and anon threatened
immediate demolition.
a Century OF Disasters.
But 1t seems TO us as IL the last hun
dred years were especially chara cter-
lied by disaster-yolcanic, oceanic, ep-
idemic- say volcanic because an
earthquake is only volcano hushed
up. When Stromboll and Cotcpaxi
and Nesuvius stop breathing, let the
foundations OF the earth bewarel Sew
en- thousand earthquakes I'm two CEN
turtles recorded in the catalogue Of the
British association! Trajan. the en-
peror, goes TO ancient Antioch and
amid the splendors OF his reception is
met by an earthquake that nearly de-
stroys the emperor's life. Lisbon. fair
and beautiful. Mt o'clock on the LIST OF
November, 1905. In six minutes G0.OO0
have persisted. and voltaire writes OF
them, For that region IL was the last
Judgment nothing wanting but n trum-
pet? Europe and America feeling the
throb-1,500 chlmneys In Boston partly
or fully destroyed
But the disasters of other times have
had their counterpart in later times.
In ISL Caracas was caught I'm the
grip or an earthquake. in 1852 In Chile
lOo.OOO square miles OF land by vol
canic force upheaved 10 four and seven
feet or permanent elevation, in 1854
japan felt the geological agony; Ma
pies shaken In 1857, Mexico In 1853:
Mendoza. the capital of the Argentine
Republic. In 1861; Manila terrorized In
1868; the Hawaiian Islands by such
force upllfted and let down I'm 1871:
Nevada shaken In 1871, Antioch in
1877, California In 1872, San Salvador
IN 1878, while in 1888 what subter-
ranean excitement Ischia, an island
or the Mediterranean, q beautiful Ital-
ian watering place, vineyard clad, sur
rounded by all natural charm and his
torical "Reminiscences: yonder Capri, the
summer resort OF the Roman emperors;
yonder Naples. the paradise OF art
this beautiful island suddenly topplec
INFO the trough OF the earth. 5000 mer-
rymakers perishing, and some OF them
SO FAR down beneath the reach of hu-
man obsequies that II may be said of
many a one OF them, as IL was said of
Moses. 'The Lord buried him." italy
all Europe weeping, all Christendom
weeping where there were hearts TO
sympathize and Christians to pray.
But while the nations were measuring
that magnitude of disaster, measuring
IL not with golden rod like that with
which the angel measured heaven, but
With the black rule OF death. Java of
the Indian archipelago. the most fer
tile island of all the earth. is caught In
the grip OF the earthquake. and noun
tain after mountain goes down and
city after city until that island. which
produces the best beverage of all the
world, produced the ghastliest catas-
trophe. One hundred thousand peo-
pie dying, deadi Coming nearer home.
on Aug. 81, 1856. the great earthquake
which Frustrated one-half of Charles
ton, S. G
characteristics of Our Times.
But look at the disasters cyclonic. At
the mouth OF the Ganges are three is
lands-the Haitian, the Suudeep and
the Dakin Shabazpore. In the mid
night Of October, 1877, on all those
three Islands the cry was, "The wa
ters!" A cyclone arose and rolled the
sea over those three islands, and of a
population of 100000, 2I5,OO0 were
drowned. Only those saved who had
climbed to the top OF the highest trees!
Did you ever see cyclone? No? Then
l pray God you may never see one.
saw a cyclone on the ocean, and ii
swept US 500 miles back from our
course. and for thlrty-six hours during
the cyclone and after 1t we expected
every moment to go to the bottom.