The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1891-12-11

h"tuTai arm 10 ncIp IL ashore all the
statues aud Images of heathendom are
attempts TO bring celestial forces down
into human affairs Blessed be our
cars that we have heard OF an ever
present God. aud that through Jesus
Christ lie comes into our hearts and our
homes, and with more than fatherly
and motherly interest and affection IIe
il with us In all our struggles and he.
reavements and vicissitudes Rhodes
needs something higher than the Colos.
sus and the day will come when the
3 Christ whom Paul was serving when
hc sailed into the harbor Of Rhodes,
shall take possession of that land.
As we move on up through this archi-
pclago j am reminded of what an i'm.
portant part the islands have taken in
the history OF the world They arc
necessary TO tho balancing OF the
planet The two hemisphcres must
have them, AS you put down upon
scale the heavy pound weights, and
then the small ounces, and no one
thinks OF dcspising the small weights.
So the continents are the pounds and
the islands are the ounces A CONT
nent is only larger island and an
island only smaller continent Some
thing of what part the islands have
taken in the worlds history you will
see when | reminded you that the ISL
and OF Salamis produced Solon and the
Island of ChioS produced Homer. and
the island of Samos produced Pytha.
goraS, and the island of Coos produced
Hippocratcs.
But there is one island that longcd
TO see more than any other. ! can't af-
ford TO miss the prince among tho
islands, but must see the king OF the
Archipelago. The one longed 10 see
is not SO many miles in circumference
as Cyprus, or Crete, or Paros, or Naxos,
or Scio, or Mitylcne, but | had rather in
this sail through the Grccian Archipcl-
ago, see that than all the others. for
more of the glorics OF Heaven land
ed there than all the islands and conti-
nents since the world stood. As we
come toward it | feel my pulse quicken.
81, John, was In the island that is
called Patmos" II is pile OF rocks
twenty eight miles in circumference.
A few Expresses and inferior olives
pump a living ont Of the earth, and one
palm tree spreads its foliage. But the
brrenncss and gloom, and loncli-
ness OF the island made IL prison for
the banishcd evangelist Domitian
could not stand his ministry, and one
day, under armed guard, that minister
OF the gospel stepped from n tossing
boat TO these dismal rocks, and walked /
up 10 the dismal cavern which was to
be his home, and the place where should I.
pass before him all the conflicts of com |
ing time and all the rap,urcs of COM
ing eternity. Is IL not remarkable that |
nearly all the great revolutions of mu- |
sic, and poetry, and religion have been !
made to men in observation-disclosures and |
Milton banished into blindness; Bee
thovcn tanishcd into deafness; Dante |
writing his Divina Commedia during |
the nineteen years of punishment from
his native land; Victor Hugo writing |
his Les Miserables exilcd from home
and country on the island of Guernsey,
and the brightest visions of the future
have been given to those who by sick
ness or sorrow were exiled from the
outer world into rooms OF suffering
Only those who have been imprisoned
by very hard surroundings have had
great revelations made TO them. So
PatmoS, wild, chill and bleak and ter.
rible, was the best island in all tho
the best place in all the
earth for divine revelations. Before
n panorama can be successfully seen
the room in which you sit must be
darlScncd; and in the presence Of John
was TO pass such panorama rs no man
ever saw before or will ever see in this
world, and hence the gloom Of his sur
was help rather than him
lcrance.
All the surroundings OF the place af.
fectcd St Johns imagery when he
speaks of Heaven. ST. John, hungry
from enforced abstinence. or having no
food except that at which his appetite
revolted, think OF Heaven; and as the
furnished man is apt 10 dr~am of boun.
tiful tables, covered with Injuries, so
So John says of the inhabitants OF
Heaven, They shall hunger no more"
Scarcity OF fresh water on Patmos and
The hot tongue of 81 Johns thirst leads
him TO admire Heaven rs lie says,
They shall thirst no more"
81, John hears the waves OF the sea
wildly dashing against the rock and
zach wave has voice, and all the
waves together make u chorus. and
hey remind him Of the multitudinous
OF Heaven and he says: They
are like the voice Of many waters"
One day rs he looked of upon the sea,
he waters were very smooth, as IL is
.o-day while we sail them in the Miner
IN. and they were like glass and the !