The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-10-23
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject: "My First Day in Palestine"

E-Ni' Ht 'uty cttS tOI tOtS Wc. -
Kings ", Z.
This is the first sermon in COURSE of Sab
bath morning sermons on ''hIy Recent Jour-
ney Through the Holy Land and Neighbor
ing Countries: What ! Saw and What
Learned" Out of the s:xty-four millions of
our present American population and the
millions OF our past only about five thousand
have ever visited tEe Holy Land. OF all
those who cross TO Europe less than five per
cent. ever get as far as Rome. ard less than
two per cent. ever get TO Athens, and less
than quarter of one per cent. ever get to
Palestine. OF the less than q quarter of one
per cent. who do go to the Holy Land some
see nothing hut the noXious insects and the
filth OF the Oriental cities, aud come back
wishing they had never gone. OF those who
see much OF interest and come home only a
small portion can tell what they have seen,
the tongue unable to report the eye.
The rarity OF successful, intelligent and
bappy journey thr ough the Holy Land is
very marked. But the time approaches when
journey TO Palestine will be common.
Thousands will go where now there are
scores. Two locomotives were recently sent
up from Joppa to Jerusalem, and railroads
are about to begin in Palestine and the day
will come when the cry will be, "All out for
Jerusalemm Twenty minutes for break
fast at T5eriasw Change cars for Tyre"
''Grand Trunk Junction for Ninevah.' '.All
out for DamascuS,' Meanwhile The wet locks
of the Atlantic Ocean and Adriatic and Med-
terranean Seas are being shorn, and not only
Is the voyage shortened, but after while,
without crossing the ocean. YOU or your chill
dren will visit tho Holy Land. A company
OF capitalists have gone up to Behring
Straits, where the American and Asiatic
continents come within tiirty-six miles Of
meeting.
These capitalists or others will build
bridge across these straits, for midway are
three islands called THE Diomedes," and
the water is not deep and is never disturbed
with icobergS. Trains of cars will run from
Am?rica across that bridge and on down
through Siberia. bringing under mora inI-
mediate observation tue Russian outraGes
against cXiles and consequently abclishing
them; and there are persons here to-day,
who, without one qualm OF sea-SicSness, will
visit that wonderful land where tho Christ
like, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, Solo
monic and Herodic histories overlap each
other with such power that by the time
took my feet out OF the stirrupS a. tie close
of the journey felt so wrung out with emo
tion that it seemed nothing else could ever
absorb my feelings again.
The chief hindrauce for going to Palestine
with many is the dreadful sea, and though |
have crossed it ten times it is more dreadful
every time, and fully sympata ze with what
was said one night when Mr.. Beecher and
went over to speak in New York at the an
niversary of the Scamens Friend Society,
and the clergyman making the opening
prayer quoted from st. John, "Thero SHALL
be no more sea-" and Mr.. Beccher, seated be-
side rue in memory of recent ocean voyage
said, "Amen; am glad of that" BY the
partial abolition of the Atlantic Ocean and
the putting down of rail tracks across every
country in all the world, the most sacred
land on earth will come under the cbServa-
tion of so many people who will be ready to
tell Of what they saw that lntidelity Will be
pronounced only another form OF insanity,
for no honest man can visit the Holy Land
and remain IN infidel.
This Bible from which Ipreach has almost
fallen apart for read from it the most Of
the events in it recorded on the very places
where they occurred. And some OF the
leaves got wet as the waves dashed over cur
boat on Lake Ga!ilee, and the book was
jostled in the saddle bags for many weeks
but it is q new book to me, newer than any
book that Yesterday came out OF any OF our
great printing houses. All my life l had
heard of Palestine, and 1 had read about it,
and talked about it, and preached about it,
and sung about it, and dreamed about it,
and prayed about it, until my anticipations
were piled up into something like Himalayan
proportions, and yet have to cry out as
did the Queen of Sheba when she first visited
the Holy Land, "The half was not told
me-"
In order to make tho more accurate ard
vivida book have been writing, q life Of
Christ, entitled From MaRger to Throne I
left home last October, and on the last night
of November we were walking the decks OF
the Senegal. q Mediterranean steamer. 1t
was ship of immense proportions. There
were but few passengers, for it is generally
-, tcN,
are not apt to be voyagerS there and then.
The stars were all out that night. Those al
mics Of light seemed to have had their shields
newly FURNISHED. We walked the polished
deck. Not much was said, for in al our
hearts was the dominant word tomorrow"
Somehow the Acropolis. which few days
before had thrilled us at Athens now in our
minds lessened in the height Of its columns
and the glory of its temples. And the Egyp-
tlan pyramids In our memory lessered their
wonders OF obsolete masonry, and the Coils.
cum of Rome was not so vast ruin as 1t a
few weeks before had seemed to be.
And all that we had seen and hearl
dwindled in Importance for tomorrow, 10
morrow we shall SEQ the Holy Land. Gap
tain, what time will we come In sight OF
PalestineP' "Well," he said, ''if the wind
and sea remain as they are, about daybreak."
Never was so impatient for a night to
pass. l could not see much uss for that
night, anyhow. I pulled aside the curtain
from the portfolio of my stateroom, so that
the first hint of dawn would wakcn me. But
it was useless precaption. Sleep was
among the impossibilities Who could be so
stupid as to slumber when any moment there
might start out within sight of the ship tha
land where the most stupendous scenes OF all
time and all eternity We're enacted--land OF
ruin and redemption, land where was fought
%la Io{f IL %t,a&
land OF Godfrey ami Saladin, o. JOSHUA and
Jesus?
Will the night ever be gone? Yes, it is
growing lighter and along the horizon there
is something like bank OF clouds, and as q
watchnan PAGES the deck l say to him,
"What is that out yondc-:" ':That is land.
Sir" said the sailor. 1.-THE ianl.' cried. and
soon all our friends We're arrou;e ;ed from sleep
and the shore began more Clearly to reveal
;tself With roar and rattle aud bang the
anchor dropped in the roadStead a half mile
from land. for though Joppa is the only har-
Dor of Palestine it is the worst haroor on all
the coasts Sometimes for weeks no ships
stop there. Between rocks about seventy
five feet apart small boat must take the
passengers ashore. The depths are strewn
with the skeletons of those who haze at
tempted to land OF attempted to embark.
Twenty-seven pilgrims persisted with one
crash of q boat against the rocks. Whole
fleets Of Crusaders, of Romans. OF Syrians,
of Egyptians have gone toSpinters there. y
writer eight hundred years ago said he stood
On the beach in 4 storm at Joppa, and out of
ta!rty ships all but seven went to pieces on
the rocks, and thousand of the dead were
washed ashore
Strange that with few blasts of powder
Ilke that which shattered our American He'll
late those rocks have not been uprooted and
the TaV cleared that cbirc i,C+a
OF anchoring fer out from land might sweep
npto the wharf for passengers and freight
But you must remember that land is under
the Turk, and what the Turk touches he