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About The Rockdale banner. (Conyers, Ga.) 1888-1900 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1897)
HEY ? * DR Ay At. TALMAGE. 1 2\ LJlilU Li. THE NOTED DIVINE’S SUNDAY DISCOURSE. Subject: “Storming the Heights.” Text: “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt becomea plain.” —Zeohariah iv„ 7. Zerubbabel! Who owned that difficult name in which three times the letter “b’’oc splendid man called to rebuild the destroyed temple of Jerusalem. Stone for the building had been quarried, and the trowel had rung at the laying of the cornerstone, and all went well, when the Cuthmans offered to help in the work. They were a bad lot of and people, then and Zerubbabel declined their help, preju the trouble began. The Cuthmans diced the secretary of the treasury against Zerubbabel.sothatthe wages of the carpen tors and masons could not be paid, and the heavv from'Mount cedar timbers which had been dragged Lebanon to the Mediterranean and floated in rafts from Beirut to Joppa and were to be drawn by ox team from Joppa of to Jerusalem had baited, and as a result the work of those jealous Cuthseans for sixteen years tho building of the temple was stopped, But after sixteen years Zerubbabel, tho mighty soul, got a new call from God to go ahead with the temple building, and the angel ofthe Lord in substance said: “They and smooth ns the floor of a house. ‘Who every city and every Nation of every age God PiD pulduphindranceTabove They have iid th a rhm hM bec7me a rnointaK andthe „ wii mountain has become an Alp, and there it stands, right in the way of all movements Scouraged ^jsrssA^ASr^ss.'is about the* teSt.aTbtt ssff&'zs ;ssra r,ssts hormtions—that Sr'S'iHH'Sric; they nro striking inoir s&T&ixbxssitt down mMrtnn ^evelodh'iiii^ou^of Visrht nlain™ t r r ™ r ' 7 ^ » eru 5 hh.S ^ a ^ e thou sha 1 ^° <J0 a I Find, there istbe mountain of prejudice, d?ce°ag°ains1 the BibletSf a^uUbook. ant consistent book, a cruel book, an unclean book, and in every way an unfit book. The most of them have never read it. They think thestrata of the rocks contradict tho account in Genesis. The poor souls do not know that the Mosaic account agrees exactly with tho geological account. No violin or flute ever was in better aocord. By crowbar and RtaJWPd. “The Hint shovel and blastinRjiqjKder the the thing created in the furnishing of “Aye, earth I was the plants.V Moses says: told you that in the book of Gene sis, ’Tho earth brought forth grass and herb, yielding yielding seed after his kind and the tree fruit.’ ” The geologist goes on thing digging in the earth and says: “The next in tho furnishing of the earth was the making of tho creatures of the sea.” Moses says: “Aye, I told you that was next in the book of Genesis. ‘God said. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that have life, and God created groat whales.’ ’’ The geologist goes on digging and says, ♦‘The next thing in the furnishing ot tho earth was the creation of the cattle, and the rep tiles and tho beasts of the field." “Aye,” says Moses. I told you that was next in the flret chapter of Genesis, ‘And God said. Lot the earth bring forth the living oroaturo after his kind, cattle and oreoping things. and boasts ot the earth after his kind.’ ” Tha geologist goes on digging in tho earth and says, “The next oreatura was the human family.” “Aye," says Moses. “I told you that was next iu the book of Genesis, ‘So God created man in His own imago, in the image of God created Ho him; malo and fe male, created He them.”’ Those prejudiced against theBlbledo not Palestine knowthatthoexplor ations in Egypt and and Syria are confirming the Scriptures—the same facts written ou monuments and on tho walls or exhumed cities ns written in the Bible. The city of Pithom has boon uuburied, and its bricks are found to have been made without straw, exaotiy corresponding with the Bible story of the persecuted Hebrews. On-term cotta cylinder, recehitlv brought up from thousands of years of burial, the capture of Babylon by Cyrus is told. On a Babylonian gem recently found are the figures of a tree, a man, a woman and a. serpent, and the hands of the man and wbhjau are stretched Thus no toward the tree as to pluck tho fruit, the Bible storv of the fall is confirmed, In a museum at Constantinople you see a piece of the wall that once in the ancient temple of Jerusalem separated the court of the Gentiles and the court of the Israelites, to which Taul refers when he says ' of Christ, ' He is our peace, Who . hath .. . broken down , the mnidie wall