BRIMSTONE OR SULPHUR.
"The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire."—Genesis xix. 24.
Sulphur is one of the most inflammable substances known, and will melt in fire but not in water. The meaning of the word "sulphur" is, the burning or fiery stone. This substance is obtained in most parts of the world, but is very abundant in volcanic regions. It doubtless helps to feed those terrific fires of the earth which occasionally burst forth in all their fury, pouring liquid lava upon the valleys beneath, and overwhelming cities in destruction. The smoke which issues from the craters of volcanoes is impregnated with sulphur; indeed, this substance is often found encrusted round the mouths of these burning mountains.
Italy and Sicily produce the best sulphur in a native state, and in very large quantity. This is imported into England, is refined, and in its respective processes produces the roll brimstone, rock brimstone, and flowers of sulphur, all so well known in commerce. Sulphur also exists in some of our mineral springs, as that of Harrogate, in Yorkshire. It is found in the combination of several metallic ores, such as pyrites or sulphuret of iron, and sulphurets of zinc, copper, and lead. In some of its forms it exists in some plants. This may be proved by leaving a silver spoon in mustard; the colour of the spoon will soon be changed to a blackish tinge. It is the presence of this principle in assafœtida which causes it to smell so disagreeably. Silver put into the same pocket with sulphur soon loses its brightness.
Sulphur is applied to a variety of purposes. It is largely used in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, and forms about a tenth component part in the manufacture of English gunpowder. As a medicine it is very useful.
There appears to be an allusion to its appropriation for gunpowder in Revelation ix. 17, 18. Many eminent expositors of the Revelation agree in supposing that the flashes of fire, attended by smoke and brimstone, "whereby men were killed," which seemed to proceed from the mouths of the horses, were really the flashes of artillery. The heads of the horses alone would be seen through the sulphureous smoke, while in reality the flashes and smoke proceeded from the cannon. The whole appears imagery of a battle scene, and is thought to refer to the Turks, who first turned to account the invention of gunpowder in carrying on their wars.
"The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire" (or burning brimstone). As these cities were situated in the vale of Siddim, which, as the sacred writer informs us, was full of bitumen pits, many learned men are of opinion that it does not detract from the supernatural character of this awful visitation to suppose that the wonder-working God saw fit to employ natural agencies in effecting the purposes of His will; and it is thought that, as sulphur exists in the neighbouring hills, it might have been ignited by lightning, and poured down like rain upon the vale below. The quantity of pitch already existing in the vale would be set on fire, and thus the cities would be destroyed, and the character of the valleys thereby changed.
Be this as it may, the statement of the sacred writer is clear, and we may safely interpret it as implying a shower of inflamed sulphur or nitre. At the same time, it is evident that the whole plain underwent a simultaneous convulsion, which seems referable to the consequences of bituminous explosion. In accordance with this view, we find the materials, as it were, of this awful visitation near at hand, for, at the present day, sulphur is found on the shores of the Dead Sea, which occupies the site of the cities of the plain; and the Arabs obtain enough from the cliffs to make their own gunpowder. Irby and Mangles collected on the southern coasts lumps of fine sulphur, from the size of a nutmeg up to that of a small hen's egg, which it was evident from their situation had been brought down from the neighbouring hills by the rain.
H. H.