Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-12-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Stormy Passage Across the
Sea of Galilee.
a Discourse Delivered by the Brooklyn
Preacher at Capernaum-In the Storms
of Life Christ Is There to
Command Peace.

Entered into q ship and went over the sea
toward Capernaum.-Johnv vi, IL.
And He arose and rebuked the wind and
the sea--Mark w., &c.
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! 1t
has been the wish of my life-I can not
say hope, for never expected the priv
ilege-to stand on the banks of Galilee.
What a solemnity and what rapture
to be here! L 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 reposing 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 were 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
a 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 launched
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 mornings. o, what
beautiful scene! 1t seems as if we shall
have a quiet night. Not leaf winked
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
it an embarkation.
From the Western shore fiotilla
pushing out; not squadron, or deadly
armament, nor clipper with valuable
merchandise, nor piratic vessels ready
to destroy every thing they could seize,
but a f1otilla 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
fsherman'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
a sleeping child on the bosom of a 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 a
change of weather. And even the pas
sengers can hear the moaning of the
storm, as it comes with great stride, and
all the terrors of hurricane and dark
ness. The large boat trembles like a
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 go cargo, lacking
and masts, and the drenched disciples
rush into the back part of the boat, and
lay hold of Christ, and 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 fash 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 Rs Gays:
BE stillr'
The waves fell fat on their faces, the
foam melts, the extinguished stars re-
light their torches. The tempest falls
dead, 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
cordage, the disciples stand in amaze
ment, now looking into the calm sea,
then into the calm sky, then into the
calm Saviours countenance, and they
cry out:
what manner of man is this, that
even the winds and the sea obey Him?'
The subject in the first place inn
presses me with the fact that it is very
important to have Christ in the ship;
for all those boats would have gone to
4 - 4 - I'D
not been present Oh, what lesson
4 - 1oor-f We rar-4