The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1889-12-27
TALMAGE's SERMON.
The Stormy Passage Across the
Sea Of Galilee.
a Discourse Delivered by the Brooklyn
Preacher at Capernaum-Int the storms
of Life Christ Is There to
Command Peace.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following discourse at Capernaum
during his trip in the Holy Land, tax
ing for his texts:
Entered into ship and went over the ses
toward Capernaum.-John vi, IL.
And He arose and rebuked the wind and
the sea.-Mark iv., 80.
Here in this seashore village was the
temporary home of that Christ who for
the most of His life was homeless. On
the site of this village, now in ruins,
and all around this lake, what scenes
of kindness and power, and glory and
pathos when our Lord lived here! II
has been the wish of my life-I can not
say hope, for 1 never expected the priv
ilege-to stand on the banks of Galilee.
What a solemnity and what rapture
TO be here! 1 can now understand the
feeling of the immortal Scotchman,
Robert McCheyne, when, sitting on the
banks of this lake, he wrote:
1t is not that the wild gazelle
Comes down to drink thy tide,
But He that was pierced to save from hell
Oft wandered by thy side.
Graceful around thee the mountains meet,
Thou calm reposng sea;
But ahi far more, the beautiful feet
OF Jesus walked DER thee.
can now easily understand from the
contour of the country that bounds this
lake that storms We re easily tempted to
make these waters their playground.
From the gently way this lake treated
our boat when we sailed on it yesterday,
one would have thought it incapable of
paroxysm of rage, but it was quite
different on both occasions spoken of in
my two texts. / close my eyes, and the
shore of Lake Galilee as it now is with
but little signs of human life, disap-
pears, and there comes back to my vision
the lake as it was in Christ's time. 1t
lay in a scene of great luxuriance. The
surrounding hills, terraced, sloped.
grooved, so many hanging gardens of
beauty. On the shore were castles,
armed towers, Roman baths, every
thing attractive and beautiful-all
styles of vegetation in shorter space
than in almost any other space in all
the world, from the palm tree of the
forest to the trees of rigorous climate.
1t seemed as if the Lord had launch ed
one wave of beauty on all the scene,
and it hung and swung from rock and
hill and oleander. Roman gentlemen
in pleasure boats sailing this lake, and
countrymen in fish smacks coming down
TO drop their nets, pass each other with
nod and shout and laughter, or swing
ing idly at their moorings. o, what a
beautiful scene. 1t seems as if we shall
h. int nj Oh iply rl
in the air, not a ripple disturbed the
face of Gennesaret, but there seems to
be little excitement up the beach, and
we hasten to see what it is, and we find
1t an embarkation.
From the Western shore a fiotilla
pushing out; not a squadron, or deadly
armament, nor clipper with valuable
merchandise, nor pirate vessels ready
to destroy every thing they could seize.
but a fotilla bearing messengers of
light, and life, and peace. Christ is in
the front of the boat. His disciples are
in a smaller boat. Jesus. weary with
much speaking to large multitudes. is
put into somnolence by the rocking of the
waves. If there was any motion at all
the ship was easily righted; If the wind
passed from starboard to larboard, or
from larboard to starboard, the boat
would rock, and by the gentleness of the
motion putting the Master asleep. And
they extemporize pillow made out Of a
fisherman's coat. l think no sooner is
Christ PROSTATE, and His head touched
the pillow, than He is sound asleep
The breezes of the lake run their fin
gers through the locks of the worn
sleeper. and the boat rises and falls like
sleeping child on the bosom of sleep
ing mother.
Calm night. starry night, beautiful
night. Run up all the sails, ply all the
oars, and let the large boat and the
small boat glide over Gennesaret But
the sailors say there is going to be
change of weather. And even the pas
sengers can hear the moaning of the
storm, as it comes with great stride. and
ness. The large boat trembles like
deer at bay among the clangor of the
hounds; great patches of foam are flung
into the air; the sails of the vessel
loosen, and the sharp winds crack like |
pistols: the smaller boats like petrels |
poise on the cliffs of the waves and then |
plunge. Overheard 60 cargo. lacking |
and masts, and the drenched disciples |
rush into the back part of the boat, and |
lay hold of Christ land say unto Him:
master, carest Thou not that we per-
ish?"
That great parsonage lifts His head |
from the pillow of the fisherman's coat,
walks to the front of the vessel, and /
looks out into the storm. All around |
Him are the smaller boats, driven in the
tempest. and through it comes the cry
Of drowning men. BY the flash of the
lightning l see the calm brow of Christ /
as the spray dropped from His beard. |
He has one word for the sky and an
other for the waves. Looking upward
he cries:
Peace
Looking downward e sys:
BE stillr'
The waves fell fat on their faces, the
foam melts, the extinguished stars re-
light their torches. The tempest falls
lead, and Christ stands with His feet on
the neck of the storm. And while the
sailors are bailing out the boats. and
while they are trying to untangle the
,ordage, the disciples stand in amaze
nent, now looking into the calm sea,
then into the calm sky, then into the
aim Saviours countenance, and they
Try out:
what manner of man is this. that
even the winds and the sea obey HIM.
The subject in the first place i'm
presses me with the fact that it is very