The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-09-16
BETTER THAN WE
ON MARS WORK FOR
COMMON GOOD.
Bloomfield Pastor Tells What He Thinks
the Martians Are Like, Holding
Them Up as Example.

people who have reached a higher plane
of civilization. both intellectually and
morally, according to the opinion of
the Rev. DIR. Jesse l.. Hurlbut, pastor
of : the Par. Methodist Episcopal
Church. Bloomfield. He so expressed
himself yesterday in a sermon on
Some Things the Earth May Learn
from the Planet Mars" He said that
he a been an interested student In
astronomy and had followed the recent
astronomical study of the planet, and
had reached this conclusion after care
full consideration of the facts so far
known. In his sermon, which was de-
livered to an interested congregation,
he said in part:
The business Of the pulpit Is to deliver
the gospel messages Of salvation In Christ,
to point men in the path of Godliness: not
to give lectures on astronomy, nor political
economy, nor sociology, nor history-not
even the history contained in the Bible.
The vital line Of the pulpit's message
must ever be the road that leads men to
the kingdom of heaven.
But the preacher may find his text for
preaching the Gospel anywhere in the uni
verse, In the heavens above, in the earth;
In the air, or in the sea. David found
subjects In the palm trees. In cedar trees
and in the stars, but he did not write
poems on astronomy or botany. Our Lord
pointed to a farmer sowing his field, but he
did not talk about agriculture; he preached
There are sermons in stones. and there
are sermons in stars, and my text onigh
is that planet which Just now SHINES SO
our next door nelghbor In the solar sys;
tenn, and the object of the most powerful
telescopes or our earth.
Like earth In its form-a hattened sphere,
having the sane seasons, summer cnang-
vast areas of snow. at each OF its poles.
which melt away FOR hundreds of miles
and then return the next winter.
But Mars is unlike our earth in certain
striking aspects. 1t is millions OF years
! older than our earth and may tell us what
earth may be millions of years hence, It's
mountains, If it ever had them, have been
worn away until they are almost level.
It's oceans have dried up and have become
vast deserts, covering nearly all the planst
Mars has become one mighty Sahara. II
rivers have ceased to flow lit has no for
ests covering its plains; but Is an llilmit-
able dry desert.
awakened the deepest interest of a%strono.
| mers. At certain times every year faint
what as If lines of longitude and latitude
were marked upon 1t. Sometimes these
lines are parallel; sometimes they cross
each eoihts ot N function eHey m at various Intervals,
and many of them will radiate from these
points. And they run. not in curving,
/ TWlSIlnR nTtS as IlNtlS always l0AAJ bht
absolutely straight, two thousand miles
long, some of them four thousand miles
without variation. There is every evidence
that these lines are not natural, for nature
! never draws straight lines. There Is an
order and system and method In them ana
in their meetings and CROSSINGS when
f~elligent minds, by engineers of great skill,
and wrought out by diligent labor.
lists cali them canals" but they are care
full to explain that they are more than
| canals in our meaning of the word. They
irrigation, and we see pot the narrow
waterway, but the strip Of cultivated lane
from twenty to fifty miles wide through
Mars appears as Egypt would appear if
one could look down upon It from a great
tiliage like a green ribbon running through
the desert.
The only source of water supply In Mars
is its polar SHOWS. which melt and form a
great green sea. These canals carry the
water from the northern and southern seas
throughout the planet by an elaborate
bons of cultivation over that desert
world. In early spring they begin TO
change the appearance, at first near the
poles. then further from them, with vary
Ing "colors during the season; then fading
and becoming invisible as the winter
comes on.
concerning the inhabitants of that world?
1. They show that 1t Is a world with one
form of civilization, and that q nigh slate.
II one could survey our planet, TINS
! earth. he would see many formsAof clvili-
cation and great degrees in Its scale. There
would be western Europe and North
America, with highly civilized people.
cities, railways, telegraphs, steam anu
electric power serving men,. But TINS hlgn
level reaches only a small part R 81 gar
Turkey. China, where civilization STANDS
on a lower level. There are vast areas o.
barbarism and absolute ~savagery; az IN
A 81. kIO mild Indians on the DlH1nS, the
native Australians and me qui hr, 9ht
Only a small part Of our earth Is orlgn.
with civilization o og go far sae s.s''s' p@'
Now look at Mars, and you fnd that lhe
entire planet is brought under coiiroi, tne
canals reach everywhere; there are no no
dark continents" no neglected ands, no
part of the planet is untoucneo.
one and the same, type 1;ss.
Syorixs for the common good far beyono
the EFFORTS of engineering on TINS EARN.
In other words, Mars has aceompth,saasse e
what we are striving for on this earln' tnS
iIplifting of humanity. The best way ann
fhe onIy way to uplift the worid Is 70 SrNt
the void the gospel OF Jesus a. ms iil1ms
mated every dark corner of this world,
Another lesson from Mars Is that OF q
worldwide peace and harmony; Supy yUsr
that two sections Of Mars should be at wa'
the north and the south, Tor exhnpis.
The north would at once destroy the canais
leading southwark, and in a single seasoa
lail the south would DecOAhe q -
its people would perish. Suppose tnat ~
our great Civil War, the North could naVe
stopped the Ohio River, the MISSISSIPPI
the Missouri, the Platte and every otner
river. what would have become OF ehs
| Southland? Apparently war is unknown
n Mars. for the canals are never inter-
rupted, or turned aside.
we see in his world everyfnation READY
for war. and spending its powers, not ror
peace. but for war. The railroads in Rus
sin are of a different guage from the resi-
Of Europe-to prevent invasion. The boun-
caries between nations in Europe are lines
of Notifications. Nations are building III
competition the most powerful and destruc-
tive battleships. They manage these Things
better in Mars. There the victories are OF
peace. and not Of wer. There they are sub
4 dining the desert and turning it into gar
, dens. There the poets dream Is realized or
"a parliament of man, the federation OF the
world
we learn also that Mars is a world pos
sessed by the spirit OF Brotherhood, where
all work together for the common good.
In our world we see rivalry and selfish
ness. We have in America a small area
like the desert Of Mars, r~eGeenable only
by irrigation; but In 1t the people depend
ing on the streams are at strife; those near
the source seizing all the water, those on
the lower fields breaking dow the walls
of their irrigation bitches. In Mars tine In
tterest of the most distant is conserved as
carefully rs tie interest Of those nearest
the water supply.
Why IL The Passaic River so vile, filthy
and dangerous to health? 1t is because the
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