of partition between us. On tablets recently discovered have bean found the names of prominent men of the Bible, spelled a little different, according to the demands of ancient language. “Adamu * lor Adam, Abramn for Abraham, “Ablu for Abel, and so on. T wenty-two feet under ground has been found a seal inscribed with tho words, “Haggai, son of Shabaniah,” thousands of years ago cut, showing that the Prophet Haggai, who wrote a p^t of the Bihie, was not a myth. The royal engineers have found, eighty . feet oeiow the surtace o* the ground at Jerusalem, Phoenician pottery and hewn stones furnished with inscriptions by Hiram, showing that they were the King of Tyre, just as Bible says they were. The greatnames ot B bio history, that many suppose are names of imaginary beings, are found cut luio imperishable stones which have within a few years been rolled up from their entombment of ages, such as Sennacherib and liglath-Pileser. On the edge ot a bronzed step and on burned brick has been found the name of Nebuchadnezzar. Henry Rawiinson and Oppett and Hicks and Pates tine exploration societies and Assyriologists and Egyptologists have rolled another Bible «;» from the depths of the earth and lo! it r< ^* k * lke the printed Biole, in scrip- 3sVo S v!,i , aU b r l Ckvr a 'i ? Ut r'v, | , r tn i. We S37 * U T °w ?ec u.riv « th 3/ ? urn in ried up Egyptian sculpture we have the story there told of him as a great hunter a s well as a great warrior. What I say now is news to those prejudiced against the Bible. They are so far behind the times that they know not that the old beok is being proved true by the prying eye of the antiquarian and the ringing hammer of the archaeologist and the plunging hammer of the geologist. No more is infidelity cnaracterized by its blasphemy than Dy its ignorance, but, oh! what a high mountain of prejudice against the Bible, against Christianity, against churches, agaiiwt a P r ' h « 1 * oVer all ( s h , con .ment and Everest is the highest moun ^ l “ 1 “ Christianity Oh, no! The is mountain higher than of P«J^ceagainst the highest crags that dare the lightnings of heavan. Zerubbabel, can it ever become a plain? that of Another mountain of hindrance is positive and outspoken immorals.Thereis the mountain of inebnocy. and decanters It Is piled.with andhogs kegs and demijohns of th. heads, on which sit the victims fle whose one business is to rob earth and heaven of the most generous and large hearted and splendid of the human race. If their business was to take only the mean and stingy and contemptible and useless, we would not say much against the work for there are tens of thousands of men and wo men who are a nuisance to the world and their obliteration from human society would be an advantage to all that is good. The re moyal of these moral deficits would not M “eishborhoodi^ towns and ottieT upon’ their vol le Y 9 of de>ath poured down the homes fllld churches. Under this power more than oo^dJunk^ shSke « ^SUSP ^9 ? 5?.* a^Mt caused earth h iniriac/fias'not rt in Ek ^ 00 ^ SSSH 1 J5iS3!S SSSSIH sss^ssssi&srjsssfjsi iVhn.t drnvA on thA brAAkAra r fitonmsr SSSSrSi aQ(1 lakes and the bones of rlvers 0Qeaa9 those ship wrecked by intoxicated captains and crews, and you could build out of them a temple of horrors, all the pillars and. altars of tnebriacy can ever be made aplaiu? Yonder also Is the mountain of crime,with and its strata of fraud an 1 malpractice and ^ F*J ' feasance and blackmail u a ';X ptraoy an d embezzlement and libertintsm and the f t > all ita heights manned wit theout ., tLroats, the pickpocko s,, the 9 fnrwrs" e F 3, }^° bandits, the tnoksters, 1,1 ^ > the acs thugMh^ pyromamacs, garrotera,^ (he dipsoniaiiiacs. r ,., . - ..fie . > the Jack Bhep smugglers, the kidnapers, Macbeths P« rd ?, the Robert Macalres and the of villainy. The crimes of the world! Am I not right in calling them, when piled up together, a mountain. But *we caunoc bring ourselves to appreciate You great of heights Mount except Wasu by comparison. think iagton as high, especially those of you who as oended as of old, train, on mule back, Tip Top or more House, re¬ ceutly by rail to the Oh, n °Jthat * 9 not high. rising For it is only < lbout 0000 feet . whereas on this West tern J® Hemisphere and are Bahama, Chimborazo, 23,000 21,000 high, et high, Mount Sarato, 24,800 fee. high, feet , and Mount But that is not the highest mountain on the Western Hemisphere. The highest moun ' ;lda is the mountain of crime, and is it pos sible that this mountain, before our Zerub babel, There ean ever also be the made mountain a plain? of