The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-12-12
GALILEE.
DR.. Talmage Continues His Dis
courses on the Holy Land.
The Sea OF GalIlee-Interesting Description
OF the Noted Lake-The Story of the
swins-Description of Many
Bible Scenes.

Land Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached
his tenth sermon at Brooklyn from the
text: HE entered into ship and sat in
the sea; and thewhole multitude was by
the sea on the land" Mark, iv. l. He
said:
1t is Monday morning in our Palestine
experiences, and the sky is a blue
Galilee above, as in boat we sail the
blue Galilee beneath. 1t is thirteen
miles long and six miles wide, but the
atmosphere is so clear it seems as il
could cast stone from beach to beach.
The lake looks as though it had been
let down on silver pulleys from the
heavens and were section Of the sea
of glass that St John describes as a
part of the celestial landscape. Lake
Galilee is depression of six hundred
feet in which the river Jordan widens
and tarries little, for the river Jordan
comes in at its north side and departs
from it's 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 Winni-
pesaukee of America are larger, but
Lake Galilee is the greatest diamond
that ever dropped from the finger of the
clouds
As sometimes beautiful child in a
neighborhood has half dozen pet
names and some of the neighbors call
her by one name, and others by an
other, so this pet lake of the planet has
a 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 he
calls it Sea of Chinnereth. Ask Mat
thew and he calls it Sea of Galilee.
Ask Luke and he calls it Sea of Genne-
saret Ask John and he calls it Sea of
Tiberias Ask Josephus and Eusebius
and they have other names ready.
OF the 27O war ships Josephus ma
neuvered on these waters-for Josephus
was a warrior as well as historian
there remains not one piece of a hulk,
or one patch Of canvas, or one splinter
of an oar. But return to America we
never will until we have had sail upon
this inland sea. Not from a wharf but
from beach covered with black and
white pebbles we 60 on board a boat Of
about ten or twelve tons, to be propelled
partly by sail and partly by water.
1t is a rough boat and as far as possible
removed from Venetian gondola or a
sportsman's yacht With a common
saw and hammer and axe many of you
could make a better one. Four bare
footed Arabs, instead of sitting down
to their oars, stand az they always do
in rowing and pull away from shore.
We put our overcoats and shawls on
small deck in the stern of the boat,
the very kind of a deck where Christ
lay on a fisherman's coat, when of old a
tempest pounced upon the fishing smack
of the affrighted disciples. Can it be
that those Bible stories about sudden
storms on this lake are true? Is it pos
sible that sea of such seeming placid
ity of temper could ever rise and rage
at the heavens?
On our right bank are the hot sulphur
baths, so hot they are scalding, and the
waters must cool off a long while before
hand or foot can endure their temper
ature. Volcanoes have been boiling
these waters for centuries Four springs
roll their resources into two great swim
ming reservoirs. King Herod there
tried to pathe off the results of his ex-
cesses, and Pliny and Josephus describe
the spurtings 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 few mosaics and fallen pillars,
and pedestals, and here and there a
broken and shattered frieze remain,
suggestive of the time 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
Side by side are the two great charac-
tiers of this lake region: Jesus and
Heron Antipas And did any age pro-
duce any such antipodes? Kindness
and cruelty. holiness and filth, gener-
osity and meanness, self-sacrifce and
the supernal and the infer
nal, midnoon and midnight. The father
Of this Herod Antipas was a genius at
assassination. 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
Babylon to Jerusalem to be made high
priest and Stays him. He has his
while in bathing with
him, drowned by the Kings attendants.
and two of his sons and his uncle, and
filled a volume of atrocities, the last
chapter of which was the massacre of
Ill the babes at Bethlehem. With such
\ father as Herod the Great you are not
sur prised that this Herod Antipas,
whose palace stood on the banks of the
axe we now sail, was combination of
wolf, reptile and hyena. While the
Christ who walks yonder banks and
sails these waters was so good that al
most every rood of this scenery is asso-
,iated with some wise word or some
Kindly deed, and all literature, and all
Irt and all earth, and all Heaven are put
20 the utmost effort in trying to express
low grand and glorious and lovely
lie was, and is. and is to be. The Christ
y and Herodic characters are different
Is the two lakes We visit and not far
Ipart Gailee and Dead sea; the one
lower banked and the other bitumin-