The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-12-17
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "On Lake Galilee.D

TEXT: "He entered into ship, aud sal
II, the sea; and the 1ohole multitude aUas
by the sea on the land. d."-Mark iv., /.
tits Monday morning in our Palestine ex-
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 sesms
as If could cast a stone from beach to beach,
The lake looks as though it had been let
1own on silver pulleys from the heavens and
were a 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 and tarries little for the river Jor-
dan comes in ut its north side and departs
from its south side; so this lake has its cradle
and its grave.
It's 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
as baptism, or now putting out upon its
sparkling surface in boat, it Is something
to talk about and pray about and sing about
until the lips with which we now describe
1t can neither talk nor pray nor sing.
As sometimes beautiful child in a neigh
borhood has half dozen pet names, and some
of the neighbors 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 Tabariyeh. Ask Moses
of the Old Testament, and be calls it Sea Of
Chinnereth. Ask Matthew, and he calls 1t
Of Gennesaret. Ask John, and he calls it Sea
Of Tiberias. Ask Josephus and Eusebius
and they have other names ready. But to me
1t appears child Of the sky, star Of the
hills, a 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 waters, every kind Of tree upon
It's bank from those that grow In the torrid
zone to those in the frigid, from the plain to
the cedar.
Of the two hundred and thirty war ships
Josephus man9vred on these waters-for
Josephus was warrior as we'll as historian
There remains not one piece OF hulk, or
one patch of canvas, or one splinter Of an
will until we have had sail upon this inland
sea. Not from wharf but from a beach
covered with black and white pebbles we go
on board boat Of about ten or twelve tons,
to be propelled partly by sail and partly by
oar. The mast leans 80 far forward that It
seems about to fall, but we find 1t was pur
posely so built, and the rope through pulley
manages to hoist and let down the sail. 1t Is
q rough boat, and as far as possible removed
from Venetian gondola or sportsman's
yacht. With q common saw and hammer
and az 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. I in.
sist on helping, for there is nothing more e1-
hilarating to me than rowing, but soon
have enoug gh Of the clumsy oars and the awk-
ward attempt at welding them while In
standing posture.
We put our overcoats and shawls on a
small deck in the stern Of tho boat, the very
kind of deck where Christ lay on fisher
mans coat when Of old a tempest pounced
upon the fishing smack Of the affrighted dis
cfples Ospreys and wild ducks and king
fishers fly overhead or dip their wings into
the lake, mistaking it for fragment Of
fallen sky. Can it be that those Bible stories
about sudden storms on this lake are true?
Is it possible that q sea Of such seeming
placidity Of temper could ever rise and rage
at the heavens? It does not seem as If 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 our right bank
are the hot sulphur baths, so hot they are
scalling, and the waters must cool of long
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
off the results of his excesses, and Pllny and
Josephus describe the spurtings out Of these
volcanic heats, and Joshua and Moses knew
about them, aud this moment long lines Of
pilgrims frors 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 q
great capital, Of the architecture Of which a
few mosaics and fallen pillars and pedestals
and here and there broken and shattered
friezs remain, nightly suggestive Of the
slime when Herod Antipas had palace here
and reigned with an opulence and pomp and
cruelty and abomination that paralyzes 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 o 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
Eaters!
Side by side are the two great characters
Of this lake region, Jesus and Herod An
ipas. And did any age produce any such
sntipodes, any such antitheses, any such
opposites? Kindness aud cruelty, holiness
and filth, generosity and nleanness, self
sacrifice and selfishness, the supernal and the
Internal, midnoon and midnight. The father
of this Herod Antipas was genius at assas-
sination. He could manufacture more rea.
sons for putting people out Of this life than
my man in all 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 wife's mother aud
two of his sons and his uncle, and filled
volume Of atrocities, the last chapter OF
which was the massacre of all the babies 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, wasa combination OF WOLF rep
tile and hyena; while the Christ who walked
yonder banks and sailed these waters was so
good that almost every rood Of this scenery
is associated with some wise word or some
kindly deed, and all literature and all art
and oil earth and all heaven are put to the
utmost effort in trying to express how grand
and glorious and lovely He was and is and is
to be. The Christly and Herodic characters
as different as the two lakes we visit, and not
far apart Galilee and the Dead Sea; the one
flower banked and the other bituminous and
blasted; the one hovered over by the mercy of
Christ, the other blasted by the wrath OF
God; the one full of finny tribes sporting in
the clear depths, the other forever ifeless;
the waters Of the Que sweet and pleasant to