ELK STALLED IN SNOW © Haynes, St. Paul
Should there be those who pass by the wonders of the Yellowstone with cold indifference and a lack of response to what is seen there, it is proof that the world has already played havoc with their finer sensibilities, and as a result of this hardening process the mind and heart refuse to yield when brought under the strongest moral and spiritual influences. May God save people from such a calamity,—from becoming clay that is irresponsive to the divine touch. May they learn to magnify His name while suspended by the brittle thread of life over a yawning chasm of burning lava which is threatening to engulf them. Should man not be prepared for the great event that must come to everyone, there will be no one to blame but himself. God has made him a free moral agent, capable of choosing between right and wrong. If he should make the wrong decision, he will have to abide by the consequences.
How many tourists will see the spring called the Ear and yet fail to hear the voice of God speaking to the soul through its many beauties! How many fail to hear Him speaking through the great subterranean channels hundreds of feet below the surface, thundering the terrors of a broken law and heralding the news of His impending judgments!
GOLDEN GATE CANYON AND VIADUCT
A great author said, "O woman, thy name is frailty." The many short-comings of the gentler sex provoked this expression, but does not the word frailty equally apply to every individual on whom the curse has fallen? There is ever a downward tendency and a proneness to place the affections on material things, to worship the creature rather than the Creator.
It is with much difficulty that tourists in the Yellowstone are prevented from defacing the formations around the geysers, which have been centuries in making. There are those who would pay almost any price to be permitted to carry away souvenirs, but if they were allowed to do so one can readily see what the consequence would be. Of what use are pieces of geyserite when taken away from their natural environment? It would be impossible to form an opinion as to what they represent. Likewise there are those who are satisfied with mere forms of religion,—baptism, church membership, or any substitute for real salvation. What knowledge would a piece of geyserite give a person of Old Faithful, the Giant, or the Giantess, in action?
Baptism with water is an outward sign of an inner work, but there are multitudes who are satisfied with the souvenir and go blindly on to the Judgment to find their mistake when it is too late to make amends. There can be no excuse on account of ignorance, for the Scriptures furnish abundant evidence that there must be a work wrought by the Holy Spirit in the heart before a person is ready for the skies.
There is no better illustration of the sanctified experience than that which the geysers demonstrate. Jesus said to the woman at the well, "But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."