The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-06-26

Disasters That Have Ovcrtaken Ma
tiOns That DESTROYED Them.
From the New York Times

mons That Destroyed Them.
From the New York Times.
The Rev. DIR. Frank Oliver Hall
preached yesterday morning at the
Church of the Divine Paternity, Cen
trail Park West and Seventy-sixth
street, upon Gods Revelation Through
the Trees" He took for his text the
last two verses of the twentieth chap
ter of Deuteronomy, in which the COM
mand is given forbiddng the destruc-
ton of trees that furnish meat for man,
when besieging a city.
DR.. Hall said that it would have
been well if the command had applied
not merely to fruit trees, but to all
kinds of trees, and if it had been OBJ
served to this day. 1t is difficult for
the traveller in Palestine at present to
understand how it could ever have been
described as a land flowing with milk
and honey, it appears so desolate, and
there are so many ruins everywhere.
And the change is not due merely 10
wars, for even where whole popula-
tions have persisted, other inhabitants
come, if only the fertility of the soil
remains. The real reason for the desc
lation everywhere apparent is TO be
found in the destruction of the forests,
which was followed in regular order
Hall also said:
In Asia Minor, which was once sec
ond only to Greece, the same result
followed upon the same cause. In
PaufS time it was a populouS country,
where great armies were raised, and
where hundreds of cities tlourished. But
the trees were ruthlessly cut down, and
the land was to a great extent trans
formed into a desert. In Italy we see
1nl1 hn
there were 200 cities, there is now per-
haps the most desperately poor popu-
lation in an Europe. Carthage, with
its environs, had a population of $780,
900. To-day, with the help of irriga-
ton, the same country maintains some
100000 people. Spain has recently made
such a pitiful exhibition that it is diff
hcult to realize that she was once the
dominant power of the world. The de-
struction of the forests accomplished
its work there, however, and now there
are thousands of square miles of des-
ert, where formerly there were fertile
fields and busy cities.
I'm fact, there is the same story all
the way round the Mediterranean, and
we may trace the path of civilization
by the desolation it has left. If we
could know the full truth about the
| Garden of Eden, 1 suspect we should
| find that man was cast out of the gar
den, not because he ate of the fruit of
the tree, but because he cut the tree
down.
And here in America, as if we were
wholly unable to read the lesson that
| history teaches us so plainly, we are
| doing the same thing. We send out
out portable sawmills, and each year
territory equal to that of the state
of Maryland is stripped clean of
trees. We can already see the bar
renness and desolation that have been
wrought in New England, and now we
are carrying out the same policy in
Michigan, Wisconsin, and elsewhere.
"Vast, destructive floods come, and
do we not know the reason well
enough? If there are forests about
| the rivers and streams the SHOWS melt
slowly in the spring, but where the
! forests have been swept away, the
melting snow fairly rushes down the
hillsides and then there are the great
| floods.
THE evils of drought are increased
| by the same means. Where there are
| trees, the water supply is conserved,
| and the springs continue to yield of
| their abundance far into the summer.
The churches have prayers for rain,
and then, as the crops have been all
burned up in the parched ground the
people go out and cut few more trees
and perhaps set a forest fire that
| burns over hundreds of square miles.
| 1T is as though God said to us in
His wra tn: If you want a desert you
shall have it, God helps and per-
petuates those who endeavor to learn
how to live and to know the laws of
| life"