The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-09-29
FIRST DAY In PALESTINE.
REV. rALMAGn DIsooURsEs ON
THE HOLY LAND.

The Eouse-top in Joppa Where
Peter Was Taught the Democracy
OF Religion-The Story OF Jonah and
His Disastrous voyage-Bewars Of
Petulance.
BROOKLYN, N. Y, Sept 2S.-In the
Brooklyn Academy Of Music to-day DR..
Talmage began a series of sermons on his
recent journey to the Holy Land. The sub
Ject of to-day's sermon was: "My First
Day in Palestine" After appropriate pas
sages of scripture were read. the congrega-
tion sang with great spirit:
1--WE praise thee, God, for the Son of thy love,
For Jesus who died and is now gone above"
Tho text was: Kings K, 7, "The hale
was not told me-"
This Is the first sermon in a course Of Sab
bath morning sermons on Z" My Recene
Journey Through the Holy Land and Neigh
boring Couatries-What Saw and What 1
Learned" Out of the sixty-four millions
OF our present. American population and the
millions OF our past, only about FIVE thou
sand have ever visited the Holy Land. or all
thoss who GROSS to e rope. less than five
per cent. ever get as far as Rome. and less
than two per cent. ever get TO Athens, and
less than quarter OF one per cent. ever got
to Palestine OF the less than a quarter Of
one per cent. who do go to the Holy Land,
some see nothing but the noxious Insects
aud the filth Of the Oriental cities, and
come back wishing they had never gone. OF
those who see much of interest and come
home. only small portion can tell what
they have seen. the tongue unable to report
the eye. The rarity of a successful, intelli-
gent and happy journey through the Holy
Land is very marked. But the time ao-
proaches when a journey TO Palestine will
be common. Thousands will go whore now
there ore scores. Two locomotives were
recently sent up from Joppa to Jerusalem
and railroads are about to begin In Pales--
tine, and the day will come when the cry
will be- San out for Jerusaleml" Tive lty
minutes for breakfast at Tiberiasr,
Trunk junction for Ninevehp' "All out
for Damascusl" Meanwhile the wetlocks
OF the Atlantic ocean and Adriatic, and
Mediterranean seas are being shorn, and
not only is the voyage shortened. but. after
while, without crossing the ocean, you or
your children will visit the Holy Land A
company OF capitalists have gone up to
Behring straits, where the American and
Asiatlc continents come within thirty-six
miles OF meeting. These capitalists or
others will build bridge across those
straits, for midway are three islands
called "The Diomedes." and the water
Is not deep and is never
disturbed with icebergs. Trains of cars
Will run from America across that bridge
and on down through Siberia, bringing under
more immediate observation tho Russian
outrages against exies, and consequently
abolishing them, and there are persons here
to-day, who, without one qualm of sec
sickness, will visit that wonderful land
where the Christly, Abrahamic. Mosaic,
Ir 10
overlap each other with suoa po Ner that by
the time took my feet out OF the stirrups
at the close OF tho journey, / felt 50 wru ung
out With emotion that it seemed nothing
else could ever absorb my feelings again.
The chief hindrance for going to Pales-
tine with many is the dreadful sea, and
though have crossed 1t ton times, 1t is more
dreadful every time, and fully sympathize
with what was said one night when Mr..
Beecher and went over TO speak in New
York at the anniversary of the Seamen's
Friend Society, and the clergyman making
the opening prayer quoted from st. John:
There shall be no more sea-" and Mc.
Beecher, seated beside me, 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
railroad tracks ao ross every country in all
the world, the most sacred land on earth
will come under the observation OF 80 many
people, who will be ready to tell of what
they saw, that iutdeity will be pronounced
only another form of insanity, for no
honest man can visit the Holy Land and
remain an infidel. This Bible from which
i preach has almost fallen apart, for / read
from 1t the most OF the events In ii recorded
on the very places where they occurred.
And some of the leaves got wet
as the waves dashed over our boat
on Lake Galilee, and the book was
Jostled in the saddlebags for many weeks,
but IL Is 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 had reld about it,
and talked about it, and preached about it,
and sung about it, and prayed about 1t, and
dreamed about it until my anticipatious
were piled up into something like Hirna-
layan 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 the more accurate and
vivid a book have been writing, life OF
Christ, entitled "From Manger to Throne"
left home last October, and on the last
night OF November we were walking the
decks of the Senegal, Mediterranean
steamer. 1t was ship of immense propro-
tions. There were but few passengers, for
it Is generally rough at that time OF year.
and pleasurists are not apt to be voyaging
there and then. The stars were all out that
night. Those armies Of light seemed ID
have had their shields newly FURNISHED.
We walked the polished deck.
Not much was said, for In all our
hearts was the dominant word "to-
morrow" Somehow the Acropolis, which q
few days before had thrilled us at Athens
now in our minds lessened In the hight of
its columns and the glory of its temples.
And the Egyptian pyramids in our memory
lessened their wonders of obsolete masonry,
and the coliseum of Rome was not SO vast q
ruin as it a few weeks before had seemed
to be- And all that we had seen and heard
dwindled In Importance, for tomorrow,
tomorrow, we shall see the Holy Land.
captain, what time will we come In sight
Of PaIestinel' 'Well,n he said, 'sif ths
wind and sea remain as they
are, about daybreak." Never was I SC
impatient for night to pass / could
not see much use for that night. anyhow
Ipulled aside the curtain from the port
hole Of my stateroom, so that the first hinr
of dawn would waken me. But 10 was
useless precaution. Sleep was among the
impossibihties. Who could be so stupid as
to slumber when any moment there might
start out within sight of the ship, the land
where the most stupendous scenes OF all time
and all eternity were enacted, land OF ruiz
and redemption, land where was fought the
hat fJrk haox n