Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1890-12-05
ON LAKE GA.LlLEE.
SERMON DELIVERED BY REv. T..
DE WITT TALMAGEa


Trip Through the Holy Land-4n Able
Production Fully Reported.
In the Academy of Music. Bhoklyn,
n. y, Dr. Talmage preached th9 zenith
OF his series of sermons on his PALESTINE
tour describing his experiences Oh the
lake whose waters were once stilrd at
The command of Christ. The sermon
was from the text. ''llc entered INTO IL
ship and sat in tho sea: and till whole
multitude was by the sea on thed land"
Mark in, |.
1t is Monday morning in our Palestine
experiences and the sky is IL blue3liallec
above as i'm the boat we sail thp blue
tiaIilcc beneath. 1t is thirtech miles
long and six miles wide, but the. atmos-
pherc is so clear it seems as it'll could
cast a stone from beach to beach The
lake looks as though it had been 1T down
Oh silver pullcys from the heayfns and
were a section of the sea of GAS that
st. John describes as part of tHc cclcs-
tial landscape. Lake Galilce j. IA de-
preston of six hundred feet il which
the river jordan widcns aid tar
RIGS /. little. for the rivdr Jor-
dan comes in at its north side Ind de-
parts from it's south side, so tliis lake
has its cradle and its grave. It'll white
satin cradle is among the sd ows of
Mount Hcrmon. where the Jordat starts,
and its sepulchcr is the Dead 8 ta. into
which the Jordan empties. Lal3 Como,
of Italy: Lake Geneva, of Switzerland:
Lake Lomond, of Scotland: IaA Winni-
pesaukee, of America. are larAcr. but
Lake Galilee is the greatest dianbud that
ever dropped from the tingeri of the
clouds, and whether encampe( on it's
banks as we were yesterday and Worship
ing at its crystal affairs, or wading into
its waves, which make an ordintry bath
solemn as baptism: or now putting out
upon its sparkling surface in q boat, it
is something to talk about aA;l pray
about and sing about, until the lips with
which we now describe it cam neither
talk, nor pray, nor sing.
OF the 23O war ships ,Josephhs man.
euvercd OH these watcrs-for 3osephus
was a warrior as we'll as Il hibtorian-
there remains not one piece of ahulk, or
one patch of a canvas, or one sIlinter of
an oar. But return to Amd'ica we
never will until we have had a dai upon
this inland sea. Not from a wharf, but
from beach covered with black and
white pebbles we go on board I boat of
about ten or twelve tons, to be propelled
partly by sail and partly by DAD
We put our overcoats and sh4wls on a
small deck in the stern of the boat, the
very kind ola deck where ChriSt lay on
a tisherman's coat when of old b tempest
pounced upon the fishing sma@l of the
affrightcd disciples. Ospreysfand wild
duck and kingfshers fly OVERHEAD or dip
their wings into the lake, mi6taking it
for fragment of fallen sky. Can it be
that those Bible stories abJht sudden
storms on this lake are true? Ills it pos
sible that q sea of such seeming placidity
OF temper could ever rise and Age at the
heavens? 1t does not seem las if this
happy family of elements coult have ever
had falling out and the water strike
~ 'ne CLOUDS ano' INC clouasAItrike at
the water. Va
Pull away. narsp,c,.! o13EsIll .,ght,
bank are the hot sulphur BATHS, SO i h ~
they are scalding, and the waters must
cool off a long while before hald or foot
can endure their temperature. Volcanoes
have been boiling these wateH for CEN
turtles. Four springs roll thei1 resources
into the great swimming reservoirs.
King Herod there tried to bathe off the
results of his excuses, and Pliny and
Josephus describe the spurti3 gs out of
these volcanic heats, and joshua and
Moses knew about them, ard this mo-
ment 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 pity of III
berias, once great capital, ofIthe archi-
lecture of which a few mSsaics and
fallen pillars and pedestals, and here
and there a broken and shattered freze
remain, nightly suggestive OF the time
when Herod Antipas had p5ace here
and reigned with an opulence Ind pomp
and cruelty and abomination THAT par
a]yZes the fingers of the historian when
he comes to write it and the Fingers of
the painter when he attemptsl to trans
fer it to canvas. i suppose 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 the beach
of this lake or sails as we now do these
waters!
Side by side are the two arcat char
acters OF this lake region, Jesus and
Hefod Antlpas And did any age pro-
duce any such antipodes, any such am
titheses, any such oppostes? Kindness
and cruelty, holiness and filth generos-
ity and meanness, self-sacrifice and self
ishness, the supernal and the Internal,
midnoon and midnight. The father of
this Herod Antipas was genius at as
sassination. He could manufacture
more reasons for putting people out of
this life than any man in all history. He
sends for Hyrcanus to come from BABY
Ion to Jerusalem to be made high priest
and Stays him. He has his brother-in-
law while in bathing with him drowned
by the kings attendants. He Stays his
wife and his wife's mother, and two of
his sons and his uncle, and filled a vol
ume of atrocities, the last chapter of
which was the massacre of all the babes
at Bethlehem.
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, was combina-
ton of wolf, reptile, and hyena, while the
Christ who walked yonder banks and
sailed these waters was so good that
almost every rod of this scenery is asso-
ciated with some wise word or some
kindly deed, and all literature and all art
and all earth and all Heaven are put to