the Is war. volcanic of a¥. mountaius-the ye-u Y iu 9 wbt h, not content, like the Vesuvius of R’tly, . with overwhelming two cities, Herau ianeum and Pompeii, has covered wita would its d f r Y scoria thousands of cities, and like to whelm all the cities of bothhemis ply res. Give this mountain full utterance, aud it would cover up Washington and New York and London as easily as a household ® r * with his shovel at 10 o dock at night, banks a grate fire with ashes This mo un¬ tain is a pile of fortresses, barricades and armories, che world s artillery heaped, wheels above wheels, columbiads above eolumbiads, seventy-four wrecked pounders above above seventy-four pounders, Nations wrecked Nations. - This mountain of war Is not only loaded *° cannonade the eartb, but It is also a ceme fery holding the corpses of 31.000,001 slain ’ a *he wars of Alexander aad .9/nnn’ 000 slain in Roman wars, 180,000,000 slain in war with Turks and Saracens and holding about 35,000,000,000 corpses, not million, but btllion, which was than the estimate 100 made of by those _,d mand Barke more years ago who had been destroyed by war so that you ou d have to add more millions now. twenty ™ years ago a careful author estimated } hat at> ° a ^ fourteen times the then l>opu lation of the world had gone down in battle or in hospital after battle. Ah, this moun t a j n 0 { Wftr | 3 not like an ordinary mountain! x t ls j lke Kilauea, one of the Sandwich Isl nnds. which holds the greatest volcano In all r he eartb, and concerning which I wrote from the Sandwich Islands a few years ago: »v“What a hissing, bellowing.tumbling.soar ing foroe is Kilauea! Lake of unquenchable fire; convolutions and paroxysms of flame; elements of nature in torture; torridity and luridity; congregation of dreads; molten horrors; sulphurous abysms; swirlingmys tery of all time; infinite turbulence; chiinuev of perdition; wallowing terrors; fifteen acres of threats; glooms insufferable and Dant esque: caldron stirred bv the champion witch of pandemonium; campfire of the armies of Diabolus; wrath of the mountains in full bloom; shimmering incandescence; blast pyrotech n ies of the planet; furnace of tho ages; Kilauea!" But, my friends, mightier, high er, vaster.hotter, more raging is the volcanic mountain of war. It has been biazius; for hundreds of years and will keep on blazing until, until—but I dare not hazard a nroph oey. Can it be that its fires will ever ba put 0 «t? Can it be that its roar will ever be si tenced? Can it be that before our Zerubba bel that blazing mountain will ever become a plain - * There is also the long range of mountains, longer than Appalachian range, longer than Caucasian rauge, longer tnan Sierra Nevada ture,badhomes,baJinstitution3.badamuse- range—the piled up opposition of bad litera raents, bad centu.'.as. bad religions—Pagan ism Hindooism. Buddhism, Mohatnatedan assassBaassss® »snt and buttressed and enthroned godless- wtth lifted Hat and mocking ltp3, chanengmg Jehovah uoon the throne of the universe to strike if He dare. Oh, it is a great mountain, as my texc declares. There is no use in deny¬ ing it. The most authentic statistics declare it. The signs of the times prove it. All Christian workers realize it. It is a moun¬ tain. “The mountain can never be brought down,” mountain says worldly be speculation. made a plain,” ^‘‘The says can never lot a small faith in the churches. Well, us see. Let us look about for the implements we can lay our hands on. Let us count the number on our side who are willing to dig with a shovel or bore a tunnel or blast a lock. Let us see if there is any foreign help that will come in to re-enforce us. I do not want to make myself absurd by attempt¬ ing an impossibility. If it is only one spade at the foot of Mount Blanc, if it is only one arm, capable of lifting but a few pounds, against a mountain that weighs 100.0!i0,000 ton 3 let us quit before we make , and carieature of the ourselves the travesty job, universe. If we are to undertake this first of all we must have a competent engi¬ neer, one who knows all about excavations, about embankments, about tunnels, about mountains. I know engineers who have carved up mountains, cut down mountains, removed mountains. I will do nothing un¬ less 1 know who is to be our engineer. Zerubbabel led at the rebuilding of the an¬ cient temple, and Matthew Henry, the great¬ est of commentators, declares that our Zerubbabel is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Zerubbabel of my text was only a type of the glorious and omnipotent Jesus, and as I look up into the face