Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1890-12-12

THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT: "ON LAKE GALILEE."

tits Monday morning in our Palestine ex-
periences, and the sky Is blue Galilee above,
as In the boat we sail the blue Galilee be-
meath. 1t is thirteen miles long and six miles
WIDE: but the atmosphere is so clear it seems
as II could cast q stone from beach to beach
The lake looks as though it bad been let
down on silver pulleys from the heavens and
werea section Of the sea of glass that st.
John describes as part Of the celestial land
scape. Lake Galilee is depression of six
hundred feet In which the river Jordan
widens ana tarries little, for the river Jor-
dan comes in at its north side and departs
from Its south side; so this lake has its cradle
and its grave. - -,
Its white satin cradle is among the SHOWS
OF Mount Hermon where the Jordan starts,
and its sepulchre is the Dead Sea into which
the Jordan empties. Lake Como OF Italy.
Lake Geneva OF Switzerland, Lake Lomond
OF Scotland, Lake Winnipesaukee Of America
are larger, but Lake Galilee is the greatest
diamond that ever dropped from the finger
OF the clouds, and whether encamped on its
banks as we were yesterday and worship
ing at its crystal affairs or wading into its
waves, which make an ordinary bath solemn
as baptism, or now putting out upon its
sparkling surface in boat, 1t is something
to talk about and pray about and sing about
until the lips with which we now describe
IL can neither talk nor pray nor sing,
AS sometimes beautiful child in a neigh
oorhood has half dozen pet names, and some
OF the neigbbors call her by one name and
Others by another, SO this pet lake of the
planet has profusion OF names. Ask the
Arab as he goes by what this sheet of water
Is and he will call it Tabariveh Ask Moses
OF the Old Testament, and he calls it Sea OF
Chinnereth. Ask Matthew, and he calls it
Sea of Galilee. Ask Luke, and he calls it Sea
Of UGennesaret. Ask John, and he calls it Sea
OF Ilberias. Ask Josephus and Eusebius,
and they have other names ready. But to me
IL appears child OF the SKY, star of the
hills, rhapsody of the mountains, the bap-
tismal bowl of the worlds temple, the smile
OF the great God. Many kinds OF fish are
found in these water $, every kind of tree upon
Its bank, from those that grow in the torrid
zone to those in the frigid, from the plain to
the cedar.
or the two hundred and thirty war ships
Josephus manPvred on these waters-for
Josephus was warrior as we'll as historian
there remains not one piece of a hulk or
one patch OF canvas, or one splinter of an
oar. But to return TO America we never
will until We have Ind sail upon this inland
sen. Not from a wharf, but from a beach
covered with black and white pebbles, we 20
on board a boat of about ten or twelve tons,
to be propelled partly by sail and partly by
seems about TO fall, but we find it was pur-
posely so built, and the rope through pulley
manages to hoist and let down the sail 1t Is
rough boat, and as far as possible removed
from Venetian gondols or a sportsman's
yacht With a common saw AMI hammer
and ak many of you could make better one
Four barefoOted Arabs, instead of sitting
down to their oars, stand, as they always do
in rowing, and pull away from shore. l in.
utQt halo
hilarating to me than rowing, but l soon
have enough of the clumsy oars and the awk-
wnrd attempt at welding them while in
standing posture.
We put our overcoats and shawls on
small deck in the stern Of the boat, the very
kind Of deck where Christ lay on fisher
mans coat when of old tempest pouuced
upon the fishing smack Of the affrighted dis
ciples. Ospreys and wild ducks and king
fishers fly overhead or dip their wings into
the lake, mistaking it for a fragment Of
fallen sky. Can it be that those Bible stories
about sudden storms on this lake are true?
Is it possible that sea of such seeming
placidity of temper could ever rise and rage
at the heavensS IL does not seem as il this
happy family of elements could have ever
had falling out and the water strike at the
clouds and the clouds strike at the water.
Pull away, oarsmen! On cur right bank
are the hot sulphur baths so hot they are
scaling, and the waters must cool off long
while before hand or foot can endure their
temperature. Volcanoes have been boiling
these waters for centuries Four springs
roll their resources into two great swimming
reservoirs. King Herod here tried to bathe
on the results OF his excesses, and Pliny and
Josephus describe the spurtngs out of these
volcanic heats and joshua and Moses knew
about them, and this moment long lines OF
pilgrims from all parts of the earth are
waiting for their turn TO step into the
steaming restoratives.
Let the boat, as far as possible and not run
aground, hug the western shore of the lake
that We may see the city Of Tiberias, once a
great capital, of the architecture of which a
few mosacs and fallen pillars and pedestals
and here and there a broken and shattered
frieze remain, nightly suggestive of the
time when Herod Antipas had q palace here
and reigned with an opulence and pomp and
cruelty and abomination that parslyzes the
fingers OF the historian when he comes to
write it and the fingers OF the painter when
he attempts to transfer it to canvas sup
pose he was one Of the worst men that ever
lived. And what a contrast of character
comes at every moment to the thoughtful
| traveller in Palestine. whether he walks tho
beach of THIS iaKe or sails az we now 90 Uhese
waters
Side by side are the two great characters
| OF this lake region, Jesus and Herod An
tipas. And did any age produce any such
antipodes, any such antitheses, any such
| oppositesS Kindness and cruelty, holiness
and filth, generosity and meanness, self
sacrifice and seltishness, the supernal and the
| Internal, midnoon and midnight. The father
Of this Herod Antipas was genius at assas-
sinstion. He could manufacture more rea.
sons for putting people out Of this life than
any man in an history. He sends for
Hyrcanus to come from Babylon to Jeru-
salem to be made high priest, and slays him.
He has his brother-in-law while in bathing
with him drowned by the kings attendants.
He slays his wife and his vife's mother and
two of his sons and his lacle, and filled q
volume of atrocities, the last chapter OF
which was the massacre of all the babies al
Bothlohem.
With such father as Herod the Great you
are not surprised that this Herod Antipas
whose palace stood on the banks of this lake
we now sail, wasa combination OF wolf, rep
tile and hyena; while the Christ who walked
yonder banks and sailed these waters was 81
good that almost every ROOD OF this scenery
Is associated with some wise word or SOM
kindly deed, and all literature and all ar
and all earth and all heaven are put to th
utmost effort In trying to express how grant
and glorious and lovely He was and is and |
to be- The Christly aud Herodic character
as different as the two lakes We visit, and no
far apart Galilee and the Dead Sea; the on
flower banked and the other bituminous an
blasted; the one hovered over by the mercy o
Christ, the other blasted by the wrath 0
God: the one full OF hnny tribes sporting i
the clear depths, the other forever lifeless
the waters Of the one sweet and pleasant I
the taste, the other bitter and sharp an
disgusting. Awful Dead Seal Gloriou
Gepnesaret
We will not attempt to cross the easter
side of this lake, as had thought to do, fo
those regions are inhabited by thieving an
murderous race, aud one must go thorough
ly armed, and as / never shot any one an
have no ambition to be shot, said Lett
stay by the western shore" But we loo
over TO the hills Of Gadara, on the other sid
down which two thousand swine after bein
possessed by the devil ran into the lake, an
| ks.{sxotu0 dntyu an Chriat for t,arn,itttn0