of this divine engineer and see it glow with all the splendors of the al Godhead, and see that in His arm is the mightiness that flung out all the worlds that glitter in the midnight heavens, and that to lift the Himalayas would cost Him no more effort than for me to lift an ounce, my cour¬ age begins to rally, and my faith begins to mount, and my enthusiasm i3 all aflame, and th6 words of my text this moment just fit my lips and express the triumph of my soul, and I cry out: “Who art thou, 0 great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain?” I tell you the mountain is coming down. It is coming down rapidly. It will all come down. There are those who hear or read these words who will gaze upon its com¬ plete prostration, for what is the use of my keeping back any longer the full statement of the fact, which I have somewhat delayed through that lawful sermontc Almighty, strategy, the the fact full the Lord God in play this supornal of His omnipotence, work. If God will can accomplish build a mountain. I guess He can remove a moun lain. After God ha3 given full opportunity His for the shovels He will come in with thunderbolts. We have amplified the idea of the Lamb of God. I tell you now of the lion. Here ic a thought that I have never seen projected, and yet it is the most cheer¬ ing of all considerations and the plainly opening Scrip¬ of tural. the thought that as at and the gospel dispensation in the Christly Jobanlan and Pauline days the machinery of the natural world was brought into service, the shadow of eclipses and the agitation of earthquakes, tempests put to sleep under the voioe of divine lullaby, iron bolts of prisons shoved back by invisible muscle, kindling of flame on heads of worshipers, vision by instan¬ full taneous pharmacy blasted given eyesight, and the dead returned from the eternal world, mingling amid earthly scenes, so it will be again. * As I read my Bible, these supernaturals are to return. Again the eclipses, as at the destruction of Jerusalem, will put red wing under the moon and black wing under the sun, and the mountain will shake with ague of excitement and hospital cots be emptied as their patientshealth ot mercy emphasized by most and “ “uiendous the spectacles, “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth ot hair, and the moon be¬ came as blood * * * and every mountain and island were moved out of their places!” There you have it. The shovels now digging away at the mountains to be re-enforced by thunderbolts. The gospel is only partially successful because we preach it amid all placidities, vitation thousand the hearers times having before heard and the expect in¬ a to hear it a thousand times more, but in coming times to stellar be preached panics amid shattered pulver¬ ized rocks and and masonry of cemeteries, from which the I pal¬ lid dead will spring into roseate life. say then the gospel will be universally accepted. shovels, There is the programme. First the then the thunderbolts. Ours the shovels, God’s the thunderbolts. The text, which before we uttered with something of trepida¬ tion, now we utter in laugh of triumph, “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shall become a plain." Sometimes a general begins a battle before he is ready, because the enemy forces it on him. The general says: “The enemy are pushing us, and so I open battle. We are not sufficient to co.Be with them, but I hope the reserve forces will come up in time.” The battle rages# and the general looks through his fleldglass at the troops, but ever and anon he sweeps his fleldglass backward and upward toward the hill to see if the re¬ serve forces are coming. "Hard pushed are we,” says the general. “I do wish those re¬ enforcements would come up.” Aftpr awhile the plumes of the advancing cavalry are seen tossing on the ridge of the hill, and then the flash of swords and then the long line of mounted troops, their horses in full gahop, and tbe genwal. says: “All is well. Hold out, my men, a little longer. Let the ser geauts ride along the lines and cheer the men and tell them re-enforcements are com¬ ing.” And now the rumbling of the batteries and gun carriages is distinctly heard, and soon they are in line, and at the first roar of the newly-arrived artillery the enemy, a lit¬ tle while before so jubilant, fall back in wild retreat, their way strewn with canteens and knapsacks and ammunition,that their the defeated may be unhindered in flight. That is just the way now. In this great battle against sin and crime and moral death the enemy seem too much for us. More grogshops than churches. More bad men than good men, and they come up with bra¬ vado and the force of great numbers. They have opened battle upon us before we are in our strength ready to meet them, and great are the discouragements. But steady there! Hold on! Re-enforcements are coming! Through the glass of inspiration I look and see the flash of the sword of “Him who hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” All heaven is on our side and is coming to tho rescue. I hear the rumbling of the King’s artillery, louder than any thunder that ever shook the earth, and with every roll of the ponderous wheels onr courage augments, and when these re-enforoements from heaven get into line with the forces of God already on earth all the armies of uprighteousness will see that their hour of doom has come and will waver and fall back and take flight and nothing be left of them save here and there, strewn by the wayside, an agnostic’s playbill pen, or a broken decanter, or a torn ot a debasing amusement, or a blasphemous paragraph, or a leper’s scale, or a dragon’s tooth, to show they ever existed. Let there be cheering all along the lines of Christian wotkers over the fact that what the shovels fail to do will be accomplished O by mountain? the thun¬ derbolts. “Who art thou, great Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.” The mountains look on Marathon, And Marathon looks on the sea. * * * * * « Shrine of the mighty, can it be That this is all remains of thee? BASQUE AND WAIST. SOME NEW DESIGNS THAT ARE DAINTY AND DRESSY. Stylish Example of the Regulation Military Rasque — Attractive Hebe Waist With Blush room Sleeves. A STYLISH example of the reg¬ ulation military basque is given by May Manton in the first large picture. It is car¬ ried out in broadcloth of Hussar-blue and the decoration is of black braid i i; h [f WA lit :< V/> /A ft • wmMmMSm J.VJ 7/A m 7 B m W t<w.r WM M C‘ iiW wWf/JIjMk a •,f/<;vrur kU.’wWf REGULATION MILITARY BASQUE. with fanciful ornaments crossing the a whore the closing is made invis¬ ibly on the left side. At the baute the seams of the basque fit the figure closely, with the additional material below the waist line of back and side body laid in box-plaits. The curving seams are outlined with braided deco¬ rations. A standing band closing in¬ visibly on the left side finishes the neck. The one-seamed gigot sleeves, gathered at the top and arranged upon coat shaped linings,stand out stylishly at the top, fitting the arm closely be¬ low. The smart hat accompanying the costume is of felt, adorned with velvet and ostrich plumes. tweed favored Cloth, cheviot and are for making, while colors most selected are blue in postman, military or hus ear. Gray, green or garnet are also chosen. To make this basque for a lady in the medium size will require two and one-half yards of forty-four-inch wide material. DAINTY BEBE WAIST. A dainty model sufficiently dressy to be worn as an evening bodice when Vl Tv \ ill r; V VI ii' i > HB m s to 9 at m HI Ji ii fi II 111 ;! I H % % mm « jl wXw\\ m \wi . h |v & .ft-; X.c. *. 7 m W sleeve?. WAIST WITH MU- HROO-d SsStf&tSS @ Maiuoo, As represented, writes May colored the material chosen was vel brocade eombined with old-blue vet. It is mounted upon a fitted lining having of seams and double tU ^ * nal dosing in centre-fr b St r* pres fronts and are inserted whi S' oa t Ween Un rounded back, la are ! top with outline g fS el lected the fulln OS 3 ft to- the in centre-front gathers that J ar e \ V iu U P ft er Portion a bacl of shallow of the ^ hni aS yoke clod^ of material and‘the 9 Con| should^ - the left side at 18 9 ® under-arm seams, close-standin<» band stylishly S’* u ’ D Btoek of ribbon centre-back. The waist we b 7 a girdle of old-blue is ei velvet to the front where it is cang loops of velvet. The sleeve ing the newest feature of ti mode, are called the muslin and are close-fitting from th above the elbow where th< by a short full puff. The 1 bo cut away from the fn! when a low neck is desired, fl applied to simnlate a standinj yoke aa at the neck with a high neck is preferred. 1 portion of the sleeves M carded and only the short -I used when the bodice The mode is Q<j a evening seasonable wear, fabrics thf to all ficiently pliuble as to perm ring. this waist for a . i To make medium size will require ta of forty-four-inch wide mad SUBSTITUTE FOB MUFF - A welcome fashion tor I cannot afford the muff chan of black velvet ribbon, than with an inch tiny wide, buckle. fpena J side a can bej amount of money this fashion; but the r gold-enam eled p^“ e - IMr. Ot wtl SlS o . ne4r real
